1.
I just moved into this condo six months prior to the leak. The moment when I walked into the flooded condo to rescue as many personal items as possible, I thought of my childhood in those floods that filled our house after torrential rains. (Thank you for reading my memoir!) Water cascaded from the ceiling, shattering the glass ceiling light fixture and triggering the fire alarms to beep and blink nonstop. I felt like being in a tropical no man’s land with water dripping from the ceiling in a cave and humidity overwhelming me.
I also thought of the flood zones in New Orleans that I visited four years after Hurricane Katrina took place in 2005. A sense of helplessness erupted in me as I alone soaked the wet floor. To my astonishment, my water leak experience in the United States has been a long haul. After five months’ waiting for repair, I still hear no word from the building management about when my condo will be repaired. I was a flood survivor in my childhood but my experience can’t help expedite the repair of my dwelling.
What I have learned is the delay that complex bureaucracy and red tape cause in the flood insurance industry. I am disillusioned with the building management but I haven’t lost my cool.
I remember when I visited the flood areas after Hurricane Katrina, I was surprised to see houses that seemed about to collapse still remained standing after four years. I didn’t see a soul in those neighborhoods. In the baking sun, these used-to-be habitable communities looked so bleak. No wonder residents had to move permanently to neighboring states with their broken hearts. At least in a safer place on a higher ground, flood victims can rebuild their life without too much emotional baggage and fear about another hurricane may hit their new homes. After my trip to New Orleans, I wrote an essay “I’m Proud to Be a Southerner” but later I learned the title had a different connotation to the American readers. The divided sentiments derived from slavery and Civil War are so deep rooted in American contemporaries’ understanding about the simple cardinal directions. North and South in this particular geography means so different from where I came from. And now, when we talk about Global South in climate adaptation, aren’t we painting too broad a brush to refer to a population that lives in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania? Where I came from in South China, it is an affluent region and technological powerhouse for the country and beyond. Where I came from in South China, locals welcome foreign investment and trades. My hometown Guangzhou, also known as Canton, was historically a major port in ancient China. When the British East India Company made Canton its major Chinese port early in the 17th century, the Canton-system trade came into being. If you have been to the southern states in America, you probably would be impressed by the big and beautiful mansions for the insanely rich people. Are these homeowners part of the global population? Don’t they have an affinity for Southern Living? Can I infer that we are all proud Southerners despite our geographic difference?
“The Chinese have discovered, and have practiced for many centuries, a way of life which, if it could be adopted by all the world, would make all the world happy. We Europeans have not. Our way of life demands strife, exploitation, restless change, discontent and destruction. Efficiency directed to destruction can only end in annihilation, and it is to this consummation that our civilization is tending, if it cannot learn some of that wisdom for which it despises the East.”
—Bertrand Russell, author of “The Problem of China“
2.
So, while waiting for my condo to repair in these months, I immersed myself in reading old books to keep my sanity. I won’t labor you to read the nonsense of the insurance problems. If there is a reform in industries, I won’t hesitate to pick these top three in the United States: pharmaceutical, telecommunication and insurance. In my mind, they are insanely abusive of consumers’ rights.
My friendly warning to the 21st century homeowners is be patient with your condominium insurance dispute. Let’s hope the future floods resulting from sea level rise or global warming-linked rain storm, which may land in your dwellings, won’t cost you an-arm-and-a-leg to rebuild your homes. If they do, let’s hope you have your sanity to stay hopeful despite the slow response and inaction from the insurance and the pertinent authority.
We aren’t saints. But we can do our best to stay sane. The cause of the leak in my condo building was a water pipe burst. The leak happened in the dog days of summer on the third floor. (Speaking of global warming, we had some extreme hot days last summer!) However, the owner of the third flood unit insisted the leak was not her property’s fault. The leak damaged two units straight downstairs of my 3rd flood neighbor. I’m one of the victim families.
The building manager immediately called the water mitigation company to stop the water leak and dry the place with high voltage electric fans and dehumidifiers. My electricity bill in the following month had an unusual hike. For ten days, all the fans were in full gear 24/7 to dry my condo. My bill went up to more than two hundred dollars from the normal fifty dollars. Who pays the bill? Me. The Victim.
I have a healthy houseplant that has kept me company for more than ten years. It died last year during the water mitigation period in my condo. For the entire week the temperature of my condo reached to as high as above 90 degrees Fahrenheit when the hot fans were blowing in full swing. My houseplant died of drought and heat. Who pays for the emotional toll? Me. The Victim.
So, to the 21st century homeowners, whether or not you have a home insurance, you need to have some emergency saving for an unexpected living crisis like what I’m experiencing. Climate change-related disasters are no jokes. And they can be insanely costly.
3.
The Covid pandemic has come to a moderate period after three years’ of social distancing and nonstop efforts of human vaccination. But I know after some years people will forget what we have experienced. Until next existential risk—another pandemic—becomes reality and pains us will we once again remember the hardships we endured.
While authorities in some countries believe they’re right to impose Covid tests only on Chinese nationals on arrival, I can’t help questioning where were these policymakers when their domestic Covid infection cases were at one point out of control in the past three years? Stigmatizing patients suffering or having suffered from Covid is a mental illness. Covid-19 may stay with us for a very long time partly because it has triggered a string of mental illnesses, from grief to depression and from anxiety to ethnic and social hatred.
As mentioned in one of my essays last year, the discrepancy between the haves and have-nots in a country—even in a state capitalistic country like China or the epitome of monopoly capitalism like the United States—is salient in terms of accessing modern technology and vaccination. I don’t think I can live comfortably with a mobile phone tracking me every 24 hours if I am Covid-positive. But do you know many US companies also track their mobile phone users without the users’ consent?
The so-called user-friendly apps on the phone entail rules and policies that the user must comply with. Well, less is more. I’m happier to live without checking my phone all the time. But how many people today can do that? Phone dependency is an addiction. Am I insane to stay away from this global addiction? Or am I among the few sane weirdo that still wear a face mask with a book in hand instead of a phone?
In the past months, I saw brain drains in Germany and Taiwan because of technological innovations. Also, a study shows at least 1,400 Chinese scientists left American institutions for China in 2021. The report found that 61 percent of the “Chinese-origin scientists,” especially young researchers, felt pressure to leave the US. It is insane to politicize climate mitigation and adaptation. Now, the political rhetoric has permeated in academia, business and almost every facet of our life. I think mass media has propelled such a salient insanity wrapped around our heads globally.
I feel relieved that in 2022 I made a sane decision. I parted ways with my career in mass media. To quote a dear retiree friend of mine from Associated Press, people in public relations have misused the technique of journalism to serve the interest of their bosses.
A society cannot progress without elites. And yet, elites also make tons of carbon footprint, more so than an ordinary folk who live on a meagre wage. While elites can move about as free as birds for a promising future, ordinary folks—if they aren’t sane doers and if they don’t have strong backing from their communities—will have to stay put to face rising living costs from inflation (Notably, history shows the prices that rise in inflation seldom drop down), stagnant wages, natural disasters and possibly ecological neurosis. Yes, in 2023 and beyond, we’ll see more mental distress problems. And I am here to learn about ecopsychology with you in this year for sane doers.
“The market is essential to progress, but it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It is a social construct whose effectiveness is determined partly by the rules of the state and partly by the values of society. It requires the right institutions, a supportive culture and the maintenance of social license. If left unattended or allowed to capture the political sphere, the market will corrode those values essential to its effectiveness.”
—Mark Carney, author of “Value(s)”