Years and years ago, I had this image and fantasy in my mind of the woeful days of the Apocalypse, and how bad things would be.
Gas would rationed to just 40 liters every two weeks.
You'd be limited to a kilo of beef once a month.
You'd get a quarter of the detergent that you needed for a normal month of washing.
You'd be only able to buy Bitburger beer (the worst of the worst).
You'd have 24-hour around the clock patriotic music or movies from the 1950s/1960s.
Your electricity would only be on from 6 PM to 4 AM.
McDonalds would only be selling plain hamburgers (no pickles or mustard).
That was my idea of a Apocalypse. So in 2020, with the Wuhan-virus or Coronavirus, this is present Apocalypse:
1. Toilet paper sales are almost non-existent....even if you were to accept the old-fashioned train-station sandpaper style toilet paper....there's nothing there.
2. Canned goods are mostly left to the ultra-expensive premium soups that are quiet delightful. It's the cheap stuff that you can't find.
3. Bars and pubs are shut down at 6 PM....which leaves you in the company of your spouse for the remaining five hours of the day.
4. No one seems to want to stand within 1.5 meters of you....even if they are asking about your rash-condition.
5. Trains are marginally running, and shockingly enough.....all the toilets onboard these trains are suddenly starting to function perfectly.
6. Brothels are completely shutdown, and the only people that seem to really care are the pimps and bordello owners.
7. You are getting around 16 hours a day from the two public TV networks some news on Corona. Suddenly, your regional politician seems to know something about something, which is a shock to you.
8. The chatter about summer vacations and the bragging to some exotic trip planned for a remote part of the Amazon jungle? That has all of a sudden disappeared.
9. Kids are freaking out.....no school? Maybe all the way to August?
10. Suddenly, folks are washing their hands now.....fifteen to twenty times a day?
It's just not how I imagined the Apocalypse.
4 comments:
I like 7. I think we're all astounded when a politician sounds knowledgeable, and not just pseudo-intellectual.
By the way, thanks for your diligent coverage of the covid situation. Saves me having to read the news for a while, which is always a positive. Do you really believe china's death numbers? I have a feeling that they're fudging the stats.
Several things on the China situation don't 'fit'. For example....this city of 11-million has an extreme number situation. Almost all other provinces....MUCH less. Look at WHO numbers...it doesn't fit. Look at Hong Kong, almost no deaths and a very small infection rate. Makes no sense.
Look at Japan numbers, extremely low. South Korea has been dropping on their infection rate over past week. Peaked out.
Italy numbers? Bulk now proven to be over the age of 70, and lot had blood pressure/diabetes issues.
In the case of Wuhan, I suspect the numbers are fudged, and the reaction to build that temp-hospital was something they had to admit for the high number situation. I also think bulk of their deaths....were same deal (over 70, blood pressure issues, diabetes). But the real truth 'meter' will be if business starts back up and production goes to 100-percent at end of March. If that happens, then it wasn't that bad in China. If they don't start back up....it's because a lot of people didn't survive it. A lot to still play out.
If you wanted a good 'read'....John Berry wrote 'The Great Influenza' around 15 years ago (thick at 560 pages), but he really lays out the death situation and how bad it got in 1918. I strongly recommend the book for anyone in the medical profession or enjoying history. English version up on Amazon e-reader.
You described the Romania before 1990 the exception is the gasoline was 15 lt per month and the TV broadcasting 2 hours per evening, we also had temperatures in the apartments at 11 celsius and rolling blackouts every day for a few hours.
For Claudio: Yeah, but I could have gone to a Romanian from the 1950s and they would have said that was the Apocalypse period, and Romanians living in 1990 were in 'paradise'. And some really old Romanian would have said paradise was the 1930s in Bucharest, with romance in the air and a bottle of Tuica was all that you needed.
We probably all need to reevaluate this Apocalypse idea and just how good or bad we have it today.
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