Many short-term emergency measures will become a fixture of life. That is the nature of emergencies. They fast-forward historical processes.
In this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices. The
first is between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The
second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity.
If I could track my own medical condition 24 hours a day, I would learn not only whether I have become a health hazard to other people, but also which habits contribute to my health. And if I could access and analyse reliable statistics on the spread of coronavirus, I would be able to judge whether the government is telling me the truth and whether it is adopting the right policies to combat the epidemic. Whenever people talk about surveillance, remember that the same surveillance technology can usually be used not only by governments to monitor individuals — but also by individuals to monitor governments.
If the void left by the US isn’t filled by other countries, not only will it be much harder to stop the current epidemic, but its legacy will continue to poison international relations for years to come. Yet every crisis is also an opportunity. We must hope that the current epidemic will help humankind realise the acute danger posed by global disunity.
11/07/2020 Saturday, Cloudy For the 2nd time since lockdown, we got out of the house and went to the park as a family. Sean and I played table tennis there, while Lili jogged around the tennis court. Later we walked around the reservoir and came home from the high street. Though we've lived here for 5 years, it's the first time we walked around it. It's near 3 miles and we ended up exhausted.
21/07/2020 Tuesday, Cloudy Sean is grounded for a whole day today. No screen time at all. Suprisingly he did well and repaired the relationship with his mum. Without computer, iPad or TV, he played piano, learnt Chinese and played TT. The only thing missed is the math exercise. Without anybody being grumpy, it's happy family again.
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