La dolce vita

[Skybird]

Way to go!

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,509189,00.html

I'm all for it. Modern crazy habits of organizing your hectic life and household issues by racing through the day and getting your items in super-mega-XXL-sized hyper-wonder-all-inclusive-market-centres piss me more and more. Fun for a tourist weekend in a huge city, but every day...? I'm in a pain.

Imagine this: my beloved city of oldtown Lübeck, no tourist crowds (in summer and around christmas is is terribly crowded), the old-fashioned hand-shake honesty of the old Hanseatic inhabitants, and this spirit as described in the article. Sounds like paradise to me.

Ah, now I feel so http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA8j_bFBZ3w. I love that song! Could be a Hanseatic anthem.

[Von Tonner]

Really enjoyed that musical piece. First time I've heard it. Here in the Western Cape there is a town in the winelands called Franschhoek which follows the same philosophy. In fact the town council passed a law prohibiting any franchise group from opening a store in the town, such as Kentucky Fried chicken or a Woolworths. Personally, while I agree with this I don't know if it was challenged constitutionally they would get away with it. There is a move afoot in the town I live in to make the centre of town "pedestrian friendly", in otherwords reduce motor traffic in the town centre to a minimum. Our town relies heavily on foreign tourists for about 10 months of the year
(we get the Southern Right Whale) and it is felt that this will be an added advantage to which I fully agree.