All my certificates (accidentally) given with the paper collection

Over the past two weeks I have been trying to get some order again in my office and under a fierce tidying session have thrown all unnecessary papers out the door.

This morning, as I sat at the breakfast table and watched the paper collection drive by, I suddenly remembered that I had put all my diplomas and certificates with the paper waste.

Gone were all the proofs of courses taken. Nothing for the children and grandchildren to take a moment to show how grandfather had done his best and passed this or none.

…….

Al mijn certificaten (per ongeluk) met de papierophaling mee gegeven

In de afgelopen 2 weken en heb ik geprobeerd weer orde in mijn bureau te krijgen en heb onder een hevige opruimingssessie alle onnodige papieren de deur uitgegooid.

Deze ochtend toen ik aan de ontbijttafel zat en de papier ophaling voorbij zag rijden, dacht ik er plotseling aan dat ik al mijn diplomas en certicifaten mee bij de papierafval had gedaan.

Weg alle bewijzen van gevolgde cursussen. Niets voor de kinderen en kleinkinderen om even te laten zien hoe grootvader zijn best had gedaan en geslaagd was voor dit of geen.

…..

Deranged world endlessly chasing after the delusionally fussy

Britain is a rampantly competitive society. The story goes that Great Britain has evolved from an aristocratic dystopia built on slavery to a civilised democracy with a welfare state. Britain might be more accurately described as a proletarian nation overseen by a cosmopolitan elite.

The Big Island is not the only one just looking at a competitive community. On the mainland, many people have also fallen into the trap of measuring themselves against others, via social media.

In the past, it was the competence, the ability of people that played an important role in obtaining a job. A few decades ago, people looked more at the papers that people could submit. The paper, with the right degree or certification, everything was decisive, without papers one did not get into it or had no chance to succeed.

Decently paid manufacturing jobs have been replaced with cashier and call assistant roles. Degrees no longer function as certificates of education, but rather elite passports – with only those bearing the stamp of the most outstanding institutions gaining passage to the interview rooms of the top firms. Economic stagnation is making things worse. The availability of entry-level roles and their average attached wage has shrunk since Covid. So, too, the number of middle income openings.

Normally, competitiveness is not originally tied to a particular work, but our society has started to make it so. Hyper-competitiveness is also not just baked into the economy but into every aspect of life for the young.
Nowadays, many younger people want to reflect on others they know, even if they have formed an image of others via Facebook and Instagram. Many appear completely different on social media than they actually are. Others who watch social media are happy to believe that the ‘truth’ is being told there.

Sherelle Jacobs looks at the app-based Disneyfication of romantic expectation that intersects with cutthroat algorithms aimed at subscriber retention.

This has created a deranged world where the delusionally desperate endlessly chase after the delusionally fussy, who endlessly chase after an elite who strictly date within their own pool of perfect specimens. On Tinder, it has been estimated that the bottom 80 per cent of men chase the top 20 per cent of women, while the top 80 per cent of women chase the top 20 per cent of men.

We can very well see how today this reflection on others is pernicious. Several are drawn to the depths of dissatisfaction and depression. It is incredible how one finds many children who need help from a psychiatrist or psychologist as early as late teens.
Through news reports, we keep hearing alarming reports of youth stabbings and rising drug violence among teenagers and 20-somethings. Many cities are facing a very serious problem there.
The problems of that pampered or spoilt generation show themselves in all sorts of areas.

There are physical signs that the struggle between the ideal and the real is resulting in disturbing behaviours.
Take the outbreak of “bigorexia” in the gyms of South Wales, as insecure young men with limited future prospects pump themselves with steroids, and fall into a spiral of body dysmorphia. Or the incels who are sinking into a dangerous kind of entitled self-loathing, as they succumb not only to suicidal ideation and self-harm, but an extremist ideology that teaches that women who refuse to sleep with men are committing “reverse rape”.

Not only is Great Britain also tortured by its own spin on the American Dream,

a diabolical lie that ours is a compassionate, kind, “fair-play” society in which even someone who coasts along can expect a quaintly comfortable life.

These days, this myth is instilled from childhood through various practices – from the trend of teachers marking homework in “neutral” colours rather than red pen, to non-competitive sports days where it is the “taking part that counts”. 

Because in recent years, teachers were not allowed to set clear lines and children were made to feel that they could just do things, we are now left with the game on the loose, and it is high time that honour is restored to solid human and moral values for the next generations.

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Read also: Endemic misery is pushing the UK towards a civilisational catastrophe, by Sherelle Jacobs

When I was five and dreams were not established yet

JetPack raises a question where I am now putting down something that would belong in a private diary. But I have never maintained a diary. Now, at a more mature age, perhaps we get homesick for certain times or memories come to cloud the mind again.
So here is a writing that could have been plucked from my diary.

I think I sang: Qué será será

I wanted to become a priest or a musical star

When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?

At five my clock of time to start my life how I wanted was perhaps not ringing yet. One year later the alarm clock wanted to get out of my dreams, walking towards my dreams.

Five years, of which I do not know much, but When I was six I imagined myself already dancing on the streets and singing on the rooftops. My heart also felt the love for the Creator of all those incredible things around me. Would it not be great to serve that Master? Brought up in a Roman Catholic family I looked up at those priest and all those rites they did. At school the religious education intrigued me. The catechism classes gave me questions and answers. My love for God grew and I imagined myself serving Him. But then not being able to marry seemed something I did not like so much. I wanted to form a family, and have lots of kids. Without a female partner that seemed impossible. A few years later, the need for female beauty came even more to the fore.

Serving God was a few years later solved by becoming an acolyte. But questions seemed to grow more. I found lots of answers in the Bible not conform to the teachings of the Catholic church. A few years later, (a little bit wiser), made me look at other denominations. Six years later bringing me into a church community where they worshipped the Real God of the Bible. Then I also took the courage to go against the stream and became a non-trinitarian Baptist.

The other dream, after I passed the five-year line, I mentioned to my mother in the kitchen. After I had mentioned I wanted to become a musical star, I got such a slap on my face that I knew such a choice was not to be made in our family.

One could say, that after five, my clock became a secret clock with many seconds of silence. I continued my sleep, dreaming of the impossible. That brought me to ‘mission impossible’, first enjoying openly the gym club, but then in secret going to ballet classes. To cover the costs, I went doing some ‘student jobs’ and used also all the financial gifts to help me out.

After some years, my parents had no choice but to let me study for that particular profession that was not on their list. As such, I rolled into the theatre world, where I also met several people interested in religious matters.

Years later, when most of the time I was teaching, I became an active elder in the church. With the computer and internet making the entrance in life, I was caught to proclaim via modern technology.

As soon I got retired, I spent most of my time preaching on the internet. In a way, my life clock brought me back to the time I passed five. Now I am another sort of priest envisioned when I was so young. Funny to see how life turns us around, and that we land on our two feet where we were supposed to be in the end.

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Preceding

1. Art and other taboos
2. Many opportunities given by God
3. Sacrifices to be made
4. Teenage advice
5. At the same age as me my parents where doing the same
6. Technology enabling to bring life into the world

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Some other thoughts

1. That what never would be done
2. Dancing, Loving, Singing and Living
3. Panamarenko’s exhibition
4. To Endeavour to live the life which one has imagined
5. Keeping faith in youth dreams
6. Keeping faith in youth dreams
7. Chasing the Horizon: Pursuing Biggest Dreams
8. Dreams not like luggage that gets lost
9. Things wishing never to lose

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Related to: Do you remember what you wanted to be when you were five years old? 

1. When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?
2. When I Was Five: A Reflection on Childhood Dreams and Future
3. Youthful Dreams!
4. Childhood Dreams captivated by the power of storytelling
5. Childhood dreams
6. Childhood wishes that never die.
7. Memories of Suppression or Impression?
8. Dreams of 5 year old me
9. When I was Five.
10. When I was five I was content. I was living on my great-grandmother’s farm. I couldn’t see a life beyond the peaceful Eden.
11. When I was five, I wanted to be…
12. Daily Dose
13. Innocence
14. Big Dreams
15. A Wish Of 5 Year Old Child
16. Hippity Hops and Big Wheels… When I was five, I was far too busy learning how to balance on a Hippity Hop, to plan my future career!
17. What do we all want?!
18. Want to be when you grew up
19. KID
20. Imaginary bliss
21. Singing My Way Through Childhood: A Five-Year-Old’s Dream
22. Someone with a longer name
23. What to be
24. Orator
25. When l was five, l wanted to become a pilot.
26. I wanted to become a police officer
27. I wanted to be a veterinarian
28. Firefighter, Astronaut, and Teacher: Childhood-dreams revealed
29. Dora the explorer- the dream of my 5 year old self
30. Dreams of Locomotion
31. Generation gap
32. Grew up

Technology enabling to bring life into the world

How has technology changed your job?

Modern technology

For sure, without modern technology, I would not be here already for a long time. For years I would have been under the sole, having become dust in the earth.

After two near deaths, and three heart attacks, I have now once more the opportunity to revalidate at the hospital. Other moments, I can use computer technology to help me with my preaching work.

Communication

Years ago, it would have taken ‘ages’ before words could be exchanged over the borders and seas. Now, the pc gives us the possibility to write and send messages all over the world. So many people have the opportunity to communicate with each other even when miles away from each other.

Even though as a Bible researcher I can live in isolation, I still get many opportunities to exchange ideas with other Bible students and I have also been given the opportunity to spread my ideas frequently.

Smartwatch

I really enjoy the many possibilities that the computer offers, but also other technological finds, such as the watch I am wearing now, which allows heart, stress and other data to be recorded on my telephone application, so that doctors can follow up on all data.
Even though I did follow up all the alarms this summer, I still had a third heart attack in Spain. Admitted to a hospital there, the doctors were able to view all previous reports of my health condition via an app. After taking photos of this, they obtained everything neatly translated into Spanish on their phone or tablet. Isn’t that pretty? We hardly think about it anymore!

Data exchange

To this extent, current technology can make vital data clear, but it also gives us the opportunity to ‘send life messages into space’. Every day, I use this wonderful technique to further spread the Word of God and try to spread the Message of Good News worldwide.

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Please find also to read:

1. To maintain a healthy relationship with technology
2. Isolated students and internet learning
3. That what brings joy to your life
4. Technology bringing words of encouragement into the world

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3. Honestly…
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6. Technology and Work
7. How has technology changed my work…
8. How has technology changed your job?
9. Drastic
10. Technology and Writing
11. Daily Prompt: Technology and Retail
12. Depends on who you ask…
13. Does the technology in Stagate stand up to today ?
14. Technology literally gave me the job
15. Do advances in technology inspire advances in human rights?
16. The tech leap would be fun, Right?
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18. Rapid changes!
19. I’m a student – technology has changed educational system
20. Technology and Work
21. The good and the bad
22. Positive Technology
23. The Great Spark
24. To suppress the unemployed
25. It made it lazy
26. Till now technology is different and intrested
27. Appointments
28. My job!!!
29. Water your grass

Overgevoelig is het woord dat me best omschrijft

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Daily writing prompt

What is one word that describes you?

View all responses

Men zou me best kunnen plaatsen onder de overgevoelige types. Al van kleins af was ik erg gevoelig en trok me veel te veel dingen aan.

Zelfs als ik een film bekijk kunnen tranen over mijn wangen rollen. Heel wat zaken waar ik geen vat kan op hebben, raken me toch zodanig, dat ik er soms gefrustreerd van wordt. Langs de andere kant, maakte mijn gevoeligheid het mogelijk om me gemakkelijk in een rol in te leven, zodat ik op de scene zowel als in de film een overtuigende rol kon vertolken.

Door alles zo aan te trekken wenste ik ook overal hulp te verlenen, wat echter onmogelijk is. Toch probeerde ik zoveel mogelijk te helpen daar waar ik kon. Nu ben ik al wat bewuster geworden van mijn vele beperkingen en tracht ik er mee te leven dat ik niet overal zo veel hulp kan bieden als ik wel zou willen. Vroeger kwamen bedelaars als vliegen op me af, maar daar wist mijn echtgenote vlug een einde aan te maken.

Door dat mijn gevoeligheid ook zichtbaar of gekend was door anderen, probeerden meerderen hier misbruik van te maken of trachten me hiermee te ondermijnen, waarin ze dan dikwijls slaagden, doordat ik totaal verlamde.

Bij het beheren van mijn balletgezelschap, tijdens mijn balletmeesterschap in het gezelschap van anderen, bij het lesgeven, wenste ik altijd het beste te doen voor “mijn dansers” en hun lichaam zoveel mogelijk te beschermen, zodat ze zo lang mogelijk zouden kunnen dansen en gezond blijven.
Hun werk voor het gezelschap was alles voor mij, en als een vader trachtte ik voor hen altijd klaar te staan, maar ook het beste te wensen als zij ons verlieten.

Komen en gaan maken deel uit van het leven. Zulke zaken roerden mij dan ook en treffen nog steeds mijn ziel.

Vandaag, ben ik wat rustiger geworden dan vroeger en besef ik ook meer mijn beperkingen in mijn mogelijkheden om anderen bij te staan of om hulp te bieden. Zotte kuren van zeer dure zendingen naar hulpbehoevende streken uit te voeren is er niet meer bij.

Mijn hart heeft me ook ernstige signalen gestuurd dat ik wat moet temperen. Ook al zal het niet altijd makkelijk zijn om rustiger aan te doen, maar de motor heeft laten aanvoelen dat deze wat overwerkt is geraakt.

Nu gaat mijn meeste aandacht naar de kerkgemeenschap die ik in België tracht op te bouwen. Ook daar wordt ik regelmatig geconfronteerd met mensen met moeilijkheden allerhande. Zoveel mogelijk tracht ik nu in die kleine gemeenschap en voor vluchtelingen hier mijn best te doen, terwijl ik toch ook nog verder algemeen het voor de zwakkere op neem, zowel voor mens als dier in de gehele wereld.

Photo by Alexander Suhorucov on Pexels.com

Hypersensitive is the word that best describes me

Photo by Suraphat Nuea-on on Pexels.com

Daily writing prompt

What is one word that describes you?

View all responses

One could best place me among the hypersensitive types. Since childhood, I was very sensitive and attracted far too many things.

Even when I watch a film, tears can roll down my cheeks. A lot of things I can’t control nevertheless affect me to the extent that I sometimes get frustrated. On the other hand, my sensitivity made it easy to empathise with a role, so I could play a convincing role on the scene as well as in the film.

Putting everything on so much also made me wish to help everywhere, which is impossible, however. Still, I tried to help as much as I could wherever I could. Now I have already become a bit more aware of my many limitations and try to live with the fact that I cannot offer as much help everywhere as I would like. Beggars used to come at me like flies, but my wife soon managed to put a stop to that.

Because my sensitivity was also visible or known by others, several people tried to abuse it or undermine me with it, in which they often succeeded, because I became totally paralysed.

In managing my ballet company, during my ballet mastery in the company of others, in teaching, I always wished to do the best for “my dancers” and protect their bodies as much as possible, so that they could dance and stay healthy for as long as possible. Their work for the company was everything to me, and like a father, I always tried to be there for them, but also to wish them well when they left us.

Coming and going are part of life. Such things therefore stirred me and still affect my soul.

Today, I have become a bit calmer than before and I am also more aware of my limitations in my ability to assist or help others. Performing foolish cures of very expensive shipments to needy regions is no longer an option.

My heart has also sent me serious signals that I need to slow down a bit. Even though it will not always be easy to slow down, but the engine has made it feel that it has become a bit overworked.

Now most of my attention goes to the church community I am trying to build in Belgium. There, too, I am regularly confronted with people with difficulties of all kinds. As much as possible, I try to do my best in this small community and for refugees here, while still generally standing up for the weak, both human and animal, in the whole world.

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Pexels.com

What can be registered the most important invention of the 20th century

The most important invention in your lifetime is…

In the second decade of the 21st century, everybody seems to find it normal to have the whole world at their fingertips by means of their smartphone, laptop or electronic notebook.

The computer has become the tool no man can seem to miss, and people are often not aware it is around them everywhere in house tools, machinery, etc.

The time that the first computers were used primarily for numerical calculations, might not have so long been in the past. Rather than grasping details overall at a glance, the electronic tool still has to process information sequentially. Rather quickly, the computer has overpowered the landscape with its speed and, in just a few decades, has made us rely entirely on its ability to serve us quickly. We have even completely resigned ourselves to it and can hardly do without its powerful power.

After World War II analogue computers used continuous physical magnitudes to represent quantitative information whilst voltages were used. By the 1960s, digital computers had largely replaced them. Nonetheless, analogue computers, and some hybrid digital-analogue systems, continued in use through the 1960s in tasks such as aircraft and spaceflight simulation.

Microprocessors came to the world to help, but like minicomputers, early microcomputers had relatively limited storage and data-handling capabilities. It is incredible how fast the world of microprocessors moved and got us in the ban of trying to do more with it. They grew as storage technology has improved alongside processing power.

I still have some towers tucked away, but have gone now to work daily on my laptop. Today, the distinction between workstation and PC has virtually vanished, with PCs having the power and display capability of workstations. CPU chips now also contain some high-speed cache memory where data and instructions are temporarily stored for fast access. Everything seems to work faster now, though we have become so used to it that sometimes we do consider our laptop still going too slow. I mostly forget it can well be I have too many windows in Firefox open, wanting to have everything at hand.

The emergence of the Internet in the 1990s as not only a communication medium, but also one of the principal focuses of computer use, may be the most significant development in computing in the past several decades.

I cannot deny, that I have become very dependent on the technological wonders. I am therefore very happy that I can use it every day, which means, that you have now also been able to read this blog, without you or I, having to leave the house or have had to wait days before reading what I ‘pinned’ down.

Is the situation within the United States really as bad as Donald Trump makes it seem?

A typical attitude we got accustomed to see when Donald Trump had to reply to certain questions

Donald Trump makes it seem as if the country has deteriorated terribly with the United States during Joe Biden‘s reign.

Depending on one’s perspective and political beliefs one could say the country has moved forwards, whilst others would be able to argue the country moved backwards.

Some may argue that there are significant issues and challenges facing the United States, such as political polarisation, economic inequality, and social unrest. Regarding the latter, many Trump supporters forget that it is precisely that man who is largely the cause of a lot of unrest in the States that he is actually incompatible with. For the past four years, Trump has never stopped taunting his opponents and sending out all kinds of lies spiced with hate language.
Trump likes to cite a witch hunt on him. At the same time, he proclaims that he could end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza in just a few days. Even though he has still not accepted Zelenski’s invitation, who asked him to do so.

Especially in agricultural areas and far from large city areas, Trump is taking the lead and making people believe that their country is in worse shape than when he was president.

In cities and by more educated people, others may believe that Trump exaggerates or distorts these issues for his own political gain.

The quality of life in the United States has generally been improving over the last eight years. Unemployment rates have continued to decline, average household income has been increasing, and the poverty rate has been decreasing. However, many Americans forget that it is because of their own selfishness and their unwillingness to have a state health system that many Americans encounter financial difficulties if they experience a serious medical problem.

But even though many improvements can be seen in the social field, Trump is very black in his reviews and many Americans seem to believe him rather than the figures.

As for inflation, it has been relatively low and stable over the past eight years. Compared to the Americans, we, on that level, have much more to complain about here in Europe and our shopping cart has become a lot more expensive and our purchasing power has diminished considerably.  For the North Americans, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), or the indicator that measures the changes in the price level of consumer goods and services within the United States of America, has shown a modest increase over the years, showing that the average change in prices paid by consumers for goods and services are staying below the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.

The Consumer Price Index for Europe, used by policymakers, economists, and businesses to analyse economic trends and make informed decisions, is at a current level of 127.74, down from 127.95 last month and up from 123.90 one year ago. This is a change of -0.16% from last month and 3.10% from one year ago. The ECB’s Governing Council also considers that price stability is best maintained by aiming for 2% over the medium term, but we are far from it.

In 2022, the highest annual inflation rates among EU Member States were recorded in Estonia (19.4 %), Lithuania (18.9 %) and Latvia (17.2 %), and the highest annual price increases in the EU were recorded for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (up 18.0 %) and transport (up 12.1 %).

Annual inflation in Europe accelerated from 2017 to 2019; decreased in 2020 under the impact of the COVID-19 measures and increased sharply in 2021 and more than tripled in 2022. Price changes in Japan were generally lower than in the EU, whereas they were generally higher in the United States and China, except in recent years. During the period 2013-2022, consumer prices rose by an annual average of 0.8 % in Japan, 2.3 % in the United States and 1.9 % in China.

In the US, inflation has peaked at 8.9% annually in June 2022 according to the CPI, whilst in the euro area, inflation peaked at 10.6% (measured by HICP) in October 2022, again 4 months later. Such levels of inflation had not been observed since the early 1980s in the US and in European countries.

US prices for used cars and trucks soared during the second quarter of 2021 for a number of reasons: new cars, a close substitute, were less available because of a slowdown in production stemming from semiconductor shortages, rental car companies reduced sales of their used cars amid stronger demand for car rentals as the economy re-opened, preferences shifted away from public to private transport, and household disposable income was boosted by fiscal stimuli – pushing up demand for used cars in the United States. The rise in prices for used cars and trucks alone represented, at 1.5 percentage points, around half the increase in US CPI inflation less food and energy from 1.4% in January 2021 to 4.3% in July 2021.
US prices for travel-related and transportation services rose strongly following the easing of containment measures, which has led to a substantial positive contribution to CPI inflation over the last few months.

Whilst food prices have gone up a lot in Europe, in the USA they vary depending on the region, the type of food, and whether it is purchased at a grocery store or a restaurant, but it can be said that generally, food prices in the USA are relatively affordable compared to other countries.
However, some items, such as fresh produce and speciality foods, may be more expensive. Additionally, prices can fluctuate due to factors such as seasonality, supply and demand, and the cost of transportation. Overall, the cost of food in the USA is considered to be reasonable for the quality and variety of options available.
It can be said that ‘eating junk’ or unhealthy foods in the States is a lot cheaper than here, but that people have to dig deeper into their pockets for organic goods and healthier nutrients. So those who are looking forward to eating healthier may be worse off than Europeans who are better off in terms of a health-controlled diet.

Overall, the state of quality of life and inflation in the United States over the last eight years has been positive, with improvements in several key economic indicators.

The concrete figures blame Trump for what he largely trumpets and wants his supporters to believe. Strangely enough, besides Nikki Haley, there are no republican candidates who want to expose that blowhard in their party.
The first woman to have ever won a race in a Republican primary, despite winning the District of Columbia Republican primary with 62% of the vote on March 3, 2024, and the Vermont Republican Party primary with 50% of the vote on March 5, Haley threw the towel in the ring and announced in a speech in Charleston, the suspension of her campaign on March 6, 2024, one day after Super Tuesday, signalling the end of her bid for the presidency.

A major problem in the United States of America is that everything revolves around money and some candidates can only come forward for the elections if they have many millions behind them. Those who do not have much money also have no chance of pushing through to obtain votes to ensure sufficient electoral votes.

Because a large bully can speak highly and no one in his own party dares to compete against him, a very dangerous candidate for the elections of that world superpower will be put forward again this year.

American citizens should know that it is important to critically evaluate information and consider multiple perspectives in order to form a well-informed opinion on the state of their country. They will also have to consider very seriously who they will want to give power to, and whether that person will be able to guarantee peace and tranquillity in their own country and abroad.

In any case, American citizens will have to make sure that if they want that ‘great speaker’ back to power, they will not bring danger to their own country and even to the world!

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Preceding

Expanding opportunities for more American families

The greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. history according to Donald Trump

Is he doing it again

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Find also to read:

1. Francis Fukuyama and ‘The End of History?’
2. Blinded crying blue murder having being made afraid by a bugaboo
3. The clean sweeper of the whole caboodle
4. Trump brand of migrant demonization #1
5. Jews the next scapegoat for Donald Trump
6. The American clouds of Anti-Semitism
7. Trump has been buffetted by accusations of misconduct
8. Fearmongering succeeded and got the bugaboo a victory
9. Voted against their system
10. Incidents of hate have become commonplace in the U.S.A. anno 2017
11. According to Pew Most White Evangelicals Don’t Think COVID-19 is a Medical Crisis
12. A new decade, To open the eyes to get a right view
13. Death to the GOP! Or not.
14. Trump going over the top bringing a blasphemous act
15. Thought by Presidents’ Day 2022
16. Jan 6th bombshell Trump’s at the wheel!
17. January 6: A Failed Apocalypse
18. Pence says ‘history will hold Donald Trump accountable’ for Jan. 6 in strong rebuke
19. As Expected
20. Balance of power in the first week of August 2022
21. Behaviour of American Christians
22. Culture War Christianity in American history
23. What causes the Rise of the Far-Right
24. What 2022 brought to us and looking forward to 2023
25. Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump’s fate
26. Things are getting Stormy for Trump
27. Need for the Republican Party to “cleanse itself” of Donald Trump
28. Saturday night rally biggest political showdown yet of the 2024 Republican primary contest
29. The New York Times looking at the 4th week of May 2023
30. If you thought the electoral appeal of populism was on the wane, think again.
31. Campaign trail in Iowa
32. Denier of any wrongdoing danger for democracy
33. The Telegraph’s Frontpage for Tuesday Novembre 07
34. Political theatrics of Mr Trump
35. The single greatest witch hunt of all time
36. The public figure I disagree with most
37. Meta: Stop the False Election Ads Now
38. Donald Trump far-outpaced his nearest competitors in Iowa
39. GOP candidates campaign on final day before frigid Iowa caucuses
40. Des Moines, Iowa January 2024

At the same age as me my parents where doing the same

What were your parents doing at your age?

My father when he had my age I have now, was like me retired, but also still active in religious and ethic matters. As a pharmacist, he was concerned with the treatment of sick people and how we could help those in need. He wrote articles and co-organised conferences about ethics in medical care.

For years, he also had given money as a foster parent and many aid-organisations. But the amount of money he spent to good causes, more than once, came under discussion at home. It seemed difficult for him to see that he could not help everybody. In his professional life, his door had stood open at all times for those in need. Sometimes also with us protesting, also wanting some more time with us.

I can imagine, that all the letters and articles he wrote at that time, no computers or internet, demanded a lot more time than today.

Many years later I also work for a church (be it a totally different denomination than his) and write also several articles per month. As such, perhaps I am aware that this must be some genes I got from my father.

Me too, I keep going on in my retirement, working for the Christadelphian community, for no pay, putting a lot of money in it. And when I look in the mirror I start to see more and more my father and my grandfather.