Mad Chaos: February 4, 2020 – The Novel Coronavirus Normalizes International Racism

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Today, is our thirteenth consecutive day of self-quarantine in Guangzhou (广州市) due to the coronavirus (冠状病毒).

Earlier I had taken my son outside to play along Pearl river so that my wife could teach her online Mandarin classes in privacy.  When I arrived home she was still in the middle of one of her classes.

While still asleep, I picked my son up from his pram and walked him into the bedroom.  I patted him on his back.  He fell straight to sleep.

The time to myself allowed me to work for an hour.

Ordering Takeaway Food 

When the baby woke up from his nap I brought him gingerly into the television room, lay a blanket down and let him slowly play with the things that I scattered on the floor.  We played together..

Around that time, my wife also finished teaching her online Mandarin classes to her young Chinese students.

We decided to order takeout food.  I used WeChat (微信) to order two soups for 60元.  She ordered an extra soup for free.

Seeking Information From Scoot Airlines

While we waited for our takeout dinner to arrive, I called up Scoot Airlines to inquire about at what stage in the process my airplane ticket refunds are at.

I need the refund before I can purchase new airplane tickets so that I do not need to borrow money from elsewhere.

I was on the phone for 2 hours to Scoot Airlines.  In the end, the phone hung up by itself.  That was a waste of money on an international call.

A Trick To Claim Ownership Of Used Face Masks

Soon, a delivery man brought the takeout food to our apartment complex.

My wife headed downstairs to fetch the order.  The takeout bag she returned with was crammed with large plastic tubs.

We stacked the food all on the table.  The dinner looked delicious.

Takeout Food Delivered From Local Guangzhou Restaurant

One novel thing I did tonight was to initial the face masks I wore using red crayon.

I mentioned to my wife, “How do I know which face mask you wore and which face mask I wore?”

To avoid the confusion I told her, “I am going to mark my face mask so I know that it is mine.”

Repercussions Of The Australian Travel Ban On China



During dinner I read news articles about the racism that Chinese citizens travelling to Australia have experienced.

On the day that the Australian government announced a travel ban on all Chinese nationals and foreign national travellers coming from mainland China to Australia, there were reports of Chinese students being detained and questioned for a few hours by Australian customs.  Their valid visas were then suspended and they had to return, at their own cost, with no compensation from the Australian government who placed the travellers in that mess.

The rough treatment is something that you would expect from a racist country like white Australia.  It has disappointed me but I could see that this is what was going to happen, and it happened.

A Shameful Australian Response To The Coronavirus Outbreak

This kind of discrimination against a whole country or race would never have happened if it was Mad Cow Disease from Britain for example.  I did not see British people being stopped from coming to Australia at that time.

The novel coronavirus outbreak in China has normalized a lot of fear, racism, and political point scoring coming from Australia.

A Shop In Sydney Australia Spreading Racism Against Chinese People

People in Australia have no idea what a live animal market in China looks like.  I have to walk past these every few days, but the average Australian has no idea what people like me are going through here in China.  Their information is filtered by racist voices in Australian news media and within the Australian government itself.

So, I do not like my country of birth, Australia.  Every time something like this happens it further reinforces in my mind how much of a racist country Australia is.

When I read comments online from racist Australians defending the travel ban decision it makes me angry.  Nobody from Australia seems to have any kind of compassion whatsoever for any person suffering overseas, and no empathy for how their lives have been affected.

Shame on the Australian public.

Teaching An Online English Class

From dinner, I came to play with my son a while longer until he came to sleep.

I used that time to call the Australian consulate emergency 24-hour hotline to make further inquiries and to pass on information.

A student had scheduled an English class with me at 11pm on the Language Master APP.  He is a regular student from Fujian (福建省) who speaks quite slowly.

We had a quiet, one-hour class, where we spent 20 minutes discussing the coronavirus outbreak.  Then I emailed class material to him.  We worked through the handout until we came to the end of our one-hour English class.

Counting Ambulances In Guangzhou



The roads outside my study room window were still.  The traffic had thinned out in Guangzhou, especially after midnight.

One of my favorite pastimes now as I work in the study room is to look out the window and count how many ambulances and police cars I see fly across the freeway every hour with red and blue lights flashing.  I counted at least 2 per hour.  I never noticed that before.

I imagine some of those ambulances will have patients with coronavirus infections being taken to specialist hospitals.

Jogging To Guangzhou’s Pearl River

In these midnight hours I decided to go for a jog.  I donned a face mask, and jogged down Industrial Avenue (工业大道) to Pearl river (珠江).

Once I arrived to Pearl river, I was the only person jogging.  I saw one person on foot, one person on a bike delivering takeout, and one person leaving a late-night business across the road.  It was a very quiet night tonight.

I did not have my face mask on for the majority of the jog.  Since no people were around I kept it off.  I am not scared if no people are around.

I jogged to the red bridge and then turned back towards Industrial avenue.

The jog finished at 1:15am when I entered the convenience store at the street level of our apartment block.  I purchased a can of cold coffee and coffee satchels before I returned upstairs, back home.

Diary Of A Mad Chaos: Coronavirus In China
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