It takes time to build trust and it is nearly impossible to make amends in the aftermath of a trust crisis. Discussions surrounding trust crises about almost everything had been around before covid. Covid is a stress test of our interpersonal trust. From business to government, from kinship to friendship, we seem to ask ourselves more frequently these days—is it trustworthy?
Having been cooped up for some time to practice social distancing, I don’t wear a mask at home because I trust the living environment even though I don’t clean my house too often. I did not have spring cleaning this year. My trust is so high that I’m confident that there is no foreign pathogen in my house.
When I walk out of the house, jump into my car, I still have high percentage of trust in my surrounding—air is fresh and the car interior is odorless. Before I enter any building, I remember to wear my face mask as if it’s becoming my natural instinct. I’d like to maintain the safety of a public place as well as I feel an ounce safer for my precautionary measures. Inside a building, my trust of the surrounding declines.
In pre-pandemic days, I would be happy to meet family members or neighbors in person. They have my trust so we may even hug after a long separation. Today, I’d be hesitant to greet them outdoors. I can relate to the attributes of otaku (御宅族), a person who runs about a hobby alone endlessly and becoming social withdrawal from society. Covid has brought me more solitary moments and I’m doing pretty well with them. If I see people I know at a safe distance, I only can presume they are not carrying an infectious disease. However, when I see unknown neighbors from toddlers to elderly roaming the community as if covid is yesterday, a sense of insecurity chills down my spine.
As the Bard said, “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” To maintain interpersonal relationships, we certainly should do our best to love as many as possible. Perhaps social distancing indirectly spurs virtual outreach and trust building. People whom we would not meet for months, if not years, or whom we may not rekindle connection resulting from a feud in the olden days, are now showing up on our screens of all sizes. For me, I came across a virtual musical performance that I would have missed in normal circumstances. Covid has brought us together more than separated us. Covid is also causing a heavy death toll. The number is still on the rise as if there is no limit until the number reaches the sky. Is the sky the limit? Small as our nation and big as the planet, wherever we are, everyone is in grief.
We overlook the power of grief. As do we to the power of trust.
During covid months, I cherish my otaku life with history. I learn and re-learn the historical trajectory of science and arts; I compare environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria between companies with sustainability in mind. As a consumer, my trust increases when I read about Procter & Gamble Company’s Water Stewardship program in North America. Mastercard’s Priceless Planet Coalition to preserve the environment through planting trees has instilled a feeling of trust in tree huggers like me.
History has taught us that without trust in business, a crisis like the Panic of 1873 can recur. According to some historical accounts, the Panic originated from Vienna, the capital of Austria-Hungary, spread to most of Europe and to North America by 1873. The biggest railroad bond speculator and banker, Jay Cooke, could not sell new bonds for his Northern Pacific Railroad. His banks borrowed from the depositors’ accounts to cover losses. When the North Pacific went bust, so did Cooke’s banking empire. A domino effect ensued in the finance and banking industries. The New York Stock Exchange shut down for the first time in response to the Panic.
In the face of a public health crisis with no end in sight, the performance of the stock market reflects investors’ trust for tomorrow. Under uninformed and misinformed leadership in America, we cast more doubt than trust when we speculate on the stocks’ futures. Do you believe the leaders when they say America is doing a good job of containing the virus whereas, in the meantime, Dr. Anthony Fauci warns of another spike if we don’t practise social distancing and wearing masks? Do you trust our government when they assure us that test kits are prevalent in every community whereas many of us either get shunned away at the test station because we don’t have symptoms, or we are told that the limited doses are rationed for the most needed, say, a pregnant woman.
Our public trust of government is unprecedentedly diminishing. The divisive leadership and unregulated online comments are to blame. The latter involve moral principles. Are there bottom lines for our societal moral principles? Should laws be above the human right of freedom of expression? If not, the trade-off is apparent. We have to willy-nilly accept the consequences of mistrust and distrust.
From Hong Kong to Singapore, many a democratic society adopts covid relief packages to revive a domestic economy. Under the enactment of the controversial national security law, Hong Kong is now perceived by the US and its allies as a Chinese city that is no different from Guangzhou or Shanghai in mainland China. Hong Kong’s nearly US$18 billion-worth covid relief package is composed of the Employment Support Scheme and other bailout and subsidy programs. The wage subsidy scheme aims to incentivize employers to retain existing staff rather than replacing them with new staff on lower wages. It shares similar spirits with the US’s stimulus package for small businesses, known as Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). It is government’s responsibility to maintain social stability and prosperity. Despite the fact that people in neither regions trust their governments, Hong Kong SAR has an upperhand of trying to gain public trust. Hong Kong officials led by the city’s head Carrie Lam have promised high transparency for the implementation of the wage subsidy scheme. Time will tell if the promise is met.
Nevertheless, in the US we are already seeing abuses of government assistant programs under the current administration. Big names, from Elaine Chao to Betsy DeVos and from Jared Kushner to Sonny Perdue, are allegedly beneficiaries of PPP loans. These are not paychecks valued at hundreds of dollars, but they are taxpayers’ monies worth millions of dollars. History is rewritten as a result of the ruler of the White House peeling off government watchdogs. In order to buy trust from the ruler’s cronies, his government organ, the Small Business Administration waived ethics rules that otherwise would have screened eligibility of PPP applicants. Isn’t this contemporary definition of trading of trust? And yet the American small businesses which are the genuine covid victims, and which are eligible for PPP, are still waiting by the seemingly-never-get-through government hotline or a crashed website.
Ironically, if we see Hong Kong as a Chinese city, isn’t Hong Kong ahead of the US when it comes to government transparency about the covid relief package? If a government has been giving too many empty promises and acting like the boy who cried wolf, how can it not be accused of doing wrong to all, a total opposite of the Bard’s “do wrong to none”?