Madness
From Austrian political scandals making international headlines, Russia brazenly blowing up the Nova Kakhovka dam, and putting out a series of little fires here in Vienna, how is it only Tuesday?
I honestly do not know where to start. I’ll start with a very brief summary of the big picture, and then I’ll share with you my “micro” outlook.
First, Austria. On Saturday, the SPÖ, the social democrats (left of center, one of the two traditional political parties in Austria with a long history and has governed the city of Vienna for 100 years and running), met to vote for a new party leader. The announced winner on Saturday afternoon was Hans Peter Doskozil, the governor of tiny, rural Burgenland, with 53% of the vote. This was pretty upsetting to those further left of center, who were really rooting for a new, underdog: Andreas Babler, the popular mayor of working-class Traiskirchen, a small city near Vienna which has struggled with wages of refugees being housed there (often in inhumane conditions) by the federal government in recent years. On Saturday, Babler took it like a man and accepted defeat, despite having given, by all accounts, the much better speech. Doskozil made a round of TV interviews, talking about his plans for the future of the party. It seemed like that was that. Progressives were disappointed, but accepted the numbers as the numbers.
Fast forward 48 hours. I see Mario tweet out a headline that looks like it is from The Onion (the Austrian version is called Die Tagespresse and they infamously tweeted yesterday, when the shit started to hit the fan, “Our work here is done”. The headline read: election result switched due to an “Excel mistake”, Babler declared winner.
On Monday afternoon, the head of the SPÖ election commission (who has since resigned and is reportedly in a romantic relationship with one of Doskozil’s close advisors, an SPÖ MP), took to a podium and stated a mistake had been made, referring to an error copying data from Excel, and Babler was actually the winner, that he, not Doskozil, received 53% of the vote. The results were switched, in other words.
At first no one could believe it. How the fuck does something like this even happen. Babler gave a short and reserved statement yesterday, asking for another tally.
The thing is — none of this probably would have ever been uncovered if an Austrian journalist, Martin Thür, famous for his penchant for running the numbers (he uses Excel regularly in his own investigate journalism), kept pressing the SPÖ on the vote count, because the arithmetic simply didn’t add up. This surely let to a chain of events which led us to uncover the actual winner.
Yesterday already, Doskozil said he will not run for office at the federal level ever again. Which is a pretty drastic statement for someone who initiated the entire power struggle within the SPÖ, prompting an earlier vote which led to Pamela Randi-Wagner’s resignation and this “run-off” election by SPÖ delegates. The head of the election commission, who made the announcement yesterday, and also rumoured to be romantically involved with an MP close to Doskozil’s team, also resigned today. Hmmmm. They were both, objectively speaking, very fast to voluntarily pull back from the spotlight.
The press conference today in which the new head of elections explained what went wrong wasn’t exactly confidence-inducing. I came away feeling like:
In short, it has been a terribly embarrassing past 72 hours for the social democrats in Austria, and the far right is surely sitting back and enjoying the whole spectacle as it unfolds in real time. This little country made international headlines, again, as per usual, not for anything good:
I would only say one thing. Having seen how Stadt Wien, supposedly held up as a beacon of social democratic progressive policies in action, deals with refugees and a humanitarian crisis over the past 15+ months, I am not surprised that such a fuck-up is possible within the SPÖ. Incompetence is rewarded because you are an ideal employee in that you never question your boss, systems are archaic and overly complicated so as to employ more people rather than thinking about efficiencies. Efficiency is not the goal. Employment of more entry-level jobs seems to be. And don’t change. Don’t question. Don’t think independently. Agencies are created to advise on how to work with other agencies, all of whom are directly funded on the state (i.e. taxpayer) drip. In other words: there is so much fat to be cut, if it were a private company, shareholders would have their axes out. Don’t get me wrong, the buses come on time, for the most part, but at what cost?
It will be interesting to see what if any changes now happen within the SPÖ on a federal level, and what will be the impact of the election of someone as party leader who has talked in complete seriousness about the influence of Marx on his political philosophy and was filmed in 2019 calling the EU “the most aggressive foreign policy military alliance that has ever existed" (he since tried to walk those words back somewhat). It certainly feels like with more, especially younger, voters moving further to the left (regional “communist”parties have done surprisingly well in recent state and city elections in Austria), the next elections in Austria will pit “more left” vs “more right” and I would be wiling to wager a significant sum of money I do not have that “more right” comes out victorious and the next chancellor will send chills down our spines and make us miss this rather incompetent puppet of a right of center leader we have at the moment. I truly hope I am terribly wrong.
I woke up to the terrible news that Russia had blown up the dam in Nova Kakhovka, leading to an evacuation area of thousands of Ukrainians in local communities along the potential flood area, and the deaths of surely a huge number of animals. Watching the man-made disaster (I should say Russian-made) unfold in real time over video and images is horrific and surreal. Blowing up dams was something last practiced during World War II, by both sides, and it seems Russia’s generals have no new ideas (do they ever?) so they resorted to an old playbook which was mentioned early on in the war, but I do not recall having heard it tossed around recently as a real possibility.
Newsflash by Tim May & Ross Pelekh (I am not a paid subscriber but perhaps some of you are)
Polina Ivanova of FT spoke with residents today in the local area now trying to flee.
Local residents of Nova Kakhovka talked of a loud explosion at 2am to the Guardian.
Simone Brunner writes two districts of Kherson are already flooded according to eyewitnesses she spoke with. “The people have been though so much, think about the Russian occupation. And the city is shelled on a daily basis. Nothing can shake people here anymore.”
I have seen dozens of posts of resources of small groups of volunteers performing evictions in the Kherson region. This video of just one evacuation lets you imagine what this looks like thousand(s) of times over. And entire house was swept away. An entire football stadium under water. 16,000 people in the critical flood zone. 16,000 people. Are we ready? (rhetorical question, you all know the answer)
Here in Vienna, I have been busy putting out all sorts of little fires. Putting out is the wrong word. I’m not actually doing that much. I am perhaps just passing a bucket of water.
Over the past few days, I have been in intense contact over Telegram with A.I., a 74 year old pensioner from Kyiv who contacted me in a full state of panic and depression: she begged to be moved, she begged for help to buy groceries, she told me how lonely she is…it went on and on. I tried to calm her down and share some resources I thought were useful (I suggested Train of Hope for lunch to which she promptly replied she has no money for a subway ticket). Residents of this central Vienna former hotel live in decent living conditions but they are hungry. They are “fed” by the organization in charge and it is clearly not enough and not a proper variety of food. They only receive €40 each per month “pocket money” as a result of being “fed” and you can only imagine how this feels and develops over months and months. Actually, we cannot imagine. One resident told me she is “dreaming of food”. Right in the middle of a European capital.
So I stumbled rather by accident (very often the best solutions) onto a win-win proposition. I was sitting on a surplus of Hofer cards, a true rarity, thanks to Mario sending me those cards which were returned to him (our waiting list is months long and during that time period naturally some Ukrainians move away and the cards are returned to sender). I asked A.I. after I sent her a card (it is her grocery photo you see on the top of this post), if she might please help me to identify the neediest residents of her hotel, and I would send them all Hofer cards, irregardless if they received a card already once or not. Hunger is hunger, and I wanted to address it head on for the neediest individuals and families.
A.I. does not have a phone, but she has an old tablet and despite her advanced age she is a very proficient Telegram user. She sprung into action and asked for clear instructions. I asked for 10 names and room numbers. Then another 10. Then she begged me for another 5 — all cancer patients. I agreed.
So that has kept me pretty busy over the past few days, double checking all the names and room numbers and assuring A.I. that everything is as she asked for. I can tell this opportunity to interact with her neighbours and offer them something useful has given her a sense of purpose and cured her loneliness, at least temporarily.
Of course I also receive other requests and have been processing those too. In short: I am now basically empty, both of cards and stamps. New donations would be very much welcome. Sending by email is super easy and helps me as all I have to do is print and deliver (Hofer or Spar both offer €50 read to print e-gift cards). You can also donate here to help those who contact me directly. Or via our website for our much longer, main waiting list.
I heard on the radio this morning that grocery prices in Austria are something like 15% more expensive now than in Germany. While Austria provides roughly half the amount of financial aid to Ukrainians as Germany. The mathematics simply do not add up for ordinary families. Not even close. Mario, the multi-talent that he is, recently built an incredible website which the entire Austrian government could not manage to do. It compares prices for grocery items across all the major supermarket chains in Austria, and also shows recent prices changes. You can immediately see who jacked up the price of coffee, and who made yogurts three cents cheaper. Amazing.
I shared it with my Telegram group, too, although usually the Ukrainians have such a good feel for prices they could probably fill out half of this data from memory.
What else. Very briefly, in no particular order:
I ordered a few months’ supply of adult diapers for a bed-bound former math teacher from Kramatorsk who wrote a post in my Telegram group pleading for help. In the process I learned the manufacturer will send a free sample if you asked for one, and requested that too. She sent me a YouTube video of herself in 2015. Her adult son is trying to care for her, but the local doctor will not give a prescription without her physically going to to the doctor, and she is bed-bound at the moment.
A group of 5 Ukrainians texted me yesterday “help we are homeless” as the old arrival center was closed and the new one would not accept them as they were on some “do not accept” list. I don’t know the details but I was able to put them in touch with volunteers from Vienna Mission for Ukraine who were on the ground yesterday trying to help. If you notice a pattern of state failure and volunteer groups stepping in, you are not mistaken. I am told they have helped identify temporary accommodation, but there is still no long-term solution.
A plumber who just arrived asked for tips on how to start a company and / or find work. I happened to know a local plumber. I made the introduction.
A Ukrainian man asked me how to find a notary republic. Go to the embassy, I said. I cannot, he replied. I crossed the border illegally. Aha, in that case, I am not sure what to do. He wants to bring his kid out of Ukraine with a relative. Not sure an Austrian notary is going to be able to deal with such a request.
A family has been pestering me on and on even after I sent them a second card, making an exception to my own rules. I had to say quite frankly please leave me alone, I have already helped you, twice. I am not the state nor an NGO and there are tens of thousands of you. I think they finally understood, but the whole experience was really unpleasant because I do want to help but I already broke my rules once and cannot do it again because there are so many others who took “no” as an answer politely and who also of course are in need now. We cannot fix everything for everyone. There will always be those left disappointed.
And on and on and on it goes. In between there are happy grocery photos, and so many kind words of thanks. Most of these are from Salzburg, where there is a similar “hotel” as a long-term “solution”.
Thank your for reading, for your ongoing support, and for your understanding that I simply do not find time to write every day. I still owe you all a discussion about schools. Some Ukrainian moms now in Austria are still complaining that their children are being asked to repeat “third grade for the third time” and are asking if this is even legal. It requires an entire post of its own and translation. I will make time for it.