2020 was a year full of surprises. The rumor of World War 3 was terrifying, but it didn’t happen. What happened, though, could be something more than most expected. At first, the entity was called “Corona Virus,” but now, it’s referred to as “Covid-19.”
The news started hitting the web around the middle of January, and it hit fast. Each friend, family, relative, and stranger was on about it and contacting each other, trying to confirm if this viral phenomenon was as terrible as people expected.
By the time people had taken all the news and all the prevention needed to avoid a catastrophe, the necessary action was too late. The damage was already everywhere; practically the whole World had its fair share of infection. While the World had begun preparing countermeasures to prevent further chaos, Indonesia was considered safe — at least for the first three months of 2020.
How the Country and people reacted?
Media travels fast; by now, getting online and connected takes a snap of the fingers. It’s so convenient to people who have calibrated themselves to almost always believe what they see on it (commonly middle-aged folks.) The news was everywhere, and people kept asking: what should we do? Are we going to be safe? Everybody at that point scrambled for their homes. They feared the worst for themselves and the surrounding people.
After all the inceptive panic, the Country took action. Officials subdued Airports to minimal activity, and the last batch that did come had difficulty setting a foothold(even for the ones that lived here.) Thanks to this quick action, the land was clean. People started to wonder how, with hundreds of people coming in and out of the Country, we had zero infections.
There were some wild theories about the whole thing. Since they were quick in prevention during the first strike, others mentioned that it was the weather at work; the hot and humid temperatures made it uninhabitable for the virus. Although, my favorite was when someone said, “because there’s already plenty of viruses and diseases here, ‘Covid — 19’ stood no chance of infecting people.” Whatever the reason was, we were grateful for it. We were safe, at least we were until rumors started to pop up around March. One by one, a headline would appear saying, “Man found infected after vacation,” or, “Woman and child suspected of infection on return.” Nobody knew how it happened, but the bubble burst and the outbreak began.
Face masks and hand sanitizers were the first to go(like every other place in the World), and when they came back, the prices were exorbitant, but at least we didn’t have a toilet paper shortage. Different representatives worldwide cautioned ex-pats about visiting or staying here for fear of being trapped without help. People fled and went home, and this posed another problem.
What it meant to Bali
The “Island of the Gods” is home to about 4 million people and is well-known for its lovely beaches and diverse culture. This feature, among others, is why people come, and with people heading here for whatever plans they have, one of the jobs here involves catering to their needs. In fact, in 2003, about 80% of people on this island were in the tourism industry. That statistic is not far off today, as more and more people develop ways to compete for visitors. There’s been a sharp increase in hotels, restaurants, and other lovely places to visit. During this pandemic, people abandoned what used to be densely populated.
Business owners can’t keep up with expenses and regretfully close down in the meantime, or worst, go out of business. And with no trade for the moment, the pandemic condemned workers to find another job or wait until the situation returned to normal. The government also canceled all cultural celebrations.
The first plan of action was to Quarantine and Isolate. They reckon, since there was no cure, we’ll have to wait it out and hope no further infections appear, but that was ambitious from the start. The numbers dwindled for a fixed period, but it didn’t make enough of a difference in the long run. Around the end of March, they issued a 3-day total lockdown; nobody was allowed to step out of their houses. All that was to no avail because of some factors.
As human beings, we all crave to go outside — well, not all — but most of us long to be able to stretch our legs and enjoy the fruits of our labor. After days of adhering to the law, we would look for any excuse to find a reason to visit an open cafe or the beach.
At least, that’s how it felt for the lucky ones.
There are a lot of people here that live from paycheck to paycheck; making enough to have savings can be challenging. Seeing how living was complicated enough the way it was, add that with people losing their jobs, and you get an island-wide problem. Over time, people were afraid of having no money compared to the “measly” virus plaguing them. And in some cases, desperate people can prove to be rather dangerous.
News of theft hit the spotlight; police patrols became more frequent at night. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later the government lent a hand in the crisis. Through some complicated procedures, those in power gave us a lifeline to help get people to come up with better alternatives to life.
And after months of struggle, the situation did start to look up.
#NEWNORMAL
With no end to the virus and seeing it’s too late to take shelter while the storm blows over, business owners made new rules to keep life going here. Anything not explicitly made for foreign visitors has reopened to a certain degree. Since there is no tourist to barter our services, then “why not attend to the local population instead?”
It’s not much, but it’s honest work and surely enough to keep people on their feet. Even the bigwigs are doing it, slashing prices to make it more approachable for folks to enjoy. It meant giving people the opportunity to get their life back on track until everything went back to normal. It got even better when domestic travel was allowed again.
Prices went down, attracting a wave of visitors, which brought even more relief. The encouragement inspired people to do what they could and, in some instances, to push away the fear that had kept them underground.
It’s a rather peculiar feeling. You could go out on a Sunday afternoon, head down to the beach, have a nice bowl of ‘Bakso’ with three dozen people around, and sometimes forget that there’s a lethal virus looming around. Perhaps the media scared us more than it should’ve, or it could be that we understand the virus a bit more, so it doesn’t frighten us as it did before.
Within a month — in September — they’ll open international travel. We’ll see how that goes.
