Dropping the ball
The new normal, a coined phrase we used a lot last year during or after lockdowns. By then we assumed life should have to be different after the pandemic. Topics like remote work, better transportation, supporting local businesses and many other things were the daily dream.
Somehow that ideal vanished after couple months of normality levels that are hard to believe when seen through the eyes of people still facing lockdowns or quarantine for months.
Everything is working as normal as before here, nothing changed, but even while that alone is a great achievement I wonder if we are dropping the ball a little bit?
New Zealand has been the poster child of how to manage the pandemic, we can’t deny that it has been great to watch couple TV show clips praising our success. Now the focus, for most nations, has shifted from flattening the curve to vaccination. Our vaccination program is so slow compared with other countries… Of course the problem here is orders of magnitude smaller, but just to throw some numbers (vaccines/dosis) as today:
- New Zealand = 183K = 0.9% population (sadly about 5.7K of that wasted due to human error, missing appointments etc.)
- Chile = 13M = 31% population
- USA = 218M = 27% population
- Global = 937M = 2.9% population
Now that is just a side of the coin, it is still probably safe to wait until the end of May/July? to get a first shot of the vaccine, but what I think we are missing is that we are back to normal and haven’t done anything to improve our general life conditions, yet.
Morning and evening commute is the same or worse than before, does it need to be that way now that we know traveling is the main driver for diseases like that? Do we need to spend that extra 30-45 minutes each way, just to warm up a chair downtown 9 to 5, when we know we can do as well or better from the comfort of our homes?
I would have expected to see at least remote working end up as something basic or normal to discuss during a group meeting, job interview, etc. However, from the reality we see everyday in the motorway or from simple conversations with potential customers, working from home still is a rare privilege, instead of a real need or a mutual benefit. That is where I think we are lagging.
We know from past global health crises that challenges often spark progress and positive changes. For instance take the following cases of positive changes that followed epidemics, pandemics and large-scale public health crises of the past:
- Black death 1347 – living and working conditions improved.
- Bubonic ‘Great Plague’ of 1665 – Isaac Newton developed his theories about calculus, optics and the laws of motion and gravity.
- Yellow fever 1793 founding fathers of the soon to born USA realised the importance of public health as key to the social, economic and political health of the nation.
- Flu pandemic 1928 – many governments embraced new concepts of preventive medicine, expanded access to healthcare for the general population.
As we are not yet out of the woods, COVID-19 may be still a global problem until next year, so we may have time to think about how can we improve our daily lives and hopefully build a better “new normal”.
On our side it seems part of the problem that prevents us to work form home is on how to claim expenses/taxes afterwards, laws and legislations that are quite old and need some change.
Also part of the complexity is the way we see problems sometimes, for instance this article from almost a year ago is about how traffic could be better by using financial incentives to persuade drivers out of their cars! Other proposals are adding extra taxes to prevent people using their cars! Neither approach solves the root problem: public transport does not work in Auckland.
To illustrate the point, the only time I ever used the public transport to commute to work was because I had a job that was close to one of the bus stops and used one single bus, even while needing an extra 20-30 minutes walk. Using multiple bus lines/combinations can easily add up to 1 hour of travel, while by car you can save that time, at the expense of paying carpark, gas, maintenance etc.
Is not about money but about the need to get to your workplace, even while in the process you are part of the ever growing local traffic jam.
As we need some change I sent a petition to the local government to study options to make it easier to work from home. Maybe too naïve or idealist, but at least I’m doing my part trying to create a new normal that is better social, economical and environmentally.
You may review/sign the petition here
_______
