Friends and their causes

Della is an animal lover and she does what she preaches. She is currently taking care of elephants in Thailand.

Elephant manifesto and other matters...

Wildlife Friends of Thailand is a safe haven for abused wild animals. In Thailand (but not only, to be fair), gibbons, macaques and others serve as photo props for tourists who are unaware that, by asking for or accepting that service, they are seriously stressing and endangering the animals. I will tell you about the primates in a future update but for now, please take a moment to read the following manifesto:

ELEPHANT MANIFESTO: SAY NO TO STREET-BEGGING ELEPHANTS!!!

By giving money to mahouts (elephant handlers) tourists are contributing to elephant abuse:

·         to perform, the elephant has to be 'broken' using the cruel Pahjaan process – the elephant is starved, burnt, stabbed and systematically tortured to make it obey humans.

·         elephant obedience is based on FEAR and PAIN. If commands are disobeyed, the elephant is beaten. If tricks to entertain tourists are not learnt, the elephant is beaten.

·         The elephant is often starved to keep it looking small and 'cute' for tourists, so it is hungry for tourists' food.

·         Making elephants perform on dirty, unhealthy streets is illegal to do and causes road traffic accidents. Tourists can now also be fined for supporting street-begging elephants.

DON'T SUPPORT ANIMAL ABUSE

DON'T PAY TO FEED A STREET ELEPHANT

The mahouts are NOT poor people (this is a myth)- they earn the Thai equivalent of a small fortune every night from exploiting elephants and tourists who are unaware of the cruelty involved. By feeding it, you are not helping the owner's elephant, just its owners bank balance.

A handful of elephants were lucky to be 'saved' by WFFT and will finish their life safe and secure from the cruelty of the mahouts. For obvious reasons, it is very difficult to get the mahouts to hand over their elephants. As a result, the one and only way to stop this abuse is to not support it. If there is no more demand, hopefully the abuse will stop.

Eight venerable poetesses

Lucienne Stassaert here performing 'Leben-Leven-Life' with friend and great improvising musician Jean Demey. She opened the evening which turned out to be very enjoyable. She got a bunch of flowers and a bottle of wine signed by all present as a memento of her 75th birthday. Not slowing down in her creativity, an example for all of us.

Hungarian born Adriana Kobor, the youngest of the bunch, closed the evening with some disquieting poetry. She leaves an impression of daring and honesty.

The eight poets reading that night: Vera Alexander Beerten; Patrica De Landtsheer; Adriana Kobor; Xinte Mässer; Annmarie Sauer; Lucienne Stassaert; Hilde Van Cauteren; Yerna Van Den Driesche. Intermission music on the piano Marc Clement.
organizer: Frank De Vos: the guy on the left side.

It is a bit hard to get eight poets coordinated, but the mildly wild bunch is seen here. The third and fourth of the left chose some slightly naughty poetry which lend a light air to the evening.

The public as always at that specific literary café was attentive and generous with applause.
For a sample of 'Leben-Leven-Life' click here

The making of TIJ (Tide)

First of all Tij is the second chapter of Sounds of Harbour (Hafenklänge, Havenklanken), a poem written by six authors: Wilfried Bienek, Job Degenaar, Peter Holvoet Hanssen - the male voice on the sound track -, Roger Nupie, Annmarie Sauer- the female voice- and Fred Schywek. It was the latter who conceived the plan for the poem, wrote the story board on how to proceed the mixing of poetry and sound and got permission of the German composer Frank Niehusmann to use his electronic music 'Fragrance'. ( Well, they had worked together before).
A young Audio man Gorik De Smet did the cutting and the fine tuning.

Here you see how sound looks on screen while fiddling with fading in and out and tiny issues of timing.

You can download it here.

Double rainbow

Yesterday this what what I saw from the window early in the morning. Two rainbows, well that is a sign of luck in my book...

I wish all of you good luck.

Colmar and Christmas atmosphere

 Colmar in Weinachtsmarkt festive mood and unseasonably cold. The pretty and quiet town sports the typical Alsatian Fachwerk Houses and with the Christmas lights on in town it is quaint and sweet.  Good food and even a bookfair.

 

The first snow prettified  and made it all look even more romantic.

The book fair showed useless mechanical objects. Quiet pretty. A whole section was dedicated to children, where they could actually do something. And at some stands the authors sat next to one another waiting for recognition.

A lot of cook books and the chefs were there all dressed up...
France will be France.

And yes, we had  e few nice meals with the local fare.

Albert

Albert was a friend. He taught me to look at things and see, analyze and then feel it it too. My daughter said: 'Thank you for choosing your friends well. It gave me a happy childhood also because of them.' Here you see one of his paintings... Always fascinating. An other friend and gentle soul gone, too soon. 

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.

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