Standing together apart – Communities during the corona times
The relevance of digital activism has significantly increased due to the coronavirus outbreak that has locked billions of people at their homes. Having provided people with the ways to digitally materialize not widely represented issues in reality, Internet platforms have been extensively and rapidly gathering users with the aspiration to protest from all over the world over the past decades.
Domestic violence cases have jumped by 30 % during lockdown in France. Being confined at home with abusive partners increases the risk to victims. A TV report on Channel One Russia, covering the situation in France, included the claim that using code word “mask-19” is a common practice among French women to let people know that they’re being abused at home.
For this episode Polina Kireeva interviewed Ralf Ruller, CEO and founder of The Barn, best Specialty Coffee Roaster Europe & Middle East in 2019. Together they discussed coronavirus impact, “coffee for hospitals” initiative, business driven by sense of community and solidarity, and opportunities in crisis.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, I was studying in Denmark and had no plans to come back to Russia until Easter holiday. The pandemic made me change my mind. I do not tend to generalize, but in this column, taking the pandemic as a background, I will try to find how the Russians’ mentality differs from the Europeans’ set of mind of.