Indeed. And history shows that often the problem isn’t quite the first revolution, inspired by democratic values, but a subsequent revolution that takes advantage of the temporary power vacuum and institutes a dictatorship. One example is the October (Bolshevik) Revolution in Russia, which overthrew the nascent democracy that had been instituted earlier that year in the February Revolution. Another example is the Islamic Revolution in Iran after Khomeini returned from exile, which quickly wiped out the varied mix of Communists and other secular political forces that had overthrown the Shah.
Even the first, democratic-inspired revolution can look pretty dangerous in retrospect. I am sympathetic to many ideals of May ’68, yet at the same time I feel like Western Europe dodged a bullet, because the subsequent regime could have turned out very badly.
It does indeed happen in the developing world that adults in their mid 20s are supported by older members of their family, it just might not be their parents. In West Africa, for instance, it is common for entire families to be supported off of a couple of lucky relatives who managed to get to Europe.
Amazing to see these statistics when, to a foreigner, South African businesses already seem to intentionally overemploy (I would assume as a way of maintaining social stability). It is not unusual for there to be twice or even three times as many people working in a shop than in Europe.
It reminds me of a small coworking space I used in Sao Paulo, with three receptionists, a few "managers", lots of cleaning staff, someone doing just coffee, security, etc. They could do all of that with two employees total. In front of the building, there was a petrol station with one employee per pump. The pandemic was actually a relief for lots of companies that were able to fire expendable staff more easily.
Yeah, in South Africa nobody puts their own gas in their car. There are multiple people at each filling station whose job that is. You also don’t pack your groceries at a supermarket either. You also have a maid and a gardener, it’s so dirt cheap unless you’re really poor there is no reason why you wouldn’t. There are car guards all over, there’s no need to even push your own trolley or pack the stuff in your car, they’ll do it for a small tip. Basically if you earn an average amount money you can enjoy a seriously comfortable life.
The surplus of unskilled workers means that labor is very cheap. Businesses over employ (cleaning staff, security etc), and even homes over employ in terms of domestic staff (maids and garderners), but there’s still a big surplus.
Labour is really cheap in South Africa. It's probably cheaper to employ someone to perform a task than it is to automate it, as is would be in Europe which has higher labour costs
This hasn't been true in decades, but yeah, buses used to have a ticket seller/collector on board (εισπράκτορας). Buses in Greek cities are busy enough that the driver can't do both jobs, like some U.S. systems do, without unreasonable stop dwell times (especially in the days when you could get change on board!). To keep things going, the driver would pull away from the stop ASAP, and the ticket seller would take payment from the newly boarded people while the bus was moving.
On most buses there'd be 1 driver and 1 ticket collector, at least by the 1990s. There might be 2 collectors on long articulated buses, one near the front and one near the back.
The last vestiges of that system were phased out with the drachma/euro conversion around 2000, when everything had to be changed over anyway. Nowadays most Greek cities use a proof-of-payment system, where you have to buy and/or validate a ticket yourself from self-service machines. Then roving inspectors get on buses randomly and fine people who can't produce a current ticket.
The old system has been gone long enough that there are nostalgia articles like, "Do you remember the days when buses had an 'eispraktoras'?". The last two photos here show a ticket collector station at the rear door, which would have a cash drawer under the counter for making change: https://www.enimerotiko.gr/ellada/thymasai-tote-poy-ta-leofo...
The etymology of the word "Ashkenazi" is irrelevant (argument from etymology is a fallacy), as for a long time now the word has been used in a different, wider meaning. And Ashkenazi is a valid distinction versus e.g. Sephardi Jews: Ashkenazi Jews used a different reading for Hebrew, adopted different codes of dress, employed different structures of doctrinal authority and hermeneutics of Scripture, etc.
Naturally under the Ashkenazi umbrella there were people of different cultures (and different degrees of assimilation to the surrounding non-Jewish population), but those Jews were still more similar to one another than to non-Ashkenazi Jews.
I'm not arguing the etymology. I'm just saying that "Ashkenazi, as a demonym would be a new idea historically. I have no problem with people forming new identities.
It's also not about accent. There are distinct Sephardic reading styles. It's not technically doctrinally different either, at least formally. In religious terms, distinctions are termed is "customary/minhagim" which are lower on the hierarchy.
In any case, etymology is not far off the mark. Ashkenazi judaism isn't just named after germany, it originated in the HRE and Ashkenazim spoke a German dialect.
My grandmother was a native polish speaker, secular, and would not have identified as "askenazi" before the war. She identified as polish, strongly, and was as comfortable in a sephardic synagogue as an ashkenazi one. My grandfather, a Yiddish speaker, was more comfortable in an ashkenazi synagogue. Most are mixed, these days, whatever the majority is.
I scan heavily from academic libraries in order to contribute to LibGen, but even with Scantailor it is very time-consuming. For example, if you are scanning scientific literature from the Eastern Bloc, it was often printed on low-quality, speckled paper, which means Scantailor often identifies too much of the scan as the page block, and then you have to manually tweak the rectangle.
You do have a point there. The EU is pitching COVID certificates as a way to restore travel in the bloc, but I can’t imagine they will be used in places other than airports/bus stations/train stations.
The issue is that maintaining roadblocks along Schengen borders has incurred costs that countries don’t like to deal with long-term, and even with the roadblocks there have been a lot of gaps. I spent last summer cycling across Europe. I was fortunate in that all borders on my route were open, but I met a load of other cyclists who had crossed various Schengen borders illegally, because no one was checking traffic along some minor road through the fields.
So, for people with their own transportation, you might manage an entire European summer holiday without anyone ever checking your COVID certificate.
Denmark use a similar app called “Coronapas”. Works similar to the Swiss one, displaying latest test results and vaccine status. It’s currently required to enter any restaurants or public spaces and has been very successful in returning some degree of normality to the country. Singapore are trialing a similar solution where the “Trace Together” app displays my vaccine status, possible exposure as well as test results. Very efficient.
Different countries, different traditions. The US seems quite opposed to federally enforcing vaccine registration and passports, yet they find it ok to conduct mass surveillance of its citizens (and foreigners). On the contrary, Germany have strict privacy laws; yet they push for digital vaccine passports.
"It’s currently required to enter any restaurants or public spaces and has been very successful in returning some degree of normality to the country.", there seems to be a link between the app and the normality in this statement, but there actually is no link between the two: an app like this may have some impact at some longer term, to lighten another wave, but it doesn't have any effect on the current re-openings.
The Danish strategy is to test a lot of people and catch new cases early.
Requiring a green corona passport when entering various establishments where transmission can happen, is both a way to decrease the chance of transmission in these places, and to force more people to get tested, to hopefully catch asymptomatic people before they infect too many other people.
The logic is that it's not the reason for reopening, nor its success: it will be successful in a few months if there is no next wave, or if it is not as high as some other places where such a thing will not be in place.
The reopening is possible because of previous actions, and its result will only be seen in a few months.
Denmark is an outlier among EU countries in using an app for internal travel and activities. Many other EU countries have already reopened their restaurant sector without requiring any proof of vaccination.
We are using IDEMIX to enable the DCC and COVID testing to be used all over the country. This allows us to only disclose a tiny amount of information - in many cases just one of your initials an either your month or day of birth - whilst proving yourself to be low-risk for COVID.
The DCC itself contains a lot of information so it shouldn't be directly used outside of border or police checks. I can - technically - be used as the basis for issuing of Verified Credentials by other parties. For example by airports - with the privacy protected by their privacy policy.
Whether the law allows that is another question.. and IANAL..
[Disclaimer: I work on the Dutch COVID apps and am deeply involved with Digital Green on EU level].
While the technology you are developing may allow that proof of COVID status, as the OP mentions, it is questionable if it will actually be used broadly in many countries. When countries have already reopened their hospitality sectors to all regardless of status, then they may be loathe to begin requiring COVID proof. Nor do hospitality staff necessarily want to given the duty of checking statuses.
So if COVID status proof is required country-internally over the coming months, in many countries it will probably be used for mass events (e.g. the UNTOLD festival in Romania) but otherwise not.
There are people in the travel community who oppose restrictions, sometimes hyperbolically so. For the last year, travel forums have been full of posts by people who intentionally chose destinations because not only would those country let them in, but mask-wearing and distancing wasn't really enforced there.
With regard to need to prove vaccination, note that the WHO yellow-fever certificate was originally good for 10 years, and recently the WHO announced that it should be good for life. COVID passports are rather different in that they are passed on a QR code, so your certificate could be deemed invalid by your country’s authorities at any time. If you are traveling when that happens, they you might suddenly have to search for whatever new booster vaccine is required for onward travel, which might be a challenge if you are in the developing world.
I am in that category. Few months ago I went to Egypt because they do a cheap PCR tests on the border and masks aren't really required there. For my next trip in few months, unless things relax, I am planning to go either to Zanzibar or Mexico. I don't want to bother with these apps, getting certifications, tests, quarantines.
I have my Covid shots entered into the WHO yellow vaccination passport and assume that's good enough for the time being until a specific "QR code passport" is released.
edited to add: Why should a civilized country just revoke certification once you're fully vaccinated?
>Why should a civilized country just revoke certification once you're fully vaccinated?
My assumption was that the revocation facility was there to support the standard PKI revocation use cases.
For instance: subsequent discovery of errors in the database that resulted in issuance of the certificate (we discovered you didn't actually get your second shot), loss of control of a signing key, etc.
Not to get get too conspiratorial, but it looks like the Sinovac vaccine is less effective. As new variants come out, the requirement may not be a Covid vaccine, but a specific Covid vaccine. And that data might come out after you already have your shot so requirements for entry could change real time.
When the new apps and digital certificates were announced, being able to revoke certification at any time was touted as one of their major advantages over traditional vaccine certificates. This way, if a new variant arises that preexisting vaccines don’t protect against, or if a state wants to enforce annual booster shots, they can just invalidate older certificates by updating the database entry to which the QR code points.
if there is a new vaccine required or some follow up procedure or whatever it would make more sense to hand out a new certificate that validates this fact instead of revoking the old one that is actually still perfectly able to validate your previous actions. In fact it might be very beneficial to keep them around to give approval to another step like lets say you will only get that booster shot after you are able to present validation of your vaccination or similar... invalidating these certificates by giving them a date until they are valid is very easy without explicitly revoking certificates.
It should be noted that tourism to Iraq's Kurdistan province has been going on for years, with a steady stream of backpackers entering from Turkey. That region is autonomously governed and has been relatively spared the violence of the rest of the country. But the opening of tourism to the south of the country is a surprising development.
Saudi was, at least before COVID, opening up tourism (except for the two holy cities). At least then people could go and see things for themselves, and there is a liberalizing potential if the locals crave tourist income more than they fear hardliners. China, on the other hand has made it harder to visit certain regions of the country in the last 13 years.
Even the first, democratic-inspired revolution can look pretty dangerous in retrospect. I am sympathetic to many ideals of May ’68, yet at the same time I feel like Western Europe dodged a bullet, because the subsequent regime could have turned out very badly.