Saturday, May 15, 2021

DC ExtraTime - Love Knows No Borders: A Fight to Reunite in a Pandemic

BY DC CUEVA                        
■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK
   Estimated Reading Time: 15 Mins.

All Photos except WBHM Courtesy
Twitter @AleksayShinder
This week marked fourteen months since the start of the biggest health crisis our world has faced in a century, as the COVID pandemic shut down everything in its wake for an entire year. However, the buzz word in America and other nations right now has been vaccines, as millions of people are lining up for immunity shots from the disease and joining so many who have already been vaccinated, as the road to recovery continues on many fronts including Friday's announcement of the relaxation of mask wearing advisories by the Center for Disease Control. But the issue of this ordeal hasn't always been focused on our health, our safety and the impacts it has had on the way of life we're all used to.

A consequence of this has been the effect the pandemic has had on something synonymous with the year's busiest season when it comes to traveling, as we're just two weeks away from the first full-scale summer vacation season in two years. Those who are able to do so will be flying in droves to the destinations of their choosing this Memorial Day weekend, while others will take to the safe comforts of their cars for their travels on the long weekend that begins Summer in America as restrictions ease in cities across this country following the year in lockdown. And as cases have been on the decline, things are looking on the upward towards the much-desired and now eagerly-anticipated return to normalcy in this country.

But there's still a lot to work to be taken care of, as not everyone is hesitant to take to the skies just yet or even to be around large numbers of people as they have not been vaccinated yet. And many nations are still not open to Americans and other residents of nations outside their borders as they try to stop another wave from shutting things down again. It's with the ladder in mind that brings us to this story with roots in what we cover on here: a guy who starred on a largely forgotten MTV Reality show a few years ago is back in the spotlight... not because of him reappearing on a new show, but for a much different reason.

And if you have been seeing his very active Twitter account lately, he has been leading efforts on social media in the past several months to help reopen the borders of a nation that, for the most part, has been closed off to international travel since the beginning of this terrible outbreak. And as the time he and his girlfriend last saw each other in person, Alex Shinder of Winter Break: Hunter Mountain is making his voice heard loud and clear all the way from New Jersey across the Pacific Ocean as he tries to reconnect with his girlfriend as her nation of Australia will shortly enter their winter down under.

In between the much-celebrated return of the cast of Jersey Shore with their Family Vacation and the debut before that of Floribama Shore in Florida, the channel offered another series following in the tradition of the global Shore franchise produced by reality powerhouse Sally Ann-Salsano and her 495 Productions. And if you are able to catch it on a digital platform somehow, some of the feelings of winter the Floribama Bam got to enjoy on Season 4 this spring pale in contrast with what another set of eight strangers had moving into a cabin in a winter resort town where the snow is their passion.
   For a brief time in the winter of 2018 spread across both the main channel and MTV2, a Winter Break went down in the Upstate New York resort area of Hunter Mountain... and there was plenty of drama, fun and sights of the snow and ice with Alessandra, Clarissa, Jillian, J-Brew, Marc, Taylar, TJ and Alex, who went by the alias of "Sheen." And the ladder was unique in the house: rather than being a snowboarder like most of the group, he was more of a freestyle skier than everyone else... and after that short but precious time on our MTV screens Sheen has now been leading the charge of a different kind -- something that is bigger than television or anything else.

Aside from divisive politics, the Black Lives Matter movement and everything else that's taken place in the past year & change, the COVID-19 crisis has no doubt dominated the news agenda. And almost after the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic, it caused so many of our favorite establishments to be temporarily closed or shuttered altogether in addition to wrecking havoc on just about the entire 2020 calendar and even into this year. It also forced governments on a local and national level to implement stopgap measures to people crossing borders into other cities, states and most especially countries as they closed off their national borders to prevent people from elsewhere flying in and spreading the deadly disease. 
   An immigrant himself having been born in Ukraine before moving to America at age 6 in the mid-90's after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Aleksay (his real first name) has been most affected by the ladder result, as after his brief MTV tenure he fell in love with girlfriend Danielle Lamattina, a 35-year-old from Australia's second-largest city of Melbourne and one who, as he told website VT, "... was the woman I was going to spend the rest of my life with." The couple have been doing the long-distance thing for almost three years and have been determined to make this work even while being an ocean away, and they were on the verge of moving in permanently. But it was when this pandemic hit which has seen this being tested, especially in not having each other's company for holidays and birthdays, and having daily Zoom calls make up for it, as detailed by this report from the Australian Seven Network.



The COVID situation in Australia began on Australia Day weekend (their 4th of July) in January 2020 when the country's first recorded case was identified by a man traveling from the epidemic's epicenter, Wuhan, China testing positive. The first and second waves were the most severe in the country with non-essential services being closed down and lockdowns being imposed before being relaxed after lower case reports. But in contrast to what the U.S. and Europe have had to put up with, Australia's strategy of suppressing the spread has been much more effective with the country returning to near-normalcy at the end of last year, including increasing vaccination and hosting major sporting events at near capacity.
   For the major subject at hand in this story, March 20th last year saw the nation's borders being shut to overseas travelers except for Australian residents, for which they are still required to spend two weeks quarantined in hotels. Concurrently, non-residents and non-Australian citizens like Alex are still prohibited from entering the country only except in limited cases and if they meet the exemption list, though earlier this year a bubble was formed between the country and its Trans-Tamsin neighbors in New Zealand - itself also praised for its similar handling of the pandemic. Still, the international travel closure in Australia was extended to next month and may perhaps be still in place into next year, with over 100,000 exemptions for residents to travel abroad being approved.

It was in that same March that changed everything that Dani flew for the sixth time to America and to New Jersey to help Alex begin preparing for a permanent move to Melbourne, considered the nation's cultural heartbeat. It was after she flew back that those regulations were put in place and are still in place -- even after as many as seventy attempts to try and secure a travel exemption for him to finally move down under have come upon deaf ears from the offices of the Australian Border Force.
   Every day, Sheen has been extremely active on his Twitter account @AlekseyShinder trying to get to the attention of them and the Australian Government -- not just Prime Minister Scott Morrison (who was elected in 2018), but also Defense Minister Peter Dutton, Immigration head Alex Hawke and other federal offices in his girlfriend's home nation -- in using the hashtag #LoveIsNotTourism to try and get his message out. Unlike the U.S., Australia's government is a three-party system though in essence it operates bicamerally as Morrison's ruling center-right Liberal Party works in a Coalition with the National Party, and the left-leaning Labor Party serving as Opposition in its legislative branch.
   To compound matters - as it has been the case for so many of us during this pandemic, the couple's separation has seen their mental health get tested. Most notably during this, Sheen was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, including his hair thinning out, not having much to eat, having many sleepless nights, and trying to resort to using CBD, melatonin and other medicines to cure things, but to no avail. And on the other side of the globe, Danielle has also gone through her own drama from having wealth checks similar to what took place at Hunter Mountain on her man's MTV show to when she was hospitalized with severe ab pain when she can only celebrate his 33rd birthday last month through the digital sphere.
   Dani wrote in an Instagram post to her boyfriend, "Happy birthday, my love! 🎉 It absolutely kills me that we can’t celebrate together, yet again. Unfortunately, we’ve become pros at celebrating through a screen. After a week of feeling unwell, doctors, tests and a hospital visit - I’ve never felt so loved or cared for at such a distance. Your unconditional love and support is something that I’ll never forget. Not just recently, but always. You have this magic ability of always making me feel like your arms are wrapped around me. You also fight day and night (literally) for us and I’m forever grateful. Cheers to the last birthday of yours that we’ll have to celebrate virtually 🥂 I love you so much ❤️."


In every attempt to try and finally break through on their efforts, Alex & Danielle's appeals to Australia's Department of Home Affairs for exemptions to their regulations of the grounds of being a de facto couple or on compassionate reasoning have been many. They've included logs of calls and texts, dated photos, proof of their joint bank account and lease, proof of vaccination, and 240 pages' worth of legal documents large enough to support a legal team's evidence supporting a defendant in any given court case. But so far, all of those hasn't been enough for the authorities to finally get what they've been looking for all along despite their strongest efforts, and all the government has told them that if they wanted to, she can move to the U.S. with Alex instead of vice versa as he's sought all this time.
   Alex adds to VT, "I'm trying to explain that I don't want to go to Australia for a vacation. I'm vaccinated, and I'm looking to go there to start a family, get a job, and pay taxes. Isn't that worthy of some sort of consideration? Tens of thousands of binational couples and families have been trying to reunite for over a year, meanwhile, celebrities who have dough in their pockets can come in and out." And his last point makes reference to well-known Aussies Nicole Kidman, Kylie Minogue's sibling Danni and athletes coming into the nation by their status and causing many Aussies to be up in arms with the actions of the Morrison Government and his Cabinet.

Alex launched a petition on Change.org to bring his story to the broader public as he tries to gain as many signatures to make sure that it gets to the attention of who he's targeting in Canberra. His plea on the site to ask the ABP to grant that travel exemption has, as of press time, garnered over 200 signatures, almost halfway to the goal of 500 needed to be officially sent over by the power of the internet.
   He wrote in its introduction, "We've been declined over 60 times, even though we have proved our status as a couple. Hundreds of pages of evidence, call/text logs, certified documents, proof of a COVID vaccine, and still nothing. Our story has been made public by Perth Now and we still can't get a positive outcome. Stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, hair loss, loss of appetite, and so much more has set in over the last 11 months. No one seems to want to use their position of power to help influence a positive outcome."
   One user wrote, "After all that have been let into our country for no good reason during these trying times & yet these 2 people that have a legitimate reason to be together are being forced to stay apart? Seriously? Let these 2 young people that love each other be together, because it is the right thing to do." Another added, "This has gone on far to long. Everything that could be done has been done. Sent in all the paper work but be rejected 60 times. He hasn't had COVID and has had his injection. Seems like double standards when someone was let into Australia whose had it twice and is a known figure."

Last week as the number of failed attempts to finally get that exemption increased to over 70 calls, Dani joined with hundreds of other partners in Melbourne who have been separated from their significant others by the Australian government in a protest against them and their ban on bi-national couples moving into their country during this pandemic, with a similar demonstration taking place in its largest city of Sydney. And today, more protests took place not only in down under, but around the world as well.
   Alex wrote, "I will join in the only way I can, given the circumstances. I am not alone. Danielle and I, like thousands more, have been forcefully separated for 14 months, due to draconian measures taken by the AU Gov't. These "leaders" enforce these closures from the comfort of their homes, surrounded by family. We had that freedom ripped away from us. We are no longer requesting to be together, we are demanding it. This is a basic human right, and we want it back."



As efforts continue to get the world back to normal as the crisis thickens in the nation of India, often during this past year politics have gotten in the way in the road to recovery from COVID. We in America know what that has been like... so has Britain and Australia - nations that, like what it was before what happened in January in Washington and after a tumultuous presidency, have governmental leaders coming from the right side of the political spectrum.
   What Alex and Danielle have put up with the past year brings up how serious this matter continues to be for the millions of couples who have been separated by their governments from spreading the virus when, in truth, they are being held back, and the frustration that has come along with being separated. As things are now picking up full speed in the vaccination process and as places are opening back up again, he has been speaking up along with so many others who have been affected by being a bi-national couple being apart by the pandemic.
   If their voices are loud enough to get to Parliament House and Canberra, the power of the people will ultimately get to the ears of the Australian government and Prime Minister Morrison as they and so many others strive and sought to inspire real change. And that includes reopening to the world a nation of 26 million people that's considered one of its most diverse, where immigrants make up nearly a third of its population with its 30% figure topping the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere despite its remote location in the South Pacific.

A year before this pandemic and as depicted in the Twitter video below, Danni surprised him in Alex's New Jersey apartment after taking that long plane ride of a journey of eighteen hours to prepare him for the next phase of his life not knowing that it would be their most recent time together in person, not through a computer screen. And on his IG on the 1-year anniversary of his separation Alex posted a love letter to his girl saying, "To my Danni: You'll never truly understand the depth of my love for you. Thank you for your inspiring strength and support. I promise to fight, with every breath in my body, to get back to you. I love you."
   In the past several years we have been used to the phrase "Love Wins," but in this case the saying that Alex & Danielle have and others who have spent the past year thousands of miles apart is that no matter where you are in this world of ours, "Love Knows No Borders." And when it is possible again to travel down to the nation of kangaroos, koala bears and their own twisted variation of the English language - and hopefully in the not-too-distant future, it would make a moment like this they've been waiting for anxiously for over a year that much more sweeter.



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