Dear You,
these two guys are from the Ordnungsamt (public order office - with glee they give you a fine when your car parks 2 minutes too long - sometimes I really watched them waiting!).
The day when the stronger lock-down measures were imposed by chancellor Merkel on Berlin, ordering among others compulsary masks on certain streets - as for example Ku'damm - Tauentzien and Wittenberg Platz - those two went directly in front of me - without a mask.
Polite but bluntly I asked them: "Why do you not wear a mask?" They waved at the street sign and said: "Still 10 centimetres to Tauentzien, haha!"
Well - that is Berlin (impossible in Munich!).
Still a bit angry (but of course not officially complaining - I am no deputy sheriff), I wondered what you would have done?
Yours Truly
Britta
PS: Of course I never say something to civilians who do not wear a mask (though I give them THE LOOK) - only when someone comes too near I say politely: "Please - would you mind to keep a little more distance?" and smile (which you can see around the eyes over the mask). I know that not much air especially under FFP2 masks make people really aggressive... and when you live in Berlin...
PPS: The Look:
Dear Britta - our Traffic Wardens are exactly the same. They appear to take great pleasure in slapping a ticket fine across car windows. I don't know, but possibly they earn an extra bonus for each overstay vehicle that they fine.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder why some people wear a mask, as I see no end people walking around with their noses hanging out over the top of the mask, and sometimes even their mouth is showing. This surely defeats the whole object of wearing a mask as a protection.
Dear Rosemary, I have the same suspicion concerning extra bonuses for more tickets. I see the Lovely Rita Meter Maids hunting when I sit on my balcony - they are so eager, so maybe it is also a basic hunting instinct they act out?
DeleteI have my own theory why - mostly men! - don't wear the mask over their nose -- here in Berlin I could do research on cultural influences, too -- but I keep that theory to myself as I do not want to be banned by blogspot into the niche "for adults only", hahaha.
Public officials are not immune to stupidity. Americans know that for sure.
ReplyDeleteI love your dry humour, dear Emma! I think it is an international problem.
DeleteWhen law enforcement and officials do not abide by the rules (or abuse them), this encourages others to do the same. It seems to be a worldwide situation. People seem unwilling to work toward the interests and good of the larger community. COVID is testing us all and revealing much.
ReplyDeleteYour description to see COVID as a sort of test for moral integrity fascinates me, dear Susan! In the "Me!Me!"-culture it might operate as a sort of pause, given to re-think on a big scale some developments that went out of hand - mass-tourism, egoism and egotism, exploiting nature and so on - a very long list we might think about...
DeleteI've asked people to step back, but my only mask remarks have been to service people who wear the mask under the nose, and then I say it should cover the nose, too, but I'm not confrontational enough to say Put that mask over your nose!
ReplyDeleteDear Joanne, being polite and friendly does not do harm, I think :-)
ReplyDeleteYet sometimes I remind myself of the words of our great prince of poets, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
"To be polite? To such a vermin?
You would not sew a coarse sackcloth with silk !"
(Rough translation by me. In German it is:
"Höflich sein? Zu diesem Pack?
Mit Seide näht man keinen groben Sack!" )
I think we need to see a photograph of you giving "the look" in order to judge how scary it is.
ReplyDeleteDear Tasker, I added a further post scriptum above - so...
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