With my headstart on the new Corona-Virus, back in Hong Kong in January 2020, it is now about my anniversary for Covid-19. A few friends got it and luckily recovered well - some more, some less easily. A few distant acquaintances sadly died of it, mostly aged above 70, but also others in their middle ages. I personally was lucky. But to put things in perspective: compared with military deployment, gunpoint mugging in Africa and South America, SARS in 2003, multiple car crashes, an emergency landing in an Antonov with a drunk Russian pilot, reanimation after drowning with cardiac arrest, MERS and Ebola, and Malaria Tropica I caught in Homabay … personally, Covid-19 was so far a walk in the park. I sometimes tell students, that if they did not survive an assassination attempt at the age of 30, it means they are either dead or dead boring. Or how come nobody wanted to kill them in their 20s? They regard this as an expression of “German humour”.

I understand the supply of classical radio stations on FM as an indicator for the culture of a society. Malta has non and it needs the short wave to access stations from Italy. But in Germany, there is a lot, and I usually enjoy listening when I am here. But these days I do get a little tired about all this current “resilience” talk, and the psychological effects of lockdowns. I am sorry for those suffering, but this is really too high level to me. Germany has one of the world’s best health care systems, massive government support for industries affected, their employees and also self-employed. Shops are well stocked, infrastructure is up and running, vaccinations are coming. Meanwhile, the public conversation is spiralling down into depression? Perhaps that’s why Germany produced so many philosophers: we just have so many sad people. My recommendation is to pull yourself together for a few more months. Or can cry about climate change for a difference. If already this virus challenges the mental resilience, better get used to it.

I turned 55 this month, and I heard on the radio that older people can cope better, especially when they have overcome some hardship. I don’t know. I have travelled to many countries in my life, including active warzones and somewhere war ended literally just yesterday, and shootings still flaring up without warning. It always impressed me, how fast people of all ages overcome adversity. Yes, there are sad cases of life long trauma. But, independent from age, my impression is that humans are built to survive, and also build to forget and forgive if necessary. I recall somebody who remembers living as a child in a Beijing earthquake shelter as a “happy childhood”. The shock only came when the Sichuan earthquake showed the same person as an adult what the scenario of her limited childhood experience actually looked like.

Do not get me wrong: I am not advocating forgetfulness. By the contrary, keeping memories of hardship, disaster and injustice are very important. It is not just in memory of victims, but also to hopefully learn from history. And we can use it to put the own perceived suffering into relation. A lockdown is not a prison experience. Children in homeschooling are not Anne Frank. It’s cynical that people even make these comparisons. In Germany, we have with Covid-19 the first real challenge since generations. And I think we are doing well, and are perhaps even a bit too loose and late with restrictions. The Federal Government bought today 200 000 doses of Regeneron, the antibody cocktail with which the former US president and his buddies were treated. And those who still feel scared, left behind, alone, bored and depressed: How about volunteering in a vaccination centre? They need people.