DIY on the rise, and not in a good way!

There was a time when there were some things we didn’t need to do ourselves. We relied on others to do them for us because that is the business they were in. But in the last three months, since this pandemic was announced, everyone’s now avoiding unnecessary contact with outsiders by trying to do as much as they can themselves.

For example, anyone who might have ordered food in or gone to a restaurant on a certain day of the week so they had a break from cooking, is now cooking all their food at home. No more takeaways or dining out for fear of infection from possible food contamination or from other patrons.

Kids are now being home-schooled. So now, parents are not only parents but schoolteachers too. My question would be, though, how do parents, who know very little or nothing at all about geography, chemistry or a lot of things, teach their children? Is the world now striving for near international illiteracy in children? Or at the very least inadvertently rewiring their brains so that they get out of the habit of going to school and maybe even think about dropping out when they do go back? At school every child in a district receives access to the same quality of education, teachers, books and other educational materials.

Not so in the case of home-schooling. It’s either very bad or slightly better depending upon the level of the parent’s knowledge, the level to which they can keep themselves and their child motivated and the quality of their WiFi which, if on any given day is really poor or drops out completely, may mean no learning for that day. Children have been off school for more than six weeks now. Can you imagine what will happen to their attitude to school if this continues for the rest of the school year? By the way, the same goes for university students. In fact, I think that, of all the students in the world, university students must be the most devastated. This virus thing has likely put a huge kibosh on their career plans. And these are serious issues.

Another serious issue that is now being encouraged by authorities around the world and, to be honest, accepted by people out of fear, is that of medical treatments. Before this ‘virus’ thing, no doctor was willing to give a diagnosis, or even an opinion, without first seeing the symptom for themselves in person. I’m sure they thought it was malpractice to prescribe or say something they saw in a photo or a video whose picture quality may have been poor. But to discourage people from leaving their houses to seek even routine medical attention, online doctors are all the rage now. That, to me, does not make sense. What was not OK once is okay now? Why? What’s changed in the diagnostic field to label this OK? During this ‘virus thing’ a lot of outlets were ordered to shut down.

Hairdressers, barbers and nail salons immediately spring to mind because there’s no way you can avail such a service without breaking the 2-metre social distancing rule.

So now people are turning to YouTube videos to learn how to do a particular cut. I will say one thing, however. If you turn to any news channels anywhere in the world, look very hard at the news anchor. Go on, take a look...very closely. You’ve been isolating yourself for over six weeks and your hair is probably looking a mess because you’ve not been able to go to a hair salon or a barber because of social distancing. But take a long look at the news anchor. What do you see? I see that their makeup looks as professionally done as ever before.

I see the state, texture, highlights and style of their hair looks as professionally done as ever before. It’s almost as if...oh I don’t know...as if a professional did it while they sat in their dressing rooms in the news station. I’ve checked every major news network and found the same thing. Everyone looks like they walked out of a professional’s chair before parking themselves in front of the camera.

No matter how hard you try to do your hair and makeup at home, the effect is never the same.

My eyes do not deceive me. And if you look carefully you’ll find your eyes do not either. So the big question on everyone’s mind should be, what is going on?