Some prose and Skywatch Friday

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Every SWF-picture published here is shot with my trusty Google Pixel 4a smartphone and unedited, unless stated otherwise.

 

For more Skywatch Friday photo's from around the globe, please check http://skyley.blogspot.com/

It's been a while (nine years?) and I miss the Skywatch community. In the meantime I started weekly posting a short story or a poem. "So why not do both?" I asked myself. And here I am.

How 're all you lovelies doing in your parts of the world?

Soon I will go to Belgium. To live there for three months and to act, sing and dance in a musical. Don't know yet if my schedule will allow me to post here on a more or less regular basis.

For now I will leave you with some recent pictures of the lovely city of Haarlem, where I was for a meeting. "Haarlem? That sounds familiar." Perhaps because the name 'Harlem' was given to a small part of the USA in New York, previously New Amsterdam. The Dutch once traded that part of the world for Suriname. Perhaps for the best because after its independence tens of thousands of Surinamese people decided to come and live in The Netherlands. But without that decision, some 200 years ago, we may have been stuck with 100,000 Americans in our tiny country. 😉

A typical Dutch cobblestone street. Do they have them in your part of the world?

And here are me and the friends I had the meeting with. One is not in the picture because he took it:

Almost back home, I walked passed this 'postzegelpark' near my home in Amsterdam. These tiny oases are called 'stamp parks' because on a large map of the city, they look like small stamps: (usually) rectangle shaped with some jagged borders:

They offer a small safe haven for busy city folk and help clean the air so we can breathe.

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Hypocrites (a #poem)

Should we close our eyes for stupidity?

Close the curtains from atrocities?

Close our mouths and not speak of injustice?

Should we state we had not known

because we were too busy

or there was something on tv?

When we say we have no time

we mean that we don't care.

Should we always fight

for human rights

or only for those

of our own tribe?

Are we honest

or simply hypocrites?

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

A donation (click) is much appreciated:

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In Facebook zijn niet alle plaatjes te zien (of te horen) en links in mijn artikelen niet aan te klikken. Klik daarom op de oorspronkelijke link. http://terrebel.blogspot.nl/ Veel leesplezier! O ja, fans kunnen mijn Fan pagina leuk vinden. https://www.facebook.com/TerrebelAuthortainer 

Over links gesproken: ja, dat ben ik maar voor verdieping staat er ook een aantal in mijn stukjes. Heb daar wat moeite voor genomen dus stel het op prijs als u de moeite neemt er op te klikken om de betreffende artikelen, onderzoeken en filmpjes te bekijken.

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The Upside Down World

The Upside Down World is not a reference to the alternative dimension in the acclaimed series Stranger Things. But it ís a strange world. And fairly innocent when young children play to be living in it. When adults do, they are called 'wappies'; a Dutch umbrella term for racists, 'Karen's', conspiracy nuts, Trump fans, antivaxxers, climate change deniers...you know, crazy people.

The term 'wappie' has its roots in the Dutch clubscene from the nineties. To describe someone who - under the influence of alcohol and other drugs - has completely lost it and only speaks gibberish. Perhaps because their 'voice in the head' (in basis the amygdalae) is damaged and they can't distinguish fantasy from reality anymore, nor tell the difference between actual fears and fears they have been talked into believing.

Nowadays it refers to basically any lunatic. Which in turn is a term derived from people who - according to urban legend - went crazy under the full moon: Luna was the ancient Romans' moon goddess.

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon

A donation (click) is much appreciated:

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For wappies everything is 'upside down': an obvious lie they call 'the absolute truth!', the members of Antifa are 'all fascists!', when they simply parrot the words of some right wing populist, they say: 'I think for myself!' and copying a Facebook message from a conspiracy nut in their world is: 'I do my own research!' 

With: 'I'm afraid of nothing!' they refer to anything they don't understand and are therefore terrified of. From socialism to transgenderism, from science to foreign cultures. 

Since the introduction of sociale media, the number of wappies is on the rise: amplified because they love to live in their own echo chamber. 

During the Brexit* campaign a lot of fake news was being spread to convince gullible British people to leave the European Union. Mostly via questionable media sources, often known hoax-websites. Those media spread other fake news too, not only about 'the EU' and 'the elite!' Hence the percentage of Brits who believe the moon landing was fake rose to an alarming 25%. In comparison: in the USA 'only' 6% of people believe men never went to the moon. Only nazis did. 😐

For wappies that now go: 'Yes, but...!', take a few minutes to listen to some actual science instead of to your favourite conspiracy theorists.

Here's an excerpt of a piece I wrote on Brexit: "..in 2019 the EU anti tax avoidance directive would come into force. Meaning it would become very hard for very rich people to avoid taxes. When they live in the EU. By chance a couple of very, very rich and powerful people funded and supported a Brexit.

"We are in trouble as a species if people refuse to believe in things that they couldn't actually do themselves" a guest in this TV-quiz states. 

I think that takes us to the core of the problem: a growing number of people don't understand the world around them so - like the ancestors of our ancestors did - they make things up and are an easy prey for any demagogue who wants to steer 'the people in a certain direction.

The economic, political and social implications of Brexit were (and are) too complicated for most to understand. So 'the people' voted for politicians 'who tell it like it is!'. Does that make 'the people' stupid? That's debatable. But that they are like children playing they live in The Upside Down World is a certainty. And a problem if we ever want to advance as a species.

How do you propose 'wappies' can be turned (back) into reasonable people?

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In Facebook zijn niet alle plaatjes te zien (of te horen) en links in mijn artikelen niet aan te klikken. Klik daarom op de oorspronkelijke link. http://terrebel.blogspot.nl/ Veel leesplezier! O ja, fans kunnen mijn Fan pagina leuk vinden. https://www.facebook.com/TerrebelAuthortainer
Over links gesproken: ja, dat ben ik maar voor verdieping staat er ook een aantal in mijn stukjes. Heb daar wat moeite voor genomen dus stel het op prijs als u de moeite neemt er op te klikken om de betreffende artikelen, onderzoeken en filmpjes te bekijken.

Heeft u na het lezen van dit blogstuk iets geleerd, wat gelachen of heeft het u aan het denken gezet, overweegt u dan een donatie voor de tijd en moeite die ik er in steek.

Meer lezen? Mijn verhalenbundels