Make Peace not War

Maybe it's time to rethink the war in Afghanistan..Join the movement to stop the war

Follow the link and become a Peacemaker.

"Rethink Afghanistan War" is still a U.S. organization only, but Denmark as an active ally in Afghanistan, would be an ideal place to bring the movement across the ocean.

The tale that our soldiers are fighting, dying, loosing limbs and livelihoods in order for America/Europe/world to be "Safe" is wearing a bit thin....

It's now painfully obvious that at no point, before or during this war, has the Al Qaeda been severely hit nor impaired. The elusive Al Qaeda is not one group, orderly organized in a hierarchy with Osama Bin laden as the all mighty "Capo di tutti capi"- This is not the Cosa nostra, where the promise of Witness Protection will make some high ranked Captain wanna sing his heart out, later to be viewed as dramatised documentary on National Geography; This is not about money, the good life nor macho pride nor glamour- This is a deep, deep felt conviction of "Us Vs Them", Right Vs wrong, Divine Simplicity Vs Mundane Pleasures - This is a myriad of cells spread all over world - Bombing/shooting an already extremely poor and "underdeveloped" country into Smithereens or somewhere way beyond the Stone age, will not stop a group of fanatics in Bali/Paris/Helsinki/Moscow/Copenhagen nor Kansas from doing whatever they intend to do....

Europe is playing along on the "Us Vs Them song" - In Denmark we even help the extremists by condoning the ever growing hatred, isolation and division, by voting a xenophobic party into government....

So instead of war faring and a lengthy siege of a sovereign state, we should start to unify and integrate in our home countries; In Denmark i.e. Build Mosques worthy of worship of God, Cleanse the Media of apparent and subliminal discrimination and/or full blown racism, stop in the name of all our "freedoms"; Forcing all foreigners to be Danish with a big, bombastic, capital D.... instead of embracing and welcoming diversity....

Maybe if we started to do these few things; the recruitment of young men, willing to die for the cause, would dwindle in numbers..... Maybe not... But I can't say what it does to people to be left outside of the community all their life. All I know, is that I would huddle up with my own kind as well and build a wall in order to defend my "Homies" - instead of venturing out into a world, where I'm not in the very least welcome and when a trip "behind enemy lines" is inevitable, I would never go "unarmed"one way or the other..... Oh, but ain't that exactly what our troops are doing in Afghanistan.... !!?!

Innercity Stillness Blues......

Dr. louises bro, originally uploaded by gabsyella.

Easter Sunday 

always kinda

 resurrects 

my innercity-stillness

 Blues............

[Make me wanna holler....]

                                                  

First day of spring in Denmark

Happy 1.st glorius day of spring to everyone who lasted all through grey Danish winter !- And happy St. Patricks day to all Irish ! - may you soon see real and lasting peace!

Love and power to the Peaceful

Denmark's strict immigration regulations

Yeeesss! We made it to Al Jazeera! And this with our absolutely inhumane treatment of refugees. 

The Danish government will be happy and say;"This is exactly what we hoped for; that word would get around, internationally and make refugees do a detour when reaching the Danish borders!"

 The rest of us, who didn't vote for the ruling party or their allies, has to hide our face (and  our nationality) in shame and hope & fight for a change soon will come! 

By the way; Our immigration laws have been ruled unlawful in EU and being against UN's Human Rights charter  - Not that will change anything - I'm reminding you, this is the land of Milk and Butter; Denmark - and not some unruly banana republic in a remote jungle!

Reprehensible, really! For a so called Christian, Scandinavian country in this year of our lord 2009!

Wheeling and dealing;

This is the deal; When I encounter injustice, I have a real hard time, not welling up.. It's about the only thing, that has that effect on me! Doesn't matter if it's in public places or not, I can feel the tears bursting through like springtime, when the levee brakes. 

Naught matter if it's injustice done to me directly or to the children denied of a future in a war torn country like Gaza/West bank. When I hear the wails of fear, of a boy, being seized by the DR Congo army, looking for new recruits for their army of boy-soldiers. Or when I talk to a Burkha clad woman, born in a country, where women are sick from lack of sunshine on their skin. I cry, when men of faith, dynamites ancient Buddhas or rob the national library.The tears will come, when my grandmother tells me, how life is lived, when you have to ask for your husbands permission for a passport. Listening to women with death in their eyes, while recounting their nightmares of Darfurs Janjaweed raping and killing their daughters and then raping great-grandmother too.

This great lotto ticket; The wheel of fortune in life, which decides where you're born and under which circumstances.... It's got nothing to do with justice or what you're "entitled" to!

By the way;

 People in this country, Denmark, are really good at being "entitled" to just about everything; From welfare to 42" HD ready TV flat screens....

 The two sentences you hear the most is; "It's just not fair!/ I have the right!"

Well, It's just not fair, that Obama has given a fantasyllion to Wall Street, when I haven't got a dime, because I borrowed too much and are paying 500000000% in interests! - But then again it's not fair that millions of children are working their childhood away to keep hunger down!  - It's all about keeping your perspectives, me thinks.....?

 - Even if it does make me howl of the injustice of it all, when I see that a guy like MC Hammer gets his own reality show...???!!! Thus Paying off his mortgage and then some!

My problem these days are of being thoroughly misunderstood by some people & to top it off, having a very sporadic Internet-connection, which won't let me use my "right of free speech" exactly when I want to!                 

  And I will not stand for, having to wait for my

 instant gratification !!! 

Is that all??  Shame on me - uaaaaargh!;

~0~

"The Sons of Adam are members of a whole

Each is created from a greater, single soul

Whenever Fate to one of them brings pain

No other can without distress remain

You who for others' torment do not care

Cannont the name of 'Human' rightly bear"

Sa'di [1184 - 1291]

Talking airhead.......

Morning television may not be known for it's deep and intellectual content and enlightened interview topics, but Danish TV is hitting rock-bottom, when they start to show "funny" photos with "funny" captions swiped of the Internet or from one of the; "Photoshopped" photos with either pseudo philosophic or humorous captions kinda chain mails...At the end of this clip, she tells us about the next feature to be about, are you ready?; Mosquito bites!!! 

Apparently the Danish TV see the population as a nation of babbling idiots, but this is also a prime example of the usual fuck ups, vocal as well as written - Note the misspelled sign for "Caribbean"! 

- This "blooper" is a tad racial, and this is probably the cause, why someone took the time to subtitle and upload it to YouTube. But I find that the real offence, is what goes on before, during and after the "accident".  This is what Danish viewers have to put up with on a daily basis.... What fancy PR agent/ rating agency/demographic interpreter or whoever does this for a living, dreamed up this concept of pure nonsense?

 And having to pay good money for this mindless malarkey, is only adding insult to injury......

8 days with the mighty Clipper "Stad Amsterdam"

I hopped on the "Disco train" - The night train to Amsterdam... This after only one short but sweet night in my own bed..... And after a very long sleepless ride and some misunderstandings with a cab driver, I finally arrived at the small port of Iljmuiden and the magnificent sight of the Clipper....

 It was wonderful to see my daughter Ninon again and have the privilege of seeing her work, doing something she is extremely happy about and she does it well! Being a Quartermaster on such a vessel, must be exhilarating as well as exhausting. 

 The day started with setting sails and heading out into the north see. And thus began 8 days of heaving, slacking and not least coiling ropes, all 300+ of them, Well, that's how it seemed to me and there were still sails we didn't set....I was part of the "Red watch" which meant getting up at midnight and be on watch till 04 in the morning (Our 2nd watch was at midday to 4 pm) which is alright when going through Denmark in the summer where the sun rises so early... Actually, we had to call a game of "Hide and seek"off, due to excessive light , this was when we had no wind, or rather only headwinds and we were going on engine, which meant nothing much to do...  -

The crew had a different schedule, than the guests naturally... i.e. "Red watch" were on duty/deck: Midnight till 4 am,  10 am till 4 pm and then maintenance till 8 pm.

Met some good people i.e. 60 year old Don from California; a pilot and a Vietnam vet. His joy of being on board was contagious... We had some great conversations on the "Look Out" ... The meaning of life and old stories..... I liked that guy, even if he called his present and former girlfriends for "Gals" . I chose to completely overlook his political views; Being a stout Republican, he tried to convince me, more than once, that news on CNN was biased and therefore manipulated.... Which is probably true, but preferring Fox News to CNN, do take the bite out of that particular statement.....

What can I say about this trip? I almost cried, the first time we set sails on this majestic ship. I nearly wept from the pride in my heart, when watching Ninon do her thing! - The beauty of Denmark at her prettiest, when we anchored just off Mols made tears well up.

 All in all a fantastic experience, that I still haven't digested.....

 When we after 8 days arrived in Kiel, Germany, I  realized, that I was still in the state of some kind cultural chock... The wonderful days confined to the close space of the ship, didn't  help to acclimatize to the northern hemisphere; 

    I wandered wide-eyed, down to the main station, only 10 Min's away, I feel like an alien, in the American sense of the word, like an outsider peeping in, on people with whom I have everything in common; The duties, the responsibilities, the mortgage, the never ending need for material upgrading of all our unnecessary things etc.  

But I do nourish any bond or attachment to neither them or Europe; The union of milk and honey it self.... It dawns on me, that I still don't have anywhere I'd call my country. A Country where I'd have a sense of belonging. In Denmark, I have my flat or rather everything that's inside and that's all movable. 

  I was 4 years old when I left Venezuela, and growing up, I tried my damnest to be a Dane and embrace everything Danish. I wanted to be more Danish than the Danes themselves. But now as  the years passes me on, I find the Latin-American in me growing stronger and the need for belonging weakening. 

Sitting on a bench, in provincial Germany, watching western life unfold, made me aware of how much I wanted to just go "home" and sit quietly in my chair by the window, for a moment or two,  and let the impressions of the last two and half months settle...   I will therefore just upload some photos here, on  Flickr' and on my Facebook page .....                      

                                                                   

                                                                   
                                          

                                                                                        

This is me admiring the handiwork of Jose, Head of housekeeping;                                                                                        

" Oh, Mama! ... Can this really be the end ?.."

View from my bed at "Moondance"

Sad is this day, when I get up for my last day, in my little paradise.... We say our goodbyes and Pa gives me 2 liters of homemade Coconut oil, clean and with no additives- makes my skin feel like the skin of a newborn babe in arms!

 I give her son, who's home this weekend, a birthday present, we bought it together yesterday, when I had my final " Falang oil massage" and she had her Thai massage, wanting nothing of the mess of taking off clothes and getting rubbed in with peanut oil mixed with eucalyptus..... But I think it's fantastic stuff! But then, I'm a "Falang" ( Western foreigner) through and through...

Last night we had a splendid dinner of fresh caught fish with mango/lime sauce and had our last game of dice, which seems to be designed exclusively for loosing (my) money! I made MaiTais in the bar and we got a bit tipsy - all of us..... The Taxi; Pa's cousin; Thani's boat, is ordered for 3 o'clock and the last thing to do, is to make a 360° turn and trying to capture the image of heaven in my mind....

The fast catamaran takes me to Chumporn and back to the usual tourists schemes -" We sell you a combo ticket= Ferry + train to BKK  incl. bus transfer to the station.. This gives us the liberty to dump you in a bar/restaurant of our choosing, halfway to the station, where you can spend some money on the falang friendly food and expensive beverages, while you wait for your train..."

 So there I sat, in the middle of bustling civilization... Next to a "Pink shop" where... Yeah, you guessed it; EVERYTHING in the shop were in different shades of: PINK !

 Hallelujah, the madness of this world... I felt starry eyed and strangely out of place....

  - As there's a train every hour to BKK and beyond, it was a logistical nightmare, to herd everyone together for the right departure times... It contained some yelling and then a lot of repeated yelling.. As falangs are all very independent creatures and prone to wandering and not least, complaining and asking the same questions at least twice... But in the end we all got to the station alright... The first group had been driven off at 19:00, and the last (This is me) at 23 hrs... So to my surprise, we all met up again at the platform; The trains were late.... very late; as in not coming. But everyone lived in hope, they had been told every hour, that their train would be there within the next hour- for the last 4 or 5! 

 Before I got that far, however; I realize, that my train was at 21 hrs instead of 23.... I  buy a new ticket to, what later turned out to be, the only train that night to BKK and as my "lost" train was late, I got a 60% refund.... Man, Sometimes it does pay off, to be forgetful and messy... Was that pure luck or what? So at 1 AM, I could wave goodbye, to all my new found friends at Chumporn main station... My new ticket was a 1st class sleeper, which my old ticket wasn't, as the very unfriendly travel agent on Koh Tao had informed me, that everything  was sold out and only 3rd class available for the next month or so..... So; happy, happy, sleepy me.... All the way to BKK, in a freezing aircon compartment for the next 9hrs.

Woke up to the sight of the ripped backside of Bangkok, people living and eating at street restaurants, literally right next to the tracks... Amazing, to live a whole life less than 2 mts from thundering engine noise and squeaking of train breaks............ Bangkok main station is clean, but the subway is immaculate.. The same kind of driver less train, we have in Copenhagen, but the customers treatment of the premises, is quiet different.. This looks akin to respect - The skytrain as well... 

Went to Silom Rd. to my reserved room at "Sawadii Guesthouse".. But didn't like the look of it, so as I'm now in the habit of paying the same fare twice and preferably more expensive on the rerun; I took a taxi right back where I started from, to the "Shanghai Inn" a boutique(!)hotel right in the middle of "Chinatown" - As soon the bellhop had closed the door after letting me in my room - I did a little dance and uttered several; "YES" !!! I haven't seen this kind of deranged luxury at any given time on my trip or before, for that matter, the only complaint is that they failed to make the satellite dish work for the foreign channels on the TV... I can truly say that Thai TV isn't all that.....

                                        

After a mad shopping spree at  and then a quick trip to for some electronic gadgets, I didn't do much more in Bangkok, besides taking in the sights, sounds and smells of Asia.... My trip home on SAS night flight to Copenhagen, was not as comfortable as the on the one going out, but never mind... My very good friend Mette (My ex husbands ex wife) was waiting for me, in the chilly Danish summer morning..... I only had about 20 hrs in Copenhagen - one night in my own bed, before heading to Amsterdam, The Netherlands for, what supposed to be a three day sailing trip in the North see on the mighty "Stad Amsterdam", but by the grace of my daughter Ninon, who invited me to stay, turned into a rare privileged full week and all the way through the prettiest part of Denmark to Kiel, Germany.... More of this in posts to come!

                                                                            -0-

                                                                     

What did I bring home from this trip abroad? I don't really know yet...

 Something about having faith in the basic goodness in strangers, the effect it had on me (- it made me cry with gratitude) when treated with endless respect and generosity (spiritually as well as physically) by new found friends... (Some of them being extremely poor, from a financial viewpoint).  The everlasting (hopefully) impact of my own emotions when shown a random act of kindness, or the broad minded and ingenuous camaraderie with virtual strangers, Asian as well as Western ..........

Knowing that I'm perfectly capable of being on my own in strange places, adapt quickly to the situation at hand ( This did, however, not come as a surprise....) Cementing the fact, that a woman alone can travel safely anywhere, when sticking to a few sensible rules... That acting on a impulse or according to a sudden intuited "feeling", can be rewarding in every sense of the word and has brought me heaps of joy.  And in some cases; a lesson well taught as well!

 Experiencing the ease and simplicity with which most people lived their lives, with their basic needs, down to a bare minimum, still living a very rewarding life; It made me wonder about all the extra weight of "bare necessities" I carry about , in order to go through the motions, of what is known as MY LIFE....

 Seeing all aspects of the "Rich man- Poor man" syndrome, that is so blatantly obvious outside of northern Europe, also makes me ponder about the big "Wheel of fortune" in sky;

 Who is born where and under which circumstances! Where and how is our destinies doled out? And what are the criteria? 

It gave me pause, when considering growing old in a country, with precious little health care, clinics, hospitals or doctors as in Laos. The contrast in our ongoing and in our society, necessary ethic discussions about euthanasia and life prolonging medication for demented geriatrics in our understaffed "Homes" (- where only the food will differentiate the days..)

 It sets Denmark in a perspective... Now I find the Danes; Rude, impolite, unsmiling, self centered, spoiled rotten and narrow minded. It makes me sad to see Copenhagen so dirty, with people just throwing trash on the street. It makes me sad to hear, how people, young and old, speak to one another without respect or consideration, what so ever... Try to cross a "Cycle path" either entering or exiting the bus; Only a fraction of the city's lawless bikers will actually let you pass - The rest of the mad hordes will send you the evil eye while making you spin in perfect pirouettes as to avoid a head on collision.... and In my line of work, I interact with hundreds and only one in ten actually says hello or goodbye; They go straight to what they want and "patience" or "thank you" is not in their vocabulary... 

 Okay, I'll stop now after my last point of critique; Danes will litter without a second thought! I can remember,when visiting foreigners made respectful fun of the neat cleanliness of Copenhagen! Saying; "You could eat of the streets".... Well, this is all in the past now! Copenhagen is as dirty as any third-world city...

(Saw this later - 17/8  in Politiken - It basically concurs with my complaints)

As a tentative conclusion; I don't think, I can even begin to fathom, all the implications or the tangible impact, all these encounters will have on my future...... 

I'm looking for a online course in teaching English, grab a job at an NGO in Vientiane and sublet my flat for two years....... !?!