Category: Life course

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Masculinity Photos

After the turn of the millennium we keep questioning us about basic principles of humanity, previously called mankind as well. The Zeitenwende has occurred through Putin and other male warriors and warmongers 2 years ago. This is reason enough to keep asking us what is behind the male visions of life and living together. Any hints from social sciences, biology and media studies are helpful to broaden and deepen our understanding of what constitutes masculinity and how it evolves over the life course and within or between societies. The collection of photographs from Jérôme Prochiantz currently exposed at the BNF enlightened the issue. Ever since Max Frisch wrote „Homo faber“ we are aware of the technological transmission process a man might be subjected to. Capturing single moments or arrangements with a lot of care for details shows maybe otherwise hidden male predilections and leaning towards abstraction. An idea or undefined vision, maybe an illusion are depicted in this revelation of masculinity at the turn of the century. Creative and destructive forces are jointly presented in this continuous questioning of masculinity. (Image: BNF, exhibition 2024-11 Jérôme Prochiantz)

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Language Tech

Inclusive societies can build on many tools including AI to lower language barriers. It is not only a question of translation, but many other forms of language come to mind. Sign language or easy language are necessary to facilitate broader access to public services. Reading out texts on webpages or Braille translation for the blind to interact through keyboards are additional forms that are available in digital communication as well. The audio description of videos and images is well advanced (reverse engineered through AI) and allows people with limited vision to fully participate in society. Audio messaging and transcription are used by almost everyone by now. Public services will open up to these channels of communication as well. The technology around languages is much more than just translation and AI-assisted learning of languages (talkpal for example). The new lingua franca is language technology, because it enables us to speak many languages at the same time even dialects or lost languages and in many voices. (Image: Extract of Josef Scharl, the newspaper reader, 1935, Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin)

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Ed Tech

Education Technology is much more than the use of tablets and Internet access in schools or in each classroom. Some schools revert to ban mobile phones access during classes or introduce specialized social media breaks during the school day. At the other end of the intelligent use of digital technology is the digital classroom with digital whiteboards in each classroom or the first fun hands-on experience with coding for primary school pupils through, for example, the “Scratch” platform. Once you are used to the power of the whiteboard to use web-based information in teaching systematically, most teachers and pupils will no longer want to miss these tools. Public libraries become important access points for those who have no speedy access at home to assist in learning. Digital tools and e-learning are an empowerment of learners to benefit from the millions of useful learning tools and platforms on the web. A first understanding of easy coding allows children to figure themselves as producer of games rather than only a consumer of fantasy games. Create your own story instead of following the stories of others is empowerment. Scratch it, if you like. The role of the teacher in classrooms is evolving fast as well beyond the 40-60 minutes slots in class. Play the games of your pupils, is a bit like a flipped classroom.
(Image: SCCON Berlin 2024 connected classroom simulation)

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Digital Zebra

It is a difficult task in all countries to bridge the digital divide in a society. On the one hand, there are so-called digital natives, those who have grown up with smartphones and notebooks all around them all the time. On the other hand, there are many persons who have not kept track of the digital turn and feel rather lost or are afraid of making mistakes using digital tools. As public services are also moving online, the need for a society-wide comprehensive mastering of digital information and tools have become a sheer necessity. It is much more than just nice to have.
As public services move online like registrations, payments or tax declarations, the need for training and/or assistance of millions of people in a country become a real challenge. This is where the innovative project “digital zebra” in Berlin comes into play. Through the network of public libraries you can get support in person to master your digital challenges.
The name of the project refers to the “zebra crossing” of a road, which assists persons to move from one side to the other side, just like crossing the digital divide. We shall need a lot of those guides and other multiplyers who can assist people to move safely online. Only through this form of taking people with you on the move towards online public services we shall close the gap of the digital divide. It is probably going to widen before we can narrow it again, unless we breeding digital zebras in a rapid way.
(Image: SCCON 2024-10, Berlin)

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Public health info

Public services have a premordial role to play in providing reliable and up-to-date information on health issues. It is no longer only in charge of collecting this information, for example on infectious diseases, but public services are in charge of timely disemination of that info as well. This is, of course, were online services and AI come into play. Getting out this info is crucial, but in the age of fake news and the wide disemination of news on social media, public services need to check also what becomes of the news they have published. The Covid-19 pandemic has been a worthwhile experience in this respect. It is important that reliable information is transmitted via trustworthy channels, which have already been established prior to the “next” health crisis. Many innovative tools were presented at the SCCON 2024 and maybe trustworthy video calls with a medical doctor or your pharmacist may constitute a solution to many infectious pandemics. However, trust in the technology is important as well as equipment and identification systems to be sure that your medical doctor you meet online is actually a medical doctor or only a savy pretender. The issue is as old as medical assistance. The RKI in Germany is the reference information for coordinated information on many public health issues like infectious diseases.
(Image: Extract of David Ryckart d.J. 1612-61, Der Dorfchirurg, SPK Gemäldegalerie Berlin)

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Forced Living Space

The „Topography of Terror“ hosted the book launch of the research project on „Zwangsräume“ (forced living space or forced homes). The cooperation of an impressive network of organizations (Aktives Museum Faschismus und Widerstand in Berlin e.V., Koordinierungsstelle Stolpersteine Berlin, Alfred Landecker Foundation, Metropol Verlag) has achieved to uncover the forced relocations of thousands of German jewish people from rented place to another one, thereby regrouping and cramping Jews into ever smaller living spaces in predetermined houses within Berlin. Through this horrible step by step expropriation and extermination terror was present and visible all over Berlin. The online documentation and data access allowed citizen science projects to accompany the research and actively contribute to enlarge the data investigated, analysis and dissemination of the findings. The continuation and extension of the project is already in preparation and seeks additional funding and volunteers. The traditional book publication helps to provide an insight into the thorough historical research which started with a more adequate definition „Zwangsräume“ than the previously used term of so-called „Judenhäuser“, since the houses had and kept a mixed population sharing the living spaces until deportations of the jewish persons forced into ever smaller living spaces before. The property of the deported persons was recovered by officials from sealed apartments and sold mostly as bargains on auctions or just redistributed among officials in need or with special merit for the Nazi-movement. This adds an intergenerational dimension to the project that is also worth looking into in the next phase of this extremely valuable project based on large online archives from original register information and other documents. (Image: The map shown below in the presentation has blue signs that have already been traced and hundreds of red signs where the histories are not yet retrieved).

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Nazi Reinterpretations

Even almost 80 years after the end of Nazi terror and the 2nd World War started by Germany, we witness attempts to reinterpret the lives and careers of many Nazi officials. In the same realm, the crimes committed to pull out „Stolpersteine“ try to negate the horrible crimes committed by the Nazi leadership and their followers. The special exhibition at „Topography of Terror“ on „Reinhard Heydrich. Career and Violence” allows to study the biography of this high ranking and convinced Nazi official. After the usual career trajectory of a marine soldier he entered the Nazi secret police and made his career moving up the ranks showing readiness to use above average violence. This seems to have been a precondition to qualify for fast career trajectories. These personality traits have been demonstrated for thousands of Nazi officials in their professional life. This exhibition has additional merits to provide shocking evidence that the wife of Heydrich even many years after the end of the Nazi terror and 2nd WW does not show any signs of regret for what were her husband’s crimes against humanity. They had a splendid life and lived in a palace near Prag before her husband died after an attack by partisans. This is a great lesson to sharpen our awareness of those trying to reinterpret the lives of Nazi leaders and many of their followers. It is a timely reminder to not focus on rosy pictures of the Nazi time without the acknowledgment of the responsibility for millions of people who died. (Image: Extract of exhibition on Heydrich, Topography of Terror, Berlin 2024, book publication).

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Risk Takers

We are all risk takers of one form or the another. Those of us who ride motorbikes or enjoy rock climbing have an above average taste for risk taking. Since the publication of „The risk society“ we are aware that collectively as a society we have taken on additional risks like nuclear energy, atomic weapons or the risk associated with silent climate change with the persistent reliance on fossil fuels to a large extent. Holman W. Jenkins (WSJ) has added an additional perspective on risk takers which originates from government policies to encourage building homes in places subject to high risks of flooding. Several policies come to mind that encourage individuals to take high risks and construct and repair buildings in flood prone areas. Government grants, insurance policies and relocation subsidies are at issue here. Regulations like driving licenses try to build on competences to ensure „more rational risk taking“ in people. Teaching about nutrition might alleviate the obesity pandemic as much as awareness of an active lifestyle can avoid a large number of cardiovascular diseases. Risk taking should be to a large extent an individual’s choice with the consequence to live up to the consequences of the risks taken also more an individual’s responsibility. Collective solutions are a powerful way to encourage additional risk taking. The consequences of those well-defined solutions have to be funded collectively as well. A society-wide discussion and voting process on such issues has to be organized and updated from time to time. (Image Skateboard high and long jumps Brussels 2024-10)

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Aging Politicians

The process of aging is usually a process which is progressing slowly. For politicians this process seems to run in fast forward. The churning of people through careers as politicians is quite unpredictable despite the fact that a career track through youth organizations of political parties or non-governmental organizations is a fairly good predictor of prospects of a career within this party. As the political culture has become even more rough through the comments and criticism of official media and social media, the expectations to be available for comment and debate are almost instantaneous.
Burn-out and frustration are a more frequent occurrence. As such this is not surprising, but the young age of these occurrences are real concern. The profession of politicians bears many risks and even threats to their lives. Democracies rely heavily on politicians who master complex subjects and can communicate effectively about these topics.
Aging societies can no longer just claim that politicians should reflect the age structure of society. It remains a challenge to train and support young people for jobs in politics. It is also an issue to prepare for a sustainable career in politics and keep motivation high to go the extra mile in the interest of society as a whole.
(Image: Extract of Adolphe Menzel, Das Ballsouper, 1878, SPK Berlin)

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Of or about

There exists a fundamental difference between taking a picture of something or someone as opposed to taking a picture about someone or something. With the term about we denote or refer to a more abstract category of trees, animals or human beings. The use of of, however, refers to a specific realization within a specific category. Painters or photographers have applied this distinction for a long time. It is similar to social scientists who consider persons or relationships as belonging to more general categories. Gender is such a category which has preoccupied us for years before concluding that just 2 gender categories are not enough to come up with reasonable descriptions and predictions of behavior. The realizations of gender are manifold and not necessarily or only binary in nature as well appearances. Eventually social categories are enlarged to fit empirical patterns in more adequate ways. The image of someone/something therefore is something very different from an image about someone/something. (Image of: Children’s corner at Musée Rodin Paris. Image about: Pedagogic approaches to art, here sculptures « Le penseur », Rodin 19th century)

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Happy Time

“The times are a changing”, so is happiness. This is the spice of life we might add as well. Trajectories of happy life run not as flat lines simply on different, but largely parallel levels. Curves of different persons intersect. Even the focus of what determines personal happiness is different from one person to other. A job-focused person deviates substantially from a person deriving happiness mainly from her/his private life. The time dimension of happiness is yet another puzzle. Some persons have a focus on now and today, others consider a future time perspective for a happy life as less, equally or more important. Even the retrospective experience of happiness or unhappy childhood experiecences can override current emotions and oveall satisfaction with life. Economists apply a so-called discount rate to benfits or costs that accrue in future, which means that 1000 € in future, usually are estimated to have a lower value than 1000 € now. Happiness at some point in time in the future is likely to “suffer” from the same rationale. Satisfaction now is valued higher than even the same satisfaction at a later point in time. This probably explains a large deal why fewer people are concerned with their retirement benefits early on in their professional career and their job satisfaction trajectory. Many artists, apparently have a deviating time horizon. They endure economic hardship now for some recognition in future, but still have a happy time now.
(Image: Jorge Carrasco, Church Painting, France)

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Happy Runner

The happy runner is a nice example of how hard it maybe to experience happiness through running. The so-called runner’s high is available to everybody, if you manage to run long enough already. Most predictions put the threshold distance at about a 1 hour run. The reward for this effort is a special feeling that exceeds the pain or it makes you forget or supress the pain at least temporarily. Special reinforcements can be achieved through the big city runs in exciting places with thousands of people cheering you on. This has become a big business as well. Training for such an event might raise your feeling of happiness substantially. The chemistry of the endogenous production of stimulants of happiness in our body has been enlightened substantially in recent years (partly as doping control). Most of the brain active drugs our body can produce itself, although this involves a lot of physical and mental effort. The rewards are pretty healthy for most runners contributing to their basic level of happiness. Running outside, has contributed more to happiness for me more than the same exercise on a treadmil. Maybe, the environment is part of the happy runner’s high effect.

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Happy Biology

At first glance happiness from a biological perspective is easy to understand. Its hormones, stupid, that regulates it all. Only problem, there are many of them that interact and, apparently, a lot depends on the right dosis and duration of exposure or deficiency. Oxytocin deficiency seems to be a corollary of anxiety and lack of pro-social behavior, potentially making people less happy – to put it bluntly. There are other complex interactions between hormones not only in the circadian circle of humans like for cortisol, but also related to differential reactions to stress. Genetics and epigenetics are involved as well stress regulation and early exposition to stress during the life course has longer lasting consequences later on. How much stress is good for you? Climbing Mountains induces physical stress, but most people report lasting happiness referring back to such singular events. Hormones seem to play tricks with us as well.
Some time after the novel “Klara and the Sun“, endocrinologists have documented the positive effect of a robot on oxytocin levels in humans. Improvements to mental health and well-being are apparently easy considering that oxytocin is a driver of feeling happy as well. Maybe we should take our depressors and drivers of oxytocin more seriously to be “biologically” happy.
(Image: Extrait Frans Hals 1660, Catharina Hooft and her nurse. Exhibition Gemäldegalerie Berlin 2024)

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Happy Employee

The research on happiness, subjective well-being or overall satisfaction with your life is also an empirical question. Analyses of being happy donot only focus of overall happiness, but look much more into the details of happiness. Beyond the tricky longitudinal observations of happiness it is common scientific practice to deal with subdomains of happiness like satisfaction of employees with their job, satisfaction with one’s job beyond the honeymoon and hangover effect, best known from family studies.
Each of those subdomains has a significant effect on overall happiness. The novel “Happy Life” by David Foenkinos is an interesting example which focuses mainly on the subdomains of job satisfaction, satisfaction with private and romantic partners as the major domains of a happy life. As developed in the novel, people make job changes to re-orientate professional careers or reset their private life. A low point on the happiness scale in one domain might be compensated by higher levels in another domain. These impact from one domaine to another might have substantial time lags involved as well. More drastic resets (à la Foenkinos) can be avoided through focus on other subdomains of overall happiness as well.
How happy are you with your housing situation, neighborhood, your pet, your physical health? There a multiple +/-spill-over effects to overall happiness. Reading a novel might be one as well, just take time reserved to yourself.(Image BnF expo “women in sport”, 20024)

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Happy Maths

The link of maths and happiness is not straightforward. Individual accounts of a happy (euphoric) or unhappy (dismal) life are mostly referred to psychologists for treatment. The biografies (documentaries) or fictional biografies told in novels or cinema allow to trace the changing moods of the personalities over time. This resembles life course research. In happiness research social scientist ask questions like “Overall, how satisfied are you with your life“. Measured over time or coded from biografies this allows to reconstruct happiness trajectories. At this point the maths of happiness enter the stage. Long periods of observations yield interesting patterns of curved lines, rarely simple linear trajectories. Social scientist speak of within person variability in contrast to between persons variability. After all, the (short-term superior) happiness of your neighbor might simply be due to the fact that they are doing drugs.
Whatever, try to remember a bit of your high school maths and the bore to deal with “curve discussions or sketching” beyond the manifold shapes of your classmates. Lots of interesting information derives from growth or decline rates, tangent lines, stationary or inflection points. Different starting points or so-called intercepts vary between individuals as well as he potential  to cross the Zero-line on one of the axes. Additionally, in geometry you would compare syncronicity of curved lines as well as forms of symmetry for the curve(s). This will simplify or comlexify your perspective on the happiness trajectories of people or characters in a novel.
We are so used to narratives or videoss with a happy end, yet we appreciate the complex trajectories and (multiple) troughs main characters have to pass. Novels teach us about tricky inflection points and subsequent trajectories as well. The maths of happiness, however, is rather simple in comparison.
(Image from Toronto District Christian High School -pdf p.207).

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Happy Life

There are countries in this world that want to prescribe to their citizens what constitutes a happy life. Religious beliefs are another powerful instigation of what may be called a happy life now or in the future. Most people on earth, however, have their very own idea about happiness and how to get closer to this moment, phases or destiny of their lives.

Happy life is also the title of the novel or „une fable optimiste“ by David Foenkinos with the almost programmatic title „La vie heureuse“. It has been qualified as a bit absurd, but at the time of celebrating 100 years of surrealism, this fits into the surreal world episodes and narratives that surround us. The novel is full of ups and downs for the major characters, which reflects the inevitable links of happy relative to unhappy moments in life. The pseudo experience of death allows to press a kind of reset button in life after which love and life can start afresh. This might not work for all us as Foenkinos seems to tell us with the choice of the dedication and citation of Charlotte Salomon „On devait même, pour aimer plus encore la vie, être mort une fois“. Charlotte Salomon, however, lives on through her formidable artistic work accomplished in her short life.

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Own Insulin

People who suffer from type 1 diabetes do not produce enough insulin themselves. The World Health organization estimated that „in 2017 there were 9 million people with type 1 diabetes; the majority of them live in high-income countries“ (WHO 2023). The report on successful reprogramming of stem cells of a person to produce insulin again and subsequently transplanting these cells into the same person allowed to produce own insulin again for that same person (Mallapaty, 2024). The hope for millions of people with type 1 diabetes is high that eventually there will be a cure to the disease. Scientists caution that there are no data yet for how long the transplanted own stem cells will produce insulin. Hence, the hope is driving research forward on a promising way forward. The case of type 2 diabetes is very different as additionally the absorption of insulin in the body causes problems. We keep walking and building muscles to facilitate the insulin absorption in the body to guard against the onset of type 2 diabetes. Interaction of diabetes and aging is another topic that needs our attention as rapidly aging societies are at higher risks to face many more people with various forms of diabetes.

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Russian Demographics

Dictators prepare their countries long before for upcoming wars. One indicator of such strategies is the pursuit of “natalist” policies. These are demographic policies that aim to increase a country’s population so that the human losses endured during war maybe recovered faster. Russia has had such a policy doctrine in place for quite many years. Only, it didn’t work. Alain Blum and Sergei Zakharov (2023) have shown this in their paper on  “L’obsession nataliste de Poutine“. Rather than achieving a growth in the population, at best, the further rather rapid decline of fertility and the population size before the war is reflected in the data (until 2022). The recent objection of youth and women to bear more children is subject of massive opposition of Putin’s forces inside the country. So-called total fertility of 1.5 per woman before the war is as low as or lower than in many other European countries. However, on the other end of aging is mortality or life expectancy. The data show a rather bleak picture of Russia already before the invasion of Ukraine. Based on data published from INED in France Russia has about 1.000.000 more people dying in 2022 than babies born. Bad handling of the Covid-19 pandemic (inefficient vaccines) is also a reason for this dent in population size. Adding outmigration of youth that does not want to stay in a country that goes to war with peaceful neighbors, this bleak population outlook is the disastrous heritage of the Putin years of Russia in the 21st century for generations to come as well.

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Traffic Speed

Most people use cars or other automotive vehicles (e-bikes, e-scooter) to get faster from point A to point B. However, speed of traffic causes trouble for other groups of mobile persons. Demands on attention rise, despite the abundant use mobile phones even during driving a car. Mapping systems and services from A to B have become an almost daily exercise. Statistics on road accidents that involved inadequate speed are between 20 and 30 percent of all deadly road accidents, depending on the source of information and country (Example D). Frequently, speed is not the only cause, but other behavioral mistakes occur jointly.
Traffic signs are a basis to make drivers aware of accident prone locations. Too many of them may even lead to the opposite effect of ignoring the signs. Reducing the speed of traffic in inner cities is a steep challenge and many cities invest substantial amounts of money and effort to monitor and try to control better excessive speed. Schools, sports centres and shopping areas are all hot spots of automotive and pedrian encounters. They deserve special attention. Penalizing excessive speed is one way to nudge behavioral change. Although the statistics on the huge amounts of penalties awarded does not seem to alter the behavior of traffic participants in the short run. For some it appears to be a regular part of their budget of mobility with no consequence for behavioral changes.
For years the dangers of inadequate traffic speed in cities made young families and older persons leave more risky inner cities, but adaptations of hot spots and increased control systems seem to work in the long run. The “externality” of inadequate traffic speed is higher costs for the health system and society at large. About time to make a “behavioral turn” in traffic speed.

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Sufficient

What do we mean by sufficient? Sufficient of what? French philosophers currently debate the topic under the French notion of sobriété (sobriety). They give as English translation sufficiency, but the notions do not match exactly in the usual understanding of the words. In breaking with the economic rationale of more is always better, the idea of having sufficient food, room to live in or social contacts to not feel lonely, the notion of sufficiency hints towards a rethinking of our customary lifestyles. How many trousers are sufficient? Well, as with shoes there might be gender differences or more generally interpersonal differences or preferences to come to the conclusion of how many is sufficient. If we bring in the notion of sobriety in additional, we allow another social and/or ecological dimension. This may redefine what is sufficient based on judgments how much our planet can handle (emissions) and distributional judgments. The western lifestyle of the last 100 years is no role model for other countries to follow. It is urgent to rethink our growth based economic model to develop new socially viable ways of production and consumption. It seems to be a necessary condition to reconsider the notion of wellbeing and wealth from a sufficiency perspective. It is a sobering thought, isn‘t it?

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Phase Shifting

The Berlin “Hamburger Bahnhof Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart” recently acquired “Phase Shifting Index” by Jeremy Shaw. As part of an exhibition of new acquisitions, Sam Bardaouil, the director of the museum and curator of this exhibition has installed the large-scale video and sound installation at the end of the long corridor of the “Rieckhallen”. The impressive, even overwhelming art work was created in 2020. It was first shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
The piece consists of seven large suspended screensand creates a space like in dance club, discotheque or dance studio. The visual and sound experience is allmost psychedelic. The near obsessional dancing shown on the screens represent different periods of dancing with their particular patterns of movements and choreographies. The phase of the electromagnetic waves is shifting from one screen to the other and towards the end of the performances it becomes clear, that they all follow a similar wave or rave pattern. Sublimation or ecstasy are the underlying index-like common traits. Each period or decade 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, all had their peculiar dance and movement patterns. The video-installation is like a history of art of expression through body movement, amplified and indexed through rhythm and sound.
Electromagnetic waves can be characterized through wave shifting in various forms. This work gives us a feeling for the fascination of movement and phase shifting emotions. Don’t worry, the immersion ends after 10+ minutes and, if you like, you might read up on the physics of electromagnetic waves and phase shifting to calm you down.
Images: “Phase Shifting Index” by Jeremy Shaw, 2020, Berlin, Hamburger Bahnhof, 2024-9

 

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Walking Danger

Autumn brings color into nature. This is for some the bright side of life. However, the sun sets much earlier every day and many people begin to walk to school or work and back during the dark time of the day. Unfortunately, this entails an additional danger to those walking the cities as bad light conditions cause many accidents of pedestrians. The statistics provided by Destatis (2024) for Germany show a marked increase of walking accidents from September onwards and lasting throughout winter. Equip yourself with bright colors and reflectors to avoid being a walker in danger or a walking danger. On Sunday it is pretty safe to go for a stroll. City life is less stressful and professionals in a hurry usually take a rest on that day. The conclusion is to choose your track wisely in order to feel safe on weekdays.

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Innovation Painting

Innovations have fascinated painters just as much as photographers. The impressionists have painted trains and steel bridges as well as modern city life. Innovations change the atmosphere of a situation and new forms of transportation have been admired for many decades. Artists and painters have dealt with this phenomenon in various ways. Either the innovations have puzzled the normal vision of people or things or the artists hinted at curiosities or incompatibilities. Gustave Courbet has depicted in a unique style (Realism), as early as 1865, a seated woman with a paddle on something similar to a catamaran. It is maybe surprising that the modern form of stand-up paddling looks a little bit like the „podoscaphe“ painted by Courbet. Innovations in sports continue to evolve and become part of Olympic Games as well. Some disciplines make it into the Olympic canon rapidly, others never make it. The exhibition of „Artists and Sport“ gave ample opportunities to reflect on the the relationship of artists and innovations as well. (Image Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris 2024, Extrait de Gustave Courbet, Femme au Podoscaphe. 1865)

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Waiting time

A new report by Darzi, a former cancer surgeon and past minister of health in the UK, paints a dismal picture of the British health service (NHS) over the last 15 years under conservative rule. The public service has seen no increase in its budget accounting for population growth and the aging of the population. The service is no longer able “to give patients the timely care they need” (The Guardian 2024-9-12 title page). Increased waiting times lead to an estimated 14.000 premature deaths per year. Darzi presents data that show 300.000 persons had to wait longer than one year for a treatment that should have been performed within 18 weeks.

The staff seems desperate for changes as well as they have to spend more time on management of waiting times, time which is lost for real treatment. The quality of care is another issue which awaits urgent attention. Health cannot wait for most patients, but the neglect of investment in hospitals and people is expensive in the longer run. Even the reform efforts should not wait any longer. Time is a precious good and each life matters. (Image back cover of exhibition catalogue Käthe Kollwitz at MOMA 2024).

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Desertification

Since 2018 we have evidence of the progression of desertification into some Member States of the European Union. The mediterranean countries are concerned as well as regions of Bulgaria and Romania near the Black Sea. There are multiple sources of desertification. The 3 main reasons of desertification are soil erosion, loss of soil fertility and loss of natural and desirable vegetation besides wind or water erosion and salinization. We also know that man-made climate change is at the root of the past and recent problems. The statistical indicators of land degradation are collected by the European Joint Research Centre and these data show a dismal picture of land degradation in general and desertification as part of this process. A study by Ilea et al. published in Nature 2024 projects an intensification of extreme weather in the coming years. Higher temperatures will most likely enhance desertification and more frequent flooding will contribute to more soil erosion as well. It is a rather strange process that we know we are creating severe problems for some regions which endanger the roots of their existence and yet we do not act upon those undeniable facts (United Nations SDGs list). The amount and dynamics of land deterioration put the global South under severe pressure, but also the wealthy parts of the Mediterranean basin will be affected. It about time to acknowledge that we are all part of the global changes and challenges. (Image palm tree in Paris, Jardin du Luxembourg, 2024)

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Heat Stress

Heat causes cardiovascular and pulmonary stress. This has been well-known for a long time. A newly published epidemiological study for Germany reiterates this finding and adds more details to the picture of who is affected most by heat stress and heat-related mortality. Old age and being female increase the heat-related deaths in Germany according to the study by Zhang et al. (2024) published in the Lancet Regional Health. Our body’s thermoregular responses to heat stress like vasodilation or hyperventilation cause additional stress to our cardiovascular and pulmonary system. Excessive sweating and dehydration, possibly increased through medication, amplify heat-related risks. The study corrects the estimates by using fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ozone (O3), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) data on the district level in the analysis. High concentrations of PM2.5 and NO2 increase heat stress and related deaths as well. Inner cities are, therefore, not the best place to be during the hot season. Most southern European inhabitants of big cities are aware of these health hazards and act accordingly. In Germany it is much less a habit to quit inner cities during the hot days in summer, but climate change will make this a major concern. Greening inner cities is an urgent necessity, which is not just nice to have, but saves lives. (Image Berlin Bears, Berlin City Center 2023)

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Painter Sociologist

In going to a gallery and exhibition of paintings from the 17th century (Gemäldegalerie Berlin) you do not really expect to attend a class of sociology. However, this is exactly what the Flemish painter Frans Hals does with his paintings of various genres of society of his time. His sociological categories are for example unmarried young persons, married couples or pensioners living in a shared home. Other social categories of interest to him are a caregiver or, more common for the time, persons from noble or wealthy families. His painting „The Regents of the old men’s Almshouse” (ca 1660), the male pensioners home is one of his last paintings when he himself was already about 80 years old. Similar to a College of students the elderly home was run by a house father and house mother who took care of the daily living. The paintings of Frans Hals covered the entire life course with a cross-section perspective of society at his time. From few of his supporters he painted even several images moving towards a kind of longitudinal perspective on a person’s life course. Certainly, with “Oude-mannenhuis” (image below) he was interested not only in individual life courses, but of the conditions, forms or images of aging at his time. He probably was one of the first to challenge the negative stereotypes of aging.

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Theatre Archives

The process of creation in the realm of theatre performances has manifold facets. The French National Library (BNF) in Paris has received the archives of the „Théâtre du Rond-Point” in 2023 and honors the donation with a fascinating exhibition on the immense creativity of the author, scenarist and director Jean-Michel Ribes. (Image below) The professional diaries of Jean-Michel Ribes and the documentation through photographs from the performances and video extracts allow an intimate view into the hard work of producing theatrical performances, popular television shows and comedies. Jean-Michel Ribes took notes of all sorts and kept extensive lists of potential collaborators, actors, daily occurrences and just nice sounding phrases. From just a simple phrase heard on the streets he developed a small piece to be performed in shows. Listening to the people and enriching this with great actors in superb scenery made his popular success. The creativity seems to derive from ample note taking and coming back to them eventually.

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Paralympic Happiness

It is with great pleasure that we watch the paralympic athletes in Paris compete for Olympic medals. For many the emotions of participation and being applauded by so many people in a sport arena are great experiences. Happiness derives from such great games and audiences. The accomplishments of the athletes and their supporting teams are truly outstanding. The progress towards such high skill levels is remarkable for each of them. The adaptation to what appears to be a handicap with adequate support and technique allows to surpass limitations. Well exercised skills like swimming are possible to be performed with great skill to achieve incredible performances. The Paralympic Games in Paris 2024 are a great reminder that besides the athletes some artists had to struggle with handicaps, but achieved some of the finest pieces of art. Matisse, for example, is called frequently “le peintre-du-bonheur”, the painter of happiness. In his last few years he faced a severe handicap to paint, however the pursuit of abstraction helped him to continue to create masterpieces. The rather radical pursuit of abstraction and maybe simplification are uncovered in the exhibition “Matisse: The red studio” at the “Fondation Louis Vuitton”. This marks an important step in the artistic life course of Matisse and enabled him to continue his work in later life when his health made it very difficult to pursue his artistic work. (Image at Fondation Louis Vuitton 2024-9-1 exhibition Matisse).

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Olympics for All

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games have demonstrated the extraordinary competence, professionalism and competitiveness of all athletes. The television spectators and live participants in the events have been involved to a great deal.
After all this hype around sports let us consider the probability of getting involved in physical activities and sports. Additionally, it is of interest, whether people are encouraged to continue sports, maybe at higher ages as well through these sports events like Olympia.
High level athletes are most likely to continue their sports activities. In many countries the extraordinary athletes of the Paralympics faced tough challenges to pursue their sport interests and passion.
However, the public health challenge is the big unresolved issue of how to best raise an awareness for the pleasures and benefits of sport for the masses. (bibliography by BNF “Santé et activité physique). It is not only a matter of suitable infrastructure, but also the question of sports in your neighbourhood. This issue has implications for urban and rural communities and how they organize the practice of sports in an inclusive way. Each step may be a stepping stone into sports for all ages and pathologies.
The pleasure and benefit to walk or something simple as walking to or walking after work, are part of the solution to many public health issues.
The visitors of the Paris Olympics walked a lot.
This fun experience in an enthusiastic city will encourage many to continue the simple exercise without thinking about exercise. This will do the trick. Just do it, without thinking to much about it.

BNF Paris 2024-8