“I remember sitting in my bed and I was not able to stop crying…I thought about one of my closest friends who does costumes at two different theatres and sold upcycling fashion at a market, but everything was closed down. She has three kids and raising them on her own.
I thought, I have to do something.”
Today’s postcard, sent on 7 July, is from Nunu Kaller who lives in Vienna, Austria. Nunu is an author and activist who focuses on sustainable living, feminism and body positivity.
In this postcard, Nunu talks about the book she’s been writing during lockdown that addresses consumerism and shopping more intelligently to achieve meaningful sustainability.
Distressed by the sudden loss of income experienced by small business owning friends during lockdown, Nunu set up Austria’s ethical answer to Amazon which has now launched as doitfair.com.
You can look up Nunu’s work at nunukaller.com. Her Instagram is instagram.com/nunu.kaller.
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Context
The first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in late February as tourists returned from Italy’s Lombardy region. On 16 March, the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz brought in a nationwide lockdown.
Overnight, as in many other countries, businesses closed and movement was curtailed. A furlough scheme for employees was brought in however, this will cease in August and there is pessimism about Austria’s economic future.
The greatest infection rates were seen in the ski resort of Tyrol but, contrary to most other European countries, numbers soon declined. The country started to tentatively lift restrictions by mid April.
Since then, as borders have begun to open and a sense of normalcy has returned, Coronavirus infections have begun to modestly climb in Upper Austria and Vienna. As a consequence, masks have been reintroduced in Carinthia.
As of 10 July, Austria has registered 18,709 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 706 deaths. These are low numbers when viewed alongside neighbouring Germany (199,198 cases / 9,195 deaths) and Italy (242,363 cases / 34,926 deaths).
Despite worries about getting Austrians to engage in the tracing app, the existing test and trace strategy is viewed as a key reason why the country did so ‘well’ in containing the virus thus far.
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