Month: August 2020

This week I have been immersed in marking student assignments…one of the perks of teaching! We follow a simple principle for student handback – give feedback and feedforward. The feedforward is aimed to give students advice/hints on how to improve their work and provoke thoughts around other possibilities. In my last post, I left some thoughts hanging about the ‘new’ new normal, and after hearing comments from some of those who read the blog (thank you!), I realise that it is hard to imagine a way forward when we are constantly being fed the elimination rhetoric.

Feedback. During the 100 days or so of being Covid-free and living lives as pre-Covid times, we stopped thinking about things like social distancing and hand sanitisers and masks and tests. When the world outside of our borders broadcast news of their ongoing battles with Covid, it seemed surreal, almost as if we were on a different planet…counting our lucky stars while at it. I had conversations where people invariably said they had forgotten lockdown life.

I remember walking into Devonport Chocolates shop a few weeks before lockdown round 2 and seeing a sad-looking bottle of hand sanitiser on a chair outside the front door, sitting on top of a sign that read “Sign in, stop the virus” – that infamous black and yellow Covid tracer card! I debated with myself whether I should use the hand sanitiser, but then thought, “I’m clean, and flipping heck, we are Covid-free”. So, in I went, without signing in and sanitising. The lady in the shop served me with a smile. It’s not her’s/the shop’s fault.

Feedforward. The elimination rhetoric drives the risk of complacency, as we all start to believe and think that elimination has been achieved. But if the messaging from our country managers was more about how to live with the pandemic going forward, we might behave differently. Right now, we are so focused on elimination that we are not looking towards what lies ahead, in the long-term. I think it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee…to recognise that we are part of a global community here, everyone in the world is battling against Covid.

And if “Team NZ” (not my words) is really a team, then we need to be allowed to behave like adults, as members of a team. So that the next time I go into Devonport Chocolates, or any other retailer, without signing in, wearing a mask and sanitising, the staff should feel empowered to not serve me and ask me to leave the shop.

We hear lots of talk about simple messaging. Well, let’s do just that. Let’s have simple, clear rules and consequences around alert levels and not hover, in uncertainty, between levels i.e. the X.5 level. Good leadership demonstrates what good behaviour looks like, long-term. If wearing a mask all the time when in public is the right thing to do, I should feel ashamed not to wear one, and more importantly, I should be aware/fearful of the consequences. Much like the drunk driver has consequences to face for not adhering to the rules.

The alternative is, of course, to continue to isolate, yo-yo-lockdown-style, as individuals and as a country. Our old people already feel isolated. How much longer do we subject them to a world without hugs and visitors and not having loved ones around in their hour of need? And elimination creates the tendency to isolate from the rest of the world.  

After lockdown round 1, I embarked on a curiosity-driven research project within my friends circle, soliciting their views about their lockdown experiences (feedback) and what they thought life would be like going forward (feedforward). My responses were not included in the research project but I shared my views with the participant group. This is what I had said about my feedforward, and for once in my life, I would have liked to be wrong:

“Going forward – is it really going to be a new world that we inhabit post-lockdown/Covid-19? I don’t know how long the acts of kindness around the world will continue. I sense and fear a new wave of isolationist-driven hate speech and actions, against immigrants, refugees, the outsiders – those who (are accused of )‘bring(ing) in or breed(ing)’ illnesses and unwanted what-nots, according to those who want to protect their lands and people. Maybe I am a cynic…” (Vikashni, 10 May, 2020).

Our elimination rhetoric is taking us down a very slippery path. The elimination-leading-to-isolationist actions make us equal to, dare I say it, the Brexiters and Trump supporters. If we are not careful, we will become just like these people…while proudly wearing our Elimination badge. Let us, instead, think about other possibilities.

See more:

http://themoorestory.com/index.php/2020/08/23/what-will-be-our-global-message/

http://themoorestory.com/index.php/2020/09/12/the-uninvited/

I have a set of candles that we use on birthday cakes. These candles re-light themselves a few seconds after they are blown out, much to the embarrassment of the birthday person, while the onlookers burst into streams of laughter as the birthday person attempts, time after time, to extinguish the flame and get on with cutting the cake. Last month my mother happened to be the latest victim and she was out of breath after a few attempts. I sent the video of my poor mum giving up and me laughing out loud all through the video to my friends. One of them recently said to me “Covid is like that re-lighting candle”.

We are in the second weekend of Level 3 lockdown, round 2. And you wonder, if ordinary people think that way about Covid, why does our government insist on eliminating it? Surely, what has happened globally is a testament to the fact that Covid is here to stay, much like our cancers, the common cold and flu, the road accidents…all these things that kill people but we learn to live with it. Isn’t it the wiser thing to say, ‘hey – let’s find a way to live with this thing until we have a cure’?

Obviously, I do not like lockdown the second time around, and no, I did not take part in the recent anti-lockdown protest in Auckland. Back in March, a lockdown was novel, indeed, for a novel virus. And we did all we could to make our country safe. But then we declared victory much too early, with too much ego and pride, only to have the candle re-light itself. But are the onlookers laughing? Well, Donald Trump is, but that’s another story.

Our poor, our vulnerable, our friends and family who suffer from mental health issues, our small business owners, our domestic violence victims, our post-natal depressed mums stuck in the house with a young baby and screaming kids (because daycare centres are closed), while dad goes to work because they need the money, stuck in a situation where she can’t ask for support due to lockdown restrictions and the safety of the newborn…do you hear their laughter?

It is amazing that there are strongly-held views that the current approach by our government is good for the country. It may be good for certain egos – ‘we did it once, we can do it again’ and we can be back on the global stage wearing our badge of ‘Covid Eliminators’. But at what expense? To kick the poor in their guts again and undo some of the rebuilding of livelihoods that were starting to happen post-round 1?

We knew that it was one family, with the initial 4, now just below a 100. Against a population of 1.5 million in Auckland. For the sake of 100 (or less) we subjugate 1.5 million Aucklanders to restrictions on work, on life, on bouncing back from job losses and unemployment. Why does Dunedin for example, which is so far from Auckland and no one from the original cluster travelled there, have to live life at level 2?

Surely, the Covid Eliminators had the capabilities, as demonstrated in the last few weeks, to effectively contact trace and restrict movements of close contacts of the original cluster, without making the whole country move back into lockdown scenarios.

When we blew out the candle the first time around, we became proud and complacent, me included. We were so eager to cut the cake and be joyous about our celebration that we ignored the re-lighting ability of the candle. It will keep on relighting and like my dear mother, we will eventually run out of breath trying to unsuccessfully blow out the candle. We never reached the ‘new normal’ after round 1.

It’s time to learn to live with the novel virus, for long-term sustainability of our livelihoods, including those which continue to struggle thanks to the reactive lockdowns. We can craft a new ‘new normal’ if we put our egos and pride aside and accept that Covid cannot be eliminated until there is a vaccine.

We have 5 million Kiwis who have the answers…somewhere between the two extremes of wanna-be Covid Eliminators and those who refuse to wear masks, we can find the long-term answers. We can look deep within ourselves, our whanau and our communities to craft a new way forward that involves living safely alongside Covid. Let that be the message to eventually broadcast on the global stage.

Vikashni Moore

August 23 2020

See more:

http://themoorestory.com/index.php/2020/09/12/the-uninvited/

http://themoorestory.com/index.php/2020/08/30/elimination-isolationist/