Wednesday, October 19, 2011

pxA-jb

Did the ancient Egyptians have a special or distinct word for 'Happiness'? I still don't know. I've been searching the internet for an answer but did not find anything substantial as yet.
A couple of years ago I read with great interest Darrin McMahon's book 'Happiness. A history'. Nice and interesting :) What I missed in this book is how the ancient Egyptians perceived happiness.

The 'Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae' gives three references on 'pxA-jb':
Wb 1, 542.18 = Erman and Grapow, Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache, Bd 1 (1935), seite 542
FCD 93 =  Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian (1962). Not accessible via the internet. Should I buy this book? It's still for sale.
Wilson, Ptol. Lexikon, 364 = Wilson, A Ptolemaic Lexikon (1997). Not accessible via the internet. Should I buy this book? It's still for sale.

Still looking for an answer on these questions:
1. Did the ancient Egyptians have a word for 'happiness'?
2. How was this word (or words) used? In which context? Did it's usage change during the long history of ancient Egypt?

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Law of Trust #bank

In the past I used to visit my bank in person. Physically I had to enter the bank to deposit or withdraw money. The building was strong. Classic look. Marble. Radiating calmness and confidence. I knew the bank employees by name and they knew who I was. Face-to-face contact.
And in our day and age? Since 30 years, step-by-step, the contact between me and the bank became virtual. Over the last 10 years I've rarely visited the bank physically. All employees are strangers to me. The bank disappeared behind an online banking account. It's just one name in an 'endless' list of internet addresses. 

Gone is the power of a physically strong bank look (picture) and face-to-face contact. It's lost!

Country Greece and Dexia bank in Belgium are in danger. The bailout of banks by national governments since the late-2000s financial crisis. It's all about trust. The speed of trust. Trust that debts can and will be repaid on a set date.  

I would not be surprised if there is a strong correlation between our decreasing trust in the bank sector as a whole and our increasing virtualization.  Hypothesis of this Law: Trust in a Bank is Inversely Correlated to Virtualization.   

How about you? Do you still visit a bank once in a while? Why? What do you think of all those whizz kids selling products we do not understand but that promise big money? Who is too greedy: our government, bank employees, bank customers, me, you or ...? Why?

P.S. Is this deep down a short cut too? I wrote on this before: here and here