Editorial
The Year of the Rabbit starts this Sunday, January 22, exactly three years after Macau confirmed its first novel coronavirus case.
That’s quite symbolic, indeed.
Traditionally, in Chinese culture, the rabbit is regarded as the luckiest of the 12 zodiac animals (including the more symbolic than real Dragon), representing peace, longevity, prosperity – all of them phenomena that any reasonable, sensible and decent person is looking forward to.
Luck and diplomacy are other generally coveted situations attributed to the zodiac rabbit or hare (the Chinese word 兔子 “tuzi” denotes both Leporidae). Well, we could opt for the Scottish-Gaelic word for rabbit, “bunny”, which sounds extremely cute and reminds me of the nowadays politically absolutely incorrect notion of nightclubs’ bunny girls.
Chinese folklore also considers the rabbit, the fourth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac animals, a particularly gentle, kind, tender and, last but not least, very clever creature. All this sounds extremely positive and appears to predict 2023 to be a year of hope.
Hope is the most important thing that has kept humanity pursuing progress since Homo sapiens emerged some 300,000 years ago in Africa. Hope has kept us in Macau going through the first three years of COVID-19 relatively unscathed – in sanitary terms in particular, although the consequences of the pandemic’s impact on the local economy have been dire, notwithstanding the government’s string of financial support measures for both citizens and businesses.
Thanks to the local government’s strict anti-pandemic curbs, Macau was internationally known as an oasis in the COVID-19 desert for nearly three years. As the Omicron variant proved to be more infectious but less lethal than its Alpha, Beta, Gama and Delta predecessors, the local, Hong Kong and central governments took the right decision early last month to start easing the restrictions.
For some the relaxation should have come earlier, for others it came too fast. In Macau, the transition, which proved painful for many as some three-quarters of the population were infected with the virus during that period, many of them like myself over the Christmas holidays of all days, lasted exactly a month.
As of yesterday, Macau’s official COVID-19 death toll stood at 116 – some 95 percent of the fatalities have been recorded since the relaxation of the prevention and control measures about five weeks ago. The number of confirmed cases since January 22, 2020 stood at 3,449 as of yesterday, out of a population of 671,900 (as of the end of the third quarter of last year).
What is most needed right now is to further optimise the treatment of serious and potentially fatal COVID-19 cases through a range of constantly updated measures and approaches.
I agree with Macau-based Foreign Ministry Commissioner Liu Xianfa who wrote in a well-thought-through article published in our newspaper on Wednesday that “the continuous optimisation and adjustment of China’s epidemic prevention and control policies will also provide a more stable and reliable turbine to the recovery of the world economy and help the world to end the epidemic as soon as possible”.
Chinese people’s health is crucial for the global economy’s vigour.
The fight against COVID-19 must not slacken – it must actually be intensified. The challenge reminds me of the Chinese proverb – a warning to all intents and purposes – of “holding a tree and waiting for a rabbit” (守株待兔 shǒu zhū dài tù), which can also be translated as “keeping watch at the tree awaiting a rabbit”.
The proverb is about a peasant who one day saw a scared rabbit running past him before fatally crashing into a tree in his field. The peasant was happy as he had got a free dinner without having to work for it. Enjoying his rabbit stew later that day, he wondered why he should ever bother ploughing again as he had a tree in his field where rabbits happened to bite the dust. From then on, he stopped toiling and merely sat by the tree waiting for another rabbit to crash into it and perish. Much to his surprise, it never happened again. He fell into poverty and became his fellow villagers’ standing joke.
The adage is similar to the English idiom of “waiting for something to fall into one’s lap” – we all know that this hardly ever happens. It’s sheer imprudence to rely on luck and fail to put in the necessary effort.
Tenacity and resolve are required to vanquish COVID-19. It is not a slam dunk. All this will probably take many more months, or even years.
As President Xi Jinping said in a video link with medical workers and an elderly patient at a hospital in Harbin on Wednesday: “We have now entered a new phase of COVID-19 response. Tough challenges remain, but the light of hope is right in front of us. Perseverance means victory.”
That’s why the local government must persevere in tackling the lingering COVID-19 menace head on. That’s also the best way of ensuring Macau’s economic recovery. Tourists must feel safe from becoming severely ill of COVID-19 during or after their visit here. While resuming normal business activities, Macau must remain on high alert for the novel coronavirus. Protecting people’s lives means protecting business interests as well – such as our all-important tourism sector. COVID-19 remains an enemy of the people here, there and everywhere.
So let’s all enjoy our first COVID-19 restriction-free Chinese New Year holiday in three years (the New Year of the Mouse [or the Rat] fell on January 25, 2020. i.e., just three days after Macau had recorded its first novel coronavirus case), such as by travelling quarantine-free again to one’s favourite destination (I will visit Bangkok next week) but also by being fully aware of the fact that the nasty virus is still lurking around the corner – so let’s not keep watch at the tree awaiting a rabbit but enjoy life, work hard and always stay alert to protect ourselves and all those around us.
Happy New Year of the Rabbit!
– Harald Brüning
