Life in the Age of Corona
Yesterday, I had to cancel a trip I had scheduled for Spain. The stops were going to be Malaga, Granada, Seville, and Jerez. Each one of those places is a formidable travel destination and would have made for good reading on this blog as well. That said, it seems meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Meaningless in the Age of Corona.
Like Jim Morrison said, strange days have tracked us down. Have they ever.
At the grocery market the other day, all the toilet paper was gone, wet wipes included. All the dry staple foods, gone. Rice, dry beans, other dry legumes...Auf Wiedersehen. The Germans, usually not prone to conspiracies or knee jerk reactions, are taking this pandemic seriously. Good idea. France has ordered people to stay indoors, Italy has quarantined the whole country. Belgium followed yesterday, Germany as the most populous state will follow in due time. You only need the right amount of infected people.
At first, there was a trickle here in Germany. a dozen cases, beware. A dozen turned to a hundred, then to a thousand. Then the dam burst and the first unthinkable event happened: soccer matches without fans. Not ideal, admittedly, and not a backbreaker, financially speaking. But the Frankfurt team here, long a beast in European soccer play, was suddenly without their fans and was whipped by an unimpressed Basel team from Switzerland. Now it's crowd control all the way.
Eventually, the whole Bundesliga was canceled. Now the European Cup 2020 is off the table and postponed until at least next year. Then came the order to close the restaurants and bars. That's the gastronomy and catering trade, so vital for tourism dollars, euros, and yen in countries like Germany, now treading water. Next, the British singer James Blunt played a concert in front of an empty audience at the famed Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
The government is discussing a financial bailout...for the whole country. Unlike the U.S., Germany has a public healthcare system that won't break the bank for the individual should somebody want to visit a doctor or a hospital. Unfortunately, that doesn't put any money into anyone's pockets, only working will. But I guess the government will be sensible about this. The banks were bailed out for carelessness and wreckless lending and spending...people here can expect the same, although they already wonder: will it go far enough? Will a depression follow a recession?
And then there is the long-forgotten tradition of controlling borders, of which Germany has many. I can't even remember the last time my passport was checked at a German border, although I have a strong suspicion it must have been in the 1980's sometime. Even so, the virus doesn't care about borders, flags, or race. The virus needs human bodies to survive. And with billions of people in the world now, the virus seems to have an ample buffet to choose from. We need to keep that in mind before we politicize the issue.
The pictures that come to mind are empty streets after the call to prayer that signals the end of the fast during Ramadan. On the flip side of the coin, there is the fictitious picture of empty streets in Death in Venice. Maybe I shouldn't be writing this.
There is talk of a vaccination, although even the most conservative estimates don't believe that it will be available until autumn. By then, we hope the dust will have settled and we can survey the damage without the mass hysteria...and just what we learned from it, if anything.
Like Jim Morrison said, strange days have tracked us down. Have they ever.
At the grocery market the other day, all the toilet paper was gone, wet wipes included. All the dry staple foods, gone. Rice, dry beans, other dry legumes...Auf Wiedersehen. The Germans, usually not prone to conspiracies or knee jerk reactions, are taking this pandemic seriously. Good idea. France has ordered people to stay indoors, Italy has quarantined the whole country. Belgium followed yesterday, Germany as the most populous state will follow in due time. You only need the right amount of infected people.
At first, there was a trickle here in Germany. a dozen cases, beware. A dozen turned to a hundred, then to a thousand. Then the dam burst and the first unthinkable event happened: soccer matches without fans. Not ideal, admittedly, and not a backbreaker, financially speaking. But the Frankfurt team here, long a beast in European soccer play, was suddenly without their fans and was whipped by an unimpressed Basel team from Switzerland. Now it's crowd control all the way.
Eventually, the whole Bundesliga was canceled. Now the European Cup 2020 is off the table and postponed until at least next year. Then came the order to close the restaurants and bars. That's the gastronomy and catering trade, so vital for tourism dollars, euros, and yen in countries like Germany, now treading water. Next, the British singer James Blunt played a concert in front of an empty audience at the famed Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
The government is discussing a financial bailout...for the whole country. Unlike the U.S., Germany has a public healthcare system that won't break the bank for the individual should somebody want to visit a doctor or a hospital. Unfortunately, that doesn't put any money into anyone's pockets, only working will. But I guess the government will be sensible about this. The banks were bailed out for carelessness and wreckless lending and spending...people here can expect the same, although they already wonder: will it go far enough? Will a depression follow a recession?
And then there is the long-forgotten tradition of controlling borders, of which Germany has many. I can't even remember the last time my passport was checked at a German border, although I have a strong suspicion it must have been in the 1980's sometime. Even so, the virus doesn't care about borders, flags, or race. The virus needs human bodies to survive. And with billions of people in the world now, the virus seems to have an ample buffet to choose from. We need to keep that in mind before we politicize the issue.
The pictures that come to mind are empty streets after the call to prayer that signals the end of the fast during Ramadan. On the flip side of the coin, there is the fictitious picture of empty streets in Death in Venice. Maybe I shouldn't be writing this.
There is talk of a vaccination, although even the most conservative estimates don't believe that it will be available until autumn. By then, we hope the dust will have settled and we can survey the damage without the mass hysteria...and just what we learned from it, if anything.
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