KNOWING ABOUT THIS..

MAY 31: Today I want to write about culture. About BOOKS and their importance. My point of view is that we all have a lot to learn from France. In France you consider books as equally important for the survival of the nation and for everybody’s well-being as food and drink.   Or as president Mitterrand once said:   People lose contact to reality, if they are not surrounded by books!    This is in a way a continuation of what the old Roman author and politician Cicero once wrote:   If man has a lovely garden and a big library he does not need more! This fundamental attitude to books was also very important at the start of the present corona crisis in France.   The French government decided at once that bookshops and newspaper kiosks were of fundamental importance and had to continue to be open.   That was what happened – except in cases where they closed temporarily due to the safety of the staff. At the same time the on-line sale of books via Amazon exploded during the

MAY 30: Today I want to write about WHITSUN.   The holiday which in the Christian church is celebrated 50 days after Easter.    The name comes from PENTECOST being a day for baptisms, when participants would dress in white.   The name might also come from   the Anglo-Saxon work WIT, meaning understanding, to celebrate the disciples filled with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. What the Christian legend says is that the Holy Spirit came to see the disciples of Jesus on Day 50 after his resurrection at Easter. It came to teach them how to speak and understand all languages.   Very practical also at that time.   And the name Pentecost comes directly from the Greek word Pentecoste, which means 50. That is why Whitsun is called Pentecôte in French, Pfingsten in German, Pentecoste in Italian,   Pentecostés in Spanish, Pinksteren in Dutch, Pentikosti in Greek and Pinse in Danish. There are many traditions linked to Whitsun.   One is that you celebrate that now you go from winter

MAY 29: Yesterday I wrote about the so-called LAW OF JANTE. It was made I 1933 by the Danish-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose about life in a small Danish provincial town at the time. These are ten rules on how Danes and other Scandinavians think about others. They are all sort of negative rules, which many would recognize in their daily life. You can read more about them on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante In the meantime many years have passed. Many things have changed – or have they?   And not necessarily changed for the better, on the contrary. To make a point and to attract attention you often have to exaggerate a bit.  I have tried to do that with this new version of : LAW OF JANTE – OF TODAY: You have to be scared.   People are getting at you all the time. It is dangerous for you. Life, society, food, hospitals, traffic, people from other countries – all is dangerous You have to be envious.

MAY 28: You now and then hear, also from international studies, that the Danes are the happiest people in the world. If it is true it is, of course, good 😊 The interesting and necessary question then is:   Why is it so? The Danish-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose wrote in 1933 a novel, where he tries to find the answer.   The title of the novel is:   A fugitive crosses his tracks.   It describes what many consider to be the Danish-Nordic caution, moderation and modesty. Others say that they aspire to be average.   All this should - according to some - give happiness. Sandemose is writing about life in a small provincial town, he calls JANTE.   And he describes how people, incl. the young, are influenced by living there.  He puts the rules of life into a law with ten commandments.   It is called the LAW OF JANTE. Here they are: You're not to think you are anything special. You're not to think you are as good as we are. You're not

MAY 27: People have perhaps sometimes said to you:   This is pure volapyk!   This normally means that something is totally un-understandable ☹     But most people do not know where the word Volapyk – or volapük – comes from.   I have decided to write about it today: VOLAPÜK   is an artificial language created by the catholic German priest Johan Martin Schleyer in 1879. He claimed that God in a dream had asked him to create a new international language. He built his language on words and expressions from English, German and French. And very soon more than a hundred thousand Volaküpists were supporting the new language. International Volapük congresses were held in 1884 and 1887 (in Germany) and in 1889 (in Paris). The language used at these congresses was German, not Volapük. In 1889 you had 283 Volapük clubs and 25 magazines. And 316 text books existed in 25 languages. Around the turn of the century the language more or less disappeared again. It was too comp

MAY 26: Today I will write about something, which might bring me difficulties ☹    My two sons are professional historians.   They will definately criticize my topic.   I want to write about something, which never happened. My topic is:   If … history. Some people call it alternative history .   It is description of what might have happened, if what actually happened had not happened. It is called Contrafactual History – the history about what did not happen. You may start with yourself:   What might have happened, if your wife had not chosen you?   Or your husband did not choose you at the time? Or what might have happened, if you had chosen to do or study something very different than you did? Or if things had turned out differently at occasions, when you were close to be involved in an accident of some sort?    Our life is certainly full of unplanned coincidences. Try to take a short break and think about 3 concrete moments in your life, where things very e

MAY 25: It is an old tradition all over the world to make fun of the authorities. In particular when they consider themselves to be very important and unnecessarily serious. Often it is true that dictators and other authoritarian rulers have a very limited sense of humour. My firm belief is that the more dictatorial and narcistic they are the less they understand or accept humour making them a sort of laughing stock. You have lots of cases throughout history – also today.   Just try to reflect on typical cases today! Back in time authors like French Molière ( 1622-73 ) and the Danish-Norwegian poet Ludvig Holberg ( 1684-1754 ) were very good at it.   They made fun of rich people – all full of themselves. But they never attacked the ruling monarchs.   That is probably why they got away with it. Others who criticized the ruler were less lucky.   A Danish author, P.A. Heiberg ( 1758-1841 ), was forced to leave Denmark due to his criticism of the king.   He left in 1799

COFFEE is a lovely thing. The first friend to meet in the morning. And also at several occasions later in the day.  When I was still working in the Commission my coffee was always cold. Why?   Because each time I had made or got a cup of coffee the phone rang. Always.    And when I finished my talk it was always solid cold ☹    You can get used to it. After I retired and started to get warm coffee, I was still so attached to my old habit that if the phone now and then rang I sort of had an unconscious feeling that my coffee automatically would get cold.   And my surprise was immense, when this was not the case.   I seem to have talked more while I was working than I did afterwards 😊 What is the history behind coffee? Where does it come from? And why is it called coffee? Coffee is very old. It goes back to the 6 th century AC, when a shepherd looking after his goats discovered, that his goats got very excited, when they were chewing the berries from a special tree. It t

As you know I am writing about different topics every day. I try to select topics, which are of particular interest around that day – and topics I believe I have something to tell about.   If I am successful in doing so,   I will leave to you to decide. Day before yesterday I wrote about the 24 official official languages of the EU.   Yesterday my story was about the Stork.   And today I want to write about SOLIDARITY. Or rather:   SOLI-WHAT? I have always understood and supported solidarity in the sense, that it is about helping each other. Particularly to help others, when they are in difficulties. And that the help has to be given according to the principle that “the broadest shoulders have to carry the heaviest burdens”.   This means that those who are able to give the biggest help, will do so.   And it is all done with the conviction that helping others is also helping yourself.   This is true in your class, in your club, in your association, in your country, in Europ