Plus tri

(AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
                         — Day 50 plus 5 —

Dear Nenad,

Finally we watched ‘El Hoyo’ or The Platform. It is a very well made movie and it made me think a lot. Not only is it a criticism of our current society, but also of how individuals behave, depending on which floors they are. It is the contrary of “most people want to do good” which is the book I recommended several weeks ago. Unfortunately it is probably closer to the truth. What I like is the message behind the film which tells us not to blame the circumstances but to take our own responsibility to change things.

In Germany and here there have been problems with the meat processing industry due to new corona infections. One of the things they found out is that it was not only the working conditions but probably also the transport and living conditions of all the immigrant workers in this industry which triggered the infection. Of course there was public outrage over how these firms can treat people in this way. Interestingly enough there was no outrage over the fact that the large supermarket chains have so much power over the food suppliers that they are forced to look for lower labour costs. And I have not heard these large supermarket chains on this subject, despite the fact that closing these factories would have meant a more than 50 % reduction of Dutch food supply.

Let alone that we talk about our own behaviour as consumers, because at the end we are the ones forcing super markets to come up with lower and lower prices. It is easy to blame ‘the system’ but we ourselves have a big role to play in this. This movie shows this better than any scientific essay!

Yesterday we talked with our Italian neighbours. In Lombardy everyone is still wearing masks on the street and the level of deceased      is still quite high compared to The Netherlands or Serbia. My neighbor who is an entrepreneur is in the meantime still waiting for the government financial aid. The Italian government has so far not been able to pay any of this aid, despite their comments on television.

They are looking forward to see us in Italy, despite the tough stance of the Dutch government on providing aid to Italy. At least our finance minister has realized that he went too far. He was the preferred candidate for his party in next year’s elections, but he withdrew his candidacy. My view is that he understood that he was so hated in the rest of Europe, that he decided to withdraw. Excellent decision in my view, because solidarity with the rest of Europe is not only the right action from a moral point of view, but at the end of the day it is our own (economic) interest as well.

Unfortunately it will still take some weeks before we travel to Italy (or to Belgrade). Tanja will first drive to Berlin, where she has a friend who was diagnosed with cancer just before the corona outbreak. During the last months she has been undergoing treatments with a cyber knife as well as chemotherapy which have reduced the size of the tumors. Now she will be operated to remove the tumors from her lungs and Tanja will go there to provide moral support in this difficult period both to her friend and to her parents, who have been in Berlin in the last months, although usually living in Zagreb.

Today also was Father’s day here, so we visited my father. In the meanwhile we have contacted the Institute in Georgia that works with bacteriophages, so we will see if they can help him. In a world without corona, I would have travelled with him to Tbilisi, but now we have no other option than to send them samples and wait for advice.

Here the first discussions have started on evaluating what the government has done so far and parliament has decided to do an investigation. This would be an excellent idea if the learnings would be used to prepare for the ‘second wave’ of corona which is expected in the autumn. However, I get the feeling that this investigation is more meant to make a political show than to get out real learnings, both by government parties and by opposition parties.

So as you can see I am not very positive about the current situation. So it might take a little longer but am still looking forward to us meeting in Belgrade !

Stay healthy! Robert

—

Dear Robert,

I am now not so sure, that idea to come in Belgrade is good, since we have here a real outbreak. So many people around us are positive that it is easy to understand that official statistics are false since you know by yourself more people than the statistics are referring daily.

We returned to work in shifts to reduce risk, and we canceled specific jobs since half of elite athletes and entourage are positive. I don’t want to be a critic, but everything happens after uncontrolled big sports events (football derby and Novak tennis tournament) and many private parties all around the city. Of course, the most criticized is Novak Djokovic, who is positive with his wife, as well as several tennis players from the tournament. Novak explained that he is sorry, and that decision to do the Adria tournament was not so good, but people are relentless critics. Hard time for him not only because of a positive result but because of the outcome of actually an excellent idea to play tennis again on a high level.

Not only that athletes are positive, but people around us. It seems that there is nobody who doesn’t know at least one positive person. Some of them are in a critical situation like our colleague, who is on a ventilator. It comes up that medical staff is not trained to work with respirators, so the machines are just beeping like one of our colleagues said, and nobody knows how to fix them. Said story, really not only because of lack of knowledge but because of tiredness and depression.

You should be really from solid steel to live on our platform since you need to watch how everything around you is falling apart. As you know, we had elections, and after 30 years, we have got practically a single-party system. Since I have been one of the creators of the democratic party and system in Serbia, I am sad. I could say that the ruling party did such a good job and beat the opponents with an unbelievable difference.

So as you could see, we deserve to live on our platform since, as long people are not reacting when they have a problem, they earn what they get. That is something that bothers me even more than the current situation since that depression is a disease, and it should be treated. Two successful and educated people committed suicide, one plastic surgeon, and one of the best theater director. And that is happening exactly when you do not see the future. What to say about unknown people who did the same, who suffer because they are ill, they are poor, they are alone… and nobody cares. A really horrible society without love and empathy.

As you said, not a positive situation and only with the mind, you could help yourself not to be completely crazy. One of the good solutions is to be grateful for everything that you have and to work a lot, and even there is no obvious result.

I  am finishing the learning of Clinical Pharmacology. I am working on a book about Hilandar with you. Also, I am writing articles for my columns, doing my job and trying to support my friends in this difficult time. All the troubles help me to understand who my friends are.

Luckily I have you in our diary.

Nenad