The Monday Mix (29/08/2022)
Hey friends,
We’re back with the regular Monday emails after a brief hiatus while I was in the Netherlands. The great thing about travelling is taking yourself out of your comfort zone, seeing new places and meeting old friends. I managed to do all three on this trip!
I also got to witness a bike race, a sport that’s close to my heart, which was the primary purpose of the trip. If you’re not into cycling, I’d recommend giving races a watch, as it’s an incredible sport. The TV doesn’t do justice to just how fast these guys are when they’re in full flow. We were able to see the cyclists over two days, one when they were doing a team time trial and the other when they were doing a standard stage.
It’s hard to state just how fast they go. On the second day, they whizzed past us in a matter of seconds in what felt like a blur. This is all while bunched together like birds, the smallest deviation could bring down several fellow cyclists. I also got to see more of the Netherlands and see some more of the country, such as the beautiful city of Leiden, which just might be too beautiful! Hopefully, I’ll have an article out about touching on this toward the end of the week.
Here’s what I want to share with you this week.
Should Cars Be Banned From Cities?
This is an intriguing piece and somewhat fits into the cycling and Netherlands theme above. A lot of cities are focused on cars and how best they can get around as opposed to people. This is especially true in the UK, and a big problem with my home city of Chester, which given its small size, should be more pedestrian-friendly than it is.
Spending a week in the cycling-friendly Netherlands has been eye-opening. The cities are much better organised, far easier to get around and nicer. Cyclists have right of way in most places and streets are engineered for their and pedestrians’ benefit rather than cars. It’s just a nicer experience to walk around a city without worrying about cars or seeing them everywhere.
This didn’t just happen, it’s by design that the Netherlands is so cycling-friendly. The UK and many other countries could easily adapt if they wanted to, and they should in my opinion. Full-blown bans might not be the best idea but redesigning cities so they don’t favour cars is a must, especially in the Anthropocene era.
In Our Time
Apart from the NHS, the greatest institution in the UK is the BBC. It’s hard to overstate just how incredible it is despite the frequent political attacks focused on it. One of the underrated parts of the BBC is its audio output. There are multiple radio stations ranging from national to regional stations that broadcast an eclectic array of programmes.
As I don’t tune into the radio that much, I tend not to realise just how much of a hidden treasure trove it is. Here in the UK, we have the BBC Sounds website and app so you can listen to all the various shows past and present at your leisure. One of them I’ve recently discovered is In Our Time, which discusses various topics from the recent and ancient past. A quick look on the first page here shows one episode on cave art, another on the Russo-Japanese War and a look at what studying eclipses have taught us.
I can’t recommend it enough if you’re someone like me who likes to learn about weird, wacky and interesting topics you might know much about. If you’re outside the UK, you can listen on Spotify or Apple podcasts so you won’t miss out!
How Bolivia’s ruthless tin baron saved thousands of Jewish refugees
This is just an incredible story of how man rescued more than 20,000 Jewish refugees from the Nazis. Martin Hochschild was one of the wealthiest men in South America and was considered somewhat of a rogue due to his business dealings and the working practices at his mines.
Yet between 1938 and 1940, he was responsible for getting 20,000 Jews out of Nazi Germany and to relative safety in Bolivia. What’s even more remarkable is that this wasn’t widely known until 2004 when papers stuffed into barrels in his mines were discovered that showed the extent he went to rescue these people from almost certain death.
I don’t want to reveal much more as the article is fantastic but it’s things like this that give you faith in humanity. That a man so wealthy, who didn’t need to worry himself with concerns of people thousands of miles away took it upon himself to rescue these people from one of the most brutal regimes in history shows that for as much evil in the world there is just as much, if not more good.
Book I’m reading - Gray’s Anatomy by John Gray
Bought this book while I was in the Netherlands in the amazing Waterstones in Amsterdam (check it out if you’re ever in the city!). I’ve wanted to read this collection of Gray’s essays for a while now as he’s an interesting thinker and a lot of his thoughts run counter to mine. I’ve not been disappointed so far!
Quote I’m pondering: “The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world.” - Max Weber
That’s all for this week.
Until next time,
Tom