大使疫情手记 (双语5) —— 居家禁闭，才刚刚开始

作者：Geoff Raby

中文：罗曼

转自朱雀艺术

前澳大利亚驻华大使、艺术收藏家、经济学家、专栏作家 Dr Geoff Raby AO 原计划于二月底返回北京，后因疫情爆发滞留悉尼。朱雀艺术特别开设【号外】专栏，连载大使的疫情手记。今日连载至第5篇。

大使疫情手记

居家禁闭，才刚刚开始

在家禁闭的第一天快要结束了。早上天气晴朗，正好让我们可以合法出门走路健身。我们把每天例行的走路时间尽可能地延长，越来越长！仅仅是为了享受在户外的自由。如今的生活感觉像是关禁闭。日子过得飞快，令人忍不住好奇，时间都去哪里了？而明天亦然，之后的日子也将如此往复。几周、甚至几个月也会像这样消失不见吗？监狱生活或许也不过如此，只不过没有家里舒服罢了。

有些令人鼓舞的消息称，新的感染率或已开始减缓。我们小心翼翼，生怕期待过高，不过事实证明至少我们所做的一切或许真的会带来不同，这让人心存希望。我们被告知这些举措是有意义的。但被告知是一回事，看到实实在在的数据是另一回事。

但是到了晚间新闻，有报道说阿德莱德机场有六名澳航行李搬运工被感染，因此数据很容易再次攀升。这种情况的发生是由于航空公司几乎已经完全停工，并且比起载运付费旅客，他们更忙于游说政府寻求纳税人补贴。据报道，南澳的巴罗萨谷也出现了聚集性疫情。这两条新闻之间有联系吗？可能没有，只是巧合而已。呆在家里，新闻看多了，不禁浮想联翩。消毒洗手液供不应求，价格飞涨。我不禁回想起短短数月前在澳大利亚发生的另一场灾难。在澳洲东南部地区肆虐的火灾，让南澳葡萄园里的农作物被浓烟污染，这些无法再用于酿酒的原料如今被转化成乙醇制作消毒剂。灾难之中也会萌发机遇。

与此同时，对于今天的美国民众来说，生活中似乎已经再也不见一缕光明。两艘巨大的海军医疗舰分别进驻东西海岸，一艘滑过自由女神像驶入纽约，另一艘停泊在洛杉矶，为美国传达了许多令人沮丧的信息。

一方面，美国向我们证明了即将到来的问题的严重性，同时也证明了公权机构处理疫情问题的能力有多差。令世人震惊的是，世界上拥有最强军事力量的最大经济体不得不依靠派遣主要的军事资产，在自己的土地上，拯救自己的人民。这可是地球上最富裕的两座城市啊。难怪今天我的微信朋友圈被这些图片刷屏了一整天。过去，我们都希望美国能够用如此出色的军事力量为那些因内乱或其他突发事件而陷入困境的贫穷国家伸出援手。没人会想到美国自己的城市也有需要军事支援的一天。

居家禁闭的日子和往常简直天壤之别 。我的邻居原本过着相当平静的生活，送孩子上学、参加活动、奢华度假，这也给我们的生活带来一片和祥。可现如今，他们的孩子每天都在尖叫打闹，还用萨克斯发出刺耳的噪音，我甚至觉得他们是故意的。而这一切，仅仅是开始！

Geoff Raby’s Pandemic Journal 5

Home confinement, just the beginning

First day of home confinement has been and almost gone. Beautiful weather in the morning for the legally permitted exercise walk, which we are stretching out, longer and longer, simply to enjoy the freedom of being outside.

It is now starting to feel like a forced confinement. The day has passed quickly enough. That itself is curious. Where did the time go? And tomorrow will be the same again, and the day after the same and so on. Will weeks, perhaps months disappear like this? Could this be like prison, except much more comfortable. 

Encouraging news is being broadcast that the rate of new infections may have begun to slow. Care is taken to prevent our hopes rising too much, but it helps to know that all that we are doing may actually make a difference. We are told it will. But being told is one thing, the hard numbers another.  

And then the evening news is reporting that six Qantas baggage handlers at Adelaide airport have been infected.  So the numbers could easily peak again.  That has occurred as airlines are pretty much completely shut down, and are more than busy lobbying government for taxpayer subsidies than carrying fare paying passengers. A cluster has also been reported in the Barossa Valley of South Australia. Was there any connection? Probably not, but it is another coincidence and it makes you wonder about such things when cooped up at home. Most likely we are all watching too much television news.

Hand sanitiser is in short supply and prices are high. Recalling the other great disaster that was occupying those of us in Australia only a few short months ago, the devastating conflagration across south eastern Australia, smoke-tainted crops from vineyards in South Australia are now going to be turned into ethanol for sanitiser as they’re useless for making wine. An opportunity has emerged from a disaster.

On this day, for the people of the United States there seems little reason to feel there’s even one shaft of sunlight. The sight of two huge navy hospital ships entering New York, gliding past the Statue of Liberty, and anchoring off Los Angeles convey so many dispiriting messages for the US.  

On one hand, they attest to the scale of the problem that is coming and, at the same time, how badly equipped are the civil authorities to deal with it. It is astonishing for the world to see the greatest military and economic power on earth having to send major military assets to help save its own people, on its own soil, in two of the richest cities on earth. It is no wonder that my Wechat moments have been saturated with these images all day today. In the past, we would all have expected such a great display of US military might and benevolence to be for poor countries flattened by some civil emergency or another, not for its own cities. 

Home confinement has its contrasts. My neighbours had a fairly undisturbed life taking kids to school, to events and then on expensive holidays. It gave us peace and quiet. Now, kids are screaming, fighting, trying to play saxophone so badly it is hard to believe it is not on purpose. And this is just the beginning!