THE PHILIPPINE LEADER
AREA 3: A YEAR OF BREAKING BARRIERS T
he world is changing. It had and will always
the
evident and unanticipated than it was when
government and the local government units in
the year 2020 came – natural disasters like the
lieu of the containment of COVID-19; travel is
massive Taal Volcano eruption, considerable
made limited and exercising public gatherings
urban f ires, the economy tanked like never
became almost an impossibility. With these two
before, and national borders were closed off.
critical aspects dubious, celebrating the South
Words like “lock down”, “self-isolate”, and “new
Luzon Area Conference the traditional way for
normal” became mainstream and entered our
the JCI chapters in the regions of Laguna, Cavite,
vocabulary and psyche. Lives were changed – and
Palawan, Southern Tagalog and Bicol became a
worse, lost. The whole world stood still and could
question answerable by only two choices: accept
do nothing but watch as the coronavirus swept
the impossibility of the situation and postpone
across countries, relentless and unchecked. In
until next year, or f ind a way to make something
a matter of months, we experienced the kind
previously inconceivable a reality.
of social, economic and political upheaval that normally comes only after years of drought, famine, or war. With this kind of changing world, so too must we.
12
To Do Or Not To Do: The New Normal - With
be that way. But change has never been more
restrictions
imposed
by
the
national
