People here are well educated, their money comes from several generations back. There are policemen on every corner, patrol cars do nightly rounds making sure everything is in order, there's only one m subway station - very different than all the other ones- in the whole neighborhood which is big as hell, there are no street vendor markets or people asking for money and so on. You can picture it, an OG Mexican posh area.
And yet, as you can see in the picture, people do not follow the preemptive measures of Covid-19. This playground was supposed to be out of use, surrounded by that yellow line that forbids kids to use it. But no, apparently kid's recreational activities come first, and the line was cut down so kids could go on and play around.
Don't get me wrong, I'm against the lockdown, but since there is still one on my city, the smart thing to do is to try and follow it, so the disease doesn't spread even more. It's not a measure I support, but unless everyone get on board then it's no use, it will all be for nothing.
Now let's indulge our imagination for a second. If all this playground issue happens where the privileged and supposedly well educated part of the population lives, then what are we to expect in other parts of the city where perhaps there are other lifestyles, types of education, priorities and necessities?
Well, I can easily tell you: the virus is spreading, it keeps spreading, it has been spreading at alarming rates - if you believe the government's numbers - and the curve hasn't even started flattening, in fact, it has an upwards trend since day one, and considering how some people won't or maybe even can't follow the lockdown measures, this will continue.
These are bad news for those who actually follow the lockdown advice and those who been sacrificing our freedom of movement while staying inside, because while we are bored as fuck inside our apartment - apart from being thankful we can afford doing that - there are people outside just living, spreading the virus and prolonging the lockdown for us.
I'm at the verge of just not giving a crap and restart my normal life. Due to Covid measures, I haven't been able to get an appointment at the German embassy to begin my student visa process so, while just wasting my time here - granted, I can do many things while waiting, but they're not the things I want to be doing, but the things I can - waiting for the embassy to reopen, there are people outside who just don't care.
That is why - or maybe I'm just defending the lockdown - we've been in a lockdown state in Mexico city for 3 months and some people estimate we'll be like this for at least another two months. So fuck this.
Fuck the lockdown. Fuck not being able to live life normally. Fuck the embassy not being open already.
I'm not mad, I'm past that stage. I'm just fed up with my third world country.
Hang in there buddy. I know it´s tough, I have been there... 4 months of strict lockdown on the Azores, almost lost my sanity there. Working out (hard and daily) helped me a lot.
Oh man, well at least you got some beach to escape to :P¨
Hope you and the Mrs. are doing great!
Well, it really was a stay-at-home order, we were not allowed to leave the apartment except for buying food. So no beaches, no walks, nothing... But yeah, we are already fine. Looks like your country is not out of the woods yet though :( Stay strong chicos.
You're speaking right from my soul, bro! Let me repeat my favorite quotes from this post:
Totally agree! There may be hundreds of people swimming in the pool, but it only takes one to pee into the water to make it undesirable for everyone.
Once again, couldn't agree more. Also, I think the key point here is the "can't follow". I talked to the lady selling tamales on a corner in my neighborhood. She says she knows it would be safer for everyone, including her elderly mother, if she stayed at home in her barrio Doctores (an awful irony in the name), but unfortunately, the day she stays at home, her family doesn't get to eat. Simple as that. So I think in many cases the won't actually means can't.
But then going back to your first quote, people like you and me realize that everyone means everyone. But since we are clearly not everyone - in my neighborhood of San Miguel Chapultepec it's about 50-50 of those who comply - we may as well ditch our face masks.
To be completely honest here, when I came back to the city two weeks ago, I first started asking random strangers on the street to put on a mask. (Yeah, that's the German in me.) They looked at me like I was crazy. Since then I've given up on educating the masses, and the next logical step was to keep my mask in my pocket, in case I needed to enter a business.
Meanwhile, as the numbers are still rising, the lockdown is being gradually relaxed. No idea where that makes sense. In Mazunte they started opening the beaches and restaurants (only for take-out) in May, but as soon as rumors hit of a Covid case in some nearby town, they immediately went back to full lockdown. Not that it had worked in the first place, and even that case in question turned out to be a simple flu.
According to this info from the UNAM it kinda seems like Mexico has managed to flatten the curve. Could it be?
I live in a not very privileged area in my city and I can see how day to day the two types of people are... those who try to take care of others and not contaminate the Y that when they have to leave by obligation because they have a whole procedure to enter their houses. And on the other hand, I have some super unconscious neighbors who made a wedding in which everyone took the holy water from the same glass and ate a rice with the same teaspoon.
It's exactly like that here, we have those two groups. It's not about judging or condemning their actions, but about contradictions within the city. If you have a city where a lockdown will be ineffective because more than half the people must go out and continue working, a lockdown is just stupid.
Darn man, you have to face again visa issues?? I am sure it's gonna be so much hectic after lockdown. My father couldn't come due to the COVID issue so again I have to process this visa issue for him when everything will be opened. Even my boyfriend stuck in UAE and his visa is about to expire...
I can feel the frustration... :(
I feel the government is also contributing to it by not restricting it. Suddenly that flattening of curve theory has just become RIP.
The problem is, there are some restrictions but since we are a country where more than 60% of the population requires to go out and work for the food they'll eat that night, these measures are pointless.
We are hearing about Mexico and Brazil over here and it's escalation. It's going away here, or so they tell us.
So they say. It's crazy man, on the one hand I haven't seen or heard of anyone close to me or my friends who's even got it, on the other hand, the government's numbers are upwards as days go by and with it, the lockdown measures. I'm fed up. If my short term future didn't depend on official measures I would probably be looking at this differently but, such is life.