Eric Fixmer

Founder-owner of Rosetta Translation, father, husband, chess player, European, Luxembourger, beer drinker

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@HansMokeNiemann “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”, as Samuel Johnson already said so aptly over three hundred years ago.

The world would almost certainly be a better place with less patriotism and nationalism.

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@atrupar @TimInHonolulu I mean,, he IS right about being the “Number One Attraction anywhere in the World”, just not quite the way he envisages 🤪🤷‍♂️

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@Jay590081513501 @RnaudBertrand Chinese people other than Xi are just so rarely mentioned in Western news.

The only time this year was when Trump and Putin visited China, and some media discussed whether it was a greater honour to be welcomed by Han Zheng or Wang Yi.

Nobody would remember their names now.

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@dragonandtonic @CyStemSell @xuchuanmei @RnaudBertrand Yes, interesting. I think that, if anything, that table underestimates the differences. The gap there between East Asia and the other countries is just HUGE.

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@CyStemSell @xuchuanmei @RnaudBertrand Also, I wouldn't make the same claim about the reach of Japanese culture as I would for Korean.

Korean culture has travelled really well, Chinese and Japanese culture not so much.

I fear most people couldn't name many heads of state, so Xi is already a positive exception.

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@CyStemSell @xuchuanmei @RnaudBertrand Sure, but I assumed we were talking about people in general.

I lived in China for over a decade, so that doesn't generalise well...

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@SweeteststarV @RnaudBertrand France is obviously far less important than China, so I am not surprised.

Who would other famous living French people be for a Chinese person (now that Alain Delon and Brigitte Bardot are no more)?!
Victor Wembanyama?
Kylian Mbappé?
Bernard Arnault?

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@xuchuanmei @RnaudBertrand Koreans: Bong Joon-ho, Lee Jung-jae and Psy (I suspect younger people could rattle off dozens of K-Pop stars)

Japanese: Haruki Murakami, Shohei Ohtani and Masayoshi Son

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@gro_tsen Interesting thread, which I agree with.

Reminds me of using an ATM in Luxembourg a few years ago, and after obediently going through the process, being scolded by the machine with a stern “Be patient!”. 🤷‍♂️😜

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@DonahueRogers @_LFI @gidonsaar So presumably there are equally numerous Labour Friends of [Random Other Country] groups, right!?

Oh….

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@davegreenidge57 Would be so fun to imagine that XI left a note, in English, saying “Don, you’ve been caught” 😜

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@business Framing is everything:

“Elderly Chinese man eats noodles in China” 😜🤷‍♂️

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@zhengwei75 @RnaudBertrand Those of us from 卢森堡 breathe a collective sigh of relief 😮‍💨

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@xaliuqs_mcg @DoctorLemma @Frances_Coppola I am sorry you feel that way. Maybe it's because you have no personal experience?

Did I forget to mention that I know this because both my parents and I volunteer there?

The door stopping patients is considerably kinder than finding them hours later shivering on a nearby road.

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@RosieBirchard Bettel, who is too timid to even have Luxembourg join the Eurovision boycott? In a statement with other ministers, he wrote “not for the Luxembourg government to comment on Israel’s intentions” [in participating].

Brave man, brave country, leading courageously from the back.😔

[Eric Fixmer @EricFixmer]

@DeivonDrago @ElliotGlazer I hate to state the obvious, but few enough non-mathematicians have hears of “Terence Tao” or the “Riemann hypothesis” that you’d struggle to even find enough players from gen pop to matter 🤷‍♂️

[Saganism @Saganismm]

“A person afflicted with nationalism believes that his own country is the most civilised and humane country in the world while its enemies are guilty of every imaginable atrocity and vileness. Since they are so vile and atrocious, while we are so civilised and humane, there is no degree of vileness and atrocity which we may not legitimately practise towards them. This is the underlying creed of nationalism.”

― Bertrand Russell

[Kai Koddenbrock @KaiKodden]

Kein Wort zur Pulverisierung Gazas, den Verbrechen in der West Bank und zur Zerstörung von Forschungseinrichtungen. Die Brutalität, das einfach weg zu lächeln, und so zu tun als sei nichts geschehen, ist nicht zu ertragen.