For our own benefit

Corona crisis shows just how fragile our modern day democracy and economy is, since it can be severely disrupted by a simple virus. Since it started countries slowly implemented limitations in many areas of our lives, for our own benefit. When corona struck Italy, within a week, most of European countries closed the borders, making traveling almost impossible, except in case of emergencies.

Freedom of movement within the countries became severely restricted as well as quarantine measures have kicked into effect. Public and state institutions closed down, most of the stores closed, people instructed to work from home if possible. Almost everything that isn't necessary for the minimal function of the society was put on hold, for our own benefit. Corona virus is here and we need to cut the lines of transmission, so we can put a stop to it.

Currently a lot of European countries declared emergency situation which means that the governments are ruling by the decree and have no real opposition because all are united in the goal of fighting the virus. That way, making decisions is a lot faster and more efficient, which is needed in these days if we want to put a end to the pandemic. Putting the democracy on pause isn't something the governments did willingly or lightly but they did it for our own benefit.

Sports events canceled, any form of public events canceled, like festivals, markets, conferences, religious ceremonies. All public protests are canceled and banned because we need to stop the virus from spreading, remember it is all for our own benefit.

The measures I have listed are pretty much standard measure implemented across Europe to fight the corona-virus from spreading. Some measures are unique for certain countries.

Serbia implemented a curfew, from 17 in the afternoon to morning and from Friday evening to Monday morning. Dog owners can go out for a walk with their dogs only between 23 o'clock in the evening and 1 o'clock in the morning.

Croatia banned commuting outside the place of residence, which is a direct breach of the Croatian constitution.

Hungary implemented a law that states that the quarantine can be lifted only with 2/3 majority vote in parliament which basically translates into, if Victor Orban doesn't wont the quarantine lifted it won't be lifted.

Denmark implemented a law by which they can take away private property from its owner if it is needed to fight of the corona crisis and they executed it. They have seized private hospitals in order to get access to their medical equipment. They also made it possible to ban gatherings of 2 or more people if needed, because Danish minister of health noticed that people have been naughty with upholding the quarantine. Danish state may be forced to put it into effect, for our own benefit.

Soon after the pandemic started WHO asked big international IT companies to help them out in a fight against misinformation about the Corona virus, so they started to filter out misinformation on the virus, for our own benefit.

I do not try to bring into question the reality or the severity of the Corona crisis, the world is fighting a pandemic and measures need to be taken. What is worrying is the ease with which human rights, modern democracy and economy are all being put on pause during the time of the pandemic. What is also worrying how everybody is calling for the restrictions to be put into place. There is one European country that is trying to fight of the virus without infringing on human rights and democracy and they are being criticized that they are not doing enough or that they are not taking the pandemic seriously enough. The country in question is Sweden.

What other measures that infringe on our rights will be implemented, for our own benefit? Will the countries also help WHO in the fight against the spread of misinformation by censoring the private media, for our own benefit?

Will we end up locked up in our apartments because we took a walk? Croatia is on a good trajectory, even now the police is chasing people back to their apartments if they see them on the streets?

Will kissing, hugging or any other form of close human contact become illegal and not just advised against?

If you think I am blowing everything out of proportions, think about what your life looked like 8 moths ago and ask yourself: did you expect it to look like this today?

If 2 years go by and you wake up one morning in April 2022 with your doors sealed shut, government officials bringing you food, after you haven't seen anyone for 6 months, just tell yourself that all the baby steps that led to this situation, that all made sense when they were brought into effect in order to fight the virus, were all implemented for our own benefit.

Dogs

One common mistakes of all Scandinavian countries is that they are a bit overprotective of their citizens. When they figure out that some activity has the slightest chance of causing harm. They will immediately regulate it by law so that the possiblity of harm comming to you is reduced as much as humanly posssible.

I had an opportunity of witnesing that when I was volunteering at Roskilde festival. I was assigned to the refund station, where we were basicaly sorting cans and other refundable wares. On the beginning of my second shift a woman came to me, waited until I finshed my work and then she told me: "In one of the refund stations, one time a person went in with her arm straight into the bag with cans and a needle got stuck under her fingernail. Because of that we do not do it that way any more but...". After she told me that I started to think about how huge Roskilde festival is. You have more then 20000 volunteers running it and there was one accident of that type once in more then 20000 people. So, it was a freak accident and they are trying to regulate it. I do feel for that person, it was certainly painful and maybe dangerous but it was still a freak accident. I do not think you can regulate against freak accidents. If there was a pattern I would understand but when it is a one off...

And that is how it is in general in Scandinavian countries an allegedly even people living here started to realize it is going a bit to far with this overprotective behaviour.

One moment where I find it really sad is with dogs. Even though I miss my ex-wife dog that I left in Croatia, I must say that I wouldn't like to have a dog in Denmark. With overregulation they knocked out all the charm of it. Often times I get the feeling that dogs are being treated like a vicous blood thirsty animals that are just waiting to slay a human. Since I came to Denmark I haven't seen dogs playing anywhere ever. The reason is that the fines of having a dog walking without a leash are huge and the only place you can let it roam free is in the so called dog forest. Yes, it is just what it sounds like. It is a fenced patch of forest, far far away from other humans where you can go and let your dog run free. 

On couple of occasions when we went to some nice nature site, where you see couple of people here and there. Even in those places dogs were still being walked on a leash because someone may call the police, I must say that is just sad. But one time, I was smoking out on the street at the small intersection and I saw a woman passing by with her small dog and then I heard she said sorry in Danish. I turned around to see what is she appologising for, there was another man walking his dog and that woman appoligised because her dog wanted to sniff the other dog. I described the situation to my girlfriend and asked her what was that all about. She said that the woman appologised because her dog went to sniff the other one and that is looked down upon because it is taken as a sign that you don't have a control over your pet. At that point you know it is going too far, since sniffing is just so basic and instinctual dog behavior and that is being looked down upon.

Do I need to mention that some dog breeds that have the reputation of being more agressive are illegal. It translates into that if you already own a dog of that breed, you can keep it but it must be constantly on the leash with a muzzle and if anything happenes, fx. display of agression to another dog, he will have to be put down. Also, these breeds are illegal to grow, buy, sell and import. 

Funny enough that law backfired a bit. Couple of years back, wolves migrated to southern part of Jylland and some danish farmers started having problems with wolfes attacking their livestock. In order to protect their heards they wanted to buy some mastiff dogs but they couldn't because they are illegal. So their possibilities, legally are very limited because all dog breads that would be good protection against wolfs are illegal. I think that also tells that Denmark went too far.

I love dogs and I miss having a dog but I think that because of all insane restrictions for dogs and dog owners in Denmark, neither dogs nor dogs owners are having a great time here.