A year of Covid-19

Today marks the unofficial anniversary of Covid-19 in Israel. What has changed since then? So much and so little. Israel is now returning to normal after some vast percentage of the population has been vaccinated against Covid-19. I've been working at home for nearly three months but soon I imagine that I will have to return soon to the factory (Covid-19 was a good excuse). We have elections again in another week. We might even be able to celebrate the Passover as a kibbutz again, although that seems unlikely; certainly Independence Day.

I wrote a year ago: On Monday I participated in a video conference: we now have software which enables peer to peer conferencing, as opposed to the 'client server' software which we had been using with special projectors. As a result, six or seven people connected up: most of the time there were only four active windows with two being hidden, although I think that everyone was visible at first. Another surreal event in increasingly surreal times. We were discussing (as we do every week) changes which are to be made to the factory in Karmiel; the biggest change is the installation of two huge 'nesting' machines which perform a variety of tasks connected with wood. These machines are being supplied by a company in Italy ... with whom all contact has been lost. It is clear that there will be a three month moratorium on these machines, if not longer.

Today we had another video conference: the novelty has long worn off and this is how I keep in touch with people. The 'nesting' machine arrived about a month ago and the technicians are due to arrive tomorrow for their long awaited visit. 

I am vaguely thinking about writing a song about the last year. I am fairly ashamed/embarrassed as my year has been good, whereas many, many people have lost their jobs, not to mention the 6,000 Israelis who have died of Covid. Of course, hundreds of thousands of people have died over the world. So far I've only got one couplet, something like "I've been practising/social distancing/all my life", but that's as far as it goes. I haven't suffered and sometimes that makes me feel guilty. I have increased my monthly donations to charity three-fold, partially assuaging my conscience, but that's the closest I have come.