SYSTEM FAILURE

In late 2019 a virus apparently closely related to SARS coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China. The Wuhan coronavirus caused an illness known as COVID-19, which was similar to SARS and was being characterized primarily by fever and respiratory symptoms. The virus was likewise highly contagious. By early 2020 it had spread throughout regions of China and had reached the United States and Europe, having been carried by travellers from affected regions.

In March the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic.

Now on 18th March 2020 Germany is nearly shut down.

It started only last week when Germany announced all events planned to be postponed.

The government advised all people to mostly avoid social contact.

Schools and universities to be closed.

And every shop not needed for supplies or medical care to be shut down.

On the 17th March 2020 the government declared that no one was to travel out of Germany or into Germany and even within Germany travelling was made impossible.

All social life to be minimized to its most possible. All to not effect the risk groups, such as elderly people and people with chronic diseases.

Now throughout the world the opinions are split. Some think the government has failed as all measures should have been taken care of earlier on. Others think the measures are way too strict and people overact when it comes to COVID-19 which has similar symptoms like a normal flu. And still others lunge into panic, not knowing what is happening and creating conspiracy theories to explain this sudden change in daily life.

But still there is a fundamental thing these thoughts miss. What was thought to be a virus in China turned out to be the start of a world economic crisis.

However also the start of a life we already have forgotten in our accelerated normality. This virus has made us stop, to see and to realize.

Once again capitalism was tested and once again it failed. An economy only based on profit is destructive in such a situation.

In such a crisis we see where we fail at. We fail at solidarity and community. We fail to see the big picture. We fail because we are only taught to work like a machine. Now this machine has stopped, and we are being trialled on what makes us human.

Maybe this is a time for change.

Maybe this is our chance.

Our chance to wake-up.