The 2020 (Out)Break
2020: as far as I can remember there hasnt been such a situation of overall societal and economic shutdown. Tschernobyl comes to mind or the 9-11 terror attack – maybe the Tsunami/Fukushima disaster in Japan or the financial crisis in 2008 but this time with the Corona outbreak its a global disaster with more secondary effects on all dimensions of society and economy – its a social disaster since it in some countries will heavily impact specific groups of people (older people and those that heavily rely on assignments, self employed people and small cooperations without much buffer for a crisis). Its also bad timing in multiple dimensions: we have the low oil price that now got even more beating – dangerous for the financial situation of some states. The financial market has been overrated and the descent therefore is now extra strong (although I couldnt care less about the financial market right now but it could kill the stability of countries like Italy!), the situation with the refugees at the European borders in unsolved and now the global Corona crisis is stacking on top of these problems … . The pandemic process and effects have been predicted earlier and the problems inflicted with globalization come to present themselves in a grim way in this crisis. We do not produce the important goods anymore. It was kind of clear that we would all be experiencing a global pandemic spread earlier or later. Awareness was low for this kind of development but overall I am surprised that the government had no fully developed background concept that could be used now. There are basically no backup modes in the privatized health system and hospitals that have been driven by economic decisions only are clearly not able to cope with this situation now – although doubling capacity is not likely to help much if the scenario fully unfolds (this has to be avoided by all means). Together with impacts related to globalization and low regional production capacities for specific goods we now have a critical situation. All we can do now is “duck and hide” and hope that we do not run out of medications etc and that the curve flattens soon …but than it seems as if no country is really prepared. Other countries already lost control. Austria imo totally underestimated the problem and UK will be also surprised that Brexit is no help here – although Europe seems to totally fail on this issue … .
For those that are more into algorithms – there is an interesting Covid-19 modeling tool online here:
One pretty cool side aspect of this crisis is however that some people that usually never got much attention are now the heroes of everyday life (the sales lady in your next food store or the bus driver, nurses in the hospitals or the police officer to name only few). The overall perspective we have – what important services we need to keep everything running – might be changed and that for long. This could be a good thing. As always: appreciation of performance and dedication is an important currency to value what people do for us. I also believe that digital learning and communication strategies and digital infrastructure will experience a great development boom. Its clear that some elearning concepts havent been used much in the past – especially in schools. I also sense that we will value the small things more in the future – photographing flowers in the morning cold or sitting in the garden with a hot early morning darjeeling and enjoying the silence – i feel that these things get more intensity now – since the situation gets worse every day these days.
Since 2020 seems to become a very difficult year for sailing event photography I will more often post some text bits that are already in the draft folder or articles that I planned already for a while but never had the time to finish. So yes this seems to be also the time to get the saxophone out and play regularly – its a time were we can keep doing things slower. Maybe also a good time to rethink overall parts of our life and life-style. I for one really enjoy the slower days in my home office.
I now fully concentrate on research projects and do processing of satellite and UAV drone data from the “Beech Tree Decline” project of 2019 and I can now finish things that have been on my list for so long and now I have time for that. I will also be very busy creating eLearning content in March/April for the University since I received a temporary professorship position at Martin-Luther-University Halle. Non-commuting however also means that overall this is a time were I do have a lot of flex-time to self-organize my work load. The more complex side of the lock-down is right now to organize some projects for the kids since schools have finally (too late imo) also been shut down here in Berlin. So we are going to build a tree-house in the garden I guess and projects thelike come to mind ;).
Take care out there! Sören
