Month: February 2022

Russia and Ukraine to go to WAR?

What if?

Yes this is the question i posted 2 days before the special military operation erupted in this part of the Globe.

If one knows me, Im never a harbinger anything, much less events that can take the turn for the worse. The thing is – in today instantaneous feed of information from multiple media, social, mainstream, live feed, even TIK tok, the information overload can often cause to be callous already.

My question therefore is – has man ever learned from his past lessons? How far back do we want to go back in history to know that often, man keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.

And if history were to again be our teacher, we know for a fact wars break out due to factors such as demand for resources, alliances to benefit the economics of various groups or countries and the like.

With the new world order brought about by the covid pandemic, factors like supply demand dislocation, resource skewness and preferential treatment of one country over the other, I think it is envitable that a major conflagration can come anytime, and soon.

In a Kings College London article from this website below, the analyst tells us the likelihood of war erupting after this pandemic, including a new cold war.

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/what-political-psychology-tells-us-about-the-likelihood-of-a-post-pandemic-war

In layman terms, its quite simple actually. When one’s government resource is decimated due to closure of work, industries, a new means to source money needs to be generated. Conventional thinking tells us, war is business and business is war.

Where resource is limited, a country may invade another, in the guise of trade partnership, to feed his hungry people. And when a valuable resource is deemed to good and rare to pass along, perhaps a more brutal approach can and will be initiated – like a military conflict.

Either way, its achieving an objective to fulfill the sacred duty of government. Having said, that, should we fault Mr. Putin for invading this once brother and now westernised neighbor?

You be the judge. Better yet, history will be the judge.

Photo courtesy of Washington Post

9 Days while living with Covid

So how do we feel now?

  1. With vaccination at 90+ for the whole country, the fear of getting it is still there. But, with the protocol and protection (facemask) even at home, the risks are alleviated.
  2. We continued testing daily since Jan 28 till Feb 6 today. The 3 of us are all negative so far.
  3. Isolation is difficult without the support of the family. Even worse for those tasked to care. Uncertain how the people on isolation feels. Human touch is obviously absent. But thanks for tech, we can still catch up on video calls.
  4. Disinfection a challenge. With two rooms to clean up once the boys are done with their isolation, it will be massive spring cleaning!

Living with covid

So this is how it felt like: living with covid at home. When my two boys caught the bug jan 28 and 29 respectively, planning for CNY is nothing short of routine. Biking is on our top list for ‘to do list’ during the holidays. Add to that a quick 18 on our home course. Then again it hits-expectedly unexpectedly.

Day 0 jan 28, friday, around 4 pm: ART test with my youngest, my wife and me turned negative. Evening: celebrate at home.

Day 1: jan 29, Saturday, we all tested in the morning. Soon after we got the negative result we took Toast box breakfast at greenwich. Bought breakfast at mcdonalds and turned our attention to lunch soon after. For lunch we went to the mall to get Japanese toriQ. On the way home we decided to complete an unfinished business. And so we went to Raffles City to buy Muji. Decided not to get the table instead. And to finish the day, we get Hans for dinner.

Day 2: jan 30 sunday, tested in the morning routine in order to get out. And so we had to get breakfast at seletar. Got mcdonalds for breakfast for the boys before heading out to get lunch. Along the way, we decided to search for dining set because wifey decided not to go for the Muji size. So we had to search online for another shop. Voila! We found one close to our home, and off we went. Found the set she liked and went back home to rest. At this point, we reasoned it better to stay out of home as much as we can because we know the enemy is lurking at home. Albeit both are with mild to very mild symptoms, better to stay away. For dinner we bought the boys ToriQ japanese bbq at Waterway dinner while getting some shorts for my youngest at Uniqlo rory shorts after dinner.

Day 3: jan 31, monday. Pocholo tested negative. Good news I said, one down, one to go. The waiting game is over we said. And so since this the eve of Chinese new year, and given our close contact nature with the boys, I had to work from home in the morning. About lunch time we decided to hit the road to Ion orchard. Settle the unfinished business of getting Rorys shirt. We chose Ion since we can get lunch and shop soon after. Uniqlo was the favored choice, for obvious reasons. At this point, kids crave for lunch. Their mom cooked sinigang for lunch then. Had to serve the boys in their individual rooms with paper plates, cups, spoon and fork and all disposable items, including vitamin C. They’re living ling kings I said. In the afternoon, I dragged my wife and my youngest to have snack at Hans. I craved their apple pie. And so after the afternoon snack, its time again for dinner. And since were out and about, I figured its easier to get them dinner at Thohirah. Paolo took chicken rice and Pocholo went for satay.

Day 4, Feb 1, Tuesday. Official first day of CNY. We had