A moment of reflection

Rainy days have their special charm to me. I love to hear the sound of the rain against the windows, to see how the drops run down on the glass, feel the warm of the radiator and just be pleased of being inside. There is a bit of melancholy which comes up as well, mainly because I adore the sun. Yet, at this time of the year 2020 it makes me also think.

I am very fortunate since I can write these thoughts, it means that I can take the moment to make reflections and maybe just reconsider how fortunate I am. I had the chance to take a course at Singularity University 2 years ago about exponential thinking. It was absolutely awesome and stunning and I am still grateful for that opportunity. I got an email where I was asked for what I am grateful this year 2020. I wrote my answers which are:

Grateful to have a home
Grateful to have food in my refrigerator
Grateful to be able to have heat / Air Conditioning when I need it
Grateful to have fantastic friends
Grateful that none of my closer circle got hit by COVID-19
Grateful to have a great job I love

I was surprised what other people have been writing on innovation, technology etc. This is not a judgement just I think at times where people are dying and millions are without a job, the number of people who must to go a food-bank in order to cover the basic necessities it might be a moment to think about where we are and how fortunate we are.

The next morning on the news I saw how a “Patera”

sunk just in front of the island of Lanzarote. Some of the people could be rescued at least 8 have drowned. The drama happened just a few meters of the coast. Imagine how desperate people have to be in order to get on a boat like this to cross the Atlantic from Africa to the Canary Islands?

How many of you would take such a “ride”? This is what desperation does to you! So when I hear people complain about their 1st word problems I wonder if they have seen the news lately. This is not a one off moment this happens every day and even many times every single day.

There are many more moments in which I start to reflect. Lately when I go to the supermarket it is almost normal to see people from an NGO at the entry asking if I could make any sort of food donation. Never have I experienced this level of demand. Spain it is called the “colas de hambre” the hunger lines. Long lines of people who await their food donation since they have no other means to put food on their table. Not even in the crisis of 2008 it was that severe.

Why do I worry since I have food on the table, as mentioned above? Simple this is not sustainable. People are desperate and will become more desperate. Do we run the risk to have social unrest? I am quite sure that we do and tension is increasing. I can feel it with my colleagues, friends and surroundings.

Maybe it is time to take a step back, take deep breaths and remind ourselves of the great position we are in and how lucky we are.

#Grateful

5 weeks of confinement in Madrid, and counting!

We have passed now more than 5 weeks of confinement in Madrid and there is yet more to come. In a certain way it is funny to see how more and more men have what I call the Corono Haircut (4-6mm long) with a machine bought probably on Amazon. Women start to show that their hair is usually died and that they have not see their hairdresser either in many weeks. That, is just a small part of what is happening.

I can see that the lockdown is causing some serious wear on the people. Being locked in is not pleasant and in Spain we are having probably one of the most strict lockdowns in Europe if not in the world. There is a very little light at the end of the tunnel with at least children being able to leave the home with one parent during the day starting on the 27th. However, for all the rest it remains like it is we have to stay home.
No sports, like in all other European countries, no walks like in almost all European countries.

It feels like we are being punished and in a certain way we are. We have voted (me not since I am not Spanish) the government we have and they are the ones who have taken decisions late, too late, and probably many of those decision which were taken too late are wrong. That is why we are punished. Yet, I am surprised how calm the people are. There is such thing as selective memory.
I recall very well when a nurse in Spain got infected with Ebola in 2014. She had full protective gear and nonetheless something failed. There was an outcry from all sides that the governments killing a nurse… Of course, it was critical and need to be investigated. Let’s just remember that the nurse got cured and is leading a normal life today.

I wonder where all those people are now that we have more than 15.000 among doctors, nurses and other clinical staff infected and who knows how many have died?
Where is the outcry from the always righteous left who defend the rights of the workers when they see our front line workers without any protection, no face mask, no protective suits nothing? Is it that doctors deserve less protection than nurses????

I am getting increasingly upset with the situation. The Spanish people have chosen the least experienced and the least responsible to lead them. But there are many question which need to be answered. How are we going to live tomorrow? In Spain there are more than 1.000.000 people working in hospitality (bars, restaurants etc) Our minister of work Yolanda Diaz (Communist Party) tried to express the other day that those business will need to remain closed until the end of the year. Imagine more than 1 million jobs gone till the end of the year. But more than that most of those places will never open again since the owners have gone simply bankrupt.
We receive usually 60m tourist each year. People who eat and drink, who consume. Guess what, they will not be coming this year fro which the situation will get even worse.

We are on a train which heads with full speed to the dead end. It seems like nobody cares. Do people really not care anymore or are they just afraid? History repeats itself because nobody listens the first time. Making soma analogies to the current situation in Spain and to what happened in Germany in the early 30’s I think there is a very strong danger of a very grim time in front of us.

To be a bit more positive I have to say that I am surprised about the mayor Madrid Jose Luis Martinez Almeida. When I initially saw him run for office I would not have made any bet on him. However, it is times of crisis which show what person we have in front of us. In Germany Helmut Schmitt, very popular chancellor from 1974 – 1982, made his career as ministro del interior de estado de Hamburgo. En 1962 he faced the tremendous flooding of Hamburg and managed the situation with great success. I am sure that Almeida will do great things from Madrid and Spain. It needs to be recognised that Rita Maestre, leader of the communist party in Madrid city hall offered him her support. Those things only happen when greatness is being done.

On Saturday I went grocery shopping for my parents who live in the city center of Madrid (Gran Via). I took a short video when I was driving back from the Gran Via. Anybody who knows by beloved Madrid will probably have a very different memory from the city center. A center which never sleeps, which is always noisy.

It is tremendously sad to see the aorta of Madrid with hardly any blood.

I close with a song which has a lot of symbolism for me

Play it Loud & Play it Proud!