🌱 EcoTrain QOTW 🚆 "What Changes Would I Like To See Happen After COVID-19?"

[justinparke]

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This post is in repsonse to the EcoTrain Question of the Week, detailing the changes I would like to see post-COVID-19.

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🚆 EcoTrain Question Of The Week

Season 4 - #3

🦠 What Changes Would I Like To See Happen After COVID-19 ❓

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🙏 INTRO 🤝

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     @Sreypov, the @KidSisters and I have been struggling to stay together for over a year. We've faced visa denials, financial hurdles and many more setbacks. When COVID-19 came to Suriname, it really turned our lives upside down and halted all the immigration progress we'd struggled so long and hard for.

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🔄 CHANGE #1️ 🔄

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🛃 FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT RESTRICTIONS MUST BE LIFTED 🛂

^SOURCE

     This may be too obvious, but while richer countries' citizens scramble to buy toilet paper and hand sanitizer, poorer countries' citizens face devastating financial consequences.

     In India, for example, the lockdown caused the poorest of the poor working in urban areas to ultimately become homeless and jobless overnight. Many folks in India's urban areas sleep in quasi-legal dwellings that were tolerated pre-lockdown. But now many have been forced to walk hundreds of kilometers back to their villages due to the COVID-19 lockdown, restrictions and lack of public transport.

     We were midway through the residency visa process in Suriname when government services came to a screeching halt. Already our situation was quite precarious due to three Cambodian passports and the inability for @Sreypov and I to get legally married.

     Being as we are unable to marry under the current circumstances in Suriname, and we are of two different nationalities, neither the USA or Cambodia has extended us a helping hand. The US Embassy evacuated nearly all the Americans here in Suriname, only to let us know they wouldn't even provide us with any financial aid should we be unable to access our funds.

     We need freedom of movement as soon as possible so that we can help ourselves and provide for ourselves more effectively. As of now, we are trying to self-evacuate to Panama so we can be in a more stable economy while we suffer this global pandemic. Social distancing and freedom of movement can both share the same space.

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🔄 CHANGE #2 🔄

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🧑‍🤝‍🧑 NO MORE SOCIAL DISTANCING 🤝

^SOURCE

     Even though we have been in South American for over a year, I decided to provide a picture of the "Cambodian squat." One of the things I miss most about our life in Cambodia is squatting and chatting with friends and neighbors. There is a total lack of privacy in Cambodia, but there is so much intimate social interaction that it makes up for it.

     @Sreypov feels that Latin American and Caribbean folk are distant and don't know how to relax. I have to admit I agree, especially when compared to Cambodians. The one thing we've missed since we left Cambodia is social living, and it is an underestimated but truly powerful.

     I never did anything alone in Cambodia, even handwashing laundry was a chore to be done alongside a next-door neighbor. I used to have so many meaningful 5 to 10 minute chats in Cambodia each day, and the wonders it worked for my spirit are hard to explain in words. People were already distant here in Suriname before the economic crisis and COVID-19 came to town.

     I do hope when this all blows over, that we humans learn how to look out for one another and show genuine care and concern.

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🔄 CHANGE #3 🔄

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🍍 FOOD PRICES AND INFLATION MUST RETURN TO NORMAL 💸

^SOURCE

     Food prices in many places around the world have been on the increase since COVID-19 hit. Here in Suriname there was an economic crisis going on many months before the pandemic reached our shores. For the last 4-5 months, food prices, and all prices in general have been on the increase in Suriname.

     We came to Suriname because of visa, marriage and legal problems in Cambodia. We initially arrived to a stable country, although much more expensive than Cambodia. We made some huge quality of life sacrifices to survive here. We almost never eat fruit, we walk everywhere, and we practically never eat out, especially during this pandemic.

     When COVID-19 came to town, it really put the nail in the coffin for us. There had already been an economic crisis going on for several months, and price increases spiked 30% to 200% on most food items we typically purchase. When corona came to town, prices are now pretty steadily 50% to 500% more expensive for us than they were only 6 months ago.

     We went from living on a knife-edge to living through perseverance alone. Surinamers enjoy a relatively high standard of international living, so they aren't hit as hard by this crisis as we are. But that is the story around the world it seems, this pandemic has become a chance for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. I hope it ends very soon to relieve the suffering of working class people.

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🙏 THANKS FOR READING 🙏

If you enjoyed this post, please upvote and reblog.

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Dad@JustinParke	Mom@SreyPov	website coming soon!!	Srey-Yuu@KidSisters	Monkey B@KidSisters

^{_{WE SUPPORT}@JoshMan ✭ @Canadian-Coconut ✭ @TheMarkyMark}

Comments

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[reforest]

Thanks in advance and have a nice day :)Hello Mr @justinparke. Happy Earth day! This is a very nice answer to the EcoTrain #questionoftheweek. As you're interested in mother Earth as we are, I'd love to hear a feedback from you on our #HiveReforestationProject. Check our profile @reforest to find out what is it about!

[justinparke]

Thanks for stopping by @reforest and good luck with your goals on this blockchain. I've give you a follow and will watch how things go for you.

[reforest]

We will try to make this blockchain environmentally sustainable ;)Thank you Mr @justinparke!

[naturalmedicine]

@porters here on behalf of @NaturalMedicine – Wonderful response to the @Ecotrain Question of the Week. It's good to see someone's perspective from living in more dire circumstances and I truely hope your recommendations come to pass! Loved that Cambodia squat! We are just coming out of winter here where not many people go out for long so it's so nice to be able to see people on the road - out for their walk and stop for a visit (while using social distancing!) In the rural areas we are not on lock down just told to stay home and social distance.

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[justinparke]

Thanks @Porters for stopping by and @NaturalMedicine.

I miss squatting with neighbors, that was one of my most beloved natural medicines of Cambodia. That day will come again soon I hope. For now we need some passports that will let us transit international airports a bit more freely.

[eco-alex]

thank you Justin! I read your story on the news.. i was surprised to see it was blocked via European censorship! Very strange man... very strange.. VPN let me in ;-)

Those three changes, yes, they are pretty core arnt they! and food prices is a killer.. there is going to be SO much hunger an starvation world wide due to this pandemic. I only hope everyone who can is planting seeds right now..

Are u still trying to get back to the USA or have you surrendered to being where you are?

much love and thanks again for this great post..

[justinparke]

Thanks for stopping by @Eco-Alex!

These are truly strange times we are living in, but we are surviving well enough. It seems US immigration is closing, and Suriname immigration has reached a standstill. We have our youngest daughter's Cambodian passport expiring soon, so we're gonna have to figure out something.

All will work out as it should, we are just passengers along for the ride now.

[ecotrain]

_{Hello @justinparke, this is @nainaztengra Leading the curation trail for @ecotrain.}
The changes that you want to see are so fundamental and we never imagined that we would be struggling for our fundamental rights. We are hoping this ends soon and we can come back to normalcy. I hope you and your partner can get your travel plans arranged soon and get legally married. Take care ad stay safe

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[justinparke]

Thanks @nainaztengra & @ecotrain for the support! The COVID-19 pandemic is unevenly affecting folks from different socio-economic backgrounds in very different ways.