Quarantine and the poor

All these steps being taken to contain coronavirus – suspending schools, quarantine, work from home, lockdown, cancelling sports events will have an economic impact. Unfortunately, as in many crises, the rich will remain rich and it is the poor who will suffer much more. In fact, it is already beginning.

I was having coffee two days ago at one of my favorite Makati coffee houses. I mentioned  to the head waiter that there were only two tables with customers unlike before when it was normal for them to have eight to ten tables at a time with customers. He said, very sadly, that their number of customers had gone down by 80 percent in a period of only two weeks! Normally they had three waiters and two waitresses plus the kitchen staff per week. They were allowed one day off a week before this pandemic. Now they are forced to take two days off; and, management just announced that next week they had to take three days off a week. 

He explained that this was going to be very difficult because they were going to lose half of their total  wages. Worst, they were also going to lose income from tips. They had no choice except to accept lesser working days because the alternative was that some of them would have to be laid off.  He also said that a nearby boutique hotel normally had 90 to 100 guests daily. Some of their friends had been laid off because the number of guests were down to 10 to 12 a day. The management had already announced the possibility of temporarily closing and everyone would have to go on leave without pay.

I have been asking my colleagues in the event of a lockdown or plant or business closure due to coronavirus, will they continue paying their employees? Work from home is the usual solution. But this is not a feasible alternative for people who work in factories, mine sites, delivery service, food servers, hotel workers, restaurants, stores  and so many other types of employees. They are told to go on leave; but, what happens if they run out of leaves? 

The other major problem for the poor is that millions are contractual. They are not entitled to paid vacation or sick leaves. How many employers would be willing to continue paying them for the duration of the crisis? Then there are the workers in the informal economy like those in the Greenhills Shopping Center or Divisoria or sidewalk vendors who have no safety nets.

The rich may think that this is not their problem; but these are people whose families survive on a daily basis. They will avoid tests and hospitals and will continue selling on the sidewalks, collecting garbage or whatever their source of meager income, even while sick. 

Someone was asking me if this was a disease for the middle class because there were no reported cases in urban poor areas. Let me share part of a story from Riza Mantaring. A father of a PGH doctor told her how she and her colleagues were caring for some people who showed early signs of COVID-19. When the doctors suggested further tests and quarantine, the patients left unwilling to go under quarantine. We can surmise that these people were either daily wage earners or worked in the informal economy who survive on a “hand to mouth” basis. I am sure that there are many more  like them.

I do not then see how the coronavirus can really be contained if there is no way the poor can be induced to stay home if they are  sick. And the rich cannot just “wash their hands” and say this is not their problem. Even if they imprison themselves inside their gated villages, the virus will eventually reach the rich. If you are rich living in an  enclave, how many people are you in contact with who are not rich and do not live in gated villages? In your office you have clerks, messengers, janitors; and in your villages you have servants, drivers, nannies, cooks, caddies, umbrella girls, garbage collectors, gardeners and so on. When they go home at night or on weekends, they do not   go to gated villages. 

There are also difficulties that impact the poor and not the rich. For example, schools have been closed. In some of these schools, free lunch or even breakfast are served to students. School closure does not just mean loss of learning, it also means loss of daily meals for the poorest students. 

The purpose of containment is to ensure that there is a healthy environment for everyone and not just for the rich. But when I listen to debates on the effect of the coronavirus most of what I hear are the effects on the stock market and GDP. If there is no healthy environment for all but only for the rich, the rich may have more time but sooner or later they will be affected. 

Finally, we cannot use as models countries like Japan, South Korea, United States or Europe where the poor have access to social safety nets. This is the time for the rich to show that they have real concern for the poor.

Creative writing classes for writers of all ages

 In view of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Write Things is cancelling its March 21 Young Writers’ Hangout and March 28 workshop on “Writing Children’s Stories.” These will be rescheduled to future dates. Payments made may be refunded or applied to future classes. Thank you for your support and understanding. Do contact +63 945-2273216/[email protected].

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