Author: Brand Smit

Week 24, 2020

MONDAY, 8 JUNE 2020

A few days ago we watched one of the last episodes of Gilmore Girls. The mother and daughter are at an old friend’s wedding. The dresses they wear are in totally different styles, but I conclude that both dresses were in fashion at the time the episode showed (2007), seeing that these types of TV series make use of the services of highly-paid fashion consultants.

I couldn’t help thinking once again how arbitrary fashion is.

Now, I’ve seen The Devil Wears Prada, where the devil explains to the innocent dummy how complicated fashion actually is.

What I don’t understand is why both of those dresses – different styles as they are – can be in fashion at the same time. Who decides on this? Where’s the line? I have seen how one after the other woman’s fashion choices are complimented, and then another woman appears on the scene, who in my opinion is following the exact same fashion, but she is completely eviscerated, like a wounded antelope being ripped apart by a group of hyenas.

Why are polka dot dresses in fashion one year, and a year or two later not a single woman would want to be buried in one? Why is soft pastel a joke one year, and the next year every young lady who regards herself as “with the times” wants to be seen in one?

The answer, of course, is that authority figures in the fashion world, the Devils in their Prada, decide what is fashion. It’s as if they have roulette-type wheels in their offices in New York, or Paris, or Milan. Instead of numbers, there are styles in each pocket on the edge of the wheel: “Colourful blocks”, “Soft pastel”, “Orange”, “Military style”, “Transient”, “Angler”, “Black and white”, “Purple with yellow explosions”. A few months before the start of each “season”, the designers then spin their wheels, noting where the ball falls. Then they design. And all the models wear “Angler”, or “Transient”, or “Soft Pastel”. And millions of women and men think it’s absolute genius, and wonderful, and can’t wait to get to a store to spend their hard-earned money on clothing they will deny they ever wore in five years’ time.

“Didn’t I see you in ‘Angler’ a few years ago?” someone will ask at a party. “Never!” the woman would scream before running into the bathroom in her colourful “Military Style” dress.

Same with the latest fad of men wearing expensive leather shoes without socks. How did this happen? One designer forgot to wash his socks one day, and then he didn’t have any clean pairs to put on for a meeting the next morning. “I know!” he cried out. “I’m going to wear my expensive Italian shoes with expensive trousers, without socks! And because it is me doing it, everyone is going to think it’s the new fashion!” And the moment the news broke, young men – and older men who consider themselves to have a sense of fashion – thought it was the best discovery in years. “Of course!” they blurted out. “We see it now! Hard leather shoes against your skin! Our eyes are finally open!”

TUESDAY, 9 JUNE 2020

A friendly notice to friends, family, and general consumers of this content: I will henceforth no longer take you seriously if you use any of the words or phrases in the following list in casual conversation. I will indeed regard you as an intellectually shallow babbler, or even as a sucker for a fundamentalist religious movement – that is, unless you are prepared to defend these loaded phrases with logic and proper historical references, and without resorting to even more obscure in-group jargon.

The list:

• Fascist
• Anti-fascist
• White supremacist
• White privilege
• White fragility
• Patriarchy
• “Sex is a spectrum”
• Transphobia
• Islamophobia
• “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”
• Non-binary
• Cultural appropriation
• Intersectional
• Systemic racism
• Cisgender
• Heteronormativity
• Fat shaming
• Toxic masculinity
• White tears

Now, to be clear, I’m not saying you may not use these words or phrases in conversation with me. Why would I? I believe in free speech! You can say whatever the heck you want! What I am saying is that I will regard you in an unflattering way if you do use these terms.

If, however, you say, “Well, fuck you. I’ll defend my use of these terms. You’d better go get yourself a sandwich and a cup of coffee because we’re going to be a while,” I would go get that coffee and sandwich and prepare myself for what could possibly be an interesting debate. That is to say if you don’t disappoint me with even more jargon, and no logic or historical reference.

WEDNESDAY, 10 JUNE 2020

Your roommate says he’s going to the store and should he buy you anything.

You say, “Yes, thank you. Buy me some apples and bananas, and a bottle of mineral water. Here’s some money.”

An hour later he returns and hands you a pack of salt and vinegar crisps, a bag of oranges and a bottle of sunflower oil.

You shake your head incredulously and ask what’s going on.

He says, well, is that not what you asked him to buy.

Or he says, well, that’s his interpretation of what you wanted, and he’s going to be terribly upset if you claim his interpretation is wrong.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the problem with discussing values and ideology these days. Words and phrases such as “racism” and “fascism” and “white supremacy” nowadays have completely different meanings than what you’ve always thought. Nowadays, a Jewish person whose grandmother died in a German concentration camp could be called a Nazi – or even more absurd, an Actual Nazi, which may mean he was actually there, on the parade ground in Nuremberg when Hitler made a speech about the Jewish Question. A black intellectual who employs logic and historical data in arguing that people should take responsibility for their own lives, and create their own future and not be defined by the past, is called an “Uncle Tom”, or – as one could expect in these absurd times – a White Supremacist.

And don’t dare call yourself a non-racist. Don’t even think of saying anything about having taken to heart what Martin Luther King said in 1963, that people should be treated according to the content of their character and not the colour of their skin. You will be accused of being an even bigger racist than George Wallace – the Alabama governor of the 1960s, and possibly even more dangerous.

No, best to do your own shopping these days.

THURSDAY, 11 JUNE

Facts. A thing that can either be conclusively proven or refuted by repeated, unbiased testing.

“Unbiased?” you may ask.

An unbiased person is someone who does not care whether pure water boils at 74.5 degrees Celsius or at 100 degrees Celsius at sea level. They simply boil the water and record the temperature at which the water reaches boiling point. They might boil water a hundred or a thousand times to confirm the result. At the end of this series of tests, it is possible to state as a fact that pure water boils at X degrees Celsius at sea level.

“What,” someone in these interesting times might ask, “if a Trans Person of Colour confirms what had already been established in previous experiments, namely that pure water boils at 100 degrees Celsius at sea level, and a Cis-gendered White Male says that pure water boils at 85.3 degrees Celsius at sea level?”

I would say the person who confirmed that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius is correct.

“What if it’s the other way around?” someone might ask. “What if the Trans Person of Colour states that pure water boils at 85.3 degrees Celsius at sea level and the Cis-gendered White Male says it boils at 100 degrees?”

Same answer. Isn’t that how science works?

What if your interlocutor then suggests that science is a tool of white supremacy, and needs to be decolonised?

My advice would be to slowly back away, mumble something about another appointment, and when you have established sufficient distance from the person, start running. Don’t look back.

FRIDAY, 12 JUNE 2020

A good way to give yourself a better chance at a comfortable retirement is to invest in yourself. One article describes it as follows: “[Investing in yourself] is actually the simplest, the lowest risk, and quite possibly the most profitable investment you can make. Best of all, it usually doesn’t require a whole lot of money. What you want to do is invest in yourself in such a way that you can improve your income earning ability and your investment performance.”

The cartoonist and writer, Scott Adams, in his book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, also provides a list of skills in which every adult should have a basic knowledge: Public speaking, Psychology, business writing, accounting, design (the basics), conversation, overcoming shyness, a second language, golf, proper grammar, persuasion, technology (hobby level), and proper voice technique.

After some consideration, I came up with a list for myself. Here is an abridged version:

1. Language – Chinese, but also English and even Afrikaans (my native language)
2. Setting up and maintaining a website and social media profiles
3. The marketing and advertising of products on the Internet
4. Financial knowledge – stocks and bonds, but also the day trading of indices and foreign exchange
5. Self-defence, including hand-to-hand combat techniques and weapon use
6. Cooking and baking
7. Fixing electronic devices (basic knowledge – enough not to endanger myself)
8. Plumbing
9. Photography and videography
10. Persuasion
11. Graphic design (good enough to design my own covers, and so on)
12. Public Speaking

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Week 23, 2020

MONDAY 1 JUNE 2020

Is this mayor Democrat or Republican? Is she liberal or conservative? Does it matter?

Watch every second of this Atlanta Mayor’s speech.

Every other city leader in the country should take notes from her. pic.twitter.com/OIw8VIlUik

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) May 30, 2020

TUESDAY, 2 JUNE 2020

I couldn’t resist the temptation yesterday to comment on a graphic post on my Facebook feed:

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to add, but decided to do it here instead.

People would say: We’re also upset about the looting, but we should be more upset about the killing of an unarmed man.

“More” upset? How do you measure that? Who measures the degree of upset-ness? More or less upset is a bullshit topic. It’s about signalling your apparent virtue. What exactly do you mean when you tell people, “I’m upset about the destruction of people’s livelihoods, but I’m more upset about the killing of an unarmed man”? How upset are you then about the destruction of people’s businesses? 50 upset? 64 upset, but definitely less than 83 upset?

Be upset about both, like most reasonable people are. Both are serious events. Both reflect something seriously wrong with society.

And think twice next time before you pay attention to people who would like you to be “more upset” about one thing that destroys society, and less upset about the other.

* * *

We’re not comparing the taking of a life to the looting of a business; we’re comparing two acts of destruction. The one act led to the immediate death of a man, while the other series of acts, repeated in dozens of cities, will reduce the life quality of possibly thousands of people, for possibly more than a generation. Do yourself a favour and read up on how the looting and destruction of businesses in previous riots have led to abandoned buildings and depressed neighbourhoods, decades after the riots. To argue that one could be upset about it, but not “more” upset than you should be about the tragic ending of a man’s life, is to not understand the impact of destruction.

* * * Something just occurred to me. People are fond of speaking of privilege these days. Could your privilege of not living in a destroyed inner-city neighbourhood, and not suffering the consequences of “righteous looting” have anything to do with you not being “more” upset about it?

WEDNESDAY, 3 JUNE 2020

My position on Taiwanese independence is that it is up to the adult population of Taiwan to decide. This is not something the people of China need to decide on, because they do not live in Taiwan, and have not contributed to the vibrant democratic society Taiwan has become. Arguments can be made for both reunification with the mainland and for independence. If the people of Taiwan decide they want to be part of the People’s Republic of China, then I will be a permanent resident of the People’s Republic of China. If they decide Taiwan is indeed an independent state, I will be a permanent resident of the Republic of Taiwan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_independence_movement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrocession_Day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_unification

THURSDAY, 4 JUNE 2020

You look at what’s going on in American cities, and you think: It’s horrible.

You look at the posters that some people are displaying, and you see that it’s about the death of a black man at the hands of a white policeman.

You see people running through the streets, smashing windows, robbing shops and businesses and setting them on fire, overturning cars and setting them on fire. You see groups of people attacking people standing on their own – one person was even kicked in the head after lying prone on the ground.

The people must be furious about the black man killed by the cop, you think to yourself. Either that, or something else is going on here.

You think of yourself as someone who’s also against racism, against unnecessary violent arrests, against the targeting of minorities by a powerful majority. Nevertheless, before throwing your weight behind the people who set fire to places with such ferocity and who march through the streets, before you post memes on Facebook to show your support, and before you make it clear at a social event what side of the political line you position yourself, ask yourself if it is prudent to first make sure of the facts. It has always been a good idea in the past, right? I mean, why would you trust someone else to tell you what it’s about? Why would you march before you know what you’re marching for? Are you a child that obediently does what he’s told? Are you gullible? Are you naive? Of course not.

Here are some questions you can research in your own time:

1. How many unarmed black people have died at the hands of the police in America in the last year or so?

2. How many unarmed white people have died at the hands of the police in America in the last year or so?

3. How many police officers have died while on duty in America in the past year or so?

4. In the last year or so in America, how many black people have been victims of violence by white people?

5. In the last year or so in America, how many white people have been victims of violence by black people?

6. How many white people have been killed in the past year or so by other white people in America?

7. How many black people have been killed by other black people in America in the past year or so?

(Make sure the figures are also expressed in proportion to the population so that your conclusions aren’t incorrect.)

One handy link to start your research:

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/topic-pages/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-6.xls

Remember, if you are so eager to show your support and be an ally of some group or organisation, left or right, liberal or conservative, that you don’t even want to make sure of the facts, you expose yourself to possible deception. Or as Malcolm X put it, you might look back later and realise: “You’ve been had. You’ve been took. You’ve been hoodwinked. Bamboozled. Led astray. Run amok!”

* * *

Think of it like this: You have nothing to lose. One of two things will happen: 1) You are going to have to change your mind, but at least you’ll know the truth, or 2) What you find will confirm what you’ve already heard or suspected, and henceforth you will be able to argue with twice as much conviction as before.

FRIDAY, 5 JUNE 2020

I may know one or two things about making money now, but I sometimes wonder what advice I would have given myself back in July 1998, when I … let’s just say, would have been totally happy with a little more capital.

You could provide a service, but it usually takes time to provide a service, and the profits aren’t always that great unless it’s a highly specialised service.

You may also consider manufacturing and selling products (as I have done, and still do sometimes), but that is also highly time-intensive.

What is the answer then? Make a list of products that people buy on a regular basis (you can select any niche you’d like to make the list more manageable). See if you can get at least one product on the list in relatively small quantities and sell them cheaper than people usually buy them. Confirm that you can reach your market, both in terms of delivery and marketing. Buy the items, say for $10, and sell them for $30. Identify another market where you can sell items for more than $30. Continue the process. An even better option: Buy something for $50, pay someone $20 to add value to the product, then sell the enhanced product for between $150 and $200.

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Week 22, 2020

MONDAY, 25 MAY 2020

I don’t really care for IKEA furniture and other household items. It’s all right – I’ll buy something if I need it. What attracts me, though – and, to my embarrassment I have to admit a few times every month – is the feeling that I’m in another country.

You see unpronounceable foreign words everywhere on the walls and on the posters. All the products have Swedish names. The furniture is displayed in corners that could be a living room or a bedroom in a Stockholm apartment.

Then there is the cafeteria: salads, a variety of sweet pies, meatballs, oven-baked chicken, fish fingers, lasagne, thick soup.

And just before you leave the place, there’s one last opportunity to imagine yourself in Europe: the supermarket with fresh bread, coffee beans, frozen whole pieces of vegetables, sweet treats, cookies you won’t find in any supermarket in Taiwan.

Being excited about going to IKEA is probably as sophisticated as being eager to have dinner at McDonald’s. At least one person has expressed surprise when I admitted it was one of my favourite things to do on a weekend. But – surely everyone has a right to some slightly embarrassing weaknesses, am I right?

TUESDAY, 26 MAY 2020

The Ngo brothers – the president, Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu – who ruled South Vietnam between 1955 and 1963 are a good example of what can be achieved if you are confident. They believed they could transform the backward former colony of South Vietnam into a modern state – certainly not democratic, and capitalist as long as they and their allies could get rich from it.

Point is, they believed in their ability to carry out this transformation of a state with a population of approximately twelve million people. And they worked hard every day to make it a reality. They were successful enough in this ambition to obtain their positions of considerable power, and to cling to it for almost a decade.

A cursory study of the brothers’ rule makes it clear that they ruled without mercy, and that they did not think twice about wiping out one person, dozens of people, or thousands of people who threatened their positions. To say that they made numerous enemies is to put it mildly. The two brothers were confident, but they overplayed their hand. They were like two players in a high-risk poker game playing with money they borrowed from the most dangerous gangster in town. As long as they were lucky, played smart, and kept winning, everything was fine. If they made one mistake, they were dead.

And one mistake is what they made in October and the beginning of November 1963. They knew about developments to get rid of them in a coup. They thought they could trust people they had previously trusted. And then, on the night of November 1^st and the morning of November 2^nd, 1963, the horrible reality they had created caught up with them. A few days before, they were still thinking about and believing in their personal power to command people. On Saturday morning, November 2^nd, with their hands cuffed behind their backs, sitting on low benches in the back of an armoured personnel carrier, they were confronted with the other side of the vengeful, cruel reality they created.

* * *

At first I wanted to say, they thought they could do this big thing, but they were wrong. But that’s the wrong way to look at it. They believed they could manage a huge project successfully. They did not seem to think twice about the consequences of the methods they employed. Or they did, but they probably thought that they could undermine and outsmart all the forces that conspired against them until the successful completion of their project. In that respect, they did overestimate their capabilities. But they also misjudged what reality they were creating with the considerable powers and talents they did possess.

WEDNESDAY, 27 MAY 2020

For readers with an interest in the Vietnam War, I can recommend two documentaries.

The first is a 1974 production entitled Hearts and Minds. The film won the Academy Award in 1975 for Best Documentary Film. What I personally find interesting is the fact that the movie was made in 1974 – the year after America withdrew from South Vietnam, but a year before the war came to an end with the fall of the South Vietnamese government. So there hadn’t been much time to consider the impact that the war had, and would still have, on the psyche of young men involved in the war, and on the psyche of the American nation. Interviews were held with soldiers who initially believed in what the government had told them, but who had since come to other insights. There were also interviews with soldiers and government officials who still believed in the cause, who tried to explain why all the sacrifice and suffering were justified.

A full version of the film is available on Youtube:

The second film is a series of ten episodes on Netflix titled, The Vietnam War. The episodes are between ninety minutes and two hours long – giving you more than fifteen hours of film footage and interviews on the war. The series covers everything from France’s defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, to US veterans returning to Vietnam years after the war to break bread with old enemies. Various aspects of the war and the historical period are covered, and numerous interviews are conducted with American veterans, former journalists, people involved in government, and with Vietnamese who were ordinary soldiers or officers on both sides of the war.

If you subscribe to Netflix, it’s definitely worth watching.

THURSDAY, 28 MAY 2020

Two thoughts:

The environment in which you live; stress at home, at work, and in other areas of your life; what you take in as food and drink, and in what quantities. And by the way, it’s not about living to 80 rather than 65. It’s about the quality of your life. Even if I only live to the age of 65 but I am in relatively good health until then, it will be better than living to 80, but the last 30 years are full of pains and ailments.

* * *

Why do so many people want to live in 1970s Czechoslovakia, or worse, in Stalin’s Soviet Union? Because these people desire the certainty of rules and regulations. They want to know what they may and may not say. They also want to have control over other people, and prescribe to those people – with the support of the state – what they may and may not say. There are also people who like to hallucinate that what they are doing is for the sake of the underprivileged and the underdogs, while they ruin the lives of vulnerable people because they are supposedly against the “revolution”.

FRIDAY, 29 MAY 2020

Decide you’re happy, then take actions on a daily basis to make it reality.

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MONDAY, 18 MAY 2020

Comedians and actors, Jerry Stiller (born 1927) and Fred Willard (born 1939) recently passed away. I personally found both of these actors funny. I also saw what other people wrote about them.

I thought how precious their legacy is.

Can you imagine this is what is ultimately written on your headstone, or in your obituary:

“He lived. He was a nice guy – and really funny! Then he died.”

TUESDAY, 19 MAY 2020

There are reasons why we would have a better life if we lived in South Africa rather than in Taiwan. Family and old friends, barbecue, dozens of products you find in the local supermarket or bakery that you can’t find in Taiwan, a greater variety of natural scenery in South Africa, a better selection of restaurants, better pizza …

However, one reason why living in Taiwan – especially in the city – is a hundred times better than city life in South Africa is transportation, and the fact that one is not trapped in a suburb stripped of businesses. I ride my bike ten minutes from home to buy a container full of cooked food. When I have to leave for my classes in the late afternoon, I ride for twelve minutes to a subway station, then sit and read on the train for twenty minutes. The supermarket is a ten-minute walk from our apartment. The bank is seven minutes away by bike. There are several other eateries and coffee shops less than ten minutes’ walk from our apartment. If we want to go somewhere on the weekend, we take my wife’s scooter. If we want to go to a neighbouring town, we take the subway, and then the regular train. And if we want to go to Taipei – a distance of 350 kilometres, it only takes us an hour and a half on the high-speed train.

Compare that to South Africa – if you are fortunate enough to live in a middle-class neighbourhood, it should be added. You open the fridge and see there’s no milk. Okay, you get the car keys, put on some pants and a shirt and shoes, and walk out to the garage. Pull out the car. Open the gate and hope no one jumps from behind a bush to hijack your car. Close the gate. Start driving to the store. Stop. Drive. Stop. Drive. Turn left. Stop. Wait. Drive. Stop. Drive. Stop. Drive. Stop and wait and say no to people who want to sell you stuff. Drive a hundred or two hundred meters. Stop. Wait. Drive. Finally you’re at the mall. Find parking. Lock your car. Step inside the store, get your milk, pay, and walk out. Give the guy who says he looked after your car a couple of rand, drive the same way back home. Stop … wait … drive … stop …

After all these years, there are still things I miss about South Africa, in addition to missing my family. But I doubt I’ll ever get used to that aspect of urban existence. No, should we ever go back to South Africa, it’s either a small town in the countryside for us or a cow in the backyard. And a vegetable garden.

WEDNESDAY, 20 MAY 2020

The other day we socialised with a hot shot Taiwanese businessman. He’s a few years younger than me, drives a luxury sports car, and his wallet bulged with cash (didn’t mean to notice). He took us out for dinner to a place that smelled of expensive perfume, and where one enjoys delicious finger food with exotic cocktails.

Now, I still have to learn things about making money and about business he’s already forgotten. But I did observe that he was quiet when the topic turned to something other than money or business. He was quite interested when I talked about history, and asked me about music and movies.

I realised this morning that someone – maybe like him; I don’t know him well enough to say – probably will look at himself at some point and conclude that he has made it – in an area where most people dream of making it someday. Another few years of success like the last few years, and he never has to work again in his life.

And then, at a cocktail party one day, it hits you: Just having a lot of money is not enough – not if everyone in the room is loaded. You find people talking about art, movies, other countries, history, religion, politics. And not in pseudo-intellectual ways. You get the strong impression people are really interested in these topics. That’s when you realise that money is just one manifestation of the process of becoming a fuller version of yourself – just one part of the pursuit of your full potential.

THURSDAY, 21 MAY 2020

Last night (actually this morning seeing that I go to bed after 2 am), I dreamt a somewhat surreal painting.

The scene is a school, with a large open area in front of school buildings that look like the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Rows of pupils walk in light blue uniforms everywhere.

In the foreground (me, the dreamer, is apparently sitting on a bench on the edge of the painting) two scenes are playing out. One is a film about the life of Marlon Brando. An important aspect of the story is that Brando was an alcoholic and a rebel. Different actors (one I recognised as Albert Finney) interpret the different conditions of Marlon Brando’s drunkenness.

The other scene in the foreground is rows of soldiers in World War I-style khaki uniforms marching to a battlefield.

On the horizon, a huge balloon appears in the shape of the Earth. Just as everyone’s attention is on the balloon, it disappears – note, it doesn’t explode; it’s just gone.

The final scene is soldiers returning from a battlefield. Some of them carry wounded soldiers on gurneys. One soldier has his wounded – or dead – comrade around the shoulder. As the attention is on this soldier for the moment, someone comments: “You can’t hold on to your first death.”

And then I woke up.

FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2020

At the end of my first year in Taiwan, in November 1999, I bought myself an expensive Japanese camera – as reward for working from morning to late at night, and because I thought I would look less poor when I went to South Africa the next month.

In March 2000 I had to go to South Africa again, this time for my younger sister’s wedding. To show the family more of what my neighbourhood looks like, I took a bunch of photos. And because I thought it would be artsy, I bought a black and white film to capture the images.

Long story short, here are some of the photos:

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Week 20, 2020

MONDAY, 11 MAY 2020

There’s this theory that has been floating around for years in smart and imaginative people’s minds, namely that we and the world we inhabit are part of an artificial simulation – like in a video game, or like in the movie, The Matrix.

RedPilledAmerica.com describes themselves as a podcasting series that focuses on stories. The idea is that each episode raises a question, and then the answer is sought in the stories of everyday people. In Episode 62, entitled “Let There Be Light”, they ask whether science fiction can bring us closer to God.

The episode is about sixty minutes long, and really worth listening to. The simulation theory is explained, and references are made to people like Richard Dawkins, Elon Musk, and Scott Adams. The science fiction writer, Philip K. Dick, whose short stories inspired Hollywood films such as Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990, 2012), Minority Report (2002), and The Adjustment Bureau (2011), also receive special mention.

What is my opinion on the idea that we might be living in an artificial simulation? It would explain why we live in a world where everything seems planned – the eyes of the fly, the tail of the leopard, the way some octopuses change colour. Well, scientists explain these things with the concept of evolution, but still – there are thousands of examples you can name where design does seem, at least in the eyes of the average non-scientist, like the more likely explanation. Does this mean that believers are right about a deity? That’s not a simple question: after all, there is a wide gulf between the idea of the creator, or creators of the simulation, and the specific mythology behind different gods. Will a simulation mean that there is a planned purpose behind our existence? The possibility is certainly there. Would this mean we still have free will, that we are still creators of our own lives, or would it mean our lives have been planned out by the creators of the program? To this question I will have to come back.

TUESDAY, 12 MAY 2020

Do you also get the feeling like this year is going slower than other years? I am amazed every time I think of how few weeks or months of this year lie behind us.

That the world we knew has come to an end surely has something to do with it.

After all, a short four and a half months ago, millions of people were still making plans to travel to other countries to discover places and cultures, or to study in what could have been a life-changing experience for them. Now weeks have passed since millions of children had last sat in a classroom. The oil price has fallen into negative territory, partly because fuel demand fell to a fraction of what it was last year. This means you could now fill your car and drive through the countryside for a few days – if you were allowed to leave your home. It should also mean that airline tickets would be cheaper than they have been in years, so you could take that trip you’ve been dreaming of for years … just a pity that dozens of countries have closed their borders to foreign visitors. In thousands of cities around the world, shops, hair salons and restaurants are closed. People are driven out of public parks by police with bull horns because the government ordered them to stay at home.

In the northern hemisphere, people are getting ready for a few months of warmer weather and sunshine. In the southern hemisphere, the blankets and coats and scarves are already out. Time moves on, slowly.

And yet, how quickly don’t things change.

WEDNESDAY, 13 MAY 2020

Gabriel Voisin was born on 5 February 1880 in Belleville-sur-Saône, France. His brother, Charles, was born two years later. When their father left them, their mother, Amélie, moved with them to Neuville-sur-Saône, where their grandfather had a factory.

The two brothers enjoyed the outdoors life – they undertook expeditions along the river, went fishing, and built all kinds of contraptions.

As young man Gabriel studied industrial design, and together the two brothers experimented even more – including building a rifle, a steam boat, and a type of motor car.

Gabriel Voisin, with the help of his brother Charles, was responsible for the design and construction of the first European manned, engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft capable of a sustained, circular controlled flight for at least one kilometre. The historic flight was on Monday, 13 January 1908.

After a long and prosperous life, Gabriel retired to his home in the countryside at the age of eighty, where he wrote his memoirs. He passed away on Christmas Day 1973 at the age of 93.

His younger brother lived a shorter, less prosperous life. A few years after the historic flight, on 26 September 1912, Charles Voisin died in a car accident. He was thirty years old.

THURSDAY, 14 MAY 2020

Near the vegetarian buffet place, in the alley behind the department store stands a delivery truck. Managing the delivery process is a man in a crimson T-shirt with, on the front, the words:

“Born to be Top Gun”

I don’t have a problem with sometimes absurd levels of confidence, I think. One could even argue that it makes sense in a world with so many uncertainties.

Ten minutes later I take the same way back home. The truck is still standing in the street. The man is now smoking a cigarette. This time I catch the back of his T-shirt:

“Never give up until the end of the world”

A fair sentiment, I think this time.

FRIDAY, 15 MAY 2020

Need to mention that the Battle of Frankenhausen took place on this day, 495 years ago.

On 15 May 1525, several thousand poorly armed peasants and townspeople led by the preacher and radical theologian, Thomas Müntzer, met an army of several thousand professional mercenaries led by Philip van Hesse and George the Bearded of Saxony on the battlefield in Thuringia, central Germany.

In his pamphlet, Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants, Martin Luther urged the nobles to destroy the rebellious peasants with speed and violence. He wrote, among other things, that the peasants should be “sliced, choked, stabbed, secretly and publicly, by those who can, like one must kill a rabid dog”.

With such encouragement, the peasants probably couldn’t have expected much mercy on that day. Thousands of them were killed and maimed, and their leader was captured, tortured, and executed. Among the professional armies there were only six casualties, two of whom were only wounded.

By September 1525, military conflict and punitive expeditions had come to an end. The German Peasants’ War was over.

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