Quarantine! Which quarantine?

During the cold war era, people were well alerted about a possible outbreak of a nuclear war between USSR and US, these two super powers possessed each a nuke that could wipe off the entire civilization as we know it along with humans. We thank God we are still breathing.

Flash forward 2020, the new enemy the world is facing is dubbed the invisible enemy as president Trump likes to put it, it is an enemy that has terrorized the norms of the world as we know it and disrupted every entire sector including business and economy. The enemy has perhaps forced some of us to come up with the term quarantine, a self confinement where you are expected to stay indoors until this enemy is defeated or at least the cure (read vaccine) is found.

I’m not going to talk more on Corona virus as it has been probably the most trending topic in the world, and we are sure going to have more banter on it right after the quarantine.

Dashiell Hammett in his imagination wrote one of the best mantras people go with, ‘you gotta look on the brighter side, even if there isn’t one’’ this literally means that in every situation there is always a silver lining. No matter how bad the case or the weather can change, we ought to look for the positive side of it and how to capitalize on it.

In this quarantine, many including myself were introduced to a new way of living by mandatory staying indoors; this is more difficult than most people might think and it has its own consequences both mental and physically but there is a silver lining too.

Most people have had a lot of time to rethink and idealize whatever was going on in their lives, though I’m not trying to glorify the situation we are in , some employees I talked to before penning this considered it to be a vacation but entirely spent indoors. Some companies in order to cut losses have told their employees to take this time as an annual leave and I totally think this is fair.

As the ancient Greek philosopher Theophratus put it ‘’Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend’ the quarantine presented time, but the problem was how do we make value of this not so common availability of time?

To some this meant family time which is usually not the case due to the rule of the hustle which leaves limited time to focus on family. I loved that families are now spending enough time together; kids see enough of their parents, helping them with homework and all.

To people who are far from their parents and haven’t started theirs (celibacy) this hammered more loneliness but also since it’s the digital era it meant learning skills. I can now cook (i’m actually a chef, who could have possibly thought! Hello Marriott!}, thanks to quarantine and YouTube; people are learning to play musical instruments like guitars and pianos. Others especially the SnapChat and InstaGram world (gen X &Z) are becoming more creative dropping a lot of content that keep their prey (audience) glued to the phones. I have seen so many challenges on Tiktok and honestly it’s amazing what humans can do when totally focused. Instagram Live is giving us a whole new experience of debates and unpaid entertainment from comedians, movies stars et al, and there are so many podcasts to listen to. If I was an HR/TV programs director I wouldn’t look far than these young content creators.

On the funny side, many babies are expected to be born post corona era, I am not going into details, but we might be heading to baby boom part 2.

Further from individuals, companies were all forced to come up with online services or collapse. Including those who have been late, Building technological infrastructure needed to advance such deliveries. A much needed force every CEO will be proud of. Also digital literacy awareness has almost tripled. Thanks to the need of digital services which are now if not should be added to the pillars in the Maslow’s hierarchy, our own Dr Emeka and International University of East Africa will be pleased with the news, they have always championed the use of technology in the region.

This pandemic has caused havoc and the world economy is going to suffer as economists project, but the humans have always dealt with threats and this too shall pass.

To conclude, I will borrow the quote from the famous Kenyan Athlete Eliud Kipchogge ‘No human is limited’.