OpinionAs the coronavirus crisis abates in Hong Kong, we must do better than return to normal
- Covid-19 has upended school, work, travel and social life, opening up new possibilities and exposing structural vulnerabilities. We should build on these experiences to improve our way of life
My child is too young to remember seeing his work-from-home mum having conversations with her computer, and hopefully, too young to be scarred for life.
We have different worries and priorities today than we did when we were preparing for the Lunar New Year, when news of infections started surfacing. Many of us have friends who fled the city early on and have since returned for the same reason.
I understand that many are anxious to “get back to normal” but, sorry, it’s going to be a very new normal. Even toilet paper has taken on a new significance. It may not have changed, substance wise, but it has elicited the strongest of emotional responses. Birthday cakes are made in its image now.
03:12
Getting back to the same old grind is just not possible – almost every aspect of our lives has been changed. (Bidets, anyone?) Covid-19, like all pandemics and disasters in the past, marks the advent of permanent and drastic change.