Five Things: America, China, Sidewalks, Bookstores, Travel
Here we go again. Read this email now.
Welcome to the latest edition of Five Things! I’m Nico, I read a lot and I like to share the best articles I read this week with you.
This week I tried to end one of my oldest addictions, which started when I was 12 years old or so - and I think it worked the way I wanted. My goal was to stop drinking coffee excessively. I had between 5 and 8 mugs of Americano (or caffè crema) every day and I wanted to go down to just one mug in the morning. I had three days of insane headaches, but now I feel better. I still don’t get people who like to drink tea. It’s alright, but it doesn’t really get me all exited when I try a new tea the way I am looking forward to try fresh roasted beans from some small roastery. Hamburg is a coffee town, most of the coffee that gets imported to Germany comes through the port here and we have plenty of small and big roasteries here. It’s probably the same with tea, minus the roasteries, but still. Also, I have to run to the bathroom all the time, coffee probably evaporates better than tea.
The big news this week was obviously the Donald Trump’s third indictment. To me it seems a bit like cooking pasta, you toss them against the wall and hope it sticks. My fear is twofold: Trump will portray himself as a victim of the deep state and get all of the GOP to rally behind him, Trump will try to weasel out of all the indictments by trying to find legal loopholes and appealing all the way to he Supreme Court, where he has a reliable majority, in the hope that he will get elected again and then can pardon himself. This is now the time for republican politicians to stand up and defend the American democracy, but they are keeping awfully quiet. It’s like an accident happening in slow-motion, again.
As a side-note, one of my favorite movies of all times (sorry, Jeanie), was released 50 years ago. I need to watch it again. American Graffiti is just a great movie - with a cast including some people who became legends in the business, directed by one of the most influential figures in the history of film-making.
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Why America is going backward: Being the richest nation in history isn't enough
The American society is falling apart more and more - we see that mere economic prosperity is not a guarantee of societal well-being. The common ground seems to be less and less every year, and a GOP dominated by Trumpists is not at all interested in finding a common ground again, quite the contrary.
The End of China’s Economic Miracle
For Germany it has always been important that China’s economy is growing, so we could sell our machinery and our cars. Now things are shifting, China has plenty of auto manufacturers itself and is not relying that much on imports from Germany. We still rely on manufactoring in China, but it is time to recalibrate the economic and political relations with China.
We Need a Department of Sidewalks
I admit that I clicked on this article because I thought it said “Silly Walks” in the headline. But yes, sidewalks are also important. As we have seen during COVID-19, it is possible to reclaim the sidewalks and even the streets - to get rid of parking lanes and two-lane streets. Now we have to make good use of these sidewalks and assure that we all get along. First thing: getting the bikes into a seperate bike-lane and fine e-scooter rental companies if their users just leave that stupid scooter somewhere in the middle of the sidewalk.
That Cool New Bookstore? It’s a Barnes & Noble.
I have to admit that I have a problematic relationship with bookstores. It’s not that I don’t like bookstores, I just don’t like reading paper books anymore as I find my kindle much better (and lighter). But I like spending time in well-organized bookstores that lure you in and get your curiousity triggered. I remember a trip to London where we bought an insanse amount of books at Waterstone and other bookstores, just to haul all those books back to Germany, instead of just ordering them online. I mostly end up buying a cook-book in a bookstore, because that’s really the only type of book I still like to read on paper. Also, I like cooking.
Remember What It Was Like to Travel Pre-Smartphone?
Traveling was a lot more adventurous and you needed to figure out how to hold a map, read travel guides and try to figure out what somebody wanted who was talking in some weird language. I still cannot get over the fact that we never really called our parents back then and they just needed to trust us or hope for us to survive or both.
That’s it. Have an amazing Sunday!