Day 3 of the complete curfew in Jordan. It's a new world. I looked out of our wall and saw a cat lazily gliding down the street and eyeing a bird basking in the sunshine in the middle of the street. Are the non-human mammals and the aves contemplating to join that half-living/half-dead creature called coronavirus in taking over the world?
Not such a crazy thought if we the people cannot coordinate our range of behaviors to deny (or at least delay) giving the coronavirus a host to become alive and replicate itself. This article, Enforcing compliance with COVID-19 pandemic restrictions: Psychological aspects of a national security threat, explores threat in human behavior terms.
In the face of unknowns about the coronavirus, giving out clear messages on how to behave is, to say the least, difficult. I think most people are willing to comply and hunker down at home but will go out and about if given the chance. Too risky when people play it like a game of chance (see For Italians, Dodging Coronavirus Has Become a Game of Chance). But for a while, I was hoping the Jordanian authorities will at least allow individuals to go out for a walk as a form of self-care albeit at a distance from others (see for example Is It OK to Take a Walk? as applied to New York). But on further thought, a complete curfew might just be the right approach as it leaves little room for equivocation about the seriousness of the situation.
Except for reports of about 400 arrested on the first day of the curfew, it appears to me that Jordan's 10M population are cooperating with their government, which appears to be doing its best to meet the people's basic needs. I see garbage, gas and water trucks going around, making sure basic services are being met. The gov't just announced that the curfew will not be eased on Tuesday as many people were hoping but announced a mechanism for delivery of basic needs to citizens. In a sense, we are all in for a global experiment on containment -which variables to manipulate, which ones to hold constant (are there such variables in this kind of situation?), which approach results in better outcomes...(The Best-Case Outcome for the Coronavirus, and the Worst)
I'm just glad the sun has been coming out since yesterday. The weather here in Jordan was unusually cold and rainy as this lockdown was enforced. My husband and I are lucky to have an outdoor space to walk out to when we start to feel cooped-up. I could not go out to buy a shovel to dig up the garden but I found some putty knives and a screwdriver around the house. These worked out quite well to loosen up the earth to get sown with the seeds I bought four days ago. I imagine the bright face of a giant sunflower and the smell of fresh basil, thyme and oregano and I feel hope that, together, the human race will at least gain a little more strength and buy more time to fight these invisible, deadly viruses.
Not such a crazy thought if we the people cannot coordinate our range of behaviors to deny (or at least delay) giving the coronavirus a host to become alive and replicate itself. This article, Enforcing compliance with COVID-19 pandemic restrictions: Psychological aspects of a national security threat, explores threat in human behavior terms.
In the face of unknowns about the coronavirus, giving out clear messages on how to behave is, to say the least, difficult. I think most people are willing to comply and hunker down at home but will go out and about if given the chance. Too risky when people play it like a game of chance (see For Italians, Dodging Coronavirus Has Become a Game of Chance). But for a while, I was hoping the Jordanian authorities will at least allow individuals to go out for a walk as a form of self-care albeit at a distance from others (see for example Is It OK to Take a Walk? as applied to New York). But on further thought, a complete curfew might just be the right approach as it leaves little room for equivocation about the seriousness of the situation.
Except for reports of about 400 arrested on the first day of the curfew, it appears to me that Jordan's 10M population are cooperating with their government, which appears to be doing its best to meet the people's basic needs. I see garbage, gas and water trucks going around, making sure basic services are being met. The gov't just announced that the curfew will not be eased on Tuesday as many people were hoping but announced a mechanism for delivery of basic needs to citizens. In a sense, we are all in for a global experiment on containment -which variables to manipulate, which ones to hold constant (are there such variables in this kind of situation?), which approach results in better outcomes...(The Best-Case Outcome for the Coronavirus, and the Worst)
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