Where is the future?
Where time is
is where you are
and you are time
my breathe
in my heart
and mind
today,
in the past
in the future
It is here
Now
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Saturday, July 29, 2023
Now (a #poem)
Thursday, July 27, 2023
What makes one a parasite; asking for a dime or demanding a billion?
US Senator John Fetterman made a point (click) that Republicans dislike very much. Which means he raised an excellent topic: If people living on food stamps have to do something in return for government support, why don't large companies have to do something to earn their millions in bail out money?
In other words: why do poor people have to follow rules that don't apply to fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobile (click), Tesla, Amazon...?
Specifically Fetterman named Sillicon Valley Bank (click). Basically the bank's executives gambled with other people's money and when they lost, demanded that taxpayers would bail them out. So they had nothing to lose personally. Not ever their high paid jobs. Unsurprisingly the bank executives, nor Republicans were eager to reply to Fetterman's questions.
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=====================
It seems a wordwide common practice: ask for a dime and you're seen as a homeless drunk, a parasite of society; demand a billion and you're decent capitalist.
Do you think everyone should work for money they receive from the government (a.k.a. the tax payer) or only people who don't have a private jet?
Saturday, July 22, 2023
Our own future (a circle #poem)
We write our own future.
Sometimes a line gets erased,
a line we walk.
Some lines are missed
and some are mistaken.
But they're all just lines,
lines we walk
and lines we miss.
But that's okay because
we write our own future.
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Thursday, July 20, 2023
Why are we stupid?
My dear American friends and relatives, I have a question for you: why are you so stupid? Not all of you of course. But around 1:5 of US citizens are functionally illiterate. Meaning interviews and what not on tv need to be dubbed as some 20 percent can't read subtitles. In the Netherlands the percentage of basically illiterate people is only 18! Co-incidentally about the same percentage of people that vote for rightwing populists. Yes, I'm being cynical. Of course not everyone who is illiterate is also a racist and you also find racists amongst people with a university degree.
Of the 35 most 'developed' nations, gathered in the OECD (click), the USA ranks as number 31 as the country with the most 15 years old citizens being able to read and write at at least some level. Despite the fact the US government spends a whopping 35% more money on education per child than the average OECD country. Apparently simply pumping more money into education isn't productive. So, where do all those billions go to?
Glad you asked:
(Source)
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Here is a very interesting piece of data, showing how The Netherlands and The USA compare to the average OECD-country in the fields of Literacy, Numeracy and Problem Solving:
OECD=blue
Netherlands=green
USA=red
At first glance anyone can see that especially under the younger people, the USA has some catching up to do. Amserican companies are already giving grants to foreign students and hire skilled foreign workers. Simply because their US counterparts are not up to the task.
Wordwide US citizens can be found around the middle (click) of all countries when tested for literacy among the general population. If the USA wants to stay important in the next few decades, they will have to climb that ladder. Not only where it concerns reading and writing skills (can you read better than a 5th grader?), but also in the fields of digital literacy (can you set up your new smartphone or social media account within 20 minutes without help from friends or spouses?), media literacy (can you distinguish actual news from fake news?) and financial literacy (from the top of your head: how much do you pay for household gas? How much for internet at home? What's 14 times 6? How much is a liter of milk?).
In my opinion, my American friends can benefit a lot from at least trying not to rake up debt. You don't want to be the laughning stock of millions of people like these newly-weds, do you?
In short: it's really, really stupid to spend $300,000 annually when your income is a 'mere' $250,000.
So, just stop buying stuff like food in bulk 'because it's cheaper per item!'. Because it's not since you throw about half the food you just bought 'cheaply' away (okay, only some 40% (click). I was exaggerating). Stop using your credit card from a company that charges 20% interest; instead of paying $10 for a movie theater ticket, you end up paying $12.
Basically: if you can't afford it, don't buy it. Which goes for everyone who doesn't want to still be in debt when their funeral is being arranged, not just for Americans.
Another interesting piece of data reveils that the wealthier a country, the higher the household debt per capita.
(Source)
In part that's simply because people living in the richest cities, also have the highest mortgages. But there are also other factors in play.
What do you think? Is it a problem, being in debt, or should we just do like banks and other large companies (click) and ask for a couple of billion from our country's taxpayers to bail us out?
Saturday, July 15, 2023
The Mirror (a circle #poem)
Beyond the mirror
he didn't flinch.
Her beautiful eyes
were reflected
on the water surface
and he smiled,
knowing
they would get dry
together
Life was good.
In front of as well as
beyond the mirror
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Thursday, July 13, 2023
Proto...what? Pronatalism
'The Elite', spearheaded by a multi-billionaire with ten children (as far as we mere mortals know)
wants to populate the world with super babies. The movement is called pronatalism (click) and was founded by Malcolm and Simone Collins. Who want every future human to be just as genetically perfect as they are:
Does 'genetically perfect' (click. 'Genetically perfect humans' is an idea that's just as feasable as Musk's ideas of a Hyperloop, a million robotaxis by 2020 and thinking people will never find out almost none of your companies could exist without extensive government (i.e. the US taxpayer) funding) mean you're really, really stupid?
Because they apparently did not put a lot of time and money into researching the idea that a population decline can be reversed with rich people having more over-consuming children: we are already lacking resources and having more people using them means we'll be running faster out of oil, valuable metals (for our cars, tv's, nuclear plants and smartphones) and fresh water than we already are.
Yes, Elon Musk is convinced that a decreasing number of people on the planet is a bigger problem than (man made) climate change. Yes, Elon Musk believes climate change is real and happening. And he may have a point: the world population isn't growing as fast as it used to and may come to a halt within just two or three generations. Musk agrees with The Club of Rome (click) that more social and economic equality slowly but surely leads to a population decline. Meaning less and less working-age people will have to work harder (and pay more money) to keep the older generation as well as their babies alive and healthy.
The population will most likely decline. Before the year 2100. Unless governments start taking appropriate actions yesterday. Everyone who thinks there are governments who look to the future beyond the next elections, raise your hand. Hmmm, I see no hands. Just not everyone agrees on the most likely cause. It may not be a decrease in the number of babies being born, but simply because of over-consumption (click):
"Humanity's main problem is luxury carbon and biosphere consumption, not population," Jorgen Randers, one of the modelers at the Norwegian School of Business and a member of Earth4All, said..."
Elon Musk likes to dream big. Which perhaps is related to his troublesome childhood (click). Which led to a rather unorthodox career path (click). Hailed as well as scolded for being a nerd (yeah for nerds! The world would be a lot less interesting without them. Or 'boring' as one of Elon's companies is called) he strives to help the world. But in fact wants to shape it in His image.
I for one am not sure if that's a good idea.
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Saturday, July 08, 2023
An Eternity (a #poem)
The end of the world?
I love it!
Because it's the only time
we're together.
Only in my dreams
but that's a minor detail.
Because we share
hope and kisses,
some food and many 'this is it's'.
And a future
that's most likely short
but on the whole of time
an eternity.
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Thursday, July 06, 2023
Why do 'we' waste so much food?
Because I try not to waste too much food, I get some of it via 'Guerilla Kitchen, warriors against foodwaste' (click): volunteers who pick up almost-past-the-date foods from wholesale, supermarkets, restaurants...and create 'saved packages' of food for anyone who is against food waste. So, not just for people who can't afford food.
The other day I picked up a bag full of good foods:
Here are a few pictures:
The Dutch are quite famous for their bread and keep surprising American tourists and expats with how nice it tastes and how many varieties there are. And all fresh. So, not the stuff that in US supermarkets is sold as 'bread' but stays edible for a month or so.
Jovie explains why that is:
Basically: what Americans call 'bread', the Dutch refer to as 'candy' because of the enormous amounts of sugar, salt, sweeteners, whiteners and preservatives the stuff contains.
We waste a lot of food. Some 2% of food gets waisted during processing, 15% of all food gets lost on farms. Restaurants, cafés and catering companies account for some 40% of all food waste. But the real 'winners' are you and I: consumers are accountable for some 43% of all food that not gets eaten but wasted. Consumers who don't waste almost half of all the food they get, live in so called 'under developed' nations. Apparently throwing away almost half of all the food you buy, shows you're 'civilized'.
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My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon
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=================================
Here are some statistics:
Europeans are a close second. Countries like China and Japan come in third.
In short: the wealthier a nation, the more food their citizens waste. Fruits, vegetables and the aforementioned bread form the top three of foods in the 'developed nations' that are rather found in garbage bins, than in people's stomachs:
A friendly lady farmer inviting children to her animal-friendly farm to pick up their own eggs and pet those cute little piglets, right? No. She is Caroline van der Plas, a former lobbyist for the pork industry. A couple of large agriculture companies and investors basically paid a marketing agency to present her to the public as 'a politician who takes farmers and citizens at heart'.
Perhaps this shows you why The Netherlands wastes so much food: those few in power don't care about feeding people (or animals) but just want to be filthy rich.
Great trick from 'Big Agro' to let 'the people' believe it's 'the elite' that's after the farmers livelihoods. While they themselves are factually 'the elite'.
The Netherlands seems the overal winner:
the 'Dutchies' throw away some 541 kilograms of food.
Each and every year. Which may have to do with the abundance of food available
in the country that's - with 23 million bikes and 17,5 million people - the second largest exporter
of food in the world. 55% of the Netherlands is farmland.
And 'Big Agro' (the dozen or so largest food- and food processing companies in the Netherlands plus companies like Monsanto and DuPont ) just bought 40% of all the land in Ukraine. Because they want more grain 'n stuff to feed their chickens, cows and pigs.
It's why they don't want Ukraine to be protected against the Russian invader, I guess: Prime Minister Zelensky wants to feed his own people with those lands, while his Russian counterpart seems willing to sell it to the Dutch and other 'Big Agro' investors. After he has fed his soldiers of course.
This is an overly simplified opinion on the situation but it's a fact that since the collapse of the Soviet Empire, greedy eyes have turned on Ukraine (click) with its fertile lands of which a lot went basically unused in the Soviet Era as more than enough was already being used to feed everyone. A power struggle ensued and the small farmers lost to large investment companies and stakeholders of immense 'farms'. Which are not the farms anymore that you know from your books in school when you were ten:
'No, we just decided to help Mrs. van der Plas for free. Our 'Big Agro' clients have absolutely nothing to do with our decision', said a company spokesman from the company that also does the marketing for Bayer/Monsanto when I asked them about it.
So they named the political party 'BoerBurgerBeweging', 'FarmerCitizenMovement'. And it worked: the few remaining small farmers as well as 'the people' got her a seat in Dutch Parliament. To show everyone she was 'just a simple farm girl' the marketing agency had her arrive at her first day in Parliament on a tractor.
A bold move since she had never driven one before as she never worked on a farm (I think her brother has one so she may have seen a living cow on a few occassions) and lives in a nice appartment in the city. Where she just moved to from a smaller appartment where she worked as a lobbyist. Or 'journalist' as she liked to call herself.
She gets paid to make small farmers think their livelyhoods will not be taken away from them by the largest producers of cattle food and the likes. Because those investors can't have a revolt on their hands. 'Big Agro' tricked small Dutch farmers to rise up against the government that actually wants to help them and in that process help the few multi-millionairs that want them to go out of business by taking over their livestock, lands, buildings and machinery.
At the most recent regional elections (from which Dutch Senate is formed) 'BBB' was the big winner. Now controlling legislature in most Dutch provinces. Factually giving 'Big Agro' full control over water managent, rules for using artificial fertilizer, what to do with (animal) waste products, et cetera. So compliments to 'Big Agro': well played!
And just f*ck small farmers, citizens, nature and animals, right? As long as you can make a few extra bucks. Who cares about your grandchildren? Why leave them a habitable world when you can buy a new yacht? Their problem, not yours.
These days farms look more like this (Click. Warning: disturbing content. Unless you love seeing sentient beings suffer. Extra warning: you might instantly turn into a vegetarian)
Saturday, July 01, 2023
The Good and the Bad (a #poem)
We once talked
about lost loves
and missed opportunities,
lost lives
and Miss Opportunity.
We talked about the future,
we talked about the past
we raced against time
and knew we wouldn't last.
We had our moments,
devoured happiness.
We grew together
and I miss your sweet caress.
But all's not lost
for it was all we had.
We share the memories,
the good and the bad.
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