Times of Coronavirus:
Life in Spain
This morning Google cheerfully reminded me to download maps for Helsinki. I had forgotten that in my pre-coronavirus life, I had been invited to Finland to give a conference talk tomorrow. My flight to Helsinki supposedly leaves today, but, of course, I will not be on it. Google was apparently unaware that my flight has been cancelled. Perhaps Alexa really is more intelligent.
When I made the reservation in January, I had worried that I had not left sufficient time between my return from Helsinki and my departure for Argentina, where I was supposed to give a ten-day seminar. Obviously, none of the above is going to happen. The conclusions that can be derived are the following: (1) Google is not all-knowing; (2) worrying is pointless.
Many years ago, when I was fixating on various job-related scenarios, which might or might not affect me in the next decade, my brother-in-law asked me why I was worrying so much. Had I so few worries in the present that I needed to journey into the future to search for more? He wisely pointed out that the worst things that occur are those that we never worried about because we never dreamed that they could happen. As it turned out, he was right.
Finland and Argentina will be postponed until next year, when travel will have returned to normal, hopefully. Now, in times of coronavirus, traveling is no longer on anyone’s agenda, even if Google continues to be the cheerful optimist. Borders have been closed for almost everyone, but especially for those countries hardest hit by the virus. Not surprisingly, plague-ridden Spain is on all of the blacklists.
Spaniards addicted to adventure travel have had to reduce their expectations and settle for expeditions to the supermarket or the drug store. They can also tempt fate by walking their dog to discover how far is too far though this option comes with a 600€ price tag. In certain towns, dogs can only be walked within a radius of 100 meters from one’s home. This regulation was passed when people started taking their dogs out for ten-kilometer hikes.
Those who really wish to live dangerously can try and drive to the beach in Motril or to the Sierra Nevada mountain range and hope that they are not detected by drones and stopped by the highway patrol. If they wish to be accompanied on this exciting adventure, their friend can ride in the trunk like in a spy movie. These are the most exciting travel options currently available.
The sudden cancellation of flights has also affected people who were working and studying, abroad as well as those on vacation. When the borders closed, many were unable to return home, and now are stranded in countries around the globe.
In Spain, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in charge of the repatriation of 30,000 Spaniards. About 9,000 are in other European countries, which is somewhat less of a problem. Getting from Dublin to Madrid is less difficult than returning there from Guayaquil or New Delhi. Spaniards are trapped in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
Foreign travel has always had its allure, and one might think that being forced to remain in another country for a lengthy period of time would be an exotic way to spend quarantine. And indeed that would be true if one had limitless funding and thus were able to pay for accommodation and food. Exotic sightseeing options for stranded travellers also include admiring the delights of the four walls of their hotel or hostel room for 24-hour periods.
Repatriation, however, is not simple because each country has its unique context and challenges. For example, in the Philippines, there are currently 250 stranded Spaniards. With his usual tact and diplomacy, President Duterte has warned the population that anyone flouting coronavirus lockdown measures would be shot on sight. Since a civilian was actually shot two days later by a policeman, the president was not joking.
The Spanish government has finally agreed to charter a plane to bring the marooned students, workers, and tourists back to their homeland. It is to be hoped that they will manage to get to the airport without being shot.
My nephew is also stranded in Japan, where he had been taking a course on some abstruse topic. His return ticket was for 3 April, but the plane never took off because all flights between Spain and Japan had been canceled by then. Now he is supposed to find a way to return home on his own. The Spanish embassy has told him that this is his problem, and that he should have thought about returning while there was still time.
The helpfulness of the Spanish embassy in each country depends on how many people are stranded there and how many tear-drenched videos, they send to the media. Apparently, the number of Spaniards stranded in Japan is small, and my nephew is not into making videos, though perhaps he will have to learn.
So far, the Japanese government has given him permission to stay in the country for one more month, during which he will doubtlessly learn some Japanese and cultivate a taste for sushi. At the moment, the only flight option is a plane from Tokyo to Dubai. However, after arriving at the Arab Emirates, he would probably have to find his way back to Spain by camel. He still does not know what he will do.
Though less frequently mentioned in the USA news, which has other priorities, there are about 50,000 Americans trapped in countries all over the world. In March, about 12 hours before everything shut down, the State Department sent out the following Level-4 warning, “Come home now or you might not be able to come home.” For Americans in remote areas of India or Peru, this was not an option. Even Americans in larger foreign cities had little or no time to change their plans.
Since I am registered at the American embassy in Spain, I also received those same messages. Even though they do not affect me, I still read them out of curiosity. For that reason, I know that the first message arrived too late to do any good (at least for the non-clairvoyant). The shutdown happened too quickly. The messages that followed basically said the same thing “get out as soon as you can and don’t expect us to help you in any way”. They also added that Americans should not expect the government to find lodging for them or organize repatriation.
Still, various parallel universes can exist in the same world. Whereas many news sources, (supported by the testimony of desperate citizens in countries from Paraguay to Pakistan), claim that the USA is doing absolutely nothing to help them, the State Department says that they are working around the clock to bring Americans home as quickly as possible. They claim that they have successfully repatriated 9000 Americans and are doing as much as they can. Whether this is actually true, it is impossible to say.
In all likelihood, those who knew which buttons to press, harassed their congressmen or had connections with the media were among the hypothetically lucky, who were able to get back to America. Others who probably managed to return home were those able to spend 3000 euros on a one-way plane ticket. Not everyone was so fortunate.
Evidently, the U.S. government did not realize that there would be a problem until it was too late, which lately is par for the course. In various interviews, U.S. officials and congressional aides paint a picture of a department that was caught off guard by the crisis—even following months of dire warnings from public health officials as the coronavirus spread. U.S. embassies quickly became overburdened with the influx of requests for help from American citizens. I bear witness to the ‘helpful’ messages sent by the U.S. embassy to Americans in Spain.
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