Our Desk | Masks are scarier…

Julie Zhu

I am not here to disagree with, disapprove of or disrespect those who wear facemasks. Wearing a facemask is within everybody’s rights: their right to make a choice, their right to living with that choice, and even their right to impose that choice upon others.
I don’t doubt for a single second the medical, physical, mental, and even financial benefits wearing a facemask can bring to all of us. However, not being able to see a single person’s face on the street frightens me, but not because of the monotonous and toneless city I wander through, nor the quieter nights.
It is the singular hue that makes me feel tongue-tied and hopeless, truly hopeless. In contrast, those “colorful exercisers” on the tops of the hills, the elderly Mahjong lovers, and some “white savages” give me a bit of comfort.
Macau has a population density of over 20,000 people per square kilometer, nearly triple of that of Singapore and Hong Kong; or six times that of Japan, the Philippines, and the Netherlands; or over 138 times that of mainland China; 178 times that of Portugal; and 588 times that of the United States.
Naturally, I support wearing a facemask in Macau and even demand it from people with specific illnesses which are medically confirmed to be airborne or able to be transmitted to others through saliva.
It saddens me to see nearly everyone wearing a facemask, except the aforementioned “weirdos” (I say this in the good sense) of course. Literally seeing everyone engaging in the same behavior.
In a society that claims to be diverse, it seems that this city somehow has the power to unify thoughts and perhaps even consciences once in a while.
Luckily, I assume that there will never be a law that punishes people not wearing facemasks while roaming the streets.
Again, this is not about the facemasks themselves. It’s about the scary and dare I say absent-minded following of the crowd, the “make no move, make no mistake” mentality.
Experience tends to tell people that there is a bright side in every evil person.
Thankfully, there is indeed a bright side for Macau, with hope lying in the elderly and foreigners.
On my way to some tourist attractions, I noticed that senior citizens had gathered inside their own ground floor house-shop properties to play Mahjong. No one was wearing facemasks. Well done, grandma and grandpa. You have certainly understood that you have been through tough times and know where this time will take us.
It doesn’t make sense why some people try to force facemasks on the elderly. Young people accuse seniors of being neglectful or uninformed. In reality, young peoples’ university degrees and certificates are only products purchased in the market of a capitalist society. The elderly have gone through way more epidemics and pandemics than we have.
Restaurants have been full of patrons for months inside these closed-door environments, without social distancing and facemasks.
I love seeing people who care about their health and others’, but I wish to see more diversification in Macau.
Once again, it is not the facemasks that bother me, it is our singlemindedness.