Driving, Swimming, and Signing

Greetings from the canals of Utrecht where I’m warming up for a concert by San Fermin tonight before heading to various meetups in London tomorrow. I think the Dutch government should think about handing out large “I’m a Tourist” hats to reduce bicycle-pedestrian accidents.

I was definitely warmed by the number of signups to trainings after the last edition of this email. Welcome to everyone who has joined in.

News Stories

“I just did what anyone else would do.” It’s something I now expect to see in every story of heroism. Scanning each new article people send in, I look for these words in some form. In this story of a bus driver and his passenger, the words were in that exact form. Of his bus driving, the driver said, "It's my duty.” I expect that’s how he felt about saving people from a burning building. LINK

This video from Morocco shows numerous people called to act. The reddit comments, quite rightly, suggest jumping in this kind of water is the wrong thing to do. But people on the scene, also quite rightly, recognised there was no other option. Another comment suggests that maybe the rescuer had local knowledge of how the water moved. Specialised knowledge is often a feature of a heroic action. LINK

Dutch Resistance

I walked past a statue of this woman today. Yet another resistance fighter that I’d never heard of. Truus van Lier doesn’t seem to have a lot of English articles written about her (but maybe Google is showing my only Dutch because I’m here). Can anyone tell me more?

I’m signing off to see some live music. Hope you can experience some art this weekend and feel human for a while.

Matt