A Schwaigerner in New York

April 26, 2020, 3:42 p.m.

Update: April 29, 2020, 3:33 a.m.

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Schwaigern/New York UN employee Tilo Stolz from Schwaigern works as a political employee in the United Nations Secretariat in New York and reports in an interview about deserted streets and virtual conferences at the UN.

The USA has the most corona victims worldwide. Forklift trucks push corpses into refrigerated trucks, mass graves are dug up for people who have died of Corona, overwhelmed medical professionals and overcrowded hospitals: the pictures that reach us from the USA and especially New York show chaotic conditions and a helpless government. Tilo Stolz from Schwaigern works as a political assistant in the United Nations Secretariat in New York and reports in a voice interview about deserted streets and virtual conferences at the UN.

Mr. Stolz, how do you perceive the current situation in New York?

Tilo pride: I’ve been riding my bike a lot over the past few days, shopping and running errands. I saw first hand how New York has changed radically due to the Covid 19 crisis. Times Square has been swept clean. The huge and architecturally impressive hall of the Grand Central Terminal is as good as deserted. In the more than 20 years that I’ve been living in New York, I’ve never seen it like this.

How has your everyday life changed in the meantime?

Proud: Since March 16, almost all United Nations employees have been working from home. This means many virtual meetings via Microsoft Teams as well as online seminars and training. When I’m not on the virtual tour, I listen to the radio a lot. National Public Radio (NPR) and its New York affiliate station, WNYC, keep me well informed about what’s going on in the city, the US and around the world.

You work in the political department of the UN Secretariat. What is the mood like in your professional environment and how does the work there work under these circumstances?

Proud: For the first time in its almost 75-year history, the UN Security Council does not meet in the meeting room at the headquarters in New York, but virtually. Getting this off the ground was a big challenge for my colleagues who support the work of the Security Council, but things are going quite well now.

In this country the impression arises that the governor of the state of New York and the president speak two different languages. How are the president and governor judged as crisis managers?

Proud: Governor Mario Cuomo has turned out to be a very good crisis manager. There were even voices suggesting that he should take part in the remaining primaries for the Democratic nomination for president. However, he declined with thanks. As for the US president, it is now evident that he had never had government responsibility before the presidency. His almost daily press conferences make this abundantly clear.

What is currently most urgently missing?

Proud: There is still a lack of protective clothing for the medical staff, and enough Covid-19 tests are not yet available. Adequate emergency shelters for the many homeless people who live in New York City are also not yet in sufficient numbers. However, Mayor Bill de Blasio is trying to get this problem under control by renting vacant hotel rooms to the city council.

The weakness of the health system seems obvious …

Proud: The Corona crisis has clearly brought to light how great the inequalities are in the USA. Afro-Americans and Latinos are far more affected by the crisis than Americans of European descent. This is also evident in the health system. Many African-Americans and Latinos either have no or inadequate health insurance. Because of the structural racism that persists, the hospitals in areas where many African-Americans and Latinos live have been neglected for many years.

What do you think the US can learn from this crisis?

Proud: I hope that the crisis will lead to more and more people, and especially politicians, finally realizing the importance of what Willy Brandt said many years ago: “And yet it is this one world in which we learn have to get along if we don’t all want to go under. ” In other words, without global cooperation, global problems such as a virus pandemic or global warming cannot be brought under control. This also requires a reduction and restructuring of global defense spending. What is needed now are transport planes, transport helicopters and hospital ships instead of state-of-the-art fighter jets, because these cannot get the virus under control.

The city that never sleeps stands still. How do the New Yorkers react?

Proud: It’s an unprecedented situation for all New Yorkers. Although many New Yorkers were affected by the events of September 11, 2001, the Corona crisis affects them all in one way or another. For example, there were no empty supermarket shelves and curfews back then.

Your wife comes from Cameroon and currently lives in Schwaigern. What does this spatial separation mean for you personally in this situation?

Proud: Thanks to WhatsApp, we are in contact several times a day since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. Basically, we are very good at dealing with spatial distance. It’s part of our life.

To person

Tilo Stolz comes from Schwaigern and after graduating from high school in 1992, he studied politics and history at the Wilhelm-Maybach-Schule Heilbronn in Heidelberg. He continued his studies in the USA and started to work at the UN in New York. Today the 48-year-old, who is married to a Cameroonian, works in the Political Department of the UN Secretariat and monitors compliance with the sanctions of the UN Security Council. The state of emergency in New York makes the extraordinary possible: “For a few days now, the UN has had a small branch in Schwaigern because I can work from my home office in Schwaigern until further notice,” says Stolz.

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