Louis Sicking, oom

Louis is de oudste broer van mijn vader. Hij stierf vandaag, 89 jaar oud.

Ze hadden altijd ruzie. Louis de rechtse Katholiek, en Joost de radicaal. Louis was de oudste van een gezin met vijf kinderen. Joost kwam een broer en een zus later. Allebei mama kinderen en elkaars tegenpolen. Joost stierf in 1986. Hij was 53. Zijn moeder overleefde hem. Louis overleefde beiden.

Oom Louis stierf vandaag, zondag 25 april 2010. Hij zat lekker te eten met zijn tweede broer, Jan, en opeens besloot zijn hart er mee op te houden. Hij heeft geen kinderen. Zijn vrouw Roos overleed zo’n tien jaar geleden. Toen leerde ik hem kennen, de barse oom. Op haar begrafenis. Ik zag de zoon van mijn oma, ik zag het mama kind, zo anders dan het andere mama kind, mijn vader. Ik zag de man waar Roos van gehouden had. Ik zag zijn liefde voor de eerste keer. Als ik eerlijk ben, moet ik zeggen: Ik zag hem voor de eerste keer. Ik besloot hem op te zoeken. De man die over alles anders dacht dan ik. En hij, hij was mild, zonder zijn standpunten te verlaten. Hij nam me mee uit om te lunchen. En ik genoot van hem.

Afgelopen woensdag belde ik. ‘Oom Louis, bent u thuis? Dan kom ik even langs. Ik kan er over een kwartier zijn. Ik heb wat te vertellen.’ Zoals verwacht, wimpelde hij me af. Ik moest eerder bellen. Een afspraak maken. Verrassingen waren hem te veel. Ik wilde hem ‘Nin’ geven (ofschoon ik wist dat hij het een verschrikkelijk boek zou vinden en daarom had ik zolang getwijfeld om het hem te geven) Wilde hem vertellen dat Joost z’n werk binnenkort in Maastricht hangt, tegenover het Bonnefantenmuseum. Dat zou hem plezier hebben gedaan.

Louis was de lijn naar mijn vader geworden, hoe tegenstrijdig dat ook lijkt. En naar Oma. Hij werd een steeds dunnere lijn, in transitie, zelf op weg, naar Roos, Oma en Joost. We zijn het nooit eens geworden, maar hebben elkaar gevonden op breekbare kruispunten. Ik denk dat ik hem begrijp. En hij mij.

Does humanitarian aid prolong wars?

The abuse and slavery that happened at the youthcircus in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, is an example of making powerful dictators more powerful with Western aid. We were trying to think solutions & came up with this: support asylumseekers. Welcome them, help them to educate themselves and: encourage them to work!

Apart from the fact that studying and working people are usually happier and stronger, most immigrants send money back home. This money arrives directly in the pockets of the ones it is meant for: mothers, sisters, children. It is used to buy food, to pay for hospital bills and education of smaller brothers et cetera. And it is neither charity, nor institutional and structural financing of dictators and armies.

This should at least solve a part of the problem Linda Polman describes in her book War Games, the story of Aid and War in Modern Times, which is reviewed in the Guardian / Observer of today, April 25. (you can read it at: www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/apr/25/humanitarian-aid-war-linda-polman)

Lazy Lady Entropy

Sustainability is nothing new. It is just the mirror side of what was called vanity (vanitas) in the 17^th century. But we chose to emphasize the good part – nature, wellbeing, forever young – instead of focussing on the inevitable death all living beings awaits. We seem to be an optimistic generation.

Lazy Lady Entropy adores the sun.

Her hair is a mess.

She don’t care.

She’ll live forever

Forever young

The doctor will fix it

Books in the wild

I met the book in the park. It just lay there, waiting for me. Inside someone wrote a message. It said: ‘I read this book. Now I release it into the wild. If it appeals to you, please accept it. After you’ve read it, pass it on. Leave it in a place where you think somebody will find it.

‘Register on www.bookcrossing.com when and where you found the book and when and where you release it again. This way we will be able to follow the books’ journey and share the content. The world is our library.’

If you like, you can go book-hunting too. You find the books that are released in your area on the same website.

The novella Nin is released on Tilburg University campus. Wonder what adventures lay ahead

US shifts back to being a democracy: Obama sets an example

This Eastern weekend I read the pamphlet of Naomi Wolf called ‘The end of America’. Wolf describes the frightening resemblances of the Bush regime with dictators like Adolf Hitler, Stalin and Pinochet and, though she doesn’t mention him, Meles Zenawi from Ethiopia. She wrote her book, a letter to a young patriot in the year 2007.

There is a system every dictator seems to follow. Wolf describes ten steps that ensure total control of a society, closing it and putting fear into peoples’ hearts and minds. The ten steps include suppressive laws in the name of security, randomly imprisoning civilians, creating a paramilitary force and off course limiting freedom of speech.

Though quite obvious when you come to think of it, an eye opener to me was that dictators want their subjects to know about the crimes they commit. A carefully designed propaganda gradually pours fear into society. The psychology behind it is that a frightened people tends to self-censorship and is much easier to control.

The American constitution is designed with checks and balances to prevent dictators from seizing absolute power. President Bush however seemed quite successful in breaking down these safety nets for democracy.

But now the pendulum swayed back. Democracy is about freedom and peace. Barack Obama puts his money where his mouth is. Not only in interior matters, like the health care bill allowing access to health care for all Americans instead of for some.

Obama is also living up to his speech 'A new beginning' in Cairo on June 4 2009, where he reached out to the rest of the world, especially to the Muslim communities. The New York Times reports: ‘For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons, or launched a crippling cyberattack.’

The signal the president of the United States sends to the world, is one of strong cooperation with NATO allies, not in the least Russia, to ban nuclear threat. Countries like Iran and North Korea, will be pressed to leave their nuclear defence programs in order not to be isolated from the international community. Obama is not being soft on this. He seems quite realistic, by giving the right example, cooperating and, at the same time, force others, like North Korea and Iran, to follow his footsteps, for their (and our) own benefit. He is the change he wants to see in the world. Quite a different America from the United States Naomi Wolf wrote about only three years ago.

New York Times breaking news, April 5 :

http://www.nytimes.com?emc=na

Jokes, rules or regulations? 1 april

Control freaks & uptight civil servants love The Rules. They make it their life’s goal to maintain sterile regulations without looking at a person or a situation. They forgot that rules are made for people.

‘These are the rules, Madam. I can’t help it. We have to live by the rules, no matter what.’ Never question. Never doubt. Just follow.

Imagine the panic that arouses when the rest of the people openly decide to break with stupid rules.

A friend was summoned by the police to drive her car to the police station. ‘Take it easy, little missy’, the twenty years younger, first beard growing official said to her. ‘You parked your car against somebody else’s. Just admit.’ ‘No, I did not’, she claimed. ‘If I did that, I would have put a note behind the windscreen of the other car leaving my name and telephone number.’ ‘Can I have a look at your car?’ ‘Be my guest. Live your life and party,’ she replied. The adolescent policemen scrutiny searched her Volvo. He found no marks of scratching. He was confused, because… somebody put a note on the wretched neighbour car in the parking lot, claiming she hit it. The anonymous note writer could not be wrong. It was on paper!

‘Okay, I see no damage on your car, we will not subpoena. It shall be an insurance matter.’ ‘But I never hit another car.’ ‘Well, missy, women behind a steering wheel can cause accidents. We all know about that.’ ‘I did not hit another car!’

A few weeks later the insurance company called her: fraud… Somebody tried to put the blame for an old car injury on her. No apologies from the police however. While they let her come to the station, taking hours of her time and never believed her… April 1?