It is just not in our DNA

 So here we are Christmas Eve, 2021.  The same situation as I was in last year. 

Let me explain.

This time last year my former dumbass boss got Covid.  He went to a church gathering or something and just like that came down with it.  My ofc was next to his, and though I felt horrific, I tested negative. Meanwhile,  the guy on the other side of me caught it.  With a newborn in the house to boot. 

So now it turns out this year my youngest apparently has it, too.  Probably.  She took a rapid test and it came out positive.  We have no clue as to how she got it.  From me?  Her social animal China Mom?  Her social animal sister?

No idea.  But I do know we spent three hours in a covid line yesterday.   So now China Wife and oldest are watching Home Alone again, and as I'd rather watch a Korean Zombie movie, I'm here writing this. 

I'm writing this because I'm pissed off. 

I'm upset that nearly two years into this I'm still having to wear a mask.  Meanwhile I'm amazed nightclubs in China are packed with hardly a mask in sight.  I'm also angry at myself.  I'm upset I thought this whole damn calamity would be over by now, if not because a Democrat is in charge and nothing else.  This turned out to be a most naive belief on my part.

When Trump finally left power there were 400,000 American Dead.  The sad part is Covid didn't really take off until Summer.  But I'm not hear to compare Trump vs Biden.  It's morbidly unpatriotic to compare such things.

Nor am I wont to compare to India or Brazil's numbers.  Everyone knows India's numbers are probably triple or quadruple the actual. 

I'm angry because China only has 4000 dead, and well.....we have more. That came out wrong.  It's not what I mean.  I don't wish China had more.  Rather, for all our bitching and focus on "freedom", (what does that word even mean anymore?), one cannot argue with results. 

But now the differences in our governments is greater than ever, and for all to see;  

China has a scorched earth policy, and well, America has decided to just "carry on and live with it".

As I mentioned in my last post, how many Chinese have lost their livlihood to Covid?  We'll never know because the Chinese will never tell us.  In a way it's Karma.  

Now what do I mean by that?  I once called up a popular hotel in Guangzhou just to see how much it would cost to send me a car?  They quoted something like $200.  I took the subway for $4. 

Later, I wanted room service from this same hotel.  I believe a plate of noodles was $32.  I went outside and walked 100 yards and got the same plate for $3. 

How empty is that hotel in China now?

In short, China is getting crushed in so many ways.  Travel is just one.  But aren't statistics for losers?

The only stat that matters is how many lives have you saved?  Or......how many people have you killed?

China, 4000.  America 800,000.  The lower number wins folks.

China just shut Xian down.  9 million?  13?  And true to form, China just blamed it on foreigners again.  As if Pakistan didn't test anyone for Covid before allowing them on the plane, right?  And you know nearly all of those on the plane were Chinese.  Because what foreigner is gonna come to China and isolate for 3 weeks?  So how can anyone stay in Quarantine for 3 weeks, and not be detected?

How does China answer such a well deserved challenge?  

"4000" folks.

China has dented its GNP, and even stunted its innovation, and soon enough, China is gonna be insulting nearly every athlete that visits in a months time. 

So the fuck what.

4000, baby.

As for The Good Ole USA, we're gonna blow past 900,000 lives easy in 2022.  When we hit a million dead will they someday build a memorial?  You know in 'Nam we lost less than 60,000 dead.  But they put up a statue you know?  A nice memorial with all the dead.  What shall we do?

Let me stop here and say something I've said previously.  We're gonna eventually have a million dead, and no one is gonna go to jail.  There will be no fines, no accountability.  Sooner or later, someone is gonna have a Eureka moment, and ask the simple ass question:

Who's going to jail for this?

America(and the West) has learned to live with this, while hoping no one close dies.   It's business as usual folks.  What choice do we have?

You still need to shop.  You still need to take the subway to work.  You need to actually speak with people at work. The Chinese don't really go to Church right?

Well....guess what?  The Chinese subways aren't shut down.  And folks still go to work.  And they still party in nightclubs(to be a laowai in China at this moment.....)

In a nutshell the secret sauce to China's success is simple;  They don't care about your feelings.

They don't care if you have a doctor's appointment or a flat tire to fix.  They don't care about that appointment with a real estate agent.  Just shut up and sit in your concrete block until we say you can come out.   Jump on your wife and make babies. Tutor your kid math.  Learn Swahili.  But stay inside. 

Not us.  America's response can be described also in a very simple way;  "We want our Freedom!"

Here's hoping all the dumb unvaccinated mother fuckers get buried with it, too. 

Can't take it with you?  Oh, we'll be sure you can. Use it as sun block when you roast in Hell.

Our Freedom is literally killing us.  But our innovation continues.  Our air flights continue.  And if you are vaccinated, you can even come here to "God's Country" and visit us!   You don't even have to quarantine.

Why?  Because it's the American Way Baby.  America is the Country too busy to think about Death.  You wanna live?  That's on  you Dear Sir.  Vaccinations are on every corner.  And you know we're not gonna shut a city down to force you to "get in line". 

But doesn't 800,000 lives mean anything?  Anything at all?   Well....let me add some perspective.

The American Civil War had 600,000 dead. That was 2% of our population.....you read that right!

The Spanish Influenza killed 600,000 as well(rounded down).   Our population in 1918 was 100 million.   So the Spanish Flu had nearly three times the mortality rate.

But 2021 is our highest death rate since WW2.  And we ain't slowin' down.  Like a black cloud we always see on the horizon, that never goes away.  American's have decided that death is worth the risk of getting on with life. 

So what price "business as usual"?  When are we as a society going to really, really, change the way we do things, to achieve a better result?  If you have a job, and you don't do it right, and earn your boss' chagrin, don't  you think your fear of losing your job would change how you yourself do your job?  Of course it would

So wouldn't fear of losing your life change how you live your life?  uh......no, I guess not.

WTF?

America must continue.  China falsely believes it can stop the virus, and China my friends, the country with no booster availability, is playing against time.  China is tilting against windmills.  

In China's view, it has fought the good fight.  And it has, because everything else aside, you can't argue with the number 4000 folks.  You can't. 

And I think in America, we have decided to just put our head in the sand, or rather that growing pile of used surgical masks, and just pretend we are fine.

But we have decided here in America that we must continue forward, head down against the virus storm, while China just hunkers down to weather it out.  Why?  Because we don't want to piss anyone off.  We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, or crush anyone's soul, in the name of saving people.

America is incapable of doing what China does so well.  But don't blame the Government folks. Uncle Sam, after all, has given us a vaccine.  Rather, as a People it is simply not in our individual DNA.  And that is why hundreds thousands more will die.  

How will China look at us with any glint of respect or admiration when they have less than 10,000 dead and we have 1 million?  What moral authority will we have on human rights?

"You want to talk about the Gulags in Xinjiang?  I want to talk about how you killed a million of your own people."   Someone tell me how America answers that question.