Take a look at yourself and then make the change

The first anniversary of the Movement Control Order (MCO) was on Thursday.

Malaysia appears to be over the worst but we should not take anything for granted as we prematurely celebrated beating Covid-19 last July when we only had one case on July 1.

While going through social media, I was struck by this Facebook posting.

I saw many post about celebrating one year of #MCO . However, what is the main takeaway from this ?
What have you learned after one year?

Did you improve yourself as a person , nevermind a professional .

Posted by Kishen Alex Raj on Thursday, 18 March 2021

It got me thinking about what Kishen, who used to work for theSun newspaper, said. He does have a valid point.

What exactly have we learnt from the past year? Have we become better or are we still griping and pointing fingers without first trying to improve ourselves?

It has been so easy for many, me included, to always blame the government for the many, many screw-ups, including the lack of clarity of the standard operating procedures (SOPs).

The seemingly double standards when it came to the punishment for politicians and at times, their family members for not following SOPs, were the hot topic in the early days of MCO. It still is today.

But are we following SOPs or laws strictly?

After a year, it is still common to see people walking around without masks or wearing them improperly. When you mention it, they ignore you or glare at you

It is a similar situation with people who smoke in eateries. If stares could kill …

There are also people who bring pets to restaurants – when there are pet cafes for that. There are many, many other examples … traffic violators for example.

Then, there are still many with the ‘tidak apa’ attitude who try to evade scanning the MySejahtera app.

These are the same people who rant and scream when politicians get off ‘scot-free’ and try to justify it by saying “if they can get off, why not me?”

As the saying goes, two wrongs don’t make a right.

That does not mean we should give the politicians a free pass. By all means, go ahead and call them out but perhaps it is time for us to take a good look in the mirror.

Let us improve ourselves first.

Anyway, today is the 368th day since the start of the original MCO and this is the 40th weekly edition of ‘The MCO Diaries’.

LESS THAN 10,000 INFECTIONS IN THE PAST WEEK

For the first time this year, Malaysia recorded less than 10,000 new Covid-19 cases in a seven-day span.

There were 9,103 new infections which brought the total cases to 330,042. In the past five weeks, there has been a steady decline in new cases.

From Feb 13-19 there were 19,505 cases, Feb 20-26 (18,140), Feb 27-March 5 (14,146) and March 6-12 (10,842).

Hopefully, the trend will continue and no new superclusters emerge.

There was also a significant drop in deaths from 44 a week ago to 22 this last seven days which brings the total fatalities to 1,225.

A month ago on Feb 19, there were 90 deaths for the accumulative week.

Malaysia’s recovery rate climbed to 95.28 per cent when another 11,795 patients were given the all-clear. That brought the total cured to 314,457.

Separately, on Thursday, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin received his first dose of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine. He is the first Malaysian to get the Chinese-produced vaccine.

On Feb 24, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Meanwhile, the United States reported a 22 per cent decline in deaths from Covid-19 last week, while vaccinations accelerated to a record 2.4 million shots per day.

Worldwide there are 122.8 million cases with 2.71 million deaths.

ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE IS ON ASTRO

Those who subscribe to Astro can watch the much-anticipated Zack Snyder’s Justice League for free on the Astrogo App or via the Ultrabox.

Originally released in 2017, this new four-hour version will supposedly change the way you view the DC Universe. Best of all, it is free!

‘UNLESS I AM VERY MUCH MISTAKEN – WHICH I AM’

Graeme Murray Walker, the ‘Voice of F1’, died last Saturday, aged 97.

Walker reported on his first Grand Prix for BBC radio at Silverstone in 1949 which was won by Baron Toulo de Graffenried’s Maserati 4CLT.

His television finale – for ITV in 2001 – was the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis won by Mika Hakkinen’s McLaren.

However, Walker’s mistakes – nicknamed ‘Murrayisms’ – made him a much-loved commentator even here in Malaysia. I got to interview him too, but sadly, cannot remember if it was in 1999 when Malaysia first hosted a Formula One race or the following year.

He is famous for saying “unless I am very much mistaken – which I am”. Here are some other examples.

PREDICTING THE FUTURE

Archie comics tweeted this about the comic Betty which was published in February 1997. Spooky!

https://twitter.com/ArchieComics/status/1371927216922234886

IRISH GOODIES

Although St Patrick’s Day was on Wednesday, there is no reason why you cannot still indulge in some Irish delight. Here are some recipes from Olive magazine to try at home.

DOWN MEMORY LANE

Who else misses this?