This year's Dashain

This year's dashain is bust. As it should be.

There's an ongoing pandemic that's killing dozens of people everyday in Nepal. Elsewhere, the cases have been the highest they've ever gotten, and increasing. Governments seem unable or unwilling to stop the movement of people to stop the disease in its tracks. Some East Asia countries have succeeded, most notably China which has pretty much eliminated the disease despite being the most population nation on Eart, and so has New Zealand. It's clear being an authoritarian regime is not a requirement, neither does a country need to be small and self-contained to put the pandemic in check.

The Nepali government has given up. Make no mistake, it's game over in Nepal. The fire will burn uncontrollably until a vaccine is found, or everyone who's out and about contracts it. The scary part is that getting it once does not grant you invulnerability from the second infection, so either people learn it the easy way, or the hard way. In either case, going into enclosed spaces such as houses, with dozens of other people and sharing close proximity with laughter and happiness is not the right thing to do at times like these.

My parents aren't celebrating this year. They'll be going to one set of my grandparents', and my aunt's family will be showing up, and that's about it. Undoubtedly there will be families, likely outside the valley who haven't seen or felt the full impact of the disease but also inside the valley, who won't care and pretend things are as usual. They'll suffer, and unfortunately they'll make things worse. Worse still is the fact that people travel home to outside the valley at festival times, which means the disease-infested valley will infect the rest of the nation. Where there are no tests, or hospitals or proper medical care. Things could be very grim indeed.

The good news is, and this would be an awful news in other times, but here we are...people haven't been out and about too much. Sales of dashain materials are down more than fifty percent apparently, which sucks for the economy and the people that depend on those sales to make their living, but they will be living at least. This gives one some hope...perhaps due to awareness of the terrible virus decimating the old and the weak but also unsparing with the young and the healthy, or perhaps because of their economic situation caused by the disease, they won't be eagerly celebrating it, which means the virus won't be enjoying the festivals either. That's some terrible silver lining to the whole thing.

Abroad, things aren't much different. We're having a couple of folks at our apartment today, but it's the same people in our 'pod' or 'bubble' so to speak, with just one extra guest, someone we don't already see on an everyday basis. Friends are celebrating dashain through an outside potlock in Brookline, nobody should be taking any chances. The outsides are so great apparently, the chance of contracting is minuscle. Again, it's amazing news, though the upcoming winter does not bod well for socializing versus disease control.

The orange shitbag has politicized this and I imagine the fools supporting that flatulent part of disgusting filth might try to get out and about more. But the news from back-home is bad, the news everywhere is bad, so eventually they have to come to their senses. Right?