London Diary: Of coronavirus, fear, lockdown and how it feels for home to be a prison 

Corona: Fear is a virus

It was inevitable. Someone was bound to do it one day when it’s all over and we can all breathe again without that ugly mask. But it has happened sooner than anyone imagined.

A film on the Coronavirus pandemic is already in the cans, ready for release the moment the lockdown is lifted and cinemas open. Alternatively, you might even get to see it on one of the film streaming platforms like Netflix as early as next month.

Made by the Persian-Canadian director Mostafa Keshvari and titled Corona: Fear is a virus, it examines the reactions of a group of neighbours trapped in a broken-down lift with a young Chinese woman who starts coughing. Keshavari has described it as a thriller that shows how quickly people can turn on each other in a crisis. The Sunday Times said he came up with the idea while “riding in an elevator reading early reports of what was then called the Wuhan virus”. Get ready to be deluged with “Corona porn” as well amid reports that film and television executives around the world are on the job. Everyone loves a good crisis.

Mean spirits

British media has been awash with “feel-good” stories of human kindness in the time of Coronavirus with everyone trying to do their bit to help those in need of help revealing their hidden Good Samaritan side. Prince William has said that “Britain is at its best, weirdly, when we’re all in a crisis”.

Except that the meaner side of many of us is still rudely alive and kicking. Ask Chinese expats who have faced racial abuse and told to “go home” following Donald Trump’s characterisation of Coronavirus as the “Chinese virus”. Paranoia about catching infection and conspiracy theories are also driving attacks on public workers who are putting their own lives at risk to keep a semblance of essential services (transport, road maintenance staff, street cleaners) running.

The Guardian reported how local Council staff are being “spat at, racially abused and attacked while delivering essential services amid the coronavirus pandemic”. One community support officer, who was enforcing the government’s social distancing guidelines, was reportedly run over by a cyclist breaking his leg. Whither “community spirit”?

Grim reminder

Meanwhile, will all this hand-clapping for Britain’s frontline medical staff, mostly immigrants, survive the Coronavirus pandemic? Or will it be back to racism and xenophobia once we return to our normal lives?
The question has prompted Sachini Imbuldeniya, a London-based film-maker of foreign descent, to make a short video celebrating the contribution of immigrant workers to Britain’s fight against the virus.

It has been viewed more than eight million times online and features migrant medical staff and other key personnel recite an anti-racist poem describing the discrimination they faced before the lockdown. Doctors, nurses, teachers, shopkeepers and delivery drivers read out a line each to the camera.

“Don’t say ‘go home’, don’t say ‘not here’ You know how it feels for home to be a prison, You know how it feels to live in fear.” Another passage reads: “So, you clap for me now... But don’t forget when it’s no longer quiet, Don’t forget when you can no longer hear the birds singing.” JK Rowling called it “bloody brilliant”. Imbuldeniya wrote: “We must ensure that we never go back to a time where we ignore, hurt or disrespect people because of their religion, profession or the colour of their skin.” Amen.

Corona cost

While Corona-induced panic buying is causing shortages in many other areas, milk apparently remains in more than abundant supply. With restaurants, cafes and office canteens closed, the demand for milk has dropped so sharply that British dairy farmers are reported to be dumping thousands of litres of milk in the absence of alternative markets.

One farmer tweeted a video of milk gushing out of a pipe. “What a waste of all the effort that goes into producing quality product,” wrote Robert Mallet of Wiltshire. According to the National Farmers’ Union there were an estimated 2,000 dairy farmers in distress, and their number was growing almost on a daily basis. This is the invisible cost of the paranoia-driven indefinite Corona lockdown.

War-time spirit

A 99-year-old war veteran has raised more than £20 million for the NHS (National Health Service) to help fight Coronavirus by walking 100 laps of his house garden on his walker.

Captain Tom Moore, who served in India during the War, set out to raise £1,000 for NHS “Charities Together” by completing ten laps of his garden before his 100th birthday. But he raised his target after being deluged with donations to his fundraising page.

“I never dreamt I would be involved in such an occasion as this,” he said at the end of his final lap.

And, lastly, the brutally long lockdown is driving a surge in alcoholism, gambling and mental health issues across Britain prompting questions about the cost of locking down the country indefinitely.