Retrenchment amid Covid-19.

It is not easy being retrenched. The social stigma can sting more than the economic dilemma, especially in a society like ours, which is rooted deep in meritocracy and efficacy. 

We judge a person in many ways. From an early age, our children are judged by their grades, their school and their stream. At tertiary level, they are judged by their faculty, their extra curriculum and their class of degree. At work, we are judged by what we do. We know what profession our parents want us to pursue. There is just no point reliving their good-intentional nagging here right? 

And you can imagine the stares or squint you get when you tell them you are retrenched. You can scapegoat Covid as the one to blame for your plight, but over time, the sting will eventually bite when you are still unemployed. 

The papers today aims to paint a resilient picture of those being retrenched due to covid. It is a commendable effort by our national newspaper to lift spirits. It tries to balance perspectives and encourage hope.

I imagine here a dim-lit room where there are many windows. Some windows face the dark clouds and rain. Other windows show the emerging sun from a distance with clouds clearing. The papers this morning directs our attention to that side of the room, the hopeful side, with windows showing the storm subsiding. That’s hope in printed words. 

Take Andy Yap, 40, for example. He was laid off in February. He was a former digital design director. When his company retrenched him, he said he was quite calm. He packed up and left, and “only sunk in the next few days.” 

Andy then applied for jobs in all sectors, you name it, supermarkets, hospitals, and cleaning companies. None were successful. He now spends six days a week “zipping around Yishun delivering food on his mountain bike.”

How about 29-yr-old former business analyst Srividhya Ganapathy Sundaram? She is on an employment pass and her husband works as a mechanical engineer with a S-pass. She too was retrenched in May, and was discouraged. 

She is still looking for job. But in the meantime, she busy herself with “learning German and Sanskrit, and spent time painting.” She said: “I cannot sit idle at home, so I try to make sure I never have a dull day. I think the important thing is not to let my mind idle.”

Just a heads up, LinkedIn, has “introduced a feature where users can attach a green banner to their profile picture with the words #Opentowork that will let recruiters and those in one’s network know that the person is open to job opportunities.”

Nevertheless, the main woe about our society is that once you are laid off, people tend to see you differently. This comes mainly from the script that is handed to us from young, which is quite fixed. We are still a culturally conservative society, hierarchical and stratified, and tend to benchmark one’s worth against his/her standing in society. 

The script expects one to go with the flow. So, after school, you are expected to start work. When you’re working, you give your best to climb up the career ladder. Along the way, you marry and start a family. Then, the children come and you prepare for their future as well as your retirement. You can only pray that things will work out smoothly, no major glitches. 

But, for the majority of us, we will face disruption. That is expected. Yet, we are never prepared for the expected, not to mention that which is unexpected. 

Another case in point is Raymond Leong as reported. He is 62. He was a former senior sales manager and “used to work for a cruise and events company.” After just 1.5 years of joining the company, he was laid off. 

Raymond said: “By the middle of February, client’s started cancelling or postponing events, and activity was more or less dead.”

He added: “When they told me, I didn’t react. In fact, it was my immediate boss who burst into tears, and my colleagues were in shock.”

Raymond recounted that after he packed and left, within 30 mins, “he spent the next month crying himself to sleep once the reality of the situation set in.” He said: “I felt I was treated unfairly, and I kept thinking, “Why me?” It felt personal.””

Raymond is now a Grab driver and he “hits the road every morning at 6:30 am...and usually works a 12-hour shift.”

“It is tough, but I am trying to be positive and open about it,” Raymond said. “You need to come to terms with the reality of retrenchment because Covid-19 has created unprecedented times.”

Lesson? At such times, it is tough to put a gloss over the pain and uncertainty many are going through. You can’t spin much positivity out when many are still groping and hoping. 

But still, I felt that the attitude of Andy is deeply encouraging, and hopes to direct our attention to the different window in a dark room. 

As a backdrop, when Andy was working in food delivery, he said some of his friends questioned that decision. But he said: “Food delivery is pandemic- and recession-resistant. Everyone still need to eat, so undecided to do this.”

Here is his advice to those going through tough times. “There is a light at the end of the tunnel, just that now the tunnel has got a lot longer. But you have to keep going.”

Three things you have to hold dear to your heart in Andy’s wisdom. It is light, distance and keep going.

Whether you believe it or not, there is always light. It is not about an imagined light, but it’s about a good fight. You see, all trials bow to the overcoming vision of a persevering soul. The latter always outlive the former, because we are a species that is drawn to light, be it for guidance, for growth or for hope. 

So, yes, some tunnels are longer than others. But if we keep going, picking ourselves up whenever we are down, we will soon see the light at our own tunnel. For even Covid will soon pass, but the human spirit is simply indefatigable.

 

Covid-19 and the shrinking Church.

Covid-19 is much dreaded. It has changed the way churches run their services as we know it.

One churchgoer said: “The world is on pause mode. Things we take for granted, like flying, or even where to have a family meal, have changed. We ponder over what God is saying during this time. This is a message resonating in church circles.” (Zach Wong, 64).

In a way, we can’t do church the way we have been doing church. As churches “try to maintain a balance between social responsibility and faithfulness” (aka Bishop Terry Kee), most, if not all, religious and secular gatherings are mandated to limit gatherings to no more than 250.

If you must know, that number is 100 more than what is the ideal number for social gathering, which, according to Robin Dunbar, a University of Oxford anthropologist and psychologist, is 150. 

Robin said that “any more and...relationships cannot be sufficiently nurtured.” He added, “Sure, one can have countless social media “friends” these days, but those do not equate to real connections.””

So, I guess as church services go online or on livestream with a limited gathering of families, cell group members or ministry participants, we can start to establish real connection with our neighbours just as Jesus did with his twelve disciples?

Because if you think about it, it is how deep you go in investing in a life that will ensure how enduring the transformation in that life will become when the storms hit.

If you recall the parable of the sower, the seeds that fell along the pathway or rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, became food for birds, or got scorched by the sun at midday.

Eventually without depth and root, they wither away. Or worst, they become so comfortable with the status quo, they forfeit the opportunity to grow above the status quo. As such, their sacrifices are no more than arriving in church on time and leaving it most time, unseen.

Seen in this light, pastor Norman Ng of 3:16 church with an attendance of less than 250, has a point when he said that the current  mandated number of 250 is like a “return to roots”.

“We believe this is to be a spiritually significant moment where the Church can return to its historical roots of gathering in smaller groups as the early Church did,” he said.

“By providing safe spaces where people can have more authentic interactions, we get more opportunities to encourage one another and to care for the vulnerable.”

At this juncture, the sentiments above remind me of what a pastor said a few years ago. Pastor Francis Chan left the church he founded,  namely, Cornerstone Church in California, which grew from 30 to 4000 within 15 years.

He shared that the burning question in his heart at that time was this, “Am I the problem?” That started a deep soul-searching journey when he and his pregnant wife took a Sabbatical from church to explore the urgent needs of the lost and deprived in Asia. 

Further, in his book, Letters to the Church, Chan wrote that he often asked church leaders what their congregants expect on a Sunday. Below was their response.

“Typical replies include: “A really good service, strong age-specific ministries, a certain style/ volume/length of singing, a well communicated sermon…parking… coffee.”

“(Chan) then asks the same leaders to list biblical commands about church. This time, the responses are: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12), “Look after widows and orphans in their distress” (James 1:27) and “Make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).” “What would upset your people more?” Chan asks. “If you didn’t provide the things from the first list, or if you didn’t obey the biblical commandments on the second list?”

Taking a similar approach, I feel strongly that every pastor owes it to their congregation to ask the same question pastor Chan had asked, that is: -

1) “Am I the problem?” and

2) “What would upset your people more? If you didn’t provide the things from the first list, or if you didn’t obey the biblical commandments on the second list?”

Ultimately, the fruits of our labour in faith is never about what I would metaphorically describe as “quantitative easing” - to borrow a finance or economic stimulus term, which means “the introduction of new money into the money supply by a central bank.”

In similar vein, we ought to be cautious in pursuing numbers by injecting newer programs and attractive packages to bring in the crowd. Mind you, it has always been about the great commission of investing in lives, one soul at a time, and not about the great attraction of filling up the seats in the building, by storing up wealth to sustain it.

Alas, admit it or not, the number game distracts, dilutes and divides eventually because size demands attention, and attention demands structure, and structure demands money, and money demands a system of collection, and that system of collection demands even more numbers, and such obsessive cycle goes on and on, risking the relegation of the genuine transforming work of Calvary a secondary consideration because the administrative leviathan we have unwittingly nurtured in our backyard demands constant attention, regular feeding and blind perpetuation at all costs.

Sadly, as the church grows in this way, the sacrifices of a farmer-shepherd gradually becomes the building of a grain factory, the setting up of supply chain island-wide and the raking in of the financial harvest, while the planting of a soul gets subcontracted out to the impersonal hands of spiritual professionals with its excitable programs to boot.

As such, the silver-lining during this uncertain time provoked by Covid-19 is one where we ought to reflect deeply on the ends we hope to achieve with unchecked growth that ironically backfires rather than sets hearts aflame. This is therefore not a message against megachurches per se, but one for their consideration on the timeless purpose the Rock of Ages has established for us when the first cornerstone was laid towards the building of the Body of Christ from ground zero up.

Indeed, the church that returns to its roots in the modern context is one that not only comforts the afflicted, cares for the orphans and widows, loves and disciples one another, but one that also afflicts the comfortable so that instead of embracing the status quo, we reach out and make a difference in a life, one soul at a time, by planting the seed with depth in mind, however long it takes, so that when the storms come, each soul has a strong anchor or foundation to stand on  individually and communally.

By then, it is not the quantitative easing that attracts, which can only last for the short term, but it is about centering on qualitative transforming, upon which the church is built and is designed to last for all times.

Covid-19 Panic - human nature.

It’s human nature. We will react. When rumours spread (of dire consequences), we will go for the lowest evolutionary fruit: Fight, Flight, Food, and F...(sex). It’s just a matter of degree. 

The recent empty shelves are just part of what can be expected of this epidemic. In fact, a cargo driver, 33, who was shopping, said: “It has never been this crowded. I bought a lot of processed meat since all the fresh meat has already run out.”

An insurance agent, 29, who was at Sheng Siong Supermarket with his wife, said: “Since everyone is stocking up, we’re also doing the same but just buying a little more for standby. Nothing too crazy.”

Panic begets panic. I get it. People return to their foetal state when fear takes over. 

When cornered, they FIGHT. When panic strikes, they hoard FOOD and take FLIGHT. And pictures of emptied shelves of branded contraceptives can only mean that, well, safe SEX is not too far from buyers’ mind in their rush to stock up. 

The good news is that the hoarding or run on supermarkets appears to have calmed down, at least for now, in the face of about 40,000 infected and 905 deaths worldwide. And worryingly, epidemiologists and governments still have no concrete clue how to put a stop to the virus spread. 

Surely, as things develop, there is some cause for nervous reaction. And when The Life Church and Missions Singapore was unfortunately struck with two possible cases out of five, Rev Choo said what comes most naturally: -

“Those being shunned have to understand it is normal human reaction...and not take the perceived rejection too much to heart.”

So, let me just say that hoarding is not a socially responsible thing to do, but it is nevertheless a reflex response arising from our human nature. We can therefore expect some frantic (or even casual) shoppers to resort to it at such time of uncertainty. 

Sure, we should also take the necessary precautions on reports of cluster areas where the infection took place. For this reason, Rev Choo’s warning should be heeded, that is, when he said that his members may be shunned “following news of the church being identified as a possible infection cluster.” 

But, when the worst of times come, and should it ever come, I pray that humanity will rise above our nature, that is, our evolutionary defence mechanism of Fight, Flight, Food and Sex, because we are living in a more informed, developed, connected, rational and enlightened world. 

Our advance in civilisation should not only be one where we become smarter with technology, but also warmer in humanity. By this, I mean we ought to break away from our default positions to play identity politics or take refuge in tribalism. Instead, we ought to join hearts and hands together and fight against our common enemy, that is, the disease or infection, not the innocent hosts it ravages. 

I say this because I agree with what Professor Farish A. Noor said, (when he quoted Susan Sontag) - “when a disease - any disease, from the common cold to cancer - manifests itself and spreads in any society, it immediately assumes a social identity and consequently becomes something more than a disease.”

“Diseases can and often do take on other social meanings as well, in the way that cancer was once seen as a curse or infliction, something to be ashamed of and not to be discussed openly.”

What’s more, some diseases are seen as markers of social status, that is, as afflicting only the poor and deprived socioeconomic class and this inevitably divides society between the rich and poor. And other infections like Ebola was, and may still be, seen as an African disease. 

How about Sars and Coronavirus? Isn’t the spread that it is a Chinese disease from “dirty Asians” more virulent than the disease itself? And I think the convenient social label or stigma accorded to Mers (Middle East respiratory syndrome) provide sufficient info on where it originates and the nationality it plagues.

So, are we fighting together against a common enemy or are we dividing people into different classes of enemies to be targeted for extreme prejudice? 

Journalist Ms Iris Zhao wrote a report today entitled “Australia’s Chinese, Asian communities targets of racism.”

Iris wrote that while she was in a supermarket, a middle-aged woman walked past her and said: “Asians...stay home...stop spread the virus.”

“One (friend) recounted how a waiter had dumped change at his table before quickly walking away after my friend paid cash for a meal at a Melbourne restaurant.”

“Another, who wore a mask as a precaution at a shopping mall on Friday, had three teenagers tell her: “See you! Go and catch coronavirus.””

A researcher at Australian National University, Ms Yun Jiang, said: “So now, people who perhaps have existing prejudice suddenly have an excuse to act out with racist behaviour and remarks.”

Lesson? Well, what lesson is there if we as a human race become no different from the feral animals in the wild who live and survive only on their most basic instincts. 

Mind you, what ought to distinguish us is not how smart we are, how well off we are, how popular we are, or how holy we are. For, if by being smarter, more well off, more popular and holier, we can’t see beyond the disease or infection and instead resort to heuristic rule-of-thumb to pigeon-hole people into stigmatised categories so as to advance our own selfish ends, we are no different from the predatory beasts in the wild. 

In other words, we are no more than wolves in silken or velvety clothings, waiting for a crunch like this to show our true hissing colours. 

Let me end with these words from The Life Church. 

“On the other hand, while the fear is real, we also need to be objective and aware that since the symptoms of this virus are similar to the common flu, we should try not to overreact when someone displays certain symptoms.”

“The values of Christianity include those of love, service and acceptance - these are the virtues which are much needed during times like this.”

Indeed they are, and we need to demonstrate them more than ever. 

And if you want to catch a priceless glimpse of such virtues shining brightly in a world threatening to close up and care only for their own skin, take a walk to any nearby hospital and clinic and be inspired by the selfless sacrifices our medical frontliners have made without rest, and for some, without break. 

Alas, my point is that in every crisis you will see the best and worst in humanity. The prevailing hope is to never lose sight of the best of us, that is, the torchbearers, who shine in the darkness of every human heart to bring out the most resilient, most empowering and most inspiring part of us to overcome whatever crisis we are confronting.