Short Fiction. Anything from multi-part stuff to just a couple paragraphs. I used to write a lot in my childhood and teens, got published in a now defunct newsletter/mag while at university, took part in and completed a NANOWRIMO in latter years, and dropped a couple older pieces on a previous blog.
Process Papers & Tip Sheets. As a technical analyst, a business analyst, a process analyst, a project manager, and a data analyst, I've come up with tips and templates and processes over time. I'd share some, if only for feedback.
Chronicling a Return to Fitness - There was a time that I started walking to take the edge off the day. New sneakers and a decision to just do a little bit more every time I went out led to a jogging habit. That eventually got to a point where I'd been running two Savannahs and a long stretch of road in St. Clair at least three times a week, sometimes too on a Saturday if I wasn't doing anything. A colleague convinced me to come run in my first competitive 5k since secondary school, and I surprised myself - and everybody else, frankly - with a 17th overall finish, moreso because I was hungover, had only slept for two hours that morning, and had started the race in the back of the pack because I wasn't aware of my own abilities. Not long after that, I changed roles and reporting lines. Professional demands disrupted work-life balance in general, with fitness among the key casualties. Since then, it's been a quiet ambition to dust off the rust and get moving again. It will be great to sign up for a competitive race by next race season, and to then run competitively by the following one, if only in my age class.
By the end of the year, one in three would be marginal success. But I'd love to aim for all.
Walking straight down Maraval Road to Hi-Lo because I don't know what I want for lunch
Hopping in a Petit Valley maxi, and walking down Frederick Street on either a quick lunchtime errand, or to get my dhal and rice fix from upstairs Excellent Mall
Haagen Daz on Queen's Park West
Following the vaps that takes hold and running out to catch a late show
Running
Hugs
The buzz in the kitchenette over my cubicle wall
Random meet ups in the elevator and the attendant old talk
The regular folks at my Rituals outlet
The down time in traffic
Browsing book stores
Thin crust pizza with pepperoni and jalapeno
...
Wear your masks (properly). Keep a distance from people. Sanitize always and often. Take the vaccine when it's offered to you.
It’s come to be fashionable to declare that “covid fatigue” is the reason that we’ve been seeing the huge rise in new infections here in Trinidad and Tobago over the last several days. There is a notion that people have gotten tired and are starting to let their guard down, which is causing them and others to contract the disease.
I find that notion offensive.
The notion makes a full mockery of the people who have done their best for more than a year to mask up, sanitize everything in their orbit, and attempt to distance themselves from friends, extended family and colleagues.
It takes no consideration of the fact that these persons have kept themselves abreast of all the news and developments around Covid-19 locally and abroad, and that they will have attempted to remain in compliance with local measures at every step.
It disregards that these are the very persons who will have shifted to delivery and curbside pickup services, who will put off necessary home renovations so as to avoid contact with strangers, who will have given up otherwise regular forms of leisure in order to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.
These are the persons who are genuinely exhausted of what their lives have become, sequestered with their household, avoiding normal but unnecessary human contact. They are, in fact, the people least likely to take a chance with their health and well-being. Because they are fully cognizant of the implications of doing so, especially those who will have been closely tracking the daily numbers of new infections even as they were still in low double digits.
Unprotected Borders and Illegal Immigration?
The other cause celebre for the recent increase in new daily infections has been an alleged influx of illegal immigrants at points along our border.
This creeps though toward the xenophobic, that a people are the cause of malady in the country, running close behind the former US President calling Covid-19 the China Virus.
This notion also nestles itself closely in the realm of the illogical for a couple key reasons.
The first is that there has been no confirmed reports of roving bands of illegal immigrants grabbing people and coughing in their faces, and licking door handles everywhere they go.
Secondly, even if there are infected illegals here, the current numbers means that they would have to be interacting with a lot of people, or those persons would have to have a lot of secondary contacts. This raises questions about the reasons for interacting with illegal immigrants without then reporting their presence in the country to the authorities.
While, yes, there would be illegal immigrants here who may have escaped detection at the border either on their own or with help, for any infected to spread the virus, help from locals who are harbouring and/or not compliant with public health measures and recommendations would be essential.
Mout’ Open, Story Jump Out Though...
While the numbers have been going up, there is a lot more conversation and revelation about how persons may have found themselves infected. In the last week, I’ve heard or read about:
A doctor who attended to a gentleman exhibiting flu-like symptoms and did not ensure that the man was tested. The man eventually ended up falling far more ill and testing positive for Covid-19, after reportedly spending time with people in more than one household.
Another doctor at a public hospital who, while performing procedures for the relative of an acquaintance, was maskless and coughing. That relative eventually was found to have contracted Covid-19. While it has not been determined whether the doctor was the source of infection, the doctor’s behaviour makes him a candidate.
A senior Police officer falls ill and is rushed to the Couva Hospital, a facility which is dedicated to Covid patient care. He subsequently and soon passes away. But the news reports and press releases raise more questions than they provide answers, as it’s unclear where the gentleman was when he became sick enough to have to go into hospital, and how many persons he may have interacted with while infectious.
A service manager who spent the better part of a week coming to work visibly ill, interacting with juniors and customers, before eventually testing for and finding that they were infected with Covid-19. While I’ve heard about one case of this directly, I’ve heard people speak about similar situations across private enterprise.
Whispers about one business that rallied for three days after a staff member tested positive for Covid-19 before deciding to avoid the reputation risk of having the public find out that they had not sanitized their public space
In past months too while on my way to make necessary grocery runs, I’ve seen people I know liming hard at corner bars. I’ve heard people talk about going to limes and events, and I’ve wondered whether they understand what that does to their personal bubble. I’ve seen photos published to social media of a party where persons known to me - neighbours - were in attendance in numbers well above the posted regulations, and along with them in the event were persons unfamiliar, likely affiliated with the host. Only two masks appear to have been in evidence, both on little children.
Covid Fatigue? Not so much...
I’d posit therefore that our problem isn’t fatigue. The fact is that despite restrictions and regular press conferences and all attempts at public education and sensitization, we have a large swathe of people here who were always and have continued to be non-compliant or maliciously compliant with Covid-19 regulations, displaying at minimum the inability to properly follow the simple request to wash hands, mask up and not congregate with others. We know them and see them every day.
Someone who just splashes their hands in the sink at the grocery, wears their mask beneath their nose, and walks up under you in the aisle and the checkout line is equally likely to flaunt regulations about gathering when they’re not being seen.
The doctor who sent a sore-throat and fever patient away with a prescription for Chloroseptic, Emergen-C and Panadol and no Covid test might be as likely to turn other Covid-positive patients back into the community to continue spreading the disease. Consider that patients presenting symptoms will have already been infectious for days before.
If the restaurant was quietly offering to spike your drink during the time that they were not supposed to be selling alcohol at all, to what other measures were they paying short shrift?
And what about the heroes who have always insisted on coming to work sniffling and coughing? That didn’t stop during the last year, did it?
These behaviours didn’t arise late. They’ve been prevalent from the start of our public health protection measures more than a year ago. The one thing that has been consistent about the last 14 months is the continuous pushing at the boundaries set by our public health officials by both individuals and bodies corporate. And these actions have served to actively derail the efforts of our public health team to keep us all safe. Because all that’s happening now is that Covid-19 is breaching the gaps that have been with us, left by people more concerned about personal inconvenience and comfort than general public well-being. And they in turn are infecting the people around them who have been more careful to comply, some not recognizing the risk to which their contacts have been exposing them.
Don’t Put This On The Exhausted. It’s Unfair.
The people who have been holding strain for more than a year have enough to deal with. They don’t need the additional psychological weight of thinking that people like them decided to take a breath and caused all of this. It’s unfair.
It’s an attempt to share the blame that should be fully ascribed to persons who have themselves not been responsible.
It further adds to the anxiety and stress that compliant citizens have already had to deal with, and tells them subliminally that that they can’t take reasonable risks with their guard without the full fear that they may contract or cause someone to contract Covid-19. People have enough to deal with balancing spouses, children, parents, in-laws, employers and employees, work and school, food and nutrition, lack of sunlight and fresh air, weight gain, the general psychological impact of isolation... Don’t put this on them too. Don’t accept it for yourself either.
Yes, there is Covid fatigue. Yes, people are very weary of having to live like this, pent up and sequestered away and, in some cases, alone. But don’t put it on the fatigued that they dropped their guard and thus contributing to the state of things now. It might not be pointing a finger, but it can gnaw at already frayed psyches in myriad ways.
This is on the people who’ve never had their guard properly up in the first place, or never had their guard up at all. They weren’t holding up their end. They shouldn’t need help bearing the weight of responsibility now.
Photo Credit: Medical University of Southern California
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