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English fans
Photo: Christian Charisius / picture alliance / dpa
The most shocking football moment of the past week was not when Harry Kane hit the German goal in the 86th minute of the round of 16.
The most harrowing moment came a few minutes later.
The Uefa picture direction showed, in detail and in close-up, a girl of eight or nine years in a German jersey, crying desperately.
Those in attendance reported that cheers broke out at Wembley when the picture was shown on the stadium screens.
But that wasn't the end of the story.
At that moment I was shocked by this remarkable violation of personal rights against an undoubtedly minor.
I complained on Twitter and was instructed by various other Twitterers that by buying a ticket for the duration of the game, you surrender your personal rights to Uefa - and obviously those of your children at the same time.
Personally, I think the latter is immoral and would be happy if the girl's parents would have it checked in court.
What happened next was what people who do a little bit of social media expect at such a moment.
Supporters of the English team, whom I would rather not call "fans," began posting screenshots or photos of the crying girl on Twitter and elsewhere, with comments such as "Do you think we forgot your grandfather murdered Anne Frank, you." little Nazi bitch? "or" injected it straight into my veins, "garnished with four smiley faces.
The crying girl became a meme.
Various Twitterers reported cheering English pub visitors in view of the image of a crying child.
The story even made it to media in Australia.
The whole thing was very embarrassing for many English people, and many said it publicly, including ex-football professionals.
Superspreader events for Delta
But if you know English football fans - I have a few personal experiences there - the opposite of surprising.
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Football and Corona: The EM sends dangerous images into the world A comment by Nina Golombek
For me, the whole process is a symbol of UEFA's moral compass: it doesn't have one.
However, it is consistent: half a dozen of the top sponsors of the tournament come from totalitarian or autocratic states.
Then there was this rainbow stadium thing.
And then of course the fact that the so-called European Football Association now knowingly and against the very explicit advice of the experts is organizing wacker superspreader events for the delta variant of the corona virus.
The Scottish health authority is already linking almost 2,000 corona cases with trips to European Championship games, and Finnish fans have apparently been infected in Russia.
And without a doubt, this is just the beginning.
What happens when a final with 60,000 spectators actually takes place in the delta crisis area of England?
It's not illegal!
The Uefa is, the pandemic now reveals even more ruthlessly than all previous missteps, an organization that puts monetary income before all other considerations.
Also, as is now becoming clear, the loss of human life.
I find it amazing that European countries allow this to be done with them.
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Christian Stocker
We are the experiment: Our world is changing so breathtakingly that we stagger from crisis to crisis.
We have to learn to manage this tremendous acceleration.
Publisher: Karl Blessing Verlag
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Karl Blessing Verlag
Number of pages: 384
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On the other hand, there are certain parallels to other very lucrative business models that continue to pursue short-term business interests regardless of human life.
The Exxon lobbyist Keith McCoy quoted at the beginning reported in a conversation staged by Greenpeace, in which it was about a supposed job change, frankly of the disinformation activities that his company continues to pursue.
Of course, they "aggressively fought science" and supported "shadow groups" who denied man-made climate change, and secretly and vigorously lobbyed against Joe Biden's "insane" climate plans, but that was "not illegal."
In a response to the New York Times, Exxon managed the feat of apologizing and dismissing all guilt at the same time.
The destroyed village
The most shocking news event of the week because of its mottled nature had nothing to do with football: it was the destruction of the village of Lytton in Canada.
First, the place set an all-time heat record with a temperature of 49.6 degrees Celsius in the shade.
Then a fire broke out and within a few hours almost destroyed the entire place.
more on the subject
Extreme temperatures: People seek protection from the heat in underground car parks
Heavy rain, storms and huge hailstones: violent storms are raging over southwestern Germany
As should be well known by now, such events will become more and more likely in the coming years with every tenth of a degree by which the earth's atmosphere warms up.
The same applies to the extreme weather events that have caused chaos and destruction in many parts of Germany in the past week.
The connection between warming and extreme weather has long been known and well documented; experts have been warning against it for many years.
The CO₂ supply must not stop
But Exxon continues to bravely take care of the interests of "our shareholders" by making sure that the CO₂ supply into the atmosphere does not stop.
There is no doubt that these shareholders also live on the same planet.
Everything else is subordinated to short-term gain, including the future of humanity.
The cognitive defense mechanisms of the people who make and implement decisions have to run at full speed all the time.
The words of the Exxon manager "we have taken care of our investments" could also come word for word from the Uefa top management.
Of course, promoting the destruction of the planet or creating a pandemic is irrational.
But it is a result of the basic psychological constant "loss aversion": When in doubt, people are ready to do a lot more to avoid an imminent loss than they do themselves - or even others!
- to generate a profit.
To quote legendary psychologist Daniel Kahneman:
“Reform plans, as originally devised, almost always produce many winners and some losers while making an overall improvement.
However, if those affected have political influence, the potential losers will be more active and determined than the potential winners;
the result will therefore be skewed in their favor (...). «(Fast thinking, slow thinking, 2012)
The same applies to the climate crisis as to the pandemic: We all are the many winners of effective control.
It is time to limit the political influence of the losers - and finally to face them with determination.