When Belgium came out of lockdown in May 2020, I thought and hoped that they would learn from this and prepare for the fall and winter period. Anyone who thought about it, could see problems during the fall and winter season. I feared a new lockdown would happen. Turns out, they were doing everything possible to avoid doing that, but at the same time they didn\”t prepare themselves for the coming seasons. We had another issue with the fact that there was still no federal government in place, only a temporary one to deal with the crisis.
They loosened restrictions on traveling, etc..
Than in september, schools reopened, people came back from holiday without need to quarantaine themselves or to test themselves and the infection rates rose again.
This time, it seems they didn\”t do much about it. There was a playbook for this type of situation for schools, but the Flemish minister of education refused to implement it until last week after many schools had to close due to the lack of staff and teachers being either sick with covid19 or in quarantaine.
The new federal government did implement stricter rules like a.night curfew and shutdown of horeca.by then, hospitals were being flooded with patients who were ill. At the moment I\”m writing this, we are at around 10.000 cases a day, some hospitals are on the verge of collapse it seems and no lockdown. Wales, Ireland, chechia and even Israel had fewer cases than us before they went into a second lockdown.
But still they won\”t do it so the companies could stay open along with schools. It is apparent that they will try to.keep businesses open as long as they can even though most of the infections happen there. There are companies who do.not take any precautions, but now they demand the quick tests the flemish government has ordered so they can keep open.
This is typical for capitalism. They don\”t want to spend money buying those tests themselves but have no problem begging and demanding help from.the government. Whether its those tests only financial aid, when it goes bad, the government and society has to help out. But when it is all good, than they won\”t contribute anything or as less as possible because they want to keep the profits for themselves.
They send workers home on temporary unemployment so the government has to pay their wages, so the companies don\”t have to.
This is pervers way of thinking and living that has lead us to this situation.we need a new system. Capitalism wil only bring us destruction and misery. And it has done so in the last 100 + years.
Update. Starting tomorrow, 2nd of november 2020, a light lockdown goes into effect. Salons, massageparlors, restaurants, bars (already closed), basicly independent shops have to close next to gyms, cultural houses, theatres,ect.. but most shops can stay open with restrictions.
We learn that most infections happen at home or at work, than comes bars, restraurants, gyms, etc… But we see that except for mandatory working from home, the federal goverment does not demand from companies that they follow the health guidelines so workers can work safely. Tuesday came out the news that Belgian newspaper The Times, revealed that 6, 7 out of 10 companies checked did not follow those health guidelines so workers can work safely. But nothing happened with it. Media reports that the fault lies with the personal sphere than when working when it comes to spread of covid19. Even the goverment does not want to deal with that fact. Its easier to blame it on the people, so people can be divided again instead of rise up against this hypocrisy.
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