Asian Area Studies Spring 2020

The Philippines is taking an aggressive approach to the spread of coronavirus, especially within the urban cities. President Duterte has implemented a military- heavy approach to the containment and enforcement of the countries quarantine restrictions. While quarantine is something the globe is now familiar with, the enforcement style of Duterte has so far resulted in the imprisonment of people leaving their houses in the search for food, homeless left to fend for themselves without government aid or places to shelter, and hundreds of thousands of poor urban communities waiting on government aid tied up in bureaucracy which has yet to reach their households. Similar to outcries from within the US and in places like Japan, apparently the Philippines is keeping the rate of testing low to reflect a low number of positive tests giving the illusion that the Philippines has yet to be crippled by the coronavirus. The lack of transparency from the Filipino government regarding this...

I swear this is the last time I’m going to write about this for Asian Studies since I’m going to focus my Capstone paper on this from here on out. But it is essential to analyze how an industrialized and advanced nation such as Japan can have such a direct hand in the cover-up and poor maintenance of the Coronavirus epidemic striking their country. Similar to their administration style during the Fukushima nuclear fallout, the Japanese government is staying tight-lipped regarding the hard facts on the ground in terms of positive cases and people tested to maintain a low number of reported cases. While this may paint Japan as having record low cases of COVID-19 within their country, these numbers are false as the Japanese government only allows for people with serious symptoms to be tested and receive treatment for the virus. It is also CRUCIAL to understand that Japan sees the coronavirus epidemic as an economic issue, not a global health pandemic that will sooner rather than later ...

I am sure we are all aware of the extension of the shelter-in-place quarantine implemented statewide starting this Monday at midnight. While these rules essentially reiterate the same point, which is, for the love of GOD stay in your homes - some of the new restrictions were laid into the fine print. So what is the difference between the first shelter in place and the newly implemented one? The idea of “social distancing” has now been firmly implemented within food establishments as restaurants are now mandated to mark 6 feet distances outside of their establishments to try and minimize corona exposure. You know what would really minimize it? Staying in your home. Regardless, another newly concocted rule states that all playgrounds or high-use surfaces are now prohibited. It’s definitely a sight to see when a child’s playground is wrapped up with Caution tape like a murder scene. While these restrictions seem to get tighter and tighter, it is necessary to carry out our individ...