Haze and Masks

For the past week or so the little sunny island of Singapore has been engulfed in smog coming from her friendly neighbours and there’s plenty of sharing on social media.

The last time air quality was even as bad was in 1997. As of now, it has far surpassed previous records of how bad things were then social media has in my opinion changed how people have responded to the situation.

The obvious oversharing of hazy skylines on Instagram and related memes on Facebook aside, what has been exposed I feel, is how inadequate the response of the official authorities have been.

With social sites, everything is fast moving and things sometimes get blown out of proportion.Taking the sale of masks for example. After a few pictures of #ootd with masks on nobody is going to think that they’re uncool anymore and before you know it everyone is going to go queueing for them. The official word? — we have enough masks for everyone. Seriously, haven’t they learnt anything?

Hardly anyone is going to just go to the pharmacy or hospital just to pick up one for themselves. They’re going to get one for their families, friends, co-workers and before you know it there is not a single one left for the latecomers and the ones who said there are enough masks for everyone are going to have to eat their words.

I’m quite sure there are enough to go around. Unfortunately some are going to end up with more than just one whether by carelessness (misplacing the previous one), for profiteering, or the great kiasu-ism that we Singaporeans are well known for. This then leads to some pretty unhappy people who want to but can’t get any of the highly desirable masks.

With social media having been around for so long, saying that there are enough masks for everyone just doesn’t quite cut it. Instead how about updates on retail points for masks and their rough stock levels. Even if they do not promise having enough for everyone, I’m quite sure people will be much happier, maybe even rising up a few places on the happiness index. Afterall great expectations could lead to great disappointment too.