Opinion: We’re locked down in Shanghai with 25 pounds of mangoes — and some very helpful neighbors
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Division of labor is essential amidst the world’s toughest lockdown. We are modern hunter-gatherers from a privileged position in a high-rise building in the Pudong district of Shanghai.
In the beginning, we would spend half our days procuring food and beverages. Now, it is more like two hours a day. We eat what we can get our hands on, but we are in no danger of running short of essential items such as water, soap, and basic staples.
We wonder if this is similar to our experience growing up under hyperinflation in Brazil in the early 1990s or if it is just our minds playing tricks on us. But back to reality. There are mangoes to last us a few months — 25 pounds of the fruit, to be precise.
A year ago, daily life reached a balance. Life was back to normal with two exceptions: we should wear masks when using public transportation and in certain government buildings, and any news of a single Covid-19 case in the city spread like wildfire.
Everybody was aware that if somebody in their community were to test positive for Covid-19, a targeted lockdown would ensue. It would last 14 days in the places where the case was found and two days in places where the person had passed by (as long as everybody tested negative for two consecutive days).
Still, with monthly cases in the single digits, we never met anybody who was locked down. That changed early this year when cases started to mount and places were more often forcefully closed.
In mid-February, when cases started climbing in Shanghai, people would ask themselves before going anywhere: “Does the venue have toilets?” (People who got locked down in a…
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Source : cnn
