Friends and family and those who are for freedom of expression.

Some friends and family try to keep 'posted' on my whereabouts and what I am up to. For the time being I am in the low countries where it has been raining old wives, cats and dogs and all the other expressions you can come up with. Parts of Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany are flooded. Meadows, forests,gardens are waterlogged. Saturated. Canals and streams overflow or break dams. And still at least one more day of rain has been predicted for Western Europe.
For the rest I have been following my passion:poetry and the translation thereof. Being a member of PEN's Writers in Prison committee,  we keep an empty chair for the colleagues who are in jail at all activities we organize. I must say that we live in interesting times. A writer we have defended Chinese Liu Xiaobo has received the Nobel prize for peace. The other great news is that Aung San Suu Kyi from Myanmar after 15 years of house arrest and imprisonment has been freed. Her first speech dealt with the most important right a person has and which according to her is Freedom of Speech. Both facts are good news, now another writer in prison should be freed. Monday evening from 7 to 8 PM, November 15, Bart Stouten will - on the classical radio Klara in Belgium - also deal with the subject of freedom of expression and speak about an story written by Uighur author Nurmuhemmet Yasin, Wild Pigeon. This short story was published in a literary magazine and let to the imprisonment of the author in 2004. May he and others opposing dictatorial regimes be free at last.

.

Saint Martin in Orsoy: Rabimmel rabammel rabumbumbum

When dark and stormy November shows the darkness of the days to come what better to do than have a parade with children carrying lighted lampoons and lanterns. Happy music and Saint Marin(a) in red coat on a horse will give you happy feelings even in pouring rain and a cold dark evening along the Rhine in Orsoy.  Of course you will be held warm also by a nice grog or Glühwein spiced up with some Cointreau. After the parade sweets are passed out to the local children or those young at heart. The Weckmann is it, some fruit and a selection of sweets and chocolate. Of Course kids make their own lanterns and the town is decorated. It is all about being together and sharing. A nice feeling.

At the end there is a fire to warm all the marchers and onlookers up and of course it is professionally doused by the local fire brigade.
So we warmed our hands and heart at the fire, thought about the good days children can still experience, we all smile notwithstanding rain and wind.

Tradition can be stifling but in this case tradition makes sense, brings joy and brings a community and families together.  And the next 11.11 at 11 minutes past 11 The fifth season begins.

All pictures by:

© sms:foto duisburg/rhein 2010

Ambassadors

Yesterday the team of 'De Ambassadeurs', (The Ambassadors), program on the classical Flemish radio station, had invited me for a conversation and classical music. This was a special kind of feedback that was a fallout of the three day Small Festival of European Art of Poetry in Antwerp September 16-18. You can read more about is here.

The team goes out of its way to make the guest feel comfortable. their goal is to make an interesting program with lots of good music which has been chosen to please the guest. The atmosphere is intimate, kind and professional. One of the questions was you seem to write seldom about music. Well once in a while I do.

Alle solisten heten Kim

(Tsjaikovsky Pianoconcerto 1- zesde laureaat Koningin Elizabeth wedstrijd 2010)

He taaie trekken
van slepende strijkers
en kaarsrechte
kracht voor 't klavier
de blik op oneindig
te vroeg gedaan
en dan de razernij
getemperd geoefend
voluit
en dan de stilte
als het haar neerkomt
na de donderdag

horen de vingers op de toetsen
de blazers & bazuinen
de pauken & geroffel
en de slag

This as a thank you.

Friends who who missed the program can listen at the De Ambassadeurs

Liu Xiaobo - WIPC - Flanders

 Liu Xiaobo Chinese defender of human rights, condemned to 11 years of imprisonment for exercising his right to free speech has received the Peace Nobel Prize. Here a picture of one of last years actions in support of imprisoned writers. See the empty chair of Liu Xiaobo and then Pen Flanders President Geert Van Istendaal.
sms:foto duisburg/rhein 2009

In The Small Festival of European Art of Poetry five members of a Writers in Prison Committee were involved (16-18 of September in Antwerp). There was an empty chair on stage for Chinese author Zheng Yichun and all writers in prison because of writing what they felt they must. Link to Pen.

Here you see Job Degenaar President if WIPC Netherlands preparing for the finale of the Festival with the chair and poster in the backgroud.

©: Bram Goots

 

Nuclear energy, no thanks

In several countries in Europe, among others Germany and Belgium they are breaking the promise that nuclear plants would be closed. In Germany 'Bibis' 30 years old and the oldest plant in the country will be open for another 8 years. A new report surfaced that there are 80 issues with the plant and About them about seventy are security issues. The protest in Germany is strong. The current government is a right wing disrespecting the poor in their own country and uncaring towards their young citizens. This nuclear plant and its fumes I can see from my apartment.
My contribution is a poem:
The long now

the long now
10.000 years
who can then
read this
understand
the symbol

who knows then
looking
for the cause
of double timing halftime
short selling
of what how log
then still
has to come
now
10.000
years from now
the late burden
of moot mushrooms
and fantasies of fission

we all live
in the halftime
of the long
now -

Nuclear energy no thanks

Book burning and censorship

Appalled at what is happening in my country, I want to reiterate that freedom of expression is absolute especially when we don't agree with what is being said

Here follows the letter of PEN President John Ralston Saul:
In response to the threatened burning of copies of the Koran in the United States on September 11, 2010, the president of International PEN, John Ralston Saul, has issued the following statement:

There is only one religion of book burning. Whatever the book—a text from any religion, a novel, a philosophical treatise, a poem—those who cast it into the flames stand arm-in-arm with Goebbels on a square in Berlin worshipping at the altar of hatred. Such hatred can always invoke as justification some earlier offence, real or imagined. The specific acts of individuals are then distended into a revengeful condemnation of whole cultures or religions or peoples.

PEN stands for unlimited freedom of expression. But we also believe in restraint, not as self-censorship but as the expression of that true complexity of human relationships which great literature invokes. We pledge to do our utmost to "dispel race, class and national hatreds." And the burning of books is a profoundly contemptuous display of hatred.

We believe that the destiny of literature is to bring people together. The broad condemnation by Americans and people around the world of the threat to burn religious books is a reminder that the role of freedom of expression is not to divide, but to unite people.

November 20 - Women against Nato

> Dear friends,
You know that Muddy roads cares about peace and non violence. hence this message from the Women in Black, Women against Nato and writers for peace:
>
> We would like to tell you about a women's anti-NATO action some of us
> are planning in Central London on November 20, to mark the NATO
> Summit which takes place in Lisbon that weekend.
>
> Four of our women's networks are involved - Women in Black, Women's
> International League for Peace and Freedom, Aldermaston Women's Peace
> Camp and women of Trident Ploughshares.
>
> We are gathering an affinity group of 25 women for this activity.
>
> We shall be wearing specially prepared T-shirts. Eleven women, each
> with a large letter stencilled on the fabric, will, side by side,
> together display the message SAY NO TO NATO. Women in plain T-shirts
> will fill the space between the three words. Thus, fourteen women in
> total will constitute this 'living message'.
>
> The T-shirts will be pale mauve (traditional women's colour) and the
> letters stencilled very boldly in black. Letters will also be printed
> on the reverse, but different ones, so that, whether seen from front
> or back, the message will read from left to right. The 'O' in NO will
> be a women's sign.
>
> We shall progress around London from site to site, stripping off our
> overcoats here and there, linking arms and displaying our message for
> some minutes, wherever we can achieve the most dramatic visual
> effect...on steps, on bridges, across roads on pedestrian crossings,
> lying on the ground etc. etc.
>
> Some women of the affinity group will distribute to the public
> informative leaflets about NATO developments and the feminist case
> against NATO. The leaflet will carry the names of our four
> organizations, and will make demands on the British government.
>
> Other women of the group will look after coats and bags. We shall
> have a steward, and a legal observer, and women concerned with
> photography, video and media contacts.
>
> These supporting women will wear T-shirts in the same colour, but
> stencilled with a women's anti-NATO logo. (I can send this when it
> is designed, if you are interested.)
>
> We would very much like to know whether you are planning women's
> actions in your cities and localities to mark the NATO summit - and
> if so, what you plan to do.
>
> If any of you would think of doing a similar T-Shirt Action, it would
> be a great joy to us to know we are joined with you in a simultaneous
> and co-ordinated event!
>
> We have prepared a 'Background Note' about developments in NATO and
> women's case against it, as a resource in planning our Nov 20 action.
> It can be seen on the website of Women and Life on Earth. You will
> find a link on the home page at . The paper is titled
> "Making NATO visible to women; making women's opposition visible to NATO".
>
> Let's share ideas!
>
> Best wishes, Cynthia
> Women in Black London.
>
> _____________________________________