A big fleet
When the Greeks wanted to take the city of Troja, they sailed there with a big fleet. An interesting find from an Egyptian tomb was made last year: the mummified body contained Homer’s description – in the Ilias – of the Armada!
We are all mortals
To be mortal is part of our shared humanity. Most societies, cultures and religions have imagined and defined their specific “Path to the Beyond”: concepts, rites and objects that inform and accompany the transition – very often imagined as a journey – of the deceased into the otherworld.
250 years ago…
…on March 9, 1776, “An Inquiry into the nature and cause of the Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith was published. The first edition printed in London in 500 or 750 copies has become a cult and collector object selling for up to USD 200’000. Never mind – the book remains a key text of political economy and is a fascinating read.
More people, more cities: Africa’s demographic development (2017)
In our imagination, Africa may still be a continent with a dominantly rural population and vast untouched areas of forest and savanna. But the geographical space that is Africa will be more and more urban. Let’s look at some figures and projections, mostly taken from a study of the OECD published in 2017.
Talking about „affordability“
As we all know from personal experience, there is the “affordability shock” that can hit us if the price of a consumer item exceeds the customary price by much. Some of these items are more essential than others, of course.
The Informal Sector
In November 2025, British anthropologist Keith Hart died in Paris. He was 81 years old. Hart had many interests, but since it was him who introduced the dimension of economic “informality” into development policy debates, my commentary is a tribute to his original contribution, looking back sixty years when a field called “development economics” was still in its formative years.
Cornflower in my neighborhood
There are many studies and monitoring efforts, both on national and international levels, on the state of agricultural biodiversity.
