Pondering the Pandemic: In Search of Silver Linings

This year has been like no other. For expatriates in particular, the bans on international travel have been frustrating at best and devastating at worst. Many businesses, save a few lucky winners, are hurting. Lives have been lost, families separated. But – and there is a but – there is a bright side to all of this. You just have to look for it.

“In March, Google Trends reported an unprecedented number of search engine entries for ‘good news’.

DOOMSCROLLING NO MORE You may have heard the term ‘doomscrolling’. It has already popped up in the online edition of Merriam-Webster. It’s a word of the moment that refers to the compulsive, incessant trawling of the Internet for some awful new development or super-alarming statistic. You might simply file it away to contemplate during your next sleepless night. Apparently counting case numbers and mortality rates is the new ‘counting sheep’. You might bury it in your sub-conscious mind to become yet another trigger for a low-grade anxiety attack. Or you might share it with your friends over a Zoom ‘unhappy hour’. Either way, doomscrolling spiked in the early months of the pandemic, for obvious reasons.

However, something changed. In March, Google Trends reported an unprecedented number of search engine entries for ‘good news’. In fact, it was more than double that of any time since Google began releasing search data in 2004. The month after that, it almost doubled again. YouTube doomscrolling showed similar results. (´du:m,skrə Ω lIŋ) Traffic increased (noun) exponentially to 1. the practice of or tendency to search uplifting sites such online for bad news, especially as Upworthy, Huff during the COVID-19 situation Post, The Good News 2. the perverse continuation of Network and Greatist. If netizens’ online scrolling through bad news even though it is saddening appetite for good news is anything to go by, this pandemic is stirring optimism while it causes despair. We may not be looking on the bright side, but at least we are looking for it.

FAMILY TIES STRENGTHENED Chances are that you’ve been spending more time in the company of your spouse and children than ever before. There were probably times when you felt like screaming at the top of your lungs and/or locking yourself away from them all. But then something subtly shifted. Perhaps you realised that this situation was going to continue for some time, so you’d better all get used to it and work out a way to harmoniously co-exist. Maybe you saw somebody struggling – emotionally, physically, financially, and remembered that loved ones pull each other up, not bring each other down. Anyway, you worked it out.

What began as a kind of collective dread evolved into a renewal of the values that underpinned our own

SURPRISING OURSELVES by Michael Gerber

The pandemic has hit us hard and took away the

‘usual level of freedom’ to travel regularly and wherever the wind blew. Experiencing a lockdown and being stuck at home with the same family members over weeks was a new experience. After expecting many family dramas amongst the

Gerber Clan, we were extremely surprised to manage the lockdown with fun and excitement. We also got to see and appreciate new facets of each team member. Our son Jakob turned out to be the gym master, organising a workout with the (disco) music on the balcony five times a week. My wife and myself organised regular walks and smaller hikes late in the evening. Our helper was the ‘food manager’ and cook, coming up with magic new recipes. All together it worked really well. Till today we are super-proud of our strong family bonding during the tough times. upbringings – or at least those of us who were raised by good people (not necessarily functional nuclear families). We asked some of our Members to share their experiences. The responses were heart-warming. Read about how the Gerber and Pollina families fared and “ With the luxury of time on our hands, long-lost luxuries have been found again.

flourished, despite initial misgivings.

FROM ‘CORONA TENNIS’ TO TORTELLINI by Roberta Pollina

Nothing can prepare you for being locked down at home for over two months, and nothing will take away that feeling of being trapped in your own home. However, we can say that overall our family has come out stronger and definitely more united from this forced seclusion.

Having breakfast with Daddy every day was “one of the best things ever” for Francesco, who, being the youngest of the family, always likes to have everyone around, spending time together as a family. The boys were busy with home-schooling, which required a lot of focus and concentration, but when free, they were following the strict training schedule that Daddy had set out for them: agility ladder, dumbbells, elastic bands, weighted ball, bosu ball had all become part of our daily routine, teaching us just how critical physical wellbeing is for mental health.

Also, when you have a lot of time to fill and your days are slow, you discover those activities too often neglected in our usually fast life. For us, they included making fresh pasta with the children (tortellini made a weekly appearance in our menu), tending those sad-looking indoor plants, trying a new layout for the living room, clearing the wardrobes...

If we hadn’t had to stay at home, the children would never have played “Corona Tennis” (named after the coronavirus) using the laundry rack as a net, the padel rackets and a foam ball, or learnt how to roll dough or clean the AC filters.

There have been ups and downs, moment of laughter and hugs and moments of stress and madness. Sometimes we even (felt like we) hated each other, but for the most part it was a loving family time!

Like the Gerbers and Pollinas, many families have been pleasantly surprised by the outcomes of compulsory confinement at home. Being house-bound has sparked a revival of the simple art of conversation, bonding over cooking and long lingering family meals, reading (for pleasure, not work) and playing board games (remember them?). With the luxury of time on our hands, all of these long-lost luxuries have been found again.

HUMANITY SHINES After shameful shows of greed and hysteria in the early days of the Circuit Breaker, it seems that people have started becoming more considerate towards each other. You’ve probably been a partner in that strange little supermarket shuffle – the dance of avoidance when two excessively polite shoppers urge each other to ‘Go first’ and nobody makes a move. It beats pushing and shoving and grabbing. It seems that people have started becoming more considerate towards each other. “

We couldn’t fail to notice the kindness of Club Members in the course of editing contributions to this issue. We were awed and humbled by Martin Silberstein’s incredible gesture of insisting on paying for the almost-daily tennis lessons he couldn’t take during Circuit Breaker. Many staff have expressed gratitude for retaining their jobs.

We are pleased to share some of their experiences here.

HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AT ITS BEST

When Aaron asked me to be a Safety Officer, I was a little nervous at first. In my head, I endlessly rehearsed ‘polite’ ways to ask Members and their guests to observe social distancing. As it turned out, people were so overjoyed to regain some personal liberties, like eating out with small family and friends groups, that they were absolutely committed to complying with the rules. On the rare occasion I had to remind somebody, they were the ones that ended up apologising to me. This may be a difficult time for the world, maybe the worst we’ll ever experience in our lifetimes, but I think I’ve seen human behaviour at its best.

Elvis Tan, Sports and Recreation Executive/Safety Management Officer

KINDNESS IS CATCHING

I feel very fortunate to have remained employed during the Circuit Breaker period, thanks to the takeaway food services offered by the Swiss Club. I was also grateful for the support network of my colleagues, who have become my dearest friends over the 12 years that I have been working here. Though we weren’t seeing each other as often as usual, we stayed in touch via social media. Now that things are slowly returning to ‘normal’, I’ve noticed that everyone – Members and colleagues alike, seems to be trying a little harder just to be ‘nice’. I do believe that kindness is catching.

Yati, F&B Service Ambassador

UPDATED MY KNOWLEDGE

I am very thankful to the Committee of the Swiss Club for making sure that all of the staff kept their jobs. With more time on my hands than usual, I was able to catch up with many of my F&B industry friends, though mainly online. I updated my knowledge of what’s happening locally and overseas, read up on culinary trends, and gleaned a lot of information and inspiration that I hope to channel into the Club’s future F&B offerings.

Adrian Vogt, F&B Manager/Safety Management Officer

GETTING FIT (AND FIGHTING FAT) Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes. The Gerbers’ balcony workouts to disco music and the Pollinas’ ‘corona tennis’ are fantastic examples of the creative ways people have devised to exercise in confined spaces. Some joined livestreamed classes, including those offered by our fitness convenor Active Fitness, and worked out ‘together, apart’ in their living rooms and bedrooms.

With permission to exercise for an hour a day even during Phase One of Circuit Breaker, many others slipped on their running shoes and took to parks and pavements. Along with self-guided or livestreamed yoga sessions, mindful walking calmed many noisy minds.

You may have heard of the Japanese term ‘shinrin yoku’ – literally ‘forest bathing’. A widely recognised form of physical and psychological ‘ecotherapy’ inspired by Shinto practices and developed in the 1980s to help treat work-stressed executives, it basically entails a mindful walk through nature. It was unknowingly practised by all of us who reconnected with nature during the pandemic. With the lack of vehicular and human traffic, the birdsong was louder and lovelier than ever.

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room (pun intended). We’re talking about comfort eating and the extra kilos that may well be sitting on your hips. The trending hashtag #Quarantine15 refers to the pounds supposedly most of us have gained during the pandemic. Though online psychologists urge us to make peace with our new shapes, other medicos offer cautionary tales of the long-term ill-effects of weight gain. One thing’s for sure – with social distancing measures still in place, albeit relaxed, we are all eating out less and thus more in control of what we eat (unchecked binge-eating while binge-watching Netflix excluded).

One of our popular Swiss Club staff members, Eden, bucked the trend by not gaining weight, but losing weight during the Circuit Breaker. Here is her inspiring story.

EDEN’S TRANSFORMATION

As a Filipino overseas worker here in Singapore, it was very hard for me not to be able to see my family back home for the longest time. I am so thankful for the advanced technology that made it possible for me to get in touch with them every single day.

BEFORE

While I was stuck at home, I did my best to stay emotionally strong and keep busy. I learned how to cook Filipino dishes, started my vlogging channel on YouTube, called ‘The Life Changing Story of Eden’, and got closer to God through online gatherings organised by my church. I also undertook intermittent fasting to lose weight, and was able to lose 7kg in two months! With God’s help, I found more courage during the pandemic, and perhaps because of the pandemic,

64.2kg

than I ever thought I had.

Eden, The Guesthouse & Member Relations Department

If you’re comfortable with a few extra kilos, cut yourself some slack and wear sweatpants till the pandemic passes and you can fully resume your fitness regime. If you’re hating your new shape, then now is an ideal time to consciously moderate your intake and start working out again. The Swiss Club’s gym is operating with social distancing measures in place. Timothy Felix has some great advice on getting into shape on Page 20 of this very issue.

NATURE TAKES A BREATHER This silver lining is shiny and bright as the newly blue skies over Bangkok and the crystal-clear waters of the Venetian canals. Clearer skies, cleaner waterways and rare animal sightings are just some of the bright side-effects of the pandemic. Even the ozone layer appears to be self-healing (though it’s apparently not related to the coronavirus).

Carbon emissions saw a record drop during the pandemic, and it’s easy to understand why. WFH (working from home) became the new norm. Shops, cinemas, gyms were closed – there was nowhere to go. However, did we really suffer that much? Many have embraced the leisurely luxury of just hanging out at home and letting go of the need to keep up with the Joneses or the Tans and fill our social diaries. Perhaps we’ll be kinder to the environment and easier on ourselves long after the pandemic has passed.

The downside (sorry for striking a negative note when the title of this story promised good news), the increased waste from disposable gloves and masks is cause for environmentalists’ concern. A trending post on social media warned that soon there’ll be more masks than jellyfish in the Mediterranean. However, forewarned is forearmed. The fact that newspapers around the world have picked up on the story, even in the midst of a global pandemic, suggests that we’re becoming more environmentally aware. And that’s good news for sure.

TECH ENTERS THE EXPRESS LANE This pandemic has fast-tracked research and development on a slew of technology, from drones for no-contact food delivery to UV light-emitting cleaner robots. Businesses have been forced to adopt a ‘do-or-die’ mentality towards technology, from embracing basic cloud computing to webcam meetings and presentations.

In the healthcare sector, advances have been in leaps and bounds. The race to develop a vaccine aside, the pandemic has accelerated advances in self-monitoring and self-diagnostic devices, primarily to free up healthcare resources to cope with the pandemic casualties. Longer term, this ‘degentrification’ of healthcare will have a profoundly positive impact, especially on poorer and remote communities.

The COVID-19 Digital Engagement Report by Twilio had only good news to share. For example, the pandemic has emerged as the digital accelerator of the decade, with 97% of enterprise decision-makers polled agreeing that the pandemic has sped up their companies’ digital transformations by an average of six years.

We’re getting smarter, faster.

THE REALLY, REALLY GOOD NEWS Community transmission is slowing steadily at the time this issue is going to print, and cautious optimism is the mood of the moment. When all’s said and done, Singapore is a pretty good place to be. As our veteran Member Mario Stellino put it, “Though I’ve never stayed put anywhere in this world for more than 12 months since I was 18, I sure am glad I am in Singapore now.” We couldn’t agree more.

Watch this space for more good news. “ When all’s said and done, Singapore is a pretty good place to be.

Sources: https://9to5google.com/2020/04/14/google-search-good-news-trend/ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/style/good-news-coronavirus.html https://time.com/5259602/japanese-forest-bathing/ https://www.cnet.com/health/stop-body-shaming-yourself-for-the-quarantine-15/ https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/packing-on-pounds-during-covid19-and-how-to-turn-it-around/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/global-co2-emissions-saw-recorddrop-during-pandemic-lockdown/ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/08/more-masks-thanjellyfish-coronavirus-waste-ends-up-in-ocean https://www.twilio.com/covid-19-digital-engagement-report