If someone told me this three months ago that ‘in a near future, all the international air travel will stop, people will be forced to stay at home; millions of job loses, oil price down to the record low and we will witness economic collapse worldwide’ and so on.. Would you believe it? No I would not. Little did we know that our ever changing world has proven us wrong. Something as ‘little’, invisible actually as virus could cause this all happening overnight.

We may heard of world pandemic, but no one foresees this disaster repeating itself in the 21st-century. I mean we are so advance, we live in a digital world and perhaps the most equal and comfortable life in human history, right? World Pandemic? That belongs to past centuries and also the tragedy novels and movies. With this confidence, it hit us hard, so hard. Take a look around us, it has taken precious lives, our jobs; our way of living, our freedom and our confidence away.

What drove me to write this article was one day in late March, like many many people worldwide, that I was also encouraged to stay at home by our government. I watched TV and saw Australian government forced its returned residents from overseas to quarantine themselves in hotel rooms. Some people complained even though they were staying in top hotels such as the Hilton. I remember that I made this comment to Kent: ‘Isn’t that what we do to animals, our pets who travel to a new country?’ Sure the animals did not complain considering some of them may not even make it to see the world again. The same rule applies to human, suddenly it becomes ‘unfair’. ‘Are we so superior to our Mother Earth that we forget that we are just one kind of many species who share the same planet?’

Personal reflection…
Since we human beings have been largely urged to stay at home (in my head that equals been putting back to our own cages).. Guess what happened? ‘Nasa images show China pollution clear amid slowdown‘, ‘Himalayas seen for first time in decades from 125 miles away after pollution drop‘ and seeing ‘much pollution has fallen in Italy since quarantine began‘. End of the world? Far from it. Oh there’s more – ‘Silence is gold for whales as lockdown reduces ocean noise‘.. And if you have time to web surfing around, there are plenty more similar facts. It proved that once again us clever, canny yet arrogant human beings are to blame for all sorts of damages to this planet we call home.

So, we have been polluting our environment, how are we like to our ‘fellow species’ – AKA animals?
Before I share my thoughts, let’s have a look at this.. The World Health Organisation says that all available evidence suggests coronavirus originated in animals and is likely linked to bats. Sounds familiar? Remember Sars (perhaps bats)? How about Bird Flu (birds), Swine Flu (pigs); Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (cattle) and Mad Cow Disease (adult cattle) just to name a few. Well these diseases are from animal transmitted to human, what does it tell us? What does it tell me?

Too much killing we’ve done to animals, too much! Karma, it’s karma. Yes, you heard it, that’s my point of view right there. Whether you agree with me or not, you can’t deny that we have over fished, over indulged in meat intake. When food is more than enough (not to mention we waste so much of it) we don’t stop here, we keep killing.. for animal products and even worse, we kill for pleasure (such as trophy hunting). You might argue with me stating ‘what does it have anything to do with world pandemic?’ Let’s picture this, if a great percentage of us giving up eating animal, kill for animal products, or at least reduce it significantly; wouldn’t that reduce the existence of the wet markets together with the wildlife tradings from around the world? I’m sure it would have.

My self reflection is not about what ugly or evil beings we humans really are; it’s about stepping back, make meaning of some lessons I’ve learnt from life experiences. I can’t change others but I’m hoping I could make a better being myself. Therefore, every action I take, I want to question myself over and over.. ‘What do I need another cocktail dress for?’ ‘Is it eco-friendly?’ ‘Is it recyclable?’; ‘How about enjoying more vegetables, we don’t need animal protein in a daily basis!’… Yes you get the picture. I’m starting from reducing my carbon footprint and having less meat, using less animal products. To show a good example myself, all my styling posts will be focused on slow fashion and vintage wear for the rest of the year and perhaps much longer.

Ideally, I’d love to use an image of myself staying at home, either reading or chill-out (To tell the truth I really treasure this isolation period.), but I don’t have one. So here I choose a photo from my last event attendance as the cover photo for this story. ‘A recent past’ as I call it – although it happened recently (26th of February), soon after that we had been forced to practice social distancing. And that’s why I use a black-and-white version of it, so it really is a ‘pre-social-distancing era’. You can read this event coverage at my White Caviar Life post.

What’s your thoughts regarding COVID-19?