What doesn’t kill us make us stronger (WDKUMUS) - Part 1.1

Flash back

New Year greetings is still fresh in my mind https://bit.ly/2U5ZzYp. Hoping that in 2020, the world can move towards a better place for all of us albeit the rising USA (Uncertainty, Stupidity, Abnormality).

In less than 3 months, from an epidemic to a pandemic, an unexpected enemy, CoViD-19, has forced the human species to the point of “World is Closed”. 

Is this the world war of the 21st Century? How bad will it be? How long is this going to last? Will it just go away over time? When will a vaccine be available, if any? Will life and businesses be as usual after going through this? Will we bounce back stronger? Will we learn from this experience and do better next time, if there is a next time? Or, do we keep showing our ignorance, foolishness and selfishness that get us into this mess in the first place?

“None of MY business”

Can people get into their head that we are living in this interconnected world in the 21st Century? Even if you do not work overseas. Even if the farthest place you go is within your town or state. Even if you do not see any foreigners around your place. 

Where are your phone, TV, kitchen appliances and gadgets made from? Who built your flat and house? Who built your public transport system? Where do those machinery used in the industry come from? Where are the petroleum from? Where are all the food from? How come the price can be so low? Where do inventions and innovations come from? Where does the technology come from? Where does the medicine come from? Not to mention clinical masks, toilet paper and hand sanitizers.

The answer is, everywhere, locally and around the world. Period.

To add, even if the whole population of the UK, 67.9 millionish, watched the English Premier League football, there was an audience of 3.2 billion people last season in 188 countries outside UK. That is a whopping 47 times, or equivalent to 47 UK or 9.7 USA or 7.2 EU or 2.3 China or 100 Malaysia or 5,517 Singapore….

Therefore, when an epidemic happens in one part of the world, please be clear that it is also everyone’s business, as opposed to “None of My business”.

We are no longer living in isolation, whether we like it or not. We cannot say we enjoy the benefits of globalization and reject the bad that comes from it. They come in a package. All good comes with bad and all bad comes with some good. 

I believe globalization has more good than bad because it brings prosperity and raise our standard of living. To me, globalisation is the way to go in the 21st Century. 

The problem is not globalization. The problem is how we, as a human species, come together and work as a team, the Human Team, the Homo Sapiens United (HSU), to improve and make it better in a constructive manner. Not as individual countries, divided by nationality, race, language, religion and social class with out-dated mentality and mindset of the 20th Century or worst, the 19th Century. 

There are many problems that globalization has brought us. We just have to come together to resolve them. Problems like climate change, which affects our mother earth we all live in; the food to feed the increasing population; the widening of social class; overcrowdedness and etc. Oh, also corruptions and incompetent leadership.  

This is a time for “Great Leadership” from all over the world. Good leadership is just ain’t gonna make it. And no one leader can do it all by him/herself without a great and strong competent team to unite and garner the support and trust of the people.

I have a respectable friend who told me that if our Prime Minister talked and acted like Donald Trump, he would first be ashamed of being a Singaporean. Then he will be the first to go to Hong Lim Park and make a strong protest against such a leader. And to wake up the other Singaporeans. But he is grateful that he doesn’t have to do this, at least in the foreseeable future. I can see his strong conviction and appreciation in this that I decided to pen his thoughts here.

As he said,”How can America Be Great Again if the current POTUS has no World Leadership but only self-interest Dealership?”

In a nutshell, we are too interconnected globally in the 21st Century. If the prediction from the UN is correct, our global population is going to hit 9.7 billion in 2050, from our current 7.8 billionish.

In short, no one living in this world should say “None of My business” when it comes to matters related to the human species and our planet earth. Because it will come back to haunt you overtime, in one form or another which you may not understand. 

This Covid-19 pandemic is a good and clear example of how having this mentality of “None of MY business” has driven us into this shit in the first place.

“None of YOUR business”

A few days back, one of our Singapore Member of Parliament (MP), Amrin Amin, was at Woodlands 888 Plaza NTUC at 12:30am to check out the buying sentiment there. According to him, he saw a family bulk buying essential items at that hour. 

He said, I quote:”I saw a family buying crates of eggs and other necessities. I asked them why. One of them answered ‘none of your business’.”

https://mothership.sg/2020/03/mp-none-of-your-business-panic-buying/ 

After reading the article, from the bottom of my heart, I thought, who cares about what you buy if this is a normal time. But if you hoard the food at this abnormal time, you are depriving others who also need them. So, how can it be “None of YOUR business”? It is everybody’s business now. Err… Sigh.

Viruses, like Covid-19, that we do not have a cure may kill us. But it is the ignorance, foolishness and selfishness of humans that will kill us faster than the virus. Not to mention that it is also the human behaviour that helps the viruses to spread so fast and wide, killing more of us, and faster, that resulted in this epidemic and then pandemic in the first place. For that, we will never find a cure or a vaccine.

In Singapore, we are very fortunate that the top-down approach is working fine thus far. But to be a truly 1st world country, a big majority, if not all, of its citizens has to be 1st world too. We can achieve greater height as a nation if we can match our bottom-up with our top-down approach. That will be a time when I will declare Singapore as a truly 1st World Country. We still have more laps to go and it is never a done job. 

Honestly, something that I am proud of about Singapore is that spitting publicly is uncommon (even though there are still few people doing it), and we banned chewing gum “a long time ago”. These are the kind of things that can easily spread the virus fast and wide, like Covid-19 and other Coronaviruses. 

I am saddened and sometimes angry at people who are so inconsiderate. Even more so when those badly behaved people are well educated, well dressed and well off.

Therefore, if you are so inconsiderate, then perhaps the time will come when “YOUR business” becomes “OUR business”, and not “None of YOUR business”. 

"Mind my OWN Business"

Although I have the rights to criticize others and vice versa (I believe all of us are born with equal rights), I certainly know that I am not qualified to do so in every situation. This is because I am also a human, and I am imperfect. Furthermore, I am a normal neighborhood type, who goes on living my life and minding my own business.

However, I truly understand that I cannot be always so short-sighted and narrow-hearted all the time, especially in abnormal situations like this. 

There so many people who are affected; directly and indirectly. There are people in the front line racing with time in tracing the virus spreading, and the medical workforce taking care of those infected by the virus. Not to mention those people servicing the general public like the workforce in transport, food, grocery, etc, sectors. Those who are quarantined also face challenges in one way or another. Not to forget our government (all the public servants) is also working hard in keeping Singapore going.

Therefore, please take my criticism and ranting as something to be learned and ponder about. Please don't take them as an insult or “scolding” or worse, on a deaf ear. Hard truth is mostly, if not all, difficult to swallow or accept because we have pride, ego and sometimes stubbornness. But without hard truth, we will all be the emperor in “The Emperor's New Clothes”. 

Hence, minding my own business now, is to eat healthily (balance meals), sleep enough and well, be positive, having zero negative stress, wear a mask only when I am not feeling well. Wear a mask (at least for the first 14 days) when I have close contact with those who were back from overseas with no coronavirus symptoms. Purchase what I need and no hoarding. Wash my hands regularly with soap and water or sanitizer. Cultivate the habit of being hygienic. Mindful of physical distancing when queueing up or in crowded places. Mindful of not to touch my mouth, eyes and nose without first cleaning up my hands. Catch some sunlight for vitamin D that helps my immune system to fight the virus. Do some exercises and stay active. Catch up with what is happening. Don’t just believe blindly in whatever I read or hear. Don’t just share information without first validating the authenticity of the contents. 

Most importantly, #MaiKanCheong (Singlish (Hokkien words), meaning don’t rush, don’t be nervous, don’t panic, don’t be anxious, keep calm)

In addition, also to mind my own rubbish, is not to spit food on the table while eating out. Eat on the tray and return the tray before leaving. Throw the tissue paper that I used to wipe my mouth and nose into a bin instead of on the table after eating. If there is no bin at the spot, wrap the used tissue paper with another clean one first until I find a bin. In the office, no need to depend everything on the office cleaner to do every clearing and cleaning. Keep my office pantry tidy and neat after use. Keep my working area clean and wash my own cup. The list just goes on and on….

Now you can see, when we do our parts, we are already so busy with “Mind my OWN business”. For those who do not “Mind my OWN business” as in being socially responsible, then “YOUR Business” will become “MY Business” or “OUR Business”, certainly not “None of YOUR business”.

Keeping clean and being hygienic is the way to Fight the virus from spreading so fast and wide. Keeping healthy and keeping calm is the way to Fight the virus from killing us so easily.

"Mind YOUR Business"

This is one of the many exemplifying deeds to prove that there are people who still care to “Mind YOUR Business” even when it is “None of MY Business”.

Singaporean volunteers help Malaysians sleeping rough during lockdown

If you want to “Mind YOUR (Someone’s) Business”, to help Singapore overcome this difficult time, you may want to check this out https://www.giving.sg/sgunited #sgunited. 

“You can help the different charities respond to community needs amidst COVID-19 by donating money, essential items, or volunteering your time.”

As someone in the recruitment field, I have the opportunity to see the difficulties faced by both the employers and the employees in this pandemic.

Employees are losing their jobs, forced to stay at home. Employers are facing manpower redundancy as business plunged; Employers coping with losses. Students not able to find internship opportunities etc.

On the other hand, there are also businesses that transform and innovate during this trying period. An example is the car maker in China that overnight turned to become the biggest mask maker in the world. https://www.businessinsider.sg/chinese-electric-car-maker-coronavirus-covid19-world-largest-mask-factory-2020-3 

In short, we can use our time, energy, money, skill and knowledge to do something that is relevant in our current situation, instead of complaining, blaming and having the denial of change, that we all have to put up to.  

More relevant and related information for employees and employers will be shared in separate postings in my Linkedin. Do keep a watch.

“Fight Fight Fight”

To sum up, in my opinion, there are 3 levels of fights in this Pandemic.

1. Fight from the medical field to find the vaccine or cure for the virus.
2. Fight from individuals to change our behaviour and mentality in combating this pandemic.
3. Fight from everyone of us to address the current damages and the aftermath effect (in the event of a prolonged or worsen pandemic) to our life and economy.

All the above require both a top-down and bottom-up approach to get the best possible results.

As mentioned before, we are very interconnected in this 21st Century. We need to work together at all levels to fight this pandemic, even if we need to stand up tall at times to challenge people’s ignorance, foolishness and selfishness. We just have to Fight Fight Fight and to do the right thing, because right matters.

Let us look to the future, and at the same time, move forward one step at a time together to overcome this disruptive period. 

Comparing this pandemic to the worst and deadliest epidemics in recent human history, the 1918 Flu Pandemic, aka Spanish Flu, during World War I, that killed 10s of millions of people world wide, I strongly feel that we are very fortunate now with our better living condition, and we are in a better position to fight this together.

Remember this, What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

#WDKUMUS(CoViD-19) #WDKUMUS

Footnote: More to come in this WDKUMUS (CoViD-19) Series on my Linkedin. Let’s get connected here

#COVID19 #SGUnited