Days into the MCO

Seattle isn't new to pandemic lock-downs. This is the Green Lake street car that ran between Seattle and Green Lake. The conductor is stopping the man on the right from boarding the trolley because he has no face mask. In those days the leaders didn't announce public health recommendations for the people while saying they weren't going to follow the recommendations themselves. The naming of pandemics for political purposes is not new either. The pandemic above is the 1918 Spanish Flu. The flu was extensive in the United Kingdom, France, the US and Spain. The allies were gearing up for war and wanted to control the message to avoid any thoughts that they were anything but strong and not to interrupt the troop recruiting.  Spain was a neutral country, so they got labeled with the flu.

Here, the Malaysian authorities are now doing an admirable job of enforcing social distancing. The Malaysian Movement Control Order (MCO), enacted March 18th, has been extended till April 14th. It is fairly strictly enforced with numerous roadblocks manned by the police and army. It is pretty likely that it will be extended again, perhaps in a modified fashion. Ramadan, the month long Islamic celebration, is coming up on April 23rd. It will be important that the social distancing is managed during this time or Malaysia will have another flare up of cases. About 60% of the covid19 cases in Malaysia can be traced back to a local "tabligh", a multi-day religious gathering, that occurred in late February.

Above is the Rebak Resort pool when it was still full, before the last resort guests got out. The water's been emptied now, making it less tempting to violate the MCO and go swimming in it.

The island has some nice wild life. Lots of Rhinoceros Hornbills. The ones on the bottom are doing synchronized feather cleaning.

With the resort closed the monkeys are taking advantage of the empty room balconies. Not sure if this is a little foreshadowing of the outcome from the pandemic, Planet of the Apes style. 

What's she thinking?

Not all monkeys are good monkeys. These are the bad monkeys getting into the trash.

The island supports some serious lizards. This Asian water monitor lizard has a pretty impressive forked tongue. She's big girl, at  least 6-7 feet long.

The island has about a 104 people on it now. Probably 75 cruisers and the rest are the skeleton resort staff. Most of the boats are empty, with their owners hunkered down in their respective home countries around the world. For those of us left here, we have lots of time to contemplate the outcome of the pandemic and think about when, and if, we will be able to move on. Now, on occasion, people have said I am a pessimist. When it comes to survival situations, I've always believed in the Stockdale Paradox. Admiral Stockdale was the most senior officer incarcerated in the 'Hanoi Hilton', the infamous North Vietnamese prison for US prisoners of war during the Vietnam War.  As explained by Stockdale to an interviewer the paradox goes like this:

I never lost faith in the end of the story, I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.^[21]

When Collins asked who didn't make it out of Vietnam, Stockdale replied:

Oh, that's easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.^[21]

Stockdale then added:

This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.^[21]

We've been singing Happy Birthday multiple times in a row. Not just to time how long we wash our hands, but also to celebrate Chris' and my birthdays over the lat few weeks. Our new philosophy:  Getting old isn't for sissies.
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Our current leaders respond to disasters in the same way as the prehistoric ones:

Paul