Emma is a twenty-two year old youth worker residing in Belfast, Northern Ireland learning how to deal with a new normality, going from working with children and young people everyday and creating good relationships, to not being able to connect anymore with staff, young people or loved ones. She has just started her own blog, ekbthoughts.weebly.com .
Slowly and surely our freedom will disappear during this pandemic. Gone are the days children were able to go to school, have sleepovers, go to the park. Gone are the days where adults could go to work, provide for themselves and their families. The freedom to travel the world. Gone; the everyday freedom. To walk outside without being monitored by the police. To walk into shops freely, this freedom blindly replaced by lines and standing two metres apart. Smiles and hellos from your neighbours have stopped. People look at you with fear, go as far as walking to a different street to avoid being close to you. You can’t see your friend across the road anymore. Can’t see your lover who lives twenty minutes away. You risk being fined if you are caught outside with more than one other person. No interactions. No human connections, apart from those you live with. What about those who live alone? They risk the dangers of being trapped inside their own minds. Loneliness. Even more fear than those with housemates. Everyday connections and everyday routines, everyday freedom just gone. It feels like a war zone waiting to happen. The worst is yet to come. And we’re all waiting for it. We know it’s coming. And the most saddening part? We don’t know when, we don’t know how to protect ourselves and those we love. We live in fear of contracting the disease somehow.
Society is changing rapidly, yet the world is still.
The flowers are blooming. Leaves in the trees are flowing so steadily. Yet society is in chaos. Fighting over the last piece of bread when we should be sharing. Groceries on shelves gone. People bulk buying out of greed and fear. Doctors in our local practices have abandoned us. Pharmacies overwhelmed by unnecessary prescriptions ordering in bulk. Panic everywhere. PHONE ONLY they say, with no accessibility for the deaf. Governments are living in wealth, Prioritising the rich and famous is a very real thing. The royal family can be tested right away, but for me? The working class? We have to wait for our condition to worsen in order to be tested and seen. All those years of the government claiming to have no money and yet when the risk of unemployment rises during this pandemic they give billions to help the poor. Where was this energy before? Chemists, hospital workers, key workers are still working their asses off to save the country from ruin while the rich and famous make bullshit songs and videos of themselves crying in their mansions, their way of ‘relating’ to the poor. Pretty frightening to see people lose touch of who they once were before their fame and fortune. To see such a great loss of humanity. Doctors have left patients to rot. Doctors have left chemists to fend for themselves with thousands of prescriptions. Leaving hospitals filled with pregnant women waiting for their general appointments while doctors within general practice settings refuse to work and yet this is their industry? The government isn’t telling hospital staff anything, won’t tell them anything; will allow doctors and nurses work to their early graves. Endless patients in all sectors with not enough staff to oversee the entire country. Is this really a world where we care of each other? Support one another? I see more of the working class helping and supporting others than the rich and famous, who fake-cry in their mansions about being able to cope without their £100 Tiffany’s breakfast.
Yet the wind is still blowing, Birds are singing more strongly now than ever before. Wild animals resurfacing.
Society is chaos yet the world is still.