Collected Item: “Meme about the Pandemic in Austria”
Give your story a title.
Meme about the Pandemic in Austria
What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?
meme
Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.
I saw this meme in January 2021. It was created by an Austrian online news platform called "k.at" and was posted on their Instagram channel. The first picture on the left shows a hamster who is hoarding (or rather "hamstering") toilet paper. This showcases a phenomenon which occurred in Austria as well as in Germany: some people bought as much toilet paper as they could in the beginning of the pandemic out of fear of a lockdown (also other things as e.g. noodles, rice etc.). The result was that most people couldn't buy any toilet paper because it was sold out at most places and the manufacturers of toilet paper couldn't keep up with the production. It was kind of absurd.
The second picture on the right also shows a hamster who seems to have a great time skiing. This should represent the third Austrian lockdown. At this time (around January 2021) many Austrian tourists went skiing even though the numbers of Corona cases were rising. It was quite a controversy at the time because a lot of other activities (like social gatherings) were regulated by the state for health precautions, but the skiing resorts weren't affected (and the Corona cases were also rising in these places).
A little sidenote: The Coronavirus allegedly came to Germany in 2020 because of German tourists who came back from said Austrian ski travels...
The second picture on the right also shows a hamster who seems to have a great time skiing. This should represent the third Austrian lockdown. At this time (around January 2021) many Austrian tourists went skiing even though the numbers of Corona cases were rising. It was quite a controversy at the time because a lot of other activities (like social gatherings) were regulated by the state for health precautions, but the skiing resorts weren't affected (and the Corona cases were also rising in these places).
A little sidenote: The Coronavirus allegedly came to Germany in 2020 because of German tourists who came back from said Austrian ski travels...
Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?
#Humor, hamstering, hamster, lockdown, Austria, Germany, toilet paper, skiing, Instagram,
Enter a URL associated with this object, if relevant.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKPHsqLF5JA/
Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)
k.at
Give this story a date.
2021-01-19