The Cutprice Guignol

I have hear many people wishing to return to ‘normal’. It makes me sad because I want to say this – please understand that your ‘normal’ never existed. It is a construction which has been used to seperate and bestow upon a privileged few a life of (relative) luxury, comfort and on-demand services, whilst resigning the majority to a standard of ‘normal’ far inferior to what you would consider adequate for yourself.

Think about this – how many times recently have you heard someone criticise Chinese eating habits as being ‘not normal’? Yet no one bats an eye (accidental pun but I stand tall) at the miserable life (42 days on average) of a battery farm chick because we consider that ‘normal’. Have you ever heard someone describe Africa (the whole continent) as being ‘incapable’ of achieving normality? Yet most Westerners don’t think it abnormal to homogenise millions of independent…

Tomorrow marks six weeks in Lockdown. Six weeks since my world stopped spinning. Six weeks since COVID-19, masks, quarantine and social distancing entered my vernacular. So what have I learned? What has this time given me? What has it taken away?

Six Things I’ve Learned in Six Weeks

1. Human Beings, when appropriately terrified, can work together. In normal times that seemed an impossible ask. Sure enough though, human beings are capable of team work on a mass scale. Albeit when the heat is on. Perhaps when we come out the other end of this, we’ll remember to do it more often.
2. I am incredibly privileged. My biggest issue in Lockdown has been restricting my Magnum Mini intake. Key workers, people living in poverty or insecure situations do not have that privilege. I am incredibly privileged and in a time like this, that is an extremely lucky thing to be.
3. I’m…