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2020-03-18
HIST30060
This is a very rough demo of a song I wrote and recorded on the 18th of March 2020, right near the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic. Moreso than anything else, this song expresses my emotions about COVID come March 2020, namely the fear, insecurity, and dread. The first verse draws on the imagery of the empty University campus, and of the two-week quarantine period. The second verse includes a reference to an image I remember seeing from Wuhan, where a dying COVID patient was wheeled out of the hospital to view a final sunrise, as well as the videos from Italy of people in quarantine singing together from their balconies. The chorus is about the paradox of wanting physical contact but being afraid of breaching social distancing. The bridge references St Jude, the patron saint of lost causes and hospitals, drawing on those feelings of hopelessness about the rapidly degrading pandemic situation.
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2020-10
HIST30060: The Northcote Public Golf Course was reclaimed during Melbourne’s second lockdown as the #PeoplesPark. Members of the community had repeatedly broken into the course by cutting through the wire fence and bending it back. When I visited, the hole had been turned into a semi-permanent doorway and was covered in signs and notices such as this. The #PeoplesPark was a vibrant community space, with an abundance of picnicking families, groups of friends, dog walkers, and frisbee throwers. My friend described the space as a ‘slice of heaven’ – it was a blissful and joyous break from the stress of lockdown.
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2020-07-01
HIST30060: My suburb, Brunswick West, was marked as a ‘COVID-19 hotspot’ in late June. This image shows a line of people waiting to be tested at Dunstan Oval during the subsequent ‘Testing Blitz’. I saw several doorknockers distributing pamphlets and directing residents to the testing site. The Blitz aimed to test the majority of residents, and we had to supply permits at police checkpoints to leave the postcode.
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2020-04-25
HIST30060: Anzac Day was commemorated in a COVID-safe fashion. Some rose at dawn to stand at the end of their driveway, with many leaving messages or objects around the streets. I went for a walk and spotted several commemorative pieces in my area, including this ute with an electric candle and mat reading ‘Lest We Forget’.
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2020-03-13
HIST30060: A ‘Customer Notice’ at Woolworths in mid-March, explaining their new returns policy alongside a list of affected products. With half the shelves bare due to ‘panic buying’, grocery stores implemented new rules to avoid having to give refunds to people who changed their mind. I took this photo at a suburban Woolworths, packed with frantic shoppers and overflowing carts.
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2020-03-12
HIST30060: A ‘COVID-19 Productivity Plan’ in the making. In the early days of the pandemic, my girlfriend and I were excited about entering lockdown. An eventual lockdown felt inevitable in mid-March, so we sat down at our local café to plan all the things we hoped to achieve. The plan reflects the sense of novelty and strange excitement many experienced in the beginning.
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2020-02-27
Some emails sent by my school to students and family as the COVID-19 situations developed. I selected these emails because it shows the lack of information there was about COVID during the beginning. Shows a situation a lot of people experienced. I think first hand sources are great and I hope in the future people will look back and see first hand emails. It will help a lot of people in the future place themselves in our shoes.
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2020-11-06
In this video, I interview a former high school teacher of mine and I ask her questions about experiences she's had while battling this pandemic. I believe she's also attending Brooklyn College Graduate (Law) school.
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2020-11-02
This is new information dated November of this year updating the list of groups at higher risk for Covid-19. It is important to me because I am a member of a high risk group and virus prevention is important to me.
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2020-11-11
It is now almost time to wrap up my fourth semester of college at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Florida. I've always been told ‘as you get old time goes by faster’ and wow if that isn’t one of the truest things i've ever heard. We are in the middle of week thirteen of sixteen. My university, I'm sure many others, have suggested students miss out on Thanksgiving break this year because of the risk we bring Covid-19 home to our families and the community and potentially infect others. Luckily, I do not have any final exams and my in person class after Thanksgiving is giving us the option to go home and complete our work from there. I have decided I will be going home and I plan on getting a Covid-19 test before then to ensure I am not bringing any germs from my university home to my family. Despite the addition of masks this semester nothing seems like it has changed. Students are still deciding upon partying and having large get togethers. It is obvious that many students must think Covid-19 is ‘fake’ or they are ‘immune’ because they continue to put themselves at risk every weekend. Many universities and school systems across the United States have had to transition to complete remote learning once again because of outbreaks in classrooms, residence halls, and Greek life organizations. Covid-19 is not a ‘hoax’, it is very real and should be taken seriously as people's lives and jobs are depending on it.
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2020-11-11
Because of Covid-19, I didn't get the normal senior year of high school experience. I never got to wear my prom dress, appreciate my last day of school, or even had a chance to say goodbye to the teachers who shaped me into the person I am today. I never got to participate in a senior prank, or use the money we've been raising since freshman year to use towards our senior BBQ and senior trip. I never got to say farewell to the people I've grown up with since middle school. Whether I was close with them or not, I would've liked to say goodbye considering I may not ever see them again. This pandemic never allowed me to close the book on my high school experience. No matter how old I get, I will always look back and feel like high school was something that was robbed from me.
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2020-11-08
Small businesses have been hit hard by restrictions during COVID-19. Many are struggling to stay afloat and have come up with creative ways to bring in business. Some have even turned to GoFundMe's to raise money and bring attention to their business, such as these two booksellers.
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2020-03-29
Since March 2020, the Chinese government requires a mandatory 14-day quarantine in hotels for everyone who enters the country to ensure no cases from aboard will cause transmission within the country. This is the confirmation letter that I received after I was placed in the quarantine hotel, it indicates the date and time of my entry and the time of the end of quarantine.
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2020-11-10
Liverpool might have to cancel their game vs. Midtjylland. Futbol poses the hardest challenge for COVID-19. So much international travel is involved in the sport. How will teams deal with travel restrictions and obstacles? Will there even be a Champions league final?
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2020-11-10
the NFL is dealing with COVID-19. This is likely the hardest sport to manage when it comes to COVID-19. considering each team has over 50-60 players on the roster + the insane amount of coaches and player personnel. Multiple teams have had to cancel games, and the situation is continuously adapting.
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2020-11-10
The NBA restart date is set Dec 22. The NBA playoff bubble was the most successful example of a sports handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. They shut down quickly and then created a lockdown bubble to handle the playoffs. I wonder if the NBA will be able to handle a whole season as effectively as they handled the playoffs.
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2020-11-09
There are many older people who don't really have family connections in the world. It's interesting to see cases of people who were living in adult care facilities and contracted Covid. They end up in the hospital to be treated but then there is nowhere to send them after. It's interesting to see stories like this and I wonder how it will end for Ms. Nagendramma.
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2020-11-09
As someone who is patiently waiting for this dismal lockdown to end so I can get on with my life this is good news. Hopefully, things will clear up so I can actually go and visit my fiance. I wonder who all will take the vaccine though, or if visitors will be forced to take it.
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2020-11-10
For millions of people, the blue and white logo of the digital video meeting service, Zoom, has become a familiar sight. I am sure that many of us, like myself, had to abruptly learn about Zoom in March 2020 when our lives entered a digital phase due to the pandemic. I’m sure that I am also similar to many others when I can now say that (in November 2020) I am more than proficient in my Zoom skills. Everything from school to work to social meetings are now conducted by sending Zoom invitation links. Zoom has become the classroom, the office, and the cafe…..possibly without even changing the room you are sitting in. This year has not been easy but, as I look back over these past months, I have realized that the technological world has become a surprising lifesaver. Technology has allowed people to stay connected to the world without even stepping outside their homes. Phone calls, emails, texts, Zoom meetings….they have all played a part in keeping us close to our family and friends. Even my college graduation in May was conducted over Zoom. We moved our tassels as one graduating department, even as we sat in front of our separate computers in different locations! I have started my first semester at graduate school this fall at a Pittsburgh university. My classes are conducted through Zoom, so I am not actually on campus or living in the city! While I miss in-person social interactions, I am also incredibly grateful that, thanks to digital tools and dedicated professors, I have been able to continue my education despite this year’s difficult circumstances. Interestingly, despite global lockdowns, I have been able to “visit” parts of the world I would not normally be able to, due to institutions’ and organizations’ commitment to providing virtual experiences. From our home, my family and I have watched theatrical performances, concerts, and other events occurring in different geographical areas because of the ability to livestream. We have also been exploring various museums by taking virtual tours and looking through virtual collections. Through technology, I have been able to learn about and experience events and places that I would not have been able to otherwise! Eventually, this pandemic will be over. I hope, however, that institutions and organizations continue to reach out digitally even when it is safe to resume in-person group activities. Digital programs and projects allow people to participate in events and experiences that might have been too costly in travel expenses or time commitments had they only been offered in traditional, in-person formats. Regardless, I am grateful for what digital programming and technology have already given me. This year has been incredibly stressful and filled with anxiety. Sometimes, it has made all the difference to be able to connect with a few people over a Zoom meeting. In the end, the Zoom logo has come to signify many things to me: pandemic, prevalence of digital technology, and, when it comes down to it, the importance of human connectivity and relationships.
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11/10/2020
Oral History of Teacher, Wife, and Mother, Helen Farrar about her experience during the pandemic while her husband was activated on the COVID-19 Relief Mission with the Texas Army National Guard.
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2029-03-25
HIST30060
This is an email from March 2020, describing the introduction of strict new COVID restrictions at Ormond College, the largest residential College at UniMelb. As the document describes, this meant that any students who remained on campus went into full "lock-in" -- they were not allowed to leave at all, not even for essential shopping as per the rest of the state. This caused many students to flee campus and end up in unstable short-term accomodation, rentals, and sublet's (myself included). This email goes some way to demonstrate the impact of COVID on specific communities such as residential colleges, and on students more broadly. Beyond this, it's personally impactful to me because this email signalled that I had less than a day to make the decision between being homeless and remaining locked-in at College. Like many, I chose homelessness and eventually ended up in a sublet with friends-of-friends.
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10/17/2020
Transcription only: In this oral history interview, I sat down and interviewed Emily with a range of topics including: her background, employment, family, household, community, health, information sources, government, and the future. This interview was conducted at Emily’s apartment in Cincinnati, Ohio. Informed Consent was obtained previously before the interview.
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2020-11-10
Timeline for Covid-19 testing from Island Health in Victoria, BC. Supposedly it's a very quick turnaround, taking under 24 hours.
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2020-10-20
I, like many people my age, find not only humor but relatability in memes. They take the stress of issues that are exacerbated by the pandemic and help make us chuckle at it. I picked these three after looking at many, many others, because I related to them quite a bit.
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2020-11-10
テレワークの定着で産業医による診療も遠隔になりました。 大和証券医務室・多田愼一郎センター長：「体調は悪くないですか？」 本社勤務・50代男性：「特に問題ないですね」 大和証券医務室・多田愼一郎センター長：「テレワークしていて運動もできているからいいですね」 新型コロナウイルスをきっかけにすべての社員を対象に在宅勤務を導入した大和証券では、今月から産業医による診療をリモートで行っています。本社以外で勤務する社員も利用できるようになり、在宅勤務などの新しい働き方についても相談できるのが特長です。ただ、風邪などの症状には対応できないため、生活習慣病やアレルギーなどを中心に診察するということです。
With the normality of remote work, medical treatment by occupational physicians has become remote.
Daiwa Securities Medical Office, Director Shinichiro Tada: "Are you feeling okay?"
Working at the head office, male in his 50s: "No particular problem."
Daiwa Securities Medical Office, Director Shinichiro Tada: "It’s good that you can do remote work and exercises at the same time.”
Daiwa Securities, which introduced tele-commuting for all employees due to the new coronavirus provides medical care by occupational physicians remotely from this month. Employees who work outside the head office can also use it, and it is a feature that they can consult about new work styles such as working from home. However, the doctors do cannot take care of symptoms of colds but rather mainly examine lifestyle-related diseases and allergies.
Video is translated by Youngbin Noh
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2020-11-10
中国は輸入された冷凍などの低温食品、すべてに検査と消毒を行う方針です。 中国東北部の天津の冷凍輸入食品を扱う企業で商品の積み下ろし作業をしていた男性が新型コロナウイルスに感染していたことが7日に確認されました。これを受けて中国政府は今後、低温の輸入食品すべてに対してウイルスの検査と消毒を徹底するとしています。中国はこれまで感染リスクが高い国や地域から輸入される低温食品を対象としていましたが、今後はすべての低温の輸入食品がより厳しく管理されます。
In China, all imported frozen foods/low temperature foods are now going to be inspected and disinfected. It was confirmed on the 7th, a man who was loading and unloading products at a company that handles frozen imported foods in Tianjin in northeastern China was infected with the new coronavirus. In response to this, the Chinese government will thoroughly inspect and disinfect all cold imported foods for viruses. China has been applying this this policy for low temperature foods imported from and regions at high risk of infection, but now all low temperature imported foods will be more tightly controlled.
Video is translated by Youngbin Noh
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2020-11-10
新型コロナウイルスのワクチン開発をめぐって、ブラジルの衛生当局は９日、「深刻な事態」があったとして中国の製薬会社「シノバック・バイオテック」の治験を中断したと発表しました。 ワクチンは、サンパウロのブタンタン研究所がシノバックと提携し開発していたもので、治験者の１人が死亡したと衛生当局に報告があったということです。 研究所の所長は、死亡と治験との関係はないとしています。 ブラジルでは、少なくとも9,000人が最終段階の治験に参加していました。
Regarding the development of a vaccine for the new coronavirus, Brazilian health officials announced on the 9th that they have suspended clinical trials of Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech because of a "serious situation".
The vaccine was developed by the Butantan Institute in São Paulo in partnership with Sinovac, and one of the participant was reported dead by health officials.
The director of the institute says there is no link between death and clinical trials.
In Brazil, at least 9,000 people participated in final-stage clinical trials.
Video is translated by Youngbin Noh
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2020-11-06
This video shows the number of cases of COVID-19 in each region of Japan. Tokyo is the capital and the busiest and as you can see, it has the most cases throughout the whole video. 週刊
「グラフで見る新型コロナ」、各自治体などの発表をもとにテレビ東京がまとめた新型コロナウイルス感染症の感染者推移をグラフでお送りします。 まず、1週間ごとの新規感染者の推移を示すグラフです。 首都圏と大阪で感染者数が下げ止まりする状況が続いていて、地域によってはわずかに増えています。そうした中、北海道と愛知県で感染者数が大幅に増えています。愛知県では職場などで小規模のクラスターが多く発生していて、大村知事は「事実上の第三波」との認識を示しました。 次に、地域の医療体制にも影響する一週間毎の人口10万人当たりの新規感染者数です。この1か月の動きを見てみますと、青森や北海道、宮城県など寒い地域で感染が増えていることがわかります。 今週に入ってからは特に北海道が札幌を中心に急速に増えていて、全国で最も多くなりました。道はススキノの酒を出す飲食店での営業時間の短縮要請など、対策を検討しています。
※「1週間毎の新規感染者」はその日からさかのぼって7日間の陽性確認者を足したものです
※「1週間毎の新規感染者（人口10万人当たり）」で使用している人口は2019年10月時点です。
We will show you a graph of the transition of people infected with the new coronavirus, which was compiled by TV TOKYO based on the weekly "New Coronavirus Seen in Graph" and the announcements of each local government.
First, it is a graph showing the transition of newly infected people every week.
The number of infected people continues to decline in the Tokyo metropolitan area and Osaka, and is increasing slightly in some areas. Under such circumstances, the number of infected people has increased significantly in Hokkaido and Aichi prefectures. In Aichi Prefecture, there are many small clusters in the workplace, and Governor Omura has indicated that it is the "de facto third wave."
Next is the number of new infections per 100,000 population per week, which also affects the local health care system. Looking at the movements over the past month, we can see that infections are increasing in cold regions such as Aomori, Hokkaido, and Miyagi prefectures.
Since the beginning of this week, Hokkaido has increased rapidly, especially in Sapporo, and it has become the largest number in Japan. Michi is considering measures such as requesting shortening of business hours at restaurants that serve Susukino sake.
Video is translated by Youngbin Noh
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2020-11-06
イタリアやドイツでは５日、新型コロナウイルスの１日の新たな感染者が過去最多を更新しました。 新型コロナウイルスの感染の第２波がヨーロッパで深刻化しています。 イタリア政府は５日、新型コロナウイルスの感染者が前の日に比べ、３万4,505人増え、累計で82万人を超えたと発表しました。感染拡大を受けて、イタリアでは６日から午後10時以降の外出の原則禁止など、感染拡大防止のための制限が強化されます。 また、ドイツメディアは５日、１日の新たな感染者が２万594人となり、初めて、２万人を超えたと伝えるなど、ヨーロッパで感染の第２波が深刻となっています。
In Italy and Germany, the number of new infections of the new coronavirus in one day reached a record high on the 5th.
The second wave of infection with the new coronavirus is becoming more serious in Europe.
The Italian government announced on the 5th that the number of people infected with the new coronavirus has increased by 34,505 compared to the previous day, and the cumulative total has exceeded 820,000. In response to the spread of the infection, restrictions to prevent the spread of the infection will be tightened in Italy, such as the principle prohibition of going out after 10 pm from the 6th.
In addition, the second wave of infection is becoming more serious in Europe, the German media reporting that the number of newly infected people on the 5th was 20,594, exceeding 20,000 for the first time.
Video translated by Youngbin Noh
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2020-10-18
As with almost everything, COVID-19 has affected funerals. We hear about those that die and the funerals that are held but, we don't hear about how not being able to travel has affected the grieving process. Photography student Jacob Moscovitch's grandmother passed away in April and his family was unable to attend the funeral in Israel. He decided to photography his mother's grieving process as a way to heal.
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10/17/2022
This is an Oral History interview with University of Cincinnati student Sachiko Morita-Mullaney. Sachiko discusses her experience as a student at the University of Cincinnati. She brings up her identity as a Japanese-American woman and how that has affected her personally during the pandemic due to anti-Asian racism. She also talks about her small online business, and the different ways her and her family’s employment have been affected by Covid-19. Sachiko, a Political Science major at the University of Cincinnati, is very informed about the government’s response to Covid-19. She shares her opinions about healthcare in the United States and how racism and classism have affected the United States’ response to the coronavirus. Finally, we talked about the future and the quality of the US response to the coronavirus.
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2020-10-29
Another example of a piece of Blacktober art, with a character from the Studio Ghibli movie, The Wind Rises.
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2020-10-28
Traditionally, during the month of October, artists from all corners of the internet come around to do something called Inktober. When Inktober's creator was shown stealing other's arts for profit (especially from people of color), people decided to create a new art theme for the month, #Blacktober, in honor of the black artists who are heavily underrepresented in the community turning well-known characters in media in portrayals of if they were a person of color.
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2020-10-17
HIST30060, this is a personal text reflection on my experience in the pandemic complemented by internet memes
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2020-03-25
HIST30060 - submitted as part of a history assignment. Again, like many other memes I encountered, this one comments on how the events of this year will be studied, but more importantly how they will be remembered (as emphasised by the almost commemorative nature of the statues). Humorously depicting parents and two children racing with an overflowing trolley full of food toward the check-outs as though it were a battle scene, this meme seeks to ridicule the absurdity of purchasing and hoarding mountains of food during the lock-down period. It suggests that violence in the isles and the toilet paper crisis that saw people literally fighting each other in order to obtain toilet paper will not be looked upon favourably by future historians or students. The way that the figures are carved in stone and the title of ‘The Battle of Costco (2020 A.D.)’ positions the audience to view the image in reference to other major historical conflicts and to find this one, humorously, falling short.
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2020-05-17
HIST30060 - submitted as part of a history assignment. This meme uses symbolism in order to compare the pandemic to disastrous world events. The background depicts an atomic bomb exploding into a mushroom cloud and is overlaid with photographs of an empty toilet roll (alluding to the rush on toilet paper that occurred early in 2020), a bottle of Corona beer (a company unfortunate enough to share a name with the virus), empty shelves (from where people had panicked bought), graphics of the virus and the muppet Elmo wearing a mask, looking into the middle distance. The combination of these graphics suggests that in the future, ‘corona’ will be inextricably linked to the virus and that just saying its name will induce traumatic flashbacks. This suggests that the collective experience of wider society this year could be deemed a sort of shared trauma. It is noteworthy that the vast majority these memes, this one included, do not make light of personal hardships faced by people in order to be malicious and the events alluded to (such as the food hoarding) are not “serious” (like, for example, the economic crisis or the coronavirus death toll) but more trivial inconveniences.
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2020-11-10
HIST30060 - submitted as part of a history assessment. Many of the memes, like this one, comment on the cyclical nature of history and the inescapability of the repetition of disasters. By drawing attention to other plagues of the past - all of which occurred during the 20s of their respective centuries - the image preempts the current ‘plague’ or pandemic. The accompanying image taken from the 2014 film ‘Big Hero 6’ and the comment ‘I have some concerns’ (an understatement to say the least) add an amusing note to the alarming message. Much of the humour found in these memes and images contained words ‘read’ in a deadpan or resigned tone - or otherwise the voice of one who is no longer surprised by the current turn of events. Again, there is a resounding feeling that this year has been a strain as one disaster after another occurs.
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2020-05-31
HIST30060 - submitted as part of an assessment for a history subject. A significant number of the memes I found commented on the incredible number of ‘disasters’ or disruptions that have had a global impact this year (suggesting that this number is far more than anything to occur in the last decade). The disasters referenced in these memes concern a range of instances including the Australian Bushfires, the “threat of World War III” (with the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani by drone strike), the Covid-19 pandemic, the American Murder Hornets, the explosion in Beirut and the American bushfires. The ‘disasters’ or global events that feature in the memes span almost every continent and every sphere from environmental (e.g. the bushfires), the social (e.g. the American race riots), the economic, the political (e.g. the explosion in Beirut and subsequent investigation into corruption) and health (e.g. the pandemic). This particular meme suggests that the study of this year will be an arduous task for history students of the future.
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2020-08-26
HIST30060 - submitted as part of history assessment. This tweet produced in August 2020 includes a photograph of the American bushfires with the caption ‘this is gonna be the cover photo in the history chapter about 2020’. Like so many other memes and tweets, this item points to the cumulative nature of the disastrous events of 2020, suggesting that the entire year can be summarised by a hellish scene of a large fire devouring all its path while a sign warns of precautions needed to protect from covid-19. The tweet also draws attention to the study of history and how future generations of historians (and school students) will be introduced to the major events of the year.
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2020-07-30
This satirical article by the Betoota Advocate is a social commentary on varying experiences of the coronavirus pandemic in different Australian states, specifically Victoria and Queensland, which speaks to my own experiences as someone who has lived in both states during Melbourne's second lockdown from July. The article mentions the general indifference or lack of sympathy towards Victorians, as NewsCorp and the general public have seen the second wave of cases in the southern state as being their own fault. This is something I noticed upon my return to Queensland in August, where the general rhetoric surrounding Victoria and their Premier Daniel Andrews' handling of the high number of cases in the state tended to be divisive. I had never heard of the term 'Dictator Dan' before returning to Queensland and people I knew were calling Victorians 'Mexicans', which I put down to the monopolisation that Murdoch media has over Queensland news. I saw these sentiments turn to sympathy as stage 4 lockdown set in, as Queenslanders realised the negative effects lockdown was having on Victorians. This also differed from the indifference I noticed when I first came back to Queensland, where most people seemed to have forgotten what lockdown was like and were living like everything was back-to-normal. As someone who experienced both lockdowns in Melbourne, as well as relatively normal life in Queensland, I definitely did not take the ability to travel, go out and see friends and family for granted, whilst also retaining deep sympathy towards everyone still in lockdown in Melbourne (which included many of my friends and some family).
HIST30060.
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2020-08-01
During lockdown my group of friends stayed close through sharing videos and memes on facebook and participating in tiktok trends. We had a weekly zoom set up with people from Melbourne and Geelong where we’d talk about our mostly uneventful weeks, gossip about uni and celebrity news and little bit about Dan Andrews or as he was lovingly known Daddy Dan/Dandrews. Regularly having a zoom call was a comforting experience because before the pandemic we stayed in contact mostly by planning parties and lunches. The pandemic definitely made us closer through creating group chats and organising to play a game together, usually Among Us on Wednesday night. This post includes the tiktok beveragino trend where people have drinks with their mates and film them popping out from random locations. HIST30060
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2020-04
At the start of lockdown it became clear that my family would not be able to see each other for a while. Most of my family lives in Sydney, some of us live in Melbourne, regional Victoria and Canada. In response, my sister initiated a Coffey Family FaceTime every night at 6:30pm with whoever was available. However, this meant teaching my grandmothers how to use Facebook and how to start a call. More than 8 months later and both my grandmothers still can’t turn their video on without direction and also can’t start Facebook calls. This call kept us together when we felt far away. Celebrating father’s day and birthdays and anniversaries on FaceTime made some moments more memorable and some feel more lonely. Face timing each other was fun until there was a family dinner in Sydney and you couldn’t leave the state. However, there were fun moments, stirring up my parents dogs by yelling “walkies” or “dindins” and then leaving the call, FaceTiming on empty trams and using the weird face effects to confuse my grandmother about who’s camera was whose. The call gave structure to the days spent inside and caused me to talk to my grandmothers and extended family more about the current world events. HIST30060
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2020-05-18
Throughout the pandemic I worked in a bottle shop owned by Coles in South Melbourne. Sales increased dramatically during the pandemic for two reasons. Firstly, people were worried about Dan Andrews closing bottle shops during lockdown. Secondly, because bars and venues were closing, people had to source their own alcohol. During the interim period when people were discussing what the stage 3 and 4 lockdown would look like customers would come into the shop and ask if we were considered an ‘essential service’. I would respond with “I assume we’re considered essential,” “how would you survive without booze?” and “you’d know more than we do.” During this period of time it seemed like everyone knew a friend or an acquaintance of a friend who was in politics and sharing information about COVID lockdown meetings and what the next stage would involve. The uncertainty of not knowing if I’d be working next week was stressful and caused anxiety and it also caused me to panic buy wine (most of which was not touched). Nonetheless, we stayed open throughout all lockdowns and acquired new customers. During lockdown our sales increased on cocktail ingredients such as triple sec and campari because people started making cocktails at home. During the pandemic customers seemed to have more time to chat and browse and wanted to try new products. but this could also be because they liked the excuse to stay out of home for longer. As well, Coles gave employees who worked from March to May 2020 a one-off thank you bonus for working during the hardest weeks of the pandemic. Working during a pandemic had highs and lows, I was grateful that I didn’t live with my family, so I couldn’t bring home to virus, but it was hard juggling extra hours at work around online uni and other aspects of life. HIST30060
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2020-05-01
Outside my work the council of Port Phillip commissioned an artwork on Coventry Street South Melbourne by Bridgette Dawson who goes by Melbourne Murals. She remastered the renaissance creation of Adam masterpiece dedicating the work to physical distancing. This piece developed throughout March when social distancing was fairly new and the mural demonstrates the way social distancing impacted everyday life. During this period the council of Port Phillip organised an initiative for property owners to register their buildings to have murals painted on the exterior. This would give artists work during a hard financial time and would deter graffiti. Port Phillip council also created a map for viewing their new street art installations, encouraging new walking paths when life seemed on repeat. I see this artwork nearly everyday and customers continually comment on it and smile about it. It’s a reflection of how COVID changed our lives and the spaces around us in South Melbourne.
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2020-05-01
During the first lockdown in Melbourne the community in Southbank bonded through new COVID influenced street art. On the side of my apartment building on City Road, Southbank street artist Peter Seaton also known as CTO Art was commissioned to paint a piece over some recent graffiti. He titled the street art ‘trapped in a third dimension’, he described that COVID19 had caused fear and panic, which are the lowest emotions and he wanted people to experience and remember the feeling of love. This painting reflects intimacy during coronavirus and ideas of not being able to touch one another.
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2020-10-25
On October 25, 2020, over fifty of 1000+ people in the Matamoros Border Camp gathered along the barbed-wire fence to protest their living conditions. The Migrant Protection Protocols (M.P.P.), a Trump Executive Order, requires many Spanish-speaking asylum seekers to stay in Northern Mexico until granted a court date. In March 2020, the administration sealed U.S. borders and closed immigration courts as part of the COVID-19 emergency response. Many asylum seekers trapped in the camps may never get a full hearing.
Although protests could provoke retaliation from Mexican and U.S. immigration officials, these families demonstrated because they felt desperate. As in much of the southern border, cartels plague the Brownsville-Matamoros region. Many South and Central American migrants have experienced kidnapping, theft, extortion, and rape on their journeys through Mexico. In the camps, bounded by a fifteen-foot fence and heavily armed security forces, they face daily threats from poisonous snakes, hurricanes, flooding, and unsanitary conditions. Because the Mexican government does not give camp occupants sufficient resources, nonprofit organizations like Catholic Charities and Team Brownsville provide food, water, and medical care. On the day of the protest, two U.S. citizens from a Methodist ministry stood with demonstrators inside the camp.
The asylum seeker who organized this demonstration sent her two daughters (ages 9 and 11) across the Rio Grande, accompanied only by a cartel-affiliated coyote (guide), to turn themselves into Customs and Border Protection (CBP). While she misses her daughters every day, she believes that separation is safer for them than remaining in Mexico or returning to Honduras. She trusts that God will protect everyone in the Matamoros camp because their cause is just. After the protest, I held her hand through the gate’s wire diamonds and promised to pray.
Some protesters held signs with Bible verses like Matthew 25:35-40, while others called for the protection of LGBTQ+ migrants and an end to MPP. Many protesters addressed the U.S. presidential election. Voten inteligentemente, one sign reads – vote intelligently. Joe Biden promised that, if elected, he would repeal M.P.P. within the first hundred days of his presidency. Asylum seekers realize that without a leadership change, they have very little chance of entering the U.S. I witnessed this reality while I stood in an hour-long customs line, waiting to cross the International Bridge back into Brownsville. The line held a mix of Mexican and U.S. citizens, including a family carrying spider-shaped piñatas and orange-frosted cupcakes for a Halloween party. A group of two adults and three children passed me in line. I watched them approach CBP officers, a journalist following close behind. Five minutes later, a security officer was escorting the family back to Matamoros. The journalist noticed me watching and stopped to explain: “They asked for asylum, but CBP said no. They have to wait in Mexico.”
“No somos malas personas. Solo queremos vivir.” The mother repeated this phrase like a mantra as she passed us, holding her six-year-old daughter’s hand. We are not bad people. We just want to live.
*This is a photograph that I took on my cell phone outside the Matamoros, Mexico border camp on Sunday, October 25, 2020. Faces are blurred to protect their privacy.
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2020-08-09T21:28+10:00
This photo depicts me and my university friends catching up over Zoom and playing trivia. We played trivia multiple times over zoom, usually most Fridays, as a regular way to socialise while we were all apart during university holidays and Melbourne's second lockdown. The rules of our trivia games were as follows: every player would contribute $5, different people would volunteer to make trivia questions on whatever category they choose (including memes, dog breeds, logos etc.) and the overall winner that week would use the prize money to buy alcohol of their choice (we are students after all). We also had dress-up themes like sports and beach-wear, and bonus points would be allocated to best-dressed. These nights were the highlight of my week and gave me something to look forward to, breaking up the monotony of university assignments and lockdown. At the time this photo was taken, I had left Melbourne and was in hotel quarantine in Brisbane. This is also why zoom trivia worked well, because whilst some of my friends stayed in Melbourne, many of us moved out of the city to do lockdown with family in places like rural Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, and Queensland. Social media and video chats like Zoom functioned to connect us in new ways during the pandemic, and shows how the barriers of physical distance could be traversed via digital realms.
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2020-11-10
For months the cinemas have been closed due to the pandemic. They were allowed to re-open starting from July, and here's a friend talking about what's like to watch a movie in Shanghai, China.
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2020-11-10
In March, our school announced remote teaching for the rest of the semester during the spring break. I was playing video games with my friends when the announcement came out and none of us could imagine it was the last time we will be in the same room. Immediately we started to plan on going back to home to China, we did not even say goodbye that night because we thought we were going to meet next semester or some time earlier. So we packed our things and left in rush, booked the earliest flight and tried to get home before the travel ban got stricter. Since then, Zenly recorded it's been 234 days that we haven't met each other. I miss the old days.
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2020-06-30
This meme was posted in my Melbourne friends' Facebook Messenger group chat in the wake of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' announcement that certain 'hotspot' suburbs in Melbourne would return to Stage 3 lockdown at the end of June 2020. From the point of view of people outside of hotspot suburbs, it makes light of other neighbouring suburbs turning a blind eye to people who have to go back to lockdown, creating temporary walls between spaces, people and families. Unfortunately, because I lived in Brunswick West, I was one of the unlucky few in my friendship group who had to go back into lockdown. I watched on social media as all my other friends caught up with each other and took advantage of being able to travel more and go out to bars and cafes. As unlucky as I felt, memes like this one always functioned as a way to laugh at bad situations. My friends and I usually coped with lockdown through memes and jokes, characteristic of gen Z humour.
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