21 Things Which Confused Me in 2020
Old truths, now truths, and some eternal truths that keep me scratching my head.
1. Why people keep talking about going ‘back to normal’
There is no going backwards only forwards. Do you actually remember ‘normal’ being so fantastic or is it only with hindsight that you’ve started to appreciate what you had and now do not? Instead of talking about going ‘back to normal’, or what the ‘new normal’ is, why not use the opportunity to think about what isn’t going to change (you still need food, shelter, and loving relationships) and what must change, for example, addressing the ecological emergency at global scale.
2. Why the UK was so slow to react
The UK Prime Minister first ordered everyone to stay at home on March 23rd 2020, by which time 5,687 cases and 281 deaths had been reported to WHO. Why did it take so long for the government to react? As a senior level administrator in an institution of higher education doing my best to stay informed, I read “Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now”.
The coronavirus is coming to you.
It’s coming at an exponential speed: gradually, and then suddenly.
It’s a matter of days. Maybe a week or two.
When it does, your healthcare system will be overwhelmed.
Your fellow citizens will be treated in the hallways.
Exhausted healthcare workers will break down. Some will die.
They will have to decide which patient gets the oxygen and which one dies.
The only way to prevent this is social distancing today. Not tomorrow. Today.
That means keeping as many people home as possible, starting now.As a politician, community leader or business leader, you have the power and the responsibility to prevent this.
This wasn’t secret information or a scientific briefing — I was one among millions of readers of this public article. So when one case of COVID-19 was confirmed on Guam — an island separated from us by over 1600km of ocean — we didn’t even finish the school day and closed our campuses at lunchtime. As of December 6th 2020, the Federated States of Micronesia remains free of coronavirus, while in the UK, 60,000 people have died.
3. Why the only rule I ever hear about in the news is what time the pub will shut.
Almost 1.5m dead around the world. Millions of others suffering the direct and indirect consequences of loss, separation, isolation and uncertainty. Meanwhile we have pushed our planet beyond numerous tipping points and have very little time to drastically change our ways of being. Aren’t the media supposed to provide a public service of information? One day, I heard about the introduction of ‘tiers’ — it sounded like something important was changing so I checked the news. All I could see was a change in pub closing times. Then I heard that after lockdown, UK pubs in certain tiers can serve alcohol if it accompanies a substantial meal — a scotch egg counts. 2020 is the year I give up entirely on ‘news’.
4. Why I’m the only person I know to keep my mask in a ziplock.
Perhaps it’s because I had to contribute to our college guidelines on dealing with the pandemic so I read the WHO advice. They advise “Store the mask in a clean, resealable bag if it is not dirty or wet and you plan to re-use it.” If a mask serves to pick up what your body doesn’t want, it doesn’t make sense to then put it into your pocket then back onto your face.
5. How so many education leaders have kept going this long.
I am exhausted. I have never taken so many sick days as this year. I am exercising, meditating, hula-hooping, writing, eating well — doing everything I can to sustain myself. But I am so tired. I’ve had two major back injuries this year, exacerbated or caused by sitting too long at the screen. There is so much work to be done, I struggle to prioritise. The UK National Association of Head Teachers surveyed their community and found 47% were considering leaving their role early “once they had steered their schools through the covid crisis”. Thank you teachers, head teachers, college presidents and all those substituting others. There is something very wrong with our education system, isn’t there?
6. When did media become a polarising power instead of a public service provider of information?
Or did I just not notice it so much before?
7. Why on earth did Denmark have all those mink farms anyway?
17 million mink? On farms? In Denmark? In the 21st century? £33,250 for a new fur coat?! What the fuck? People who wear them must be so very very warm and no doubt, 33,250 times happier… so comfortable around death too! Animals and plants don’t just exist for human’s enjoyment. It’s fucked up to adorn yourself with a dead being pretending that’s the only option there is to keep yourself warm. Maybe we need to invent a non-practical fashionista-friendly coat with built-in heating so that those folks who feel the need to show off their financial wealth while keeping warm can do so. Or go with Stella Mccartney.
8. That shark livers are used to make vaccines and sun screens?!
Turns out that shark liver oil, or squalene, is used as an adjuvant in certain flu vaccines. MF59 is an ingredient that helps a vaccine work better. You can search medicines on the electronic Medicines compendium (eMc) to see what ingredients are used. Squalene is also used in various beauty products; Bloom conservation NGO reported that 90% of global squalene is used by the cosmetics industry.
Squalene can be extracted from olives, wheat germ, and other plants, but sourcing it from sharks is easier and significantly cheaper, experts say.
Though many corporations have moved to plant-based versions, it’s difficult to assure the source of ingredients along globally complex supply chains. The National Geographic reports that as of December 2nd 2020, “at least five of the 202 vaccine candidates rely on squalene caught from wild sharks”. Further evidence to question not only what the ingredients are in your food, but also the products you slather yourself in or medicate with.
9. How risky it is for media to portray critical thinking around vaccines as ‘anti-vaxxers’.
Back in the early 90s, media whipped up a storm around the safety of the combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and supposed links to autism. Much research was conducted which concluded that there was no link between the MMR jab and autism. When I was a kid, my mum didn’t send me for the MMR vaccine. Was she an anti-vaxxer?
No!
I’d already had each of the individual vaccines so there was no need to have them all again.
Media polarization and simplification of complex topics is irresponsible, harmful and dangerous. Look for evidence and question sources of information — this is critical thinking. Be careful about what you put into your body — this is sensible. Be aware that COVID-19 vaccines have been produced in record-breaking speed under global pressure and potentially massive financial gains. Caution, critical thinking, and care should not be painted as ignorance. Polarizing debate will only add fuel to the fire of baseless anti-vaxxer conspiracy claims. Reporting sensibly and fairly on complexity still fails to sell news or attract clicks.
10. That people in the 21st century still need to be told to wash their hands properly.
Basic hygiene is simple — the connection between correct hand-washing and preventing a whole range of illnesses has long been understood. I am still astounded at the number of seemingly rational, professional adults who swish their hands near water and consider them cleaned.
11. Why pole-dancing classes are not allowed but multiple groups eating in a pub is ok.
Under current regulations, much of the UK is in tier 2 in which “You can only take part in organised sport, exercise classes and other group activities indoors with people you live with or share a support bubble with.” This means that a class of five students in a fitness class, naturally well separated by body dimensions and controlling their movements in space (otherwise they’d be kicking each other) is against the rules. On the other hand, groups of up to six people can sit around a table together in restaurants. Once again, health and well-being appears far down the list of government priorities compared to maintaining the status quo of consumption.
12. That with a population of around 331,850, 656, the USA have 274,077 reported deaths from COVID-19.
These figures are reported on December 6th 2020, according to worldometers (population) and WHO (coronavirus). Meanwhile, over in India, with a population over four times bigger that of the US, they have 139,700 deaths — almost half. The World Health Organization ranks India’s health system as 112th in the world and the USA’s as 37th.
Research.
Think critically.
Draw conclusions.
13. Why British people are donating to a National Health Service like it’s a charity.
Does it make sense that the services provided by doctors, nurses, midwives and dentists are shared by all rather than only by those who are sick or injured? That’s why the NHS was set up. “You are all paying for it, mainly as taxpayers.” And yet, here we are thanking the public for raising over £130,000,000 to support “the NHS staff and volunteers caring for COVID-19 patients”. I too thank the NHS staff, volunteers and all those supporting them. Meanwhile a 2020 government report states that funding for the NHS has consistently risen since 1948. Do we have rising expectations of healthcare services? Are health issues and needs, or our understanding of them, broadening? One thing is for sure, at the heart of personal, social, and environmental health there is deep complexity.
14. That the government allows a dentist practice to charge for a check up which is ‘covid secure’, but which becomes non-covid-secure when performed by the same people in the same practice under the NHS.
I needed to have a dentist check out a strange feeling in my tooth. I started calling around dentists — 13 in all. Even if I was a registered NHS patient, the check up I needed was not allowed under health and safety guidelines. In England, many NHS dentists also function simultaneously for paying customers. Does coronavirus favour the poor? If I pay for the service, suddenly it is allowed and COVID-secure.
15. Why people run on the hamster wheel of life in the UK to afford insanely inflated house prices when the quality of life is decelerating and not especially higher than other places.
Having lived a 2-hours incredible train ride from Tokyo in a beachfront apartment with hot spring rooftop bath for less than $350 per month, I was utterly depressed to see the uninspiring apartments in my price range in Suffolk, UK. A real estate agent friend said, “British people give up their dreams to join the property ladder.”
The UNDP’s Human Development Index 2019 rates the United Kingdom 15th with a score of 0.920. Compare this to Slovenia, ranked 24th with a score of 0.902. If you are born in either country, your life expectancy at birth is 81.2 years and you can expect 17.4 years of schooling. What differentiates these two countries? The Gini index is a way of measuring income inequality within a country, with a score of 0 being complete equality and a score of 1 being complete inequality. Slovenia is rated 0.243 while the UK boasts 0.366 (sitting just behind Lithuania, USA, Turkey, Mexico and Chile). Does this mean that one reason UK people like running on the hamster wheel is for the satisfaction of paying for richer man’s castles and ogling at them from the public footpaths that cut through their lands?
This long-run increase in income inequality not only raises social and political concerns, but also economic ones. It tends to drag down GDP growth, due to the rising distance of the lower 40% from the rest of society. Lower income people have been prevented from realising their human capital potential, which is bad for the economy as a whole. (OECD — In It Together: Why Less Inequality Benefits All)
16. How people sit in front of their screen all day.
Not new but now worsened.
17. How I got the Tokyo to London flight.
I was trying to make it home from Micronesia and had my flight booked as far as Tokyo. But however hard I tried, I couldn’t get that final and most important leg. First I thought I’d maxed out the credit card, then I couldn’t get through on the phone then the internet failed. My brother in England tried repeatedly and still nothing worked. The morning of my rescheduled flight, I tried one last time while I had the internet. BOOM! The universe opened the door for me and the flight confirmation arrived in my inbox! Japan was not letting UK passport holders into the country. It was only thanks to that flight confirmation, I was granted a transit visa overnight and took off the next morning.
18. What people think ‘the economy’ is.
So much of the mainstream noise has been about saving, protecting, or getting the economy back on its feet. But what is this economy? In his podcast with Tim Ferriss, Sapiens author Yuval Noah Harari talked about the importance of how you liberate yourself and others from suffering. He questions history’s focus on power and instead asks “what does this all mean in terms of happiness and suffering?”.
Nations, gods, money, corporations, states, the only place they exist is in the stories that we invent and tell. They are not physical or biological realities…. And there is a very, very simple test to know whether the hero of the story that you’re telling is a real entity or a fictional entity invented by humans and existing only in the imagination. And that is the test of suffering, that a human being can suffer. A cow can suffer, an elephant can suffer, but a nation can’t. If a nation loses a war, it doesn’t suffer. It has no mind. It can’t feel pain or sadness or fear. The soldiers who are fighting for the nation, the citizens in that nation who are being conquered by some other nations, they can suffer a lot of things, but the nations can’t suffer….If a story enables people to cooperate well and thereby improve their lives, that’s wonderful. But once you forget it’s just a story and you begin entire wars just in order to protect, to defend the honor of the nation, or to increase the profits of the corporation, something went wrong. https://tim.blog/2020/10/30/yuval-noah-harari-transcript/
We know that something — many things — have gone very wrong indeed. 2020 has come with a proliferation of calls to save, protect, or grow this abstraction we have come to know as ‘the economy’. The climate emergency we find ourselves in today stems from the proliferation of a system which prioritised abstract economic concerns over and above the suffering, health, and happiness of living beings. Maybe it’s time we reconsider ‘the economy’ and its Greek root oikos — meaning house. It’s time to take care of ourselves, of the wellbeing of living beings. It’s time to take care of reality.
Problems are never abstract. All problems are ultimately about particular beings suffering. Therefore when dealing with global problems we should not get entangled in mere abstractions, but should instead keep in touch with real experiences. https://www.sapienship.co/about#founder
19. Why there’s simultaneously so much work to be done in society and so many ‘unemployed’.
20. That people are paying full tuition fees to be online education guinea pigs.
So many teachers and learners have been forced off the campuses, online. Once again the purpose of education is called into question. Is it for learning facts? Abundant high-quality free learning opportunities are online.
21. That I haven’t yet stepped up to call a massive global TIME OUT!
Do less. Be more. Slow down. Want less. Satisfy more.
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