Reflections on my trip to South America

I finally did it! I visited South America, a destination on my bucket list since I’ve been a teenager learning Spanish in school.

There was only so much I could do on a limited budget in a month, so I will have to go back another time to visit some of the famed ruins of the ancient cultures, and to savour more of that continent’s nature.

But this first trip was already a fascinating, exhilarating, and eye-opening experience.

In Chile I tasted Santiago, Valparaiso, and the breathtaking Cajón de Maipo in the nearby Andes. Next I roamed the streets of Buenos Aires in Argentina. And in Brazil I visited Florianópolis, Curitiba, São Paulo, and the simply spectacular Rio de Janeiro.

For almost a month I lived out of my 45 litre backpack and I immersed myself in societies and cultures that were completely alien to me. Well, I was the alien, of course. Sometimes I felt unsure, slightly uncomfortable, self-conscious, cautious. Wherever I went, even amongst tourists, I was usually the only one who was not from South America. And yet, it felt strangely liberating to be so out of my comfort zone.

I was free to be curious, to learn, to observe, to compare, to make mistakes, to feel ignorant. I took one day at a time, constantly exploring, soaking up the vibe on the streets, breathing in the culture as much as I could, chasing art and history, working out the weird money, getting my head around different toilet habits, marvelling at the many beautiful sights, the unfamiliar fauna and flora, impressive buildings and architecture, tasting different foods, vibrant streets, running the constant traffic gauntlet, being shocked about the sheer number of people who are obviously doing it tough or barely surviving on the streets. I constantly asked myself: what would it be like to live and work and to raise a family here?

I appreciated just being there, in each moment, and I enjoyed putting to good use my Spanish and Portuguese language skills with hotel and wait staff, tour guides, museum and shop attendants, and having some good conversations with taxi and Uber drivers.

So much richer for all my experiences I say ‘gracias’, ‘obrigado’, South America, until next time.

US elections 2024: Trump v ???

I only managed to watch about two thirds of the recent US presidential debate. 

What a ridiculous, cringe-worthy clown show. The reason why I’m writing this is because I can now see why German political commentator Thomas Röper suspected that the debate was announced to be held much earlier than ever before because Biden would not be fronting Trump at the elections. 

He said on 20 May1 the Democrats needed a pretext to swap out puppet Biden for another one, and an early debate, before the party’s big bash on 19-22 August, would give them enough time to do just that.

During the debate, my impression was that Biden wasn’t actually quite the demented bumbling fool I’d expected him to be. Of course, both candidates were incapable of doing anything better than slinging mud and repeating the same tired old phrases ad nauseam. 

Despite Biden not completely imploding on stage, at least some of the US mainstream media channels played ball and described Biden’s performance as ‘disastrous’, ‘alarming’, ‘unsteady’, ‘inadequate’,  and an ‘unmitigated disaster’, with suggestions Biden should make way for another candidate. 

So, Röper was absolutely on the money. Holding this event so early would allow it to be the catalyst to remove Biden, even though they refused for so long to acknowledge that he has been losing his marbles for a long time. Suddenly, with Trump as the obvious opponent and polling better than expected despite a criminal conviction, the Democrats desperately needed an excuse to make a late change.

The interesting questions are now: how will the Democrats go about getting rid of Biden, and who will the strategically selected, no doubt attractive and charismatic, Democratic candidate be that can deny Trump a second term in office?

  1. https://anti-spiegel.ru/2024/warum-hat-biden-tv-debatten-mit-trump-zugestimmt/ ↩︎

Singapore’s new healthcare system

Covid has brought out the worst in health care systems. 

Those critical of government-imposed Covid measures noticed and called out from the beginning the existence of incredibly perverse incentives for doctors, clinics, and hospitals, which not only made any truly meaningful statistical evaluation of this whole crisis impossible, but also caused incalculable harm. 

But profit-driven, counter-productive incentives existed in healthcare systems long before Covid, and they are deeply entrenched. Health care costs in many countries keep on spiralling out of control, with governments seemingly powerless to do anything about it. 

Switzerland, which can safely be described as a first-world country, is one such seemingly hopeless case. There, some hospitals have just announced they are on the brink of collapse. Their solution is to simply demand yet higher fees so they can keep operating.

Surely there has to be a better way. And indeed, recently the city-state of Singapore has announced a radical overhaul of its healthcare system. 

Going forward, doctors and hospitals will be incentivised to give the right care to the patients, not the most profitable care. The focus will be on preventing sickness and providing any necessary care as efficiently as possible. 

The focus on preventative healthcare – isn’t that what public health should have primarily been about all along? I know, that’s not what Mr Bigpharma likes to hear. 

Associate Professor Jeremy Lim, the director of global health at the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health explains what this actually means, as well as some challenges the new system may face.

Singapore’s ‘Healthier SG’ is probably not perfect either, but it looks like a plausible and sensible alternative that governments in other countries, including Australia, should at least consider.

Going nowhere

Here is my latest animation, filmed with the easy to use Stop Motion Studio and edited with my favourite new editing app, LumaFusion.