As it happens, my last efforts to put some order in our basement coincided with the 70th anniversary of the uprising of 17 June 1953. Even though I was not yet born at that time, I associate many memories with the anniversary of this historic event in the early days of the German Democratic Republic.
I still occasionally come back to Cairo, in my mind or in virtual explorations online. Perusing the June edition of Le Monde Diplomatique, I stumbled upon an article by Sophie Pommier titled “Le Caire, ville entravée”, which loosely translates to “Cairo, a city in shackles“.
I just returned from a short assignment to Baghdad. I had never been there before and did not know what to expect. Actually, I did not see much of the city, apart on the way from the airport to the safe compound in the Green Zone where I was staying,…
Back to Cairo for a short visit of a couple of days, after a long absence of ten years, I wanted to update myself on the New Administrative Capital that is being built in the desert some 40 km East from Cairo’s centre. The grand design covers an area of 725 square…
I actually do not know. I neither remember where I took this photo of obviously flourishing coltsfoot. However, I came across media reports on a recent study by Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. The study suggests that flowers indeed suffer from noise pollution, particularly in urban areas and along highways, on…
On the occasion of the mid-term of COP26*: Food for thought… and challenging calculations According to a new Oxfam study presented at COP26 in Glasgow, the richest one percent – fewer people than the population of Germany – will be responsible for 16 percent of total global emissions by 2030. The world’s super-rich…