The childcare benefits scandal that toppled the (still outgoing) Dutch Cabinet is still expanding. At least 1,115 children have been taken away from their families due to that same scandal. These parents lost everything while they were being drowned in debt, following clawback activities by the Dutch tax authorities. A friend told me that the Belgian approach is the...
Early September, I noticed a very interesting British Psychological Society (BPS) article: We Think Anger Is A Sign Of Guilt — But It May Actually Be A Better Sign Of Innocence. Actually, this question has been on my mind, once in a while. We may view others as guilty when they display anger, while we view ourselves as innocent when we are angered (eg, by a false...
Last Monday, the IPCC issued its 6th assessment report on climate change (report). Their timing is remarkable as we are still being made scared about the latest coronavirus mutant (eg, Reuters). I assume that this IPCC report will soon lose the media battle for attention. Fear works better when it's close to you. The IPCC warning is "only" about forthcoming decades...
The American withdrawal from Afghanistan is causing concerns amongst its immediate neighbours: China, Iran and Pakistan. Russia is no longer a neighbour of Afghanistan but the Soviet Union was. The Soviet invasion in Afghanistan lasted from 1979-1989. The Soviet withdrawal in 1989 resulted in a corridor between Afghanistan and China. A map shows the various Afghan...
In Dutch we have a saying: "Kan Niet is een broertje van Mag Niet en ligt op het kerkhof naast Wil Niet" (eg, Ensie). This translates like: 'I cannot' is the brother of 'I may not' and lies in the graveyard next to 'I don't want to'. All three excuses are considered platitudes in both languages. An obvious reply would be: just do it! We often say that we cannot do...
My blog's title is an intriguing sentence on the bottom of page 124 of Lethal White, the fourth detective novel written by J.K. Rowling and "published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith". Is this statement valid? This sentence is complex as it contains two related concepts: (1) accountability versus responsibility and (2) deeds, words & intentions....
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