Items

• 2020-09-10

  keep our grandma safe

  While some of my relatives live in Australia, most of my family is in Israel, which is doing really bad covid-wise. We keep in touch via a What'sApp family groupchat. However, over the last few weeks, the groupchat had become a site of conflict. We in Australia, on one hand, take the virus very seriously and have favourable attitudes towards lockdown and face masks. My relatives in Israel, on the other hand, see it as a prelude to dictatorship. They also subscribe to all sorts of covid conspiracy theories that undermine their faith in public action. Although usually their opinions are tolerated, covid has really flashed out our ideological differences to an irreconcilable point. The other week, my cousin in Israel showed up to my grandmother’s house with her friends. This caused a backlash here in Australia among relatives who were concerned for my grandmother’s safety. After quite a public and vicious argument on the What’sApp groupchat my grandmother eventually stepped in to defuse the tensions. As absurd as it sounds, I hope my relatives stay away from my grandmother. Their alternative views, which were once endearing and funny, can now claim her life. Ultimately, I would be powerless to stop them from here.
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  2020-06-24

  North Texas family shaken after 18 relatives test positive for COVID-19 following family gathering

  At about five months into the pandemic in the U.S. almost all states have lifted their stay at home order and many people are going back to business as usual. One north Texas family held a surprise 30th birthday party. The host, who thought his cough was due to working construction, unknowingly infected 7 people at the party of 25 attendees. Those seven people went on to infect others in the family and now 18 within the family are positive for covid. Within the family are also a couple, one an EMT and the other a doctor, who both refused to go to the party.
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  2020-05-30

  Beach Time

  This is supposed to represent how some of my relatives from México were supposed to visit us this year (summer vacation). They finally have the ability to visit us and since they live in the city, center of México, we wanted them to visit the beach for the very first time.