I have been listening to a lot of foreign radio these past few months - these past few years, really - but for some reason I haven't really noticed how these stations approach the pandemic.
Granted, it's because I mostly listen to non-English stations. I'd pick out reports about new COVID-19 cases in the hourly news bulletins, the way "coronavirus" is said in French or Dutch or German never ceasing to be a bit of a novelty. When I do listen to the BBC, you don't hear that many mentions about what you should do, although I'll concede I'm either listening to the wrong stations or was listening in the wrong month.
The Americans, well, we now have confirmation (as if we needed it) that the last federal government barely had a plan to combat the pandemic in place, so it was all up to the states. That meant the advice was dispensed differently depending on where you are, or in my case, which station you're listening to. I'll also concede that I really have no idea, since I don't listen to the commercial American stations. My dislike for tight rotations aside, for the most part you are not allowed to listen to them, with access to their online streams restricted to within the United States alone. I did hear some ads about how businesses are adjusting to restrictions. On the non-comms, you have the presenters being sober about what to do, but again, I must be listening to the wrong stations, because I don't hear much about it outside of news bulletins and talk of how live music has been in the clamps for the past few heaven-knows-what.
Read more »
I was in the mood for noodles this morning, so I went to the convenience store.
Read more »
"I guess I'll never get the 'working against the people' mentality," Dinna told me. "It just does not compute."
"Filipinos never talk of our tendency to think of himself first," I answered. "If you frame it that way, 'working against the people' makes a lot of God damn sense."
Yes, I'll go out and say it: we Filipinos are selfish by nature.
Read more »
