cantina or meatless mondays

Members of the Green Party coalition of the German parliament are urging workplace canteens (cafeterias or Mensen) offer and promote on one day a week vegetarian fare, in the name of environmental sustainability and health and to introduce those never otherwise habituated to the idea of reducing consumption of animal products.

I am a vegetarian myself—and thank goodness cigarettes and wine don't have any meat, but certainly one others might find objectionable because I love cheese, occasionally eat fish or take milk in my coffee, have a hard-boiled egg with breakfast once and awhile, have no compunction against shoe-leather, and so realise the challenge of imposing one's standards on others and would myself feel imposed upon if I felt I needed to justify my diet to others or was restricted, despite all the benefits that go along with a change for the better. The proposal has become somewhat of a rallying point for opponents, accusing the Green Party of paternalism and indoctrination—perhaps inspiring as much of an outcry as the other current, election-season outrages. Though commonplace here, what I think is even more interesting is that the German workplaces have a venue to raise these issues in the first place. De facto, any sizable office or factory has a professional dining place with dishes that at minimum are restaurant-quality (verging on gourmet at times) at very reasonable prices, sometimes for a stipend for the employees—and any one can utilize these mess halls. Sometimes I have lunch at neighbouring government office and have never been wanting for a healthy selection. That is not something that one finds everywhere.

domesday or decimate

Many municipalities across Germany, but particularly in the smaller Länder, are poised to challenge the findings of the national census conducted back in 2011 but the results of the number-crunching have not been previewed until recently. Despite very cautious calculations and withholding of demographics until outcomes were relatively certain—not revealed for two years, the canvasing has provoked dispute, as federal funding is proportional to population and many places are seeing their accustomed support cut, maintaining that the sampling method was biased and did not retrieve an accurate picture of their population. There is no talk of gerrymandering in the complaint, and while I am far from having full-faith in the demographic process, I do wonder what standards elicited both the results and the follow-on dissent.

angel investors

Just days after the Pope condemned the “cult of money” and materialism before the masses on Copacabana beach and urged greater charity and above all a re-prioritisation of what counts, Archbishop Welby of the Anglican faith has posed a similar challenge to the predatory pay-loan business in the United Kingdom and around the world, whose loan-sharking has become the first and last opportunity for many the poor who fall behind on their bills. Welby goes the industry one better, throwing down the gauntlet in this article from Der Spiegel International and directly compete against these pawn-brokers with opening credit-unions after a fashion, a each of their branches—parishes to give the public more of a choice and better terms and conditions and without the usual or expect stint. It is difficult sometimes to separate church and treasure, but I think these open declarations of competition could prove significant and realise a surplus of good.

thread, riser and nosing

The World Geography has an amazing collection of breath-taking staircases from around the world.  The images really presented an embarrassment of choices, the likes of which I never imagined existed or would be primed to race up and down. It was hard to pick just one image: find out more about this Moses Bridge Stairs in the Netherlands, the Stage of Dreams in Japan, the stepwell in Jaipur India and the pedestrian rollercoaster, the Tiger and Turtle in Duisburg, Germany at the link.  Be sure to check out the website for more galleries devoted to outstanding themes.