Covid-19 Yo-Yo in Singapore and Japan

 Circuit Breaker (April 7, 2020), Phase 2 (June 18, 2020), Phase 3 (December 28, 2020) and back to Phase 2 (heightened-alert) (May 17, 2021)… It’s been like a Covid-19 yo-yo.

Then, the situation in Singapore seems far better than in Japan, where the central government must coordinate with each of the local governments. Such coordination is unnecessary because, given the size of the country, there is no local government here (Ha!).

With no fuss of waiting in a long line of people, I myself had a first Pfizer-BionTech vaccine shot on May 17 and my second was on June 7, both at Bishan Community Club. These two jabs have given me some security against the virus though, as everyone knows by now, in no way did they no reassurance of me having had the antigen against it.

Tonight, it was reported by Japanese media that the Japanese government will declare a state of emergency in Tokyo, which, the reports say, will last until August 22, a fourth such declaration imposed on the capital. The declaration covers the entire period of the Olympic Games.

And the pandemic has destroyed my micro-business as nobody is coming here on business trips and, of course, I’m staying here with a reluctant quarantine, not going out of the neighborhood except when I got the two shots. It’s been a year since I began returning much of my salary to my company to keep it afloat. But I don’t think this can go on. What’s worse, this country is raising the hurdle for obtaining the kind of work permit which I need have (“EP”) for living and working here.

I’d LOVE to leave Singapore. The current situation makes it like, the longer I work here, the more money I lose. Then (once again), where to go after here? The easiest option for me, in a sense, is to go back to Japan, where I, a Japanese citizen, can be jobless, even homeless, without any kind of visa. HOWEVER, it’s one thing for me to be treated as a foreigner in a foreign country (frustrating but no surprise) and treated as such in my own country, something that I should expect to suffer. I do have to think about my immediate future. But it is not easy especially because of these restrictions of free movement. My company is bleeding still and it is a sieve that can’t retain transfused blood.

REMINDER TO YOU (PROBABLY NOW WITH A DIFFERENT NAME YOU HAVE BOUGHT OR STOLEN FROM A DEAD PERSON) AND YOUR MOTHER: DO NOT FORGET THAT I AM STILL CHASING YOU, WHETHER YOU ARE IN HONG KONG, THE UAE OR THE PHILIPPINES.