The lockdown is almost grown-up; this week was its last week as a teen.
Infections are on the rise, and the predictions for Easter are dire. Vaccination efforts are stalling.
Nevertheless, we’re opening the schools.
Aside from Corona, our governments also keep ignoring the climate crisis.
So we need to go back to the streets – this Friday, March 19, Global Climate Strike!
#NoMoreEmptyPromises
(© Markus Burbach, @MaBurbach, 3/13/21)
The situation is much worse than last week: Seven-day R is above 1, meaning that the number of infections is on the rise.
Yet, our government plans to ease the restrictions.
And vaccination is not going anywhere – our vaccination strategy is a colossal failure, both on a state and the country level.
Unfortunately, like in other big infrastructure projects (e.g., BER), our state institutions appear entirely overwhelmed and dysfunctional.
(Cologne, Lockdown, 3/6/21)
We’re in a quite paradoxical situation: While we expect the third wave of infections, we nevertheless ease the contact restrictions.
Why is it so difficult to understand and accept that proximity and contact frequency drive the pandemic? No reason to blame the government for that, I think.
One group, however, is definitely to blame, and that’s the employers who do not allow their employees to work from home, even if it was possible.
I will make sure that I do not buy any goods or services from these companies in the future!
(Cologne, future Home Office, 2/28/21)
The number of infections is slowly increasing again. Surprise! Not.
We knew that the new mutations would be more contagious, but still, our government refuses to acknowledge and prepare for the third wave.
A year ago Friday, right-wing terrorists murdered six people in Hanau (Hesse). There were vigils in their honor all over Germany as we still battle the underlying systemic racism in our security forces.
In Northrhine-Westphalia, the state government actively works against all measures to prevent the coming climate crisis and supports the fossil fuel industry, mainly RWE and E.ON.
Our first minister, Armin Laschet, has been caught red-handed, twisting the law to act against climate activists.
Our minister of the interior, Herbert Reul, is trying to outlaw activism outright.
Oh, NRWE – there’s a lot of work ahead!
(Red Rebels, Cologne, 2/20/21)
As expected, we extended the lockdown to March 7th, for now.
We have also set a new target for infection rates (less than 35 per 100,000 people), making a lot of sense.
Still, I am amazed at how many people feel that they can argue or plead with a virus. Sars-CoV-19 is a deadly airborne virus, and there’s nothing our government or we can do to prevent the spread other than limiting inter-person contact.
On a side note, winter has finally come. Did I mention that I hate the cold?
(Cologne, Ruuvi, 2/12/21)
The numbers are still not that good, and we’re most likely looking at an extension of the lockdown.
Meanwhile, let’s talk about arts and culture, what has changed for me during the lockdown and what I believe will continue:
So, at the same time, Corona has reduced my mobility and enhanced it; let’s see what the future holds!
On a side note, spending many hours in front of the computer warrants an upgrade to the interface, and I now have a shiny new gaming mouse:
(input,hiddev1,hidraw4: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [ROCCAT ROCCAT Kain 120] on usb-0000:02:00.0-6.3/input2)
The situation is getting better but is still dire. We will most likely see an extension of the current lockdown while our government ramps up the vaccination efforts.
But how will our life change afterward? Let’s have a look:
What, if any, of these pre-Corona habits will I take back up?
I am quite happy with social activities being digital, and I hope some will stay that way even after Corona. And once you get used to digital concerts, there’s no way going back. Or is there?
(Techno Lieben und Leben, Twitch, 1/31/21)
The lockdown is going well; we see a slight reduction in the infections.
But there’s still a lot of work ahead of us to flatten the curve.
Some of the new Covid-19 mutations are highly contagious, so we need to improve our mask game with the new double-mask trend recommended by Dr. Fauci. And FFP2 masks in shops and public transport.
(Double mask, Cologne, 1/26/21)
Eleven weeks and no respite in sight – on Tuesday, our government will reconvene with the states and evaluate further tightening of the contact restrictions. I hope they will finally make working from home mandatory for all office workers.
On Saturday, our governing party elected its new leader. They opted for continuity and the least controversial candidate and avoided the ultra-conservative Chairman of the Supervisory Board at BlackRock Germany.
Also, Winter is here, with the first snow of the year. Only two more months to Spring.
I wrote this blog post while dancing to Melodic Sunday at Techno Lieben und Leben – a great place to start the day!
(First snow, Cologne, 1/17/21)
Still no end in sight; today, our government has tightened the contact restrictions again and extended the lockdown to the end of January. Quite rightly so, the infection rates are still way too high.
Even though we all know that the virus transmits from person to person, some politicians from our governing party advocate to lessen the restrictions and have more people die instead. I guess that’s all about shareholder value.
Also, RWE uses the lockdown to destroy more villages around the Garzweiler open-pit mine, even though we know that we won’t need the lignite anymore. Is that about shareholder value, too?
(Photo op, Zülpicher Platz, 1/10/21)
