Oh Canada

Some people are saying that our government was too slow to react to the Covid-19 virus. Canadians should not have been leaving the country, as they still were, for spring break in March. We, who had been in Cuba since very early in January, noticed many pale people who had obviously just arrived in mid-March and we found this curious. Perhaps if there had been an earlier reaction to Covid-19, things would not have had to be so restrictive as they are now. But hindsight is always a poor judge of past events.

However, one stranded tourist has written that he now understands why it is important to register with the Canadian government when travelling abroad. We have done so in our recent travels over the last five or six years. Fortunately, we had never had the occasion to rely on this. This year we did. And it was very unsatisfactory, if not downright disgraceful.

By early March, we had started to pay as much attention as we could to the news of the Covid-19 virus with our limited access to the internet. But we were lulled into a sense of security. On March 15, we received an offer by Westjet to upgrade our seating on our "upcoming flight" (March 24). Then on March 17 we received a concerned email from a friend on Cape Breton alerting us to the fact that Westjet’s last international flight out of Cuba would be by midnight on the 22nd. Our flight home had been cancelled. We did not receive this news from either the airline or the Canadian government.

We logged onto Westjet’s site and were informed we could change our flight on-line. We tried. The message we received was that our flight could not be changed on-line. We would have to call an agent. There are no Westjet agents in Cuba. There was a toll free number to call. It did not work from Cuba.

We started to panic. We had received no notifications from the Canadian government so far. So we called the Canadian Embassy in Havana. A recorded message said the Embassy was closed (during business hours and in a crisis!); but that if we needed consular services we could leave a message with contact information. We did. We never received a response.

Fortunately, I was able to get hold of my niece back home and give her as much of our information as I could, so that she could try to change our flight. Within an hour she emailed (March 17) us with confirmation of our flight change. We would be leaving on the 21^st at 6:05 p.m. Although things seemed quite calm in Cuba at the time, we wanted to cry with relief. We had been ready to come home anyway and three days early was just fine with us.

It was only late in the day on the 19^th that we had received our first email notification from the Canadian government. Too little too late! It advised us of cancellations of flights by three airlines, none of which was ours, and said we should try to change our flights. Kindly, it advised us this might be difficult and that we would likely be on standby!

So being registered with the Canadian government was not at all helpful to us at least. And our country’s consular services were laughable. But we are home and we are happy.

A Peck of Dirt

One thing this Covid-19 pandemic with which we are currently confronted should teach us is to be vigilant: not with respect to viruses but with respect to the loss of freedom. Hard won

rights are too easily lost. Sometimes this may be necessary in the short term. But it is not always so.

Human beings are social animals. The loss of the freedom to socialize will have, I fear, a greater impact than the virus itself. I wonder if we are not over-reacting. Yes, the virus will kill some – perhaps many. But so will isolation, fear, and despair. We can, perhaps, tolerate having social norms taken away for a short while; but the longer that while drags on, the more crazed people will become.

After a few weeks, we are already seeing the “holier-than-thous” smugly “outing” those who struggle with this new way of being. And the rules change quickly and the restrictions grow daily. Unless one is glued to the media one cannot possibly keep up. What was permitted yesterday, may not be permitted tomorrow.

As I write this, there are just over one million one hundred thousand cases, with not quite sixty-two thousand deaths worldwide. That’s about 5% of cases. There will be more cases and more deaths I know. But last year there were four point two million people who died from pollution related illnesses and no doubt many more who are ill because of it. And it is estimated that there are three to five million serious flu cases worldwide annually with two hundred and fifty to five hundred thousand deaths annually.

So I ask myself, are the governments' broad restrictions wise. There are always those who are more susceptible to viruses. Perhaps our over-use of antibiotics and pharmaceutical medication generally is to blame. With our wipes, and our masks, and our physical distancing are we just adding to the problem of diminished immune systems. My grandmother used to say a healthy person must eat a peck of dirt when they are young. And I believe that. The world has become too sanitized for our own good.