Goodbye 2020

2020 is supposed to be good. It suggests perfect vision.

Today, we are only too happy to be done with this year. 2020 reminds me of 1972, a truly annus horribilis or a year of disaster and misfortune.

Martial Law was declared in 1972. We had curfew in 1972. ABS-CBN was closed in 1972 and then again in 2020. Both times I lost my job at ABS-CBN because of a President who feels threatened by a free press.

The COVID-19 pandemic was our top scourge for 2020. Our movements were limited and the virus infected over 80 million with over a million deaths worldwide. Economies tanked and job losses made life miserable in many countries.

Vaccines have been developed in record time but it will take more than a year to distribute and inoculate the hundreds of millions needed to create herd immunity to end the pandemic. Until then, the world is under threat not just from this virus but from economic meltdowns.

It seems 2021 will be a continuation of 2020. So, why are we so hopeful about the new year?

The Social Weather Stations found 91 percent of adult Filipinos are entering the New Year with hope rather than with fear. This is, however, five points down from the 96 percent in 2018 and the lowest since the 89 percent in 2009.

On the other hand, seven percent will enter the New Year with fear. This is three points up from the four percent in 2019.

The reality is… the virus will still rule our lives in 2021. Our economy and our politics will be governed by responses to this virus.

We won’t get a vaccine soon unless you are well connected to Duterte and don’t mind getting the Chinese one. So, the danger of infection remains.

On the positive side, we enter 2021 with lessons learned from 2020 that could enable us to cope better with surprises.

Being quarantined for 10 months taught us life lessons. For example, we can live on a whole lot less than what our consumerist societies have taught us.

I found out that the only clothes I needed through 2020 assuming laundry once a week are: a dozen shorts, a dozen t-shirts, two pairs of sneakers, two pairs of denim jeans, two pajamas and two decent shirts to wear when doing FaceTime or Zoom meetings.

We saved money on gasoline. There was no need to go anywhere other than the grocery. I had worked from home even before the lockdown, so it is something I was used to.

If I needed to interview anybody, I requested a FaceTime or Zoom meeting. If I needed to check a fact, I texted the source or Googled. Technology was a big help.

It bothered me and my wife that we were at one point, technically restricted to stay within our condo unit. For a while, we couldn’t even go to the grocery 600 steps away because we were over 65. We had to call in our order and the grocery delivered… often the wrong things or the fresh stuff isn’t fresh enough.

The rules are also fuzzy for those over 65. SM Hypermart just last week, refused to let my wife in even with her Pasig Pass. Security hasn’t heard of official statements that seniors can shop for groceries.

Now I am told my favorite hotel, EDSA Shangri-La has banned all seniors in all of their restaurants. Hurts to be dismissed as a non-entity because of age.

Attending religious services was not a problem. I could choose to attend the Sunday mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York or the Sunday service of CCF whose building I can see from my window or the Sunday services of Saddleback Church from Southern California.

We are lucky to have these digital options for religious services. It would have been difficult, if not impossible to survive the last 10 months without the constant reassurance of our pastors that we have a God who loves us, is looking after us and helping us through this crisis.

Indeed, many of us underwent significant personal trials in 2020 that altered or continuing to alter our lives. Families of COVID patients only had their faith in God to hang on to while their loved ones hovered between life and death.

It is most frustrating for us to feel that our health officials are not up to the challenge. They keep dropping the ball. Thanks to them, the Philippines today holds the world record for a continuous state of quarantine but with outcomes worse than those of our ASEAN neighbors.

Those in charge of managing the pandemic can’t get their act together… can’t even get their stories aligned with each other. It is so confusing to hear one agency say one thing and another agency saying another.

The worst part is that our President seems blind to the failure and refusing to put someone in charge who can win public confidence and support. The intrusion of politics in decisions involving public health continues to give many of us a feeling of helplessness.

Can we expect better things as we enter 2021? I hope so but do not think so. The mistakes of 2020 will still have serious consequences in 2021. The failure to reserve credible vaccines, for example, not the Chinese one, means local availability will likely be in the second half of 2021 at the earliest.

It also seems the world is nowhere near controlling this pandemic. Indeed, a variant that is said to be more infectious has been identified in Britain and has apparently spread to many other countries.

What bugs me is the thought that our leaders seem to have learned little from our experiences in 2020.

So, in 2021, we must still wash our hands often, wear a mask and practice social distancing… and pray.  The pandemic is still on and may still be on even in 2022 when we hopefully wake up and decide we need better leaders.

Goodbye 2020. Happy New Year! I hope.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco