Missing the before times
The end of fearing covid, the beginning of living with it and some unknown level of increased risk. Grieving the loss of the before times and a belief in common sense and solidarity.
Found this photo on my phone from the Vienna ice rink on Rathausplatz. Must date back to the before times. When I wasn’t depressed about everything, when I motivated some number of my family members to go out on a cold, weekday evening for a skate, brining thermoses of hot cocoa and sandwiches to eat. Not exactly Instagram-mom, but trying. Thinking positive. Something that feels nearly impossible these days.
I read this morning they will re-open the ice rink, but with 2G and masks. Masks is smart because even though it is outdoors, it gets super crowded. Last year they didn’t mandate masks and skating felt at times like a super spreader event. But then you get paranoid, hard to say anymore what is and isn’t risky. I certainly feel like I’ve lost track of that in these two years of constantly trying to avoid an invisible enemy that may hurt you or may barely touch you.
I’ve grumbled a lot about this on Twitter, but very briefly:
By yesterday evening, I finally understood, thanks to a clear and simple email by one of my children’s teachers, that all children in our school are expected to drop off PCR gurgle test boxes at school every single Monday, Wednesday & Friday, with no exceptions, irregardless of vaccination status etc. So last night I tested my kids all again, meaning in the past five days they have taken three and in one case four PCR tests. All of which is totally insane, both from a cost (because taxpayer money doesn’t grow on trees) and pandemic (because even if my kids get Omicron statistically they will be just fine) perspective. It feels like a lot of people have lost sight of what is the actual goal, what are we testing for, what are we trying to prevent?
You can’t say it loudly on Twitter because many people are invested, they have spent the last two years trying to avoid an invisible enemy, and they aren’t going to give up that fight! I was all in the fight when there was no vaccine and we didn’t know what would happen should we catch covid. We were trying to avoid hospital ICUs from overflowing and prevent vulnerable people from dying from covid. Solidarity, they said, for the old and vulnerable.
But now? Now I’m done. Most of us are done. I am far more worried about the long-term consequences of the radicalisation of our society which are resulting from years of restrictive covid measures that creep into so many aspects of our daily lives and the now farce of an Austrian vaccine mandate. I’m not defending the far right and those who march in our cities every Saturday. Quite the opposite. I am horrified by their insulting and even potential illegal Holocaust comparisons and their near total rejection of science. But if even I, as a reasonable person who until now has complied with covid measures, am starting to say what the hell are we actually doing, can you imagine what they all are thinking?
I’ve stopped watching ORF in order to preserve my mental health, but I see the soundbites on Twitter. And boy are they scary. The new education minister went on TV last night to basically say he will observe how things unfold, and then, maybe propose a solution or two?
The thing I’m most angry about in this entire pandemic, and I know I’m not alone, is how children, kids, teens, the future — have been ignored and forgotten about. The message to young people has been loud and clear: you don’t matter. Your concerns don’t matter. Your health doesn’t matter. Shut up, go to school, take your PCR test, wear your masks, don’t enjoy yourselves, don’t have fun, don’t go on school trips, but be sure to pass your math test that no one helped you to prepare for, or else you’ll be doomed to a life of underachievement.
Read these tweets from a high school senior:
Read this about students walking out in NYC because they know their high school (the largest in the entire U.S.) isn’t a safe place to be right now:
Read this excellent description of what it’s like right now to be a parent of young children under 5, who have been completely and utterly forgotten about by policy makers and society alike:
This is an excellent podcast which follows a group of high school students at a public school in San Francisco, and tries to look at the impact of the pandemic and school closures on their lives. We completely underestimate the psychological impact. We assume everyone has an environment at home that is conducive to learning. We assume kids have wi-fi. We make far too many assumptions. We should listen more.
I see it in my kids’ school and their lives. The kids who had good grades and supportive homes are doing just fine. The smart kids who always did well in math are still doing well in math. The kids who always know their French or Latin vocabulary still know it.
The children who struggled, who teachers criticised, for whom school never came easy, are only falling further behind. No one has eased up on testing, nor exams. Austria continues to run on the hamster wheel created by bureacratic red tape and rules and regulations.
Last night, the education minister announced high school seniors will have to take oral exams for Matura this year; these were cancelled in both 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. Why now? Why not ask are they even necessary at all? Why, you ask? Well because Austria doesn’t have education experts or innovators making decisions; it prefers weak political appointees inclined to leave the half-broken status quo exactly as it is. Less controversial that way. The way it was always done. Now and forever.
Where does that leave us? Quite frankly it leaves you with a small country within an EU growing weaker by the day (perhaps a worthy topic for another day) that is not offering a bright future for its young people. What happens when you don’t offer young people a bright future, or at least the chance to try to pursue a bright future?
Those who can, leave. Those who can’t, accept their fate, but go about their lives depressed and without ambition. It’s not a great situation to be in. Certainly not for a country as wealthy as Austria. All of these things are fixable, but they would require a major shift in mentality from all involved parties, and there I think you would run into the biggest roadblocks. And no, I don’t think Mr Strolz has the magic answers. They by default cannot come from within Austria, in my humble opinion.
Gosh this started on covid and ended on education. In my mind, they are permanently entwined. I don’t know how parents keep plodding onwards, testing their kids non-stop, buying masks, trying to hire tutors where needed (if you can afford them), all while going to work and celebrating birthdays and trying to put on some kind of a semblance of normal.
I heard recently about a teen whose grades are pretty terrible. The kid isn’t happy in school, isn’t in the right school, and what do the parents do? No Christmas presents at Christmas. Actually one — a candle. As punishment for the bad grades. And I ask myself, what kind of sick world are we living in? What kind of adults think this is an incentive to improve, when you send the message that even baby Jesus doesn’t think you deserve anything? My blood is still boiling just thinking about it.
So when one of my kids called me yesterday, in tears, again, over the latest disappointing grade on a test, I was very calm, I was supportive, I told her it’s not something you should cry over, you will just have to practice more and try harder next time. And as I looked over the pages covered in red ink, I must admit, no way in hell I could have done that test at age 11. It looked like a test for high school. And I’m smart and did well in math and went to blue chip universities.
If your system is designed for failure, perhaps the biggest failure is the system itself?
Pandemic payday
I missed this when it first came out, but please do yourself a favour and take the time to search through this tool which lists every single company that received financial aid (cash payments) from the Austrian government during the pandemic. This is truly the Kurz/Blümel legacy and it is a shocker.
Omicron, fascism…the view from America
Pivot has a particularly insightful interview with Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League and author of a new book “It Could Happen Here: Why America is Tipping from Hate to the Unthinkable — And How We Can Stop It”.
Two news podcasts, both looking at what covid is doing to hospitals. In short: two things. First, staff shortages, both from burnout and covid and now coming back to work if positive and asymptomatic but to work on covid wards. Second, many patients are showing up at hospitals for other ailments and treatments but testing positive for covid when they arrive, not knowing they have Omicron.
That’s probably more than enough for a grey Wednesday morning.
Things still on my mind to explore later this week, in no particular order:
NATO talks with Russia looking very shaky, many hinting Russia may call it all off and soon, although even the best experts admit no one knows what Putin will do, maybe not even Putin himself.
Bosnia (you see I keep avoiding writing on this complex and challenging topic), the never-ending drama with Novak, and how things are settling down in Kazakhstan.
With Novak, I want to beam all the confused souls on Twitter and in the western sports media to Serbia for like half an hour and then they would understand. It’s a bit like getting high, I can describe it to you for hours but you won’t know the feeling until you experience it for yourself.