After a couple of weeks without any new posts, I figured an update might be in place.
We’ve had a very nice streak with good weather here in Denmark. Some days the temperature have even reached a summery 20 degrees. I’m telling you, summer is just around the corner if this continues.
That also means a lot of people have been out and about lately. Some places have been so crowded, that the police have banned gatherings on certain places / areas, meaning you can only pass through them. Stay there for too long and you will be hit with 2500 kr. fine. The first fines have already been handed out and from the description of it, it sounds like they’re a bit trigger-happy writing out the fines. Some people have reported getting a fine instantly just for taking a couple of minutes rest, which only leads to anger and resentment. Something that could have easily been avoided by a heads-up by the police. Guess we’re not immune to cops on power trips here in Denmark either.
Schools out and financial ruin
Schools have also reopened for primary school students, though the older students have to wait for now. There’s simply not enough room for them with the new rules put in place.
Stores have also been following suit, with more and more stores opening up. Though some of them have also been forced to close for good, as cash dried up. Arnold Busck, a book store with shops all over the country, filed for bankruptcy yesterday. With the 1st of May just around the corner, many more companies will follow that route. They simply won’t have the money for paying rent, salaries and so forth. SAS just fired 5000 employees today, just to give an example.
Many of them have applied for financial aid packages, but there’s a huge backlog which takes time to process, meaning only a few have gotten help so far. Add to that, you need an accountant as a prerequisite to get any aid from the government. Accountants whom are totally hammered by all the companies applying for aid, which means it takes even longer to get covered some of your expenses.
It’s no fun being a company right now.
50.000 dead
The United States have been hit hard lately. Several days with over 2000 dead per day. Yesterday they rounded 50K dead people. That’s… A lot. There’s no other way to put it.
Especially New York have struggled massively. Morgues and coroners have been working basically 24/7 and they can’t keep up. People have been buried in mass graves. It’s pretty fucking grim.
Add to that, people have started protesting, wanting the society to re-open. It’s kind of crazy seeing litterally gun-toting Americans protesting, wanting stores and restaurants to re-open, just because they can. They would rather risk getting sick, than being forced to live in a shut-down society. Guess it kinda makes sense, as their unemployment rate have hit record-high levels (over 26 million people) and savings are starting to slip up. It’s not going to be fun when they really start feeling the squeeze. I wouldn’t be surprised if we started seeing riots in a couple of weeks as people get desperate. Just hoping it doesn’t come to that, as that would make an already terrible situation just even worse.
This is part of a series of posts I’ve written about the Corona virus and how it have impacted our society. Equal parts news, observations and thoughts. See the rest of the posts here.