Covid & Delusion
Having family and friends back in Indonesia while living in Holland, I witnessed directly a noticeable difference. How a wealthy nation of only ~17 million people deals with Covid, compared to how a not-so-wealthy developing country of ~267 million tries to survive.
No surprise, a country with more money and less population will be able to deal with problems more effectively. The Netherlands did a much better test and trace before we have any hope of vaccines. When we started to have vaccines, it was also delivered quicker. Not much drama and scandal, except for some weird fringe groups that got their bank frozen (or forced to find another bank).
Meanwhile back home. We have to first deal with delusional governments official. In March 2020, the Indonesian Health ministry was saying that COVID is just flu and it will go away on its own. Instead of preparing a proper policy to anticipate, one of his first moves was to appoint the Indonesian World Dream cruise crew as Covid Immunity Ambassador.
A country with a much bigger problem, and this is how we start to handle a critical Pandemic: by appointing Covid Immunity ambassador *sigh*. He got sacked in the end. Covid handling is then led by an all-around coordinating minister that I rather not name explicitly. This guy, up till early July 2021 was also in denial and thinks that everything is under control —if you doubt him, you’ll have to come to him and object directly— while the cases are creeping up drastically.
With this much delusional confidence, relayed to his boss, of course, it is understandable that way on top, the main commander in chief is not aware how bad the shit had hit the fan. He was still happily attending and drumming at the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s national conference —discussing how vaccination will push the economic recovery— while the COVID cases were starting to increase exponentially in early July 2021.
That was a month ago. I think this delusional stage is over. PPKM level 4 (public mobility restriction), one of the different incarnations of how the Indonesian government called lockdown is prolonged at the highest level, a good indicator that the government is no longer deluded. Shit got really handled —I hope— rather well.
I googled almost daily, Indonesian Daily Cases, and also Netherlands Daily Cases. Both countries where I have people that I cared about lives. At least from general trends, they are both not getting worse:
I hope the Indonesian government stays sober, and not going back to the delusional stage. A lovely government spoke person said that we have enough vaccines (thanks also for some help from the Dutch government), and hopefully things will turn for the better.
*fingers crossed*