Glitch

Glitch is an Australian television drama which I think is unique of its kind. Australian drama tend to be family-centric, but this is sci-fi. Glitch is about the deads coming back to life in a small town in Australia with no memories of how they died and when they died. Only the policeman and local doctor are aware of the rise from the dead and they immediately brought the deads to the doctor's abode to avoid creating ripples and unrest in the small tightly knit community. It soon becomes apparent that the deads cannot leave the town or risk disintegrating and re-die, and that each of them comes back to somehow finish some unfinished business they did not wrap up before their demise, with majority of them seems to die of murder. Australian drama, like British tv series, is short and generally consists of only eight episodes per season. It's also densely packed with adrenaline-pumping stories and, other than Newton's Law and Janet King, it's a very interesting tv series to watch. The first season was produced by an Australian TV network but the second and third are produced by Netflix. So watch it if you can, it's good!

Broadchurch

I usually watch American TV series in preference over movies, because movies sometimes are a bit too long for me to watch in a binge and sometimes the stories repeat itself I got bored of all the melodrama. But there are also times I'm just tired of American dramas and I switch to British/Australian/New Zealand dramas which are often less speckled with personal affections and more focused on its theme. Broadchurch is one of them I watched, and it turned out to be super awesome! Now, British drama is few and far between, and the charm (or maybe downside) of British shows is that they're super short, consisting of only a few episodes in a season (a 'season' in America is called a 'series' in British) so it makes the story short but compact and there are very little fillers.

Broadchurch is about an enigmatic detective whose arrival in a suburban British town coincided with the discovery of a dead boy's body that fractures the society. The trust between the small-town community cracks and consequently there are extra scrutiny and doubts over each other's personal lives as it appears that everybody has something to hide. I've just finished the first season, probably a few years late I believe, and the series is awesome! No melodrama, quite densely packed with enough elements to get you pumped, and coming from a suburban town, I was able to sync a bit with the elements of the town. It's good. If you're looking for a British crime drama, I highly recommend Broadchurch. I enjoyed it much more than I had expected to.

Can Malaysia Recover From COVID-19?

I support MCO in Malaysia, but unlike majority of the population, I want an easing in lifting it.

MCO is very harsh, given that in Malaysia the situation isn't as bad as Wuhan. But when it was introduced, there were uncertainties on how bad it could turn as the tabligh gathering was massive and the spreading could be uncontrollable. I agreed harsh MCO was needed for the first two weeks.

But now we are entering a third cycle. And our daily new cases hardly inspire confidence the situation has improved.

The reality is COVID-19 is going to stay with us for a little while longer. It isn't possible to see zero new cases for a few months. If MCO has been successfully, we should be seeing a reduction in new cases. But we're not. We're not seeing spikes, but we are not seeing flattening either.

The core of this issue lies with the people, of which I really am tired of explaining again.

I agree MCO is needed, but I think majority of people fail to understand something: MCO cannot halt this virus. It's meant to only flatten, and when it has achieved its goal, it will be lifted. And when MCO is lifted, the very dangerous, second wave is lingering and can attack as swiftly and savagely and perhaps more viciously than the first.

Malaysians need to understand that while MCO is helpful in flattening the curve, it is also dangerous because once it is lifted, it triggers a mass exodus (thanks to bad MCO implementation earlier when people left KL en masse) and mass societal movement that the police and armed forces will not be able to control. When one infected person comes into contact with a fellow passenger, the spread could be so fast it makes contact tracing impossible.

People will make excuses like, it has been two months, let's hang out, have party, dine out, go to cinemas and everywhere and in one day they will be making trips and meeting many different people. It is a perfect opportunity for a second messy explosive wave to come.

So MCO should be lifted gradually, slowly, beginning with services that most people will look for, but arguably not essential. For instance, barber. Haircut.

Almost 95% of Malaysians oppose allowing haircut services to resume despite being allowed to.

Let me tell you why I support it.

There are two scenarios: In both scenarios, let's consider you do come into contact with an infected person. If you cut your hair now and get infected, with limited social mobility and services, the infected can be quickly traced because the government knows where to focus. If you wait for them to lift MCO, when people are mobile and pent-up desire burst its bank and people may get a haircut and subsequently go eat, go drink, go watch movie, go to the beach and go any parks, contact tracing becomes impossible and the spreading of the virus will become uncontrollable, defeating the purpose of MCO.

Which scenario do you think is better? You're being asked to choose the better of two bad options. Nobody says it's a good option, it's just that the other one is so much more appalling.

You could get your haircut done at home. That would be ideal, only if everybody cooperates and do so. But then again, had people cooperated, we never needed MCO to begin with.

Wait for 0 new cases? Look at China, it's still not happening. By the way, China imposed strict lockdown, levels beyond what Malaysia MCO is. Even then, the daily new cases in Malaysia does not reflect 0-new-case day is on the horizon. So it's easier if you do not count on that. Plus, 0-new-case is possibly because it is undetected, not because it is absent. There's a difference.

I have no faith Malaysia will recover from COVID-19 this soon. Not because Malaysia does not have the capability, but because, judging from the barber service response, Malaysians are not prepared for what may happen post-MCO.

Dutch Lady's Rose Bandung

This flavour was introduced last year but I did not try it. I gave it a try this year, and my short and honest review: taste good, but awfully, ridiculously sweet, as if it's made with the sole intention of triggering diabetes to the drinkers. Otherwise, it tasted fine. I still prefer the original, or even chocolate and strawberry flavour which are also sweet, but at least they haven't been overwhelming.

Singapore, Covid-19

Singapore has lost control of COVID-19 for quite a time already. The number of local unlinked cases has risen sharply and it piles up to become a staggering mess of trouble. But Singapore government, being rational, has not taken the drastic steps already enforced in many other countries: lockdown.

There has been disruption though: retail outlets are to shut, dining out is forbidden and only takeaways and delivery are allowed. And while it does not encourage wearing masks, it does not discourage. Basically, you decide how you see it. Wear if you want to, don't wear if you want to. Previously the government straight out discourages wearing, but now it retracts it but it stopped short of encouraging it.

To be honest, Singapore has responded well. One thing about it is that Singapore, unlike Malaysia, does not need to enforce a lockdown. It cannot afford to, being such a small country so heavily reliant on trade, and it also really just does not seem to need to. All Singapore government needs to do is to stop public transport, shut the MRTs, and the country mobility would be basically incapacitated. Only a few crazy rich Asians would have private vehicles to move around, but such privileges only befall a minority of Singaporeans and therefore should suffice.

Singapore is a small country that can be easily controlled. Only when it becomes to times like this, Singapore does become extremely appealing and inspire confidence.