It has been exactly 1 year since WHO declared the start of the COVID19 pandemic. And here we are now, 365 days later.
I started the weekly blog count 2 weeks earlier when I sensed that things are getting worse after my last Yangon business trip ended at the end of Feb 2020. My wife and I had also just had our first vacation to New Zealand then and things were getting weirder by the day as we read news of a growing unknown virus affecting more and more people. In Wellington, the tour guide pointed to the harbour and informed us that all shipping activities had stopped as their wood product inventories were full at the warehouse but they could not ship anything out. The logistics supply chain had frozen up.
Biden’s 1st public speech as president today was a compassionate one filled with empathy while having shown leadership within the first 50 days of his presidency. He remembered the over half a million Americans who had died and ask for the assistance of everyone to help fight the virus as we head towards the tail end of the finishing tape, thanks to the vaccination program.
He promised that everyone would have access to the vaccines by the end of May and that they might get back to some form of normalcy by July fourth Independence Day to celebrate the defeat of COVID19. He had been cautiously under-promising and over-delivering while preaching a message of unity. What a nice contrast to the orange one exactly a year ago who downplayed the virus and boasted about how great he was to the American people, taking all credit for any successes and blaming others for problems he created.
Hopefully, the conspiracy supporters and anti-vaccination crowd would finally wake up from their alternate universe and come back to the real world. They should realize the hoax that they have been drawn into and the GOP will finally rid itself of the orange one and work for the people instead of the cult of one man.
The $1.9 trillion package has finally been approved and much-needed help will begin to flow to the people who needs the support. Many countries will likely follow suit to boost their economies as the speed of the global vaccination program speeds up. S’pore should not be far behind to obtain herd immunity soon as the 60-69-year-olds have just gotten their vaccination letters.
GOP members are falling over each other trying to claim credit for the package that all of them had voted against. One even had the balls to claim that he approved some of the benefits but was against the whole thing instead. Someone forgot to inform him that it still doesn’t count. GOP didn’t even bother to try to negotiate or ask for compromises given the urgency of the pandemic and acted like a majority when they have become a minority.
This Biden victory so early into his term is a big slap in the face for the GOP. They cannot spin this any other way to their advantage but continue to talk about Mr Potato Head and Dr Seus. Pathetic. The demise of the GOP is near with the continuing cult worship of the orange moron. Lawsuits against him are coming in thick and fast from all sides. Their GOP star may soon be taken away to jail to be locked up and the keys thrown away. They really are in deep shit and denial now.
Meanwhile, kudos to Biden for strong leadership, empathy and level-headedness which have been missing for the last 4 years. It should have come earlier but later is better than never. In such a short time, we are beginning to see hope for the ending of the pandemic and not leaving things to chance. Top-down co-ordination of resources was sorely needed to attack this invisible enemy.
S’pore, for its part, has also been showing strong and direct leadership over the last 12 months to tackle the virus in a systematic way. Every problem that was thrown in its way, it has managed to solve the issue around and turned it around into an advantage. The Foreign Workers virus spread – resolved. The vaccine supply – ordered way in advance since Jun 2020. Targeted approach to help its citizens – drawing on reserves for an SGD 100 Billion rescue package. So many examples to highlight. I just hope that we appreciate the government instead of complaining all the time.
On the investment front, the sell down from the rise in US yields were an opportunity for more bargain hunting buying on dips. The 1.9 Trillion deal will release another round of liquidity into the US markets like what happened last year after the Mar 2020 meltdown. More Tesla and included Shopify, Fuelcell and Palantir. We should be fully into names that will benefit from the K shaped recovery which leverage technology and the new normal way of doing things.
This week was also the funding of an equity investment into a UK online Jewellery business in which we were interested in. It was started by an enterprising cousin who benefited from the pandemic lockdown and her business boomed in 2020. This is a private equity deal that may become a great investment in the future. Time will tell.
On the vaccination front, my parents and parents-in-law will be getting their first shots next week as those above 70 are next. My dad and mum, who are 92 and 87, will be having theirs on Monday. Given that they have had flu vaccines before, I think that they should be ok. To date, more than 660,000 vaccine injections have been given in S’pore. My younger son had already completed both his shots last month as he is part of the medical front line as a med undergrad.
Meanwhile, my AI course is progressing alone nicely as we complete our first project on EDT (Enterprise Design Thinking). The Myanmar situation after 1 month is getting worse by the day as the violence is escalating. I pray for the safety of the people who are working in the firm I have been consulting with for the past few years.
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