{"id":192588,"date":"2021-03-03T00:28:39","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T21:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/dutch-bar-owners-sex-workers-protest-against-covid-lockdown\/"},"modified":"2021-03-03T00:28:39","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T21:28:39","slug":"dutch-bar-owners-sex-workers-protest-against-covid-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/dutch-bar-owners-sex-workers-protest-against-covid-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"#Dutch bar owners, sex workers protest against COVID lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Dutch bar owners, sex workers protest against COVID lockdown<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands \u2014 In a scene reminiscent of carefree cafe life before coronavirus lockdown, Peter Bender reached across one of the outdoor tables at De Ooievaar bar and placed a cup of coffee and slice of app<\/a>le pie in front of one of his guests.<\/p>\n

But the coffee went cold and the pie remained uneaten at the bar in Rotterdam\u2019s historic Delfshaven neighborhood.<\/p>\n

With tough coronavirus measures shutting Dutch cafes and restaurants since mid-October, Bender\u2019s guests Tuesday were all white inflatable dummies dressed in T-shirts, wigs and large red noses. They were part of a protest that saw an unknown number of cafes across the country symbolically open their terraces amid growing opposition to the lockdown from hard-hit businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve waited long enough, we still don\u2019t see any perspective from the government,\u201d said Bender. \u201cWe have a ludicrous action \u2014 today dolls are sitting here, next week it will be real guests. We\u2019re really sick of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Businesses that accept paying guests in breach of the lockdown risk a $4,800 fine.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, stores in one eastern village opened briefly in the morning and a group of sex workers staged a demonstration and set up a peep show outside parliament in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have to pay rent just like any other person who works so why can everybody work except us,\u201d said a sex worker from Arnhem who identified herself as Melissa.<\/p>\n

The Dutch government has pledged billions of euros in support to ailing businesses.<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra sympathized with the bar owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand their frustration. I think we all understand it very well,\u201d he told reporters in The Hague. \u201cBut it\u2019s not possible yet. That\u2019s the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The protests come amid growing lockdown fatigue not only in the Netherlands but across the European Union, where 531,000 people have died in the pandemic and governments are still attempting to rein in new infections while slowly ramping up the pace of vaccinations.<\/p>\n

\"Sex
Sex workers protest against unequal treatment and stigmatizing during a demonstration in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, March 2, 2021.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 1,000 people gathered in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, on Sunday demanding an end to pandemic restrictions that have left the tourism and hospitality sectors at a standstill for nearly four months. Marches to denounce COVID-19 restrictions also have been taking place in a scattered form across France and other countries.<\/p>\n

The frustration also extends to Africa.<\/p>\n

The Pubs, Entertainment and Restaurants Association of Kenya joined other federations Tuesday in protesting the country\u2019s nearly year-long nighttime curfew saying as many 160,000 Kenyans in the sector had lost their jobs.<\/p>\n

The association\u2019s Mike Muthamia said bars and restaurants have been on the receiving end of brutal police enforcement of the COVID-19 lockdown while politicians continue to hold large public gatherings where none of the measures are applied.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis failure to punish the breach of the law while continuing to ruthlessly enforce the same law on another group of people, simply because they are not as powerful or connected as the leaders and elected representatives, amounts to a breach of the human right to earn a living through lawful means,\u201d Muthamia said.<\/p>\n

The pandemic has taken a brutal economic toll in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

Turnover at the country\u2019s accommodation and food services sector shrank by an unprecedented 33.9% in 2020 due to the pandemic and lockdown measures, the national statistics office reported Monday. In the final quarter of the year, as the lockdown was tightened again after a summer of eased measures, cafes saw their turnover decline by 70.4% compared with the previous quarter.<\/p>\n

Bar owners insist that they can reopen their terraces safely by enforcing social<\/a> distancing and hygiene measures. They have been spurred into action in part by recent scenes of large crowds of people packed into city parks enjoying unseasonably warm weather and largely ignoring social distancing measures. Amsterdam authorities have repeatedly restricted access to one of the city\u2019s main parks because of overcrowding.<\/p>\n

\"A
A group of sex workers holds placards and poses for media during the demonstration. <\/figcaption>
Sipa USA via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The country\u2019s public health institute announced Tuesday that confirmed infections rose by 7% over the last week, the second straight week the number has risen after weeks of decline.<\/p>\n

Sex workers are upset that they have been prevented from working while other \u201ccontact professions\u201d such as hairdressers, beauty salons and masseurs have been allowed to reopen from Wednesday in what the government last week called a risky relaxation strategy that came despite infection numbers starting to edge higher recently.<\/p>\n

A woman who uses the name Moira Mona said she is a dominatrix and can work further from her clients than a hairdresser.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can insult people from a distance and I have whips that are longer than scissors for cutting bangs. So I\u2019ll be fine,\u201d she said.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Dutch bar owners, sex workers protest against COVID lockdown” ROTTERDAM, Netherlands \u2014 In a scene reminiscent of carefree cafe life before coronavirus lockdown, Peter Bender reached across one of the outdoor tables at De Ooievaar bar and placed a cup of coffee and slice of apple pie in front of one of his guests. But…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":192589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/03\/dutch-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[95843,1545,67243,18776],"class_list":["post-192588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-3-2-21","tag-coronavirus","tag-lockdown","tag-netherlands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}