"But disasters and emergencies do not just throw light on the world as it is. They also rip open the fabric of normality. Through the hole that opens up, we glimpse possibilities of other worlds." Peter C. Baker, The Guardian (March 31, 2020)
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
More Uncertainty
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Not Yet
So we're still looking for land. Or, probably more precisely, we're looking for solid land where we can wade ashore and plant the flag, and pose for the obligatory picture.
That's not always guaranteed. The Jamestown colony was famously founded on extensive marshes, and the Pilgrims, who did land first on the firm sand bordering Provincetown Bay, could just as easily have wandered into the Nauset Marsh or Pleasant Bay or any of the swampy inlets around what is now Chatham. Imagine if they had drifted too far south, instead of too far north, and come up against the barrier islands of North Carolina, or South Carolina's extensive coastal marshes. History might have been different.
That's what it feels like, right now. We've got land in sight, but we're not sure if we can actually land there - if we can find a place to stand on and say, "Here we are! Aqui! En el continente! The journey is over!"
Abbey and I have had our first Moderna shot, and are scheduled for the second (with or without a day of miserable side-effects) a week from now. But, as it turns out, that will not be our ticket to the new world. Nothing will change. As time goes on, we'll learn how others have fared after being fully vaccinated, and perhaps we'll adjust a little, let go a little - maybe, maybe not.
We're running up and down the coast, looking for safe harbor. Some sure sign that we've made it at last.
Not yet.
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
We Can Choose
This is a summary of the Biden administration's foreign policy policies, which will do much to shape the new world. There are lots of convenient links to primary documents.
I found this piece of the analysis interesting:
After the pandemic is over, the world will be different. We can choose some of the ways in which it will be different.
We sure can. Many of the early New World posts were about just that. Will we?
Sunday, March 14, 2021
Saturday, March 13, 2021
Friday, March 12, 2021
Independence Day
“If we do all this, if we do our part, if we do this together, by July the 4th, there’s a good chance you, your families, and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbeque and celebrate Independence Day. That doesn’t mean large events with lots of people together, but it does mean small groups will be able to get together.
After this long hard year, that will make this independence day something truly special, where we not only mark our independence as a nation, but we begin to mark our independence from this virus.”
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Hope for a New World-ish Experience
Remember IATA? Stands for the International Air Transport Association, and we've looked in on them before.
The IATA has developed, and is testing, a digital COVID Travel Pass A refresher:
The pass is an app that verifies a passenger has had the Covid-19 tests or vaccines required to enter a country. It also verifies they were administered by an approved authority.
The pass seems to be the most comprehensive entry in the "I can prove I've been vaccinated" initiative so far. Actually, it addresses the "I can prove I've been vaccinated or have recently tested negative" initiative - or, more importantly, the "I can prove I've been vaccinated, or have recently tested negative and can prove it with something better than a certificate this guy sold me ten minutes ago as I was walking through the airport," which is important, because those guys have been selling those certificates in airports.
The Digital COVID Travel Pass also makes it unnecessary for those who have been vaccinated to follow the quarantine rules of those countries they're flying from or to.
This will create a new world-ish effect on travel - both for vaccinated or tested travelers who now don't have to hole up in a hotel for two weeks, and on the airline industry, whose market will quickly expand to include anyone who's been fully vaccinated. Win-win. However, when a Travel Pass holder arrives at their destination city, they will emerge into the old world, where everyone is suspect, where masks must be worn, and where their IATA Travel Pass will probably mean nothing, because, of course, everyone on the ground is still arguing about how to standardize something this simple and essential.