wLOG_08

16/03/2020 /

I have a bad feeling about this.

Today I went for a walk first through the forest, and then across the field. The sun was shining and the temperature was just right for keeping the hat in the pocket. I enjoyed breathing the clean air and listening to a podcast. Some mountain bikers and hikers crossed my way and in the wood a guy was sitting on a bench reading on a backlit e-reader screen. After I had returned to my car I drove to the car wash and chose the Sunday offer. The next days will be the first few since several weeks when there should not be any rain falling from the sky. Some motorbikes passed by on the streets and reminded me of my own motorcycle that hibernates in the garage. All in all it could have been like a decent early spring afternoon before I would have sat down at home to get back to my school work.

But today there will be no school. At least not if you are used to understand school as the gathering of a class of students with their teacher. As the coronavirus has also struck Luxembourg in similar manner as our neighbouring countries, the government had already decided last Thursday to shut down schools and childcare facilities for the following two weeks. But as the numbers of infected citizens grow exponentially and many people will change their habits only after prohibitions have been imposed, further measures have been taken in order to hopefully manage to #FlattenTheCurve and slow down the spread of the virus in the population. These measures include e.g. the closing of bars, restaurants and the cancellation of cultural and sporting activities in order to implement a so-called social distance which I think is better described as physical distance. I understand that many people will probably be struck economically by these measures but if it is the only way how the vulnerable part of the population can be protected as collective solidarity unfortunately stops as soon as individualism turns into egoism I do think that the government has taken the right decisions. I am worried about my parents’ health and I guess everybody else has loved ones or knows some people who happen to be part of the vulnerable part of the population, so every member of society should be ready to sacrifice some of their freedom for the good of the whole community. However I hope that those people who risk to lose everything in this war against the virus can count on the same solidarity from the political institutions and their fellow citizens to overcome these dire straits.

Here are some links about the crisis which I think are worthwhile to listen to or read albeit from different points of view:

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