Privilege

March 31st, 2020

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. – Marcus Aurelius

Greetings. Today I felt like sharing my thoughts on the latest issue that has been circulating tremendously on social media where two local businesswomen were slammed by netizens for their insensitive comments posted on Instagram. I caught wind of the news and decided to give my unsolicited opinion on it.

The world is currently at halt due to the pandemic and as I have mentioned in my first post, some are very fortunate to be able to work from home, in some cases, be on long house quarantine. Whereas, some are struggling to find ways to still put food on the table when only the Essential Services are allowed to work, in which, are still deeply affected by this. Perhaps most of us assume that being on partial lock-down equates to being able to be on a carefree break and that we will still be able to have food and other necessities in weeks to come, but we cannot say the same for those that earns minimum wage to support their family.

Although the government has been generous enough in providing financial aid, this is merely a short-term relief. Everyone is affected by this and now is the time for us to help one another, so long as it is still within your means. There really is no room for selfishness at this point.

I foresee that in months to come, our country will definitely struggle to be up and running once more and that a lot of our people will lose their source of income due to some employers having to lay off employees to cover their accumulated losses during the partial lock-down. It really is a sad situation and I cannot imagine these unfortunate people that are suffering greatly from this.

On top of that, the medical team, front-liners that have been exhaustively working to help the patients are the true hero in this situation. Let us all play our part in flattening the curve by adhering to the Restriction Movement Order (RMO) as announced by the government.

Lastly, if you are unable to assist the affected by any means, kindly refrain from saying unpleasant things. These days, it is awfully easy to be targets online for hate speech.

I hope that once we are able to resume our daily activities per usual, we will all learn to be more appreciative and really count our blessings. Above all, please make it a habit to practice good hygiene even if you are just sitting idly at home. I will be attaching two infographics from World Health Organization (WHO) for reference.