Blog 3

 We have stayed at home most of the quarantine. There are four of us in my household and in the last two years only I have worked sporadically. The vast majority of our income has been from my mom's savings, my grandmother's pension, government bonds and AFP withdrawals.

I doubt very much that we can improve right now, not before the worst stage of the pandemic is over. In our country the government used the pandemic to overlap repressive measures against protests against it in between health policies, with measures such as curfews. Restrictive measures have also been tailored to the needs of large economic groups, lifting quarantines on large commercial dates and giving enormous benefits for the operation of non-essential companies.

I believe that from all pandemics there can be great opportunities for the development of good social policies, such as social protection systems and the public health system. A century ago, during the tuberculosis pandemic, building regulations were updated and overcrowding was combated, so I think the covid pandemic, being a disease that spreads in unventilated environments, can be a great opportunity to create more decent housing for people.

One of the activities we have had the opportunity to do during the confinement has been to reproduce native trees. It is an activity that I had never done before, but it has been a great pastime during quarantine and we have been able to learn a lot from it. Currently we estimate that we have more than 100 trees growing in our yard, most of them are peumos, but we also have quillay, northern belloto, tara and quebracho. In addition, we also have a few specimens of hackberry, brachichito, a jacaranda, a laurel and an acacia. For all the trees we have, these have been reproduced by seeds, as they are stronger than trees born from branch cuttings.

Studying inside the house has brought occasional fights, as we are always interrupting each other with noises from the TV or music. It's not a problem I think we can solve as long as the pandemic lasts.

I think the pandemic is going to be overcome, but in more years than we originally thought. But I am pessimistic in that I believe that the social effects that the pandemic will have worldwide will be very great, poverty will increase and I am not convinced that the economic reactivation will be environmentally oriented.