April 13, 2022 to April 16, 2022
Days L12-15: Invasions of Privacy
The last thing you would ever want is for the comfort and privacy of your home and neighborhood to be transformed into a military camp.
I am an adventurer. I travel and do crazy shit. Some of the stuff can be rather questionable and reckless even. But at the end of the trip I look forward to a safe home where I can chill and relax before embarking on the next journey.
Never in a million years did I ever think that such an 'adventure' would be lived out while I am actually locked down at home. It becomes pretty clear: this is not home. It can't be. Not now, not ever. This is merely part of the adventure where I eventually leave and find a real home, only to look back at all the crazy shit that took place during this lockdown residence.
A typical compound covid test involves an announcement made on loudspeakers: "Hurry up and get your test!" They repeat this over and over and over again. In true Chinese fashion, it is a case of hurry up and wait. The test could take anywhere from a few minutes until half an hour so that everyone is processed. Sometimes the testing is at 6am, sometimes it is late at night. You just don't really know. Besides the bullhorns, they also beef up the announcements with a guy in white hazmat suits banging on your door very loudly "ZOU HE SUAN" which basically means get your fucking ass outside and do a covid test.
The banging is loud and intense. I only wish this was Texas. That way, if these ghostbusters in white suits tried that stunt, they would end up with a quick shot in the head with a shotgun and buried six feet underground.
Sometimes you follow orders and it works. Other times you are rudely turned away from the queue and told, "Wait until someone calls you!" They try to stagger the tests out for social distancing which means absolutely fucking nothing. Masked up of course, you do the test and they are watching you to make sure you don't linger around after.
For some reason it is always on Sunday nights when they make the major draconian citywide announcements. Why Sunday, nobody really knows, but this is always the day it happens. We were told on that day that individual apartment doors would be sealed in compounds as an 'upgraded' lockdown measure. It was later found out this applied to select compounds on a route where Beijing officials were touring the city in inspect progress. I wasn't affected but it made for yet another sleepless night trying to process the fact that yes it could indeed happen. Anything could happen.
- Resident: After you seal our doors, what are we supposed to eat?
- Dabai: You can open the door. It's not just your door that is being sealed, it's the entire block
- Resident: What about our groceries? Can we go down and pick them up?
- Dabai: You can't pick them up.
- Resident: What are we supposed to do then?
- Dabai: We'll deliver to your door
- Resident: Are you sure? There are many people in our block. How can you know whose is whose?
- Dabai: It's ok we are very careful about all this
In the second video of a different compound (but along the same route), a resident walks downstairs to find the main door padlocked. She takes careful and detailed video evidence of the whole thing in a calm manner, focusing on these aspects: the fire hazard potential, the electric meters that can't be read, and the guard post outside which is currently unattended. Adding a bit of humor perhaps, she disinfects the chain of the lock. The reason she did all this is to use as evidence later, because none of what happened in these two videos was legal.
In fact you could make a very compelling case that none of this lockdown is legal. This is a so-called emergency measure where the rule of law means absolutely jack shit. It is the rule of tyranny. And go figure, that is exactly how Xi's China treats international law, with absolute and total contempt.
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This sudden campaign to seal doors and padlock entrances was abruptly stopped without a reason, just as quickly as it started. Maybe they faced pushback from the residences? Would that even accomplish anything? Well whatever the case, we can learn that the apartment block and room are the smallest administrative units in this country. They are clearly not private. It is downright scary that the authority exists to do something like this, even if it is clearly not legal. What about your apartment room you might ask? Could the state come in and invade that too? Yes, if you happen to test positive for covid. Then they will throw you out into a quarantine camp. It happened to my friend and haunted her for the rest of her life.
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2 years ago
you write very well, so I'm truly horrified when I read your words. Thank you very much for sharing your experience.
News coverage here in Germany of the situation in Shanghai has been sparse, but since Friday, more and more newspapers are picking up on it.
I just want to let you know that I'm aware of your situation, although to be honest I don't really change anything being pampered, safe and free in Western Europe (despite some covidiots claiming the opposite). I sincerely hope that you'll soon be able to freely go where the wind will blow you and fulfill your cycle touring plans in the near future. No human being should be treated like you are right now.
Hang in there!
Noreen
2 years ago
2 years ago