[Cuis-dev] These strange days (and our community)

[Casey Ransberger]

Thanks for writing this, Juan. Glad to know that your family is well.

So I’m in Seattle, WA in the USA. This is really close to where the virus was first identified in the United States. It’s one of the densest cites on the western seaboard of my country, so we have to be extra careful here, because a virus loves population density. If there’s one thing we have going for us, it’s that Seattleites aren’t hard to convince when it comes to staying indoors. It rains a lot here, so we’re used to it. For sunny days there are mountains to climb, but getting out of the city to the backcountry can be difficult without a car (and I’ve never owned one.) So I’m basically stuck here unless I want to walk to the mountain before climbing it.

The governor ordered all “non-essential” businesses closed (and we’re still arguing about what is essential and what isn’t.) Restaurants that can adapt to doing delivery and take-out only are allowed to stay open, but many of them have shuttered, and this is a big part of the local economy, and the culture: the majority of the artists I’ve known since I’ve lived here have been regularly employed by these businesses.

The most upsetting things I’ve seen in the last couple of weeks have been the empty shelves at the market. I’m hearing that our supply chains are all still strong, but that people are "panic buying" and hoarding goods as soon as they arrive. This is a clear instance of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons> — an irrational human behavioral pattern.

Prior to COVID-19, my city was already in crisis. Rents have skyrocketed in recent years, displacing many families. If you walk along the Interstate-5 freeway, you can see tents crowded together in huddles the whole way along. No one is impacted by hoarding of goods more than the homeless, because homeless people don’t usually have a secure place to store food: consequently, they have to buy things from the shelves at the market right before eating them. Toilet paper is a similar problem with leaky tents in a rainy city.

So the usual requests: wash hands vigorously, stay six feet away from other people, stay indoors when you can, and don’t be a hoarder.

Less usual requests:

- Keep yourself safe is rule #1. If you get sick, you won’t be able to help anyone one else in person until you are no longer contagious.

- If you have the means, consider supporting local small businesses however you can. The people they employ are often in financially precarious states of being, and the world doesn’t need more people losing their homes.

- If you have the supply, consider donating things like canned food and toilet paper to a local food bank, church, or any organization you trust to distribute these items to the people who need them most in your local community.

Also, don’t panic. That’s all I’ve got on the current situation here. Things aren’t great, but could be a lot worse.

—Casey

> On Mar 25, 2020, at 7:55 AM, Juan Vuletich via Cuis-dev <cuis-dev at lists.cuis.st> wrote:
> 
> Hi Folks,
> 
> Coronavirus is hitting hard in many places. And places not hit hard yet are getting ready for it. This has been affecting daily life for everyone. Let's keep in mind that the top priorities are to take care of ourselves and others, following orders and advice from local authorities and the WHO. Many people are facing extreme hardships, including health care and emergency workers, people who got ill and their loved ones. Let's hope it turns out to the best for them, and let's help them when possible.
> 
> For the rest of us, for the majority of the world, we just need to be very careful.
> 
> Many people are not able to work at their job or attend to school. Some of us are lucky enough to be able to keep working from our homes, almost as usual. In any case, for a lot of us (I know, we are the most lucky ones), the biggest challenge is to fight our own fear, anguish and boredom. Let's spend good time with family and friends, talking, playing games, whatever we can do without leaving our homes. Let's try to get some exercise. This is great not only for the body, but also for the mind. My wife Lucía and my daughters Sofía and Diana have been dancing to some youtube videos. I must join them next time! Some TV is OK, but too much of it is not. Get enough rest. Take some time to be calm and quiet. Meditate. Spend time learning and practicing stuff you love. Maybe we can make the most of this time by focusing on programming projects.
> 
> So, use Cuis. Play with Cuis. Learn with Cuis. Learn about Cuis. Feel free to share your thoughts and feelings here. We are a community. Many of us have never meet in person, but we still share a lot. We are a bunch of friends, even if it might be a little different kind of friendship.
> 
> Let me tell how all this is going for me.
> 
> In Argentina, we are in a preventive quarantine. We still don't have many cases, but we (Argentina) want to flatten the exponential growth from the start. My kids are at home, as schools are closed. The school gave them a lot of stuff to "research", so this is becoming a kind of home schooling! Lucía and I are spending time helping them with that. Fortunately, we and our larger families are all healthy. We keep in touch. We are both also doing home office for work. So we are quite busy! Our home has a nice backyard and the weather is nice, so we are able to spend time outside.
> 
> I spend some time doing Cuis. I know I'm being quite slow in answering email and several of you are waiting an answer on some particular topic. I apologize for this, and I promise I'll eventually get to each one of them. I have also been working a few hours over several weeks on VectorGraphics and TrueType. I have some updates to push, hopefully today, and will tell in another email.
> 
> Thank you all for being around, helping Cuis grow, recoding videos and spreading the word, or simply sharing this space. Everybody, please feel free to share your feelings and thoughts.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> -- 
> Juan Vuletich
> www.cuis-smalltalk.org
> https://github.com/Cuis-Smalltalk/Cuis-Smalltalk-Dev
> https://github.com/jvuletich
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-vuletich-75611b3
> @JuanVuletich
> 
> -- 
> Cuis-dev mailing list
> Cuis-dev at lists.cuis.st
> https://lists.cuis.st/mailman/listinfo/cuis-dev

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