20200425 Rückkehr in welche "Normalität"?

25.04.2020 Rückkehr in welche "Normalität"?

Collecting ideas and acting

In 2 contributions we started to think about how it should look like after the crisis. At the beginning of Aprill in "Thinking Beyond the Crisis" we asked for an overview of which positives and negatives the virus has brought us and yesterday we found out that already "the crisis profiteers make cash". And it looks as if the car companies are already lining up as petitioners at the wheel.

We received some tips for our "overview" (thanks ;-), but we had to realize that it would have to be huge and small if it was to really help - because it's the many little things that could be changed right now. We can only encourage you to think and discuss about it in detail, for example as it happened last Wednesday at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in the webinar on privacy in online communication, last Thursday at the Virtual Forum Bits&Bäume "Sustainable Hard- and Software" at TU Berlin and as it is planned on May 16th at the online congress DEMOKRATIE DER ZUKUNFT – ZUKUNFT DER DEMOKRATIE.

All these ideas must then lead to action, just as, for example, in a few weeks a car lane between Kottbusser Tor and Hermannplatz could be converted into a protected cycle path, whereas otherwise 5 years of planning and construction time would be needed for a cycle path. There are similar reports from other cities as well, as car traffic has decreased considerably.

The two petitions demand further measures

More (Corona) safety distance thanks to car-free streets in Berlin
We demand to expand the public space for us city dwellers. We want some main streets in Berlin to become car-free, so that we as residents can move around outside without the risk of infection.
Priority for the ecologically necessary over the economically desirable!
To fight the Corona Pandemic, the responsible politicians base their political decisions on the scientific necessities that have been recognized. In this situation, economic interests are clearly subordinated to scientific necessities: Very quickly, rigorous but effective measures were ordered to combat the danger as far as possible. Huge sums of money were made available virtually overnight ...
We demand that you as politicians, in your efforts to protect the climate, make the scientifically justified and clearly identified requirements of climate researchers the primary basis of your proposals and decisions in an appropriate manner: Climate protection is about much more than "just" protecting patients at particular risk - it is about preventing a threatening irreversible change in our ecological living conditions caused by human-induced warming while it is still possible.

These are only 2 fields of activity where urgent action is needed and where we can and must act now ...

PS. Maybe we can do without a fine for the person parking on the much too small sidewalk because of the almost non-existent car traffic in the picture above.