Deep-fried brains give toddlers advice

It’s so hot that some brains seem fried or at least melted. The disdain towards the elderly fellow man is once again pulled out of the closet and polished up. The elderly fellow human beings have passed their 70s and, as has been scientifically proven, they become toddlers again who know nothing about anything. So it is important, even necessary, to give them advice. For example, that they should not sleep under a blanket when it is warm. On the news, a journalist asks an old lady ‘what does she do, with such warmth’. “As little as possible,” was her rightly sobering reply.

A little later I saw a researcher from Wageningen University & Research standing in the shade of a tree and explaining that it is cooler in the shade of that tree than outside it. Those old people would have never known otherwise.
Barbara PeppersackTexel

Good

I read in my favorite newspaper (First, 20/7) that an unjustified benefit is no longer reclaimed by the government after five years, with the substantiation: ‘In recent years, mistrust has been the guiding principle. The starting point is now ‘that most people want to do the right thing’, according to ministers Van Gennip and Schouten.

It would be nice if citizens could also trust that the government ‘wants to do the right thing’; I am thinking of the willfully incorrectly collected box 3 tax over the past five years.
Jan KreuzeRidderkerk

Mayor

When the name Jeroen Dijsselbloem is mentioned, I quickly think of the elections of 2017. The PvdA lost disastrously, with Jeroen Dijsselbloem at number 3. At first he was number 5, but after protests that became number 3. He received no less than 51,695 votes. That is more votes than the then Speaker of the House Khadija Arib and later party chairmen Lilianne Ploumen and Attje Kuiken.

A little over six months later, he left the Chamber. He said he didn’t have enough firepower. I expect he will have that firepower as mayor of Eindhoven. When taking on a position, whether democratically elected membership of parliament or the slightly less democratically elected mayoralty, also includes serving that position.
Just Palland, Amsterdam

Opportunity

In the newspaper I see this headline: ‘After years of stagnation, milk price breaks ‘record after record’ due to less supply and more demand’ (Economie, 19/7). Then we read that FrieslandCampina now pays almost double what was usual for milk. The comparison with Putin’s gas and oil is compelling. He only sells a quarter to Europe of what he sold before. At a price ten times higher.

Count out his winnings. So farmers, seize the opportunity, drastically reduce the production of milk: you have to do less for it and receive more. And if you approach it cleverly, you will also receive a subsidy for it, because less milk production means less nitrogen production. A much more effective strategy than driving around on the highway with tractors. Don’t be fooled by the animal feed and dairy industries that keep their profits up on your backs.
Sieto IdemaZwolle

Air conditioning

One fifth of the households in the Netherlands has an air conditioner, I read (19/7). You cannot hold consumers responsible for it, says a lady from the Dutch Climate Association. An air conditioner is a logical response to heat.

Who are those consumers that they should be pampered like this? In the winter the house is heated to 21 degrees, in the summer it should not get too hot and in between people fly to where it is better to stay.

The time of pointing at others is over. Together we caused the climate problem and now we can prevent it from getting completely out of hand. Let installers of air conditioning install solar panels and act normally. Where I live, in the mountains of southern Spain, temperatures are often more extreme, both in winter and summer. But nobody heats their house to 21 degrees or has air conditioning. You will survive those few weeks of heat.
Mariette van SchaikGranada (Spain)