Today it's about people who volunteer to be barracked on cruise ships.
About politicians who are likely to involuntarily finance nuclear power in the near future.
And about people who devastate cemeteries.
When someone from Braunschweig dares to take a cruise
The new year has begun!
At our New Year's Eve party (seven people and two people) the mood was a little slowed down.
Because in the guest book the guests of the previous year (two people, one person) had noted their joy and relief that this damned year 2020 was finally over, that 2021 could only get better.
Oh well.
The rest is known.
When I was at school, a shop in my hometown of Siegburg sold a poster that showed a stick figure crouching sullenly in his curvy living room.
The subline: “From the chaos a voice said to me: Smile and be happy, things could get worse.
And I smiled and was happy - and it got worse! "
With this in mind: be welcome in 2022!
You got a chance.
We stick men and women want to smile and be happy for the time being.
Undoubtedly, the new year begins badly for thousands of passengers on various cruise ships that
have been paralyzed by Omikron outbreaks
. First the almost 3000 people on board the "Aida Nova" were stuck on the Portuguese coast, and yesterday evening our editorial team received an SOS call from a passenger on the "Aida Mar" anchored in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Because of Omikron, the approximately 1500 passengers are no longer allowed to leave the ship individually, but only in group excursions that are subject to a fee, and childcare is also canceled, the sender, a gentleman from Braunschweig, complains:
“According to a short letter that was displayed in the cabins, this applies to the entire week-long trip (the trip starts today). The passengers were not informed about this in good time: no e-mails from Aida before the start of the journey, no verbal information at check-in and no ship announcements. Only when entering the cabin for the first time did you ... find out about it and fell from the clouds. "
When reading this call for help, I vacillate between pity and incomprehension:
What drives people to voluntarily squeeze into a cruise ship with thousands of strangers in pandemic times?
As early as the spring of 2020, these barges turned out to be floating prisons, modern plague ships on which people had to wait for weeks. How great must the love of cruising be to expose yourself to this risk? Wouldn't a hotel room or a beautiful finca in Gran Canaria have done it? If the gentleman from Braunschweig answers my questions, I will be happy to submit the answers.
Otherwise, the political debate will continue today about how much the Omikron variant could put our healthcare system under pressure in January. Before the government of the federal and state governments spoke again about the acute situation on January 7th, Julia Merlot and Jörg Römer from our science department asked several experts for their forecasts for the year as a whole. The statements reflect a lot of disappointment and resignation about the previous pandemic policy -
but also cautious optimism
. My favorite sentence from Christine Falk, President of the German Society for Immunology: "The chances that we will leave the pandemic behind in 2022 are not that bad." The second part of the expert's sentence, starting with "though", is preferable here suppressed.
Finally, a service note to the citizens of Rostock, Schwerin, Greifswald and Neubrandenburg: Today there will be "strollers"
against the applicable corona measures
in your cities again
.
Please do not regard their "forecasts" as "expert opinions".
Expert outlook for Corona year 2022: "I expect significant relaxation in summer - and a better autumn"
Of party friends and "dirty lies"
While three nuclear power plants were shut down for the New Year, the European Commission has proposed that investments in
gas and nuclear power plants
be classified as green, climate-friendly forms of energy under certain conditions. Not only greens find it bizarre that a fossil fuel like gas is considered green. And so far, nuclear energy would probably have been attested less in ecological terms than in terms of time. Namely insofar as the earth's inhabitants will still have to do with the plutonium from today's atomic fuel rods tens of thousands of years after us.
The decision of the EU Commission under the presidency of Ursula von der Leyen was already becoming apparent, but should now cause considerable trouble in the coalition, as my colleague Kevin Hagen analyzes.
Because not only the former Chancellor Angela Merkel, but also her successor Olaf Scholz had approved the decision.
They are now categorically rejecting new green members of the government, such as Environment Minister Steffi Lemke or Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
The domestic political line of conflict now runs not only between the Greens on the one hand and the SPD and Liberals on the other, who are very open when it comes to gas as a "bridging technology".
There is also rumbling within the Greens and from the climate movement.
"Gas as a climate-friendly source of energy is a dirty lie," Timon Dzienus, head of the Green Youth, told SPIEGEL.
"It would be nonsense to give it an eco-label."
The Green Youth expects
nothing
less than a fundamental opposition to Brussels from its own people in the federal government: "We expect the federal government to reject the absurd proposals of the EU Commission," said Dzienus .
However, a German No would do little:
to stop the Brussels plans, it would take at least 20 of the 27 EU states that represent at least 65 percent of the European population.
EU nuclear plans and the traffic light: how green can the greens still be?
Where raw forces rule senselessly
The Hagen police and public prosecutor's office today has to intensify the investigation into who
desecrated the 30 or so graves of the Muslim deceased in the Iserlohn cemetery
. Disturbing the peace of the dead is the offense that the state security is hoping to investigate with great effort. According to the Iserlohner Kreisanzeiger, gravestones, plants and decorations on the graves, and above all stones with Arabic characters, were destroyed.
Gonca Türkeli-Dehnert, the new State Secretary for Integration in the government of North Rhine-Westphalia, told SPIEGEL: “The desecration of gravesites is inhuman and cowardly. It is an attack not only on gravestones, but on the peaceful coexistence of religions. ”But the CDU politician also emphasized positively that around 300 people gathered at the Iserlohn cemetery on Sunday. This is a
"clear sign of solidarity with their Muslim citizens"
.
Anyone who has ever had to bury a loved one can imagine how terrible these acts must have been for their loved ones.
One seriously wonders what goes on in people who destroy tombs.
And why, of all places, Iserlohn?
Is there anyone among the esteemed Lage readership who can explain this place to you?
Islamophobia in Germany: More than 900 attacks on Muslims and mosques in 2020
Loser of the day ...
... is the American Congresswoman
Marjorie Taylor Greene
from Georgia, whose Twitter account has been permanently banned.
The Republican, an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, had repeatedly spread misinformation about the coronavirus and the effects of the vaccines.
Twitter had previously warned the politician several times and temporarily suspended her account, now Greene can only use her account as a member of parliament, through which there were apparently no comparable violations.
Perhaps Greene will soon appear again on a new platform: Her role model, who is also blocked on Twitter, Donald Trump, has collected a large sum of money to set up a new social media platform called "Truth Social".
The latest news from the night
Cruise ship "Mein Schiff 6" aborts trip due to corona cases:
The shipping company is talking about a precautionary measure: "Mein Schiff 6" has suspended its current cruise in Dubai due to individual corona cases on board.
When the »Aida« fleet was traveling, there had also been serious restrictions beforehand
Sudan's Prime Minister Hamdok resigns:
In response to pressure from at home and abroad, the military government in Sudan recently reinstated the civilian former Prime Minister Hamdock.
Now, surprisingly, he announced his retirement
German car driver captures winter sports enthusiasts - man dies:
In Tyrol, a German car driver caused a serious accident in which another German was fatally injured.
How the accident came about is still unclear
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
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Artistic director Matthias Pees: Who is the new director of the Berliner Festspiele?
Investment plans: how does the traffic light get billions on the road?
I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Melanie Ama
