A kind reminder

IT’s been almost a little more than six months since the first major lockdown was imposed in the Philippines. Six long months of different levels of quarantines and changing conditions. Six long months of communal isolation and personal struggles. Somehow, as the days continue to add up to the unending calendar of this year, time has never felt as skewed to process amid the uncertainty of our lives. It was this year when Taal Volcano erupted, when the bushfires blazed in Australia, and when tensions between Iran and the United States escalated. The same year when a massive explosion destroyed the city of Beirut. The year when George Floyd was brutally murdered by cops in the US, sparking a global revolution to fight against inequality. The year when the skies of California turned orange. The year when the democracy of Hong Kong slowly died at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. And the year basketball legend Kobe Bryant died and a feminist leader of our times, Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG), passed away.

Indeed, the series of events in 2020 has taught us valuable lessons we should never forget as we write these down in our history books. Lessons that remind us of the brooding injustices silently waiting to unfold as each hour of our clock ticks. Environmental injustices, racism, corruption, gender inequality, climate change, and ultimately, above all, death. That somehow and some way, no matter how much you’ve contributed to this world, be it in the world of sports or social justice, life goes on. Death goes on. And no, this is not a piece about cynicism nor nihilism. This is a question of what do we do after this? What to do after almost a million people have died and millions more have suffered in the pandemic, that have been exacerbated and revealed by all these injustices lurking behind the curtains of our future?