Pandemic stories and reasons to hope

BY any standard, 2021 was a most intense and challenging year but with blessings as well. Being able to do something that takes the mind off the pandemic was helpful. Staying at home was the perfect time to bond with family. Reaching out to friends and relatives via email, Facebook, Viber, Messenger, etc. made it possible to stay connected in a way that didn’t used to be possible. That’s one great thing about upgraded information technology.

Reading classics, videogames and teleconferences were good distractions from the overwhelming coronavirus news. Blogging/vlogging earned good returns as new ventures. Prayers and meditation as well as Bible study helped to keep many enlightened and guided. Others were more into body building or physical exercise. Lots of change and growth indeed.

The felt Covid effect on food security led citizens to indulge in coping mechanisms, e.g., gardening for vegetable and root crops, planting easy-to-grow fruit-bearing trees, raising pigs and chickens, and catching fish and other edible species in wetlands, turning them into activists for nature in the process.

The past year of Covid-19 persistence proved politics and geopolitics fractious and the countless world meetings on climate, food and biodiversity left us aware of how much the world is still held back by old ways.

Yet we also detected many glimmers of hope for a better way forward — inspiring acts and much needed reasons to hope.

For one, governments around the world committed to decarbonization even when they did not have plans or even a deep understanding of what they meant by their promises. There is a lot of improvisation and experimentation under way though.

Most important of all, we saw the vigor of young people for action around the globe, initiated by Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement ready to take up the challenges of climate change and sustainable development.

Inspiring acts

The bayanihan community food pantries. With the lockdown and people making known their immediate needs, someone in UP Village thought of a pantry for those in need. It was an amazing experience for recipients and donors alike.

They came on foot or in tricycles with whatever foodstuffs they could share. Private cars, jeepneys and even trucks came with more fresh vegetables and canned goods. Volunteers were ready to unload the relief goods.

The bayanihan spirit extended to queueing jeepneys with their masked drivers accepting assistance from passersby and abandoned workers in construction sites unable to go back home became the concern of caring neighbors.

The idea of a pantry in Metro Manila was replicated in scattered communities across the country, and those who participated described the experience as a wonderfully uplifting feeling of working together for the common good. In short, in a world turned upside down, the work took away the feeling of helplessness.

Finding meaning in life under all circumstances. Viruses are constantly evolving and Covid-19 sprung its surprise to an exhausted humanity in the Omicron variant. 2022 is the third year in which the pandemic has had a dramatic effect on life as we know it, especially for those who suffered so much pain, hard