So what are we buying in the time of #Coronavirus?

A clothes store sends me emails with special offers which I sometimes look at but usually delete unopened. Today when I saw the email it made me wonder who is going to buy clothes in the time of corona virus?

Suddenly we are working from home so we don't need petrol, we don't need work clothes and nor do we need sports, gym wear or swimwear (they say to stay away from pools).

In fact what do we need at all really?  A musical instrument to learn perhaps, Sudoku puzzles, books. It would be nice to have a decent broadband connection but I have given up on the NBN having tried it in a previous house. Instead I am relying on my phone as a hotspot which is working well for me and much cheaper, even live streaming the odd opera.

The change to our consumer habits is long overdue. We didn't seem to be able to get off the consumer conveyor belt within our current structures. Will this crisis be with us for long enough for us all to rethink our options I wonder?

Coronavirus in Sydney

I've been thinking of setting up a blog to track Coronavirus but things are moving so very quickly that it is hard to keep up. Sydney is suddenly tracking quickly along that exponential curve we are familiar with from Wutan and Italy. Today we have 11 new cases in NSW that are not connected to previously infected people or to overseas travel, so we are definitely in phase 2. A couple of weeks ago I would not have believed I would be socially distancing to the extent I am. Keeping 6 feet from everyone and staying home as much as possible. No more concerts, at least for now. My heart goes out to all the musicians affected (among many others). Now is the time for universal basic income.  The next two weeks will be a torrid time but I am hoping we can avoid Italy's fate. There are 10 pages of obituaries in today's Milan newspaper.

Much depends on our government and the problem we have is that our current government has been rewarded for focusing on tribal politics and they now seem incapable of thinking outside the square. Trump does something outlandish and our PM Morrison seems to do the same thing. They are cut from the same cloth, both marketing men with empathy deficit. In addition Morrison is an active member of a penticostal church that is getting ready to welcome the rapture (after they have all made lots of money). It is not very encouraging for the Australian public to have the medical establishment's opinion overruled or derided, although I must say it is refreshing to see the science establishment is at least being consulted.

This virus will show us just how important science actually is and will perhaps give us the opportunity to change our ways, as we will have to do to survive climate change. I had just about given up on the chances of the human race to survive, now I am not so sure.  This nasty lesson will hopefully refocus us on what is really important.