Bovenstaande vraag kwam plotseling naar binnen in mijn hoofd. Het eerste antwoord was vrij confronterend: niemand. Meestal mis ik een sterke band qua lichaam, geest en ziel. Voor mij gaat het om alle drie tegelijk. Volgens een goede vriendin zoek ik naar een totaalplaatje. Bij de afwezigheid van dat totaalplaatje ben ik liever alleen. Vooralsnog past er dus niemand...
I grew up in a small village in the 1960s. I suppose that most villagers knew about each other's reputations. We played outside all of the time, with no supervision. Nevertheless, my parents seemed aware of our activities. Back then, they didn't seem to worry about our independence. A 2023 WaPo article (below) suggests that children develop a mental health crisis...
Until recently, I didn't appreciate this topic. In my view, it was a hobby horse (Dutch: stokpaardje) of the liberal-left. Today, my perspective is shifting following its drivers, being: (i) increasing life expectancy or demographics, (ii) being irrelevant to society, (iii) declining religion, and (iv) urbanisation. In many countries, the average age of the...
"History suggests that once a country crosses the threshold of negative population growth, there is little that its government can do to reverse it." This line is an excerpt from a 2023 NYT article: Can China Reverse Its Population Decline? Just Ask Sweden. Another 2023 quote: "The negative population growth trend cannot be reversed, but behavior and expectations...
The oldest (known) city is some 11,000 years old (ie, Damascus). The oldest (known) country is some 2,500 years old, being: San Marino (301 BCE), or Japan (660 BCE) or China (221 BCE). See 2020 ThoughtCo. article. Much more recent is geopolitics, which (probably) started with WW I (1914-18). Geopolitics represents the global interconnectedness of Politics, one of...
I've been watching Hallmark Christmas films again on Amazon Prime Video. Yes, these films are entirely predictable. Yes, some actors are out of their depth. Nevertheless, I love watching those scenic locations (eg, countryside, snowy mountains), and their cosy, farm, and/or majestic houses. Hallmark films usually show rural America which is indeed quite different...
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