#Capital Region of Denmark

[travelella]

Frederiksberg, Frederiksberg, Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark

Carlos Tejada

[kaelula-sungwis]

Den Lille Havfrue ~ 9734 by @Wrightbesideyou Via Flickr: Den Lille Havfrue København 14.08.2019 16:28 CEST 24mm 1/3200 sec f/2.8 ISO 110 www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/little-mermaid-gdk586951

[stochastique-blog]

Im Human

Nyhavn Harbour, Copenhagen DENMARK by matic3

[fireandiceland]

Hetalia characters with dishes typical for their country - part 2 (part 1 here)

Spain: Paella de marisco (seafood paella) -> A surprisingly easy to make dish consisting of saffron infused rice with seafood. Other versions can also be made with meat from livestock (like the paella valenciana with chicken and rabbit) or be made vegetarian. The word "paella" is Valencian/Catalan and translates to "frying pan", the name of the dish originating from how it is traditionally cooked in a wide, shallow pan.

Prussia: Königsberger Klopse (königsberger dumplings) -> Named after the capital of East Prussia, these dumplings are made from minced vail, pork, or beef mixed with onions, eggs, and soaked white bread and cooked in saltwater. Some of the brewing water is then thickened into a sauce using roux, egg yolk and cream. It is traditionally served with boiled or mashed potatoes. Back then in Königsberg itself, the dish was known as Saure Klopse (sour dumplings).

South Italy: Pizza Margherita -> This flatbread made from leavened yeast dough topped with crushed tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil leaves. It is said to have earned it's name from appealing greatly to the Italian Queen Margherita when she tried the Neapolitan speciality, though newer reseach suggests that the name Margherita wasn't used until 40-50 years after the alleged incident.

Finland: Mustikkapiirakka (blueberry cake) -> Berries play a very important part in Finnish food culture, especially hand picked forest blueberries which are often turned into pastries and pies. A particularly popular pie is made with the pie crust eased into the tart tin with floured hands (not rolled out), then the blueberries and a custard filling are added and the cake baked until the top becomes golden-brown.

Sweden: Kannelbulle (cinnamon roll) -> Despite other Nordic countries claiming the invention of the sweet roll, very year on 4 October Sweden celebrates "Cinnamon Roll Day". A sheet of dough is covered in butter, sugar, and cinnamon, then rolled up and cut into the characteristic pieces. The are traditionlly baked in muffin wrappers and only dusted with sugar, they are lighter and less sweet than American cinnamon buns with icing.

Denmark: Flødeboller (cream puff) -> The fluffy, foamy inside of this treat is made from beaten egg whites mixed with sugar, dressed on a wafer and covered in chocolate. Often they are topped with coconut flakes, shredded almonds, or colourful sprinkles, making them a popular little "cake" for danish children to have for someone's birthday at school. They were first invented around 1800 in Denmark, but quickly became popular in France and Germany as well.

Norway: Kvæfjordkake (Kvæfjord cake) -> This sponge cake baked with meringue with almonds on top and then layered with vanilla or rum custard (sometimes mixed with whipped cream), is also dubbed the best cake in the world - Verdens beste. The name is based on the region it's inventer originates from. Starting in the 1930s as a variation of the kongekake ("king cake") with less almonds, as they were quite expensive, it is now a popular dessert for special celebrations.

Iceland: Rjómabollur (profiterole) -> A little sweet treat made from choux pastry filled with jam and whipped cream, the top dipped in chocolate and decorated with sprinkles. Traditionally, they are eaten on "Bun Day", the Monday before Ash Wednesday. Kids wake their parent up by smacking them with paper wands and every smack on the parent's bottom before their feet touch the ground translates into one bun which the parent owes to the child.

[mesetacadre]

Trump attempting to acquire Greenland and Canada would be funny and speed up the collapse of the US. But I don't think it would actually end up happening, like most things that aren't exploitation and horrific violence against impoverished populations. What are your thoughts?

I don't think it's likely, is not the first time Greenland has been sized up by a US presidency, though the pressure to get some control over the arctic appears to be increasing. Either way, this whole thing is very reminiscent of the endless amount of maps you'll find on reddit and twitter made in photoshop or mapchart, of a possible reorganization of this or that country, or of the Union of vast regions into one superstate. Playing with maps is fun, I do it sometimes too, but that's what that is, it's play. The fact that all borders are artificial to some or other degree is irrefutable. But what some people fall into is in giving these games actual weight. These fantastical maps always betray the sensibilities of the map maker, with some sentimentalist, identitarian or historicist justification behind it, explicit or not. These are tics, tics of a mentality stuck in the 19th century or in grand strategy map games, that believes that if we just got the shape of the administrations of capitalism right it will all be fine. No problem has ever been solved by reconfiguring lines on land and sea. The priorization or abandon of certain territories by capitalist development is an unbreakable rule, unable to be fixed by a balance of power of carefully divided administrations named after an early medieval duchy or a 19th century nationalist separatist movement.

The US already has control over that side of the arctic, Canada and Denmark are both in NATO, and one way or another the potential profits from an arctic maritime passage will find their way to wall street.

[blueiscoool]

Denmark Returns Bronze Head of Roman Emperor Septimius Severus to Turkey

Denmark’s Glyptotek museum will return to Turkey the bronze head of Roman Emperor Septimius Severus that it has had on display for more than 50 years, it said on Tuesday.

The announcement brings to an end an 18-month dispute with Ankara, which claims the piece was part of a statue looted during an archaeological dig.

“The Glyptotek has decided in favor of Turkey’s request to return the ancient bronze portrait,” the museum said in a statement.

A statue of the Roman emperor, who lived from AD 145 to 211, spent decades in the United States as part of a private collection that loaned it to New York’s Metropolitan Museum.

It was sent back to Turkey almost two years ago — minus the head.

Ankara said the missing head was in the Danish capital, on display at the Glyptotek in Copenhagen for over 50 years.

In 1979, a former museum curator said he believed that the head — acquired in 1970 without any information about its exact origins — corresponded to the decapitated statue in the US.

The two bronze pieces were reunited for an exhibition and examined by Turkish archaeologist Jale Inan.

Based on her conclusions, the Turkish embassy in Copenhagen then formally asked Denmark in May 2023 for the head to be returned, a request Copenhagen initially met with skepticism.

“I’m not saying that they don’t belong together. I’m just saying that we are not as sure as we perhaps were 25 to 30 years ago,” Glyptotek’s director of collections Rune Frederiksen told AFP at the time.

It has never been established beyond a doubt that the two pieces belong together, but the Danish museum has concluded that the head is from Bubon, a Roman site in Asia Minor, in the historic region of Lycia on what is now Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.

“Unique archaeological finds from Bubon have been sold illegally to collectors and museums around the world,” the head of the museum, Gertrud Hvidberg-Hansen, said in a statement on Tuesday.

“In recent years, many of these items, especially those held in collections in the United States, have been returned.”

“These factors have contributed to our decision to comply with the restitution request from Turkey,” she said.

[tomorrowusa]

Sadly, a majority of Americans are almost completely ignorant about Eastern Europe. They probably don't know the difference between Budapest and Bucharest. (Spoiler: They are capitals of two non-Slavic countries in the region)

When Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Americans were surveyed on the location of Ukraine on an unlabeled map. Just 16% got it right. This map shows one dot for each response.

Yes, a couple of people thought Ukraine was in Memphis. Not sure what's up with those many folks who thought it is in Greenland. Maybe that's why Trump tried to buy it from Denmark.

In history in US classrooms almost nothing is mentioned about Eastern Europe that happened before the 20th century. This short list of items is typical.

A few (usually exotic) personalities like Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler, and Peter the Great.

Copernicus (real name: Mikołaj Kopernik) sorting out the Solar System. And that is actually more science than history.

The Siege of Vienna (1683). Vienna is not exactly in Eastern Europe but the siege was lifted by Polish King Jan III Sobieski.

A passing reference to Tsar Aleksandr II freeing the serfs – but only because it happened within two years of the Emancipation Proclamation.

So if you know almost nothing about the location and history of a country, you certainly won't understand its importance to international peace and security.

And that's the case with Ukraine which Putin sees simply as a piece in his country collection in his effort to restore the decrepit Soviet Union in all but name.

As Brendan Simms writes in his linked article up top...

It is worth reminding ourselves what is at stake. If Putin is not defeated and forced to withdraw from Ukraine, this will endanger much more than just the viability of that country. It will enable the Russians to reconstitute their forces facing the Baltic states and Finland, constituting a threat that we will have to face without support from Kyiv. The Ukrainians are thus fighting not only for their own sovereignty but our security as well. Their army is one of the best guarantors we have against future Russian aggression. All they ask is our help. We should give them what they need.

About those so called "red lines" we hear about from tankies and Trumpsters – those lines apparently don't really exist.

Robyn Dixon and Catherine Belton at the Washington Post write:

Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion keeps crossing President Vladimir Putin’s red lines. Kyiv’s lightning incursion into Kursk in western Russia this month slashed through the reddest line of all — a direct ground assault on Russia — yet Putin’s response has so far been strikingly passive and muted, in sharp contrast to his rhetoric earlier in the war. On day one of the invasion in February 2022, Putin warned that any country that stood in Russia’s way would face consequences “such as you have never seen in your entire history,” a threat that seemed directed at countries that might arm Ukraine. If Russia’s territorial integrity were threatened, “we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. It’s not a bluff,” he said a few months later in September. “The citizens of Russia can be sure that the territorial integrity of our Motherland, our independence and freedom will be ensured — I emphasize this again — with all the means at our disposal,” making a clear reference to Russia’s nuclear weapons.

In other words, Putin has been bullshitting.

Ukraine’s Kursk incursion “proved the Russians are bluffing,” said Oleksandr Danylyuk, a former Ukrainian intelligence and defense official, now an associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank in London. “It shuts down all of the voices of the pseudo experts … the anti-escalation guys.”

Vladimir Putin can bluff only so much before people see that he's full of shit.💩 We're already past that point. His imperialist fantasies make him think that he's back in the Soviet Union and all he has to do is say something bellicose to get whatever he wants.

There are now Ukrainian troops on Russia's soil and over 133,000 refugees fanning out from the area telling other Russians of what's really going on near the border without censorship from Russian state media. The weaker Putin looks inside Russia, the sooner his invasion will end.

As I've said before, give Ukraine whatever weapons it wants – except nukes. Ukraine is doing NATO an enormous favor by keeping Putin at bay.

[cognitivejustice]

Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, has launched a new initiative called CopenPay in an effort to promote sustainable tourism.

Tourists who choose to travel by public transport or bike without using cars or taxis will be rewarded with perks such as free coffee, museum admissions, and an extra 20 minutes' ski time on the slope of a heating plant.

“What we know is that there's a big gap between the tourists’ intention before [and after] they arrive and consume. We know that four out of five of us intend to act sustainably, but only one out of five of us actually does,” Mikkel Aarø-Hansen, CEO of Wonderful Copenhagen, the official tourism organisation of the Capital Region of Denmark, tells Euronews Green.

“Before we close that gap, we will not be able to create sustainable tourism. So the basic idea [of CopenPay] is to show people that climate actions are not that difficult. We can all do it. We all have a choice to act sustainably and climate-friendly. And there are many things we can do in Copenhagen to make a difference,” Aarø-Hansen adds.

[aus-wnt]

Matildas’ shootout win delivers biggest TV audience since Cathy Freeman

The Matildas have delivered another record-breaking night on and off the field with Saturday night’s penalty-shootout win over France becoming the most-viewed TV event in more than two decades.

The broadcast on Seven was viewed by an average audience of 4.23 million Australians, according to figures from ratings agency OzTAM.

The game’s original slot aired to a five-city metro audience of 2.507 million Australians, rising to 3.045 million during the penalty shoot-out, which ran into Seven’s news slot, with a further regional audience of 1.186 million.

The figure is set to swell even further as overnight OzTAM figures do not account for streaming viewers on Seven’s 7Plus app, which will be released later on Sunday.

The viewing figures eclipse any television broadcast of the past two decades, including AFL and NRL grand finals, Ash Barty’s Australian Open win in 2022 (viewed by 4.1 million), Australia’s 2003 Rugby World Cup loss against England, and Lleyton Hewitt’s 2005 Australian Open final loss.

While data was not tracked at the time by OzTAM, Cathy Freeman’s 400-metre final at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 is reported to have attracted 8.8 million television viewers, making it the most-watched Australian sporting event.

The game, played in front of a packed Brisbane crowd, ended in a stalemate after 90 minutes and extra time, going on to break another record, the longest-ever penalty shootout in both women’s and men’s World Cup history with 20 attempts.

Melbourne handed Seven the biggest share of its audience nationally, 984,000 tuning in from Victoria’s capital, narrowly ahead of Sydney on 931,000, while 513,000 watched from Brisbane.

The fanfare around the Matildas reached new highs this week, the AFL and its stadiums agreeing to air Optus Sport live streams in stadiums before and after Saturday’s fixtures, with crowds in stadiums continuing to watch the coverage as the shootout ran into the first quarter of a Melbourne and Carlton clash at the MCG.

The figure eclipses Monday’s round-of-16 game against Denmark, which was viewed by a metro audience of 2.294 million, and was then the biggest television audience of 2023.

Seven has sublicenced 15 games from Optus Sport, the tournament’s official broadcast partner. The record-breaking viewership figures making the deal a steal for Seven, which picked up for less than $5 million, according to a source with knowledge of the deal who was not permitted to speak publicly.

Optus Sport, the official broadcaster of the tournament on Sunday morning said the World Cup has delivered the platform’s biggest ever four-week period.

Clive Dickens, vice president of television, content and product development at Optus, said the result is a credit to the quality of athletes and football at the tournament.

“Three of the FIFA Women’s World Cup matches have jumped into the top five most-streamed games on Optus Sport, out of a total 6000 live matches in our history.

[fatehbaz]

Had to organize some more of my notes.

Some recently published books on inter/transnationalism (especially Black) in the Americas (focus on disability/health and knowledge/art appropriation).

---

Art, music, knowledge (and commodification):

Rude Citizenship: Jamaican Popular Music, Copyright, and the Reverberations of Colonial Power (Larisa Kingston Mann, 2022)

West African Masking Traditions and Diaspora Masquerade Carnivals: History, Memory, and Transnationalism (Raphael Chijikoe Njoku, 2020)

At Home in Our Sounds: Music, Race, and Cultural Politics in Interwar Paris (Rachel Anne Gillett, 2021)

La Raza Cosmetica: Beauty, Identity, and Settler Colonialism in Postrevolutionary Mexico (Natasha Varner, 2020)

Maps of Sorrow: Migration and Music in the Construction of Precolonial AfroAsia (Sumangala Damodaran and Ari Sitas, 2023)

Queer African Cinemas (Lindsey Green-Simms, 2022)

Bossa Mundo: Brazilian Music in Transnational Media Industries (K.E. Goldschmitt, 2020)

The Geographies of African American Short Fiction (Kenton Rambsy, 2022)

Healing Knowledge in Atlantic Africa: Medical Encounters, 1500-1850 (Kalle Kananjoa, 2021)

---

General internationalism:

Transatlantic Radicalism: Socialist and Anarchist Exchanges in the 19th and 20th Centuries (Edited by Jacob and Kebler, University of Liverpool Press, 2021)

Voices of the Race: Black Newspapers in Latin America, 1870-1960 (Edited by Paulina L. Alberto, et al., 2022)

The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860-1914 (Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, 2010)

In a Sea of Empires: Networks and Crossings in the Revolutionary Caribbean (Vanessa Mongey, 2020)

Anarchists of the Caribbean: Countercultural Politics and Transnational Networks in the Age of US Expansion (Kirwin R. Shaffer, Cambridge University Press, 2020)

---

Caribbean:

Between Fitness and Death: Disability and Slavery in the Caribbean (Stefanie Hunt-Kennedy, 2020)

The Ends of Paradise: Race, Extraction, and the Struggle for Black Life in Honduras (Chirstopher A. Loperena, 2022.)

Panama in Black: Afro-Caribbean World Making in the Twentieth Century (Kaysha Corinealdi, 2022)

LGBTQ Politics in Nicaragua: Revolution, Dictatorship, and Social Movements (Karen Kampwirth, 2022)

Chocolate Surrealism: Music, Movement, Memory and History in the Circum-Caribbean (Njoroje M. Njoroje, 2016)

Fugitive Movements: Commemorating the Denmark Vesey Affair and Black Radical Antislavery in the Atlantic World (Edited by James O'Neill Spady, 2022)

The Creole Archipelago: Race and Borders in the Colonial Caribbean (Tessa Murphy, 2021)

Freedom's Captives: Slavery and Gradual Emancipation on the Colombian Black Pacific (Yesenia Barragan, 2021)

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United States:

Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami before 1940 (Julio Capo Jr., 2017)

The Entangled Labor Histories of Brazil and the United States (Edited by Teizeira da Silva, et al., 2023)

Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness (Da'Shaun L. Harrison, 2021)

Confederate Exodus: Social and Environmental Forces in the Migration of U.S. Southerners to Brazil (Alan Marcus, 2021)

Country of the Cursed and the Driven: Slavery and the Texas Borderlands (Paul Barba, 2021)

Racial Migrations: New York City and the Revolutionary Politics of the Spanish Caribbean (Kirwin R. Shaffer, 2021)

Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom (Kathryn Olivarius, 2022)

West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire (Kevin Waite, 2021)

---

More:

Transimperial Anxieties: The Making and Unmaking of Arab Ottomans in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1850-1940 (Jose D. Najar, 2023)

South-South Solidarity and the Latin American Left (Jessica Stites Mor, 2022)

Reimagining the Gran Chaco: Identities, Politics, and the Environment in South America (Edited by Silvia Hirsch, Paola Canova, Mercedes Biocca, 2021)

Modernity in Black and White: Art and Image, Race and Identity in Brazil, 1890-1945 (Rafael Cardoso, 2020)

Region Out of Place: The Brazilian Northeast and the World, 1924-1968 (Courtney Campbell, 2022)

Selling Black Brazil: Race, Nation, and Visual Culture in Salvador, Bahia (Anadelia Romo, 2022)

Hiding in Plain Sight: Black Women, the Law, and the Making of a White Argentine Republic (Erika Denise Edwards, 2020)

Peripheral Nerve: Health and Medicine in Cold War Latin America (Edited by Anne-Emanuelle Birn and Raul Necochea Lopez, 2020)

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇸⚔️🇾🇪 🚨

U.S. AND COALITION FORCES LAUNCH STRIKES ON YEMEN, NO CHANGE FROM ANSAR ALLAH

📹 Scenes from the results of U.S. and coalition forces missile strikes in Sana'a, the Yemeni capital on Saturday at 11:50pm, launched by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower along with forces from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand and the Netherlands according to a statement from United States Central Command (CENTCOM).

According to CENTCOM, U.S forces launched "strikes against 18 Houthi targets in Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen."

CENTCOM added that it targeted "areas used by the Houthis to attack international merchant vessels and naval ships in the region," and accuses Houthi attacks of "disrupting humanitarian aid bound for Yemen, harmed Middle Eastern economies, and caused environmental damage."

The United States has no comments on the environmental damage posed to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip where Israeli fighter jets have dropped 69'000 tons of explosives on civilians and infrastructure in Gaza, nor condemnation for Israel's ongoing genocide.

#source1

#source2

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[travelella]

Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerød, Capital Region (Hovedstaden), Denmark

Édouard Bossé

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

The summit at the Presidential Palace, was attended by President Stubb, Prime Minister Michal and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte as well as Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen, Federal Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz, President of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs, President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda, Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Sweden Ulf Kristersson and Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Henna Virkkunen.

"The topic of the Summit will be the security of the Baltic Sea region, especially measures required to secure the critical underwater infrastructure. The discussion will focus on strengthening of NATO’s presence in the Baltic Sea and responding to the threat posed by Russia’s shadow fleet," said a release from Stubb's office in advance of the meet-up(..)

[kyndaris]

2024: Fear Leads to Anger, Anger Leads to Hate, Hates Leads to Suffering

Every time when it comes to the end of the year, I'm amazed at what was crammed into just 12 short months. Yet, with two major conflicts in the world, the rising cost of living, and people looking to settle old scores, the world feels like it sits once again at a precipice. Social media, especially, has seen a resurrection of the 'us' versus 'them' discourse with outrage being the sole currency being traded on. Grace and goodness have been tossed aside. Empathy, too, is just a tool to be levied.

But what I've seen most in the headlines and news articles I've perused is an undercurrent of exhaustion. Everybody is tired.

It's a struggle for so many to just survive.

So, to distract y'all from the dismal nature of our own persona lives, here's a recap of the biggest events of the year. First up to bat? Queen Margrethe II of Denmark abdicating the crown where she is to be succeeded by her son, Frederik. Then there was an earthquake in northwest Japan!

In the Nordic regions of Europe, extremely cold weather buffeted the countries that called it home whilst floods persisted in Germany, France and the Netherlands.

In the ongoing Israel and Hamas conflict in the middle east, a deputy Hamas leader was killed in Lebanon in an alleged drone strike (don't worry, we'll return here when Israel escalates and begins targeting Hezbollah later on in the year). At least the International Court of Justice ruled that genocide was probably being carried out in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Meanwhile, the military junta was forced to cede control of the capital of the Kokang region in northeast Myanmar as rebels continued to fight against their oppressors.

There was violence, too, in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, due to a glitch in payroll systems leading to about $100 being docked from the pay of public servants. And worse, Ecuador was plunged into chaos due to increased gang activity revolving around drugs.

Yemen's Houthi rebels also vowed retaliation against the US and the UK following strikes in the area to prevent them from attacking commercial ships trying to reach the Red Sea. And in Senegal, the government delayed their election, cut off the internet and tear-gassed protestors.

All of this was to distract from how Mother Nature, too, was rebelling against her human overlords with bird flu killing thousands of elephant seal pups in the Antarctic peninsula.

In happier news, Japan was the fifth country to land on the moon! Oh, and Greece was the first Orthodox Christian same-sex marriages!

But just to shake up the status quo, King Charles was diagnosed with cancer, there was a severe fire outbreak in the refugee camp in Cox's Bazaar, South Korean doctors resigned en masse due to being overworked and underpaid, and the Palestinian authority government resigned. Of course, a month or two after King Charles was diagnosed with cancer, Kate Middleton was also diagnosed with cancer.

And while I was hoping the Republicans would actually grow a spine, many of the other candidates pulled out of the election race leaving Trump as the sole contender. To fast forward what most people were betting on, he also soundly won the American election in November. Except, of course, Trump's opponent at the end was not incumbent Joe Biden but rather Vice President Kamala Harris (thus shattering any faith I had in humanity and relegating the US down to the bottom of countries I would like to visit in the next four years).

Putin, too, continued on as president of Russia although his hold on the country has been tenuous at best. More so when there was an attack on a Moscow concert hall courtesy of ISIS-K.

In quick succession: there was a massive bridge collapse in Baltimore when a container ship crashed into it, an earthquake in Taiwan and a massacre on Easter in Ecuador. Israel, still trying their best to tarnish whatever goodwill they still had on the world stage, killed seven aid workers trying to help those trapped on Gaza. They also exchanged missile attacks with Iran.

Closer to home for me, there was a mass stabbing at Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre. Six people were killed, including the attacker. And just to show off how big corporations consistently make misstep after misstep, Qantas' latest travel app revealed the person information for almost all their clients, as well as their flight details!

Elsewhere in the world, as we headed towards June, the Slovakia prime minister was shot and there were mass riots in New Caledonia. The Iranian president was also killed in a helicopter crash. This was later followed up by the Malawi vice president killed in a plane crash.

Further indications of another pandemic brewing on the horizon saw the avian bird flu reaching Antarctica, with even a few cases detected in Australia (leading to brief egg shortages). Oh, and there was also a landslide in the Papua New Guinea, killing hundreds.

More chaos ensued when Trump was found guilty in a hush money trial. Unfortunately, sentencing was delayed due to the Supreme Court finding presidents can be above the law (honestly, why does anyone bother anymore?) Hunter Biden, too, was found guilty of gun charges. And before I forget, the International Court of Justice further ordered Israel to stop their assault on Rafah (which was summarily ignored).

As the world tilted on its axis following the economic struggles that came from a post-pandemic world, we also saw further unrest in Argentina following the passing of radical economic reforms. Tax changes in Kenya also sparked protests. And, to the surprise of many, the Tories were finally ousted as the ruling party of the United Kingdom. Enter Sir Keir Starmer as the new prime minister.

In other parts of the world, there was a failed coup in Bolivia and Masoud Pezeshkian wins the Iran presidential election.

Closer to home, Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, faced court on a tiny island in the Pacific before returning to Australia. And for the first time in a long while, Russian spies were detected stealing defence secrets from our small island nation!

As the months headed towards the latter half of the year, Donald Trump survived not one, but two, assassination attempts. With his flagging numbers and poor showing at the first debate, Biden stepped down as the Democratic candidate and threw his support behind Kamala Harris. Unfortunately, it was not enough to heal a fractured United States of America that was too focused on the past to see the path forward to a better future.

And, to show just how fragile our world is without the conveniences of technology, the Cloudstrike outage had everything from airports to banks shutting down.

With the social contract fraying worldwide, we saw riots in Bangladesh, Venezuela and the United Kingdom (although these were all for different reasons). Heck, there were even protests in Israel as the people wanted their loved ones back instead of the endless back and forth between Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas. But as the conflict in the Middle-East deteriorated further, Lebanon, too, was drawn into it. Several people and thousands injured in pager and radio explosions. Not content to simply send a message, the Israeli Defence Force also launched a strike on Beirut.

Mother Nature, however, was not content to simply have humans duke it out with each other. Severe flooding in Japan saw thousands evacuated. In Spain, too, homes were lost. Heck, there were also two damaging hurricanes in the United States of America as well!

But it was not all doom and gloom! For, in Thailand, the government also saw fit to legalise same-sex marriage! Oh, and King Charles and Queen Camilla came to pay a visit to Australia!

To round out the year, and to show how fractious the world had become, we saw anti-government demonstrators in Pakistan, a no-confidence motion for the French Prime Minister (with Francois Bayrou being appointed after it), antagonisms between the Vice President and President of the Philippines, martial law being declared in South Korea and Syrian rebels toppling the Bashar al-Assad government. In Canada, too, there are rumblings to oust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau!

Of course, nothing else truly mattered to the people except the shooting of the United Healthcare CEO in New York outside his hotel. In a rare alliance between the left and the right (at least in America), people cheered at the prospect of finally taking the fight to the ones who have truly been keeping people down despite record-breaking profits all round.

And so closed 2024.

On a personal level, 2024 hasn't seen much change from the previous years. I've continued to enjoy my video games, read my books, share my musings on the internet and try my hand at posting the stories in my head online. The one thing that was a bit of a drastic change was nuking my personal Discord server (one I shared with my friends and was created during the pandemic) because I couldn't stomach the bad faith arguments employed by people I thought were friends. Especially when they aped comments from the anti-woke crowd for games that weren't even out yet.

While 2025 doesn't look particularly rosy, I'm hopeful people can come together. The cycles of hatred we perpetuate do nothing to improve the current state of things. And if we were to ever stop and think, would anyone who had died want a legacy built on the blood and bones of children and innocents?

That is not to say we must forget the past.

But we must also ask ourselves, what good does it do to carry around a heavy ball of iron of hate for everyone that has wronged you.

Nobody is perfect. A bad day can lead to hurtful comments that last a week, a year or a lifetime for the person you said them to even if you forget it the very next second.

Yet to tiptoe around people, fearing offence is not the solution either.

Of course, it's important to realise the consequences of one's own actions. Nobody intends to do wrong by another (usually). And yet, it happens. Why?

It should come as no surprise that what inspires us to be better people can also drag us down into the depths of depravity. To quote one of my favourite shows in 2024, "Why does anyone commit acts other deem unspeakable? For love."

So, what can we do?

For me, I believe that's slowing down our decision-making and listening. In the end, there is barely any difference between my beliefs and those of the person next to me. It is simply how we internalise the information presented to us that differs.

We, as humans, need to learn patience, resilience and tolerance.

Change takes times. Language evolves.

More importantly: "Sometimes taking a leap forward means leaving a few things behind."

[ifreakingloveroyals]

Through the Years → Queen Mary of Denmark (905/∞) 19 August 2024 | King Frederik X of Denmark and Queen Mary of Denmark are wlcomed upon their arrival at Oesterlars Church in Gudhjem, during their visit of Bornholm Regional Municipality, on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The royal couple arrived on August 19 aboard the Royal Yacht Dannebrog in Roenne, capital of Bornholm. Ekkodalen (Echo Valley) is Bornholm's largest fissure valley, stretching about two km through Almindingen. (Photo by Pelle Rink/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)

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The Old Swiss Confederacy was formed with the signature of the Federal Charter on August 1, 1291.  

Swiss National Day  

Swiss  National Day, celebrated on August 1, is the country’s national  holiday. Although the Swiss Confederacy was founded on this date in 1891  and has been celebrated annually since 1899, it has only been an ��official holiday since 1994. Switzerland is a mountainous Central  European country boasting several surreal lakes, villages, and the  majestic Alps peaks. Its cities have medieval quarters and landmarks,  such as the Zytglogge clock tower in Bern and the wooden chapel bridge  in Lucerne. Furthermore, the country is renowned for its excellent ski  resorts and adventurous hiking trails. Banking is an important industry,  and Swiss watches and chocolate are well known around the globe.

History of Switzerland National Day

Every  year on August 1, there are bonfires, paper lantern parades, fireworks,  and Swiss flags swaying in the breeze. Swiss National Day was first  established in 1891, yet it took more than a century for the hardworking  Swiss to decide to hold a vote and give themselves the day off.

Switzerland  is a mountainous landlocked country in South-Central Europe bordered by  Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and Liechtenstein. With a geographic  area of 41,285 square kilometers, the country is slightly smaller than  the Netherlands and nearly twice the size of New Jersey in the United  States.

Switzerland has fewer than 8.7 million people; the capital  city is Bern, and the largest city is Zürich. German, French, Italian,  and Rumantsch are the languages spoken in the country’s several regions,  called cantons. According to the World Happiness Report 2021, the Swiss  Confederation is the third-happiest nation on the planet, trailing only  Finland and Denmark.

Geographically, the country is divided into  three primary regions: the Swiss Alps in the south, the Alps in the  north, and the Alps in the east. The Alps fade into the Swiss Plateau,  which has a panorama of rolling hills, plains, and huge lakes. The Jura,  a sub-alpine mountain range, lies to the northwest along the  French/Swiss border.

Almost the entire country is a vacation  destination. Switzerland features exquisite scenery with snow-capped  mountains and ice-cold mountain lakes, melting glaciers, and mountain  pastures that are ideal for downhill skiing in the winter. The  relatively small country has four official languages as well as the  world’s longest policy of military neutrality. The weather provides four  distinct seasons that dramatically alter the scenery.

Switzerland National Day timeline

1648 Swiss Independence from Roman Rule

The Swiss gain independence from the rule of the Holy Roman Empire.

1848 Constitutional Amendments

Switzerland is established as a federal state under a new constitution.

1971 Women Can Vote

With 66% of the vote, a referendum guaranteeing women the right to vote in federal elections is approved.

2002 U.N. Membership

Switzerland  becomes a member of the United Nations, an intergovernmental  organization dedicated to world peace and economic growth.

Switzerland National Day FAQs

Is English spoken in Switzerland?

English is the most widely spoken non-national language in Switzerland, with over 45% of the population frequently speaking it.

What is Switzerland well known for?

When  we think of Switzerland, we immediately think of ski resorts, lakes,  chocolate, and cheese. The Alps mountains provide the ideal backdrop for  Swiss people to raise cattle and create cheese and chocolate. They also  make excellent ski trails and winter resorts.

What is the reason behind Switzerland's lack of capital?

Switzerland,  unlike many other countries, did not have a genuine capital for many  years. This was because it was a confederation for a long time, an  association of separate cantons gathered together in a bigger body but  without true cohesiveness.

Switzerland National Day Activities

Organize a family reunion

Participate in prayers and singing

Fly the Swiss flag

Celebrate  by organizing large family reunions and barbecues. Communities  throughout Switzerland mark the anniversary with bonfires, fireworks,  and parades.

Prayer  and the singing of the Swiss anthem are part of the official  festivities (the Schweizerpsalm). Church bells sound around the country  at 8:00 p.m.

No Swiss National Day celebration is complete without the Swiss flag. Wear the red and white with pride!

5 Interesting Facts About Switzerland

The Swiss Wed Late

There are 7,000 lakes in Switzerland

The right to bear arms

Diminutive

The Lowest Obesity Rate in Europe

A U.N. survey lists the average marriage age among Swiss people as 29.5 for females and 31.8 for males.

Switzerland's lakes are excellent for swimming and there are plenty to pick from.

Switzerland boasts one of the highest gun ownership rates among industrialized countries.

Switzerland has a land area of 15,942 square miles and a population of 8.67 million people.

Switzerland is a fantastic place to live a healthy lifestyle.

Why We Love Switzerland National Day

Celebrating Swiss culture

Celebrating the fight for independence

Inspiration for the future

Swiss  National Day is a celebration of Swiss achievement and excellence. The  observance is a time to reflect on the country’s contribution to the  global community.

Throughout  the year, different countries all over the world commemorate their  independence days to remind various peoples of the struggles they had to  endure to obtain freedom. These celebrations also have an educational  value for the younger generation.

Often,  achieving independence necessitates the sacrifice of thousands of  lives. Every year, politicians seek to foster peace by commemorating  Independence Day and paying honor to those who have died.

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