Made in China

By Netnet Camomot

2020 is the Year of the Metal Rat. All along we thought this would be a lucky year. Lucky for whom and for what then? Some of China’s residents could not even celebrate the Chinese New Year because of the coronavirus.

A Pinay, who works in China, posted a video on social media where she advised the Pinas-based Pinoy to stop discriminating against the Chinese. Well, look around you. Guess who owns the mall, store, bank, airline, conglomerate, fast food and restaurant chain, condominium, hotel, a food manufacturing company, pharmacy chain, etc.

Yes, that pharmacy where you’re lining up to buy disposable surgical masks is owned by a Chinese-Filipino. And those masks could be made in China, with one brand even coming from Wuhan where the 2019 novel coronavirus was first detected.

“God created the world, everything else is made in China,” as the saying goes. And that includes the 2019 novel coronavirus? Uh.

Pharmacies here in Cagayan de Oro have run out of face masks but no need to worry since there are alternatives, as posted on social media: bra, sanitary napkin with wings, huge plastic water bottle, pomelo rind, plastic bag. And even the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) mask as shown by Rebel Wilson in the latest Bafta award show where she raised the mask to cover her face and said, “What a great way to stop yourself from getting coronavirus.” Sense of humor amid the virus scare.

There’s also the Pinay’s sense of rumor a.k.a. chismosa virus which could be more dangerous than the 2019 novel coronavirus, with Health Secretary Francisco Duque warning the madlang pehpohl to be wary of unverified news that could lead to an infodemic. Which might even be worse than the pandemic.

“Times like these, you need Juicy Fruit Gum,” as that ad used to say. Plus the realization that working from home should be the norm. Lesser physical interaction means lesser chances of spreading the coronavirus. This is when you start to appreciate the perks of a home office, online shopping and cocooning.

I wrote about this before, of how Faith Popcorn coined cocooning way back in 1981 as she predicted that in the future people would prefer to stay home than join the maddening crowd in their daily commute.

In her 1991 book “The Popcorn Report,” Popcorn defined cocooning as “the impulse to go inside when it just gets too tough and scary outside. To pull a shell of safety around yourself, so you’re not at the mercy of a mean, unpredictable world—those harassments and assaults that run the gamut from rude waiters and noise pollution to crack-crime, recession, and Aids. Cocooning is about insulation and avoidance, peace and protection, coziness and control—a sort of hyper-nesting” (source: the ever-reliable—hehe—Wikipedia).

With banks and the government also encouraging the Pinoy to do their banking and tax payments online, the more cocooning is becoming a reality. But it should not reach the point of seclusion like what happened to the Collyer brothers in Manhattan, New York. They seldom left their Harlem brownstone where they hoarded all sorts of collections from musical instruments to newspapers whose combined weight reached more than 140 tons! Juice colored!

I look at the growing pile of newspapers here in the room with a view and, oh, gotta read them already.

Do you notice how you feel when you’ve removed unnecessary items from your house? Even if it’s simply a paper clip that has somehow ended up as a lemon if it were a car. It’s twisted, it can’t clip anything, so you throw it away. And immediately, you feel lighter. There’s one less paper clip on your desk! Yay!

That one paper clip matters, you’ll be staring at it throughout the day as you wonder why it’s still there. Much like an un-ticked off item on the to-do list. It will bother you until it’s ticked off.

Hoarding is not a virus but it can also be dangerous to one’s health when he can’t stop collecting. Piggies, anyone? There will come a time when a certain collection won’t spark joy anymore but I don’t think that will happen to the piggies.

As always, my advice to anyone who wants to collect anything is this: Don’t. There are many other ways to waste, er, savor your day. Be a minimalist, not a maximalist.

Marie Kondo is right about the number of books a bookworm should keep: 30. Give the rest to others who can use those books for their own leisure or their career and research. You won’t have time to re-read them—you’d rather watch Netflix. But, of course, Kondo allows more than 30 books if they all spark joy.

Like the volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and Kobe Bryant’s death, the coronavirus has also taught the madlang pehpohl that life is indeed short.

So, savor each day with family and friends who spark joy. Their unconditional love is what makes 2020 a lucky year.