The past week we have all been talking, thinking and hopefully not breathing the new corona virus and Covid-19. Our lives has been intertwined with this microscopic living (and not) organism, that is destroying plans, trips and unfortunately people. We are all making adjustments in our lives, staying in (or going out like crazy, because someone told us to stay in, and we ain’t gonna do what we are told) and trying to avoid human contact. Life has been harder than normal for most of us, who are used to have not finding what to wear as our biggest inconvenience in our everyday life and it will get worse, especially since many countries are slow to act.
Indonesia hasn’t been acting like it should and until this weekend (14-15.3) everyone seemed to be ignoring the situation. Indonesian students studying in Italy, which is facing a great crisis, were forced to come back. Coming from a country with the most active cases, one would expect the government to keep them in quarantine to prevent them from spreading the disease. But one would expect too much, cause they just checked if they had it and then told to self-quarantine for 14 days. Self-quarantine in a house with 10 more people, who go out to work everyday and a grandma that will be waving us from above if she gets it. The brilliance of the authorities never seizes to amaze me. Another student who came back was perfectly allowed to go spend vacation time in Java, possible spreading her particles all over the place.
People don’t seem to care much about the virus or the spread of it, besides some scared Instagram stories. Everyday life in Samarinda, Indonesia flows normally like nothing is going on. With the exception of the University switching to online classes, everything else moves on exactly like before (I mean antiseptic solutions are also either sold out or crazy expensive). And yes we are not in a big city or anywhere in Java and yes also on paper the cases are not that many, but the lack of concern from people or the government is alarming and forebodes for a not-so-future spike in numbers and a following collapse of the healthcare system like in Italy. The situation might change soon, but for now the government has been criminally silent and seems mostly concerned with not scaring tourists away rather than protecting its people and preventing a catastrophe. A trust in authorities in crucial in these times and Indonesia doesn’t give us reason to believe they can help.
It is not all bad though. Except for the atmosphere getting cleaner since in countries like China and Italy people are forced to stay in and there are not that many emissions, a solidarity is starting to develop that is touching. Of course, one can look at people fighting over toilet paper and wonder what I am talking about, but one can also see Italians singing together in their balconies. We can also see people in Spain and Greece clapping for their healthcare professionals. People leaving notes that they can help the ones who have to stay in by buying for them what they need. There are the ones providing exercise regiments through Instagram so we can all stay healthy and of course the ones still working in supermarkets and restaurants so that we can eat. By looking at helping each other and by staying in our freaking homes for a while, we can get through it and we can protect ourselves but most importantly those who cannot protect themselves.
P.S. As a foreigner in Indonesia I cannot follow well the announcements from the government, so I only talk for my personal experience and the feeling of uncertainty I get from them. They might have made announcements I am not aware of, but the fact that they did not quarantined people coming from Italy and they did not made any official announcements about closing down mosques, cafes etc is not changing.
The Indonesian Chronicles 