Life after Lock Down Day 113- 115

Day 113 following on with my present observations of yin and yang, duality and opposites happening in our chaotic society after lock down, and my own irony of waking each day tired but bright in spirit and finding negative news and today waking low in spirit and finding positive bright news! A U.S. court ordered the shutdown of the Dakota Access oil pipeline on Monday “over concerns about its potential environmental impact, a big win for the Native American tribes and green groups who fought the major pipeline’s route across a crucial water supply for years.” This is so good to hear, after following their story for a few years now these tribes have worked tirelessly to protect their land and waters long after the media coverage left the stand off and protests 4 years ago at Standing Rock. Congratulations to the tribes and thank you for protecting our planets ecology, not only does this decision protect tribal lands it protects all those who live in the area along the rivers and eventually the sea from any potential spill. It was a case of when not if!

In opposition of course there is always another battle to be fought: Native American tribes have been refused access to coronavirus data made readily available to states by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, organisations representing the tribes have had their requests turned down. Michigan and Massachusetts authorities have also turned down requests from tribal epidemiologists for data and have refused to make agreements on contact tracing, they have reportedly cited privacy concerns as the reason and have questioned the tribes’ legal standing as sovereign groups!

My son came home from work telling me a story of his boss who also owns a bar having had denuncias made against him, people had been found dancing outside his bar at 5am last Saturday, he may now faces fines. No dancing is one of the new laws, there can be live music but no dancing, having employed a staff member as a bouncer to ensure people keep to safe distancing his boss doesn’t know what else he can do besides close the small venue. How on earth do you stop drunken people from bursting into dance with live music playing, they constantly stopped people all night long but obviously missed this episode. They have tried to set up a meeting with the town hall to allow them to use our Ferria area for live bands to perform citing it would be easier in a huge area for people to safe distance rather than outside the small bars. There would also be a larger areas for folks to dance if they wish, as the reason for the local law is that dance floors are small and safe distancing cannot be kept.

We also find that Virgin del Carmen night will go ahead as they bring the statue out of the church to bless the sea, this is after they stopped our night of San Juan where at least the people would have been scattered along the beaches rather than this procession which focuses in an area. At the same time they have announced cultural evenings of dance in small town squares! There is no wonder people are flaring up right now as the rules change daily and there seems to be no consistency or even logic in some decisions, it makes you wonder who decides what and if they are made on safety or personal dislikes or likes!

Day 114 and my second market trip, less weight to carry and a little cooler but I still struggled to get back home. Masks in summer pulling trolleys uphill just doesn’t seem to be working for me, being overheated before I get to the end of the public area to enable the mask off!

I found this today “More than 150 world renowned academics, writers and artists signed a letter published on Tuesday expressing support for global anti-racism protests while lamenting an “intolerant climate that has set in on all sides. Free exchange of information and ideas are becoming more constricted on a daily basis”. The letter warned that censoriousness was spreading widely across the culture through public shaming, a tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a “blinding moral certainty” and an intolerance of opposing views. “The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away”

This is exactly what I seem to be witnessing, so many angry statements lately which leave no space for discussions or reason. I wrote about a colleagues post a few days ago referring to extreme abortion laws in New Zealand which many people showered hate and threatening comments against NZ, it turned out the information was false! I watched irrational and hateful threatening comments that blew up when somebody posted about Ted talks and FB backing paedophilia! I am not sure how on earth FB was named in the post, the Ted X talk was real but with a totally different context. A talk which was taken down a few years ago at the request of the speaker for her own safety was talking about paedophilia being a sexual orientation which some experts agree with, citing they are born that way and cannot change. Many suffer in silence with their orientation knowing its wrong and would never ever act upon it, there is a difference between those who abuse children (thinking of parents and family members here) and those born with this sexual orientation who don’t and never would act on it knowing it is wrong. This of course is an inflammatory, moral and sensitive issue but the death threats and horrific bullying language which left no space for discussion or reason as they all accused FB and Ted X of being run by paedophiles. Most commenting probably didn’t even listen or read the information. The speaker in question was looking at how a different view on this subject with new eyes could open more research into these people with the aim of protecting our children. With the huge amount of child abuse on our planet prevailent in all walks of life maybe there is a need for more research into those who abuse classed as mentally ill, those who abuse for the feeling of power and control and those who are born sexually orientated this way. It is a discussion that needs to discussed not thrown under the table because of its high sensitivity and emotional repulsive responses, most abusers never get caught and child abuse goes on underground in obscene numbers. This needs to change! Surely by looking at all angles and finding a deeper understanding into the whys!

As an explanation to all this madness maybe this next article might be a reason for a world gone overboard in reactionary behaviour: Doctors are warning of serious brain disorders in people with mild coronavirus symptoms!

Finishing off today I just went down in our elevator to collect mail, got back in and the doors closed but the lift didn’t work and the doors wouldn’t open, it took a good 5 minutes before anybody answered the emergency line. Not good for overheating stuck inside a small space and if a neighbour hadn’t managed to pry the doors open and let me out I would have been in there an hour which is how long it took the company to get here! But I am home safe now and very thankful, a cool shower is needed after my market trip and stress stuck in a lift, then walk back up the 100 steps to home! Meditation or something calming may be on the horizon too, at least it is such a beautiful day and life feels good.

Day 115 and today has flowed perfectly smoothly, I took a trip in and around town to do many bits on my to buy or do list, to make it all the better I found parking spaces where ever I needed to be! I went to our Post Office to take a return parcel from Groupon, this has been niggling me since they sent the wrong product 2 weeks ago, although they issued a return label to send it back they proceeded to tell me to hang on to it as couriers were not accepting returns during this “crisis” so I had to wait until everything was back to normal! As they only refund 7-10 days after they receive the product I was annoyed, it was there fault sending a different product after selling out of the original order, how long would I have to wait for normal to return? The P.O. informed me that they were in fact taking returns, so now I can email Groupon, inform them its on the way and hopefully get a refund soon, so happy I didn’t believe them! I took my old bedding to the animal shelter drop off point, bought reading glasses which broke in May, replaced from Amazon in lock down which broke a month later, hopefully these will last longer! We now have a supply of mosquito repellents and light bulbs which thankfully blew this week now the shops are open, we also have spare ice coolers to keep a constant supply for the cooling unit and I finally have a new replacement filter for the vacuum I bought in Feb which broke in March again in lock down and have had to wait 5 weeks since the shop ordered a replacement! With everything else crossed off my list except a cup of coffee and cake I had promised myself, only because the cafes were so busy, I returned home feeling thankful and happy, it is rare to get so much done so easily in one trip!

To end here are two lovely stories: The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), Mexico’s Environment Ministry, has announced that glyphosate-based herbicides will be phased out of use in the country by 2024 to protect human health and the environment. Wow this is good and exciting news, hopefully the rest of the world will follow suit when they finally accept the much researched scientific evidence showing how detrimental this is to our health and well being and also to the ecology of our environment.

Lastly a Brazilian care home created a ‘hug tunnel’ so loved ones can embrace elderly relatives, again I hope many others follow suit, old people need to see their loved ones to keep morale and hope alive and we all need hugs, its truly the best medicine. All that is left to say is stay safe and take precautions to protect yourself and loved ones including taking care of your mental health 💜