15 minutes before calling it a day at the office. And of course, 15 minutes before relaxing at the couch having the monopoly of the TV’s remote control.

But as we were preparing yesterday our things to head for the exit door and painted on our face are nothing but smiles after the Con-Ass forum, the Director of another office on the same building suddenly opened the door and told us the news.

“All classes are suspended. Classes will resume on June 29. One confirmed case of A(N1H1) in campus.”

Before we could even react, the bearer of this news already disappeared, I don’t because of fear or by sheer excitement to go home and take a vacation.

Then came the breakdown.

“How about our scheduled workshop on Thursday for the new module that we are to make for our students’ formation program?”

“Oh, we are scheduled to prepare all the stuffs for the institutional forum early next month. How about that one?”

“And how about the visit of our accreditors and guest next week?”

“How about our foreign visitors? Our preparations?”

Sigh.

It could have been fun having affording a long vacation, but we were confronted by the fact that we have so much things to do and lots of projects already scheduled. What to do with all these stuffs? Put them to the back seat for now I guess.

The A(N1H1) Tornado

One woman who works in the House of Representatives is the first Filipino victim to die of this disease. And the number of victims multiplies day by day, hitting the 500-mark today with the DOH expecting it to even hit the 7-digit number before the fury of virus slowly die down. When will it be? No one yet could tell.

Because of this, employees of the House or Representatives were sent home. No work. One branch of government is on a stand still.

A minor community outbreak is also already declared in Metro Manila, primarily concentrated on schools and universities. With cases sprouting here and there on different campus, classes are suspended, students sent home and workers ending up having an added vacation. Other schools even have to suspend their classes for another week even before starting it!

The Trouble With These Class Suspensions

Though I may be speaking for myself but I think I could also be echoing the sentiments of some teachers, some of our students and workers regarding these class suspensions.

Despite the suggestion of the Department of Health and the Commission on Higher Education not to suspend classes, they could still not stop the managements of schools to impose such preventive measure.

The problem.

Class suspensions disrupt classes, scheduled activities, plans, and projects and workers ‘and students’ mindset. On the part of our school, we already moved for another week the start of our classes, from June 8 to June 15 because of A(N1H1) and now, another 3 days of now classes.

Though I am also quite fearful being infected by this disease and by the fact that you don’t know who is infected by the virus, I am also pissed off that with just one confirmed case in our school, everything would halt and stop.

As the economist Benjamin Diokno said, with all the class suspensions and some business closing shops, and of course the fear that this virus brings to the people, the economy will certainly feel the pinch. Money will not circulate, services will not be demanded and the economy will shrink.

Maybe, we are just panicking too much?

I guess I will just have to take this long vacation. Enjoy it? Hmmm…Shrug off the fear for this disease. And blog. Sounds better. Now, I am feeling much better.

What do you think guys? Will you also be pissed off with all these class suspensions in effect disrupting everything in your working calendar? Are we having so much unfounded fear against this virus?

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I was thinking then that one will certainly never know if his teacher has the virus while he is trying to protect himself from the heavy rainfall on the first row as the teacher actively discusses the lesson; or his hot seatmate is silently incubating the virus on her popping boobs; or the one that serves his favorite meal at the canteen is stricken with deadly disease. One will not really know unless he wears some thermal shades.

But one amazing thing about this virus is that a number of my friends have different perspectives on the nature of this issue after we discussed it while playing strip tease poker.

One.

A friend of mine opined that this A(N1H1) virus is a political tool and not really basically only a pure global health concern as we are all being oriented by the media and the happenings all over. She said that because of the global economic crisis that emanated from the U.S. sweeping the economies of all nations into dust, the U.S. government tries to put the people’s attention into a different serious issue. This is like one corruption scandal, then poof! a sex scandal of two old congressmen comes into the picture; we are then instantly focusing on something else: frequently visiting You Tube and regularly taking aspirin. And the yummy part is, therefore, she thinks that the U.S. has something to do with the virus. Poof!

Second.

Another friend told me on our discussion about this virus that just like number One, the U.S. has something to do with this. And because of the economic crisis, they will use this virus as a means to uplift the U.S. economy once again. How? Make a vaccine for A(N1H1) and certainly, it will easily sell like a box of popcorn plus a soda on a Harry Potter movie premiere. By then, tons of cash is once again on the bank vaults of Merrill Lynch and Bear Sterns. Ingenious eh?

Third.

Forgive me but I have lots of friends down here. A third friend simply put it that the Republicans are behind this virus. They lost the election miserably and are now on the backseat without any power or leverage; being investigated for their excesses and abuses. They made the virus at the ranch of George Bush. Her reason: because they need to have leverage and an upper hand on the Democrats. Geesh~

Fourth

And one friend who is like a showbiz mole told me this. That this virus actually came from the outer space! Whoah! While aliens carrying the virus on their flying saucers landed on Hollywood, some of the aliens dated Britney Spears (Remember Britney shaving her head? The virus was incubating already into her brain.) and Paris Hilton (transfer of the virus happened while she was imprisoned). Ooops, I totally forgot Lindsay Lohan! Ok, let us just forget about her anyway. That’s why it was first called a swine flu. But now it is quite scientific and more accurate A(N1H1). That is, Aliens Napped with Hollywood.

Of course, these are only opinions and we can easily spot all the flaws in the arguments here that sounded like some Tom Clancy novel and even maybe laugh at some of the half-truths and pure lies. However, if one thing that I can succinctly point out on these four reasoning is that, many are still somewhat walking in the dark when it comes to knowing this virus, how fatal this can be and how prepared we really are. We can therefore see that these four of my great friends are simply feeling the urgency of a more concrete way in handling and treating this virus. They certainly feel that this virus is as fatal as for Britney to lip-synch and do her dance moves without practice in a live awards night. And maybe they are also asking the question, why do we have this kind of virus anyway in the modern world? Maybe because we still have Britney and Paris and Linday?

Do also feel that this virus is fatal? Are you also doing measures in order to not be infected by this virus? Do also believe that Britney, Paris and Lindsay infected humanity with this virus?

Did you enjoy my post? You can actively participate in the discussion by commenting. And to keep updated by the latest news, commentaries and discussions, you can also subscribe through your email.

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