#basque german and polish respectively

[tadesart]

My friends' Paldean OCs with mine! Love that we can actually play multiplayer now...

[trustideas]

Synonym insurmountable

#SYNONYM INSURMOUNTABLE FREE#

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#SYNONYM INSURMOUNTABLE FREE#

Please support this free service by just sharing with your friends. Select the language from the dropdown given below & click on the button (Or Enter) to get the Meaning in your language. These languages include Croatian, Serbian, Maltese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Urdu, Swahili, Welsh, Portuguese, Tamil, Danish, Hindi, Basque, Spanish, Italian, Irish, Albanian, Haitian Creole, Polish, Gujarati, Catalan, Korean, Russian, Hebrew, Romanian, Turkish, Dutch, Afrikaans, Chinese Simplified, French, Kannada, Malayalam, Japanese, Telugu, German, Ukrainian, Norwegian, Georgian, Lithuanian, Esperanto, Thai, Bulgarian, Estonian, Latvian, Yiddish, Icelandic, Persian, Indonesian, Hungarian, Chinese Traditional, Swedish, Malay, Galician, Macedonian, Azerbaijani, Slovak, Finnish, Slovenian, Filipino, Belarusian, Bengali, Czech, Latin, Greek etc. These synonyms for the word insurmountable are provided for your information only.It's a free Multilanguage dictionary with many languages around the World. Here you use the synonyms for insurmountable. is more than 70,800 synonyms and 47,200 antonyms available. This site allows you to find in one place, all the synonyms and antonyms of the English language. In your daily life, for writing an email, a text, an essay, if you want to avoid repetitions or find the opposite meaning of a word. The words blockage, encumbrance, handicap are antonyms for "help". The words acknowledge, enjoy, welcome are synonyms for "appreciate". Antonyms are used to express the opposite of a word. Antonym definitionĪn antonym is a word, adjective, verb or expression whose meaning is opposite to that of a word. This avoids repetitions in a sentence without changing its meaning. Synonyms are other words that mean the same thing.

Extract from : « Mary Wollstonecraft » by Elizabeth Robins PennellĪ synonym is a word, adjective, verb or expression that has the same meaning as another, or almost the same meaning.

To Mary, however, this did not seem an insurmountable obstacle to their union.

Extract from : « Sacrifice » by Stephen French Whitman.

Yet this feebleness, profound, insurmountable, was what caused his torments of jealousy.

Extract from : « The Fortunes Of Glencore » by Charles James Lever.

There is but one objection I could possibly have, and yet that seems to be insurmountable.

Extract from : « Confessions Of Con Cregan » by Charles James Lever.

What they could possibly be, then, was an insurmountable puzzle to me.

Both compounds displayed high affinity for the Y5 receptor in the radio-ligand binding assay, while in the cell-based functional assay, S-2367 and S-234462 showed, respectively, surmountable and insurmountable antagonism.

Extract from : « The Negro Farmer » by Carl Kelsey Here we report the discovery and characterization of two novel Y5 receptor antagonists, S-2367 and S-234462.

This would indicate that heat alone is no insurmountable obstacle.

Extract from : « Tales From Two Hemispheres » by Hjalmar Hjorth Boysen.

It appeared then that for some reason this was an insurmountable objection.

Extract from : « Doctor Pascal » by Emile Zola.

This would be a barrier the more, an insurmountable barrier between her and him.

The difficulties that are before us appear to me insurmountable.

Extract from : « Imogen » by William Godwin.

Unused to encounter difficulty, he for a time imagined them insurmountable.

Extract from : « In the Midst of Alarms » by Robert Barr.

He had dragged himself this far, and reached an insurmountable obstacle.

[fabianocolucci]

Language family VS Sphere of influence: comparing Europe with East Asia

I’m a student of East Asian languages and cultures at the university of Naples L’Orientale. Most specifically, I study everything about Japan and China, with standard Japanese and Mandarin Chinese as the center.

However, I am also an Italian who has been studying English since preschool and, during high school, got to learn more and more about Latin and Greek, which got me into my passion for languages.

In fact, Europe and East Asia are basically my biggest points of focus when it comes to language history, development and influence, and I love how we can see different aspects of these points.

For instance, what do we find in those regions, when it comes to languages?

EUROPE

The majority of Europe speaks a language from the Indo-European family. The only European countries where the main language does not belong in this family are Turkey and Azerbaijan (both languages are Turkic), Georgia (because Georgian is a Kartvelian language), Malta (their language derives from Arabic, and it’s the only Afro-Asiatic language among the official ones in the EU), Finland, Estonia and Hungary (their languages are Ugro-Finnic) and the Basque countries between Spain and France.

Excluding the Indo-Arian branch (where Persian, Hindi, Urdu and so on come from), the Indo-European languages are divided into:

Romance languages, the ones deriving from Latin. Main examples include Portugues, Spanish, Catalan, French, Occitan, Italian and Romanian;

Celtic languages, once spread throughout the continent, but now confined to the British Isles and the French region of Brittany. Gaelic Irish is even an official language in the European Union;

Albanian, Greek and Armenian form three branches on their own. Studies have tried to pair at least two of them together, but with little to no results;

Latvian and Lithuanian are Baltic languages, often paired with the next ones;

Slavic languages, spread throughout the majority of Eastern Europe. We can find Russian, Polish, Ukranian, Serbian, Bulgarian and many others here;

Germanic languages, the branch English belongs to. Other important languages in this branch are German, Dutch and the languages from the Nordic countries (except for Finnish);

Europe has had a common history and culture, even though there has always been some division between East and West, ever since the Roman empire, where you could divide it into Latin culture and Greek culture.

Therefore, it should not come off as a surprise that languages from different branches went on to influence eachother. The Balkan sprachbund is often used as a modern example, with Greek, Albanian, Bulgarian, Romanian and other languages sharing common aspects that aren’t found in other languages of their branches.

Another example is found with Germanic and Romance languages. Ever since the Barbarian invasions of Rome, those two branches have come in touch and started sharing vocabulary, features and similar aspects.

For instance, the word bank derives from the Italian banca, which in turn derives from banka, the Longobardian word for bench.

Also, before English was considered the “lingua franca” of the World, this role was filled by French, which inherited it from Latin (kinda like a father passing the torch to his son). As other idioms have now plenty of anglophone words, it makes sense that, back in the day, Romance vocabulary made its way to Great Britain.

Okay, now let’s see the situation in East Asia.

EAST ASIA

For millennia, China has been the central power of this region, which is why the East Asian Cultural Sphere is often called Sinic world.

Said sphere includes China, the Korean peninsula, the Japanese archipelago and Vietnam. And that’s where we can see the main difference with Europe, as those languages aren’t probably even related to eachother!

All varieties of Chinese, such as Mandarin and Cantonese, belong to the Sino-Tibetan family. Then, we have Vietnamese, which is an Austroasiatic language. Said family can be found scattered throughout South-East Asia.

As for Korean and Japanese, those two languages derive from the Koreanic and Japonic families respectively, even though there have been theories that may suggest that these two are related. One believes that Japanese descended from Korea, but the other sees those two groups as belonging to the huge Altaic family, which includes other groups and languages such as Turkish and Mongolian.

However, as for now, we don’t know yet if those theories can be proved right.

Now, despite that, those languages all shared the same writing system at some point.

Chinese characters are still used in Chinese-speaking countries, with the sole distinction of those using Traditional ones and those using the Simplified.

Korea did use them, but switched to the hangul alphabet. 

Vietnam still used them until about a century ago, but the huge rate of analphabetization meant a switch to the current variation of the latin alphabet they still use today.

Japan is the only other country that still uses characters, albeit alongside their two syllabaries, hiragana and katakana.

Chinese culture unified those countries to the point that a Westener could see them in a similar situation as Europe.

Now, let’s compare them.

A RELATIVE AND A MASTER?

When you compare English to a Romance language like Spanish, French or Italian, you may meet words that look and/or sound quite similar. However, there are two differences:

Some words are cognates, meaning that they originate from the same root. For instance, the Italian word for mother is madre;

Others are actually words that “jumped” from a branch to another. As I said earlier, English has plenty of Romance vocabulary, but the other way around is as usual;

In fact, you may compare Indo-European branches to relatives. Imagine you and a brother or a cousin of yours, and those traits you may share: how many of them derive from you two being from the same family? And how many are a consequence of the two of you constantly interacting with eachother?

Meanwhile, the Chinese cultural sphere makes China look like a master. For instance, Japan didn’t have a written system until the VII century, when Chinese (and Korean) buddhist monks came to the archipelago.

Therefore, when you see similar words in Chinese and Japanese, it’s usually because the second one is actually the first one but adapted to fit the local pronounciation.

As such, it comes clear how different the relationship between languages from those two regions of the World are, and I hope you can see why I love them.

[qupritsuvwix]

Let us look at the industrial revolution and discrimination:

While reparations to the native americans and african americans are rightfully gaining attention and support, there is very little noise about the people who worked in swamps, road building, foundries, mines and factories who were considered two legged cockroaches and worth less than natives, slaves, chinese, japanese, and hispanics: the lowest rungs of irish, scottish, polish, german, basque, russian, and italian immigrants whose lives were expendable and their children were shoveled into the mines and the factories with them, who were not considered white but catholics and jews, an invasion of untrustworthy immigrants whose politics was anarchist and anti-government. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the refugees of 1848-1866, the draft-dodgers from the wars of the founding of the modern european countries we so love and respect. Nothing compares to 400 years of slavery or 600 years of raping half a continent and it’s original inhabitants. But treating people who fled countries where they were being liberated to death with contempt and negligence is mean, disgusting, irritating and racist, too. Refugees and immigrants didn’t get to chose their parents, their countries or their religions. They needed a change of scenery and they found tenements, slums, mining towns, mill towns, and tent cities. Long before World War ll, there were people who escaped the strife at home only to receive letters about the family members who died in the wars or the forced migrations or the pogroms or the famines... We have a legacy of pain, terror and death. You can’t make “america great again,” because it always sucked for somebody but you can encourage people who want to shoot people because of their color, religion or origin that suicide is spiritually advantageous and that bullets taste really good so that we can pretend that this country can come together and celebrate their self-induced marksmanship...

[linguisticmaps]

Size of each language respective Wikipedia by number of articles:

>5 million articles English, Cebuano

>2 million articles Swedish, German, French, Dutch

>1 million articles Russian, Italian, Spanish, Polish, , Waray, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese

>500 thousand articles Ukranian, Persian, Serbo-Croatian, Catalan, Arabic

>100 thousand articles Norwegian, Finnish, Indonesian, Hungarian, Korean, Czech, Romanian, Malay, Turkish, Basque, Bulgarian, Armenian, Danish, Min Nan, Hebrew, Slovak, Minangkabau, Qazaq, Lithuanian, Estonian, Chechen, Slovenian, Belarusian, Galician, Greek, Urdu, Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Latin, Hindi, Thai, Georgian, Tamil, Welsh

>50 thousand articles Macedonian, Tajik, South Azeri, Latvian, Malagasy, Occitan, Tagalog, Tatar, Kirghi, Asturian, Albanian, Newar, Telugu, Cantonese, Breton, Piedmontese, Bengali, Malayalam, Javanese, Luxembourgish, Haitian, Scots, Marathi, Afrikaans, Irish, Western Punjabi, Icelandic, Bashkir, Swahili, Chuvash, Frisian, Sundanese, Burmese, Lombard, Aragonese, Yoruba, Low Saxon, Nepali, Eastern Punjabi, Gujarati, Bavarian, Sicilian, Manipuri, Alemannic, Kurdish Kurmanji, Kannada, Kurdish (Sorani), Quechua, Egyptian Arabic, Mongolian, Sinhalese, Scottish Gaelic, Wallon, Neapolitan, Yiddish, Amharic, Buginese, Odia, Min Dong, Sorbian, Faroese, Mazandarani, Mingrelian, Maithili, Limburgish, Sakha, Sanskrit, Ilocano, Venetian, Ossetian, Emilian-Romagnol, Hill Mari, Wu, Sindhi, Meadow Mari

[lodelcar]

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE REGIONAL APPROACH

Picture: Jakarta

There is a translation in Dutch of this article on the blog: lodelcar2.tumblr.com: https://lodelcar2.tumblr.com/post/611739834189529088/duurzame-ontwikkeling-in-het-kader-van-de

We are now with almost 8 billion residents on this planet. These populate nearly 200 countries. And although much progress has been made in recent years regarding the living conditions of these nearly 8 billion residents, there is still much to be done to provide every inhabitant of this planet with viable conditions and to give his/her children an acceptable future. These are important objectives that governments have supported within the United Nations, who have set goals that they would like to see achieved by 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs are seventeen goals[1]  that have been formulated with great care by the United Nations and that can drastically improve many aspects of the life of the Earth's inhabitants. They focus on combating extreme poverty and hunger, on health care and education for all, on reducing world inequality, on promoting social inclusion by promoting gender equality, on combating global warming through sustainable energy, by safeguarding the biodiversity of nature. At the European Academy of the Regions, we are convinced that many of these objectives can be achieved more easily if they are supported as close as possible to the citizen. Many countries are too large in terms of population and area for national governments to be able to deal with it full-time. National governments are often more concerned with geopolitical objectives by claiming their place on the world scene, so that they are less concerned about the lives of their citizens, especially when they live in areas far from the capital, with a scattered population and only have marginal economic income streams.

This view is followed by the EU as an institution. The principle of subsidiarity fostered by the EU implies that decisions should be taken as close as possible to the citizen on issues that directly concern the citizen as an individual. This principle also means that the EU tries to convince member state governments to make decision-making powers and financial resources available to regional and local authorities. However, that principle also implies that the EU seeks to raise decisions to a higher supranational level when it concerns issues with which all EU citizens are confronted equally, such as customs policy and trade with third parties, fisheries policy and monetary policy at a first and exclusive level, as well as security. in all its aspects - food safety, cyber security, anti-terror, police cooperation, border security, agricultural policy, transport policy, energy policy, research policy, democracy and rule of law, climate change, citizen mobility, development cooperation, consumer protection at a second level in collaboration with the Member States.[2]

But how can sustainable development be reconciled with ensuring that decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen? How could a regional approach benefit the achievement of sustainable development goals? We will try to work this out in the following article.

Decentralisation is mostly implemented within the EU Member states

Most countries of the European Union today have a decentralized policy that is legally structured. For some, such as Romania, this is still in full swing, for others this is organized within the nation state, while other countries are federal states: Germany, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland. Here are some examples.

Although the Netherlands is not known as a decentralized country, the 11 Dutch provinces have considerable powers. The package of competences of the Dutch provinces includes: regional economy, spatial planning, safety, education (including municipal and urban competences), culture and health (municipal competences for municipalities with hospitals).

Polish regional authorities (the 16 so-called voivodeships), another country that is not really known as decentralized, have authority over education, health care, culture and have the necessary budgets for this. They are also looking for energy initiatives such as CO2-neutral city buildings and public transport that runs on renewable energy.

Sweden is a unitary and decentralized state; the constitution recognizes local self-government in certain areas and delegates certain responsibilities to local authorities. There are three levels of government: central, regional (formerly counties) and municipal. There are twenty regional authorities, so-called landsting, which formally act as the authorities of the regions (formerly as the provincial authorities) and there are 290 municipalities (kommuner). Provinces and municipalities have no legislative powers; nevertheless, they have executive powers in taxation and administration at their respective levels. The regions are responsible for: public health - including healthcare and medical services -; cultural institutions; public transport and are responsible for growth and development. Swedish Municipalities have mandatory administrative powers in the areas of: transport - including local roads and public transport -; social welfare; education; planning and construction issues; emergency and rescue services; health protection; environment - including environmental protection, waste and waste management, water and sewage -; and housing. The municipalities can also take up responsibilities on a voluntary basis for: recreational activities and culture - except libraries -; energy; industrial and commercial services; work, and tourism. [3]

Spain, also, must be regarded as a highly decentralized unitary state. While sovereignty rests with the nation as a whole, represented in the central government institutions, the nation has transferred asymmetric power to the regions, which in turn exercise their right to self-government within the limits set by the constitution and their autonomous statutes. The 17 regions or comunidades autónomas have a certain amount of competences and have a budget. The regions have a decentralized tax policy and each region contributes to national affairs according to a ratio based on GDP. Only the Basque Country and Navarra have a separate grant and treatment. In general, the autonomous communities have competences in the areas of education, health care, culture and language, heritage, social assistance, town and county planning, environmental protection, public transport, agriculture, etc. Andalusia and the three "historical nationalities" - Basque Country , Catalonia and Galicia - took the "fast route" and immediately took the maximum level of competence; the rest took the "slow route".

Germany is the largest federal state (Bundesrepublik) in the EU, with states (Länder) as the highest regional level. According to the German constitution (Grundgesetz), some subjects, such as foreign affairs and defense, fall under the exclusive responsibility of the federation (ie the federal level), while others fall under the shared authority of the states and the federation; States retain the remaining legislative authority for all other areas, including "culture", which in Germany covers not only subjects such as financial promotion of arts and sciences, but also most forms of education and vocational training. Länder, in turn, have various levels of authority. There are Landkreise (rural districts) that are located at an intermediate level of government, between the German states (Länder) and the municipal authorities (Gemeinden). Most major cities in Germany are not part of a rural district, but fulfill district-like functions themselves. In this context, those cities are referred to as Kreisfreie Stadt (literally "district-free city") or Stadtkreis ("urban district"). Landkreise is responsible for the collection and treatment of waste, hospitals, energy supply, social and affordable housing and integration. Digitization and data protection and the management of the unemployed are also managed at this level. Just like the cities, Länder offer them the necessary subsidies for carrying out these assignments.

Let us now compare the powers that have often been transferred to lower levels across the EU with those for which the EU claims only supporting or no powers at all. The latter are then exclusively the domain of the nation states. These concern: Education policy, Social security, Public health policy, Taxes - with the exception of taxes that can disrupt the internal market -, Family law, Spatial planning - since the rules for the protection of flora and fauna are complied with at national level, Public order and Establishment of the public administration. [4] Many of these themes are " linked to private individuals".

Education is preparing the future of the next generation. But also the management of competencies that are important now and that will even become important for the economy in the future. Education is therefore aimed at every resident and must try to be as inclusive as possible. It focuses entirely on SDG goal 4: quality education, but also on goal 10: reduce inequality as well as on goal 8: decent work and economic growth

Public health focuses on the well-being of the population, the control of child mortality, the control of epidemics, but also the management of hospitals and elderly homes, in the prevention of diseases. This is in line with SDG goal 3: good health and well-being, but also with goal 6: clean water and sanitation and even with goal 9: industry, innovation and infrastructure.

Social security focuses on the well-being of citizens who fall ill, fall out of work or who become too old to work. It forms a safety net for lesser days. In more and more countries, also outside Europe, systems of solidarity are being set up to save people from the greatest disaster. It is social security that is primarily aimed at preventing SDG goal 1 extreme poverty and goal 2 zero hunger. But it also focuses on goal 3: good health and well-being. From this complete list, social security is the only topic that needs to be organized at a national level because of the required scale to keep the system affordable.

Taxes, on the other hand, can be perfectly organized at regional and even local level, with contributions being made to the higher national level for these things that need to be organized nationally. Switzerland is the example where the tax rate is determined per canton. In most countries, however, there is a centralized tax rate, which is increased by an assessment rate set by regions and municipalities. In practice, however, this means that multinationals and large corporates make every effort to avoid taxes. However, taxes enable a fair distribution of burdens by having the strongest shoulders take on the heaviest burdens. In the first instance, this aims for SDG goal 10, reduced inequality. But it also allows one to achieve many other objectives such as: goal 3: good health and well-being; goal 4: quality education; goal 6: clean water and sanitation; goal 7: affordable and clean energy and even goal 13: climate action.

Family law is at first sight a principle that should be dealt with nationally. Nothing could be further from the truth. There may be cultural and even religious differences within countries that have a different view of family law. Family law legislation can therefore be organized regionally. However, the rule of law must be organized in an identical nationally. This is in line with SDG goal 16: peace and justice strong institutions. In principle, this also fills in goal 10, reduced inequality and goal 5 gender equality, although these last items require explicit monitoring by the citizens of a region.

Spatial planning is a typical regional competence in which, within fixed contours and plans, a region or city protects itself against excesses and indicates where there will be housing, where there is an industrial zoning, where schools and hospitals can be established, where roads can be developed and where biodiversity can fully deploy. This answers goals such as SDG goal 9: industry, innovation and infrastructure, goal 10: reduced inequality but also: goal 15: life on land.

Although Public Order is the exclusive domain of the nation state, it is often organized on several levels. Cities and municipalities have their own police officers, who control all aspects of local public order. Cross-regional issues are tackled nationally or regionally. And in recent years, Europol has nevertheless emerged to tackle cross-border phenomena such as Mafia practices and terrorism. Goal 16 of the SDGs Peace, Justice and strong institutions is tackled here and an answer will be offered to goal 17 partnerships for the goals.

The same applies to Public administration. The EU does not wish to interfere in the way public administrations are organized. The countries are too diverse in terms of population, surface area, co-living cultures and languages, religions and social and economic development levels. It does, however, support administrative cooperation. The EU has also organized a Committee of the Regions (COR[5]) and a European Economic and Social Committee (EESC[6]) in which local authorities of all Member States can exchange best practices and try to achieve common objectives. However, the most important EU support for the establishment of regional authorities is provided by the cohesion funds. [7]

Decentralized organization to keep life level manageable

At the beginning of the 21st century, we are confronted with a whole series of challenges that in many cases are the result of large-scale and globalization.

Multinationals leave less and less room for smaller players. Uber pushes tens of thousands of taxis out of the market and obliges the newcomers to work for a hunger wage; Amazon has forced hundreds of thousands of stores to close and has only been making a profit since a couple of years; pharma giants are systematically raising their prices and became the most beneficial sector on earth[8] and are trying to milk the public social security system as much as possible, even if the latter spends more than it receives from individual contributions; AirBnB increases rents in city centers in such a way that the centers no longer attract permanent residents, so that the entire social fabric in city centers is lost. But cities are also declining to such an extent that the supply of fresh fruit and vegetables in many neighborhoods has become impossible due to the distance that farmers have to travel and residents in depraved quarters are only feeding themselves on junk food, creating a general epidemic of obesity. The economy is governed by sharks that regard service, quality and satisfied employees as ancillary.

News is no longer made by quality newspapers but by fake journalists who send invented messages to the world with the aim of demolishing people and institutions. News is completely privatized and is no longer brought to offer people the correct facts, but to make people buy physical and electronic newspapers. The British scandal press is the most excessive example of this. They respond to all the most primitive feelings that live in people and constantly respond to them. For that, they undermine people psychologically to the point that they commit suicide, which they regard as "collateral damage".[9] Moreover the global web plays nowadays an ambivalent role in which it both informs and hysterizes, with all the confusion that goes with it. The recent coronavirus crisis made it clear that we are able to switch lightning fast from the idea that we have everything under control to the panic fear that the world will go to hell.[10]

Technological development is increasingly being encouraged by billionaires who have such purchasing power that they buy top scientists and pursue commercial objectives even if they conflict with the public interest. The developments taking place in artificial intelligence (A.I.) could simply simplify human lives if they were inspired by the public interest. However, the first results that appear on the scene are so alarming that the new EU Commission is calling for the imposition of rules at such an early stage.

Politics is also practiced with cynicism. Smaller countries are blackmailed by large countries. To prevent a super-sophisticated lithography machine from being sold to the Chinese, President Trump is putting pressure on the Dutch government. If the Netherlands nevertheless issues an export license, then sanctions threaten. The message is clear: the Netherlands is a small country with limited sovereignty. That even applies to France. Macron wants to tax American tech companies. But Trump doesn't think a digitax is a good idea. A phone call with the threat that he will impose charges, for example on wine imports, was enough to let Macron withdraw his idea. [11] China's ambassador to Denmark threatened the Faroese prime minister by indicating that a trade agreement would be dropped if the autonomous Danish archipelago does not sign a 5G contract with technology giant Huawei.[12]

And last but not least: we are confronted with a fast-moving inequality in the world. Between 1980 and 2014, the average income of the American increased by 1.4 percent. Only about 85 percent of the population hardly benefited. Their income rose less than 1.4 percent. The working class was even completely excluded from growth. While the 0.1 percent richest people saw their income increase by 320 percent. In 1980 the share of the 1 percent richest in the national income was exactly 10 percent, both in the United States and in Western Europe. That rose to 20 percent in America. But it also went to 12 percent in Western Europe. [13] Why is the European Union so unpopular with so many people? Because they have not reaped the benefits of economic integration.

In addition, 190 billion dollars (173.5 billion euros) were lost worldwide for the tax authorities over the past ten years. Especially in Europe the evasion took on hallucinatory proportions. There, the governments saw 78 billion dollars (71 billion euros) of tax revenues blown through. Between 1985 and 2019, corporate income tax fell globally from 49 to 24 percent. But most major companies escaped even those much lower rates.

Should we then stop globalization?

You cannot drain the child with the bath water. There are too many positive sides to globalization. Moreover, in the last twenty years we have started to work together so comprehensively, between countries and especially between companies, that you put yourself on the edge of global society, like North Korea or Iran, if you want to produce on autarkic principles and do not want to accept anything from outside. [14]

Nevertheless, economists and geographers have been arguing for several years for a deglobalization and, in particular, a reduction in world trade. They point out that for thirty years Europe has pursued a strategy of transferring the most polluting activities to under-polluted continents, because the dead were cheaper there. [15] However, this resulted in Europe now becoming dependent on world trade for everything. Consequently, we have to import a lot of crucial raw materials and goods and are therefore almost no longer self-reliant. This not only concerns some made-in-China products which delivery can be brutally interrupted through natural catastrophes or epidemics, but also, for example, the uranium for our nuclear power stations, which used to come from France and now comes from countries such as Niger. Today, 40 percent of the food we consume in Europe is growing on a different continent.[16]

The Coronavirus crisis of the beginning of 2020 is to be considered as a wake-up call. All industries now realize that it is very risky to have their raw materials come from one specific part of the world. There is even an additional topic to consider for the pharmaceutical industry. After all, this epidemic also shows that too few resources go to the fight against infectious diseases, while they make the most casualties worldwide. This is of course because those cases are more prevalent in developing countries, where it is difficult to build a profitable model.[17]

What type of society should we pursue?

Although the EU is being questioned by a number of politicians, the departure of the U.K. made it clear to many that the EU is an asset, rather than an obstacle. In a world of confrontation in which the new major players on the world stage such as the US, Russia, China and Turkey often threaten smaller countries to force a decision in their direction, EU member states are becoming more and more convinced that they are only having a voice in the chapter thanks to the EU and thus are able to tackle to blackmail from outside.

The reputed British journalist Timothy Garten Ash wrote it recently: “In trade terms, the EU, as the representative of the largest and richest multinational single market, is already a superpower. She has trade agreements with major economies such as Canada and Japan that Brexit Britain can only dream of. Less sexy but vital: the EU is also a superpower when it comes to regulation. Just ask Facebook or Google. In terms of privacy, Brussels sets the standard for the entire internet. (…) There is still a lot of buzz in its external relations, but there is also efficient action. Certainly when dealing with smaller countries and poorer parts of the world. Nobody spends as much on development aid as Europe. "[18]

He will be joined by Prof. Rob Van Wijk, professor of international relations and security at Leiden University and founder of The Hague Center for Strategic Studies (HCSS). The latter writes about the Brexit: “Anyone who thinks that the British can do cherry picking, can disintegrate the common decision and close the best possible trade deal, is wrong. The economic distance with the EU, China and the US is too great for that. (...) Tomorrow the British will wake up in a world where they can no longer fall back on the EU, but have become the plaything of the great powers. "[19]

It is not for nothing that the remaining 27 countries of the EU have transferred a whole range of powers to Europe or share them with Europe. A few examples clarify this:

- In June 2017, the European Commission decided to provide additional protection for airlines from EU member states. The reason was that countries outside the EU gave state aid to their own airlines. Such companies can count on sanctions since then.

- Europe introduced GDPR (Directive 95/46 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data). California is implementing a similar privacy legislation that will come into force in 2020.

- Airbnb has improved and clarified the presentation of accommodation offers and is now in compliance with EU consumer law standards. The European Commission and the EU consumer authorities had demanded this from AirBNB in ​​July 2018.

- The judgment of the European Court of Justice confirms that Uber is not an information company but a taxi service and can therefore be treated and punished by Member States. (2018)

Most politicians see the usefulness of this supranational organization, even though they play dirty and often overload Europe with the sins they have approved themselves.

Whoever comes under more pressure is the nation state. The new philosophical rock star Yuval Noah Harari writes in his book Homo Deus. ”In the 19th and 20th centuries, countries measured their success by the size of their territory, the increase in their population and the growth of their GDP, and not by the happiness of their citizens. Industrialized countries such as Germany, France and Japan set up huge education, healthcare and welfare systems, but those systems were meant to strengthen the nation rather than to promote individual well-being. " And he adds, "People are increasingly believing that the vast systems that were set up over a century ago to help the nation move forward should actually serve to increase the happiness and well-being of individual citizens." [20] Benjamin Barber's bestseller[21] “If Mayors ruled the world” says it in his subtitle: “Dysfunctional Nations, rising cities.” The nation state is therefore being questioned. Also in my own home country, Belgium, the debate is raging like never before because of the fact that democracy was taken over by particracy, which is aimed at strengthening one's own political party and weakening the other parties, without looking at common content and to the well-being of the citizen.

From the European Academy of the Regions, we have been arguing for several years for localization to compensate for globalization. But also to counsel decisions made by national governments inspired by quickwins without a vision of the future.

For example, Australian Prime Minister Abbott reversed environmental laws in force since 2014. However, the Australian state of Victoria approved further specifications of their Climate Change Act; another state, South-Australia, has been producing 54% of Australia's wind energy since 2011, although only 7.2% of its inhabitants live there. 31% of their energy already consists of renewable energy.

The same thing happened in the US where Trump stepped out of the Paris climate convention in 2016 and prompted numerous US states & cities to continue with measures to combat global warming: California, Pittsburg, New York,… Despite these efforts, the US is already struggling with the heavy costs of climate change, such as when a powerful ocean wave hit the north-east and destroyed lobster fishing in the region. Moreover, the blows of climate change are likely to aggravate social and economic inequality across the country. The poor, very young or very old and colored communities are already disproportionately confronted with the dangers of our climate-alien present - and will bear an even greater burden in the coming decades. [22]

Other examples of a local approach can be found in hot topics such as immigration policy and energy supply. Flanders and the Netherlands pursue a repressive confrontational policy towards migrants. Bart Somers former mayor of the city of Mechelen in Flanders, has developed a zero tolerance but also an integrated policy in his city for the last 10 years. The peace in the city has returned and the local economy has been booming in recent years. The mayor of Rotterdam, major city in the Netherlands,  Aboutaleb has a parallel policy. The latter, for example, encourages entrepreneurship of migrants through EigenBaas Migrantenschool.

When it comes to energy, the Spanish Atlantic coastal region of Galicia has natural gas in Orense: Gas natural Fenosa. Moreover: the region almost 100% meets the goals set for 2020. Given the location and geographical features of Galicia, the creation of hydroelectric power stations, hydraulic power stations, wind farms and solar power stations is ideal. The regional authorities have already developed 2 wind farms and the region is on the eve of a remarkable growth in solar energy options. It also has 2 biomass plants.

The state of Flanders in Belgium is at the forefront of the circular economy. The principle is simple: use materials and products a second time, sometimes in a repaired way, sometimes with a different destination. However, successfully introducing a new product made from used material is a much greater challenge. The mere circular application does not necessarily promote sales. The customer must be seduced with e.g. the use of high-quality products without prior investment and without worrying about maintenance, with a product that can be adapted and that is always up-to-date, with cost savings. [23]  Flanders as a region has so far made a lot of efforts to launch and promote circular initiatives in various economic sectors. For this it has an OVAM vehicle - the Public Waste Agency. This seeks projects from young people and looks for potential partners in the industry. It also organizes an annual competition for the best projects that are awarded the Henri Van de Velde prize enabling them to get notority. Henri Van de Velde himself is one of the best known Belgian Art Nouveau and Jugendstil designers from the first half of the 20th century.

Another fine example of intensive cooperation between public authorities and private initiators is Tampere. This Finnish city, which is not situated on the coast and is very northern, had nothing attractive fivty years ago to become a hub for technological and medical start-ups. Close cooperation between the regional government, the university and the business community has made the city and the urban region grow into a dynamic hub attracting even foreign young entrepreneurs. The whole is driven by the economic development program of the Tampere city region and offers expertise in the field of innovative industry, smart city solutions and experience economy. Tampere is a globally important location for R & D & I where medicine, biology and technology are combined. Life sciences in the Tampere region are driven by the development of medicines and vaccines, biomaterials and tissue technology, implants, medical devices and systems, and also health and welfare services.[24]

Regions are also closer to and encourage citizen movements

The latest economic crisis in 2008 made it clear that countries that had companies owned by employees or ordinary citizens were more resistant to such global economic shocks than countries whose most large companies depended on foreign headquarters and where SMEs were mostly suppliers were from these multinationals. Italy generally has a formidable cooperative sector. In 2011 there were more than 40,000 cooperatives with revenues of $ 160 billion, around 12.5 million members and more than one million employees. Compare this with the UK, where 7,000 registered cooperatives contribute around $ 45 billion to the economy. Or to the US, where 20,000 have a turnover of around $ 200 billion. Emilia-Romagna is one of the most prosperous regions in Italy. It is also home to perhaps the highest density of cooperative companies in the world - and they account for no less than 30% of the region's GDP. During the 2008 crisis, not only did cooperatives continue to recruit people, but many people who had lost their jobs decided to start their own cooperative. So to a certain extent, the cooperative sector had a stabilizing effect on the local economy. [25]

The mail sorting center in the buildings of the Brussels South Station closed in 1998. For twenty years, the NMBS, the owner, left the enormous space on the avenue Fonsny empty, without worrying about the impact that the slow decay had on the neighborhood. Until in 2019 a number of NGOs and technology bosses decide to take an initiative. BeCentral above the Central Station in Brussels is increasingly positioning itself as a locomotive for the Belgian tech world. More than sixty organizations - tech companies, schools and NGOs alike – were already attracted by the initiatives. [26] These types of initiatives are increasingly taking place in major cities such as Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Berlin. They provide an answer to a kind of dissatisfaction of the citizen that politicians take so few local initiatives or do not involve them in any way. But these types of citizens' initiatives, on the other hand, offer a creative local interpretation to a desire of the community to depend less on distant governments or self-centered managers in multinationals.

Particularly in European agriculture, which is under great pressure due to liberalization, citizens' initiatives have been set up to bring farmers and food products closer to their public. At "Boeren en buren", "La Ruche", "Marktschwärmer", "La Colmena", "L'Alveara", suppliers of fresh produce (fruit, vegetables, dairy, eggs, bread, meat...) and seasonal producers and their products are brought into contact via apps with an audience of citizens who like to buy directly from the farmer. Producers from the region collect the orders and deliver them at a set time to a set place. Payment has already been made via the internet. The network is active in France (618 suppliers), where it originated, in Belgium (125 suppliers), the Netherlands (10 suppliers), Germany (92 suppliers), Italy (224 suppliers) Switzerland (37 suppliers), Spain (88 suppliers) and Portugal (2 suppliers). [27] Eliminating most intermediaries such as supermarkets enables the farmers to be paid more decently for the quality products they supply.

Where energy giants do not succeed in installing (necessary) windmills in Belgium and France, mayors and "citizen cooperatives" do succeed. [28]  Ecopower is a Belgian cooperative producer and supplier of renewable energy. Those who invest in the production can use their own Ecopower power at home. The cooperative strives for 100% renewable energy for electricity, heat and mobility. By making ordinary citizens the owners of wind turbines, solar panels, small hydroelectric power stations and a pellet factory, the support for renewable energy is increased. Together they take energy provisions into their own hands in order to become independent of energy imports and large commercial energy companies. [29]

KAISDER, an organization for female employers and industrialists is active in Turkey. Kaisder's goal is to achieve gender equality in the economic growth cycle. [30] Of the 15-40 year-olds, only 8.8% of the start-ups are realized by women. Their additional goals are to create a dialogue between societies and to close the gap with men - their slogan on Facebook is KADIN-ERKEK DE ÖIL ÖNCE "İNSAN" OLACA --IZ - WE BECOME "HUMAN" FOR WOMEN AND MEN - and women entrepreneurs unite in a national network. The aim is to bring all women's entrepreneurial organizations from different parts of Turkey under one umbrella in order to improve their communication power and solidarity, to establish a network between NGOs and the private sector and to make a promise to the labor and economy ministries. A consortium of 3 Turkish NGO organizations, of which Kaisder took the lead, is currently deploying the WBUN project throughout the country in different parts of Turkey, with the aim of developing a communication and solidarity network aimed at female entrepreneurs. The WBUN or Women Business Network Organization is a project that has been realized with EU funds. Expected output from WBUN is primarily to cover the whole of Turkey with W-BUN by creating websites and applications. Secondly, to prepare a policy proposal for a legal arrangement that would invite more women entrepreneurs to be held under the GRC. Thirdly, to prepare a major communication campaign to raise awareness about W-BUN. Fourthly, to increase the capacity of women's entrepreneurship NGOs through training and workshops, and firstly to develop the KAGIDER training module called COMPASS and make it available to online NGOs.

What about Switzerland now?

Switzerland is the decentralized country par excellence. Prior to its 1848 constitution, Switzerland was a federation of states, each of which was sovereign and independent, bound together by a treaty of mutual defense against external aggression. As a country it was the most economically developed in Europe. It was religious and ethnically diverse, very innovative and very productive. Huguenots expelled from France in religious wars started the Swiss watch industry and German Protestants who escaped Catholic oppression set up large industrial companies. There was a focus on knowledge and education to compensate for the lack of natural resources, and the Swiss were networked and energetic traders worldwide. [31]

It is also one of the most privatized countries in the world. Swiss governments give few subsidies, encourage the private sector to take initiatives based on a business model.

Although employment in Swiss industry continued to fall between 1990 and 2000, the share of value added remained constant at the same time. The explanation is obvious: the industrial sector has experienced strong productivity growth at this stage. And this not only continued after the millennium, but it even accelerated. Since then, the number of employees in the industry has increased again, albeit only slightly. Between 2000 and 2012, industry grew faster than GDP and many service segments. Switzerland was the only Western country that clearly exceeded the 2007 level after the 2008/09 economic crisis. Compared with other Western countries, industrial production in Switzerland scored well and increased by 6.6 percent - compared to the period between 2007 and 2013.

The country comprises 26 cantons divided into 2914 municipalities. Every canton has its own constitution and parliament. In addition, there is a federal government with 7 ministers and a federal president. Most powers lie with the cantons; some have been entrusted to the federal government. Cantons can impose taxes (even municipalities are allowed to do so within the norms). There is nevertheless a federal tax law on tax matters that are harmonized. Cantons are also responsible for education and justice and for socio-economic politics. There is financial solidarity between the cantons, but the social bill itself must be paid.

The Federal Swiss budget amounts to 11.08% of GDP (2018) and they have a surplus of 1.7%. The total Swiss government budget amounts to 33.8% of GDP (2018). In a federation where powers are decentralized, one wants to guarantee that all citizens of that federation can enjoy the same public service more or less. In most other countries this mechanism is called "equalization": it makes the possibilities of all regions to offer public services almost equal. In Switzerland this settlement amounts to almost 5 billion euros (4.8 billion euros). In Belgium, in 2019 it amounted to around 651 million for Wallonia and 397 million for Brussels, together just over 1 billion. Switzerland provides local governments with tax incentives to make housing development possible - a reason why there is almost twice as much housing construction per person as in America.

Proposals as a conclusion

If we link sustainable development to a regional approach, we should argue for stimulating local production of as many products as possible. This would be much less harmful to the environment and would also have positive social consequences.

We realize that governments prefer to talk to large companies rather than SMEs because the effect on the economy is visible much faster and therefore it is easier to be re-elected. Crony capitalism, that is, the ties that are forged between the big companies and the ruling political class and the fact that most international top conferences such as Davos and Bilderberg are excluded for small businesses or even small multinationals, is also morally reprehensible. By the way, most participants do not prefer the content, but the preferential contacts. That is why we argue for subsidiarity up to the level of SMEs where it is possible.

Avoiding taxes and putting pressure on national governments not to collect taxes in the country of consumption must be stopped, because it puts the entire expenditure flows, including roads, climate change, education, health care on the shoulders of individuals and small businesses. We know pretty well what people own in real estate but we hardly know anything about their financial assets - their money, their shares, their bonds. That has to be registered much better. We need this data to identify inequality or to fight corruption.

If we can improve the lives of a multitude of people with the money that is now in a few hands, there is even very clear profit. The concentration of fortunes in the hands of individuals cannot be justified morally or economically. It would not make our economy any less innovative if we tax these fortunes more. We therefore argue that we should no longer allow a tax difference between SMEs and multinationals at European level. And finally, we also argue that without social minimum standards, countries and companies should not be allowed to participate in the international economic game. [32] The threat of being confronted with a Singapore on the Thames should lead to drastic measures, even if this hurts the economies of the small, nearby European countries.

Louis Delcart, board member EAR-AER, www.ear-aer.eu

[1] https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html retrieved on 3-03-2020

The Sustainable Development Goals are:

1.       No Poverty

2.       Zero Hunger

3.       Good Health and Well-being

4.       Quality Education

5.       Gender Equality

6.       Clean Water and Sanitation

7.       Affordable and Clean Energy

8.       Decent Work and Economic Growth

9.       Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

10.    Reducing Inequality

11.    Sustainable Cities and Communities

12.    Responsible Consumption and Production

13.    Climate Action

14.    Life Below Water

15.    Life On Land

16.    Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

17.    Partnerships for the Goals

[2] https://www.europa-nu.nl/id/vg9pn1p65vi9/bevoegdheden_europese_unie retrieved on 4-03-2020

[3] https://portal.cor.europa.eu/divisionpowers/Pages/Sweden-intro.aspx retrieved on 3-03-2020

[4] https://www.europa-nu.nl/id/vg9pn1p65vi9/bevoegdheden_europese_unie, retrieved on 3-03-2018

[5] The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is an EU advisory body composed of locally and regionally elected representatives coming from all 28 Member States. Through the CoR they are able to share their opinion on EU legislation that directly impacts regions and cities.

The CoR gives regions and cities a formal say in EU law-making ensuring that the position and needs of regional and local authorities are respected. The European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament must consult the CoR when drawing up legislation on matters concerning local and regional government such as health, education, employment, social policy, economic and social cohesion, transport, energy and climate change. If this is not done, the CoR can bring a case before the Court of Justice.  Once the CoR receives a legislative proposal, it prepares and adopts an opinion and circulates it to the relevant EU institutions. The CoR also issues opinions on its own initiative. In short, the activities of the CoR are on 3 levels: opinions, events and studies.

[6] The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is an EU advisory body comprising representatives of workers' and employers' organisations and other interest groups. It issues opinions on EU issues to the European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament, thus acting as a bridge between the EU's decision-making institutions and EU citizens. The sections/commission of the EESC are:

•              Economic and Monetary Union, Economic and Social Cohesion – ECO

•              Single Market, Production and Consumption – INT

•              Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society – TEN

•              External Relations – REX

•              Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment – NAT

•              Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship – SOC

•              Consultative Commission on Industrial Change – CCMI

[7] https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/policy/what/glossary/c/cohesion-policy. Retrieved on 3/03/2020

[8] Dries De Smet: Geen sector zo winstgevend als de farma (No sector as profitable as the pharmaceutical industry), in: De Standaard, 4 maart 2020

[9] Kate Holton, Suicide of 'Love Island' host sparks demands for tougher UK media rules, Reuters, February 17, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-people-flack/suicide-of-love-island-host-sparks-demands-for-tougher-uk-media-rules-idUSKBN20B1JE retrieved on 4-03-2020

[10] Ignaas Devisch – Het coronavirus is geen Bijbelse straf  (The coronavirus is not a Biblical punishment) in: De Standaard – 10 maart 2020

[11] Rob de Wijk : “De EU is machtig, ook zonder de Britten” (The EU is powerful even without the British ) in: Trouw - 31 januari 2020 - https://www.trouw.nl/cs-b312c296 - retrieved on 2-03-2020

[12] Simon Kruise, Lene Winther, Banned recording reveals China ambassador threatened Faroese leader at secret meeting, in: Berlingske, 10-12-2019 https://www.berlingske.dk/internationalt/banned-recording-reveals-china-ambassador-threatened-faroese-leader retrieved on 4-03-2020

[13] Ruud Goossens : “Een wereld zonder miljardairs zou een betere wereld zijn”, (A world without billionaires would be a better world) Interview met Gabriel Zucman, in: De Standaard Weekblad , 29 februari 2020,

[14] Rob de Wijk: “Globalisering is geen keuze, al laat de corona-epidemie precies zien waar de zwakke plek zit” (Globalization is not a choice, although the corona epidemic shows exactly where the weakness is), in; Trouw - 21 februari 2020 - https://www.trouw.nl/cs-b378d3c98 retrieved on 2-03-2020

[15] "World Bank Analyst Suggests Transferring Pollution to the Poor". Jornal do Brasil. 2 February 1992, quoted on page 135 of Nomination Of Lawrence H. Summers: Hearing before the Committee on Finance, Senate, 103rd Cong. 1 (1993).

[16] Nick Meynen: De wereld verhandelt zich kapot (The world trades itselve to pieces), in De Standaard 10 maart 2020

[17] Henk Dheedene: “Topvrouw farma: 'Er komen nog coronacrisissen op ons af” ("Senior woman pharma: ‘More Coronavirus crises will be coming our way’ "), Interview Marianne De Backer, Belgische topvrouw bij Bayer, De Tijd 6-03-2020

[18] Timothy Garton Ash, “Wat Europa van Nike kan leren”,( What Europe can learn from Nike) De Standaard - dinsdag 3 maart 2020

[19] Rob de Wijk : “De EU is machtig, ook zonder de Britten”( The EU is powerful even without the British) in: Trouw - 31 januari 2020 - https://www.trouw.nl/cs-b312c296 - retrieved on 2-03-2020

[20] Yuval Noah Harari: Homo Deus, Harvill Secker, London, 2016

[21] Benjamin R.Barber: If Mayors Ruled the World. Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities, 2013, Yale University Press

[22] Alejandra Borunda, Climate impacts grow, and U.S. must act, says new report, in National Geographic, November 23, 2018

[23] Louis Delcart, WASTE MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN FLANDERS – BELGIUM, in https://lodelcar.tumblr.com/post/180955829970/waste-management-and-circular-economy-in-flanders retrieved on 3-03-2020

[24] https://nordiclifescience.org/businesstampere/about-business-tampere/ retrieved on 04-03-2020

[25] The Italian region where 30% of GDP comes from cooperatives, in Apolitical - January 8, 2018

[26] Benny Debruyne, BeCentral verenigt techbedrijven, scholen en ngo's: 'Tech toegankelijk maken voor iedereen' (BeCentral unites tech companies, schools and NGOs: 'Making tech accessible to everyone'), in: Trends, 26/02/20, https://trends-knack-be.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/trends.knack.be/economie/bedrijven/becentral-verenigt-techbedrijven-scholen-en-ngo-s-tech-toegankelijk-maken-voor-iedereen/article-longread-1569643.html.amp?fbclid=IwAR2MVjqrZf6n-E2GCvoUNGuW6mffZljFSTR0XyOLEDpfoaLZCrIYy8UCtjQ retrieved 1-03-2020

[27] https://boerenenburen.be/nl-BE?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiofkx_z-5wIVFOJ3Ch1vzQo-EAAYASAAEgLR9_D_BwE retrieved 3-03-2020

[28] Jolien De Bouw: ‘Zelf windmolens bouwen om ons landschap te redden’ (Build your own windmills to save our landscape) in: De Standaard – 31-12- 2019

[29] https://www.ecopower.be/over-ecopower/onze-werking retrieved on 3/03/2020

[30] http://ear-aer.eu/2019/12/08/ear-aer-went-to-ankara-on-6th-december-2019-for-the-1st-one-day-workshop-with-ersiad/ retrieved on 3/03/2020

[31] https://mises.org/wire/economics-everywhere-politics-nowhere-benefits-swiss-decentralization retrieved on 3-03-2020

[32] Geert Noels, Gigantisme, Van too big to fail naar trager, kleiner en menselijker, Lannoo-Spectrum, 2019

[alexinafterglow]

Asks for Key part 3???

It’s been a while and I’ve lost track and been busy but hopefully the rest of the Key asks will be posted today!

Langblr Music Asks!! English: What is your favorite song in your target language? Any All Time Low song. Spoiler alert: it’s gonna be a recurring theme lmao. German: What is your favorite song that is not in your target language? I really don’t listen to any music that isn’t in English unless I randomly find out about it. Chinese: Do you like K-Pop, J-Pop or C-Pop? I like some random songs that are J and K if I feel like listening to them. French: Do you like musicals, if so, what’s your favorite? I love musicals my favorite is high school music lmao jk. It’s la la land. Spanish: Have you ever listened to the same song in different languages? lmao yea it was a Selena Gomez album. Russian: Have you listened to Disney songs in other languages? If u count Selena yes, other than that I wish I have. Arabic: Do you like Multilanguage versions of songs? I think it'd be cool to listen to them! Polish: Do you have a favorite band/artist that sings in your target language? All time low or marianas trench! Hungarian: Have you memorized the lyrics to a song in your target language? EVERY MTRENCH ATL SONG EVER and other bands too! Portuguese: Have you memorized the lyrics to a song in a language you don’t speak? Minus the French parts of Disney songs not really yet. Italian: Do you listen to music you normally wouldn’t just because it is in your target language? sometimes if it's a meme song. Dutch: Name your top three artists that sing in your target language. Do I even have to say it at this point lmao. Japanese: Name your top three artists that don’t sing in your target language. oh shit I don't listen to too many foreign artists FUKKK Romanian: Name your top three songs in your target language 1. Any ATL song 2. Melanie Martinez/ Paylae Royale 3. TESSA VIOLET Korean: Name your top three songs in any language FUCK ME UP JERRY 1. Any all time low definitely 2. Any Marianas Trench song 3.A female artist because they deserve more love and respect than they get! Basque: Have you ever decided to learn a language just because you loved a song sung in it? If so, what language and what song made you learn it? I haven’t learned a language but there’s certain words in French I’ve learned to understand certain French music. Slovak: Do you have different playlists for different languages in your music library? Not really??? I don’t see the point of that tbh Swedish: Does your music library look like an UN confference? I have a lot of US artist that are from other countries mixed in with some Japanese, UK, British ,France, Asian, Canadian, as well as other places too!

[roodiaries]

Tropical Thunder

The Journey North

I'm not talking of a Game of Thrones journey north, where the bitter cold whips one's bones to the brittle core as they pass beyond The Wall and into the icy depths of the unforgiving wildling realms. No. A nice gentle tropical journey north towards the equator, where beaches and tourists are plentiful, the palm trees nestled along an expansive Pacific coastline and the state of relaxation knows no bounds as yet another shrimp is procured from the figurative barbie. Stereotypes aside, the East Coast is fun, but a little too popular and similar at times. You have to make it your own, with good travel mates and a random journey.

Fresh from my incredible holiday in Vanuatu, I left Sydney with Yusuke on 11 September, excited to jump in the Nissan and plough northwards. I had to be in Cairns (2400km away) in 9 days for my new job. We didn't bother messing about too much in New South Wales, as we'd both spent a lot of time here and seen all we wanted to see. We Byron Bayed for a night, and enjoyed the tremendous views on offer there, before a short jump over the Queensland border to Brisbane, where we spent two nights and almost got towed.

The real journey into the unknown began after this, along with an epic 14-hour driving day where we ended up talking to a local woman about the effects of the recent cyclone in Rockhampton (which lies on the Tropic of Capricorn) and eventually reached Airlie Beach. Its electric atmosphere was unfortunately wasted on us tired travellers, as all we wanted to do was go to bed and shovel food down without the pressure and distraction of hostel kitchen chit-chat. Of course, we were awoken by an Aussie guy screaming – “I'll fucken' cut ye open, yer cunt!” – to a guy who had boldly told him to quieten down. Next day was the legendary Whitsunday Islands trip. All prior knowledge about this archipelago and national park had conjured up images of a calm sandy paradise, but we were in for a huge surprise as it turned out to be the ferry ride from hell and one of the roughest sea journeys I've ever experienced. I'm never sure whether I'm just being overly affected by things (scientifically known as OABT Syndrome), but it was bumpy as. Whitehaven Beach was a real treat, however.

It was more driving, driving in our car, north past the dispersing Great Dividing Range and glinty inland sunsets, through forests and fields, over sugar cane train tracks and past vast banana plantations. Townsville & Magnetic Island was the highlight of the trip for me. Mostly because the hostel was good quality – a good balance between social and quiet – and we met spirited Dutch Oz-newbie Jenny, who joined us for the sunset hike up Castle Rock, a towering and majestic hill over Townsville. The Maggie Island daytrip involved joining forces with Jenny's friend Lizzy, renting a mini open-top 4x4, a hot hike past wild koalas to WWII fortifications (I think I bored the others with any over-zealous talk of wartime history), one incredible sunset at West Point, a shy echidna and two brown tree snakes.

Cairns

Named after Irishman & Governor of Queensland, William Wellington Cairns, and unpronounceable without adopting an Aussie accent, this modest city of 140,000 inhabitants is a surprisingly pumping tourist mega-hotspot. Go more than 200m from the ocean and everything basically becomes shit (e.g. classic highways lined with industrial outlets and nothingy commercial suburbs), but the heart of the city is the marina and downtown area. Despite a smaller size, it has a nightlife to compete with most other Australian cities and a huge mix of nationalities. Steamy nights at Salt House, Pier Bar, The Reef Casino, Three Wolves and even The Woolshed will stay with me for a long time. The gorgeous green hills provide a tropical backdrop, and the Trinity Inlet is a beautiful spot to the south, while the beachside suburbs to the north – Trinity Beach, Kewarra, Palm Cove to name just three – are incredibly chilled out and enjoyable. Fishing with fun work-mates Max, Tun & Rankin on a boat trip up the river was a real privilege; as well as trips to Shangri-La's North Bar overlooking the marina with ex-Pullmanites and great friends Caitlin & Davide; the work-mate pool party at Caitlin & Max's house with poker and Cards Against Humanity was yet another reminder that this is not a normal life for an Englishman.

Nothing makes you feel more like you're in the tropics than the pungent smell of bat shit outside the Cairns Library, where hundreds of them gather before fleeing and feeding across the night sky. They are the animal that most represent Cairns for me, along with the ominous curlew, a gangly and awkward flightless bird that drifts in a ghostly way by night. I discovered the city by bicycle and was able to experience the city in all its hot, heavy, pungent glory.

The Winkworth Way

I moved in to 45 Winkworth Street in the western suburbs, paying $135 per week for a single room with a double-bed and air-conditioning. It was by far the best accommodation I've had in Australia. I loved the house for its airy openness and traditional Queenslander ambience, but mostly because of the fantastic people I lived with. I don't say this often, because I generally seem to end up in accommodation that's less than ideal. We were all travellers in the house, and all worked a lot so often wouldn't see each other for days at a time. But that made it all the more special when we did meet and hang out. There was Yukie, a Japanese lady from downstairs who dropped her keys in a bush when she fell down the stairs drunk one time; Ander from the Basque Country, who enjoys parties, bed bugs and violently offering biscuits as well as taking me on some excellent and fun day-trips; Leonie whose surname and town of origin (Ter Stege and Enschede respectively) Ander and I always enjoyed repeating back to her in a Dutch accent for immature amusement, who works too much but has a heart of gold; Tim, an Austin Powersy German dive instructor and goon connoisseur as well as a valued source of Stephen Colbert episodes; and Kacie from Texas, who is a rock of a friend and proves the Trump-American stereotypes wrong with a kind, fair outlook on life, and loves Australia if only it weren't for the cockroaches constantly falling on her head.

Even Andrew, the landlord, was pretty cool. Except for the occasions when he simply could not stop swearing in anger for minutes at a time, over some trivial thing that's happened with the roof or his phone. “Oh no. You baaastard!”

Pullmania

Working took up the bulk of my time. 39% of my waking hours over three months in Cairns were spent in the Pullman Cairns International Hotel. I actually calculated it. I had transferred up here from Sydney to fill the same role (a Food & Beverage Attendant, in Banquets), so technically should have known what I was doing. However, a few factors made PCI more challenging than PSHP: the climate was hotter, the furniture heavier, and many of the events much bigger and more challenging. It was a hectic & sweaty 3 months, and below I've chosen some events to paint a picture:

Friday 22 September: my first shift. I found my way through the labyrinthine back-of-house corridors in time for briefing, simultaneously meeting my manager, Karen, and the staff working tonight (most of the banquets team). In addition, we had lots of staff from Coco's (the restaurant in the lobby) and Staffing Solutions (a hospitality agency). I was behind the main bar with Italian sage Davide for a 400-pax cocktail reception, meaning canapés and free drinks for a bunch of lairy let-loose corporate types. Since it was the pool-deck, we couldn't serve glass bottles, so had to pour every single beer into a plastic cup. The queue was infinite, with murmurs of disapproval when not getting served immediately, and over the fact they had to drink beer out of plastic glasses. The struggle was very real and lasted for hours: one guy simply sighed, while another shook his head and laughed in disgust at my occasionally over-foamy beers. An arrogant racktastic blonde kept appearing at the bar, clicking her fingers and demanding to be served her rum & Coke (she knew it was my first day and that I would be a soft touch). I really felt shell-shocked when the event finally ended, and then overwhelmed with fatigue and frustration for the next few hours when we had to replace all of the furniture and polish all of the glasses we'd used tonight, which took us until 2am. 10-hour physical shift, no breaks. I soon realised this was not unusual.

Tiffany & Gareth: The Unhappy Bride. The grand ballroom was used to host the wedding reception of Tiffany and Gareth, an aboriginal couple who had married earlier today. Most of the guests were indigenous, too, and I always enjoyed doing events with aboriginal people, since I had seldom met any during my time in the South-East. However, Tiffany decided she wanted to ruin her own day by complaining about everything and causing problems in a truly bogan manner. Why didn't everyone have champagne for the toast!? This wasn't what I asked for on the buffet! Why are people getting too many free drinks!? Why did I get married!? The banquets team was on edge, and people snapped at each other, while our trooper of a supervisor, Shontelle, bore the brunt of the complaints (she had met with Tiffany several times before the event, and none of the things she was complaining about had ever been mentioned). She wanted a Fairytale Wedding, but wasn't the fairytale bride.

Melbourne Cup Day: I hadn't slept well the night before, and my body and mind weren't ready for a rare daytime shift. Some of the richest people in Cairns came to the hotel to mingle with fellow poshos over lunch, look fancy and watch the Melbourne Cup horse race on big TV screens. I was put in the fenced-off VIP section with my Team Leader, Harumi. All we had to do was pour drinks for them, or fetch beers from the bar, then clear their plates when they were finished with their buffet lunch. But things went wrong early on when I opened a bottle of champagne and the cork literally flew up to hit the ceiling, bouncing off it and landing in someone's lap on the other side of the ballroom. I could have melted with embarrassment, but played it off as the fault of the bottle (“she was a fizzy one!”) to the gawkingly judgemental woman I was serving. Luckily, neither the General Manager of the hotel, my F&B Manager nor the Banquets Manager had noticed, but I still felt traumatised and on-edge for the rest of the day. I over-compensated by being especially servile and smiley, and somehow managed to gain a $10 tip for my efforts. It was a horrible shift and I felt very alone. Some staff, like Tun, were supportive, patient and helpful, some were less understanding, while others simply didn't care. I hate the pressure not to mess up in these kind of VIP environments, constantly being on display and concentrating hard not to bump into stuff, drop things or spill drinks (difficult for me). And to look busy, even if you're inconveniencing the customer by reaching over unnecessarily to grab that one extra glass. It made me question whether the job was for me. But is this my career? Hell no. I decided to try meditation to relieve stress, which was reaching unhealthy levels during some shifts, like this one. It would have been nice to have some kind of feedback on your work, and to be told you had done well, or how to improve in certain areas. But that didn't seem to happen much here.

Other stories:

The Scotland Rugby League team & the hype of the Rugby League World Cup being in town: we served them dinner and lunch. I was surprised that almost all of them were actually from the Midlands and northern England!

When we had four Christmas parties on four floors at the same time: I did the one on the pool-deck with Abi, serving 30 insurance workers drinks and dinner and watching them get merry and sloshed and chant our names!

The high-school graduation events at the end of November, with synchronised student dances, numerous presentations, and thankfully no alcohol

Some huge alternate drop dinners with some hot & heavy plate carrying, and equally strenuous plate-clearing

Moving stacks of chairs across the road to the Pullman Reef Casino with Rankin, and them constantly toppling on the uneven kerb onto the zebra crossing!

Three consecutive evening shifts in October where I was transferred to Novotel Oasis Cairns Resort with Tun, Aimee and Caitlin for one work conference's dinner events. It was a lot of fun, and nice to work in a smaller, more personal hotel

The Cairns experience is now at an end, but I will never forget those 3 months I spent in Far North Tropical Queensland, and the friends I made there. I am now in Darwin about to begin a road trip down the West Coast, so I will be writing about that as my final blog in Australia.

Thank you for reading,

Oliver

[howtonameacharacter]

June-Inspired Names

June is almost here! So why not celebrate with some summery names? Under the cut are 25+ names inspired by the month of June!

Abraham ( אַבְרָהָם) | ♂ | English, Hebrew, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Biblical

One of the most widely celebrated holiday in June is Father’s Day. Coincidentally, Abraham means “father of many” in Hebrew!

Adanna | ♀ | Igbo

Another name associated with Father’s Day, Adanna means “father’s daughter” in Igbo.

Alexander | ♂ | English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Hungarian, Slovak, Biblical

Comes from Alexandrite, a birthstone of June. Alexander means “defender of man”.

Billie | ☿ | English

Usually short for William or Wilhemina. Since June is African-American Music Appreciation Month, this name commemorates Billie Holliday.

Brosi | ♂ | Faroese

June is also the National Smile Month! This rare name means “smile”, and comes from Old Norse!

Cedella | ♀ | Jamaican Patois

...Aand June is also Caribbean American Heritage Month! While people aren’t sure where this name comes from, it could mean “prophetess”!

Dove | ♀ | English

Did you know that every month has its own bird? I didn’t! June’s bird is the Dove!

Ekain | ♂ | Basque

Ekain simply means “June” in Basque.

Elizabeth | ♀ | English, Biblical

Elizabeth comes from the Hebrew Elisheva, meaning “my God is an oath”. In June, the Commonwealth of Nations celebrate “The Queen’s Official Birthday”, even though Queen Elizabeth II was born in April!

Gal ( גַּל )| ☿ | Hebrew

Don’t lie - you’re excited for the new Wonder Woman movie, starring Gal Gadot, coming to cinemas in June!

Golshan (گلشن) | ☿ | Persian

As well as having two birthstones, June also has two birth flowers. One of these is the rose, inspiring this name, meaning “rose garden.”

Hande | ♀ | Turkish

Like Brosi, this name is inspired by National Smile Month! It comes from Persian, and means “smile” or “laughter”.

Harvey | ♂ | English

Harvey means “battle worthy”, but this name was chosen because June is Pride Month, to commemorate Harvey Milk, gay activist and first openly gay person to be elected to political office in California

Jagoda | ♀ | Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian, Polish

As well as having a birth flower, stone and bird, June also has a birth fruit - strawberries! This name, of course, means “strawberry”.

Josephine | ♀ | English, German, Dutch

Did you know that Josephine Baker was born in June? Her name means “she will add”.

June | ♀ | English

Too obvious?

Kazuo (和夫) | ♂ | Japanese

As said before, June’s birth-bird (?) is the Dove, and doves represent peace! Kazuo means “peaceful man”.

Leimomi | ♀ | Hawaiian

June’s other birthstone! Leimomi means “pearl child”.

Litha | ♀ | English

While this name simply means “truth”, it also coincides with the name of the summer solstice in Germanic Neopaganism.

Ludwig | ♂ | German

June is also ALS awareness month! Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is also called Lou Gehrig’s disease. He got his nickname “Lou” from this name, meaning “famous battle.”

Marilyn | ♀ | English

Marilyn Monroe was also born in June. Who knew! Her stage name is a combination of “Mary” and “Lyn”, which mean “beloved” and “lake”, respectively.

Marsha | ♀ | English

Like Harvey Milk, Marsha P. Johnson was a gay (as well as trans) activist, commonly credited to starting the Stonewall Riots. This name either means “daughter of Mars” or “war-like”, depending on how you look at it

Omeriah | ♂ | Jamaican Patois

Again, for Caribbean American Heritage Month. Omeriah means “God has said.”

Ray | ♂ | English

Like the name “Billie”, Ray is chosen to commemorate African-American Music Appreciation Month, this time with a name inspired by Ray Charles, whose name means “beam of light.”

Sinjin | ♂ | English

Did you know that the Summer Solstice is also sometimes called St. John’s Day, especially in Britain? Sinjin is a rare variant of the name “St. John”, which isn’t used anymore

Thomas | ♂ | English, French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Greek, Biblical

Most people born in June are Gemini, which is why Thomas, which means “twin”, is on this list.

Yaara (יַעֲרָה ) | ♀ | Hebrew

June’s other birth flower is a honeysuckle, which is what Yaara means in Hebrew.