In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the pandemic caused by Covid 19, forcing people to change their priorities. Trips to the restaurants, vacations to exotic places, watching movies in the big screen took a back seat. They redirected their money and whatever else they earned working from home to renovating their dwellings to double as an office and classroom, purchasing newer laptops and newer models of mobiles, putting new printers in their bedrooms to make for more efficient work output at home, getting gym equipment for fitness because gyms were closed, and furnishing their kitchens with mixers, blenders and juice extractors to make their lives livable during a pandemic. They alternated their meals from being prepared in their kitchen to ordering from restaurants, delivered by any one of the following: Uber Eats, Grab, Skip the Dishes, Foodora, Door Dash, to name a few. Lifestyles changed.
TORONTO – Para mabuhay nitong panahon nang pandemia, kaylagan mo nang trabaho. Mas magaling kung Ito’y permanente. Noon Nobiembre 2021 mayroon 43,000 bakanteng trabaho na inilagda sa Toronto, 68,000 sa Ontario, at 168,000 sa buong Canada. Isa sa magandang balita para ikatuwa natin sa panahon nang pandemia.
TORONTO – If you bank on surviving this pandemic, you will need a job. Better yet, a full-time job. In November 2021, there were 43,000 new jobs reported in Toronto; 68,000 in Ontario; 154,000 in Canada. We could use a feel-good moment in this pandemic.
Isang Panandaling Saglit na Nagbigay ng Kaginhawahan Habang ang Pangatlong Taon nitong Pandemya ay Palapit Na Nung nakaraang buwan, habang ang Canada ay unang nakakarinig ng Omricon, isang variant na nadiskubre ng mga siyentipiko sa South Africa, isang panandaling saglit na nagbigay ng kaginhawahan ang aking naranasan sa gitna nitong pandemya.
A Feel-Good Moment as We Enter the Third Year into This Pandemic. Last month, as Canada was hearing about omricon for the first time, I had a moment of pause from all the COVID 19 stories and reports which were unsettling. I was up at seven in the morning of December 10, 2021 to watch the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway. Recipients of this award went jointly to Dmitry Muratov of Russia and Maria Ressa of the Philippines for “their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace”.