Newspeak

Laat me de namen van des lands Ministeries zien en ik zal je zeggen wat voor een land je bent. Of positiever geformuleerd: kernachtig wordt in de namen van Ministeries de speerpunten van landen getoond.

Met veel genot kijk ik naar de namen van de Ministeries in Nederland van 1850, 1900, 1950 en 2000.

Ik heb vooral veel vragen:

• Waarom was er in 1850 een apart Ministerie voor Rooms-Katholieken (RK)? De meeste Nederlanders waren destijds toch Protestant? Het had mij meer logisch geleken als er een Ministerie voor Protestanten geweest was en een Ministerie voor RK en andere Erediensten. Kennelijk destijds een gevoelig puntje.
• Grappig dat ergens na 1950 het Ministerie van Oorlog omgedoopt wordt tot Defensie. Zegt dat ook iets over onze strategie en hoe we erin zitten?
• Grappig de verschuiving van Koloniën naar Gebiedsdelen en daarna naar "Zaken".
• Vreemd dat ergens na 1900 Landbouw en Visserij losgeweekt zijn van Economische zaken. Het zijn toch ook economische activiteiten?
• Na 1950 zijn Milieu, Kunst, Cultuur en Ontwikkelingssamenwerking kennelijk 'hot' geworden. Maar ook weer niet zo 'hot' dat ze ieder een heel apart Ministerie gekregen hebben voor dat ene speerpunt.
• Waarom hebben ze Verkeer bij Waterstaat gedaan? Volgens mij gaat de fileproblematiek sneller opgelost worden - als het opgelost moet worden -  als ze het onderbrengen bij Economische zaken. 

Heel benieuwd hoe morgen de speerpunten van kabinet Rutten-Verhagen I gaan luiden. Wedden dat we iets krijgen met "Immigratie"? Deze namen zullen het wel niet halen: "Alle buitenlanders eruit. Nederlanders eerst. Nederland schoon. Alleen buitenlanders van voldoende toegevoegde waarde." Waarmee maar weer eens aangetoond wordt dat ook 's lands speerpunten newspeak zijn.

Not on Tanja Nijmeijer (FARC). Or is it too?

Some time ago I read this quote: "We spend money we do not have, to buy stuff we don't need, to impress people we don't like". A lot of people despise this kind of behavior. I don't.

This quote poped up yesterday when I re-read a bookreview on David Hazony's book 'The Ten Commandments'. The 2nd commandment reads 'You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol.' David's interpretation of this commandment: smash the narcissistic idols of wealth and fashion. Mark that David tries to (re)find the wisdom of the 10 commandments beneath, above or beyond all the religious controversies. His set of 10 commandments is a complete blueprint for individuals and society as a whole. It's a guideline to improve or change the world. To make a better world. To make all of us more caring. Regardless of our religion.

Look at Fidel Castro (Washington 1959) wearing his militairy green. Always in "casual" green in order not not get distracted what to wear next and to be equal to his compañeros. Question: Did (better: does) Fidel smash his idols of wealth and fashion?

What's my opinion on all this? A dream of a fashionless, equal world for all people is an illusion. It's a dream. I believe above all that we are apes. Selfish apes fighting for our personal survival and the group(s) we live in. Showing wealth, good health and good taste is something that individual apes need to gain a partner to get procreated.  Show off and impress other apes is relevant for the peck order and our survival to be fit. It's competition. Sharing is no big deal in a world of plenty but when there is not enough ...

• we will crush or stampedes others in moments of panic at religious pilgrimages, professional sporting or music events
• we will eat other human beings (taste like chicken) when our plane is crashed on a remote spot 
• we will be selfish like Ingrid Betancourt on her "trip" with the FARC

This blog is not on Tanja Nijmeijer (FARC). Or is it too?

Fall is in the air. Guust is exuberant

On my little spark on Planet Earth it's fall. My favourite season of the year. Leaves are falling from the trees.  Apples. Grapes. Walnuts. Tamme kastanjes (chestnuts). Cut corn. Empty fields. I like this time of the year with all the colours and the sensation that everything passes. The seasons that pass by: being born, grow up and die. For me it's the metaphor of human life. Better: my life.

I'm very fond on this year's 35 The Big Picture' pics 'Fall is in the air'. Lovely colours. But noone can describe my joy of fall better than Guust Flater. In the next episode of Guust  (sorry it's in Dutch) he is send home early by his boss  Pruimpit to make sure he can't blow up the signing of a big contract. Guust is enjoying the sun and the play of leaves and wind in the park. His exuberancy is the bottomline for the businessman who is just passing by accidently to finally sign the contracts. No contracts will be signed today.

NON-READ REVIEW BOOK 'THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Dear David,

Let me first say this. I do understand the reason why you wrote this book. I do appreciate your project. I do understand your 'win'. But ... I don't comprehend my 'win' and why this book is urgent for me to read (and re-think etc) now.

1. You wrote "Ten ideas constitute a worldview that has not been articulated before". Title of your book is 'THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. How Our Most Ancient Moral Text Can Renew Modern Life'. Your claim of "most ancient moral text" is false. The oldest Hebrew bible dates from 600 BCE (source). 2.000 year earlier (ca 2770-2250 BCE) the ancient Egyptian concept of Maat was written down. Maat was the concept of truth, balance, order, law/ justice and morality. In the Book of Death, chapter 125 ('The negative confession') we can find most of the 10 commandments. I'm not a specialist on ancient moral texts but I guess we can find in China and Mesopotamia even older texts on this subject.

2. You wrote "The message is that [Ten Commandments] really have to offer us is of deep and immediate importance to our lives - regardless of faith." I do not disagree with your claim but the same could be said of every other (past or recent) culture on planet Earth. Every culture has it's own given set on proper/ good/ right behavior for individuals and groups.

3. Why should I read a book about something all individual 'Homo Sapiens' know by nature, by our innate morality? An inborn morality that we all know and understand regardless of faith or God/ gods we are focused on. Not religion is the rock of our human behaviour our inborn morality is. Check out Marc Hauser's The Moral Sense Test. Hauser: atheists have the same moral scores as deep believers. Even psychopaths have the same scores in the Moralitytest.

4. "Each commandment helps us become more caring, world-changing individuals." Sure! But why should I read your book on this? Why can't you write a 2 A4 blog on this? I'm interested in your message. I'm interested in your comments and interpretation of the 10 commandments. But I don't want to read your book.

Once again I do understand your 'win' of the book you wrote - it must have  been a great journey - but I don't understand my or our species Homo Sapiens' 'win'. What's the urgency for me? Why not summurarize your message in a blog on what it really means according to you to be a human being (love, life, wisdom, the self, property and insecurity)? Is your presupposition that by sharing your message in a book the mirror works better?

Best regards,

Jean

My Chinese Garden

Do you want to take a look at my Chinese garden? If yes, open 

this door

Haying time

My father's sister N and her husband J are the last farmers in my family. Two generations ago all of them worked on their farms. Some years ago my nephew B inherited his parents farm. He will be probably the last one. He is not married. No girlfriend. No kids. Being a farmer in The Netherlands is for most citygirls in my country not compelling. Why? Too much work, hardly time for holidays, hard living, lack of ability to communicate of farmers and non-sustainability. It's a generalisation. Too many false presuppositions but that's the general picture on farming in my country.

I guess I was around 10 years old. Some day in May or June. Haying time. My father asked me if I wanted to join him to harvest hay on uncle J' farm. OK for me. Together with my fathers new moped we drove.

We worked for some hours. Uncle J, my dad, another man (can't remember a name or face) and me. The smell of hay and diesel. Transpiration. Hot sun. When our work was finished uncle J and my daddy told me both that they were proud on my hard work. We drank something.

We drove home in 20 minutes while the sun was going down. The weather was warm. Me alone with my dad. My arms around his belly. Wind in my hair. I felt tired, proud and loved. I felt like a real man fostered in a man's world. Happy! I can't remember but I must have slept quickly in my own bed. Satisfied and with a big smile.

Of mice and men

Is it a coincidence that Michel de Montaigne and Dulce Maria Cardoso favorite pastime is just let time pass by and do nothing? Just like me. Why do we like this so much? Is it your favorite pastime too? Why?

This weekend I returned from my summerholiday. For 3 weeks I was with my family at the Mediterranean near Martigue (France). What can I say?  It was a good and lovely holiday. The weather was warm (>25C) and sunny. In my country it rained for more than 2 weeks. I read  6 books. Kids swam a lot at the swimmingpool and in the sea. We made a trip to Marseille twice. I loved the "wild" Calanques between Marseille and Casis. Strolled on the streets of Vincent van Gogh' Arles. Visited Cezanne's old atelier on a hill  (Lauves) in Aix-en-Provence. After 100 years Mont Sainte-Victoire is no longer visible from his/ this spot. Big trees everywhere. My kids were impressed by the  castle of  Tarascon. I missed the medieval smell. I looked for mouses (didn't see any). I made 2 coastwalks of more than 5 hours alone. I love to walk alone.

I could give you many more details.  I could show you all the pictures that were made. You could interview me, my wife and our 4 kids. We could ... - there must be more - but in the end we will end with "empty" hands. The truth is that we can't freeze or grab the days that pass by one by one. In a way I enjoy my life most when I don't freeze it. When I'm out of control. When I have no real target other than just let time pass by. Read a little. Dream a litte. Talk, eat, make love and hug a little. Write a little.

Since 10.000 BC species 'homo sapiens' settled down. No more walking around looking for something to eat. They settled down in farms and cities. Enough food nearby. Cooked food. More and more of us hardly need to invest time in getting and digest something to eat. So much much spare time compared to the other 'homo' species. It made us the species of today.

What's my point? We as species 'homo sapiens' lost something  since the agricultural and city revolution. Before this revolution - in my opinion the only two real ones - we had only one target: food, shelter, safety and reproduction. What did we lost? We lost track of our species dedication. We gained distraction. We gained so much distraction that most of us are most of the time lost. Lost! Got lost in distraction.

Since our species settled down we live together with mouses. Just realize every now and then that most of our species 9.000 generations of ancestors were not familiar with mouses. Nor with houses. Nor with cities. They walked around looking for ...

Question: are those whose favorite pastime is 'Just let time pass by and do nothing' those who are NOT lost in distraction?

Ordinary field stones. A poem

It's a lost world. Which world? The world of Catholic Church priests. Really? Yes, I think so ... rapidly losing it's battle to win the hearts and minds of their flock in the Western World.

At the same time I always realize I could have been a priest or monk too. If I would be one - I know I never will - I would try to be someone like Jan Twardowski (1915 – 2006). I like his poems, his images and the way he treats the world around him. This is one of his poems I like best. See how pure.

FAITHLESS TREES

One by one all the trees non-believers,
birds refuse to study religion
the dogs rarely goes to church
they really don't know anything
and see how odedient

insects under the tree bark know nothing of the gospels
even the white caraway so meek in the pasture
ordinary field stones
tears plowing the skin
have never heard of Saint Francis
and see how poor

the stars refuse to hear my sermons
so does the humble lily of the valley, all too familiar, alone
the peaceful mountains that, like faith, keep on
love with a heart condition
and see how pure

Poem 'Faithless Trees' (polish 'Drzewa Niewierzace') is written by Jan Twardowski. Translation by A. Mioduchowska and M. Garanis

Fighter pilot Robin Olds. Bookreview

I love to fly. I love the sensation of high up in the sky, hand on the stick and be in control of the aircraft. Clouds up. Mixture of green and brown colours down. And in between? Empty sky!

For 1 year I joined a glider club. Just the kind of family, group, nerds I like to share my life with.  Unfortunately I had to stop because it was too time consuming next to my kids and old house but ... one day I'll join them again.

I love reading about flying. Books. Magazines. Or whatever. When I was around 18 years old (before Top Gun) I wanted to become a fighter pilot myself. Dogfights - the real thing. 

Flying is not a job it's a way of life. Next to that it's something you do and not read about.  You can't capture flying in a picture - ever noticed that you always see the same kind of pictures? Nothing beats the real thing. I realised it once again when I read Robin Olds' book 'Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds'. If you want to read a good review on Olds' life check out wikipedia on this. It tells it all.

Olds memoirs are interesting and fun. Read them. He has flown aircrafts between 1942 and 1967. He shot down a couple of Germans in England and France during World War II and 4 MiGs in Vietnam. He was one of the leading officers who ensured that the Americans gained air superiority in Vietnam. By gaining that  the American bombers were able to drop their bombs undisturbingly. Only novelty I've read was that the Allied convoys during D-Day were covered from the air by aircraft. Olds was one of them. Nor Olds nor one of his fellow pilots saw one single German fighter during those days.

Olds for managers (3th section):

P.s. My blog '3 pics of fighter pilots that show how things changed in 100 years'

River crossing

Yesterday I finished reading for the second time Tom Holland's book 'Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic'. I wanted to find out why Julius Caesar (100 - 44 BC) crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC. The river Rubicon marked the boundary between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul to the north and Italy proper to the south.  Any Roman general was by law of the Roman Republic (509 - 44 BC) obliged to disband his army before crossing the Rubicon. Otherwise both he and his men were guilty of high treason and automatically condemned to death. This law was set to protect the Roman Republic from internal military threat. In 50 BC the Senate ordered Caesar to disband his army and return to Rome because his term as proconsul had finished. He did not disband his army. Instead he used the power of his succesful army to stay in power. In retrospect we know that he defeated Pompey the Great and became Rome's (perpetual) dictator. It was generally accepted that the dictatorship ("one who dictates") was limited to 6 months. Julius Ceasar used (some say 'abused') this office to stay in power year after year. Unprecedented!

The precise event which signalled the end of the Roman Republic and the transition into the Roman Empire is a matter of interpretation. Some say Sulla's (138 – 78 BC) route to power  paved the way for Julius Ceasar. Some say it's Julius Ceasar's crossing of the Rubicon or his appointment as perpetual dictator in 44 BC. Others point at the defeat of Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC or the grant of extraordinary powers to Augustus in 27 BC.

According to me Julius Ceasar holds the key by crossing the Rubicon. Sulla misused his army too for staying in power but  in the end he resigned for the office of dictator, retiring to private life. Julius Ceasar gave the deathblow to the Roman Republic by crossing the Rubicon, defeat his "enemies" and stay in power through the office as dictator for year after year and finally as perpetual dictator.

Why did Julius Caesar cross the Rubicon?  

Tom Holland's book does not give a direct answer to my question. In a bookreview Holland says "Caesar of course had the option and the moral duty as a citizen not to cross the river. But for the ambitious Roman who he was his own  honour (dignitas) weighed heavier than the ancestral tradition (dignitas maiorum)." 

Wikipedia's answer: "In 50 BC, the Senate, led by Pompey, ordered Caesar to disband his army and return to Rome because his term as Proconsul had finished.  Caesar thought he would be prosecuted and politically marginalised if he entered Rome without the immunity enjoyed by a Consul or without the power of his army."

Suetonius (69/75 – 130 AD) attributes the crossing to a supernatural ghost (source english and latin): "As he stood in doubt, this sign was given him. On a sudden there appeared hard by a being of wondrous stature and beauty, who sat and played upon a reed; and when not only the shepherds flocked to hear him, but many of the soldiers left their posts, and among them some of the trumpeters, the apparition snatched a trumpet from one of them, rushed to the river, and sounding the war-note with mighty blast, strode to the opposite bank."

To be honest I still don't know why Julius Ceasar crossed the Rubicon. I guess we will never really know. For me it feels like a mix of personal and group survival and being afraid of losing his personal honour. Above all I think he was an ape fighting for his personal survival and clinged to his power as general. It's vanity if you think about his whole project/ life in retrospect. Everything blown away with the wind of time. The kid of Julius & Cleopatra was murdered. He never became a grandpa.

Why is all this so important to me? What's my point? It's important because in all of us there is a part of  Julius Ceasar too. We as species 'Homo sapiens' are apes fighting for our own personal survival. Fighting for the survival of our family and the groups we live in. We all are citizens and we all are dictators. We all are Roman Republicans and at the same time Perpetual Dictators. We all are a mixture of vanity, honesty, dishonesty, cruelty, forgiveness, lust for power, need of affirmation, law abiding and law infidel. All of us are very able to kill and murder. And if you don't recognise all this is yourselves ... look better. Look!