I’d expect the vast majority of such workers in the Arab region to be OFW’s (Overseas Filipino Workers). They’ve got such unending dedication and loyalty to their families that they send a very large share of what they earn home, often sacrificing most prospects they have for financial and personal growth for the good of their parents or younger siblings. The remittances from abroad make up about 8% of the country’s GDP, which is a staggering amount. This creates a vicious circle of dependence on Filipinos as cheap labour. A sad state of affairs when Filipinos are relatively well-educated, but often become victims of social dumping, simply because of where they’re from. They get paid, but are kept in a limbo where it’s very difficult to move up in the world. Can’t call it slavery, but you can’t not call it slavery either. I really hope conditions will improve for workers from developing countries.

Believe me, there’s nothing unusual about this building in the Philippines. You can easily find far worse-looking places that the city won’t touch.

Most certainly - only that I don’t worry as much about the curveballs coming. 😉

My 30s were actually my worst, I think (with the exception of my childhood). When I turned 40, it was almost like flipping a switch, but it also coincided with my son being born a year and a half before that. Of course there are new things to worry about, but it’s different, somehow. Things are much better now. ☺️

For some it comes with age, as they gradually give less and less of a shit. Around 40, maybe? Might stem from a mindset of: “You’ve already thrown me all the curveballs you can, world. You can’t hurt me anymore.”

I had cat scratch disease last year, and do not recommend it. Very painful and uncomfortable. If a cat bites or scratches you hard enough to break skin, clean and disinfect immediately. If you feel ill after a couple of weeks to a month, test yourself and kitty for Bartonella Henselae. If positive, prepare for three months to a year of misery.

A lot of good points here about pros and cons when considering republic vs constitutional monarchy. I was myself against the idea of monarchy for quite a while, but I realize it’s mostly because I was living in the UK at the time and was exposed to how normal people are treated compared to the upper class. In addition, though the British royal family doesn’t have any power on paper, they have vast connections in all parts of the government and private sector with many ways to influence things. Also, the UK was until recently a two party state, which meant almost total power to whichever party won the election.

Scandinavia doesn’t have as much of a disparity between social classes (even counting royals), and what I see here is that the monarchy provides a stability and continuity that we wouldn’t get with a republic. Anyone can lie, cheat and bribe their way to getting elected president, but when you have a dozen different parties with different policies passing laws with a monarch as an anchor, it works out pretty well.

The King of Norway has a mostly symbolic role in day-to-day affairs. New laws that have been passed by the Storting (Parliament) will have their final approval signed by the King, but this is largely a token approval. The King does have veto power over any given amendment, but if he invokes it, Parliament has the right to vote the same amendment through a second time, at which point it cannot be vetoed. He is the head of the Church of Norway, and also supreme commander of our armed forces. Though command is delegated to other commanders, the King would have a more direct role in questions regarding central command or wartime. When representing our country abroad, he is very much considered a personification of the nation, rather than a representative of the ruling party. Norway’s main reason for maintaining our own monarchy stems very much from declaring independence from Denmark and Sweden, which ruled us for about 500 years.

Who needs’em? If Uncle Vlad hears that Ze Germans are rolling across the Polish border, he’ll be skipping on one leg back to Russia while changing his soiled pants. :D

Probably couldn’t trust Trump to come through, but you have to keep in mind that he’s not an autocrat quite yet. Not everyone in the US government shares his views on NATO and the commitments the US has pledged to under that alliance. Look at the rest of NATO. You have four of the top ten military powers in the world to start off with (UK, France, Turkey, Italy). Then add to that the rest of Europe and Poland’s own considerable military might. Canada would also join in, and those otherwise peaceful Canadians go fucking nuts when provoked. Even disregarding NATO, you have the Anglo-Polish Alliance, which is a mutual assurance that the UK provides military assistance (or vice versa) if their ally is invaded. Poland also has many close friends and allies in the old East Bloc, so the misconception that they would be left to their own devices is simply untrue.

Ukraine isn’t a member of NATO. In fact, their wish to join the EU and NATO could very well be the excuse Putin needed to start the invasion.

Most hilarious part of this meme is the people losing their minds in the comments. “Jesus wasn’t white, he was black! But he didn’t exist, stop with the religious nonsense!”

What else do we have left at this point?

Ukraine not being a NATO member yet is most likely among the main reasons Putin had the balls to send troops across the border. There’s absolutely no way he’d risk a full-on confrontation with NATO, because he knows it would be the end of the Russian Federation.

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“Your money or your life!”

An attack on Poland would immediately invoke NATO Article 5, drawing in the combined forces of continental Europe, the UK, the US and Turkey. The world wouldn’t need to worry about it going nuclear, conventional forces would have the Russians back over the Belarusian border by lunchtime.

I don’t even live in the US, but the internet has conditioned me to prepare myself for something batshit insane whenever I read the words “Florida man”. What’s up with that?

“Omg, wait, let go! Oh… That’s actually really nice and warm, purrrrrrr…”

Well, moral compass will be weighed up against personal finance (actual income has declined drastically in Norway) and whether Elon is a US problem or a Norway problem. A lot of people might think that Elon is a stinking Nazi turd, but we can’t smell him on this side of the Atlantic. Not a good way of approaching the matter, mind you. We should keep in mind that throughout modern history, the US has had a habit of making their problems everyone else’s, like the problematic uncle at the family Christmas gathering.