According to the Media, tiny Luxemburg is to become the first country in the world to make its public transport - free. That would be a very smart move, worthy to be followed by other small countries with limited territory and lack of natural resources.
The advantages of such a move are enormous: it would ease congested traffic and make the roads safer, improve ecology, and above all - improve people's health.
Cannabis is gradually getting legalized in various parts of the world. It's a positive direction, and it should include as many countries as possible. I'm in favor of legalization of this plant which is said to have the potential of easing the suffering of the sick (cancer/ parkinson patients and others). They say, it is not addictive like alcohol, and not harmful like smoking.
Egypt's president, El-Sisi, has recently launched a rhetorical 'attack' on the overweight in his country and told egyptians they should take better care of themselves. Opposition to his words is loud, invoking poverty, junk food, faulty health care, and the other usual slogans; but his clear voice on the matter is a start, a good one, even though he might do nothing practical about it.
It seems El-Sisi is the right guy in the right place who might bring about significant changes in his country (including the issues of obesity and the alarming birth rate), setting an example to the other countries in his continent.
Scientific researches of the last couple of years might give us, in 2019, a clue as to the workings of the human mind. It's quite a mystery when a person who has it all: career, family, money, love, - takes his own life (recent case in my country), and leaves family and all around him utterly devastated and grieving. We need some more insight into that super computer - the brain- to be able to prevent, perhaps, this kind of tragedy.
Happy 2019!
I've got an old , simple bracelet. It's not gold, but I like it. In fact I like it so much that I've recently decided not to wear it any longer for fear of losing it (It disappeared a while ago, and it reappeared miracoulously just when I lost all hope of finding it again).
The bracelet was bought many years ago in a little shop , on the edge of the city market. The shop owners, father and son, dealt mainly with jewelery bought from immigrants and inheritance. It was a popular shop, for one could buy there a real bargain and even get a blessing, style "you should never have to resell it".
The shop no longer exists.
There's only one more shop of that kind known to me; it's bigger, more expensive, and located in the heart of the city. The owners, two twin brothers, are skillful jewelery makers and... rather shrewd merchants. Part of the items acquired by them are not sold in their original form but undergo some slight transformation that enables the two brothers to demand a higher price.
Anyway, my bracelet, safely kept now, has some strange sort of fascination upon me. Hard to explain . There's something about it, something indefinable that appeals to me.Perhaps its simplicity of design, its light weight , its minimal chic as a fashion accessory or all these things together.
Speaking of safety, it's not unusual to see elderly women, especially of yemeni descent, wearing their jewelery (rings, bracelets, earrings, necklaces - mostly silver made) on their body, almost all the time. They'll tell you and even argue with you that your body is... the safest place for it, not the hidden safe on the wall.
