Paula Akpan and Harriet Evans have launched the “I’m Tired” project to highlight the impact common microaggressions and stereotypes many face on a daily basis. By symbolically and literally carrying the aggressions on their backs, Apkan and Evans hope to help both the subjects and everyone else.
the dutch are so fucking funny to me. it’s like the german obsession with following rules and order was mixed with british stuffiness and formality, and the result is a nation obsessed with narrowly following everything to the letter and abusing whatever loopholes may arise
there are dutch contracts from the 1600s that are still being honoured. coffeeshops can’t legally let you in unless you show ID, but that’s a hassle, so they have a second door in front of the Actual door, with an area that’s technically not part of the shop, so that you can buy weed while still not technically having entered the shop. supermarkets can’t sell hard liquor so they need a second storefront for that, that’s fairly normal - but the second store is physically located entirely within the first store, with the only difference being there’s a second cash register there
when a dutch acquaintance i barely knew came over to my apartment the first thing they did was quiz me on whether various things they noticed were allowed in my lease. if you do manage to get dinner at someone’s house you can be sure they’ll be sending you a tikkie receipt to pay for the ingredients. it’s a nation of bureaucrats! you’re not even technically allowed to sell weed, but there’s a thirty-step list of logical deductions you can make that make it okay, and everyone just accepts that.
amsterdam’s being built up as the new london, a business capital for europe, and it fits! they had their own east-india company, their own colonies, they eat the same unseasoned mush. even the language is just someone ad-libbing between german and english while eating a boiled potato
