The pandemic brought with it valuable insights and possibilities for a new normal.

It was Thursday evening on March 12 when Carlo and I were anxiously watching the first Corona press conference of the Dutch government on TV. It was clear that the country was dealing with a crisis, an unprecedented crisis, a crisis with so many unknowns. During this press conference Prime Minister Rutte announced a number of far-reaching directives. Schools were to be closed starting on Monday, March 16. Restaurants, cafe’s, sports- and fitness clubs, sauna’s and sexclubs were to be closed starting the following Sunday evening of March 15. People were asked to work as much as possible from home. The government made a list of vital work and professions, those who were exempted from this call, such as health workers, caregivers in the homes for the aged, police, supermarket employees and those who worked in the distribution of vital goods and services. Travel with public transportation, like trains and busses, should only be done for very necessary trips. In accordance with these directives business establishments and most offices were immediately closed. A few days later, on March 19, all homes for the aged were closed to all visitors.

The first official Corona case was on February 27, in Tilburg (the city where we live). It was actually somebody from the neighbouring town of Loon op Zand, but the person was hospitalized in Tilburg. Soon enough Tilburg and the province of North Brabant became the hot spot of Corona cases. It felt weird and a bit scary to be living in the hot spot of Corona. North Brabant was not put in isolation from the rest of the country, people could still travel to and from North Brabant. So Carlo and I still continued to go to Amersfoort and Utrecht to babysit our grandchildren. But after two weeks, just before the first Corona press conference on March 12, we decided to suspend our babysitting, as we started to get worried about getting the virus. Especially with Carlo’s underlying health condition he actually belongs to the high-risk category. Getting sick with Corona could be severe for him.

Torn between fear and responsibility

While most offices were closed, our office (Vluchtelingenwerk/ Council for Refugees in Tilburg) remained open. Vluchtelingenwerk was not in the list of vital and crucial establishments which were supposed to remain open, but we decided to remain open anyway. We found it important to continue to be accessible for our clients, the newcomer refugees. This is the group of refugees whose applications for asylum had very recently been approved. They still have very little knowledge about the Dutch system and society, and don’t yet speak and understand the Dutch language. Stopping our assistance to them could lead to financial problems such as delays in the processing of their social security benefits, delays in the payments of their house rents, electricity, etc. We of course made some adjustments in our work protocols, such as assisting them only by appointment. In my case I decided to only go to our office if a physical consultation with a refugee client was really necessary and could not be done via WhatsApp messaging or video calling.

The overwhelming feeling I had in the first two months was fear, combined with a continious inner struggle with the issue of responsibility. On the one hand I felt responsible towards our refugee clients who needed our help, so I cannot refrain from going to our office. On the other hand, I felt responsible towards Carlo. Exposing myself to the virus is not only taking a risk for my own health but also that of Carlo’s. And in a way, I also felt responsible towards my daughters, since Carlo is of course their father, and they don’t want their father (and me) to get sick. And on a broader perspective I felt responsible towards the whole community, that I should do as much as I can to help stop the spreading of the virus. Dilemmas which kept on playing in my mind. It was quite a bit exhausting actually.
After two months, my fear subsided; and ‘just being careful’ took its place.

Valuable insights and possibilities

Then I started to see the advantages and possibilities brought about by the pandemic. On a personal level, I started biking again, as it was safer to go to work by bike than with the bus. I stopped using my bike several years ago, after I had a terrible fall. Since then I had been coming up with excuses why it’s better not to go by bike. With the pandemic, the reason to pick up that bike again was quuite convincing. Aside from the fact that it is safer to go by bike in the midst of the pandemic, it’s also healthy, good for the environment and for my savings. Talking about savings, we were also able to cut down on a lot of expenses – like on public transportation as we refrained from travelling outside Tilburg, and dining out. Our planned vacations were cancelled.

On a broader societal level, the pandemic also brought valuable insights and possibilities for a better ‘new normal’. The closing of the schools, for example, forced parents to combine work (working from home) with assisting their children in their home and online lessons. Combining work and the care for the children has always been what most mothers do. But for the first time, many fathers were also able to experience this first hand during the pandemic. This is a good thing. By experiencing this first hand, many fathers (I hope) will learn to value how it is to combine work and the care for the children. Hopefully, this will lead to more fathers participating more in the care for children after the pandemic is over.

The pandemic also brought with it a different perspective about working from home. Having experienced this, more and more companies have become more open to this arrangement. Many companies are planning to have their workers work from home part of their time, even after the pandemic is over. Working from home actually has a lot of advantages. It is more economical for some companies as they need less office space. It is good for the environment, as it reduces the use of cars. It will help solve the problem of traffic and overloaded trains during rush hours. And an important advantage, in my opinion, is that it will give women (and men) more flexibility in combining work and the care for their children and household.

The pandemic also made visible and felt the importance of health workers, teachers, those working in the supermarkets and in the distribution of vital goods and services. Health workers are now even seen as the new heroes of society. I just hope that this appreciation will be expressed in better compensation for their work. (The Dutch government gave a one-time Euro 1000 bonus to all hospital workers – from nurses to cleaners, but except doctors. But, the government has so far refused to raise their salaries.)

The pandemic, however, also made more visible the ‘cracks’ of our society. With the closing of the schools, children already in disadvantaged position (due to poverty, or for having parents who are less involved in the education of their children for whatever reason) were put in a more disadvantaged position for having to miss lessons. Investing on more parent-involvement in the education of their children should be continuously addressed. Programs in this direction should be made an integral part of the education system.  Another issue which came to attention is the plight of children and women suffering from domestic violence. With the closing of the schools, these children lost their most important safe haven, their school.  Parents working from home for a long period of time, combined with having to care for their children and household, resulted in a lot of stress and tension within many households; this became a fertile ground for domestic violence. Addressing the problem of domestic violence has never been so validated as in this time of the pandemic.

A crisis gets the best out of people

There is this saying that ‘a crisis gets the best or the worst out of people’. I choose to believe in the first, that a crisis gets the best out of people. This is also what I saw in the height of the Corona crisis. Lots of spontanious initiatives of people or groups of people started to prop up. One particular initiative which warmed my heart was the so-called ‘bear hunting’. People all over The Netherlands started putting teddy bears in their windows for children to find when they go ‘bear hunting’ in the neighbourhood. Since all day cares and schools were closed, and all recreation establishments for children were also closed, this ‘bear hunting’ activity provided a nice alternative for the children. I even also experienced this when our 3-year old grandson stayed with us for a couple of days. We took a walk in the neighbourhood, and he noticed all those bears in the windows of several houses. And he started to look for bears, so excitedly, as we walked down the neighbourhood. Such pure and simple fun!

Another intiative worth mentioning is the WeCare.NL. This was started by somebody I know in Tilburg, and this intiative rolled out to other cities. Through this intiative people could make a donation, the money raised were then used to buy restaurant gift cards which were given to health workers as a gesture of appreciation for being frontliners in the fight against  Corona. At the same time, this also gave support to restaurant owners who were affected very badly by the crisis because of the closing down of their restaurants for months. Hitting two birds with one stone, genius!

Another intiative which propped up in Tilburg was ONS Soepje. This group of volunteers distributed daily free freshly prepared soup and meals to about 250 households affected by the crisis. Then there were individual intiatives of people, one of whom is an ex-colleague, who offered the elderly to do their groceries for them. Since the elderly people belong to the high risk group, many of them were afraid to go out of the house to do their groceries during the height of the crisis

There were much more spontanious initiatives of people all over the country that I could not name them all here. But my point is, in times of crisis people tend to help and reach out to each other.

 The importance of good governance

I am thankful and I feel very fortunate to be in a country where there is good governance in this time of the pandemic. The Dutch government is actually handling the pandemic crisis quite well. The weekly Corona press conferences of the government were an important source of support for me. The guidelines laid out by the government were clear and well substantiated. I could see that the government policies were backed up by medical and scientific experts. It was clear that the priority task at hand for the government was to secure the health of the people. The economic impact of the pandemic was tremendous. But at the height of the virus outbreak, the message of the government was clear – that the health of the people is crucial in getting out of the economic crisis.

The parliament also held regular debates on the issue of the Corona. Except for two far-right political parties, all other political parties never politicized the Corona crisis. The debates focussed on how best to handle the pandemic and its social and economic impact, with the welfare of all groups of people in mind. The problem pertaining to children in disadvantaged position and domestic violence were, for example, discussed in parliament. How to best help freelancers and small entrepreneurs greatly affected by the pandemic was also a point of discussion in parliament.

How the various political parties handled themselves during the height of the outbreak gave me a feeling of confidence and trust. I have witnessed how mature our democracy is here in The Netherlands. That is a comforting thought.

Another aspect of good governance is the country’s social infrastructure: such as having universal health care, universal and compulsory education and the system of unemployment benefits. These are very well established in The Netherlands. This pandemic has shown us that universal health care is really indispensable. Obligatory education ensured that all schools organized and set up very quickly the home/ online education for all schoolchildren when the schools were closed down. The system of unemployment benefits served as an essential safety net for the many people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. If these social infrastructure were not in place,  the health, social and economic impact of the pandemic would have been far greater.

Intelligent lockdown

While the guidelines made by the government were far-reaching, but there was really no complete lockdown imposed in The Netherlands. People were asked to stay at home as much as possible during the height of the Corona outbreak, but it was never prohibited to go out. The government put more emphasis on social distancing. Many times Prime Minister Rutte would tell the people in his press conferences to keep at least 1.5 meter distance from each other when jogging or walking, for example, in the park. He would even add that outdoor exercise is important for our health, so people should continue to do this, but to do it with social distancing.

Rutte described our type of lockdown in The Netherlands as an ‘intelligent lockdown’. This means that people could weigh the considerations for themselves to what extent they stay at home. But one thing is clear, if one goes out of the house, they should always observe social distancing. This kind of lockdown puts more emphasis on the personal responsibility of the people. People are made to actively think for themselves how best to avoid getting the virus. This is quite a responsibility.

At the time of writing this chapter, the guidelines have already been eased down. The elementary and high schools are now fully opened, after a transition period of being 50% open. The schools for tertiary education (colleges and universities) are still preparing though to opening up after the summer holidays in September. Restaurants, café’s, sports- and fitness clubs, musea, movie houses and cultural centers, and the so-called ‘contact professions’ such as hair dressers, physical therapists, manicurists and pedicurists have been allowed to operate. Churches have also resumed their services. And travelling by public transportation is no longer limited to very essential travels. Except for the elementary and high schools, the guideline of maintaining 1.5 meter distance still has to be observed. The wearing of face masks is only required in public transportation, where the 1.5 meter distancing could not be guaranteed. The last Corona press conference of the government was in June 24, wherein the plan for the loosening up of the guidelines was laid out. This marked the end of the crisis period. In that press conference Rutte reiterated the importance of maintaining social distancing, for we may have gotten out of the crisis, but the Corona virus is still with us.

With the easing down of the guidelines, people also started to loosen up. Some places like shopping areas and markets began to be crowded with people. This led to the current public debate whether or not to make the wearing of face masks mandatory in public places, especially those places wherein the 1.5 meter distancing is not being observed. In response to this public debate, the government announced that it will not make this mandatory on the national level, but that the Mayors may have the prerogative to impose this in their respective city or town. And in response to this, the mayors of Amsterdam and Rotterdam immediately announced that they will make the wearing of face masks mandatory in selected public areas which tend to be crowded with people starting August 5. This again led to a lot of public discussion and debate whether such an order is legally possible. Wearing face masks is seen as a form of curtailment of ones freedom, and the government can only impose restrictions of one’s freedom in times of crisis. But we are already out of the crisis! A, I love this, the workings of an ‘intelligent lockdown’. I just hope that this will not get us to a second Corona wave. Only time will tell.