Boy, things are heating up by the minute! Incredible. Short update from the german front; the craziness and pace in which things develop, both on the local as well as national level, is hard to put into words actually. Every day the restrictions given out at my workplace are increasing. Warning signs are put up everywhere in which things like the 1,5 Meter distance are drilled into people. Yesterday we even had to sign that we had understood that the chiefs want us to follow all those rules (including the 1,5 distance). Coffee place at work was closed with signs on it stating the reason for it "for the prevention of formation of groups" because of corona.
Almost nobody is eating at the canteen anymore. In the work brake in the smoking area, people try to stay away from each other 1,5 meters. Quite surreal to watch. Pretty much everyone you ask, including the mainstream radio people, are upset and angry about "those stupid people who are not following the distancing rules" because they are to blame. The public is literally asking/begging the government for the curfew now. The chief of my company called in a corona emergency workers' assembly. Yes you heard right. Guess how the distancing should have worked there? Everyone was staying away from each other about 1,5 Meters to listen to the chief, who spoke rather quietly. Therefore, people were instinctively gravitating ever closer to the chief and closer to each other and below the 1,5 Meter rule, to actually understand what he was saying. Watching this and being part of it in the middle of the assemply, for a short moment I just couldn't suppress a heartfelt laughter about the ridiculousness of it all, feeling myself directly transported into some kind of idiocracy movie. Catched myself quickly though, in a matter of split second suppressing the laughter. Then the chief started his speech, visibly very worried and emotional. In the first 2 or 3 points he said that the chiefs will try to have the company work in full capacity and without any short-time work being implemented as long as possible "until the automobile industry really stops", aka until it really filters down to us. Interestingly, he stated that they try to shift the focus to produce parts towards the chinese market more in order to compensate the losses of all the major European/Western car manufacturers closing down. Since the Chinese market seem to be rather good and going up again. Then came his final point; He started to cry and got angry at the same time (in a childish kind of way), proclaiming (paraphrasing) "but now the most important point of all I want to express here", proceeding with "we need to distance ourselves from each other 1,5 Meters!" explaining/scaring/threatening people by saying" I feel that there are still people here who don't take that seriously!" adding "the lives of hundreds of thousands of people are at stake!" while half screaming and crying.
So, people like him (the vast majority of the public I think) are now, thanks to Merkel's speech and other "great politicians" and the incredible fear mongering in the media, seemingly believing that people who do not follow the rules and especially the 1,5 Meter rule, are acutely endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and hens forth are dangerous and in the final analyses murderers. The funny thing is that everyone, including those who believe all of that and follow it "strictly", are constantly transgressing that rule seemingly without any awareness of it, while being quick to point out "those other stupid people out there who are not following that rule". It's so crazy and frankly downright spooky.
And on the national/state level things are moving in breathtaking speed downward as well, pretty much as in all the other testimonies here from other countries. In the second biggest state of germany for example, it has just been announced that there is a ban of more than 3 people gathering in public places. People who are not following those rules will be fined (up to 25,000 €) and even jailed for several years. I could go on and on.
