But the Covid menace is now replaced by inflation and an “energy crisis”
After two years of pause, Christmas markets are back in town all over Germany. “Stille Nacht” and “O Tannenbaum” are heard once again out in the open, and people can buy nutcracker figurines and drink Glühwein. No masks are needed anywhere, except, for some strange reason, in public transportation in Germany — but even there, the mandate is not heavily enforced. The whole “Covid” era appears to have come to a definitive close, and, in retrospect, everything seems to have been just some kind of bad dream. Did it really happen?
In fact, this is how it’s being treated by the media, as something that didn’t really happen. Many are talking of a general “amnesty.” In Australia, fines for people who disobeyed lockdowns or vaccine mandates are being rescinded. Novak (pronounced “no-vax”?) Djokovic is allowed to play again. Forgive and forget.
And yet, recentIy there were large protests in China, the only place in the world that still pursues a stupid “Zero Covid” policy and lockdowns, for reasons of its own which I ignore. While the protests are understandable, it was curious to see the Western media showing the protests and criticizing Covid restrictions in China, while for two years they demonized anyone who protested against similar restrictions in the West. They ignored them on the news or even tried to curb protests, and accused protesters of being “misinformation spreaders” or “conspiracy theorists”. What a difference a year makes…
But if Covid is out, inflation and an energy crisis are in. While Christmas markets are back, people are not buying as much as in previous years. Inflation is up at 11%, and the huge increase in gas and electricity prices due to the so-called “energy crisis” (result of a combination of bad “green” policies and the boycott of Russian gas) have put people into savings mode. Even the Glühwein seems to be more expensive than last year: 3.50 euro instead of the usual 2.50 or 3.00. But this is not deterring people from drinking a cup or two.
For the moment the atmosphere is festive, and people seem to be happy simply to be able to be in crowds again and, if they cannot buy too many toys and trinkets, at least they can always look dreamily at the stands. “Let us worry about it all after Christmas”, they seem to be saying. “For now, ‘tis the season to be jolly. Let’s celebrate!”
NoVax Jokovich, Slavik hero. Hypocrisy about Co-vid restrictions in China only works to the extent msm doesn’t point it out. But the Ministry of Truth runs a tight ship. Spill the beans and you get thrown overboard.
Wonderful article, people need to think about these things. Putting them out of the mind only serves to be unprepared if things go further south. That being said, I hope you have a Merry Christmas.
Thank you, Merry Christmas to you too.
China’s zero Covid policy is not stupid.Someone wrote part of the reasons on Twitter and I agreed most of them.
https://twitter.com/balintion1/status/1596645465512378369
I am a Chinese but based in Taiwan. The authorities here in Taiwan recently adopted western style Covid policy and the result is cruel.People are not aware of the strict situation as long as the MSM didn’t report them. Though you can always find many Covid analytics on internet. After all you saw images of people dying during the Rus-Ukr conflict but not the virus itself.
I couldn’t read well the reasons as I don’t use Twitter and I can’t see the whole thread. But doesn’t the “zero Covid” policy and lockdowns play against the Chinese interests in Taiwan? If there are no protests, then they can’t be exploited by the West, right? I don’t think “Covid” is or was ever a big threat, and the first videos of “people dead in the street” that appeared in China were obviously fake. So I have no idea what the Chinese are doing. Kit from the OffGuardian had a good article about it: https://off-guardian.org/2022/12/01/the-real-reason-behind-chinas-zero-covid-policy/
I didn’t finish reading the offguardian article, because some of the reasons are so ridiculous and far from the reality in China. I’ll just say many people in China do support zero Covid policy and many don’t. (Well,there is 1.4 billion population😂) They have their own reasons. You can often find the debates on Weibo ( a Chinese social network,something like Twitter+Facebook ) and protest in China is not rare. (Only we get to know there is one when western MSM choose to report it and exaggerated the situation)
Yes, I have to say that I know little about China so I prefer not to speculate about what’s going on there… I can only guess. But my own experience with Covid shows that the whole lockdown thing was overblown in the West, and the main purpose was to experiment with new methods of social control (digital passes, etc) and to sell a new type of mRNA vaccines. Since China apparently didn’t use those new mRNA vaccines, I don’t know what to make of it.