Commentary: Normality Is Finally Back Somewhat!

Hello fellow readers! It has certainly been a long time since I’ve written one of these “opinion articles”.

To be honest, the news cycle within our island has been quite flat. But compare that to the rest of the world… I mean there’s a neighbourhood in Seattle where violent people are trying to implement Communism at the barrel of a gun ! But this is on Singaporean matters. Frankly I am going to kiss the ground tomorrow. Wait no, today. It’s been so long I almost forgot the one business day it takes for this to process.

Now I may not be the only guy saying this, but PLEASE PLEASE practice whatever social distancing measures are left in place. Scan your IC or that SafeSense QR Code. I absolutely agree with you in saying that these tasks make life a bit troublesome. But can we risk that ? What is a few minutes gone when compared to the ability to roam around as you’d like normally.

We have made the HUGE mistake of relaxing our grasp on health measures a month after Lunar New Year festivities. For a month or two, we all gloated in glee as the nations of the world envied our low count of cases. “Model Coronavirus Response” said the prestigious CNN Network right from their tower in New York City. But then suddenly we had like a couple hundred people infected out of nowhere. One thing leads to another and we have 10 grand still stuck on hospital beds today.

While the amount of new cases is slowing, remember that most of the expense has been paid for by the swathes of migrant workers. They did not sign up to work here just to receive the world’s newest health scare. I believe the measures placed on us locals has been adequate, however the same cannot be said for the Ministry of Manpower. I guarantee that the moment this is all over, we will suddenly plunge into a diplomatic crisis regarding unequal measures to ensure the safety of foreigners to a reasonable degree.

Ma wants to have tea with her Church friends, Pa wants to get back in his PropNex, grind 9 to 5 and unwind at night with “I am a Singer” or WWE wrestling. My elder brother is going into a state of depression with the constant delays to his OCS training. My twin brother is begging for his ITE schedule to be rigid enough to pack properly for tomorrow’s lessons. And personally, I cannot wait for the chance to physically touch that Polytechnic Campus. Being a freshman to Programming through my computer via Home-Based Learning has been an utter nightmare for the half semester I went through so far.

This sudden lifting of restrictions is nothing short of a bright streak of sunlight breaking through this storm of doom and gloom. I beg of you people to practice whatever it takes to restore our signature brand of lukewarm peace. Before I go, I should warn you of this: The sudden re-opening of every bit of business and recreation will be overwhelming. There has never been any precedent of such a thing happening apart from war or shortage. I wouldn’t blame you if you’d explode and run around your favourite spot. But tone down the excitement a little bit. At least enough to remember “One arm’s length away from people”. Or was it 2 ? Whatever, I hope to commentate on a juicy tidbit of local news soon.

Loyal ASS Reader Justin