This Week In Wijnjewoude 2021: Week 44

Week 44

As I'm still trying to come to grips with the increase in the price of gas, this article from the BBC got my attention

I'm also trying to wean myself from the American Podcasts. Putting my mind to the possible consequences of their slide from grace - ie what will happen to the rest of the world?. Perhaps Europe is getting shaky, but bricks and mortar should be the best security for us "ordinary folk"...and then there's climate change to worry about...oh, and painting the boat again...

I found this, attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a German anti-nazi pastor who was killed by the regime in 1945). I haven't read any of his stuff, so I don't know if he really said it (that's the nature of "news" these days). But, if he did say it... it certainly rings true today...

There was an article in the Trouw newspaper last year...

Thursday marks 75 years since the German theologian and resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged for his opposition to the Nazi regime. Today Trouw sheds light on his life, on the basis of a walk through Berlin.

"The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil". - Dietrich Bonhoeffer (about Germany).

Britain Alone

This audio book (history) has me intrigued...as good as any David Cornwell book. I think I probably had other things going on in my 20's and 30's...so much of what was happening in the world escaped me, or at least got only passing interest in The Age newspaper. I remember Osmond telling me that The Sun was for people who couldn't read and The Herald was for people who couldn't think. I'm pretty sure he would be appalled at the current state of the Murdoch press and the world's press in general.

Anyway, it's nice to have so much of history explained - and laying the background over the post-war years leading, ultimately, to Brexit. (If asked over here, I usually say that most of my Australian history at school was based on the history of England - I'm not at all sure where it is at the moment. I remember Miss Anderson in 3rd grade saying that "Australia rode on the Sheep's Back" for it's early wealth - I've also never forgotten that she described Australia as "a nation of hole diggers" - I guess that's mostly coal these days. (Ha, I wonder what her politics were?? - and was I so impressionable that it has stayed with me for more than 60 years?).

The book also gives the story of Britains joining the EU...

Boeke earning his keep

We moved the trampoline into the hayshed...

On Covid - we're back to wearing facemasks in shops and in the car with our clients. The numbers are all on the rise, so many of the more obvious restrictions are back in place.

The forest is delightful at this time of the year. (well, apart from the wind, rain and grey and getting dark at 1700hrs!) - it's still a good place to escape to...