Unfortunately finally COVID-19 has become the piece of news which overrides all other news.
One month has passed since I first mentioned COVID-19 in my posts, at that time nameless coronovirus. https://peoplesdiplomacy.com/2020/02/10/coronavirus-the-black-swan/
Since that time the situation has been changing daily from bad for the worst. And the mood has been changing as well. Tension is growing, uneasiness is transforming itself into deep and dark concern.
The measures taken so far in Russia are not so strict as in some other countries. Travel abroad is very much limited, public activity is limited to 5 thousand people, pupils allowed not to attend school, those returning from some countries are obliged to stay at self-quarantine at home with sick list to be paid by the employers. On a surface, people are not in a great panic: mask wearing is limited, grocery stores are not stripped empty. And strictly speaking at the moment everyday life in not so much affected.
So far, number of infected is not so great, but that doesn’t give any ease: we all remember that in two days Italy turned from a safe place into a center of epidemic.
Authorities tell us that everything is ready for any development of the situation.But very few Russians trust them. Firstly, not only in this case, but generally speaking, Russians very seldom believe the authorities. Because normally they either lie, or prove incompetent, or both. Secondly, because from one source or another we get the information that the words of the authorities are words only. Just a simple example: even the doctors are not supplied with face masks.
It seems that everybody in Russia, as we put it here “rely on AVOSJ”. This is a Russian word not having a direct equivalent in English. It means a great belief, that everything will be OK, though everybody understands, that there are no practical reasons to hope it would be like that.
One thing remains unchanged since one month ago. I still do not like to write about COVID-19. During that time I have written a dozen of posts on the matter, but never published them.
It is obvious, that the world is never going to be the same again. It will never be a small world again, it will never be such a safe and convenient place again. And I do not like new brave world coming.
Globalization is dying both in airports, and in people’s minds.
