The article has been automatically translated into English by Google Translate from Russian and has not been edited.

'Police dispersed the funeral': Belarusian told about life in Chicago in quarantine

'29.05.2020'

Source: Lady.tut.by

Belarusian Violetta Nikitik spoke about the situation in the metropolis during the quarantine. How the life of her family has changed - in the material Lady.tut.by.

Sculpture Cloud Gate or "Big Chicago Bean" in Chicago's business district. Photo: Shutterstock

Violetta Nikitik, a psychologist by training, even while studying at the university worked in the theater and cinema sphere, volunteered a lot. The girl left for Chicago three years ago - she won the green card.

Photo: Violetta Nikitik / Facebook

In the USA, she works on the CreateCulture cultural initiative, created by an international team from Belarus, the USA and Botswana. She is engaged in management, administration of cultural projects, and also organized concerts of her husband (lead singer of Vuraj band) in the states.
In Chicago, Violetta lives with her grandmother.

“We hardly go anywhere,” the girl says. “Only to the grocery store and the nearest pharmacy. In the United States, the first case of coronavirus was recorded on January 21, in Chicago - on January 24. On March 13, flights were closed, and since March 17, pubs, restaurants, cafes, fitness centers and so on in the city have ceased to work. "

Photo: Violetta Nikitik / Facebook

Of course, at first there was a stir around food and basic necessities. People swept away everything that is possible. Funny pictures (memes) about toilet paper and empty shelves immediately appeared on Facebook. They grabbed everything, but especially wipes, sanitizers and baby diapers. For some reason, they also took a lot of bread and bought water (0,5 l packs).

Laughter, laughter, but one nuance must be taken into account: classic American families, representatives of the middle class, always make purchases for the long term. For them to buy many products at once is the norm. These are partisans who cannot live without supplies in case of anything. In Belarus, it’s usually like this: a pantry is a meter per meter or less, and the average American living in his own house has a month’s supply of food in the basement. They, as a rule, gather as a family and go to the nearest giant supermarket and take what they need with carts. Many houses have a supply of toilet paper, because, as a rule, they sell it in packages of 36 pieces, but piece by piece - no. Therefore, it is quite clear that, not knowing what the quarantine measures would be, they hastened to hammer their pantries. So did the rest. For example, our family of friends immediately bought $ 1000 worth of food when quarantine news arrived.

Pretty soon, Chicago imposed a restriction on the sale of certain goods: frozen chicken, vegetables, eggs, yoghurts, paper - all this can be taken only one unit in one check per customer.

thomasclement333 / Instagram

I remember that when I went into the store in the early days of quarantine and saw empty shelves, I felt very unusual. The USA is a country of abundance and consumerism. Here everything is aimed at ensuring that a person buys as much as possible, and there is always an overabundance of various goods, and this lack of products has been alarming.

Now they only let in masks and gloves into the shops, and some even from 7.00:9.00 to XNUMX:XNUMX in the morning were reserved only for senior citizens in order to limit their number of contacts.
But prices rose: if earlier a pack of water (24 pieces) at a cost of 0,5 was worth $ 3,5, now it is $ 5-6. When toilet paper appeared, local stores began selling it for $ 5 for a package of 4 pieces. This has never happened before. The government promised to conduct inspections and fine those who charge prices, but I don’t know how this will work in practice.

It is also interesting that in some conservative states and in California, the demand for weapons has increased. People stocked ammunition in reserve. In Chicago, there was no such visible request (except for the southern regions, weapons are always there), probably because it is a multicultural city and more democratic, it is hard to imagine that emigrants from Eastern Europe will have a need for weapons, although recently read in the news that and they started buying.

"The police broke up the funeral"

Quarantine in the USA is quite tolerant, without registration by SMS or passes. But our state has the most stringent quarantine rules in all of the United States. The main measure is self-isolation, with a ban on leaving the house without urgent need until May 30. On the street, the police can stop you and ask about the purpose of the move. If you are unconvincing, you can issue a warning or a fine.

You can’t gather in a group of more than 10 people. Recently, the city spread the news that in one of the suburbs about 40 people gathered for burial. The police arrived and broke up the funeral. “There were no fines and arrests,” local media reported.
In general, I would say that Americans are very law-abiding. They like to complain and contact the appropriate authorities if they see a violation of order. For example, in the first week of quarantine in Chicago, more than 1000 complaints were received regarding violations of the work of hairdressers, yoga studios, bars serving the gym, gyms and yoga studios, tobacco shops, cosmetics stores, and sporting goods. And not only business “fell under the hand”: three churches that held Sunday services were fined. Total fines imposed in the amount of $ 120. The Americans themselves do not believe that this is bad, on the contrary, it is a civil position, because the owners of these organizations violated the law and created a dangerous situation for society.

City parks are closed, the police are on duty next to them, so that no one is tempted to run or walk in them. But you can walk around the house, go to a local park in the area - you can, but subject to the distance. Also, the presence of a mask is required. The police will not fine, but they will come up and ask: "Are you all right?" In the United States, the police generally treat citizens by default, if you are not a criminal, of course.

grizzlythegoodboy / Instagram

But the situation is getting a little easier: people are tired of isolation. Recently I went to the city center: there were a lot of runners, almost all masked. The main parks are still closed, but there are many people around who keep their distance.

"A lot of infected among the black population"

Violetta lives in an area that was considered "Polish." Now there are more Mexicans and Indians.

- The districts in the city vary in their ethnic composition. Our area is considered "white." The black population lives in the south of the city. In Chicago, the mayor of the city is an African American. She created a special commission to support the black population of the city during the coronavirus, because it turned out that 72% of cases were black.

There can be many explanations for this phenomenon: they are busy at work that does not involve a remote worker, cannot isolate themselves, have no insurance, and live in large families in the same apartment. There is a version that black families are more religious and deny the danger of coronavirus, hoping for God's help. One way or another, but a large number of cases are a fact, and the authorities are trying to take measures to reduce the spread of the disease.

On the subject: 'We never parted before the coronavirus': how families live who were separated by a pandemic

“Americans really like Belarusian song folklore”

I went to work in the USA, but cultural projects, entertainment projects and events were canceled. This is very alarming, and it is completely unclear when everything will return to its usual state. Our organization CreateCulture is engaged in cultural projects, it was created by the producer, cultural project manager Nadezhda Ilkevich, who several years ago left to study in Ohio from Minsk.

The range of interests of the organization is quite wide: from placemaking to cultural diplomacy. For example, we organize joint concerts of Belarusian, Ukrainian and American musicians. My husband Sergey Dolgushev came to the USA - the soloist of the Vuraj folk group and the organizer of the Special Team for the Descent.

Folk band Vuraj. vurajband / Instagram

These are meetings that bring people together to learn Belarusian folk songs from different times.
Americans really like Belarusian song folklore, a lot of people come to the “gatherings”, not only emigrants, but also those who know little about Belarus. We also brought our musicians to the USA or vice versa - we show Belarus to the Americans. Now we are closely engaged in the development of educational and cultural projects online.
Like most acquaintances, we work from home during a pandemic. There is nothing complicated about this: google tables, instant messengers, skype or zoom-dialers. Nadia lives in Ohio, so it's pretty common for us to work remotely, sometimes I go there as needed. But now the border between the states is closed, patrols are standing and they are not letting anyone pass.

Almost all sectors of the economy in Illinois, and indeed throughout the country, are not easy. In Chicago, for example, it was decided that everyone who paid taxes, regardless of whether you had a passport or a green card, would receive compensation of $ 1200 in May, but on condition that you receive less than 70 a year.

Those who have lost their jobs can apply for unemployment benefits, which will be 60% of their wages. It is issued for a period of four months. In addition, the business that suffered was able to count on budget assistance, but in the end there were so many applications in Chicago that they supported only a part, and these organizations were selected using the lottery.

On the subject: Opinion: for which we should thank each other in the era of coronavirus

But the collapse of the economy still worries US citizens less than human death and health. Now the United States in first place in terms of the number of infected and deaths. The situation is complicated by the fact that in the United States paid medicine, and not everyone has insurance. The cheapest - about 400 dollars a month. You can buy it yourself, and sometimes the employer buys it for you. There are states in which you are required to have insurance, if you do not have it - a fine of $ 500 per year. Many people think that if you are in good health, it’s more profitable to pay a fine.

The number of dissatisfied is growing, and although these statistics are not hidden from the residents and talk about measures that are being taken, people are already tired of quarantine. Even a campaign against the Governor of Illinois has begun.

Those who have lost their jobs write that soon there will be nothing to pay for housing, others say that they do not know what is. In principle, some landlords made concessions - they delayed the payment of the apartment, but some did not. Another company - electricity providers gave deferrals of payment, the same with communication and the Internet. They introduced tax holidays for everyone for six months.

We expect quarantine to soften at the end of May. They promise that on May 30 it will be possible to leave the house without restrictions, restaurants will open with the condition that the distance between the tables is two meters, but all the same, without a mask in the store, entry will be banned. I hope that it will be like that.

The original column is published on the website. Lady.tut.by

ForumDaily Woman is not responsible for the content of blogs and may not share the views of the author. If you want to become the author of the column, write to us - [email protected].

Follow success stories, tips, and more by subscribing to Woman.ForumDaily on Facebook, and don't miss the main thing in our mailing list

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By: XYZScripts.com