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A Letter to Superman Concerning COVID-19 Pandemic



Dear Superman,

Greetings from Indonesia.

I don't have your address in Metropolis, USA. I also do not have your email address. So I decided to post it on this blog. By so doing, it will travel all over the world even faster than your remarkable super speed. and reach you soon.

I wrote this letter on the seventeenth day of staying at home, a national call in my country meant to prevent further spread of the highly contagious disease caused by COVID 19. This preventive action seems very effective to help reduce the spread of the lethal virus. I hope the 'stay, work, and pray at home' action can stop the pandemic soon. It has been causing so many devastating psychological, social, educational, and economic effects.

Superman, my friend (May I?). Do you know how COVID 19 pandemic has seized much of our happiness? You know that we, Indonesians, love to gather with our family members, neighbors, relatives, and friends (of various circles, like school mates, church mates, and so on). One of our happiest moments is when we shake hands with each other, talk about many things, sing and dance and enjoy foods together in various forms of formal and informal gatherings. But since COVID 19 outbreak, we practice physical distancing, which means no handshake, no hug, and wearing masks while talking to others in more than one meter away. I was told that some grandparents were enraged because they were prevented from hugging their grandchildren. Many senior citizens even have thought they are not loved anymore because people around them 'refuse" to handshake with them. When we asked them to greet each other by bowing like the Japanese, they say it’s not a way to greet. If such physical distancing lasts longer, I'm afraid many people will suffer from a loneliness epidemic.

Stay at home program has also affected our children learning. Our schools do try to replace in-class learning with distance learning. Students who have been used with online learning might encounter any problem. But, what about those who have never experienced it? Many mothers, who suddenly have to be real teachers, become exhausted to deal with the lessons and learn how to do online learning together with their children. Some of them say, “Teaching these kids for ten days has ‘driven me crazy’. How can their teachers do it throughout the year?" What is more, not all children here have got proper online learning tools, and some remote regions cannot yet provide proper internet access. The longer this epidemic occurs, there will be more and more constraints in our children's knowledge and skills development.

Despite its effectiveness to curb coronavirus spread, the stay-at-home movement cannot accommodate millions of people working in informal sectors and casuals like side street dealers, online drivers, bricklayers, and grocery store assistants who should get out of their homes as their jobs cannot be done remotely. Many of them say, “This is dilemmatic. If we go out to work, we can possibly get infected and die. But if we don’t go out, my family and I will starve and die.” It becomes more complicated because these people are accounted for more than 55% of our country’s workforce.

What is more, the number of coronavirus victims keeps on arising. The United Nations says this is the biggest global emergency since WWII. To date, in Indonesia alone, 1,677 people have been diagnosed infected by the virus, 103 people recovered, and 157 died. Worldwide, about 900,000 people have been diagnosed with the virus, 190,000 have recovered, and over 44,000 have died. Our hearts go to the families of those who died, including the late doctors and nurses who died after treating their patients.

I know we should not focus only on the negative side of the crisis. I do realize that ‘stay at home’ movement has provided a bigger opportunity to have family quality time. I now can play music and sing together with my two sons. We also wash the car, clean the floor or dust off some furniture. I believe millions of other families do the same. This crisis has also moved many wealthy people in many countries to donate to help the efforts fight coronavirus. Communities are pulling together. Many businesses repurpose their equipment to make safety gear for hospitals. We also recognize the vulnerable and the elderly better. The air quality is improved due to the dramatic drop in nitrogen dioxide emissions (I guess you can fell it while you are flying up there, Superman).

Yes, COVID 19 has awakened us to select what is important and less important in life. However, we need a conducive moment to reflect and plan better. Thus, the sooner it ends, the sooner we can manage our life. Do you have any suggestions to stop this crisis, Superman?


Superman, my friend. You might wonder why I write this letter to you. Well, I have four reasons. First, one of my teachers once said that seeing a problem from a distance can provide more objective views. Since you are a descendant of the Kryptonian who had much higher technology than humans of the earth, and now you are living outside of Indonesia, you might be able to ponder the problems caused by the COVID 19 pandemic in my country more objectively.

Second, you have superhuman strength and ability. You can fly, have heat vision, and are bulletproof. In one of your movies, I saw you held a falling plane with hundreds of people in it and put it on the land safely. I also watched how you caught some flying nuclear missiles and thrown them to the outer space. With your superpowers, you have saved the world many times, and I think you can do it again. I hope you are not only bulletproof but also virus-proof so that you can fly here and there to save people in danger without being worried about getting infected by the coronavirus. I also wonder whether you can destroy all coronavirus using your heat vision.


Third, your determination to never give up, which is the main lesson I learn from you, can be very useful to inspire me, my fellow countrymen, and all people in other countries to keep on finding our ways to fight COVID 19. In your movies, I watched how you tried your best to fight crimes and evil to save humanity. You often met a lot of troubles, and sometimes you were also bogged down and beaten. However, you never lost hope. You learned from your mistakes, found your hidden resources, and proved out to do better. Thus, if you can't suck up the whole coronavirus and burn them using your heat vision, at least you can inspire us to never give up to find and use our unique gifts and strengths to liberate our world from coronavirus.


Finally (this is not directly related to the coronavirus pandemic), you are a very potential role model. Many people, including children, revere you as their superhero. However, your movies are mainly dominated only by your actions to fight the criminals and evils. I think, to enable people to effectively learn from you, they need to see the process you went through that makes who you are now. Many children today idolize a hero but do not try to take the paths the idol has taken. Therefore, if your fans know how you answered the challenges you met in your childhood and adolescence, how you solved the problems you encountered when you were a teen, how you responded to your parents' upbringing, how you treated others around you, it will be much easier for them to learn from you. Can you please share your experiences related to these?

By the way, you might have heard some people scream to ask for help in Metropolis, New York, Central City, or other places,
 and you need to go to save them quickly. So, I will his letter to let you go and save them. Thank you for reading this letter, and I’m looking forward to hearing from you.


Regards,

Your fan from Indonesia


Author : Parlindungan Pardede (parlin@weedutap.com)

Comments

  1. Fabulous letter. I like it. I can't wait for Superman's reply!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Unknown, Superman had replied it. Just go to the following to read it. https://www.weedutap.com/2020/04/a-replying-letter-from-superman.html

      Delete
  2. I like this letter ( article) , however this letter represents all countries that need Superman helps.
    In my opinion ,I think we can become as a SuperMan. If we gather to protect our country I think that is possible to us to fight with this virus . If this letter delivered to Superman I just want to say that " SuperMan your power will increase more , if you let us to join with you to save our county and also our world "

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    Replies
    1. Hello Edel,
      Superman was adopted by American parents. He might be busy in US fighting the virus. Wanna know his response? Read his replying letter here https://www.weedutap.com/2020/04/a-replying-letter-from-superman.html

      Delete
  3. I really like your letter to Superman, sir.
    I honestly never watched a full movie of Superman...hehehe
    Since I was a kid, I only watched some scenes of this movie cause I'm not really interested to this movie >-< 
    So, I don't really know what kind of characters are Superman have. But, thankfully from this letter now I know that Superman is not an ordinary human that is came from earth and suddenly have superpower just like other superheroes like spiderman but he is a descendant of the Kryptonian, he has superhuman strength and ability such as can fly, have heat vision, and are bulletproof, and he has determination to never give up that he tried his best to fight crimes and evil to save humanity. From this letter now I know that Superman is a fabulous superhero that indeed able to be a good role model for us. But in my opinion, it is not a proper thing to relate superman in saving the world from the impact of the corona. Since Superman is a fictional superhero which is came from people's imagination while corona is a real thing that is faced today. So instead of Superman, I expect more the hero would be a real person maybe like famous scientists that we hope she/he will invent the vaccine anytime soon.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, you are right, Candeni. Sperman said he cannot get out of the movie screen to help us. But he suggested us to take his commitment, strengths, courage, perseverance, compassion, and synergistic skills as a role model to develop our own strength, skills, courage and collaborative skills to fight the pandemic together.

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  4. This article is interesting.
    I think, not only Superman that can safe our country but I and all of you also can safe our country with the simple action, like stay at home. If you want be like Superman, you must stay at home.

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    Replies
    1. Yes Donna. Everyone can be a hero in the fight against COVID 19 by optimally contributing what they can do, including staying at home (without neglecting our works/studies). 👌😊😂🤣

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    1. Very touching letters, I love it. This letter, very representing our situation in Indonesia today.
      I really like the statement about Superman as a superhero, that said: "Inspire us to never give up to find and use our unique gifts and strengths to liberate our world from coronavirus" and I agree with that.
      I think, today in this situation, we can't hopeless, but we have to positive thinking and believe that Indonesia can survive from Covid-19. Today, what we can do it's only to comply with the existing rules such as, don't do panic buying, keeping clean, doing social distancing, and staying at home. Some of the simple things above are ways that we can do to take care of ourselves and other people, something like Superman, right?
      I also, give my respect for people who still have to work outside the home because of the demands of the situation, they are the real 'Superhero'.

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  6. I think this is very deep letter, really represent our country now. We can be a superheroes like superman for fight against this coronavirus, by stay at home. This is a very simple way to kick out the coronavirius. I am very grateful to the superheroes in the front line who are doctor and nurse.

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  7. This letter is very interesting, I like it Sir. I agree with your statement "‘ stay at home movement has provided a bigger opportunity to have family quality time ". From this incident I can also take the positive side. I can cook together with my sisters, do homework to help my mother and exchange stories. In my opinion, we can become as a Superman. In a situation like this we can stay at home, keep our distance and use a mask when leaving the house to cut off the spread of COVID 19. We can also help people around by giving masks to scavengers or traders alongside the road.
    If Superman is real, I want to learn with him. How can he be that strong? ... :) :)

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  10. This article is very interesting and inspires us all. After reading this letter, my heart was very touched.
    This letter represents my feelings and my family at this time.
    I really like the statement on the author's third reason for superman, where superman has never give up which is the main learning for me and we all never stop giving up in fighting to face the Covid-19 pandemic. I hope that Superman answers the author's letter and helps people throughout the world.
    But I am sad because the hero in the letter is fictional and not real. Therefore, we must become heroes like in the story. Even though we don't have power like superman, we can unite against Covid-19. Without realizing it, we can become superman by giving motivation and encouragement to each other, washing our hands after holding something, and doing physical distancing or staying at home. Therefore, the Corona Virus is not easily transmitted quickly to all of us and save other people's lives.

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  11. This letter is very interesting, I really like the statement about “Do you know how COVID 19 pandemic has seized much of our happiness?” I agree with you Sir, because Indonesia people love to gather with our family or friends, yes that’s right and it's been a few months we can't face to face. Because if we meet with our family or friends we can share anything and we meet them all problems or all thoughts can be eliminated because by laughing together, and for now we must become superman, who must save the world by stay at home so that the corona virus stops quickly and then saves many people. We must keep the spirit like superman who never gave up to live with the challenges of this corona virus.

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  12. Nice article. I really like it.This article is very touching and very inspiring.
    Actually I think the supermen meant is ourselves, because now only we can save ourselves and others. Be a hero to ourselves and others! With stay at home we can break the chain of Corona Virus (Covid 19), and don't forget to always wash your hands. Washing hands can prevent the spread of deadly viruses and bacteria.

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  13. Wow! I think it is a great letter I've been read. It is a unique letter. Superhero's fan from Indonesia write this letter and have a good massage. And I think everybody is a hero, because stay at home can save others from this corona virus attack. If this letter was filmed, it would inspired the audiences that they are superheroes for many people.

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  14. I really like this letter. The most or least interesting point to you in each article. E.g. In the superman’s letter, I find superman’s suggestion that people should have determination to never give up, which is the main lesson I learn from you, can be very useful to inspire me, my fellow countrymen, and all people in other countries to keep on finding our ways to fight COVID 19.
    why I am interesting with the superman’s letter, because we are all in a position like this, so we cannot give up fighting the covid 19 virus. The most point you like/ dislike most in each other article. E.g. Thus, if you can't suck up the whole coronavirus and burn them using your heat vision, at least you can inspire us to never give up to find and use our unique gifts and strengths to liberate our world from coronavirus. I like this point because, if you want to be a winner, we must to never give up on anything, even though we are attacked by covid virus 19.

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  15. This is a very interesting letter! Even though I don't really like Superman movie, this letter takes me to imagine, if the original cast in the Superman movie will really read it. If most people looked at Superman's superhuman strength, could fly hard, in this letter I discovered the fact that superheroes are not only limited to superpowers, but the determination they have to maintain security. I think, if everyone can learn from Superman's passion and determination, there will be even more great superman who are able to deal with bad situations.

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  16. I like this letter, Sir. Superman is a good superheroes that i know he safe the world from enemy, but I think is not easy to be a Superman he should ready 24 hours to safe us. I think we can do a small things to help our self like stay at home, stay healthy, don't go anywhere if it's not important, sharing and helping each others. I hope Superman can help us to fight this virus, and we can life normal again.

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  17. i really like this letter , we can be our ideal superhero to face the COVID-19 by stay at home , practice social distancing , always wash your hands , and not spreading misinformation.
    I am very thankful to doctor and paramedics who fought in the frontline combating the virus

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