🧵

Unglaubliche Szenen in der Apotheke. Ich muss mich erst mal setzen. Wo fang ich an? 2/ Mit 2 Rezepten für Antibiotika & post-KrebsOP Enzyme in die Apotheke. Tür weit auf (immer eine Erleichterung), 3 Apothekerinnen & Kunden, alle ohne Maske. Als ein Schalter frei wird, gehe ich 😷 rein.

Neben mir ein älteres Ehepaar. Beide Fatigue, Halsschmerzen, Magenprobleme.

Continuing on with my lose thread of threads about migration (see yesterday: family migration), let's talk about skilled migration.

I think there's a bit of confusion & still quite a bit of underappreciation going on there.

Where to start? 2/ Twice in the last few weeks the car we rely on (we really do) was stranded due to unavailable spare parts. A rear light, a magnetic valve - these aren't rare parts to break. And still, neither the maker (in various countries) nor any online shop was able to help.

🧵Migration also means spouses, fiancé(e)s, (adopted/step) children, & parents. All these people joining or accompanying loved ones. They might not bring an immediate economic benefit. They do, however, bring great enthusiasm for their new home & they make or preserve a family. 2/As a former Australian family migration officer, I assure you they also go through rigorous testing. Is the relationship genuine? Can they support themselves? Are they without criminal conviction? Are they healthy? What are their plans, their funds, their language knowledge?

🧵I remember early in the pandemic when all were to stay at home, my mum suggested I could take a walk by the river. Now, that all were indoors, it would be safe. I replied, yes, but what if everyone does that? Ignores the rules designed to keep everything fair and everyone safe. 2/ Solidarity & consideration are cornerstones of every society. You can't police everyone all the time. (Even if you could, what kind of community would that be?) Our systems can't work when people opt out when they feel like it, don't care about being caught or about others.

Almost all German cartoonists today look at Charles' German state visit: 2/

"Traffic jams everywhere because of King Charles!"
"That was foreseeable. He's ..."
"...a dedicated climate activist."

Cartoon: Klaus Stuttmann

🧵The views today's propaganda embeds in people will be hard if not impossible to change. Neurologically, we tend to hold on to what we first come to believe - about ourselves & about others. #StopTheBoats will do lasting damage by planting & cementing deeply flawed convictions. 2/ My German nan, born in 1914, was a profoundly unpolitical person, her interests entirely elsewhere. She wasn't a great intellect, but equally not ignorant. In the 30s, she worked in an office & had an English boyfriend whom she visited in the UK in 1938.

A hospital visit in Germany.

Very nice chap sharing a room with my family. Married to a Polish lady. Widely travelled. We chat about the world.

He says, unprompted, Scots are the warmest, most welcoming people he's ever met. He's never felt such genuine friendliness elsewhere. 2/ Remembering individual moments of kindness on his journey all the way to the Hebrides. A visit of a crowded pub where a local, unprompted, offered his chair. The true spirit of B&Bs with no effort spared to make every guest feel comfortable, welcome, at home.

Well, after I took a dive downstairs in a hospital (you may laugh), after 2 weeks my wrist is still giving me grief, so I decided it was best to go to A&E to make sure nothing's fractured or torn.

I took a book & a charger for my fully-charged phone, preparing myself for a wait. 2/

There's a 2G+ rule to be let in (vaccinated + tested within the last 24hrs), unless you're an emergency patient. My temperature was taken, and I was channelled straight to A&E.

Within 15 minutes my details & medical problems were registered, and I saw a doctor.

A reflection

There's a huge grey area between uncritical and overcritical. We tend to be very forgiving towards those we already see in a positive light, and rather strict with those we don't. It's not easy to apply the same standards to everyone (including ourselves 😉), is it? 2/

We see this echoed in yesterday's comments. Clothes or behaviour, gestures or words ... the praise and criticism reflects the divide in the country. I'm not sure this funeral has, as the BBC said, brought people together. That, in my view, was wishful thinking.

🧵On false economy.

Once, a consultancy came to our office. They rightly criticised that I kept photocopies of the travel claims I did for my manager. Why would I take, file, & keep copies when the originals were literally 2 offices down with the accountant? 2/
A good question. I explained.

The accountant was an elderly man, a bit set in his ways. [I didn't tell them he liked a beer or 2 at lunchtime.] A lovely man, good at his job, just not at filing. [You could barely see him behind all the stacks of papers piled up on his desk.]

And here it is ...

German cartoonists on #BorisJohnson, #LizTruss, and the #ToryLeadershipContest

#cartoon 🧵 2/

Cartoon: Klaus Stuttmann

🧵Yesterday, at the hospital, I had a question. In the corridor, I spotted a lady in scrubs, leaning back against a wall, waiting. My "Excuse me,..." was answered with a firm "I am a surgeon.", so I instinctively backed off. 2/ My 1st thought was, oh dear, she probably thinks I mistook her for a nurse. My 2nd one was, so what? I had a question. I needed help. She could have redirected me. Or listened to me first. She was not in hurry. I didn't interrupt.

🧵Why does it all have to be so clandestine? Secret letters to a secret committee. Men in grey suits meeting in backrooms. Cabinet members told to carefully consider their positions. Worse, this does not just concern the party leader. They're wheeling & dealing a new PM.

1/ 2/
The motives are all too obvious & have little to do w/ what's best for the country. MPs have followed Johnson's every cruel, undemocratic, nationalist, xenophobic policy. Endorsed them all. Only now, when enough see their own jobs in peril do they speak. Or rather, whisper.

It is #Pentacost weekend in Germany, Monday's a public holiday. *Every year* I have to research its meaning. Really, I should know it by now. It might have something to do with being a 20th century person knowing no literal spirit arrived to speak to the disciples. 2/
I reason & sense what the story is meant to tell us. How, in its time, it was meant to convince. The thing is, many take the scripture literally. They explain away all incongruity, just so that they can continue to believe.

🧵 #media & Meghan

Two things in yesterday's Twitter feed cheered me up no end. Marcus Rashford's engagement (I know, late to the game, but just happy for the happiness of an excellent lad) & the public cheers for Harry & #Meghan. Yes, not world politics. Stay with me. 2/
We all know that Meghan has been receiving disproportionate negative coverage - the distortions, lies, and libel are obvious, and evidenced - as in this comparison with coverage of Kate:

🧵A cold, dreary morning, just below 6°C, misty until the sun poked through, then the temperature inched up ever so slowly. A good morning for a walk, and it was full of discoveries, even though it was 'only' the neighbourhood. Let me take you along... 2/
Along unknown paths in the local wood, past sideways benches with not much to look at ...

🧵#Germany
During yesterday's budget debate, Foreign Sec Baerbock passionately defends human rights & argues for weapons deliveries to Ukraine. Below, a clip on human rights. I append a translation.
Also below, a link to her full speech with detailed remarks on Russia/Ukraine. 2/

Translation of clip (Foreign Sec Annalena Baerbock on human rights, responding to an intervention by Die Linke party, the German socialists)

#Germany

🧵

[French/German]
ARTE, a public TV channel, has visited #Hull and #Grimsby. They have spoken to people & walked the streets. I will try & highlight some of it below.

Please, this is what @BBCNews & @BBCPanorama need to do.

Talk. To. Real. People.
2/
The '22 report focuses on & speaks to fishermen as hopeful, core supporters of Brexit, Catching up with them, so to speak.
They describe their hopes for Brexit, then show us a fish auction at Grimsby. Now, almost all the fish auctioned there is from Iceland.Delivered by lorry.

It's a grey morning, so I've decided to do a cartoon 🧵.

One of them, surely, must put a smile on your face! Give it a go ... 2/

by:
scottmetzgercartoons/Insta

#caturday

🧵 As it's Sunday, a word about porn. (Which part of this caught your attention?)

During last week's events, I've been wondering about the extent of the (moral) outrage & (dis)honesty as there are regular reports on how prolific & popular (online) porn is. 2/ Some 25% of all internet searches relate to porn, that's 68 million search requests daily. The daily revenue of online porn: €12.6m/day. 8% of all emails contain pornographic material as do 35% of all data transfer on the internet.

Walls in people's heads are sometimes more durable than walls made of concrete blocks.
- Willy Brandt, Erinnerungen

Not too long ago, we were proud to tear down walls. Real ones and those in people's heads. Getting rid of barriers that confine & obstruct our lives. 2/ Once, I witnessed a wall coming down, (re)uniting my family. For us, this was freedom, and a good thing. For others, this was a threat.

Maybe we underestimated the sense of safety, order, and rule that walls bring. Clear boundaries. The comfort of tribes. Protection.