Famine

  • There is one myth about Audrey Hepburn I have to dispel: she was not British-Belgian. In Belgium, as in many other European countries, you don’t automatically obtain citizenship just because you’re born there. You typically inherit the nationality of your parents, usually that of the father or, in some cases, the mother. Audrey was born

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  • The 1943 Bengal Famine, also known as the Great Bengal Famine, was a catastrophic event that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 2 to 3 million people in the Bengal province of British India. This famine was one of the most devastating famines in the region’s history and had profound social, economic, and political

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  • “We Are the World” is a charity single recorded in 1985 by the supergroup USA for Africa. Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian, the song was released as part of the album We Are the World. Selling over 20 million physical copies, it ranks as the

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  • One might be forgiven for thinking the photo above is from a very impoverished country, but it is not. In fact, it is a photo of a family living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Even during World War II, the Netherlands was a country of wealth—albeit not all the wealth was

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  • The Holodomor comes from the term moryty holodom which translates as “death inflicted by starvation.” A man-made famine that convulsed the Soviet Republic of Ukraine from 1932 to 1933, peaking in the late spring of 1933. Millions of Ukrainians were killed in the Holodomor, engineered by the Soviet government of Joseph Stalin. The primary victims

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  • World War II Fashion

    Before you ask, I know absolutely nothing about fashion. Then why do a piece on fashion in World War II? I hear you say. There is no particular reason, but after all the heavy subjects I usually explore, I decided to go with a more lighthearted one for a change, while still staying on the

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  • ++++++++ Warning: Contains Graphic Images+++++++++ One could be forgiven to think that the photos in this blog are photos of a famine in a 3rd world country, as we have seen so often before. However, these photos are from one of the richest countries in the world, the Netherlands. Towards the end of World War

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  • (Originally published 29 April 2022) The title of this blog does not refer to the verse in the bible in the book of Exodus chapter 16 verse 15, “And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto

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  • Hongerwinter—Hunger Winter

    In September 1944, most of the southern part of the Netherlands had been liberated. Unfortunately, the rest of the country faced a very harsh winter. Extreme cold combined with a lack of food resulted in a famine, causing the death of about 20,000 citizens. Dutch railway workers had gone on strike with the hope of

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  • What would you to do save something your passionate about but is not necessarily essential to your own existence.Would you sacrifice your life? 9 scientists of the Leningrad seed bank did. After the Civil War had ended, Russia experienced a terrible famine between 1921 and 1922. Devastated by drought, the country produced a wheat-harvest half

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