After weeks of being apart, I’m finally going to hug my sons

I am a music teacher in Kunming, Yunnan, about the same distance to Wuhan as Kilkeel is from the Italian border. I have been telling my students that this is the time to invest in ourselves.

I first read something about a virus in Wuhan on January 20. On January 22 I flew to Dublin for the Chinese New Year holidays dropping off my two sons en route with their grandparents in northern China. The idea was to pick them up when I returned to China two weeks later.

When I arrived at my parents’ home in Draperstown the China I knew no longer existed. My colleagues, friends and family were all pretty much in panic mode. In stepped the government.

Schools closed, transport stopped, non-essential shops closed, social gatherings were banned and public parks were closed. Overnight seemingly every major point of entry had a temperature gun checking temperatures. ID was required to gain access to your housing complex. The government knew where everyone was at any one time. Now more than before.

I have been living in China for the last five years. Married to a woman from China for a decade, I have read the Western press with a degree of cynicism when they reported on China. Now that I have been living here I can see that some things have been reported correctly, others less so.

When it comes to China few would argue that its government is ineffective. A unitary one-party socialist republic can and does impose its will for the good of the country i.e. the Party.

I flew back to China on February 20, a decision forced upon me by my pending visa expiry. When I have been catching up on the UK strategy after my day’s work I have been incredulous at the “dither and delay”.

Not closing the schools because the kids will be looked after by the grandparents and therefore they will give the virus to them. So what happens? Keep them in school and spread the virus about a bit more and then close the schools. Don’t have a lockdown. Let the disease spread a bit longer and then have a lockdown. Testing? Ah, forget about that.

I then despair in the knowledge that Northern Ireland is famed for having the longest period of time without any sitting government. When the Irish government announced its lockdown within 24 hours the virus had become an orange and green issue. Note the timing of that by the way as it was the same 24 hours when the RHI report came out. Both of the big parties had a hand in throwing down that dead cat.

The virus doesn’t care about orange and green, if you’re Irish or British or Chinese or whatever. It only cares about survival, its own survival. The virus loves dither. The virus loves delay.

Panic happens when there is ineffective leadership. Note the difference in Italy and Taiwan. Both had their first cases at the same time. Taiwan ramped up testing and contact tracing. The curve quickly flattened. Experts warn that the UK is two weeks behind Italy. “When do we want it?” In two weeks apparently.

It will be bad. Let’s not kid ourselves. But we can all still do our bit. Stay at home. Don’t visit your parents, your partner, your friends. You’re going to miss them? Tough. I haven’t seen my sons since January. My wife was in Xinjiang on business when it all kicked off over here and she ended up physically locked in her complex for six weeks. My mother started chemo two weeks ago. I may never see her again.

Most days since I moved to China I have listened to Radio Ulster (I like to be able to keep up in a political conversation with my father). This week I listened to the first minister assure the public because the prime minister issued “very strong guidelines”. The incredulity continues.

Issue guidelines until it’s proven that no everyone will follow them and then bring in strict laws? At the moment no one can even agree on what is an essential business. Is it an off-licence or a carpet company? Really? This is where we are at?

The outbreak happened in China two months ago but it appears as though UK and Northern Ireland is further behind than that. China has a reputation of not being original, of copying others. It’s a shame that the UK is not taking a leaf out of the Chinese book and implementing immediate effective government. Frankly that’s what it will take to beat the pandemic.

But there is hope. You can be effective in your own self-government. If you do catch Covid-19 the odds are in your favour. More people are recovering than dying. Also things will get better. The government will catch up. Catching up has been their pattern so far.

I have been at work for almost two weeks now. The A-level and GCSE kids joined us on Monday. Initially the remaining 300 students from age six upwards were going to come next Monday but the authorities have decided to reassess after this initial cohort have settled in. My wife has been reunited with our children and her parents for 10 days now. Tomorrow she will accompany our kids back to Kunming, and after 14 days of self-isolation I will get to hug them all again.

This is the time to invest in ourselves. Learn that language. Play that piano. Do those sit-ups. Quit those cigarettes. Sort that hard drive. Write that book. Apologise to that friend. Interview that parent. Video call that child.