Hand auf’s Herz: did you believe last night’s figures about us (Germans:) eating 1,097 animals a year – or three animals a day? If you did, you’ll have to revise your view of the Germans! We’re not that bad! The figures as they referred to the number of the animals were correct, but – they did not refer to the number of animals Germans eat in a year, but in a lifetime. Life expectancy at birth in Germany is currently 80 years. Assuming that even German babies don’t eat that many pigs and that we are talking about average figures (some Germans are, whether you believe it or not, vegetarians or don’t eat that much meat at all), it’s still an awful lot of animals, even in a lifetime…!

Anyhow. Since we are talking about food and numbers of people, here is a little quiz for you. It’s part of a questionnaire that the Swedish professor Hans Rosling put together and called the “Ignorance Survey” because it demonstrates how little we really know about the world we life in – and how much of what we think we know is incorrect.

It’s about the distribution of the approximately 7 billion people living on our planet between the different continents of America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Which of the following is correct: a, b, or c?

Read on for the solution…

Day 2 of the visit from Dublin. We made it out to the roof garden, though it was a pretty fresh day. Sitting outside, with music in the background, and Hamburg far down below us, brought a sense of normality – if that is possible. There was ‘normal’ conversation happening, with Pádraig right bang in the middle.

The really amazing thing was that the lads had travelled more than 12 hours yesterday to make it to Hamburg and to visit Pádraig. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, they will make their way back to Dublin, and it will take them around the same time again before they hit the home ground. An early morning bus trip to Bremen, a tram from the bus stop to the airport, a Ryanair flight to Dublin, and another bus or two before eventually getting back home. There’e a lot of friendship here, a great and brilliant connection.

It’s strange to say and to feel this, but I think it is exactly because of this close bond, this friendship, that we almost did not talk about Pádraig tonight when I went out with them for a meal. Pádraig should have been there and we all knew it. It’s like when you don’t talk about the most important thing that is going on, the person that you are most concerned about, because everybody knows. No need to talk about it. He was so present. So present.

Last night, Pádraig got a bit of oxygen, the first time for a long time. For some reason he had vomited a bit and his oxygen levels had gone down temporarily. But only for a very short time, and most likely because something had slightly blocked the cannula in his trachea. We heard about it when we asked because we noticed the oxygen running when we arrived today.

Life, days are never ‘normal’, there is always worry about something. Real worry.

Here is the solution to the little quiz: the correct distribution of the 7 billion people across the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia is:

The percentage points are the results of this survey carried out by Der Spiegel amongst people living in Germany. (The results are kind of average and similar in other developed, Western nations.) It demonstrates that most people in the Western world overestimate the number of people living in Africa, and they underestimate the number of people living in Asia – where more people live today than in all of the other continents combined. (You can find out more about Hans Rosling and the test on Gapminder.)

Today’s German Music Tip
Maxim, Einsam sind wir alle. The first song by Maxim during his concert at the “Docks” in Hamburg last week during the Reeperbahnfestival, recorded by the NDR. Here is a bit of the lyrics: My head is heavy, but I don’t mind, I’m carrying it around anyways, … It would be nice to stand straight again, or at least not so worn down,… No reason to ask how I’m doing, I think it’s probably ok. (You’ll also find Maxim on Soundcloud.)

Schwer ist mein Kopf, aber was soll’s,
Ich trag ihn mit mir rum,
Auch wenn er manchmal etwas runterhängt
Und gerade ziemlich brummt.
Irgendwie krieg ich ihn schon gestemmt,
So leicht kipp ich nicht um.
Es wäre nur schön, mal wieder gerade zu stehen
Oder wenigstens nicht ganz so krum.

Ist nicht nötig, dass du fragst,
Mir ist eh nicht wirklich klar,
Wie’s mir geht:
Ich denke, es ist schon ok!

What’s hot
The lads
What’s cold
Talk about the obvious
The German word/phrase/verse of the day
Hand auf’s Herz!