Page 23 - Mediajaya 10 Edition 2020
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MEDIA JAYA | 10 2020











      COLUMN



            Marquez












                  hat morning, Florentino Ariza aroused       blooms in the middle of an infectious disease:
                  by the city cathedral’s bell. He had been   A blend of burning romance in a deadly epi-
            T waiting for that bell for years: The doc-       demic, with a protagonist who strikes while
            tor,  Juvenal Urbino  has  died.  He  then came   the iron is hot. It highlights the gap in social
            to the funeral house, kissed the doctor’s lover   classes: between a doctor and a melancholic
            Fermina Daza on the hand and whispered, “I        bohemian poet. However, Florentino has one
            have been waiting for this moment for more        thing that Juvenal has not: He leads a fervid
            than a half century.”                             life. There was flame inside him that ignites
                                                              the love for Fermina, even when he ages. The
            For as long as 51 years, 9 months and 4 days,     flame is eternal, despite the frightening chol-
            the man  has been  waiting  for his love mis-     era outbreak among them.                             23
            ery to end because of a classic issue: so-
            cial  class.  The love he had was bloomed in      Florentino quite represents our misery to-
            the time of cholera, just like it is now. Gabriel   day: we are enforced to keep our distance,
            Garcia Marquez, a Colombian writer who is         restrain our desire, for the sake of lives we
            also a journalist, wrote the story in a beautiful   protect from the deadly, miniscule creatures.
            love novel: Love in The Time of Cholera. It tells   COVID-19 viruses have caused the world live
            the story of love at the first sight between the   in panic and we can only try to fight them
            young Florentino and Fermina, including a 60      back with vaccine, which only  guarantee 50%
            pages long letter written by this flamboyant      of our immunity to fight the virus.
            man to the beautiful woman.
                                                              Before  the  vaccine  is  available,  the  only
            Florentino was, obviously, lost to Juvenal. Ju-   thing we can do is to comply with 3M proto-
            venal was graduated from medical and sur-         cols: maintain physical distance, wear mask
            gery school in Paris, France. He, who believed    and wash hands. Meanwhile, the govern-
            that love is merely a clinical mistake, was so    ment should do the 3T: Testing, Tracing and
            busy treating people who got infected by the      Treatment. The combination of two protocols
            cholera, which killed as much as 140,000 peo-     would  hopefully  save  the  humanity  from  a
            ple in Paris. He fell for Fermina, his patient.   deadly disease, besides wars and natural di-
                                                              sasters—as quoted from Jared Diamond from
            Juvenal proposed Fermina. And after 53            his Pulitzer winner book in 1998 “Guns, Germs
            years, 7 months and 11 days,  that lovely lady    and Steel.” On the other hand, we are like Fer-
            turned his love away and started to fall for      mina who lives her separate life with Floren-
            Florentino. In their 72 year old body, they       tino: who lives our life in boredom because
            made love on a ship: A love that couldn’t be      we spend most of our time inside the house.
            easily forgotten. A love story adapted into a     We have our life changed with the support of
            film by Mike Newell.                              sophisticated technology for work, study and
                                                              other activities.
            Marquezz wrote this story of a love that                                           ramdan malik
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