Masked Hypocrisy

I never want to write another COVID post as long as I live, but this came to me at 1am in the morning, demanding to be written.

On 31st April we heard that all restrictions were being removed. Perhaps that’s why I had a sense of complacency. Despite knowing that deep down there is a deeper agenda, I felt that I could put my energy and focus elsewhere, on work and spirituality, growing veggies and trying to be the change, instead of complaining about the powers that be, or trying to raise awareness about the dangers of a certain medical intervention.

Anyway, I have heard via a friend, that they are extending the masks. Well they are in some cases but not in others. They are removing masks in shops and restaurants, to keep the tourists happy, (there are lots of them now). Staff will still have to wear them, and they are keeping them for public transport, offices and schools until the end of the school year.

The dragon leader who treats his own people as second class citizens, this is the logic of the continuing global pandemic.

As I zig-zag my way around tourists, it all seems so normal, and so why masks?

Masks are of course, part of the new abnormal, part of ‘living with COVID’, part of a way to ‘keep people safe.’

But it seems the powers that be only want to keep those safe, who are compliant, who are terrified, and who are downtrodden, and the children. The rules are for the Italians, but not the privileged tourists, who come to spend their Euros.

I went to San Gimignano ( a very touristy place) last week and the whole place was full of English speaking voices from the US, Canada and Australia. At one point when we were shopping my daughter needed the toilet, so I thought I’d go into a cafe and get a coffee with her while my husband and friend shopped.

I was directed towards a QR code that I could scan to get the menu. I told a semi lie and said my phone was out of battery, (it was really low on charge), so could I have a paper menu? She said she’d go and ask her boss. I just ended up walking away, as I didn't really want to support such crazy logic. This is the strangest global pandemic ever where it’s okay for people to travel thousands of miles for a holiday, but when they get there they cannot touch a menu to‘keep everyone safe.’

Two years on, I hope people are seeing that the way our society is rapidly being reshaped to become more online than offline, is not about a virus. 

We went to the World Champion Gelataria where an extrovert but masked-up owner entertained the crowds in the queue outside, chatting and posing for photos brandishing the QR code for the ice-cream selection. Before the camera clicked he would pull down his mask, and put his arms around the travellers. What a show it all is.

Everyone was scanning the code and looking on their phones for flavours. My family and our friend just looked on and checked out the selection when we got into the Gelateria.

I heard from a friend that his COVID fearing, triple vaxxed colleagues have all had COVID so remove their masks in their private meetings, even though he still hasn't caught it, while masking up in public Zoom calls.

The selfishness and the show, the hypocrisy and the shallowness and the virtual signalling.

I no longer, feel like putting any energy towards ‘waking people up’ or trying to raise awareness, but I did feel called to write these words. While the happy tourists breathe free, there will be Italian children sitting at desks re-inhaling their own exhaled air. The mask to me is not a symbol of safety and care, but of oppression.