The new normal “Kamanga kings”
"True improvement comes from within. You can buy a new watch, but that does not speed up time. You can get into a shiny car and fly along the road, but you can't shorten the distance between two places. Literature, however, can achieve all of these things and more." The Fugitives, Jamal Mahjoub
With the outbreak of the pandemic everybody seemed to quickly agree on a number of basic rules. In most countries these were promoted as the “new normal”. Keeping distance to the fellow man, washing hands regularly and avoiding to cough or sneeze into your hands were generally accepted as necessary to lower the rate of reproduction of the virus. In the Netherlands, a minimum distance of 1.5 m was introduced. The consequence was that a lot of cultural institutions like theatres or cinemas had to work at a greatly reduced capacity. Big events, where thousands of people gathered in enclosed, confined spaces, were forbidden.
Interview with the writer Willy Vlautin
Even after the vaccination campaign started to take off big events only very reluctantly were allowed. Already in July 2021, at the two days dance festival “Verknipt” in Utrecht, 900 of the 20.000 festival guests were infected. The organisers affirmed that all the visitors were checked at the entrance for their proof of vaccination, test or recovery. Very surprisingly nobody was able to explain how the infections could have happened.
Billie Marten
300.000 tickets were sold for the Amsterdam dance event taking place from 13.-17.10. The event took place at 140 venues all over Amsterdam. 1024 infections were traced back to the event afterwards. The comment of one of the responsible organisers was: ”A thousand infections on about 300,000 visitors is not much, a percentage of 0.27 I believe, .."
The guitarist of Ghostpoet sets up his equipment
The real number of infections is much higher for sure. A lot of the visitors are young, have mild symptoms and either do no test or do a self test, which is not officially registered. Others might not relate their infections to their attendance at the festival. However, all these people will meet others and potentially infect them.
Ghostpoet
The Netherlands contend to have an impressive vaccination percentage. The Dutch authorities speak of 90% of the population being vaccinated. “World in data” gives the more reasonable number of 68.9% (the percentage of the fully vaccinated in Cambodia is 77.7%, in Guinea-Bissau 0.88%). At the same time they reported more than 10.000 infections daily in the begin of November. Hospitals shout out in alarm. Some like the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Dordrecht have already stopped scheduled operations since they just have enough staff to take care of the full Corona department. The run down Dutch health system, which already had waiting lists of many month for standard treatments before the pandemic started, is at the brink of collapse. The staff has been working at their top performance since 20 month – their gratification in 2021 for saving peoples lives and risking their own will be 400 Euro. In some hospitals they start to go n strike. There are lots of discussions how to deal with the pandemic on the long run. While building new hospital beds is a matter of month, increasing the number of staff is a matter of long term training. Neither is discussed amongst the officials. Rather they celebrate their expensive useless military in yearly veterans marches.
"You cannot educate poeple who already know all the answers", The Fugitives, Jamal Mahjoub
When the pandemic started there was a wide discussion how long it will take until herd immunity will be achieved. Epidemiologists were talking about a necessary number of 60-70% of the population being immunised. Specialists expected the herd immunity to be reached after half a year. At that time, in the first half of 2020, the number of infections in a country like the Netherlands never surpassed a couple of thousand a day. A simple calculation would have shown that without a vaccine the time it takes to reach herd immunity would rather be 30-50 years. With the ratio of the vaccinated of today the percentage of the immunized has been reached or even surpassed the number expected to be needed for herd immunity back then. Nevertheless is the number of infections rising into a forth wave, which in absolute numbers has surpassed any of the previous waves in some european countries like Germany.
Now, in european winter, events have to take place inside. In closed, poorly ventilated spaces the probability of infection will rather be higher than during summer, when events took place outside and with open windows or doors. The crossing border festival is an event bringing literature and music together. Writers are invited to read and discuss their works, musicians are selected for their lyrics rather than their music. The festival took place for three days last weekend, on saturday in 4 stages in the Korzo theatre and two lovely churches in walking distance.
"I was floating on a sea of humanity. Hundreds of faces stared up at me. I felt as naked as the day I was born. Strangers were ranged across every available surface. .....I found myself resenting them. Who were these people? Where did they come from and why had they come to hear us play? Why couldn't they leave us alone? The Fugitives, Jamal Mahjoub
At the moment, the rule to enter a restaurant, pub or an event in the Netherlands requires to produce a QR code showing that you are vaccinated, tested negative or recovered in combination with an ID. To smoothly pass between venues at the crossing border festival it was necessary to exchange the ticket for a wrist band. The QR code check was done at the entrance. Nobody asked for an ID. They did not even ask for some of the information visible on the QR code to the person who checks it, like the birthday.
The "schuilkerk", one of the venues, so called because until the French occupation under Napoleon the catholics had to come together in secret for prayer in the Netherlands
It is a tradition that the crossing border festival sells too many tickets. This did not change in times of Corona. It is particularly serious in a place like the Korzo theater, where one of the stages can only be reached over a narrow staircase two floors up and there is little common space around the bar on the ground floor. Everybody moving from one venue to the other inside the theatre has to move through the same rather narrow space in front of the bar. The schedule, which foresees breaks in several venues at the same time spilling all the guests into the restrained common area around the bar makes things even worse. By using the churches, which theoretically hold many people, the permission for the number of tickets sold, can be screwed up. Still most of the people come together in the common area of the theatre, which has got the only bar.
Anthony Joseph
There are less people inside wearing a face mask than wearing some head gear including oversized headphones (why do you go to concerts when you listen to your own headphone?). There seems to be the general attitude that a pandemic disappears if you just ignore it. However, worse is that you feel like an outcast when you wear a mask yourself. Maybe this characterises you as the archetypical carrier of the virus?
Anthony Joseph and his band
After we entered at just after they opened the venue for the saturday evening shows I had to go to the toilet. The toilets definitely had not been cleaned since the last event. At my second visit to the facilities they were out of paper towels to dry your hands. Not a problem if you do not care washing them. There is no dispenser for hand sanitizer either. Nice, after you have touched the handle of the toilet door ….
In the Kamanga kings Anthony Joseph would probably be Uncle Maher
When the quota of a vaccination grade of 90% handled by the Dutch government is transferred to an event like the Crossing border festival than one out of ten visitors is not vaccinated. In an evening, that could amount to up to 500 who can enter with a QR code showing that they have got a negative test, but are not vaccinated. Many might also have accepted the quick and easy Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was popular in the Netherlands since it was marketed as being Dutch and especially trustworthy and needed only one shot. It is known that this vaccine has an efficiency of less than 70%. Those vaccinated or recovered can still be infectious. In the cramped spaces a transfer onto the tested but not vaccinated not wearing a face mask is an easy hop for a mobile virus. If he did not make his attack via the door handles of the toilets already. It is a very strange society which defines their freedom by refusing to wear a mask but rather prefers living enslaved by a fatal virus.
The festival had invited some spectacular guests. There was Douglas Stuart, who wrote the autobiographical account of a mother and son relation before the background of the Glasgow underdog community. It was fun to hear him reading extracts of his book. His fine, upper class accent was in stark contrast to the slang language in his book. The big Luther’se Kerk where he read, was full. The ones wearing a face mask could be counted on the fingers of one hand. He did not either, nor did he when close to the guests while signing his book.
Douglas Stuart reading in the Luther'se kerk
The British-Trinidean Anthony Joseph performed with a band of individual characters worth seeing. Anthony Joseph not only is a musicians, he also published poetry and novels and has a PhD in Creative & Life Writing.
The performance of Gershwin Bonevacia
Anthony Joseph was supported by spoken word artist Gershwin Bonevacia. He published an autobiographical book “When I Was Little, I Wasn't Afraid” of a childhood shaped by his childhood of dyslexia and racism in underdog Rotterdam Zuid. Unfortunately I am afraid that the non native Dutch speaking listeners were not able to follow his emotional performance.
Anthony Joseph's sax player would be Kadogli of the Kamanga kings
One of the writers I really wanted to see was Mohamedou Ould Salahi. He was imprisoned in Guantanamo, but later acquitted after 14 years of imprisonment and torture. His diary became a best seller. A movie, “the Mauretanian”, was released after the book. After we had found a space in the room where the interview was supposed to take place it turned out that it was planned as a video conference. The Dutch government had refused to give Salahi a visum to attend at the festival. At the time the video conference was supposed to start the link could not be established. We sat there waiting with a silent interviewer for a while, but then decided to leave. I still don’t know whether the Zoom conference finally worked.
"The world of men with guns. The key to future prosperity lay not in what you know, but who you know. Making your way in the world was about having the right connections, ..." The Fugitives, Jamal Mahjoub
One writer I unfortunately did not hear. But I bought “the fugitives” of the english-sudanese writer Jamal Mahjoub. The Kamanga Kings, a jazz band from Khartoum, get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when an unexpected letter arrives inviting them to perform in Washington, D.C. The only problem: the band no longer exists and most of the old former members have passed away. Rushdy, a frustrated high school teacher and son of one of the original Kamanga Kings, is urged by his best friend Hisham to re-form the band. Eventually they find themselves in the chaos of Donald Trump's America. The story is as improbable as ironic. A book worth reading from an author with a fascinating CV himself. And
when I look at the pictures of Anthony Joseph I get an imagination of
the Kamanga Kings.
This would be Rushdy, the story teller of the Kamanga kings
I do not know (yet) whether a sizeable amount of infections will be traced back to the crossing border festival. What I know is that a number of very simple means could prevent that an event causes sizeable amounts of infections. Clean the toilets. Provide hand sanitizer and paper towels. Check the codes properly. Wear a mask. None of these cost any money.
The bass guitarist of the Kamanga kings is John Wau
Last not least I like to listen to music and I like festivals. I see that the event industry suffers. Partly it is their own fault. Partly it is the government. Why pack everything to the maximum? Why not allow less people in and compensate the organisers? This virus will last and if they carry on like that the next mutation will shut them down again for a long time. Eventually they will have to cope with the situation and find a suitable way to organise events which do not spread sickness. That would start with less people, improved hygiene, face masks and a proper observation of the rules.
When the pandemic started many voices were heard announcing that the “new normal” will lead to permanent changes. Not all of them were negative. But all seemingly were forgotten as soon as the virus took a brief rest. Maybe it is finally necessary about changing the world permanently.
Benzokarim
Sources
The Fugitives, Jamal Mahjoub, Canongate books, Edinburgh 2021
Link to previous post on handling of a pandemic:
