An interesting article in yesterday's Guardian.
German foreign minister Heiko Mass said in an interview yesterday: “If radical extremists and antisemites use demonstrations in order to stoke hatred and to divide, then everyone should keep a lot more than just a 1.5-metre distance from them,”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/21/germany-braced-for-more-protests-against-coronavirus-polices?CMP=share_btn_link
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7 comments:
Heiko Maas: As a politician almost as good as the reviews of his book on Amazon.
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Here is an article from Julian Reichelt editor-in-chief of Germany's biggest newspaper 'BILD':
No more stubbornness in corona politics!
Only two things are certain in the corona crisis:
First, whether the measures are right or wrong, moderate or excessive, we will only learn from the history books. Whether we will look back on Corona as a health disaster or as the collapse of our economy is completely open. It is possible, but by no means certain, that what vast majorities believe to be right is right. There is no herd immunity against being historically catastrophically wrong.
Secondly, almost all the experts we (have to) confide in in this crisis were so wrong in almost every evaluation that our faith in them can only be explained with despair.
They have almost mocked the wearing of masks. Now it is mandatory. They warned against closing schools and daycare centers. Now millions of children have been at home for weeks. They' ve dismissed as useless the idea of closing down the borders. Now nobody comes into the country. Despite all the measures you have taken, you have repeatedly warned of the imminent collapse of our health system. Now there is spooky silence and fear of unemployment on hospital corridors.
The Robert Koch Institute advised against autopsies of corona deaths. Now it is happening anyway and forensic doctors say that by far not all the dead have actually died of corona. Sports facilities had to be closed. Now tennis is forbidden in some federal states, in others it is allowed, although it is actually life-threatening.
What worries me the most: Our economy is already so badly and in some cases irreparably damaged that our government can hardly afford to admit that it has overstretched itself.
The experts must be right, because they cannot be wrong. To have ruined the German economy prematurely would not be survivable for any party, perhaps not even for democracy. That is why we are increasingly experiencing stubbornness, obstinacy and dogmatism - "reminds me of the refugee crisis," a member of Merkel's government tells me.
The Chancellor accuses every sceptic of "opening discussion orgy", murmuring that some would act too brashly without saying what she means exactly. CDU faction leader Ralph Brinkhaus makes fun of the deviator Armin Laschet in a cheerful and high-ranking wine round, and everyone laughs.
I worry that the interests of many people and those who represent them are rapidly diverging:
- For any politician who advocates easing restrictions, any Corona Death could become a high risk, along the lines of "This is your Death, Mr. /Mrs. So-and-so."
- For millions of people, on the other hand, it is devastating if their economic livelihoods are destroyed, even though there are still very few Corona deaths.
Politicians refuse to take part in this bitter but unfortunately necessary debate, which the uncontrollable event of Corona is forcing on us. That the state should never weigh human life against another good is a noble idea that unfortunately does not always stand up to reality. Chancellor Schmidt decided against Schleyer. Chancellor Merkel sacrificed German soldiers in Afghanistan for non-negotiable values of our country.
... see part 2 below
...part 2:
"When I hear that I have to resign everything else from the protection of life, then I have to say: That is not right in this absoluteness", says Wolfgang Schäuble, President of the Bundestag ("Tagesspiegel"). "If there is an absolute value in our Constitution at all, then it is the dignity of the human being. That is inviolable. But it does not exclude the possibility that we must die."
Only ideologies know absolutisms. The strength of democracy is that it can withstand even the most uncomfortable debates. But if it prevents them, democracy becomes superfluous. The only thing without alternative in democracy is debate.
The concentrated stubbornness is evident in what is happening in the German Bundesliga. The Bundesliga is prepared to do everything in its power to ensure that its employees do not pose any danger to themselves or others.
We are talking here about the freedom to exercise their profession, which does not endanger anyone else, even less than before Corona - when "high-risk games" of hundreds of police officers had to be protected. Nevertheless, some righteous politicians are willing to sacrifice a valuable industry and massively curtail basic rights, even though every risk from ghost games is a fairy tale.
Because there are indeed millionaires involved, the Bundesliga is a grateful target of this destructive furore. I predict that the next thing we will hear is that the "rich pilots" of Lufthansa really don't need to be rescued with taxpayers' money. What madness!
I don't want to imagine how we will look back on these weeks and months in three or four years' time, when the average age of the dead should be higher than the average life expectancy, when millions of unemployed are sitting on the streets, when the middle classes that finance Hartz IV are destroyed. When many restaurants are closed forever, but the soup kitchens are open. The Chancellor should also think about that when she makes her next government statement.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gracemarieturner/2020/05/22/600-physicians-say-lockdowns-are-a-mass-casualty-incident/#39021f8f50fa
The previous link I've sent doesn't work
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gracemarieturner/2020/05/22/600-physicians-say-lockdowns-are-a-mass-casualty-incident/
Who owns Bild? How many lives has Bild Zeitung destroyed? Andreas, you are selective.
I would much prefer to believe Christian Drosten than the owners of Bild.
I don't think you are serving your argument by quoting such a publication as Bild Zeitung.
Michael, it’s hard to please you! To be honest, I’m not a big consumer of mainstream Medias and that would also apply for the newspaper BILD. Someone pointed me specifically to this article and I thought it was worth to translate it for you since it is 100% mainstream and not only from a random Internet blogger!
BILD is part of the Axel Springer publishing group – there was a Voluntary Public Takeover Offer by KKR in 2019 and it is said that the writing style has changed lately.
Anyway, the advisory team of the German government are the RKI (Robert-Koch-Institute) and Christian Drosten, chief virologist at the Berlin Charité. Both institutions are not independent since they have received plenty of money from private organisations. And since you were talking about destroyed lives, the RKI has a dark past from the Nazi era, as can be seen on Wikipedia. Experiments were carried out on Jewish prisoners in which hundreds of people died.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Koch_Institute
During the Third Reich, the Institute took part in atrocities committed in the name of national socialism, such as experiments into typhus vaccines at Buchenwald Concentration Camp in 1941, resulting in the deaths of 127 of the 537 inmates involved.[11] The institute was renamed the Robert Koch Institute in 1942. Following the collapse of the regime, only few scientists ever had to face legal consequences, and their crimes were largely ignored for the remainder of the century.[12]
Last but not least some words from Horst Seehofer who was a Federal Minister for Health and Social Security from 1992 to 1998 and nowadays Minister of the Interior, Building and Community since 2018 under Chancellor Angela Merkel: “Those who decide are not elected and those who are elected have nothing to decide”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P73IVXGm9k
To be quite honest, I prefer the many expert voices that went public (like the 600 on Forbes.com) instead of the few that advise the government and at the same time collect money from private companies.
Is it hard to please me?
I have decided it is possible 'to prove' anything in some areas of life.
Your linking the Robert Koch Institut to the Nazi regime is valid. But you could do that with so many organisations and companies. What happened AG Farben after the war? Does that mean I should never buy pills from Bayer? Maybe for that reason I would never buy a Mercedes, for that matter should anyone sit in an Audi? It never stops. Onlyh last week The German Catholic Bishops Conference apologised for the behaviour of the role the German Catholic bishops played in Second World War. They called it 'shameful'.
I like to be able to say I more or less trust the elected governments of the EU. Then again, there is Hungary.
We are all influenced by our own personal experiences. And personally I cannot abide the behaviour of the right-wing, especially in the Catholic Church. I have seen it first-hand and honestly I despise their behaviour. It's sleaze and dishonest.
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