MDF Magazine Issue 62 7 August 2020 (7)

LIFE IN THE TIMES OF
COVID
By Hilton Purvis
We are living in a world that is probably more informed,
technologically advanced and capable than ever before in
the history of mankind. Yet our lives can change irreversibly
overnight, not just one life, not even millions of lives, but in
fact billions of lives!
COVID was out there at the dawn of 2020, but that's just
the thing, it was "there", far over there, in China and just
beginning to show its presence in Italy. It wasn't "here",
yet. Until a problem is here it isn't really a problem, it is
someone else's problem. And so it was at the end of
February when we started a holiday in the Kgalagadi
knowing that the northern reaches of the park are without any
form of internet connectivity or mobile phone reception. For
us it is absolute heaven since we generally avoid
television and make as few phone calls as possible when
we travel. The idea is to get away from everything, not be
connected to anything. So we found ourselves happily
photographing lions, leopard, cheetah, antelope, eagles and
falcons and the amazing bushveld landscapes without a
concern in the world. After more than 10 days in the far north
we drove down to Twee Rivieren and were amazed to find
our phones ringing and beeping away like crazy! A brief
perusal of the messages told us that the world had changed
completely during our time of the innocent isolation. The
virus that was over there was now here and we had just
enough time to drive back to Cape Town, stock the fridge
and go into "lockdown", whatever that was supposed to be.
Unknown times.
Our world was instantly transformed and we discovered that
our everyday language now included other words which most
of us would hardly remember using a year earlier. Words and
phrases like the infamous “curfew”, “social distancing”,
“flattening the curve”, “the new normal” and “Zoom”. Our
daily wardrobe now includes a face mask (minimum of three
layers!), sometimes gloves and the ever-present bottle of
sanitiser and wet wipes! Clean times.
The first days were eerily quiet, almost as if everyone was in
a state of shock, which was probably quite close to the truth.
The entire neighbourhood was covered in a spooky hush. No
sounds of motor vehicles, no taxis, no buses, no sounds of
building or construction, and strangely enough no sounds
of dogs barking or kids playing. It was quite surreal. Quiet
times.
I am still in two minds as to the real nature of this COVID
thing and how much of it is real, and how much is social
media running out of control. There is no doubt that it
is a real virus and is killing people in large numbers, but
whether or not it is a pandemic remains to be seen. Certainly
it has been a social media pandemic, often for all the wrong
reasons. It reminds me of the rhyme about the little girl who
had a little curl ....
Right in the middle of her forehead,
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
Such has been the case of the little girl called "social
media" in the last six months. In many cases she has been
very good and provided everyone under lockdown with a
method of communication and networking that has allowed
us to not only keep informed but also remain in touch with
everyone we care about. At the same time she has been
very, very bad in spreading fake news, unfounded rumours,
misinformation and general fear mongering. Strange times.
For the disabled community it has been yet another challenge
to our already challenged lifestyles. The early phases of
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