Apart from Australia, many countries selected lockdown temporarily due to the high transmission of COVID-19 and the prevention of imported cases. In order to maintain normal supply chains of essential goods, especially for the medical equipment, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar signed an agreement to face the COVID-19 crisis. Among these countries, Myanmar boasts the lowest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 119. In addition, Myanmar is the most economically backward developing country among them and it borders China where COVID-19 originated. How do Burmese face the COVID-19? How are the conditions of mandatory quarantine in Myanmar? This feature will show the current circumstance in Myanmar which is the most vulnerable partner of Australia and talk about the differences and similarities between Burmese and Australian facing and preventing COVID-19.
Why it is important?
Currently, COVID-19 has been found in at least 184 countries and territories. COVID-19 has seriously threatened people’s lives and negatively affected the global economy. Apart from shutting down the country, the Australian government has created and implemented some mandatory measures to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 such as mandatory quarantine, maintaining social distances, staying at home and so on. However, some Australian people cannot accept mandatory measures, even violate governmental policies, then some people also unsatisfied the mandatory quarantine, even they had quarantined in 5-star hotels. More than 6600 people have been diagnosed as positive of COVID-19 in Australia so far, and the number of confirmed cases has been increasing.
Some Australian people criticized the mandatory quarantine, because they thought they were treated as criminals.
I hope that more Australian people can accept and support some governmental mandatory policies under COVID-19 and understand we are fortunate to live in a strong country and we have advanced living conditions through displaying the disadvantaged conditions of a vulnerable developing country. Apart from cherishing our livelihoods, if we have enough ability, we also should help some disadvantaged people.
How am I going to accomplish this?
There are two parts including information collection and interviews as the preparation process of this feature article.
(1) Information collection
Main platforms:
ABC News: https://www.abc.net.au/news/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/explore
Worldometer COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?
Global New Light of Myanmar: https://www.moi.gov.mm/npe/nlm/
Apart from these four main platforms, due to the attributes of search engine optimization(SE0), I will gather more information on the internet through utilizing keywords such as coronavirus, Australia and Myanmar.
(2) Interviews
In order to understand local people’s thoughts on facing COVID-19 in Australia and Myanmar, I will interview two people. One is Elle, she is an Australian person and a part-time postgraduate at University of Technology Sydney. Another one is Kyaw, he is a Burmese and a full-time undergraduate at Bangkok University. Additionally, Kyaw had an extraordinary experience, because when he came back to Rangoon from Thailand, he took the same flight with 2 people who were diagnosed as positive of COVID-19.
Due to the social-distancing restriction in Australia and the geographical limitation with Myanmar, I will interview Elle and Kyaw by WhatsApp and Messenger.
What will it present?
This feature will utilize a combination of multimedia including pictures and videos, hypertext links and interactivity.
1. Multimedia:
(1) Images showing the current Australia and Myanmar
The infrastructure of quarantine in Myanmar.
The Burmese interviewee will offer more pictures.
(2) Some relevant videos in Australia and Myanmar
Burmese applaud medical workers through an activity #cheer4frontliners at 8 p.m 16th April 2020, produced by Hhst.
2. Some relevant hypertext links.
3. Interactivity
In order to improve the interactivity and receive different perspectives from the public, I will leave my email address and my social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter on this feature.
Who will publish this feature?
The Sydney Morning Herald is an appropriate platform to release this feature, and the target audience is all Australian people.
- COVID-19 is a worldwide focal topic at present, it is relevant to the health and the safety of all human beings. The Sydney Morning Herald has reported international and national current affairs frequently.
- The Sydney Morning Herald owns a large number of readers in Australia, there are over 8.17 million.
- The Sydney Morning Herald has different versions such as print newspaper, website and app to offer and cover different ages of Australian people.
Hi Tong:
you have done very impressive work on the proposal, and this is obviously one of the most significant issues that everyone wants to learn more. Nevertheless, I have some suggestions that might be helpful to you. The first thing is that the angle you have chosen is a little broad. It is interesting to compare Australia and Myanmar, but it is better to narrow it down to a specific issue, such as how are they dealing with social distance? The other thing I want to point out is the interviewees. It is helpful to interview people who have personal experience, but you can interview some experts to have some information that most people might not know. Finally is to be careful about grammar. Overall, your ideas are great and I am looking forward to reading your final work!
Hi Tong,
– the topic “how people in the two countries face COVID-19” is timeliness and current. Mandatory measures taken by different governments is deserved to be discussed.
– As far as I know, Lao PDR and Uruguay are added in the statement on 6, April. Please do check it:
https://www.mti.gov.sg/Newsroom/Press-Releases/2020/04/Joint-ministerial-statement-ensuring-supply-chain-connectivity-amidst-the-COVID-19-situation
– According to the headline, the purpose of your feature, the chosen interviewees, and photos you provide, I suppose that you plan to report the quarantine experience from an Australian and a Burmese respectively. However, will you focus on “talking about the attitude of the citizens in the face of the quarantine between the two countries”? Or “introducing the quarantine measures and specific implementation plans adopted by the two governments”? Or something else? I think this is crucial to what questions will you ask in your future interviews.
– The #cheer4forntliners is interesting, I was curious if it would be included in your feature, if so, which part will you put it and what does this mean?
– If you would mention the similarities and differences in both countries as you mentioned, you could research how did Australia and Myanmar respond to the coronavirus and at what time to give some background information
For example,
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-prepares-quarantine-centers-official-covid-19-count-remains-zero.html
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/mandatory-quarantine-of-overseas-arrivals-rolled-out-in-australia-what-is-involved
-Some other news report about your topic:
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-australia-52115774/coronavirus-mandatory-quarantine-in-a-five-star-sydney-hotel
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tamarathiessen/2020/04/04/australian-travelers-complain-about-5-star-hotel-quarantine/#2c7e660b6dbe
-Do not forget that your links should be opened in a new web. The instruction is on Week4 slides P44. And it would be great to give a more specific caption to your images, such as “Myanmar’s Quarantine condition”.
I have talked too much! Please do not mind!
Good luck!
Hi, Yumeng, I very appreciate your suggestion and those examples, thank u for your help!