Todd Sandel's Blog from Macau

First, I mourn the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was an amazing woman and changed society in so many ways. When my mother was married in the 1950s, women in the US could not open bank accounts in their own names. Women were treated like children. But RBG, even before she was a justice, fought against this and made life so much better. May she continue to live on in our thoughts and prayers. Second, I wish to draw attention to the actions of the madman, who banned the apps WeChat and Tiktok in the US. This is done to make him look "tough" against China. But the reality is that he is doing the same as China, and justifying a censored internet, not the open platform as it was designed and imagined by Americans and many others decades ago. If you are interested in learning more about the Chinese internet, and WeChat, see the chapter that we published about this. Here is the link Ju, Bei, Sandel, Todd L., & Fitzgerald, Richard (2019). Understanding Chines...

Chris Webber asks, "If not now, when?" I'm back in the "bubble" of quarantine. This is my personal story. But I've also been watching the NBA (through a subscription to NBA global that lets me watch all the games online), and have been following their "bubble." My personal story is important to me, but mundane. The NBA story, which has little impact on me personally, in light of the struggle for justice, is not mundane. My Personal Bubble Story  After having surgery in Hong Kong on my right hip, a procedure called "Birmingham hip resurfacing," I returned to Macau on August 24th, and was assigned a hotel room to observe a second period of 14 days of quarantine. While I would rather be at home, or not have to be in quarantine, it is not all that bad. The Macau government is paying for my hotel room - a one-bedroom suite - and providing three meals a day. I have great high speed internet in my room, two flat screen televisions that I can ho...

While reading on the topic of national identity, I came across a reference to a passage from the American anthropologist, Clifford Geertz. The passage comes from Geertz's well-known book, a collection of his writings, published in 1973,  The Interpretation of Cultures . In Chapter 10, titled, " The Integrative revolution: Primordial sentiments and civil politics in the new states ,"  Geertz reflects on the problems faced by newly emergent nations that seek to form a civil society. That is, in the 1960s and 1970s, as colonial rule came to an end across Africa and Asia, what ties can hold these nations together? Now that the external force of colonial government is lifted, will nations violently split apart, like India and Pakistan at the time of partition? How can people who speak different languages, follow different religions, have different kinship and tribal allegiances, build a nation that with a common, peaceful purpose? In other words, Geertz is asking if the Americ...

Here in Macau we are seeing some kind of light, or at least an opening of what a "normal" life looks like and resembles what we did way back in January. My daughter's international school will resume classes in May , and my wife can start teaching private art classes. Both of them are very happy!  Here at the university, we are not resuming in-person classes, but we can soon have in-person MA and PhD thesis defenses (after returning students are quarantined). Two of my MA students who finished writing their theses are trying to arrange their defenses. And some of the students - namely last semester, graduating undergraduate students - are back to take exams and attend their graduation ceremony. This past week it was almost a shock to see students walking on a campus that has been mostly empty for more than two months. These are all great signs that we have turned a corner here in Macau, a place that has not had even one new case of Covid-19 in more than two weeks .  ...

Back to normal? Apart from watching the increasing number of deaths and confirmed cases, when we can back to "normal" seems to be the biggest question on everyone's mind. How much longer until I can get back to the life that I had on January 24th, the last day that I picked up my daughter from school, and I didn't have to wear a face mask when out in a crowded area? Will a "normal" life resume on May 1? That looks highly unlikely. Will it be on June 25th, the day of our scheduled flight from Macau to the US? The odds for that happening are decreasing. Will it be on August 19, the first scheduled day of classes at the University of Macau? Even that day seems too soon. The consensus emerging from experts in public health, and something that I said in January when I saw how rapidly covid-19 was spreading in China, is that "normal" cannot resume until a vaccine is developed and widely available. And even then, everyone will still have to be careful ...

Today, April 4, 2020 is Tomb Sweeping Day, or better known in Chinese as Qing Ming Jie 清明節 , “Clear and Bright Holiday.” In a tradition dating back millennia, this is the day in the spring when families go to the tombs of their ancestors, “sweep” them clean, and have a ceremony of remembrance. In typical Chinese fashion the ceremony represents the search for balance in life. On this day in the spring, a season of new growth and hope for the harvest of a new year, you take time to look back, and remember the lives of those who have preceded you, and now have a time of rest. Since moving here to Macao I have not done anything special on this day as I do not have any ancestors here. But in the past I have been in Taiwan during this holiday, and participated in remembrances with Donna and her family. I find it to be a moving and deeply meaningful ceremony, as it is a time for the whole family to be connected, both the living and the dead, and reminds you not only of where you came fr...

Here in Macau we are safe and well. There is no community-based transmission of covid-19! The government has a clear and effective strategy for keeping us safe, even catching the attention of some international media . But each day there are reports of recent returnees who test positive for covid-19. All who return must first go into quarantine for 14 days. Now there are a total of 11 hotels set up to receive those in quarantine, providing more than 2,500 rooms. These "accommodations" are free for Macau residents. Those without Macau ID--mainly non-resident workers--have to pay 5,600 MOP (about 700 USD). But since 19 March such persons can no longer enter Macau. Nor can we leave Macau, as the ferries have been shut down, the airport has only one or two flights per day to cities in China, and the only link to Hong Kong is the HK-Macao-Zhuhai bridge. The bridge is limited to Hong Kong residents, and Macau residents. But Macau residents cannot use the bridge for transit th...

A week ago, things were looking up. We had not had a new case of covid-19 for 39 consecutive days, there was a plan to resume classes, people were out shopping, visiting scenic places, and feeling "normal." Life within the small bubble that is Macau was looking pretty good. But then, the world began to come back. On Friday the 13th, it was reported that a group of students fled Portugal and returned to Macau. Then a few days later it was reported that  another person returning from Portugal tested positive for covid-19. This was followed by news of more cases, including a student returning from the UK , a Filipina worker , and an Indonesian woman . The government responded by postponing the resumption of classes and closing the border to non-residents . Hopes for a return to "normal" were dashed, with no end date in sight. While these events are disappointing and disheartening to us in Macau, reports of what is happening in the rest of the world (outside of...

Lessons from Macau The Other Side (Hopefully) of COVID-19 This is the week COVID-19 b ecame real to people in America . These past months images of people wearing masks, streets empty of people, hospitals overcrowded--they have all been in "foreign" countries. Some Americans (not all) believed (falsely) that a wall could keep all this away. But alas, this did not work. Viruses observe no borders, nationalities, ages, incomes, genders, or political preferences. The only way to slow the virus is to follow the guidance of health experts: observe good personal hygiene, social distance, and most importantly, test to find out who may have the virus. Here in Macau the virus became very real to us on February 4. Only a few days before then I returned here from a short Chinese New Year visit to Taiwan to visit family there. While there we were being observant of the situation, watching the news of what was happening in mainland China, and stocking up on masks. It started to f...

We are now entering our second month since COVID-19 began to impact us here in Macau. After the Christmas holiday, we resumed classes the beginning of January and then had two weeks of instruction before a two-week recess for Chinese New Year. It was in the latter part of January when we began to hear about this Coronavirus in Wuhan. Then, the last week of January we as a family went to Taiwan for CNY, the first time we've been in Taiwan for CNY since 2008. We had a wonderful time visiting family there, and enjoying my brother-in-law's new home in Changhua. But we were also following news of an increasing number of cases of the virus. Masks were hard to find, but then Donna's sister told us of a factory in their hometown that makes masks. We went there and bought a supply just in time. The day after we bought ours, the Taiwan government announced that all manufacturers were to send their supply of masks for the government for a centralized distribution. The University ...