Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Dry Strategy?

Right now, in the midst of Berlin-City (not the Bundestag or federal government, but the city government itself)....there is this debate going on about Covid-19 and the 'threat'. 

RBB (the public TV folks who cover the city) discussed the matter today.

The city health 'chief' is discussing the idea of banning alcohol sales in public....meaning bars and pubs could only serve coffee, water, soda, etc. 

The chatter here by the political folks is that a fair sum of the general public are simply not obeying the ban-rules.  So the political solution in their mind....just simply halt alcohol sales.

Part of this story is that the police have been handed the job of enforcing ban-rules, and it's confrontational type situation....is making the public angry and frustrated.  To be honest as well....the police hate this additional duty.

As RBB points out, there are a couple of areas of Germany practicing the no-booze strategy....mostly to a limited part of town or just one single neighborhood.

Augsburg, for example.....made a rule that said after midnight, in a certain part of the city....booze sales simply halts. 

Part of this story, if you sit and think about it.....on simply hot days/evenings.....you consume more drinks than normal.  So along the 3rd hour of a evening out.....you don't really reflect up on social distancing rules or wear a mask when entering a building. 

What'll happen here?  Just to demonstrate that they care....some type of alcohol ban will occur in one or two neighborhoods.....with late-drinkers simply moving to different parts of the city and engaging in boozing there.

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