Friday CONTEST day..

Last contest won by Canadian Princess Veena. She was the first to discover La Sagrada Familia - Barcelona, Spain. Oh, by the way: On top of the church we got engaged. "Erm..Say what?" No kidding!!
Veena please e-mail the adress where I can send you the souvenir. Sorry Gary and Lisa, correct answer but only prize for first answer available :-)



Allright; now for this week. First one to guess right will receive an appropriate Amsterdam souvenir!


Any ideas? I'll send souvenirs all over the world. Even to Australia, Moscow, Oslo, Dubhay, Japan and Lebanon!! Who's first??






Saturday update: Again I have to help you guys out. Might as well send souvenirs without having a contest :-) Here's a picture of the entire city:

A Bishop that likes little children and Frau mit Schnurrbart

Today was the day that St. Nicholas, a.k.a. Sinterklaas, f.k.a. The Bishop of Mira, arrived on the Amsterdam Dam square. Sinterklaas is well known as the children's biggest friend. Now many Bishops nowadays are well known to be very friendly to little boys but this Bishop has another wonderful feature: He exploits black servants who crawl down your chimney to enter your house. Anyway, I won't go that way today. I too lie to my son about his existence and hope he'll forgive me when he's old enough to know it was all about mall marketing to sel us useless stuff.

We arrived in time, I bought myself a Hazelnut Latte and my son a hot chocolate. He managed to get in front at the fence and stood first in row. I tried to get as much children in front of me but couldn't avoid to let an entire Mediterranian looking family in front of me while I wasn't paying attention. No problem, "let them integrate into our culture" I thought, they might enjoy this charade.

This family (their children in particular) was very annoying. They yelled to everyone and started bullying my son. He got pushed and tried to find eye-contact with me. From a distance I told him to stay put and that he would be allright. Now he is only six but rather tall for his age so he started pushing back telling his 10 y.o. neighbour that he should loose weight because he didn't fit in between. I didn't like it but so far no reason to get upset. Hey, " that's just what children do", I thought. That's when this ugly woman started intimidating my son. Pulling his jacket and telling him to get lost. "Lady, leave him alone and mind your own business", I yelled at the woman twice. She didn't comply.

She continued pushing and pulling his jacket. My son got upset and started crying. And I got furious, man did I loose it for a moment. I elbowed myself to the front and told her that I warned her twice and that if she would ever lay a hand on my son again "I will kick your husbands ugly ass because I don't hit women, not even women with a moustache like yours". Then I turned towards her husband and told him to "tell her I am blood serious" looking him straight into the eyes with the most vicious look I had in years. Problem solved..

Now I do not approve of my behaviour and it sure isn't the Buddhist way I would normally prefer but this is just a little example of the problems we face daily in our Dutch big cities. We have been tolerating too much and now we've all grown apart. Young Morrocan pupils terrorize teachers and even terrorize entire neighbourhoods. People no longer dare to stand up against their violence and their parents have lost them in between cultural differences.

The CEO of Blackberry told me last week that the little Canadian town where he grew up welcomed a dozen Dutch families after WWII. They immigrated to Canada to start anew. Every year, with Dutch liberation day in sight, they would plant a couple of hundred tulips on the town square to remember the victims of war, to celebrate the liberation of the Netherlands and to thank their Canadian neighbours for their warmth and hospitality. They were grateful, very grateful. That's how they are seen by their Canadian neighbours, the grateful Dutch neighbours. Last year, many Canadian towns celebrated the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands in a way that we in the Netherlands even didn't do.

And that's just the way it works to my opinion. You earn your respect in a new country through gratefullness, not through agression, repression and violence.

I rest my case..

Friday CONTEST day..

First one to guess what this is

and where I have taken this picture

receives an authentic Amsterdam souvenir

(no Gary I won't ship over no cannabis :-)..

Good luck and have a nice weekend my friends..


Sunday update:

Would you be blogging..

if someone made you feel like this?
.
Would you be wasting time, worrying about a new start, a new future..
.
if someone made you smile like this?
.
Would you hesitate for more than one second to seize the day together and live the now..
.
if someone made you happy like this?
.
Would you?

Bush Administration, Halloween 365 days a year..

N o one likes us-I don't know why

We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try

But all around, even our old friends put us down

Let's drop the big one and see what happens

We give them money-but are they grateful?

No, they're spiteful and they're hateful

They don't respect us-so let's surprise them

We'll drop the big one and pulverize them

Asia's crowded and

Europe's too old

Africa is far too hot

And Canada's too cold

And South America stole our name

Let's drop the big one

There'll be no one left to blame us

We'll save Australia

Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo

We'll build an All American amusement park there

They got surfin', too

Boom goes London and boom Paris

More room for you and more room for me

And every city the whole world round

Will just be another American town

Oh, how peaceful it will be

We'll set everybody free

You'll wear a Japanese kimono

And there'll be Italian shoes for me

They all hate us anyhow

So let's drop the big one now

Let's drop the big one now

-Randy Newman

The end of suffering

May the sound of the bell penetrate deep into the cosmos.
Even in the darkest spots living beings are able to hear it clearly.
So that all suffering in them cease. Understanding comes to their heart, and they transcend the path of sorrow and death.

The universal dharma door is already open; the sound of the rising tide is already heard clearly. The miracle happens.

A beautiful child appears in the heart of the lotus flower. One single drop of this compassionate water is enough to bring back the refreshing spring to our mountains and rivers.

Listening to the bell I feel the afflictions in me dissolve. My mind is calm, my body relaxed. A smile is born on my lips.

Following the sound of the bell, my breath brings me back to the safe island of mindfulness. In the garden of my heart, the flowers of peace bloom beautifully.

"The End of Suffering" by Thich Nhat Hanh (click to listen)

Carpe Diem Dimi

I have been the most terrible blogger lately for which I hope you accept my sincere apologies. Thing is that I still don't have internet at home, my personal life has been a rollercoaster and I have been flying around the world for work lately. So seen a lot, happened a lot and been very busy.

That's why I decided to spend extra quality time with my son this weekend doing funny kids stuff together . On friday we build ourselves a kite and flew it over the Amsterdam dikes adjacent to my backyard. This was real fun because the kite rose to great hight. Then we played football and we baked ourselves some pancakes. You should have seen the kitchen afterwards. On Saturday we decided to visit the movies. Monsterhouse was playing and we were in for some excitement.

However, on our way to the movie theater a terrible accident occurred right in front of our eyes. An older bicyclist forgot to give way to the car in front of us and got knocked of his bike. In fact, he instantly became airborne and had an aweful landing - head first- with a thud on the asphalt. I still have the image on my retina. My son was reading the Donald Duck so luckily he missed it.

I parked the car crossways in front of him so no cars could pass, told my son to stay put and started helping. The car driver allready supported the old man but lots of blood was oozing out of his head wound. Me and some bystanders tried to keep the old man concious but after a few minutes he passed out, re-appeared and then went into a shock because of the many injuries and blood loss. By the time the ambulance arrived we guessed he had litttle chance that he would make it to the hospital. I don't know how the story ended but I hope he survived. If not, may God bless his beautiful soul.

So, our father and son pleasure weekend turned out a little different then I planned it to. And allthough we still had the most wonderful Sunday, the message send to me was crystal clear:

Seize the day. Or to quote the Roman poet Horace: "Enjoy the present and don't worry about the future, as in It's a beautiful day, so forget tomorrow's test--carpe diem!"

To all of you I say, go fly your kites today, bake some pancakes, open your best bottle of wine tonight and enjoy the now 'cause life may be shorter then you expect it to be.

Take care and Memento Mori my virtual friends!

What is love? 'Tis not hereafter;

Present mirth has present laughter;

What's to come is still unsure.

In delay there lies no plenty,

Then come and kiss me sweet and twenty;

Youth's a stuff will not endure.

"from Twelfth Night, by W. Shakespeare"

Thank you George Muthaf@%#king Bush

Thank you George Muthaf@%#king Bush
By Vanessa German

thank u for makin it easier for me to get a tech9 or AR14 than a pap smear & a good education
thank u from the first boy i kissed who u sent off to fight your war in iraq he returned home only by telegram & in a box

thank u from me from my body from the woman i love that i want to marry & call my wife without u bible thumpin daggers & demanding constitutional amendments to prevent us from loving this revolutionary love (az tho we cud soil the sanctitiy of marriage)u cud nevah touch my love or fuck with my love its just the right u seek to deny us so we must fight for it in the end it's all a matter of voice of excercising choice & flexing the muscle of democracy which shudn't be pigeon holed marginalized or constitutionaly compromised under the pretense that who i love kiss fuck hold hands & make family withiz destructive to the fiber that quilts the fabric of america which ironically happens to becotton that notoriously bloody lily white thread that my grandfather & hiz fathers fathers before picked by hand in mer rouge louisianai hav not forgotton that i am america that my blood iz in these rivers & at the roots of these red wood treesi know that this country was built on the backs of blacks that were shackled strapped & stacked slashed gashed taxed & then cashed in on like cattle

i hav not forgotton that i am america & even tho u want me to be quiet & invisible i will not i hav decided that if u r not with US then u r against US US the 99% of the population that makes less than 1.2 million dollars a year the 43 million people that hav no health care the 14 million children that got left behind that go to bed hungry every night if u r not with US then u r against US & we understand that terror iz not always guns & knives & otherwise explosive devices of evil sometimes terror iz just making no living wage going day to day pay check to pay check praying that no one gets sick

terror iz not knowing which of ur sonswill fit the description & die while reaching back pocket for identification to prove he iz american but not american enuf to live freeterror iz being 13 having no access no choice & taking matters into ur own hands

terror iz being a woman begging for emergency contraception when u've been raped taken by force & foresaken just like the constitution after the presidential election of 2000 which u did not win u stole like a purse off the shoulder of an old lady making america ur bitch

didn't anyone ever tell u when u take shit that's not urs u give it back & apologize

but no. we realize that u mr bushr just the figure head the smoke screen the sony nike gmc tommy hilfiger blue jeans brand name of a regime of evil so vicious & arrogant u hav the audacity to murder in my name & call it justice

call it liberation long time come when all it really iziz economic imperialism or occupation which iz the same thing hitler did in poland austria & hungry ...if u really wanted to liberate u cud hav liberated delbert orr africa janine holloway africa micheal sims africa or mumia abul jamalit wasn't 6 weeks it waz 17 thousand lives not just american lives but human lives how sacred are they tell me answer me tell me how sacred are they

stop trying to convince us that justice iz always this bloody that liberation costs babies & mothers & homes & sons& lovers & fathers & dignity& truth & purity & hope & democracy

thank u mr bushfor showing us that we must fight everyday for our freedom as tho we r fighting for our lives obviously u r not going to beat a path of justice to our front doors

this is my requiem for the last four years my premptive strike on the next four years this iz my love poemto america even tho he took u by force violated u forsook u before they eye of god made u barely recognizable to the rest of us

i still love u baby he can not shame u before my eyes u r beautiful i will fight & die for u r the people & i am u this iz my love poem to america

Ich bin ein decadente Berliner!

Just to say hi to you guys quickly in between my traveling:

A week ago I was invited to cruise the Amsterdam canals on a jollyboat.

Not only did we have wonderfull weather but the atmosphere was marvellous. Fyi: I'm the guy holding the camera.

After the tour we visited the Amsterdam Wester Church. After church a great diner and just the magnificent evening ending..hmm.

Anyway to continue the story of my decadent life;

I was invited to Berlin this week together with my colleague directors of our company. We stayed in the famous Adlon hotel Unter den Linden opposit the Brandenburger Tower. We drove around Berlin in old Trabants, flew over Berlin in an old Dakota, sailed on the Spree river on a longboat, visited almost every monument such as The Reichstag, Checkpoint Charly, you name it, and had great diners. Oh, and we did some working by the way. But not too much I have to admid..

So, to finish this little show off: next week I will be in New York, Philidelphia and Wayne to visit my American colleagues. You should not have mercy upon me. Nope, I don't feel sorry for myself either.

Just wondering if the customs allow me to pass the American border since I have been bashing Dubya for a while. We'll see.



So for now I say: farewell my friends. I have to pack my bag again. Hope to see you again on my return in two weeks. Take care!!

Our journey back to Ithaka

Back to work again my virtual friends. Summer holidays were very nice. I could hear my son laughing at the other end of the swimming pool –first year that he could actually swim alone- while I drank a nice rosé and read a few good books.

Two of them were The Iliad and The Odyssey. The latter epic details the adventures of Odysseus on the journey home from the war and the troubles he finds in Ithaka when he arrives there.

During the 10 year journey from Troy back to Ithaka, Odysseus had many encounters that prolonged his journey home. He has to free his men from the Lotus-Eaters, the Cyklops giant, Polyphemus, and the enchantress Kirke. He traveled to the underworld, where he receives valuable information to help him continue his trip home.

This new knowledge that he received helped him to have a safe passage from the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis. But, he could not save his crew when they violated commandments by slaughtering and eating the cattle of the sun god. Through this action their ship was struck by a thunderbolt and only Odysseus survived. He swam on the island of the nymph Kalypso, where he became her lover, was held prisoner, and lived there for seven years. He built a raft and sailed for Ithaka, but once again he ran into Poseidon's furious storm and was shipwrecked on the island of the Phaiakians where he told his tale of wandering at a banquet in the palace. After his fabulous tale, he was allowed onboard a Phaiakian ship, given untold riches, and deposited, sleeping, on his home island.

Once he returned home, he still had problems. After being gone for twenty years, Penelope had remained faithful. But the palace was occupied by a group of suitors who were waiting on Penelope to pick one of them to marry. Odysseus arrived at the palace disguised as a beggar and saw everything in disarray. He slaughters the suitors and cleansed the palace before Penelope sees all the blood and bodies. But, then he had to deal with the anger families of the suitors. But Athena stepped in and told the people of Ithaka that there would be peace and that the King of Ithaka was home.

The parallels I found, while reading the book, with our lives – or at least mine- were striking. Aren’t we all on a journey back to our own Ithaka and don’t we all have to face many endeavors along the way? We have to fight our demons, we get struck by thunderbolts and fall in love with a nymph on an unexpected moment (and then become a prisoner in love too, huh, say what? :-)

Question that remains: Will we find our Ithaka in distress and occupied by a group of suitors once we arrive? Will we get frustrated and have remorse of not having lived life to the max? Or will we realize just in time that it’s the journey that matters and ENJOY THE NOW?

You tell me…

Salud Amigos!!!

The weather over here in Amsterdam is truly freaking me out. We've had a serious heatwave that now is broken by a tropical monsoun. It's really pouring cat's and dogs since last week and it ain't gonna stop soon they say.

So, intended upon escaping the heat excesses and monsouns of mainland Europe, I am headed to the Spanish Canaries for its more consistent climate. Even so, last week's hot weather in Gran Canaria also reflected the unusually high temperatures in the Spanish Peninsular as well as much of Europe.

Sin problema: a grande cervesa fria at the Maspalomas piscina will do the job just perfectly.

So, 'have to close CAFEDA for a while and I hope to see you back within a few weeks. Enjoy your holidays, I will too :-)

Salud Amigos !!!

Another 50 innocent civilians killed in Lebanon

If you prefer main stream media coverage on Lebanon, don't watch George Galloway here!!

Israeli air strikes killed more than 50 people yesterday, making it one of deadliest days for Lebanon in the war. And while diplomats wrangle over a UN draft that makes 1000 people killed and more than 915.000 people homeless. CEASE FIRE NOW, STOP THIS MADNESS!

DON'T READ THIS

According to Human Events these are the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries:

1. The Communist Manifesto
2. Mein Kampf
3. Quotations from Chairman Mao
4. The Kinsey Report
5. Democracy and Education
6. Das Kapital
7. The Feminine Mystique
8. The Course of Positive Philosophy
9. Beyond Good and Evil
10. General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

Honorable Mentions include:
The Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich
On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
Beyond Freedom and Dignity by B.F. Skinner
Reflections on Violence by Georges Sorel
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Madness and Civilization by Michel Foucault
Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead
Unsafe at Any Speed by Ralph Nader (???)
Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
The Greening of America by Charles Reich
Descent of Man by Charles Darwin

Interesting list to heat up the fireplace although my pick would be The Holy Bible and -Quran ex aequo on numbers 1 -20 !!

Mea Culpa

I must have been the worst bartender in Amsterdam lately and all of you must be raging thirsty. You see, the thing is, that my service provider got bankrupt and I lost the home internet connection. Besides that, I have been redecorating my home last weeks. The glassroom has become a small atelier with several painters easels and a lot of charcoals, brushes, knives and other handy tools. Now when I get home from work, I cast off the monkey suit, poor myself a nice glass of Ott Rosé, open the garden doors, smell the fresh summer air, put on some Motown music and let creativity flow. You may check out AtelierDA for some first results if you like..

Click here for a short visit to ATELIER DA

Next to that my drum teacher is getting me up to speed and making me exercise some difficult stuff. I have been following lessons with Cesar Zuiderwijk from the Golden Earing, (e.g. Radar Love) for the last half year now and his valuable tips and tricks are really starting to pay off. We have exercised drum strokes, Snare drum techniques, Double Bass Drum Techniques, Hand & Foot Coordination, Drum Fills, Drum Solo Techniques and so on. Sometimes we just play together.

I started out with lessons from students from the Amsterdam conservatoire but that didn't work as I am to pigheaded and self-willed and definately don't want to read notes. But when one of the best European drummers says your technique sucks, it just sucks. No discussion possible. 'Guess that's the only way it works for me. Next week I will get a new Internet connection so my virtual life can get back in order and CafeDA will be the most enjoyable (Bush bashing) virtual Amsterdam cafe again.

Until then...take care my friends and enjoy the weekend!!

"I am sailing, I am sailing, 'cross the sea"

Last week I was invited to go sailing for six days in a row (24/7).

The aim was to sail the boat of a friend to the south of France. This would be too easy so we decided to round England as well.





Which meant non-stop sailing, night shifts, stormy weather, lot's of sun, dead tired after 6 days but quite the fullfilled person.







Sailing on the Spinaker (what's the English word for that?) through the canal is great fun. You have to remain focussed because the boat can trip easily..

At night you could see several constellations, satellites flying over, ufo's and when focussing enough the lights of UK and France on the side..




There were 4 of us on board and each had his own bedroom. But after 6 days of sailing the boat looked like a pigg-hole and there were some strange odours hanging around. I was ships cook too and managed to get only one person sick. But that could be because he ate my hamburgers too (and I sticked to cheese sandwich)..

Now I am having trouble gettin' up to speed back over here in Holland as we still are sailing that serious heat wave all together. I need a cold one!

Says the chimp to the poodle at G8:

Who said Dubya is a cowboy? He's a straight up gangsta! And what about his right to the point diplomatic approach: "You see, the ... thing is what they need to do is to get Syria, to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over." This man is a scandalous disaster! And Tony?

- INSERT DEEP SIGH HERE -

190

At least 190 Indian people died because of seven deadly train blasts. Train cars packed with commuters were blown apart and television images showed ghastly footage of bloodied limbs and dead bodies in the wreckage. It was one of the worst such attacks in India in recent years.

My heart goes out to the families of the victims.

This post I wrote in January after visiting Mumbay:

"Several months ago I was invited to go on a business trip to Mumbay, India. It was the most impressive trip that I had in years. Yesterday, a blogfriend asked me about this trip and my feelings about it. I’d like to share my answer to her question with you because it evoked a lot of emotions again. You might know better than me that India is a country of contradictions between the majority living in extreme poverty and the ultra rich happy few. It’s also a country of beautiful and wonderful people as I’ve experienced.

One night we were invited by the Dutch ambassador to have diner in one of Bollywoods best restaurants named “Khyber”. We had diner being surrounded by various famous film-stars and well known locals. We quickly forgot about world’s misery and had a great time.

When we left the restaurant we were guided towards the bus when all of a sudden a litte beggar girl dressed in rags appeared in front of me. She had to be about five or six years old and had the most beautiful big brown eyes that laughed at me like little shining stars. The policemen yelled at her to get lost but I couldn’t resist to kneel down and look her straight into her almost hypnotizing eyes.

I asked her her name and she started to jabber words to me that I couldn’t understand. I opend my hands to her and she put her’s in mine. We then looked eachother in the eyes as if we were talking without words. All of a sudden she pulled back her hands and gave me a heartwarming hug that seemed to last forever. At that time I felt a feeling of compassion I have never felt before. It felt like both of us were at the centre of the universe. As tears rolled down my eyes, she all of a sudden stopped embracing me, looked me straight into my blurry eyes for a while and laughed at me with the same intensity as she did before.

In a split second she then dissapeared jumping across the street like a puppet on a string. I suddenly realized I wasn’t alone in this world and looked up at the rest of the group to find everyone crying. The ride back to the hotel was a quiet one with people snuffling and passing handkerchiefs. I looked out the window somewhat confused and watched Mumbay pass by, wondering what happened back there. I felt humble and man I felt alive.

Alive like I have never felt before…"


Please share some moments of silence with me..

Opposites don't attrackt!

When I grew up (stil do) I tended to think that being able to buy expensive goods was a sign of being succesful and having a house with a swimming pool was the ultimate goal to reach. Little did I know.. I had to learn the hard way and I guess I haven't finished learning on my 37th and that's ok too.

Today I took a test (try it yourself) on economic and social preferences and found myself at the opposite side of myself at age 26. Back then I was the Neo Liberal Authoritarian (upper right quadrant) and today the results position me between the preferences carried out by Dalai Lama, Ghandi and Nelson Mandela (I scored -5 and -3). Huh..Isn't that funny? In ten years time a complete change of mind and heart..(Am I a schyzofrenic?)

Now, this test is only a funny test and my name does not belong amongst those great persons in any way but one thing is very true: the testresult positions me at the opposite side of Dubya Bush. And guess what:

That's exactly where I want to be!

Namaste

.
With all the power of my arms,
.
With all the intelligence of my mind,
.
With all the love of my heart
.
I pay my due respect to the soul
.
-Within you...

Happy birthday mr. President

"Let me just say this: it's a lot younger than you think,'' the president said yesterday as he accepted birthday greetings from a Canadian reporter during a news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
.
Unfortunately hundreds of thousands did not reach the age of 60 in good health, worse: tenths of thousands dindn't reach the age of 60 at all. Thank you mr. President! Thank you so much...

Don't use in combination with alcohol!

Now did someone forget to check the boiler plate on side effects of his medicine prescription? Click pic or here.

Normally this Imam gets after Friday prayers and announces to the people:"I have good news and bad news. The good news is, we have enough money to pay for our new anti USA media campaign. The bad news is, it's still out there in your pockets."