CORONA SITUATION - AND MORE ON THE BLACK DEATH

The corona situation in Europe  ( figures from yesterday, March 14):
Number of infected:   34.790
Number of deaths:     1.501

One of our friends made yesterday a good suggestion on how to limit huge panic shopping in food stores:
Remove all trolleys and give one basket to each client !

Some of you have asked for information about other pandemics during the centuries.  Enclosed what I wrote earlier about the Black Death / the Plague in the 14th century.  It shows that it was very different from the present situation - fortunately.

The Black Death / The Plague:  It was hitting Europe in the middle of the 14th century.  It was a bacterological desease, not a flu.  It started in the Hubei province in China - the same place where the coronavirus started.  And it spread to the West with the Huns and their armies - and also with the Trade Caravans going to the Middle East via the Silk Road.  The first known epidemy in Europe was in Messina in Sicily in 1347. From here it moved very fast to all parts of Europe. People died in millions a few days after been hit by the illness - and it happened with huge pains. Nobody knew what the illness was caused by. Many believed that bad people had put poisen in their drinking water. Soon lots of people were convinced that the Jews were behind it, and many Jews were killed. In Strasbourg alone about 2000 Jews were killed in a few days in 1349.  About half of the population in Europe at the time was killed by the illness. And huge areas were without population for many years.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EU's RELATIONS WITH THE WORLD

Yesterday you got my overview of the Brexit situation.   Some people think that the EU after the UK left as a member does not mean very much, does not have much influence – and should instead start a new strategy with cooperation with countries around the world, incl. the Commonwealth. To those people I want to say:   Either this assertation is put forward to stimulate the discussion for the sake of the discussion.   Or it is an effort to start a discussion far away from the realities ☹ This inspires me to make a brief overview of the role of the EU in the world. Today I will do it point by point.   Later I will go into more details on some of the points: 1.       EU is with its 466 mio. inhabitants one of the most interesting markets in the world. This was also what the Brits were told by f.ex. Australia and India, when they tried to make these countries particularly interested in their market with 66 mio. people. 2...
Read more

MY FIRST SCHOOL DAY - April 2, 1952

Image
MY VERY FIRST SCHOOL DAY -  April 2, 1952: Today ( April 2, 2021 )   it is exactly 69 – sixtynine – years ago, since I started going to school. This is a long time ago. It was in 1952. But I still remember it, as if it were yesterday. Can you understand that ? It was a wonderful, sunny morning.   I had for such a long time been looking forward to going to school.   Ok, I could already read and I could also write reasonably.   But I wanted to learn much more. And quickly! I knew that we were 4 kids in our village, who should start that day. Two girls and two boys. I knew the other three well. Remember, we lived in a small country village, where everybody knew everybody. The first school day was always sort of a party to us.   Our parents came along to the school on that first day. And we all had put our nicest clothes on, of course. Our farm was about 1 ½ km from the school.   We walked there, my parents and I.   On the way I could...
Read more

MAY 9 - EUROPE DAY

MAY 9: This day is EUROPE DAY.   The day, when the French foreign minister Robert Schuman on behalf of his government presented the so-called Schuman Plan.   Its essence was that European countries should start a very close cooperation with strong commitments, so that war between them would be impossible in the future.   How could you make war impossible? The participating countries had to give up their sovereignty over their coal and steel production and together create joint institutions, which would be responsible for the management of coal and steel in the future.   And as coal and steel are both essentials in any war, this would make war between the countries impossible. The man behind the plan was the French official, Jean Monnet. Six countries supported the proposal right away:   France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.    And the new European institution, called the European Coal and Steel Communit...
Read more