Apartheit is coming to Switzerland
Hey, do you remember when we (our csc team) met in a restaurant in Geneva to celebrate Christmas? Or when we had a team lunch in a restaurant? Do you remember when a few of us went together to CICG for lunch?
It’s probably not going to happen any more.
Why? Because there is a real danger of Apartheit coming to Switzerland.
Imagine this scenario: Restaurants, including CICG and Coop Restaurant, will check your vaccination status at the entrance. If you have been vaccinated recently they will give you a bracelet that will allow you to sit anywhere you like. Close by. As we always did.
The ones without vaccination, like me, will be lead to a fenced corner in the restaurant where we have to wear a mask (at least while passing through) and where we have to sit socially distanced.
Of course this area will be more costly to restaurants, because social distancing requires more empty space that does not pay. And they will be forced to employ only vaccinated people, because non-vaccinated employees will not be allowed to enter the area for vaccinated guests. So the non-vaccinated area will become less comfortable and over time those areas will become smaller, less cared for and eventually disappear. Finally, non-vaccinated people will become second class citizens without chance to participate in social life.
Maybe the non-vaccinated will not be invited to the parties any more (just too complicated) and teams will be set up without them in the first place. It’s just more convenient this way and the social and political pressure will make it easy to proceed this way.
Does this sound strange? Does it feel unrealistic? What do you think? Could this ever happen in Switzerland?
I wish it would not, but I fear it will happen. Here are two (out of many) reasons:
Firstly, because this is what already happens in other parts of the world. Just today I read an article in the CBS Chicago:
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2021/05/21/covid-19-chicago-restaurants-vaccinated-only-section/#new_tab
“Chicago creates apartheit in restaurants.
(...) Per new guidance from Mayor Lori Lightfoot, businesses can operate with no restrictions as long as there is a section for vaccinated people. This weekend, at Moe's Cantina Chicago, neon bracelets will be handed out to vaccinated people where they can mingle in an unrestricted section in the restaurant. For everyone else, the unvaccinated section will have socially distanced tables and partitions.
(...) establishments can operate without COVID-19 restrictions within their establishment if only vaccinated patrons and employees are allowed in within that area."
“OK”, you might say, “but Chicago is not Switzerland.”
True, but Switzerland already has a law, the covid law of September 2020, that allows discrimination of non-vaccinated people (to remove their freedom). And based on this law our restaurants could be forced to do the same, just as in Chicago.
And it’s even worse, because companies could seggregate their staff the same way, separating vaccinated from non-vaccinated members, having one part of the building for one group and another part of the building for the other part.
Of course, the same could happen for your kids in Swiss schools.
If you think there is nothing you can do about it, I understand. I was was not sure if I could do something about it either. It’s not your fault.
But you can actually make a difference.
I worry about this. We should not have a two-class society in Switzerland. Switzerland should not become a state of apartheit, no matter if it is because of race or vaccination or anything else.
I want us to be able to meet again as a team, freely, as we did in the last 10 years, or 20 years, or, heck, as a society since 1000s of years.
If you don’t want this kind of two-class society either that artificially breaks apart groups, teams, families and our society as a whole, you have a short window to stop it.
Would you like to help me?
I will tell you how next time.