Track & Trace in the Age of Covid-19

During our current pandemic Emergency Degree regimen, in this most recent re-opening phase, our malls/department stores have opened again, albeit with extremely strict hygienic protocols.  Some of the government controls have given me some pause.  There is a bit of dialectic tension here that has conflicted me.  

The track and trace plan here in our Age of Covid-19 is a very efficient system to monitor virus transmissions and to track, trace and do any necessary quarantines.  And since such track and trace policies have been proven to be extremely effective – think, South Korea and Germany (look at their record of minimizing deaths) – it makes sense for panicked governments to use them. 

Here in Thailand, track and trace now consists of two options if you want to do any commerce with most major merchants.  One, install a common QR-code reader on your smartphone so you can quickly scan their QR-code to register that you are entering a mall, or an individual store within it, or most of the convenience stores and markets, and then recording when you exit.  Or, two, you must write down on a sheet of paper your name and phone number as well as your time of entry and exit from the store.  In either case, you leave a record (name, phone number, time of entry and exit) of where you were in crowded public venues so that you can be contacted (tracked and traced) in case a person in the same store as you at the same time has been confirmed as being infected with Covid-19.  It tracks down the disease and its transmission routes very well. 

However, the core anti-authoritarian part of my soul, deeply grounded within my principal identity since I was a toddler, bristles and rebels at the very thought of such government snooping.  I do NOT trust any governments.  Governments have a distinct perennial track record of abusing powers given to them in the panic of dire emergencies and never giving back any freedoms or privacy after normality returns.  Powers derived from such crises are a fascist’s wet dream (as it is with all their authoritarian fellow-collectivist socialist cousins). 

Yet – in this eternal dialectic – as a 70-year-old penniless expat living in powerless exile in a foreign land and accustomed to compromising with political controls here which are not limited by any constitutional constraints or bills of rights, I know that I sometimes have to ignore my principles and relax in order to live a life free of unnecessary  hassle.  Hermit serenity maintained (but at what cost to my integrity?). 

My decision to cooperate with the new track and trace orthodoxy here evolved thusly this last week.  I went to my local store, and after they routinely took my temperature with an electronic sensor, they directed me to a table with a pen and book, where I had to write my name, phone number, and times of entry and exit.  I realized immediately that this was exceedingly tedious, and that such rigamarole, at every single store, every single day, at every transaction, serves only to seriously disrupt my zen.  I have better things to do with my precious moments of consciousness than to fill out time-consuming bureaucratic paperwork forms.  A smoother, faster, less distracting way of fulfilling these (intrusive) track and trace requirements would be welcomed – and the QR-code reader option is that.  So, I surrendered.  I acquired QR-code reader capability for my phone.  After all, it only records your phone number and times and places of public intercourse – (oh, is that all, really?  Forgive my skepticism!). 

Next day, I visited my local store and tried out the reader and scanned the QR-code at the store’s door.  I clicked “checked in”, and after exiting the store, I scanned their QR-code again and clicked “checked out”.  The day after that, I taxied to newly re-opened Central Pinklao mall for some essentials I cannot get elsewhere, e.g.:  a robust umbrella for the oncoming Rainy Season; DVDs from the finally re-opened DVD store there; and Tops Market stuff like cheeses and other imported foods.  My QR-code reader worked well.  I scanned the mall’s code to enter (and again to eventually exit), and the same at each individual store in the mall – the DVD shop, the umbrella store, and the Tops Market.  It was simple and fast.  The Thai workers who were manning the entrances seemed to be very appreciative of my cooperation. 

So, have I betrayed my principles of sovereign individual rights – my privacy – and bowed down in humble submission to the almighty State?  Most probably I have, a bit.  I have compromised.  As part of a poor excuse, I will say that, at my age, I don’t have time to storm the barricades for my ideals when there will be very little success achieved, while I do have other important values pressing immediately on my limited time.  I have so many books yet to read, reviews to write, personal correspondence to answer, etc.  I need to streamline and filter out life’s distractions.  And I also need to participate in daily market life here. 

While being a lifelong individualist, ethically and politically, I still may be able to explain my behavior by reference to my early training in Boy Scout virtues.  Scouting taught me self-actualization and self-reliance, striving for and achieving personal ideals and goals, and yet one required Merit Badge was “Citizenship in the Community”.  Scouting taught me about an additional consideration for my neighbors.  And, I am also a military veteran, with those acquired brotherhood virtues, forged in fire, that acknowledge that there are times when it is cooperative teamwork that is necessary to get all of us through extreme chaos and danger.  Cooperation with track and trace today seems like a civil way to act and to also protect myself, my family and my neighbors.  It is polite and is conducive to harmonious life in one’s community.  Today, I wear a mask, and I track and trace. 

Yet, at the same time I am, and always have been, unapologetically selfish, always striving after my own peace of mind, my own elusive personal nirvana.  (For over half a century, I’ve always been more Hinayana than Mahayana!)  And, no, being selfish does NOT exclude caring for others.  (Can you see this dialectic’s ongoing progression?)  

This pandemic is a storm of dukkha upon us all, and as Aristotle – really more of an ethical individualist at heart than he’s given credit for – said, we are still social beings living together.  My own self-interest shouldn’t conflict fundamentally with being civil, polite and cooperative in weathering this storm together with my community, upon which we all mutually depend. 

Post Script:  A novel relevant to our Age of Covid-19:  The Plague (1947) by Albert Camus.  It’s a classic that I highly recommend. 

-Zenwind. 

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