Showing off our lipsticks and nose rings, moustaches and beards. Smiling at friends and strangers alike. Being able to recognize our neighbours by their faces and not their dogs or hats – as we had started doing during these past two years. These were a few things I was really excited about when the government announced that we all could go outdoors sans masks and feel the wind in our teeth.
So along comes March 29th, D Day… I step out without a mask on my face or in my pocket. I was looking forward to greeting the first person I meet with a HUGE GRIN. And grin I did. I will never know if I got a grin back though, because the first person I saw had a mask on.
Ok, so maybe this person had not read the news. But it soon occurred on me that it was just not possible that the number of people in masks I encountered on the streets hadn’t seen the biggest memo impacting our daily lives. It slowly dawned on me that I was the only one on the road without a mask and yes, I did get a few sideway glances!
Hmm.. I whipped out my phone and double checked the announcement. I was not wrong… then why did I feel like I was?
Instinctively my defences went up and I started rolling my eyes at the nature of people – unable to break free from shackles. “Enjoying” the shackles even? Ah these horses in blinders, the brainwashed sheep! Why don’t they want to enjoy their freedom? Maybe they don’t know how, laughed my friends and I on our whatsapp groups.
As an automatic hater of any stereotype, I wanted to dig a little deeper into this phenomena. I spoke to friends and chatted with colleagues and cabbies and asked why? The responses were largely muted, trailing off versions of ‘I know we can, but…’. It has been ten days since ‘freedom’ and I finally see why – so here I am attempting to verbalize what I see and understand:
- It’s the first Asian country to abandon the zero covid policy and this is definitely a bold move. When we hear of other covid variants still coming up and the impact in countries like HK, of course people are going to be wary.
- We were drilled with the message that we need to wear masks – not just for ourselves, but for everyone around us. It tapped into the collective social and civic consciousness of the people. The very consciousness that makes Singapore such a safe country, such a clean place, such a secure nation, the very consciousness that makes the quality of life here higher than its neighbours. Now that the numbers are still so high, maybe milder, but it’s still there and recovered covid patients are still feeling the lasting effects of omicron; the sense of doing a disservice to society and themselves by not wearing a mask is obviously going to be present.
- Do anything for long enough and it becomes a habit, and for those people who don’t get hindered by it, it’s an easy habit to get used to. As anyone trying to follow a diet will know, breaking habits is hard and takes time!
- Lastly, I don’t know about everyone else, but I certainly have felt some benefits of wearing a mask – but that’s for another post!
I want to end this essay by saying that when it’s a ‘them and us’ situation (nowadays this is a very common situation to find ourselves in because of how partisan this world is on ALL issues), the best way forward is to slow down a second and try and understand “them” before we jump to conclusions.
