Freedom! Knickers! Madame JoJo's!

 Today marks the end of Covid restrictions where I live. By which I mean you can go and do what you want (except bop at the disco), though masks should still be worn in closed spaces and public transport is still regulated for half capacity. But we are free!!!

 

Except we're not as restrictions can be reimposed under certain known conditions, or none, or as-yet-unknown conditions. The restraints and worries of the last 15 months are replaced with hope but also great uncertainty. Hmm, those Rumsfeld "unknown unknowns" again.

The one thing that I take from all this pandemic is that governments all over the world have been incapable of dealing intelligently with the problem but have preferred their own unco-ordinated and shambolic approach. The results speak for themselves.

In the 1990s, as I have said before, I was directly involved with anti-pandemic strategies as part of my work, and most countries had a policy on what to do in an eventuality such as Covid-19. In 2001, for instance, there was a series of anthrax attacks in the wake of 9/11 and, although that was a case of bioterrorism, the pandemic strategy was on standby. Twenty years on, we have seen almost none of this careful preplanning put into action, as though this was all a new thing. 

To combat Covid-19 people have given up their liberties, such as freedom of circulation, have lost their jobs and businesses, not to mention long delays in medical treatment for other ailments. And governments seem to have enjoyed imposing restrictions by dubious legal instruments and hiding their incompetence behind a barrage of propaganda about how we all have to pull together. Citizens are too easily swayed by authority and I am now even more worried about incompetent politicians and the effect of this unexpected overdose of power on their future behaviour. 

I am very depressed about all of this. About the mess that we are forced to comply with, about the lazy, inhumane approach of some governments that equates to genocide. I mean you, Mr Trump, Mr Johnson, Mr Bolsonaro, Mr Modhi... you who are all bullying, nationalist abuse and no actual substance.

Most readers of my blog prefer posts about my lingerie to those about the state of the world. So, how do we cope with oppression these days? Well, we usually ignore it and go for retail therapy and since I must buy new underwear (you should replace your everyday panties annually) I'm going to be buying a big new lot of knickers (yes, cheeky, I did put "big" in the right place in the sentence there). Fancy panties are for fancy occasions so these will be boring and practical and, no, I won't be showing you them. But this may help to give me an illusion of normality in a world of unreality.

As it happens, I lost a pair of knickers a few weeks ago. A pair in light microfibre blew off my washing line in a high wind and landed in someone's garden. I could see them but not get to them. So I just hoped they'd blow on, or even blow back. But the very next day a builder started working in the garden laying paving slabs and the knickers were nowhere to be seen! I could speculate on whether he'd put them in his pocket to impress his mates with, whether he'd buried them under the patio to suggest a murder mystery for future discovery, whether the lady of the house was accusing her husband of 'entertaining' other women in the garden... the mind races!

Please stay safe, be sensible and for heaven's sake hold your government to account.

Flagging up the issues of the day

 

A dip in the archives

I've been looking back at venues I went to in search of other trans friends in my early days of being out and about. On 27 May, for instance, I wrote about Leeds. Today I recall Madame JoJo's in the heart of London which closed a couple of years after my 2012 post. 

 

It's been granted a controversial licence to reopen after the controversial decision to close it! Being something of a London institution, it would be great to see it back. 

I've recently found out it was used as the set for the Sonata Café in Stanley Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut.

My post: Madame JoJo's 

Sue x

Cari lettori italiani

Qui da oggi siamo in zona bianca. Dovrei essere contenta ma in realtà sono depressa. Depressa da quello che abbiamo affrontato, da non aver visto parenti o amici da più di un anno, dal modo in cui i governi hanno pasticciato tutto perché non volevano seguire le politiche guide su come affrontare le pandemie che sono state preparate decenni fa, dal fatto che ancora non ho potuto farmi vaccinare, dalla solita maledetta burocrazia italiana ... la libertà non è tornata, e chi sa se tornerà veramente?

Sue x