Five Things: Israel, War, Sports, Chicken, TV Shows

This week I spent in some sort of mental fog with plenty of headaches. I really cannot recommend COVID-19 to anyone and I’m grateful for all the shots I had gotten prior. Still, I did get to read some articles, mostly because I slept during the day and then was wide awake at night. Also because our dog had some digestive problems and badly needed to go outside in the middle of the night, just to curiously sniff around for what seemed like an eternity, obviously in a street that the dog should somehow remember as we live there.

The war in Gaza keeps me up at night as I worry a lot about my friends in Israel and also about the possible geopolitical ramifications this war has. I’m also shocked and appaled how many people in Europe and the USA openly display antisemitism while it seems that too many people just shrug about this instead of being furious. November 9 is what’s called the “Schicksalstag der Deutschen” - it’s the fateful day of the Germans. In 1848 this is when the counter-revolution won, squashing the hopes of the revolutionaries. In 1918 this was day that marked the end of the monarchy and the declaration of the Republic. In 1938 the pogrom night (we don’t use the term “Kristallnacht” in Germany anymore as it is a nazi term and a crystal obviously has positive connotations, which this night did not have), which was the beginning of the genocide that led to the systematic murdering of six million jews. And on November 9, 1989, in one historic press conference the Berlin Wall was declared to be opened, which led to the reunification of our country. Yet it is day that is divided between remembering what happened 85 years ago and being grateful for a unified Germany.

So when I see people chanting “from the river to the see”, I get the chills. How can they be so blind? Why is antisemitism still around in our liberal democracies? And when I walked around our neighborhood on the evening of Nov 9 with our youngest daughter, who is 8 years old, and she saw all the candles lit next to the stepping stones (an art project that installs commemorative brass plaques in front of the buildings where people lived who were victims of the Nazis), she had so many questions, which is exactly the purpose of the stepping stones. She couldn’t understand why people can hate other people just because they are from somewhere else, look a bit different, or follow a different religion.

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I Have Never Been to This Israel Before

I’ve shared columns by Thomas L. Friedman here before and again I think his column on Israel is really worth reading. Especially because it conveys some hope that Israel will get out of this stronger than before, if it gets rid of Netanyahu finally.

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A Soldiers Thoughts in Gaza: How Many More Sunrises Will We See Here?

This is a perspective that we currently don’t read much about: what is it like to drop everything and go to war? What does it feel like to be a reservist who is called up for duty to defend the home country?

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The Middle East’s play to rule global sports

Sports used to be a predominatedly Western thing, focused on Europe and the USA. This is changing rapidly now with the gulf states trying to get a bigger piece of the cake. Is this taken right out of the Russian playbook of buying influence by sponsoring teams, or is there more behind this? Will sports change those rather conservative societies or will it be the other way round?

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I tried lab-grown chicken at a Michelin-starred restaurant

This used to be pure science-fiction and now lab-grown meat is a novelty - how much longer until it will be commonplace and not just in really fancy restaurants, but in your ordinary KFC as well?

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Can One Episode Ruin A TV Show? A Statistical Analysis

Daniel Parris is taking a look at what we already suspected: one stupid episode could ruin years of watching a tv show. I’m still annoyed byHow I met your Motherand how it was rushed to an end.

(LINK )

As always: thanks for reading! And please subscribe to Five Things!

Have a great Sunday!

-- Nico