Author Archives: memoriesandsuch

2020 Week 21 Update

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A couple of days back, the headline in The Straits Times screamed that the world had surpassed 5 million Covid-19 cases. Today we have surpassed 5.21 million cases with more than 338,000 dead and more than 2.05 million who have successfully beat the virus.

Today I heard that WHO has declared South America to be “a new epicentre”of the coronavirus panademic, following a surge in the number of infections of Covid-19. Brazil is at the forefront of these new infections with more than 310,000 positive cases and experts saying that because there is a lack of testing in the country, the real positive figures are much more. Today, Brazil ranks second in total positive cases behind the United States, having overtaken Russia. India ranks in at number 11 with over 125,000 cases, aroud 52,000 recovered and about 4,000 deaths. Singapore is ranked at number 26 with more than 31,000 positive cases, about 13,000 recovered and 23 deaths.

Countries where governments are easing up restrictions are seeing new surges in positive cases, which will probably lead to more clampdowns and further restrictions. Singapore will slowly start easing down the circuit breaker from 2 June and some retail establishments will start to reopen as will schools. For the graduating cohort, they will have to go to school every day, while the other classes will alternate between home based and classroom learning. The children will be screened before entering the school and they will have to wear a mask or face shield during their time in school, except when they have physical education lessons or are eating in the canteen. I am hoping and praying that the four weeks of the stage one of the easing of restrictions in Singapore does not lead to a new surge of cases and push us back to more severe restrictions.

After a month of fasting, Muslims around the world will be celebrating Ramadan Eid today and tomorrow. Wishing all my muslim readers a very happy Eid. Eid Mubarak to everyone reading this and celebrating the festival. As always, stay home and stay safe folks!

In My Hands Today…

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Powder Necklace – Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

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To protect her daughter from the fast life and bad influences of London, her mother sent her to school in rural Ghana. The move was for the girl’s own good, in her mother’s mind, but for the daughter, the reality of being the new girl, the foreigner-among-your-own-people, was even worse than the idea.

During her time at school, she would learn that Ghana was much more complicated than her fellow ex-pats had ever told her, including how much a London-raised child takes something like water for granted. In Ghana, water “became a symbol of who had and who didn’t, who believed in God and who didn’t. If you didn’t have water to bathe, you were poor because no one had sent you some.”

After six years in Ghana, her mother summons her home to London to meet the new man in her mother’s life—and his daughter. The reunion is bittersweet and short-lived as her parents decide it’s time that she get to know her father. So once again, she’s sent off, this time to live with her father, his new wife, and their young children in New York—but not before a family trip to Disney World.

In My Hands Today…

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A Circle of Souls – Preetham Grandhi

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The sleepy town of Newbury, Connecticut, is shocked when a little girl is found brutally murdered. The town’s top detective, perplexed by a complete lack of leads, calls in FBI agent Leia Bines, an expert in cases involving children.

Meanwhile, Dr. Peter Gram, a psychiatrist at Newbury’s hospital, searches desperately for the cause of seven-year-old Naya Hastings’s devastating nightmares. Afraid that she might hurt herself in the midst of a torturous episode, Naya’s parents have turned to the bright young doctor as their only hope.

The situations confronting Leia and Peter converge when Naya begins drawing chilling images of murder after being bombarded by the disturbing images in her dreams. Amazingly, her sketches are the only clues to the crime that has panicked Newbury residents. Against her better judgment, Leia explores the clues in Naya’s crude drawings, only to set off an alarming chain of events.

Poem: The Rainbow

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World over things are getting slightly better, but we are still not out of the wood yet. There will be a new normal when things start going back to normal (or as normal as it can be) and the world we know would have changed completely. This panademic is a defining moment for all of us. Yet, in all this misery, we have seen moments of hope, resilience and how far the human spirit can go.

A rainbow has been seen for centuries as a symbol of hope, a promise from the greater power that things will get better

The Rainbow

When things seem to be at rock bottom,
When you feel broken and numb,

When nothing in life feels like it is going your way
When you feel bound, sad and gray

That is when you step outside to get some fresh air
To think, to feel and maybe say a little prayer

Then you look up and see the aftermath of the rain
The sun peeking out of the clouds and the you feel hope ignite within you again

You see the sky light up in a huge smile, you see a rainbow,
And you know that things will be fine, your face now has that glow

Follow that rainbow, follow your deepest wish,
You will get there one day, your life’s race will reach the line that says finish

The symbol of hope, of a new beginning
This rainbow is a sign that will make your heart sing!