It has become so quiet. Simultaneously with the speed limit from 130 to 100 here on Dutch highways, life has slowed down all over the world. Who wouldn’t have liked it to happen this way? Not having to think about filling in every second of the day sensibly. Even the shops here in Utrecht have closed the doors, which even in winter are normally wide open and let the heat out. And there are no contrails in the blue sky over Holland.

It seems that the climate is no longer in danger. The economy no longer produces cars but only what is really necessary. What matters now is solidarity. We need solidarity with the risk group of 70-plus people and we have to avoid contagious contacts as far as possible. And we need solidarity with the people who keep the health and food supply of the citizens going and solidarity with the countries at whose expense we got rich here in the developed industrial countries and who now have little or no financial buffers.

Finance is upside down. There is talk of financial aid amounting to 800 billion euros, a multiple of what was handled in the 2008 financial crisis. I suspect there is currently no one who has an overview of what will happen in this area in the coming months.

Wouldn’t it be an opportunity for general debt relief now? Humanity has been dreaming of this jubilee since biblical times. 800 billion euros would surely be enough to make all people in the world debt-free. The money would serve a good cause and would not disappear into ominous channels.

After the Corona crisis, we could start building a new, solidary society based on reason without being forced to bring the economy back up to high speed within a short period of time in order to be able to pay off the crisis-related debt. And the monstrous word “climate crisis” would finally disappear from the vocabulary.