Mum’s blood sugar level was all over the place yesterday. So my brother and I spent the day with her, trying to get to the bottom of what was going on. What sparked concern was that her first blood sugar level reading of the day was 30 mmol/l, immediately followed by one which was much lower. So we consulted a doctor who wondered whether the test strip had been contaminated. Mum was observed putting her fingers near her mouth. Saliva contains the enzyme amylase which begins to convert starches to sugars in the mouth. So mum retested after washing her hands et voila! – her blood sugar level was now 15 mmol/l. I love how science can provide definitive answers to puzzles like this. Euronews was on in the background as we set out to organise the kitchen, do some food shopping and prepare some diabetic appropriate meals. All over the world, we have social distancing measures gathering apace. The situation in Italy – heartbreaking. Covid-19 deaths in Spain reaching 1000. What are we to do if the situation worsens in Malta? Would we be able to see to mum’s needs in the same way? Mum gave me her bananas that had turned overripe. Today we made a banana bread. Tasty, although the boys weren’t too keen on the coconut. Next time I think I’ll substitute the coconut oil with butter and make one larger loaf instead. Covid-19 dominates the agenda of the day, the country and the world. It masks the previous dysfunction and agendas. It’s on everybody’s mind. The many priorities of urgency shifting rank before our eyes and to our dismay.
One of my flights of fancy is that the Covid-19 emergency will somehow force a solution to the many systemic and structural problems in the way our country is run. I feel uneasy at how all the pressing problems before Covid-19 hit Malta have been put on the back burner. I feel angry that all the politicians and people implicated in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia have not yet faced justice. That Miriam Pace died in the rubble of her own home when we had so many lucky escapes by so many people a few months prior to that. That all the people who lost their homes in these months have not yet had any redress or access to justice. The politicians are not yet humbled. I want to see them humbled. I want them to be racked with guilt and remorse. But no. They continue with the outrages. They continue with their unholy alliances with the entitled lobbies. The contractor who worked on the construction site adjoining Miriam Pace’s home, still working away on building a road. This collapsed a few days ago. Silvio Schembri, Economy Minister, announcing that any foreigner who lost their job would be deported immediately. Just like that. Let’s use you and then discard you when you have nothing useful left for us to use. The leadership in this country is abysmal, the pits. I’ve felt this ever since I stepped foot back in my country of birth. This disdain, your discarding once you have been used up and serve no further purpose. It’s not only directed at ‘the foreigner’. This lack of valuing beyond what you can take, engenders the individualism, the lack of a collective. Mostly, it’s under the surface, hidden, unconscious. But when it comes to ‘the foreigner’, then why don’t you earn some brownie points and pander to the lowest common denominator of humanity? Will Covid-19 be the great leveller we need? World War I and World War II, ushered in huge social and economic changes to the way we lived. Will Covid-19 do the same?
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