WHY I'M NOT CRAZY ABOUT THIS POST-PANDEMIC WORLD OF OURS. BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

 

WHY I’M NOT CRAZY ABOUT THIS POST-PANDEMIC WORLD OF OURS.

BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

1.      Firstly, we emerged out of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which a few million people, including many of our loved ones, died globally, into a world where Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was allowed to attack Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Ukraine, in a manner disturbingly similar to Hitler’s take-overs of various countries during World War Two. Didn’t we put measures in place at the end of that war to prevent this exact type of thing from ever happening again in mainland Europe? Someone somewhere must not have read the memo…

2.      Right. The shops are not as full of juicy goodness, useful gizmos and yummy treats as before. And, any time you ask the shop keeper or store manager what’s happened to your favourite chocolate bar with the picture of the lovely Alpine village on the wrapper or the blue kitchen roll that goes on forever, they just look apologetic and say one of three things: It’s Brexit’s/COVID’s/the war on Ukraine’s fault. No hamsters in the pet shops any more? Blame Brexit/COVID/the war on Ukraine. If you ask me, some retailers are a little quick to blame the Big Three for the fact that their shops are shit now.

3.      The American Presidency: Are there really only two men in America, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, who are interested in running for President? They’re both older than the Pope, for Chrissakes! Let a woman do the job, or a younger man who can at least climb a podium without feeling arthritic knees give way under the strain of slow walking.

4.      Climate change worsened considerably during the pandemic. We have forest fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, twisters, drought-related famines, floods and other weather-catastrophes featuring on the news on a regular basis now. And how come no-one really talks about Pakistan any more? Last we heard of it, it was a third underwater due to a massive wave. A third underwater??? Why is it old news now? Ditto the Turkish earthquake. I know that the world of news moves on very quickly, but surely we should still be talking about these disasters and where the next one might be coming from…? Don’t mean to do a Greta Thunberg on you all but, you know, this stuff is important.

5.      A load of my favourite local restaurants closed down as a result of the pandemic, including my preferred places to get proper ‘Mammy Dinners,’ delicious Pakistani food and sandwiches hot and cold. The pandemic forced me back into the kitchen and I’m not happy about it. The only meal I can really get a handle on is breakfast cereal. Some wimmins are simply not born to be domestic goddesses. I am one of these wimmins. Deal with it, baby. Don’t worry, I have other talents, wink wink…

6.      Friendships have gone by the wayside too. The lady I used to meet in the Pakistani restaurant every week for gossip and a laugh disappeared off the face of the earth when the restaurant shut in late 2021. Her thought process as presumed by me? ‘Oh, the restaurant’s closed forever? Oh well, I guess that’s the end of mine and Sandra’s friendship, so!” Seriously? For eff’s sake.

7.      I’ve been COVID-vaccinated and flu-vaccinated but I’m experiencing my second rotten cold this year due to the fact that Irish people have now gone back to their old filthy pre-pandemic ways. No masks in sight now- even hospitals don’t make you wear one any more- and, as it’s cough-and-cold season, people are just opening wide their mouths and spraying spit everywhere when they cough or sneeze. It baffles me. Don’t they remember the pandemic, when we were all warned to wash our hands every time we sneezed or coughed into them, and that our disgusting little ‘droplets’ could actually travel as far as Dick Whittington with his bindle and infect a load of unwitting bystanders with COVID and other yucky viruses? I despair of people sometimes. It doesn’t take much effort to keep twenty-seven bottles of hand gel in your coat pockets and whip them out for emergencies.

8.      Why won’t our government leave? They’re not the government we voted in, after all. They were only supposed to be the ‘caretaker gummint’ and were just meant to stay to see us through the worst of the pandemic but that was three years ago and they’re still here. Plus we have a cost-of-living crisis now, and a housing crisis that goes hand-in-hand with our shocking homelessness crisis, and what are the government doing? Lifting an eviction ban that was keeping thousands of nervous people in their homes all winter, and travelling round the world on the most luxurious trips to various countries, supposedly to boost tourism here. But people abroad have the Internet, don’t they? They can look up Ireland on their computers, can’t they, see us doing typical Irish things like engaging in Irish dancing at the crossroads and digging up spuds, and then book a visit here straightaway with no fuss. Our absentee ministers (I’m only giving them a small ‘m’) are taking the piss with this nonsense.

9.      Book Depository has been eaten up by Amazon and is no more. My daughter and I loved watching our favourite Netflix shows like INVENTING ANNA, YOU and THE SERPENT during the pandemic and the post-pandemic period, and then rushing onto Book Depository to buy the source books on which the shows are based and have them delivered to our doors free of charge. No delivery fees! That’s the end of me shopping online, anyway.

10  There are too many school shootings in America and the Middle East is a war zone like never before. Can no-one do anything to help?

11  Anyway, that’s enough from me. I don’t mean to imply that it’s all doom and gloom out there. We still have books and writing, films, music and art. Not to mention each other. And that’s enough.