Short Stories

Another tsunami. Fucking earthquakes! Fucking climate change!  You know, I don’t think there has been a proven correlation between climate change and increased earthquake activity. Don’t the melting ice caps, accelerated by climate change, have a cyclical relationship with rising sea levels that have a knock-on effect on the movement of tectonic plates that cause earthquakes? I’m sure I’ve read something about it. Really? Show me. Seems like the perfect way to start the holiday season. Unlike many large tsunamis, the recent one in Indonesia was not caused by an earthquake. According to the National Disaster Management Authority, the tsunami was caused by an underwater landslide resulting from nearby volcanic activity, exacerbated by an abnormally high tide due to the full moon.  Fucking volcanoes, then. In a recent study, 138 volcanoes have been identified throughout the deep basins of  West Antarctica . If the ice acts as a protective layer, what happens when the ice mel...

The recently published Australian Femicide Map is the saddest map you will ever see.  It was meant to trigger an emotional reaction.  I searched for my hometown. And then it came flooding back.  Memories. Half-truths. Disorientation. They were young. His attitude was getting worse. He was always stressed about something: his job, his car, his studies, his gay father, his Christianity, his future.  She gave him a free pass. He gave her a black eye.  She stayed out late. He threw her down a flight of stairs.  She joined a club. He threatened her friends.  He punched a hole in the door but told her that he loved her.  He wasn’t always mean and she wasn’t always afraid of him.  But she became cold and distant. She didn’t recognise herself. She would lie.  She would hide.  She would cry.  Some say the more optimistic someone is, the happier they’ll be and the longer they’ll live. But maybe some of us have no other choice. Without op...

Last week the 'What ISH Post-Capitalism?' festival offered discussions on the future of economics and society, expressed through music, dance and debate. Some issues included doughnut economics, sustainable living, grass-roots activism and climate change. “Until it’s knocking on my door, I will continue to live my life.” Fair enough. Scientists agree that the rise in global temperature over the last several decades can be explained by the rise in greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities. However, some people still feel that the existential threat of climate change isn’t real enough for them yet. One presenter that caught my attention was Marjolein Jonker, a pioneer of the Tiny House movement in the Netherlands. Since 2016, Marjolein in het klein has been living in a self-sufficient Tiny House (20m2) in Alkmaar with her cat Hella. She is passionate about living sustainably and leaving behind a smaller ecological footprint. Marjolein is part of a wooncoöperatie, a hous...

It’s almost 3 am. I squint at my feet in the shower while hot water washes over me and notice a shadow within my shadow. I move back. One shadow. I move forward under the bathroom light and a darker shadow within my shadow appears. Why hadn’t I noticed this before? My shadow has a shadow. Surely this is a metaphor for the darker side of our inner nature? I shiver at the thought. I need to go to bed. I was fascinated by my own shadow when I was young. I remember one evening, in particular, running up and down my grandparents’ driveway, lit up by the white light of the full moon. I could see my night shadow. I befriended her. I even tried to outrun her. But she was my equal. She became my companion when everyone else went inside. I spoke to her. She was part of me.  As I got older, different shadows came to visit me. Those night figures were not my friends. They would float from the dark hallway and glide over to me. They would lurk by my bedside and reach for my face. They scared me...

Have you ever thought about what ideas you use to think of other ideas with? For example, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor, is an idea that has been used to think of other ideas with. Darwinian evolution is a method of explaining changes. His ideas dismantled the notion that humans were miraculously special. Over time, there was room for variation that transformed the beliefs people had about themselves.  For Darwin, the idea of variation existed in random mutations that produced adaptive changes to form new life - a concept of natural selection for environmental adaptation. But the ‘mutation’ from his discipline was the beginning of something new in society, without losing any of its original quality; the new ideas people had about themselves as a species. That’s why it is relevant which stories tell stories, which concepts think other concepts or which systems systemise systems. They can lead to meaningful ins...

I recently learnt about Het Groene Boekje (The Green Book) which was produced in the Netherlands during the early 1950s. The book is a glossary of the Dutch language that defines the official spelling of Dutch words. It was created by the Dutch government for institutions to use, including schools. It has had some revisions over the years. For example, pannekoeken (pancakes) is no longer the right way to write or say the word. It’s now panne n koeken (pan s cakes) because there is no one universal pan that makes the pancakes, so the word has changed to reflect that concept. It seems nonsensical to me. This made me think, who else has a set of official rules for language? France has the Académie française, or the French Academy, which was formulated in the late 17th century and refers to the French council for matters pertaining to the French language. Then I thought about language affecting culture; is this one way to centralise a country and a nation? Is this how we internalise contro...

I attribute my restlessness to a book I’ve been reading about brain surgery by Henry Marsh. It’s raising an episode of existential angst in me but in a good way. Marsh’s experience as a neurosurgeon takes a raw look at what it is to be human. I sympathise with Marsh’s patients and admire his talent for sharing stories that illuminate the functions of the brain and capture its complexity. It seems that we take our noggins for granted. The idea that I can have my brain operated on and be awake to see it, a feedback loop of my brain looking at itself, blows my mind. We may be a bunch of biological and chemical processes, but there is magic in that combination. Marsh touches upon patients that become vegetative or have locked-in syndrome after surgery. In that type of state, the brain can be teetering between consciousness and unconsciousness. I think it’s fair to say that there is a poor quality of life in having no control over your own body. The consequences are ultimately left to famil...