Lockdown ends when the clock strikes 13

Mystic of Holyhead (successor to Lynn Rival)
Rachel and Paul Chandler
Wed 10 Mar 2021 19:06
Life goes on in mostly sunny Grenada, where we are continuing with the project list on Mystic and becoming part of the local community.  


Our walks have taken us to see local bays including Port Egmont - a hurricane hole if you like them crowded . . .


 . . . and Phare Bleu, with Clarkes Court bay behind
 

and not far away there's a pleasant forest walk to the top of Morne Gazo


Kites are an Easter tradition - so we gave Amara (our landlord's daughter) one for her birthday last week

Meanwhile, in the alternative reality:- we have to keep reminding ourselves of the famous book, written in 1841 by Charles Mackay, called Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.  In it he writes: "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."

It's an uphill struggle convincing people that governments can do very little to control viruses and that lockdowns are unprecedented and cruel. 
Ultimately, lockdown is a luxury of the affluent; something that can be afforded only in wealthy countries — and even then, only by the better-off households in those countries. 

Whenever someone suggests we should learn to live with SARS-Cov-2, a bogeyman pops up to remind us that any one of us could die today.  We fall for the infantilising "save lives" mantra, ignoring all the other risks to our lives.  Perhaps we should feel pity for the scientific commentators who are seduced by the precision of epidemiological models, R numbers and so on - when compared to the empirical evidence most are 'precisely wrong'.  Meanwhile any hope of a return to sanity is crushed.

Hopes were raised with the emergence of vaccines.  The reaction was often hysterical, heaping praise on the drug companies for producing them so quickly, and the officials for rushing through emergency authorisation, even though the trials are still on-going.  Surely once the vulnerable are vaccinated we can get back to normal?  But no, the vaccines are not a 100% guarantee of immortality so we aren't allowed to.

In the meantime, the isolated old, uneducated young and hard-working poor suffer.  Who cares about the national debt, unemployment, inflation and higher taxes coming soon?  Perhaps we'll save the planet.

Why has this come about?  A lot of things are going on but two things are for sure.   We are a very unhealthy nation and the NHS isn't coping - just look at the unprecedented waiting lists, ever-growing obesity/diabetes problem.  And, it's not just a question of throwing more money (ever more public debt) at it.     

Most of us are too complacent about our health and many have ended up in a position of dependence on drugs and treatments instead of taking preventive action.  If anyone reading this is concerned about their increasing dependence on drugs for blood pressure, type2 diabetes etc, it's time to start looking at alternatives, such as https://www.prolongevity.co.uk/  Many overweight people who can't lose weight don't realise they have an "insulin resistance" problem.  For them the real problem is processed foods not calories so the traditional "eat less/move more" approach to weight loss doesn't work.

Remember.  You only live once.  Life is for living, not simply existing.

Whilst on the subject, let's not kid ourselves we want to end up in a care home having all our bodily functions dealt with by a robot.  It's been on our minds for a while now and the last year has brought home the irrationality and inhumanity of interventions that keep terminally-ill people "alive" rather than allowing them to die with dignity.  Having read a very moving article by a hospice nurse about this problem we've now signed up to https://mydecisions.org.uk/  and made  Advanced Decisions (Living Wills).  It's the right thing to do.