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  1. #211
    Retired Member Norway
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    I bet they would have a sense of community like no other. If nothing else, they had each other to lean on for support, I thoroughly see why they remember it with fondness.

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  3. #212
    Senior Monk Gio's Avatar
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    Yes so true Elen ...

    Quote Originally posted by giovonni View Post
    Once a city within urban Hong Kong itself ...


    The Strange Saga of Kowloon Walled City

    "Anarchic, organic, surreal, this enclave was once among the most
    densely populated places on Earth" ...
    More here ...


    ***

    A glimpse into the city of darkness ...


    A rare look inside the Kowloon Walled City in 1990


    3:32 minutes



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  5. #213
    Senior Monk Gio's Avatar
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    This channel was created by Canadian Greg Lam, who currently lives in Tokyo, Japan with his Japanese wife and equally Japanese and Canadian children. Life Where I’m From gives interesting and educational insight into the everyday, special events and uniquely Japanese aspects of life in Japan ...
    Japanese Quality of Life: My Family's Experience in Tokyo

    Life Where I'm From


    I often get asked "How's Life in Japan?" What I think they're really asking is what is the quality of life like. I live in Tokyo, the biggest metropolitan area in the world. It's got to be a hectic life, right? The easiest answer I can give is "I bought a house".

    There's a lot that factors into quality of life: health, family, education, environment, social belonging, recreation and leisure time, and a bunch of financial stuff that influences the cost and standard of living.

    May 9, 2018

    21:29 minutes



    Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqh2F9Xeqx8




    Another interesting related item ...


    Japan's Housing for the (Lower) Middle Class

    Life Where I'm From



    Ever since I moved to Japan six years ago I've had an interest in danchi, which are the housing complexes built by Japanese government agencies in the late 1950's. In this video I tour some of the original restored units as well as their modern counterparts.

    A special thanks to UR for giving me access to all that they did. I was actually surprised at how helpful they were, especially since this was not a sponsored video.
    Sep 15, 2019

    13:23 minutes



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  7. #214
    Senior Monk Gio's Avatar
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    Question

    "Ten years from now, twenty years from now, you will see, oil will bring us ruin...
    It is the devil's excrement."


    Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo


    Oil and ruin — exodus from Venezuela | DW Documentary

    Venezuela is experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Hunger is widespread and there is a severe shortage of medicines. The UN estimates that more than four million people have now fled what was once South America’s richest nation.

    Venezuela is in the grips of what is now the world’s second largest refugee crisis after Syria. But unlike Syria, Venezuela is not mired in civil war, and the country is sitting on the world’s largest proven oil reserves. How could such a rich nation be driven into ruin? Where has the country’s wealth gone, and why are its people starving? Corruption and mismanagement are driving displacement worldwide. The majority of the world’s refugees and migrants are fleeing from countries in the top 10 of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index - places like Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan and Somalia.

    Venezuela was once one of the world’s wealthiest countries and a showcase of democracy. The country enjoys an abundance of natural resources, including oil, gold, diamonds and coltan. But rather than invest in its people and economy, this wealth has been squandered. Today Venezuela is mired in corruption, and deindustrialization, debt, political conflict, authoritarianism and poverty are the order of the day. The billions in profits generated by the oil business during the boom years between 2003 and 2014 have largely ended up in private pockets. And once oil prices collapsed in 2014, Venezuela was plunged into economic crisis. Nicolás Maduro, who rose to the presidency after Hugo Chávez died in 2013, has installed loyal military officers in key economic positions. Venezuela is now little more than a state-run criminal enterprise. At the same time, the country has become a pawn in a geopolitical contest over power and natural resources, with the US, Russia and China all looking to assert their own interests.

    Every two seconds, a person is forced to flee their home. Today, more than 70 million people have been displaced worldwide. The DW documentary series ‘Displaced’ sheds light on the causes of this crisis and traces how wealthy industrialized countries are contributing to the exodus from the Global South.
    Jan 15, 2020

    52:37 minutes


    Last edited by Gio, 17th January 2020 at 12:54.

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  9. #215
    Senior Monk Gio's Avatar
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    Thumbs Up

    Will share this here ...

    "A 97-Year-Old Philosopher Faces His Own Death:

    The Atlantic


    Herbert Fingarette once argued that there was no reason to fear death. At 97, his own mortality began to haunt him, and he had to rethink everything ...

    "Being 97" was directed by Andrew Hasse (http://www.ftrmgc.com). It is part of The Atlantic Selects, an online showcase of short documentaries from independent creators, curated by The Atlantic.
    Jan 14, 2020

    18:12 minutes



    Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX6NztnPU-4



    Now you may ask ...

    "What Is The Point?"

    "In his 1996 book about death, Herbert Fingarette argued that fearing one’s own demise was irrational. When you die, he wrote, “there is nothing.” Why should we fear the absence of being when we won’t be there ourselves to suffer it?

    Twenty years later, facing his own mortality, the philosopher realized that he’d been wrong. Death began to frighten him, and he couldn’t think himself out of it. Fingarette, who for 40 years taught philosophy at the University of California at Santa Barbara, had also written extensively on self-deception. Now, at 97, he wondered whether he’d been deceiving himself about the meaning of life and death.

    “It haunts me, the idea of dying soon, whether there’s a good reason or not,” he says in Andrew Hasse’s short documentary Being 97. “I walk around often and ask myself, ‘What is the point of it all?’ There must be something I’m missing. I wish I knew.”

    Hasse, Fingarette’s grandson, turned the camera on the philosopher in the last months of his life. The two were very close—when Hasse was a child, Fingarette would invent stories and record them on tape to send to his grandson, who lived 300 miles away, so that he could listen to them before bed. “My grandfather was one of the most thoughtful men I’ve ever met,” Hasse told me.

    Being 97 is a poignant film that explores the interiority of senescence and the struggle of accepting the inevitable. Hasse quietly observes the things that have come to define his grandfather’s existence: the stillness of time, the loss of ability, and the need to come to terms with asking for help. “It’s very difficult for people who have not reached a state of old age to understand the psychology of it, what is going on in a person,” Fingarette says.

    In one scene, Fingarette listens to a string quartet that was once meaningful to his late wife. He hasn’t heard the piece since her death seven years earlier—“her absence is a presence,” he says in the film—and becomes overwhelmed with grief.

    Hasse made the artistic choice to omit his voice from the film, so while he was filming the scene, he had to stifle the urge to comfort his grandfather. “It’s very difficult to watch anyone in that kind of pain and not be able to console them, especially someone you love so dearly,” Hasse said. “I found myself sitting just a few feet away from him, unable to reach out because there was a camera between us. All I wanted to do was put a hand on his shoulder, embrace him, be with him in his pain.” After what felt to Hasse like an eternity, the filmmaker handed his grandfather a tissue to wipe away his tears. The scene ends just before this happens.

    Fingarette died in late 2018. Just weeks earlier, Hasse had shown him the final cut of the documentary. “I think it helped give him perspective on what he was going through,” he said. “He loved talking about what a mysterious process it had been to film all these little moments of his life and then weave them together into a work that expressed something essential about him.”

    The day before he died, Fingarette uttered his final words. After spending many hours in silence with his eyes closed, Hasse said, his grandfather suddenly looked up and said, “Well, that’s clear enough!” A few hours later he said, “Why don’t we see if we can go up and check it out?”

    “Of course, these cryptic messages are up to interpretation,” Hasse said, “but I’d like to believe that he might have seen at least a glimpse of something beyond death.”

    In the film, Fingarette admits that there “isn’t any good answer” to the “foolish question” of understanding mortality. “The answer might be … the silent answer.”

    Author: Emily Buder
    source
    Last edited by Gio, 19th January 2020 at 09:37.

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  11. #216
    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
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    I remember times here in the U.S. when one of the arguments to disallow immigrants was the fact that they were sending money back home to feed their families. That wasn't how it was stated by the right, they are so good at perpetuating memes and myths, and people screamed, 'Send them back!'. If anything is, that is demonic.

    that's so sad...the little girl is already a casualty. Classic attachment disorder... makes me sad...
    Last edited by Emil El Zapato, 19th January 2020 at 14:33.
    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

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  13. #217
    Senior Monk Gio's Avatar
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    A compelling interview listen ...

    Ziya Tong: We Are Blind to Most of Reality

    The Agenda with Steve Paikin



    Science journalist Ziya Tong talks about her book, "The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions That Shape Our World." In it she explores blind spots in individuals and in human existence and how being in the dark when it comes to how we survive makes it impossible to navigate our future.

    Science journalist Ziya Tong talks about her book, "The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions That Shape Our World." In it she explores blind spots in individuals and in human existence and how being in the dark when it comes to how we survive makes it impossible to navigate our future.
    Nov 18, 2019

    23:40 minutes



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  15. #218
    Senior Monk Gio's Avatar
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    ♪ Inside my dream ...
    I hear the jungle parrots scream

    Just me and you
    Alone in our dugout canoe ...

    Like the river we journey
    Like the river we journey to the
    Like the river we journey to the sea ♪


    AMAZON

    Michael Franks



    Dedicated to George of Merseyside.
    Last edited by Gio, 23rd January 2020 at 15:46.

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  17. #219
    Senior Monk Gio's Avatar
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    A hearty glimpse ...

    Romania, Village Life in Transylvania

    Jenny Parsons


    live by small-scale farming producing their own honey, cheese, bread, veg and fruit, milk and meat. Water is always from the well, pure, sparkling and cold. Cows and sheep wear bells and high above the village the mountain meadows hum with insect life while the extraordinarily rich flora remains untouched by sprays and chemicals.

    Szekler people, Romania's Hungarian speaking minority live in Gyimes, which now lies within Bacau county. The history of the area and its association with Transylvania, is very complicated ....

    I am no historian and apologise for any errors I have made.
    Enjoy the film, all taken with a little, hand-held Panasonic HC X920.

    Feb 24, 2019

    29:16 minutes



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  19. #220
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    I watched some videos to learn Romanian needle weaving. It's beautiful work. Not so easy but I did manage to create the first step, a little flower. It was uneven, I need to practice.

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  21. #221
    Senior Monk Gio's Avatar
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    Note this report was made over a year ago, but this condition is ongoing and becoming a real thing... After viewing this video, I found reading the comment section very telling (responses) into this growing worldwide human (varietal) behavioral phenomenon ...

    Japan's modern-day hermits: The world of hikikomori

    Jan 18, 2019

    17:35 minutes


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  23. #222
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    I recall the women who would come to be 'sisters' and try to draw the men out into the world.

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  25. #223
    Senior Monk Gio's Avatar
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    Lightbulb

    Quote Originally posted by Dreamtimer View Post
    I recall the women who would come to be 'sisters' and try to draw the men out into the world.
    Yes and thank you for remembering ...

    It was previously posted here a year ago ...

    But as my most recent (above post) statement extends upon ...

    Note this report was made over a year ago, but this condition is ongoing and becoming a real thing... After viewing this video, I found reading the comment section very telling (responses) into this growing worldwide human (varietal) behavioral phenomenon ...


    Here's the video your recalling ...

    Quote Originally posted by giovonni View Post
    Withdrawal ...
    A growing worldwide social phenomenon ...


    Rent-a-sister: Coaxing Japan’s hikikomori men out of their bedrooms

    BBC News

    "At least half a million young men in Japan are thought to have withdrawn from society, and refuse to leave their bedrooms. They’re known as hikikomori.

    Their families often don’t know what to do, but one organisation is offering ‘sisters for hire’ to help coax these young men out of their isolation.

    A film by Amelia Martyn-Hemphill for BBC World Hacks."


    Published on Jan 20, 2019

    12:55 minutes

    Last edited by Gio, 5th February 2020 at 15:25.

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  27. #224
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    The hikikomori amount, in numbers, to the population of Wyoming.

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  29. #225
    Senior Monk Gio's Avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Dreamtimer View Post
    The hikikomori amount, in numbers, to the population of Wyoming.
    Ah ...

    But the 'hikikomori' (example) is an extreme to this growing human social isolation behavior... And it's far from being just a young Japanese man thing...


    This is what i am getting at ...


    Social Isolation: A Modern Plague

    The best research confirms it: Americans are now perilously isolated. In a recent comprehensive study by scientists at Duke University, researchers have observed a sharp decline in social connectedness over the past 20 years.

    Remarkably, 25% of Americans have no meaningful social support at all - not a single person they can confide in. And over half of all Americans report having no close confidants or friends outside their immediate family. The situation today is much worse today than it was when similar data were gathered in 1985. (At that time, only 10% of Americans were completely alone).

    How could this happen? It's hundreds of little things. You can probably think of several off the top of your head: the longer work hours, the Internet, the ubiquitous iPod . . . and don't forget all the time spent sitting in traffic.

    According to Robert Putnam, sociologist and author of the influential book, Bowling Alone, for every 10 minutes added to commute time, there's a roughly 10% decrease in social ties.

    But we're truly not designed to live like this. For the great majority of human history, people resided in small, intimate hunter-gatherer communities. And anthropologists who spend time with modern-day hunter-gatherer bands report that social isolation and loneliness are largely unknown among them: group members spend the bulk of their time - virtually all day, every day - in the company of friends and loved ones.

    Even Americans of a few generations ago used to benefit from a richness of community life that has all but disappeared, as we've witnessed a long, slow retreat into the hermetically sealed comfort of our fortress-like homes . . . deep friendships replaced by screens, gadgets, and exhausted couch-potato stupor.

    The toll? Increased vulnerability to mental illness. Social isolation is a huge risk factor for the onset of major depression, which has more than doubled in prevalence over the past decade. And there's growing evidence that isolation increases vulnerability to various forms of addiction, as well.

    From 2009 psychologytoday.com
    Here's a much broader look from 2016 report article...


    How Social Isolation Is Killing Us ?


    And do note this phenomenon is just getting started in modern day China,
    where there is most definitely a shortage of those so called 'little sisters' ...

    Wink/wink.

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