 |
| Bummer. |
It was relatively mild; not like how it had been the first time the world noticed COVID-19's ugly spiked head. Singapore and some parts of Southeast Asia have been experiencing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. I just happened to get caught up in it.
This little episode inspired me to recall the turmoil back then, and how the world, Singapore in particular, survived the dark years of the pandemic.
How It Began
The tail end of 2019 marked a significant chapter in human history, a period which many of us lived through in trepidation. COVID-19 made its presence felt as governments around the world imposed strict, sometimes draconian, safety measures on their citizens.Thus, unless one was living on a desert island somewhere in the middle of the ocean, the effects of COVID-19's presence was felt, at least indirectly, if not on a far more lethal level. Singapore was no exception. Even now in 2025, with the traumatic experiences of that chapter behind us, COVID-19 remains a relevant talking point; if not as a real and present danger to life and well-being, as a cautionary tale.
 |
| This was a common sight. |
How did we survive this? Honestly, the answers vary from person to person. My COVID-19 experience as a Singaporean will differ in places from the rest of the world. My experiences as a software developer may differ from other Singaporeans. Therefore, I can speak only for myself, and perhaps other Singaporean software developers.
2019 to early 2020: COVID-19 creeps up on the world
When the Coronavirus was first announced in China, self-preservation wasn't the first thing on my mind. After all, the world had dealt with SARS and MERS, and Singapore had barely been touched before the fuss died down.No, my concern was as a husband. My newly-wedded wife was in China at the time, and she was stuck in a strict lockdown.
Soon, COVID-19 began making its presence felt in Singapore, which had inevitability written all over it. After all, Singapore is an international hub where foreigners land hourly, even if just for transit purposes. Cases began spreading through the island.
 |
| Changi Airport was unusually quiet. |
At first, Government handled it well. Perhaps taking our safety for granted, people were still disregarding Government advisories on group gatherings, and not being altogether truthful when they caught COVID-19 and had to be questioned on their activities.
All I could really do at this point, was watch the news and avoid going out too much. Honestly, as a guy who only really hung out at a very limited number of places, this just didn't represent any great hardship for me. I was perfectly content to stay home and watch YouTube content, write my code, and work on my numerous side-projects.
Up to this point, gantries had been set up at office buildings. We all had to have our temperatures checked, and logged. Mask mandates were on. Groups of larger than five, were discouraged.
There was something in the air (other than the obvious!), a vibe of dread mixed with optimism. Things were at s stage where it could get better, or get a whole lot worse. And even if things got better for Singapore, as connected as we were to the rest of the world, it would not do us much good.
Mid-2020: DORSCONs
Singaporeans watched as the case count crept higher despite the best efforts of the COVID Task Force. And soon, Singapore moved to DORSCON Orange.Things started escalating further with a work-from-home order for non-sessential personnel. As software developers, this described our jobs perfectly. Our jobs were important, but also perfect for remote work. Furthermore, as we were doing work for the Economic Development Board (i.e, doing work for the Singapore Government) and the Singapore Government needed to lead by example, the software developer team would be relegated to our own homes, with office equipment. Meetings would be held via video call.
Many of my colleagues liked the idea of working from home. My prior experience with it wasn't so great; however, at that time, I had already secured a new job and was counting down the days.
Around this time was when an alarming percentage of the population began to
 |
| This was really popular in those days, for some odd reason. |
People were finding all sorts of excuses to go out and hang out, never mind that this was what got us into this mess in the first place. Queues for things like bubble tea and haircuts became the in-thing as businesses were given a deadline to temporarily shut down. Anti-foreigner sentiment was at an all-time high, despite the fact that Singapore was largely built on the backs of foreign worker labor. For real, at this point I was starting to wonder if Singaporeans had only recently become this stupid. Then again, the world had never encountered anything on this scale; perhaps I could have extended a little understanding.
In the larger picture, it wasn't exactly only Singaporeans that were reacting due to panic. Small consolation there, but for a while it did seem like the world had gone mad and there was no going back.
There was no end in sight once the restrictions took hold. Gantries were now a fact of life in all major air-conditioned buildings such as shopping malls, not just office buildings. Contact tracing tokens were issued to everyone on the island, where they were used against scanners built into the gantries. Even individual shops (and taxis!) had QR codes for customers to scan in and out when they were done! This only made me more determined not to go out.
Sporting facilities such as swimming complexes were off-limits. That put a huge crimp in my workout schedule, and now I was forced to actually go out and run instead of swim. Put some stress on these aging knees.
Software development, as an industry, had already been constantly hiring up to then; now it positively erupted as big tech began recruiting with an aggression not previously seen. It appeared that since remote work was now a thing, hiring software developers had just become easier. And with no end in sight of remote work, more software products were being pushed that would ride this wave.
Some thoughts
Some say there are opportunities within a crisis. I've also heard people claim that the Chinese words for "danger" and "opportunity" are the same... and unsurprisingly, the people peddling this garbage don't actually know any Chinese.But yes, the general principle stands. There were lessons to be learned in the midst of a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
The necessity of limiting physical contact as much as possible meant that Government agencies had to modernize their services, updating them to match the Internet age. Now instead of having to show up in-person to apply for new passports, the ICA implemented a process where the documents could be mailed to addresses instead. Instead of a similarly clunky process in CPF nomination, for example, where the supplicant had to fill up a paper form and have two people physically present to witness, now applicants and their witnesses can log on to the CPF portal to participate in the processes.
 |
| Meetings were conducted like this. |
Companies learned to cope with remote working, once considered unthinkable. Grudgingly, almost certainly, but they did it. And even though many wasted precious little time reverting to in-office work years later, the fact remains that they did it, and it worked.
What I'm trying to say is that COVID-19 forced us to up our game on many levels. We ventured out of our comfort zones. Instead of adopting the good old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" cop-out, we came to terms with the fact that during COVID-19, a lot of it was, in fact, broken and needed to be fixed. Pronto.
No comments:
Post a Comment