Numerous As

The love for islands or the joy of being alone (solitude). Where does it come from - and where does it go to? Observation: the roots are ancient and examples numerous. Question: something all 'homo sapiens' need every now and then?

Three "random" pictures of islands, moving in some transmission medium, I like very much.

Title 'Provence' (2004). Artist: Mildebergius (born 1965) from Estonia. 

Title 'Braslav Lakes' (2010). Artist: Anna Silivonchik (born 1980) from Belarus. 

Title 'Fantazya' (2012). Artist: Dilek Isiksel (born 1948) from Turkey. 

Nor Divine. Nor Unspoiled. Nor Virgin

A desert traveler writes (2015): "It's no longer imaginable: the divine desert only for me and the camels. Back then [30 years ago J.D.] there were no cars and there was no GPS."

Strange assertion for a historian like me. It must be a 'Golden Years' (David Bowie) kind of view on the traveler's, travels of thirty years ago. But ... back then the desert was nor divine, nor unspoiled, nor virgin, nor without cars, nor without GPS.

Navigation is of all time - no exception for navigating in the desert:

Transport is of all time - no exception for transporting in the desert:

New techniques give new (im)possibilities. With their own (dis)advantages, limitations and range. A walking man can, under a full sun, in "the" desert survive 3 days without water. A camel can walk for 3 weeks without water. A motor vehicle can drive for months without water. A man and camel need food for fuel and a car gasoline. A ship is bound to water for transportation. Etcetera

What's my point? William Roe Polk in his book 'Passing Brave' (1973): "Abu Jurj, it is all gone. Labid is dead. You were right about the truck. It has killed us [the camel and the nomad J.D.] all." Read for trucks: cars, trains or airplanes.

What rests is romanticism. 'Romanticism' defined as "fallible people who pursue the dream of perfection." The camel as transport for salt and other commodities is gone. Since 1900 the camel, in the Middle East, is one of many ways of transport for the tourist, traveler and soldier. A source of revenue for the tourist leader, writer or filmmaker. The desert is a place - with and without a camel - where you must be able to survive as a soldier.

Source photo: Dany Marique

Only Passionately Curious

10 Lessons from Albert E=MC2

1. Follow Your Curiosity “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
2. Perseverance is Priceless “It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
3. Focus on the Present “Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”
4. The Imagination is Powerful “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
5. Make Mistakes “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
6. Live in the Moment “I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.”
7. Create Value “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
8. Don’t be repetitive “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
9. Knowledge Comes From Experience “Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”
10. Learn the Rules and Then Play Better “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

P.S. Picture is from Anna Silvonchik, 'Over the Hills and Far Away' (2007)

P.P.S. Source of the 10 lessons: here

They Are Missing the Point!

Darkly despondent. Goofily exuberant. Grand folly of a record. English magic. Biggest stylistic jump in Kate Bush's career. 

Many adjectives on KT's CD 'Aerial' (2005) but so ... meaningless. Michael Bonner even says of the first disk ('A Sea of Honey') - in UNCUT. Kate Bush. The Ultimate Music Guide (2015 Issue 3) - that it's a collection of unconnected songs. Unconnected!

Is "everyone" still missing the point that Kate Bush is a mystic on her CD 'Aerial'? Someone who reaches beyond good and evil? Beyond sky and sea? Beyond music and silence? Beyond dead or being alive?

P.S. I wrote about this on July 26th, 2009 'Kate Bush. Mystic on 'Aerial'. Invitation to be nondualistic'

Chephren Gneiss

What am I reading these days?

Yesterday I finished Arita Baaijens, 'Een Regen van Eeuwig Vuur' (1993). Travelling with camels in the Egyptian Desert. Lovely read. I was very interested in Chephren's Gneiss Quarry in the desert, 60 km from Abu Simbel. 

I am reading six other books at the same time:

• Bertus Aafjes, 'Morgen Bloeien de Abrikozen' (1954). Stories from Egypt where Bertus stayed three years
• Arita Baaijens, 'De Woestijn als Passie' (1995). Desert stories from Arita and many (famous) travellers. I have read this book once before but I wanted to read it again
• Manuel E. Costa Sr.,  'The making of the Cape Verdean' (2011)
• Carlos García Peña, 'Cabo Verde Fortalezas, Gente e Paisagem' (2000). Bilingual book in Portuguese and Spanish about fortresses, people and landscape of the Cape Verde Islands
• Peter Russell, 'Prince Henry 'the Navigator' A Life' (2000)
• Perry Moree, 'Met Vriend die God Geleide. Het Nederlands-Aziatisch Postvervoer ten tijde van de Verenigde Oost-indische Compagnie' (1998). Mail (read: snail-mail) transport at the time of the Dutch East India Company

I am now looking for a good book guide for the Egyptian desert on birds, mammals, flowers, reptiles etc. Can you suggest one?

Come Home In My Dreams And Tell Me Everything

Translation and context: here, here and here.

Just in Between

Did the West ("Rich Countries") win from the Rest of the World? Depending on the period you talk about it's true. With hindsight of historical data of Gross Domestic Product (in Dutch 'Bruto Binnenlands Product') it's only true between 1850-2010. Before China and India were bigger. And if the predictions are valid .... they will be in the future too. GDP data between year 0 and 2050 for nine superpowers:

Source: NRC Handelsblad. April 4th, 2015

For the biggest part the historical data above, of the long term economic growth, is collected by Angus Maddison (1926-2010). 

Some Americans talk about the "Old World" when they refer to Western Europe. I guess it's better to point at China and India when we talk about the Old World. Western Europe and it's offspring (read: USA) are the newbies and in betweenbies.

Pouring Out Sorrows

Little known. Little understood. Little read. 

Little known islands. Little understood Cape Verdean. Little read? I guess Américo C. Araújo's book 'Little Known. The European Side of Cape Verde Islands' (2000) is not read by many. It took me some transpiration to get a copy of this book to Europe.

The book has (at least) four storylines.

Little understood. According to Araújo there are two misconceptions on the people of the Cabo Verde Islands. First, that Cape Verdean ('Cabo-verdiano') designates a race. For them Cabo Verde is not biological or racial (whose children are black, white and mostly in between) but a culture of all the people living on the Cabo Verde Islands. They are aware that their ancestors all came from different backgrounds in the outside world. "Cape Verde may be racially pluralistic, but culturally she is and has always been one" [1]. Second, all the whites are descendants of political or criminal exiles ('degredados'). According to Araújo this is for the biggest part nonsense because most whites came to the islands to administer the place or to do commerce. "It certainly wasn't to 'degredados' or 'lançados' that the King [of Portugal] would bestow the honor of overseeing his interests" [2]. 

Golden days. The writer looks back to his childhood on the islands Brava and Fogo with great pleasure and being proud on his family background. "My early childhood in Brava is very special to me. I well remember, when I was four or five, in the early evening hours, as the days begin to cool, the evening fog would rise up the mountain, enveloping the sleepy villa of Nova Sintra in a cool mist, while far off in the distance the church bells would be tolling, calling the faithful to prayer."

His mother was a European Cape Verdean of Portuguese and Jewish ancestry. In 1958 his father died of TB at the age of forty-seven. Américo was thirteen years old. In 1960 his mother went to work in the "sweat-shops" in New Bedford (U.S.A) after being "called" by her oldest son Rafael.  A year later Américo went to America. Where he got educated and became a teacher of Romance Languages [3]. 

Litte status. Being born in one of the colonies of Portugal is bad for someone his career. Admiral Carlos Reis (1852-1910) was born on Brava and found death in Lisbon. He was not to be the first president of Portugal! Eliminated because he was born in a colony and could not be allowed to ascend to the presidency [4].

Capo Verdean poets and poems. Américo gives the background of five important poets coming from the Cabo Verde Islands: Eugénio Tavares (1867-1930), João José Nunes (1885-1965), Sérgio Bonucci Frusoni (1901 - ?), Jorge Vera Cruz Barbosa (1902-1971) and Jorge Pedro Barbosa (?-?). And a couple of poems of each of them. The poem I liked best is 'O Baile' from J.V.C. Barbosa - translation from Cape Verdean Crioulo into English is from Araújo [5]:

Notes

1. Page 4, 14, 33,180 and 189

2. Page 158-160

3. Page 42 and 58

4. Page 160-169

5. Page 142

Song About Me

Coby Grant's song  'A Song About Me' makes me smile and happy. I don't really know why. Is it the sentence "One step at a time"?

My song about me:

I like watching romantic comedies

I like saying 'Everything Floats and is Never the Same'

I work harder than I want to

I love dreaming

And I love each and every one on planet Earth  #NousBuvonsChablis

I am convinced that the sweet and sour made me who I am

And I make sure that I never forget

That my parents raised me with love and freedom

I'm learning the ways of the world one step at a time

I keep on making new projects

And I always read at least 3 books at the same time

And I'm trying to be a good dad, the best I can be

For nobody else, nobody else but me

I like the smell of woodfire

And I know I am tough

I have a routine when I wake up

I drink more coffee than I should

And I don't think that I'll ever get rid of the

Couple of pounds that I'm carrying around

I know ... - you know

P.S. Did you learn G the 'Cup Song'? My two daughters can do the trick.

Properly Understood

Yesterday evening I picked a random book in my study. Closed my eyes and picked a random sentence. My finger pointed at this 1,850 year old sentence (Book IV, 10):

"Observe then as thou hast begun; and whatever thou doest, do it in conjunction with this, the being good, and in the sense in which a man is properly understood to be good."

Properly understood? Good?