cologne – Page 5 – Christian Frank

Shutdown two, week forty-nine

The incidence in Cologne has declined; it’s again at 59 right now.

Beginning today, the state will no longer fund Corona-Tests for people who could get vaccinated instead. I do not understand why some people risk a rather unpleasant death over getting vaccinated – is it superstition? Or the lure of conspiracy theories?

The (still governing) Christian Democrats continue on their course to disintegration; their Austrian counterpart has already reached the finishing line.

Our Social Democrats, the Greens, and the Liberals are in talks to determine whether they should form a coalition government – I sincerely hope they will succeed for the sake of the environment and all the villages in the ZAD Rheinland!

One of my favorite pre-pandemic pastimes was to go to the movies – the Cinemas have re-opened and have suitable hygiene protocols in place, so it’s time to return and make sure they don’t shutter for good.

(The Peppercorns and the Secret of the Deep Sea, Filmpalast, 10/9/21)

Shutdown two, week forty-eight

The incidence in Cologne has slightly gone up; it’s at 61 right now.

Last week we had our general election; the Social Democrats won but won’t be able to form a government without the Greens and the Liberals. Negotiations are underway, and we are watching. At the same time, the former governing party, the Christian Democrats, is slowly disintegrating.

COP26 is around the corner, and the world governments are not doing enough to address the climate emergency, so we need to go back to the streets for another global climate strike on October 22.

To quote Greta, it’s time to stop the Bla Bla Bla and get down to serious action!

Local action is happening at ZAD Rheinland, where activists are defending the village of Lützerath against the commercial interests of RWE.

(Election Night, Climate Justice Camp Cologne, 9/26/21)

Shutdown two, week forty-seven

The incidence in Cologne has declined again; it’s at 59 right now.

Friday was the day of the global climate strike – a huge success!

We had 25,000 people attending in Cologne alone and 620,000 in Germany overall, and many millions worldwide.

More and more people are beginning to realize that you cannot argue with physics – if we do not change our way of living, we’ll make our planet uninhabitable for future generations; alas, there is yet no Planet B.

Today we have our general election – the government we’ll elect this time will be the last one to prevent the worst outcomes and secure somewhat of a future for our kids.

Wish us luck! I will cover the result in a separate post later this week.

(Climate Justice Camp, Cologne, 9/25/21)

Shutdown two, week forty-six

The incidence in Cologne has declined further; it’s at 78 right now.

On a further positive note, our government expects a vaccine for the under-12-year-olds by early next year. Yay!

This Friday, September 24, is the next global climate strike. We’re proud to host the scientist Jason von Juterczenka in Cologne with an exciting talk on the 6th IPCC Assessment Report – we hope to see you there!

I am also eternally grateful to all the artists who moved their craft to a streaming platform and enabled us to attend events without physically attending. I have visited so many different venues over the last two years, and I hope that I will be able to continue to do so after the pandemic ends.

(Techno Lieben und Leben, Oberzissen, 9/18/21)

Shutdown two, week forty-five

The incidence in Cologne is further down, at 110 right now.

As the weather turns cold outside, people are (hopefully) settling back into their stay-at-home routine. The pandemic is still very present, and the virus is still quite deadly; the fourth wave has started.

This weekend marks 20 years of 9/11, with President Biden leading a day of nationwide grief and remembrance.

In Munich, a big car show, IAA, took place. We still haven’t realized that the necessary change in mobility does not mean simply replacing the power train.

The climate emergency is real, and we need to re-think mobility from the ground up. Alas, our governing party and their leading candidate do not get that at all.

But: Elections are coming up soon!

#CarIsOver #IAAhatFertig

(Open Space Königsplatz, München, 9/11/21)

Shutdown two, week forty-four

The incidence in Cologne is back down at 121 this week.

The majority of infected people are now in the age group of 20-29 years. The highest number of new infections is in the age group of 10-19 years, according to the Landeszentrum Gesundheit.

Maybe we should protect the kids a little bit better? Just sayin’

Also, after two years, I’ve upgraded my phone to a 5G-capable model, the Nokia X20 with Android One, yesterday – after a couple of hours, I can say that I’m pretty happy with my choice; I’ll post a full review of my experience in a couple of weeks.

The whole process took about half a day, especially logging back into the myriad of transport apps. Two apps are still not working; I think I’ll need a reactivation code, probably on paper. But I’m happy to see that not all credentials and payment information are in the cloud backup.

(Nokia X20 with Sherwood wallpaper, Cologne, 9/5/21)

Shutdown two, week forty-three

The incidence in Cologne is at 154 right now; in the most crucial age group of 10 to 14 years, it is at 865.

What are we doing to our kids?

Also, if only half of this update from the Kabul airlift charity is confirmed, our foreign and interior ministers need to resign.

At once.

Even if there are only four weeks left until the next general election.

To cope with all the doom and gloom, I resorted to retail therapy and got myself a nice new in-game outfit.

(Cologne, Pokémon Go, 8/29/21)

Shutdown two, week forty-one

The local incidence rate in Cologne is at 75 and rising.

We have failed the people of Afghanistan.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their sixth Assessment Report, containing pretty dire predictions. If you’re interested in an excellent explanatory write-up, I recommend this post by our scientist Jason von Juterczenka.

Looking at the bleak outlook, Christian Stöcker also has an op-ed in Der Spiegel headlined “The parents are still far from angry enough” – so true!

Six weeks to the upcoming general election and the climate justice camp in Cologne is still going strong

(Climate Justice Camp, Cologne, 8/13/21)

Shutdown two, week forty

The local incidence rate in Cologne is at 44 and rising.

Vaccination is readily available, and the town council is offering walk-in vaccinations at many places, including mobile stations at party hotspots.

Go and get it!

On the other emergency, we learned this week that the Gulf Stream as part of the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) is weakening and showing signs of a possible collapse.

Massive fires are ravaging the northern hemisphere and massive flooding the southern hemisphere.

And we still believe that burning coal is a good idea?

(Cologne for climate flag, Klimacamp, 7/23/21)

Shutdown two, week thirty-nine

The local 7-day incidence in Cologne is at 35 and rising.

Luckily we now have two approved vaccines for kids 12 years and older, and we might soon get vaccines for kids from 5 years onward.

Long-Covid is not fun and nothing we want kids to suffer from.

At the same time, we do not want kids to starve, burn or drown – so we need to address the climate crisis as the emergency that it is too.

(Climate Justice Camp, Cologne, 7/30/21)