Lessons from coronavirus and Hong Kong’s inept response show us what truly matters

Name: Coronavirus: Hong Kong extends hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals to 21 days
Uploaded: 2020-12-29T00:45:18.000Z
Duration: 3 min 2 s
Description: Coronavirus: Hong Kong extends hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals to 21 days

What we have learned during this most trying of years has to be ingrained into our being so we can look forward, do better and improve

Love those who mean the most to us, respect and properly pay the people who matter, fine-tune the better work-life balance enabled by home offices and slow down

Reading Time:3 minutes

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A man puts his feet up as he talks on the phone in Wan Chai on December 7 while a street cleaner works nearby. The lack of respect and compensation afforded to street cleaners and other essential workers is one of the many inequities highlighted by the pandemic. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Peter Kammerer

Published: 8:45am, 29 Dec 2020Updated: 10:54am, 29 Dec 2020

For many of us, 2020 has been the most harrowing year of our lives. The Covid-19 pandemic has upturned routines, cancelled plans and forced us to reconsider what is important.

The dawning of another year changes nothing. A vaccine has still to arrive, and even then, immunisation is no guarantee that we can return to what we had before.

Valuable lessons have been taught. What we have learned has to be ingrained into our very being so that we can look forward, do better and improve.

Resolutions for a new year are normal. For me, they have more meaning this time. There’s no need to rush; family and friends are important; saving is a necessity, not a luxury; our job is expendable and we need a backup plan; we have to reconsider the people and things we believe are essential; staying fit and healthy have to be a priority; stop shopping for the sake of it and only buy what we need.

Doctors, nurses, carers for the elderly and disabled deserve our utmost respect and should be treated as heroes. Technology and innovation should be embraced so that we can get by even in the toughest times.

03:02

Coronavirus: Hong Kong extends hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals to 21 days

Don’t believe what you read and see on social media, and get information only from news outlets that are professional. For those of us with children at school, it’s time to stop taking teachers for granted.

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