A look at the German dating service created exclusively for people with disabilities.
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Love Accessibly
Author: Bertrand Hauger
Bertrand Hauger is a graduate of La Sorbonne Nouvelle school of bilingual journalism, and joined Worldcrunch after working briefly as a reporter in a local newspaper in his native eastern France. He now serves as Worldcrunch’s deputy editor-in-chief and director of content.
-OpEd- BOGOTA — Mexico bleeds as criminal gangs kill the innocent and not-so-innocent, before the gaze of an impotent — or is it indifferent? — state apparatus. The latest victims were 43 student activists who disappeared in late September and, many believe, were shot dead and cut up by gangsters and policemen collaborating in the […]
BERLIN — The problem weighs nearly 300,000 tons. Tubes, generators, a concrete containment shell. And there is a gigantic volume of steel and scrap material alone at the former atomic power station in Obrigheim in the state of Baden-Württemberg. The most dangerous work on the highly radioactive materials is done by robot. Nine years after […]
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Stairs And Saris
These students’ colorful saris contrasted nicely with the white marble of Ranakpur’s Jain temple, dedicated to Adinatha, the founder of Jainism.
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Napoleon Complex
From the Place d’Austerlitz, the statue of Napoleon watches over Ajaccio, the town in which he was born. Some may see a resemblance with Prague’s Stalin Monument, but the statue of the French emperor is significantly smaller — adding to the myth that Napoleon was short in stature when in fact he was 5 feet […]
HONG KONG — A journalist from mainland China asked me recently whether the current unrest in Hong Kong is perhaps because residents there “are losing their confidence.” The question took me by surprise. I’ve heard people in Hong Kong complain and criticize a lot, particularly with regards to Chinese mainlanders, but I never thought these […]
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My Grandson’s Treasure Hunts
However neatly and methodically organized my 20,000 slides may be, in more than 60 years of travels I am bound to draw some blanks here and there. So whenever I can’t remember where I snapped this windmill or that mosque, my grandson puts his Internet detective hat on and helps me track it down. In […]
After hundreds of years of reducing our physical activity with the help of machines, we now find we need to move to remain healthy. A friendly city is one that forces you to walk more.
Germany’s prestigious technical universities have become a magnet for Chinese students. But not all adjust well, while German’s intelligence agency suspect some are spies.
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Sweet Past
At the end of the 19th century, Saint-Leu’s Stella Matutina sugarcane factory employed some 250 Indian, Cafre and Malagasy workers. It closed its doors in 1978 and has now been turned into a museum. The loading platforms are still functional — a token of the French island’s once flourishing sugar economy.
GAZA CITY — It’s easy to imagine his frustration, that of a professional whose fate doesn’t depend on the quality of his work or his willingness to work hard but on political contingencies. Salaheddin Abu Hassira, 50, is an entrepreneur in Gaza’s building sector. It’s a pursuit that, in this Palestinian territory, seems condemned to […]
I’ve already told you about the “women-carrying-things-on-their-heads” recurring theme in my slides. There is no country where I have snapped more such shots than Portugal, including this one near the mysterious Our Lady of Fatima destination for Catholic pilgrims.
Already more than 7,000 beds, Zhengzhou’s ‘Super Hospital’ now has plans to expand to serve 10,000. Is this the best approach to health care in a booming China?
It’s a rare but hardly new question: what should airline staff do when a passenger dies mid-flight? Legend has it that British Airways used to use the ‘vodka tonic’ approach.
It happened in Buenos Aires, and though the Coca-Cola Company denies axing the trees, it has agreed to plant dozens of new ones.
What’s been catching our eyes, and the world goes by…
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The Last Temptation Of Pyongyang
A visit to North Korea reveals fears about the Internet’s pernicious influence on youth, but also a big push in computer science training. The market economy calls, but ‘social control’ is at risk.
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The One That Seldom Rests
Meet Zeldenrust, “the one that seldom rests.” This smock mill is one of the hundreds of its kind in the Netherlands’ northwestern Friesland region.
What’s the difference between pop singer/general nuisance Justin Bieber, and Sexion D’Assaut, a French rap group from the Paris region? According to Google Translate: none. There’s a perfectly rational explanation behind the mix-up: Google Translate is a participatory platform, where users can suggest alternate translations just by clicking on the “Improve this translation” button. The […]
With shrimp consumption booming in China and production falling in traditional exporters like Vietnam, Ecuador is stepping in. It’s the latest food chapter in a globalized world.
A case in Munich of an outrageously callous landlady prompts the police officer who followed the rape investigation to intervene. But the real estate agent insists the owner is within her rights.
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Iran’s Last Siberian Crane Flies Alone
TEHRAN — What was described as the “last remaining” member of a flock of cranes that has flown to Iran from Siberia every winter was recently spotted on Iran’s northern Caspian shore, confirming environmental officials’ fears that the pack is virutally extinct. This was said to be the seventh year it had flown 4,000 kilometers […]
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Home Sweet Home
The beautiful region of Lake Toba, in Indonesia’s North Sumatra, is home to the Batak people, composed of a number of ethnic groups with distinct languages, customs and architecture. The Batak houses rank among the most memorable I’ve had the chance to photograph (this list includes the tongkonan in nearby Sulawesi, Zulu kraals in South […]
In a secret location in the Lebanese capital, a 60-bed hospital treats ISIS and other Islamic extremists whose backers must pay cash in advance. Enemies share doctors where medicine is a blind business, and cash is king.
Though China remains the world leader in use of capital punishment, for the second time in three years, the list of capital crimes may be reduced. But authorities may face popular backlash.
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Luxury Car Rentals Booming In Tehran
TEHRAN — Sanctions or not, there are some very rich people in Iran — often engaged in business deals that benefit somebody linked to state power. Like anywhere else, the wealthy need to find ways to spend their money, and figure out how to get there. Renting luxury cars like a Porsche has become one […]
Falling crude prices spell trouble for oil-dependent economies like Venezuela and Russia, with political consequences to follow. Meanwhile, the world’s two biggest economies may fare well.
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Veiled Discussion
I remember discussing the topic of veiled women with a local in the souk of Fes, where I took this picture 40 years ago. He said wearing a full niqab was considered “surprising” in Morocco.
What happens when the rice v. wheat debate arrives in a land that has been eating the white stuff for 12,000 years.
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Whatever Floats Their Boat
Of all the boats I’ve ever seen, to me the bamboo rafts on the Li River seem the most hazardous.
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International Delicacies
I’m not exactly an adventurous eater, but I did taste that alligator pie in Lafayette, Louisiana, during a big jazz festival. It tasted like veal. I also nibbled on a fried scorpion in China — tasteless — and, together with 12 fellow travelers in South Africa, ate a gigantic omelette made with a single ostrich […]
REGENSBURG — A day in the life of Sister Lydia: 4:45 a.m.: get up. 5:40 a.m.: prayer, 30 minutes. 6:15 a.m.: Divine Office, 30 minutes. 7 a.m.: Holy Mass. 7:45 a.m.: breakfast. 8 to 11 a.m.: work. 11 a.m.: Divine Office, 30 minutes. 11:30 a.m.: Lunch followed by kitchen work and rest. In the afternoon: […]
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Holiday Traffic Jam
In the near vicinity of the Pont d’Arc natural bridge in Ardèche, southern France, is the Chauvet Cave, which features some of the earliest prehistoric paintings in the world. Not as fun as kayaking on a crowded river, I guess?
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Give And Take
No, these monks are not giving food to destitute people, quite the opposite. In Thailand, the giving of alms is not considered charity — it is part of a two-way relationship: The community feeds and clothes the monks, who in return have a responsability to support the community spiritually.
The emblematic U.S. banana firm, a confidante of 20th century Latin American regimes, with a long history of mistreating workers, tried in vain to avoid falling into Brazilian hands.
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Barns On Stilts
A stone’s throw away from Santiago de Compostela, I took this picture of a hórreo — a kind of granary built above ground and characteristic of Spain’s northwestern Galicia region. The pillars end in flat stones to prevent rats from accessing the grain stored there. When I took this shot in the month of July, […]
Recent acid attacks on women in the central Iranian city of Isfahan have apparently begun to upset Iranian authorities, but as much for the media coverage they are prompting as for the real-life effects. Political leaders have accused both the culprits and those spreading “rumors” of the attacks of being foreign agents. Acid attacks have […]
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A Man’s Job
Seeing these two girls with their spindles and balls of yarn, going their merry way on a steep path of Lake Titicaca’s Taquile Island, you might think they are among the Peruvian girls and women who create the kind of high-quality handicraft I’ve already told you about. But on Taquile, women are only allowed to […]
There are around 20 to 25 metal bands active across Egypt. Though their concerts are increasingly rare and their audiences small, the fans they do have are passionate about the music, Cairo-based website Mada Masr reports. “I was a metalhead since I was born,” Sherif Tarek, 24, told Mada Masr. “I’m a very hardcore metalhead.” […]
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Austria In One Shot
Beautiful mountains, colorful wooden houses, costumed Mädchen … The village of Schoppernau, in the state of Vorarlberg’s Bregenz Forest, is a living, breathing Austrian postcard. I guess my wife and I liked this kind of scenery: We went to Austria 23 times!