Boosting up

The pandemic has demoralised many of us, especially those of us who are employees and employers, with the lack of money, salaries being reduced and some of the really unfortunate who have been made redundant. It is difficult to digest that a virus could have affected the whole world this way.

Many of those employed overseas, particularly those in the Middle-East are stranded having been relieved of their jobs and left with hardly any money to even get themselves a meal. Repatriation of those stranded overseas is being carried out steadily, with the government having systems in place to ensure a smooth transition and making sure that COVID-19 will not spread all over this Island.

The Hotel industry is a trade that has suffered greatly as a consequence of this pandemic. The majority of its staff are fortunate if they are yet employed and work on meagre monthly wages, depending on their service charge to survive. Naturally, they are a demoralised lot. Fortunately, the Hotels in Colombo are patronised heavily during the weekends, I observe, with all caution thrown to the winds where many clients are not even pretending to observe the mask rules. All these weekend crowds do help the hotels but yet again nowhere near to meet their costs. The Resorts in the more popular and easily accessible areas in Sri Lanka also draw a crowd as they are sold at rock bottom prices. The staff in Hotels seem to be working for the sake of working and that usual lustre they had about them is all gone now since at the end of the day it all boils down to rupees and cents. A great boost in our economy is needed in all areas just to see people smile and be happy again.

However, right now, we need to be aware that the virus could be lurking around us and be as cautious as we could be.

We should be happy that our Government together with the Forces have done a great job containing the virus and we should be thankful for this. We all wish that a vaccine would be soon developed so that we could get on with our lives. Until then all of us should try and boost peoples’ morale in any way we can whilst keeping our spirits up, bearing in mind that this pandemic will leave us one day. However, right now, we need to be aware that the virus could be lurking around us and be as cautious as we could be since only we can look after ourselves and not someone else.