The Streets are Silent

The streets are silent today. 

After spending all evening pressing refresh, waiting for emails from work, university, and events, the whole country is now holding their breath, waiting for a next step. 

Everyone woke up to an odd silence. A veil of surrealism covered everything announced by the news, combined with an odd sense of fear and familiarity...

Quarantine
Lockdown
Cancelled
Postponed
Sold Out
Shutdown

I was walking through the streets last night, looking at the dozens of posters announcing concerts, festivals and shows, knowing they would not happen. I took the bus that is normally filled to a brim at that time, but that today was eerily empty. I received email upon email about what has been cancelled and with links to online classes. 

Left and right, countries are closing borders. Governments are making decisions so quickly that plans have been shifted from next week, to this weekend, to tomorrow... Minds are as filled with what-ifs as shelves in supermarkets are empty. People are packing piles of essentials into cars, purely on the chance that stores may close. 

And the thing is... nobody knows what is next to come. 

Some countries are closing borders, others are simply limiting events. Some countries are canceling classes while others are still hosting concerts. This mix of rules and obligations that none of us can do anything about has caused stress and panic among everyone.

It is difficult not to see some individual actions as extreme - the fact that supermarkets have run out of essentials in less than a day makes little sense to me, as is the fear of others. And even more sadly, this has generated a new form of racism I have yet to encounter before.

All of this does feel familiar: it feels like a post-apocalyptic movie in the making. The ones where people still live in homes, but where everything is guarded. Where people flinch at a cough and vocally insult people who come from foreign countries, because that country is a 'source'. Where countries are closing borders and people have to be screened before being admitted places.

And despite the mass panic, despite people freaking out about something they have no control over, 

The streets are silent.  


I wrote this purely on my thoughts about the current updates about the Coronavirus pandemic. This was written in the Netherlands, based on a walk I took this morning. None of what I mentioned is fiction. I just had to get thoughts out in writing.

Stay bookish, my dears, and wash your hands.