Last winter was stressful and cold for me: rain all day long for weeks, no sun, stormy weather and there were always dark clouds in the sky. All this took a lot out of me. Whenever I checked the weather on my phone, the app showed me a long list of rainy days. No sun, no glimps of hope!

Sometimes I got angry at nature. Why wasn't there sunshine every day instead...I wished the situation had been reversed.

There was a time when I lived in Karachi (Pakistan). There it was sunny and hot all the time. The heat was so strong that it burnt our skin and we longed for months of rain. But once it rained in Karachi, the whole city was flooded and the electricity failed. The death toll was high. Both scenarios were difficult to survive. In Germany, life is going well regardless of the weather. That is very pleasing.

It is spring now, the weather has changed, but the situation has not. Life is getting more difficult day by day. We have suffered from the Corona epidemic, closures and restrictions for the last two years, and now our lives are affected by the war in Ukraine. The shortage of sunflower oil and the increase in prices of various ingredients, e.g. wheat, are something we feel directly. In Pakistan, for example, a can of oil used to cost two euro, now it is eight. Although Pakistan and Ukraine are not bordering countries, indeed they are thousands of kilometres apart, life in Pakistan is also affected by the situation in Ukraine. This is slowly happening all over the world now, Pakistan is just one example.

This year's spring has brought war, bombs, homelessness and unemployment instead of flowers! But this is not the fault of spring, but of a man who invades another country for his own gain, destroying villages and towns, killing people and animals, children, fathers, mothers and families, making businesses, lands, fields and jobs inaccessible. This is a great crime and history will never forgive such a person.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, millions of people have lost their jobs. Human hands that just a few days ago would write with a pen or keyboard now hold guns and ammunition. The plans and the future that the Ukrainian people have been waiting for have been destroyed by the war, young people have gone to war, women and children have been displaced and have become refugees from one day to the next. Everything has changed in just a few days.

Now it is our duty to help those affected by war for the sake of humanity. Giving someone a pair of socks, a shirt, shoes or a blanket is an important help. Our duty is to stand up, leave our homes and help those in agony. We must speak out against the war. Peace must come and people must live in freedom and happiness. No one can rule by force.

I greet all people this spring and wish them peace and prosperity.