In Malaysia, Since The Pandemic Began...

In Malaysia, since the COVID-19 pandemic began:

29,500 people lost their lives to the virus

800,000 people lost their jobs (up till 2020 only)

77,000 couples got divorced

Over 1,000 people have taken their own lives (for each life lost, 135 people are directly affected)

224,000 calls have been made to helplines requesting for psychosocial and emotional support

30,000 businesses have closed down (up till 2020 only)

I don't know what else it would take for the people in power to show some genuine empathy and humility, and say no to bigger cars, bigger offices, more pay,  pangkat, pingat etc for at least a couple more years...

Take A Moment To Reflect

A new month and the world is recovering. Best time to do some self-auditing. What is different now compared to 3 months ago? Are we kinder? More empathetic? More thankful of what we have? Or it's Business As Usual as per the pre-covid days? We live in a world where we need to APPLY to perform some of our prayers and the mosques are still closed at certain times. Let's ponder over what that truly means.

If we have less of everything now, imagine those who didn't have anything to begin with. How are they coping? Or does it mean we just have to be more selfish since we're getting less of the world's abundance? Think about our lowest points during this period. What were we praying for? Protection from the disease and death? To go out to buy bread? To see our loved ones? To keep our jobs? And what are we praying for now? So much to think about. And thank Allah that He actually stopped everything to make us sit and ponder, before it's simply too late.

Supermarket Sweep!

It was LITERALLY like Supermarket Sweep! Only 30mins per customer. I stuck to the list for about 5mins before I started grabbing whatever I could. By the 20th minute, they were already making an announcement for green tag holders to go to the cashier counter. I was racing shopping trolleys with aunties and braders in tracksuits. A good workout AND I also got Gardenia bread. I need to lie down now.