Hi all, my Local Guides friends
Today I want to share a bit of my perspectives while most of us here being locked down in our own house due to Covid-19 outbreak. One thought has brought me back to Russia’s 2018 World Cup Championship where the major tagline is We All Speak Football. No matter what country you are from, what language you speak and what color of your skin, football can bring us together in harmony and unity. For you who are big fan of football I know we are waiting anxiously and excitingly for the World Cup Championship that held once every four years.
My name is Rita and I’m from Jakarta, Indonesia. Here in Indonesia, we have 34 provinces which lead by one governor as the highest authorities. Our major cities like Jakarta, West Java, Banten and Riau has been established Large Scale Social Restrictions, similar to Lock Down and the only differences are:
- People can still go out to make a living (working) but restricted to 8 sectors, such as: groceries, pharmacy, health care (clinics, hospital,laboratory), logistics, telecommunications/media, utilities (electricity, water), energy and other sector that is substantial (research and development).
- We can still drive our personal vehicle with certain conditions. SUV car restricted to 4 people on board, City car restricted only 2 people on board. Motorcycle are not allowed to have passenger. All people on vehicle must wear a mask.
- Crowds/gatherings are restricted to only 4 people maximum.
It is hard for Indonesia to do Lock Down because we are an emerging country which means there are still many people depend on daily salary. They work and earned money that is enough only to make ends meet for the day. Current days, in social media, television news and online news are packed with many stories about a bread winner that couldn’t feed his/her family anymore because of this Corona virus outbreak. Factories are closing, small businesses filing for bankruptcy, restaurant, hotels, amusement park, all of the labor intensive work place are closing down.
Everyday I said to myself that how privileged myself and my family, we still have enough savings to survive, we have food on our table 3 times a day, easy access to sanitation, my kids could watch the tv all day, 24 hours internet access and limitless time to cook, to try new recipe, reading books, listening to songs, watching movies, named all the new activities we can do or see our family and friends doing it on their social media.
It is truly heart broken seeing our unfortunate brothers and sisters crying for help. Imagine a kid in hunger and have nothing to eat because the parents doesn’t have any money to buy food. So today I encourage all of you to share what you excess to those in needs, sent it anonymously. No need to take a picture and post it on your social media, just do it because we are all human with mercy. We love our country and we love our society.
Covid-19 is a worldwide threat. One single virus can destroy a whole world. Worldwide economic are slowing down, unemployment rate spike up like never before, economic growth are declining instead of rising up, minor riots are happening right now in certain countries and it seems like there is no safe place on earth anymore. All countries are infected and struggling with it.
I always wonder what is the meaning of this virus outbreak, is it true that we have got warning from God? Is the earth currently healing itself? If yes, then we should humble ourselves and admit that we are an awful, heartless living creatures who didn’t preserve the mother earth well since she has given us much and beyond above we can think of.
Therefore, let us use this Covid-19 to unite us together, all countries hand in hand, to rebuild our civilization, stop the war and help those who in needs. Make Covid-19 as our universal language to spread kindness, to bring back our main purposes as human. Obey the rules, stay at home, wear a mask when you have to go out for the essentials. Give thanks and embrace what we have now. Support our government, our front liners (medical staffs, police, army, and many more) trust them that they have do the best, everything they could for our country.
Please go away Covid-19, I promise that I will take care of the mother earth better this time.