Unless you’ve been on some sort of social media hiatus for the past couple of weeks, this is ALL people have been talking about. It’s been a wild time. I’m going to break it down in this blog post (my first for February by the way). I’ve been meaning to write a post for a while, but my day job has been a lot while I try to promote efficiency, and I can never be bothered with my blog baby when I get home.
SO WHAT’S WITH THIS CORONAVIRUS THING?
I meant on writing a blog post on the Novel Coronavirus forever ago. I started, it was trash. Either way, since news broke out that a new version of this respiratory illness broke out in the city of Wuhan in China, there’s been a lot going on. I’ve mentioned it before, but I work in the news. I do nightly news. I’m on TV a lot. I’ve had to research, break down and present information to the St Lucian public about the virus. I think I was one of the first people to do a general overview of the disease.
Weeks later and SEVERAL reports later, the ignorance is still rampant. As an uber-frequent user of social media, the ignorance has been overwhelming over here too. It’s like the conspiracy theories never end. It’s been a mix of information and misinformation overload, and you really need to learn how to sift through everything and figure out what is factual. Hardly anything on your auntie’s WhatsApp status is legit.
In St Lucia, talk of the coronavirus has taken on a life of its own. From the ministry of health being extremely selective of the vital information that they chose to share with the public, to 4 people being quarantined, to a Russian national taking a PUBLIC BUS to seek medical care for a suspected case of the novel coronavirus. I rolled my eyes so much while typing this.
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has also sparked a new issue: xenophobia. In St Lucia, almost a classroom full of students were suspended for sharing a picture of an Asian classmate with a mask and insinuating that she was carrying the coronavirus. But that’s not the only recent case of xenophobia.
XENOPHOBIA? IN THE CARIBBEAN? SHOCKING!
West Indians are racist. If you’re upset about that, you may boot the wall. In fact, we’re a really conservative region – almost displaying Republican policies. I would have never thought, however, that St Lucians would be accused of being xenophobic, not only against regular shemuglar international people but West Indians themselves.
In my last blog post, I listed a whole bunch of observations and questions that I had relating to this year’s Carnival season. Now, another issue seems to be that carnival-goers from outside of St Lucia are up in arms because they think that St Lucia revellers don’t want them here – because you know, Carnival is getting a little too big. I don’t know. I’m not a jumper. My understanding is that it started as a joke on Twitter and morphed into regional think pieces on how St Lucia needs tourism to balance out our economy. Okay, folks – we get it. We need those tourism dollars. I don’t think anyone will push anybody into the harbour. But given that costumes in the big bands are going, going, gone, I can understand why people are pressed.
SO FROM THE CORONAVIRUS TO XENOPHOBIA AND NOW FETE TICKETS
I imagine that this blog post has been a ride. We’ve gone from a respiratory illness to a social ill and now, fete tickets. With the way talks are going, you would think Carnival is a week away. For the last few years, Carnival has really been from December to August so it’s almost expected – but a new change is shaking things up.
More and more event organizers have moved toward online ticket sales and Jesus Christ, your children are upset. Some of them at least. Being a non-feter is allowing me to have a really objective perspective on this. I get why people are upset that physical ticket locations, given that many locals are scared that they’re going to be pushed out of Carnival if they don’t have their costume and fete ticket money by February. Personally, that’s crazy to me.
I suppose I also get why others are supporting the move to be fully online. I mean convenience is the theme these days. Whether you support online drops or not, you do have to admit that release tickets for events planned for July in the first quarter of the year is a bit out there. But just like my last blog post, somebody will still think it’s not my place to say.
Anyway, I’m just amused that I was able to write a post about these three topics and was able to link them. Toodles now.
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