check out Wacondah.com's Wishlist for 2003
yep: consumerism is our way of life...

To be a spiritual warrior means to develop a special kind of courage, one that is innately intelligent, gentle, and fearless. Spiritual warriors can still be frightened, but even so they are courageous enough to taste suffering, to relate clearly to their fundamental fear, and to draw out without evasion the lessons from difficulties.

Don’t we know, only too well, that protection from pain doesn’t work, and that when we try to defend ourselves from suffering, we only suffer more and don’t learn what we can from the experience? As Rilke wrote, the protected heart that is “never exposed to loss, innocent and secure, cannot know tenderness; only the won-back heart can ever be satisfied: free, through all it has given up, to rejoice in its mastery. free to love at last...”

The obsession of contemporary society with beauty ideals:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/style/2002/08/19/facelift/index2.html
in this article a 52-year old self-proclaimed "hippie chick" (because she protested against cafetarias not serving vegetarian food in the sixties...) retells the story of her "facelift" internal debate and the impact it has on her life.... Particularly interesting is the way she talks about the "trophy wives of oil company executives"....

For more information, consider: http://www.surgery.org/ to check out some "real", or at least "endorsed by the association of american plastic surgeons" examples of before and after...

For more typical Western paranoia, check out the special feature in the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/bigbrother/privacy/

It sure is a crazy world out there...
Thank you Prince & NPG, for your first live triple album, that you sent out yesterday, recalling the "One Nite Alone with..." tour 2002, we were there in D.C. on the 31st of March, so you can hear us scream on the first track.... (we were also in Antwerp and Paris... génial...)

Site of the week:
One Word: write in 60 seconds about 1 word...

Citations de Bernard Kouchner, fondateur de Médecins sans Frontières et Médecins du Monde, Prix Nobel de la Paix 2001

" les gens des ONG détestent qu'on leur pique leurs pauvres et leurs malades..."
"Au Kosovo, il y avait 547 agences humanitaires qui avaient une charactéristique en commun: ils se détestaient tous mutuellement. parmi ces 547, il y en avait peut-être une petite vingtaine qui travaillait vraiment, le reste ils ne faisaient que du tourisme humanitaire
" il y a beaucoup trop de tourisme humanitaire, je dirai même, il n'y a QUE du tourisme humanitaire..."
" il faut être naïf, toujours, et avoir les yeux plus grands que l'âme, le ventre et le coeur"
" on ne fournit pas d'idéal aux jeunes, c'est pour cela qu'ils se droguent"
" le grand problème du développement, c'est qu'il n'y a pas assez de fric. Premièrement, les gouvernements ne se tiennent pas aux engagements de dépenser 0,70% du PIB à l'aide au développement. Deuxièment, et plus important encore, pour vraiment solutionner les problèmes dans le tiers monde, il faut accroître exponentiellement les fonds qu'on met à leur disposition. Or ceci implique impérativement une hausse des impôts, et ça les égoïstes que nous sommes tous, nous le refusons catégoriquement... Personne ne veut dépenser plus, mais on aimerait bien voir que notre voisin le fasse..."
" Chaque combat se fait au dépens de soi-même, or il faut poursuivre le progrès, et donc il faut se battre contre les idées reçues. Dans la majorité des cas, on se casse la figure, et ce n'est que rarement qu'on obtienne de maigres succès. Or... il faut se casser la figure, et encore et encore..."
" il est illusoire de penser qu'on atteigne les objectifs du millénaire (l'eau pour tous d'ici 2015: 1,1 milliards de personnes...) sans le nucléaire. Les gens qui pensent que l'on va résoudre tout avec des éoliennes, sont des menteurs... Il faut de l'énergie pour tous rapidement, et le nucléaire est la moins polluante de ces activités.
" Il faut oser parler démographie, et regarder la réalité en face: les gens vont crever en Chine, en Inde et en Afrique, de faim, de soif et du Sida... et on ne fait RIEN, depuis 20 ans on ne fait strictement RIEN pour aider ces gens... toutes les aides au développement des pays pauvres reviennent par le biais des sociétés de coopération et par le biais des exportations de produits payés trop bon marché, dans le Nord"
" Les pauvres doivent s'entre-aider et arrêter de se faire exploiter par les riches..."
"Le problème des pauvres, c'est qu'ils se volent entre eux... et c'est pour ça que les riches viennent leur exploiter..."

Les 3 mots clé de la communication:
sélectionner - > simplifier -> exagérer....

Matrix Reloaded release date 15th of May 2003

"Rien n'entrave la marche vengeresse des idées reçues..."

Reading:
¤ Houellebecq, "Extension du domaine de la lutte"
¤ Fiennes, "The White Geese"
¤ Elroy, "The Cold Six Thousand"
¤ P.Coelho: "L'alchimiste"

Listening to:
* Prince: The Rainbow Children
* U2: Best of 1990-2000

Last concerts:
* Prince: One nite alone with... (Antwerp & Paris) - thnx Q!, love E! (Last December)

Last movies:
* Caro Diario & La stanza del figlio (N.Moretti)
* Signs (M.Night Shamalyan)
* Bowling for Columbine (M.Moore)
* The Thomas Crown Affair
* Play Time (J.Tati @ Flagey!)

Quote of the month, to stay in a familiar sector:
"Il ne faut pas vouloir le beurre ET l'argent du beurre"

Matrix character test: are you the one?

Observation: Paris does something with your shopping instincts... It's crazy to observe all these frantic people running around, hunting for the latest bargain, victims of the consu-man society.
Then, you smile, and straighten up, walk in the sun and enjoy a few raindrops. Life is great...
Because you know....that I know you know....


"Ge moet uwen hemel op aarde pakken. Als er gene meer komt, hebt ge hem al gehad, zoniet, dan hebt ge d'er van 2 genoten..." (PVDR)
Wise wise words indeed...
"Si l'on n'a pas le droit, on prend celui d'à gauche"
De Franse taal leent zich ook tot leuke onverwachte woordspelingen


reading: the Matrix and Philosophy
listening to: the echoes of the Prince concert in A'pen, great company, great music, lousy lousy crowds...(you should check out the slowest McDonald's in the world at the exit of Merksem...
last movies: PlayTime (J.Tati: truly fantastic....) in Flagey, Caro Diario, La Stanza del Figlio
site of the week: Abbie Hoffman, Yippie underground culture...
latest campaign: Larvenvreter: more developments are coming... SOON

Méthode A. Frère = un dosage de patience, de courtoisie, de convivialité,
de méticulosité et de rigueur dans l'exécution des opérations -

Every day in France: 21 deaths & >420 injured in traffic related accidents. Think about THAT for a second and FASTEN your seatbelt

Nissan Pick-up advertisement: a wolf in wolf's clothing...

site of the week
http://www.oneliners-and-proverbs.com

Canadian Sayings:!!!

Does a bear shit in the woods?

"He looks like he's been shot at and missed, then shit at and hit..."
"Saskatchewan is so flat, you can see your dog run away from home for 3 days"

- Comment reconnaît-on le mari lors d'un mariage à Charleroi?
- C'est celui qui a le plus beau training

Quotation marks for the week...

Where there's a will, I want to be in it.

Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.

Make it idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot.

Work is for people who don't know how to fish.

Forget about World Peace...Visualize using your turn signal.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development: no strong outcome?
the least we can say is that some concerns have been raised and challenges put forth!
A declaration by some Nobel Prize Winners and mayors of big cities:
a call for serious action

After 2 weeks South Africa, back in France, where september is calling for automn, and the media is preparing for a big 11/9 commemoration.
Read a great analysis of the double-tongued speak of the American Administration : able to forge a coalition to chase the Taliban in 1 month, now preparing to drive off the Iraqi’s and « protect » the world’s oil resources, and yet so absent of the World Summit on Sustainable development…
We, as normal citizens of the world, should just sit still and applaud this total disrespect for our institutions and international law and order ?
Why didn't Bush come to Johannesburg to face the reality on 5 pressing issues: water, energy, health, agriculture an biodiversity? Beecause he was going to be the target for all the activists? Fear? The most powerful man of the world does not want to face the 191 heads of State and Government, his peers?

Before we get to cynical, let us remember that 11/9 was a terrible day, may it never happen again, let the decision makers wisen up to prevent this from happening again. Let’s just not remember the course of actions that created the enabling circumstances for this horrible event.

May the wise lead with wisdom, and may we all have the wisdom to look through the smokescreens, and the fake reality that’s sometimes being pulled over our eyes.

The reality – for today alone - is that another 20.000 persons are going to die from the lack of water and sanitation and food. Half of them are children and never heard about NY…
Johannesburg was a step on the road, it's up to every one of our Governments to implement the decisions made there and in Rio...

Back in the old continent:

posting an old report here:

de stad/ the most dangerous place on earth... you do not walk in this city/ not even for 10 meters

mixed feelings zijn voelbaar hier, nog veel verborgen en ook open woede (verklaart de hoge criminaliteit), maar toch fantastisch om te zien dat na 8 jaar apartheid dit land veel potentieel heeft...
onze blanke collega's hebben angst, schrik om in dit systeem te blijven werken, maar sommigen zijn hoopvoller gestemd... ze zijn met weinig, die sommigen, maar het is een uitdaging om in deze omstandigheden te wonen en te werken.
voor ons zijn die omstandigheden nog moeilijker, omdat we met een hoofd vol ideeen afkomen... die niet per se op de realiteit ge-ent zijn. jullie kunnen jullie niet voorstellen hoe johannesburg er nu bijligt, een puinhoop vol veiligheidstroepen, en daartussen 60000 delegates die verloren lopen....

MBEki had het daarjuist over: to fight global apartheid, nogal sterke termen, die duidelijk maken hoe de situatie er voor staat, en voor je het weet krijg je Zimbabwe toestanden....

een paar quotes:

'the african continent is now taking back what the white people abused off for so long'
'the hunger crisis in zimbabwe is the sole responsibility of Mugabe, because he ordered the white farmers to stop farming 2 years ago: the result: no more crops are being produced...'
'in 5 years from SA will be a dictatorship...'
'this country has great potential...'

no comment, en no judgement: we kunnen niet zo maar met authoriteit spreken over wat hier allemaal gebeurd....

wat betreft de VN top; c'est une veritable RUCHE, een bijen - of liever - wespen nest...

wat betreft onze aanwezigheid hier: in RIO kreeg de prive sector de commentaar dat ze er niet waren, in Jo'Burg zouden ze te sterk aanwezig zijn... any which way you turn it... maar het weze duidelijk dat het nu maar eens gedaan moet zijn met ideologische idiote discussies, de rol van de prive sector in duurzame ontwikkeling is hier bevestigd door zowel Kofi, als de rest van de VN instellingen, als door civil society en de gematigde NGO. wij zijn hier om mee te werken aan een constructief proces, waar oplossingen getoond worden, en die oplossingen zijn er, zowel van de prive, als de NGO, als van de wereldbank of grass roots movements.
iedereen verwacht te veel van deze top en vergeet dat dit een stap is in een lang lang en lang proces. van politic hoef je niet te verwachten dat ze op 3 dagen een magische oplossing naar boven toveren, en daarvoor moeten ze in feite niet naar hier komen. de bedoeling van deze top, die lichtjes in de schaduw staat is eigenlijk dat staatshoofden hier zouden komen tonen wat ze sinds rio gedaan hebben en welke budgetten en acties ze concreet te werk gaan stellen in de komende jaren. iedereen is in feite akkoord over de urgentie van de zaak, nu moeten er concrete engagementen komen. en dat ze nu maar eens stoppen dat het altijd de fout van de prive sector is, die hier overigens overtuigende bewijzen levert dat er wel degelijk duurzame oplossingen bestaan (SUEZ connecteerde de laatste 5 jaar 7 miljoen mensen die onder de armoede grens lleen aan water...., op een duurzame manier, niet gratis, maar duurzaam en volgens de prijs die contractueel door HUN overheid zerd vastgelegd)....er zijn nu eenmaal mensen die tegen de vooruitgang zijn, zij zullen de wererldwijde dorst en honger problematiek niet oplossen met. het is aan de OVERHEDEN om hun verantwoordelijkheid te nemen, en Mugab-isten helpen geen zier aan duurzame ontwikkeling.

eerlijk gezegd vraag ik me af waarom de belgen hier met een officiele delegatie van meer dan 75 man zijn..., van de commitment om X aantal percent (0;3 percent.. please) van het staatsbudget aan ontwikkeling te besteden, is nog niks in huis gekomen, we zouden ons moeten schamen, want die engagementen zijn al meer dan 25 jaar geleden genomen. Ik zat in een restaurant waar Vera Dua en haar Waalse collega 'jolly old networks' qqn het entertainen waren...

daarom is het goed dat alle stakeholders hier vorige week zo gediscuteerd hebben; grote vooruitgang: de stellingname dat in de millenium declaration van de VN er een objectief voor 'sanitation' zordt opgenomen: een goal om die uitzonderlijke gevaarlijke situatie aan te pakken, 3 ;miljard mensen zonder toilet....
En SUEZ, samen met de hele business community heeft daarin een belangrijke rol gespeeld... nu is het aan de politiek.., die samen met alle partners moet werken...

de hard-liner anti-alles-ers, die overigens slechts maar met een kleine 1500 man zijn, zijn slecht georganiseerd, zitten op de NASREC site, en proberen zich met geweld toegang te verschaffen, terwijl de mensen die echt willen praten er enkel maar geirriteerd door worden. de tijd van de oppositie is voorbij, er wordt gepraat tussen civil society en business (die trouwens heel duurzaam geworden is sinds rio), tussen vrouwen en alle andere 9 major groups (indigenous, farmers, scientists, youth...) , en diegenen die dat proces verzwakken door slaan en schoppen zouden moeten ter verantwoording worden geroepen....zij hinderen dat er echte beslissingen worden genomen en leiden de aandacht onnoodzakelijk af van de essentie: het gaat hier niet meer over wie of wat de dienst verleent, maar DAT er iets gebeurd... met alle mogelijke middelen in concertatie met iedereen
gisteren zaten er 4 ministers, 2 van Jordanie, 2 van Israel collegiaal naast elkaar aan tafel en sloten ze een akkoord... het IS mogelijk...

wat jullie in de pers te horen krijgen is gefilterd door vermoeide, slech geinformeerde, luie journalisten, die gedesinformeerd worden. je moet er voorzichtig mee omspringen, de realiteit hier is veel complexer dan wat ik of zij in een paar regels op papier of scherm krijgen,

kortom: met veel a priori's vertrokken, angstig voor de criminaliteit, en na een week als een vis in het water (ik run hier o.q.q een taxi business voor onze delegatie), en aangenaam verrast door de positieve vibes die er ondanks de bakken kritiek (en de BAR SLECHTE ORGANISATIE) toch zijn. het is een overweldigende gebeurtenis, een fantastische persoonlijke ervaring, die jullie allemaal eens zouden moeten meemaken.
veel te weinig slaap, en een hele roedel opperhoofden die ons achter de vodden zitten, gisteren was onze CEO hier (dus je kan je voorstellen wat voor een hectische heksenketel het was).
net voorbij halfweg, doodop en een paar zakken van wallen onder de ogen (gemiddelde nacht hier is 3 tot 4 uur, als ze je niet opbellen 's nacht om een of ander probleem op te lossen, zoals verloren gelopen directeurs, die meegesleurd werden door kwaadgezinde taxichauffeurs).
la gestion.... des EGO's et des CEO's
l'intelligence de la situation...
en open-minded observeren en vooral... participeren
en af en toe goed verschieten als er weer een troep ZULU's op trommels begint te kloppen...
no matter what the outcome... een ongelooflijke fantastische gebeurtenis

baai veel groeten vanuit het zuiden, waar de carpaccio van springbok heerlijk smaakt met een kaaps wijntje, die sonne scijnt hier en er wordt hier ondanks de stress en de vermoeidheid fantastisch gelachen

reporting from South Africa/

welcome to WSSD where the streets are cleared every night and where the UN is picking up momentum...
Exciting times for the more than 60.000 delegates from all over the world/
most interesting stand of the day/
the inuit people/
www.itk.ca

reporting live from a busy beehive...

"You don't choose your destiny,
it chooses you..."
Minority report

reporting from Sweden: climate change appears to quite a tricky issue: there is no clear set of data that enables to predict or assess the present niño-niña panic...
you never know if or when the GULF Stream decides to move south...and then we all end up as refugees in North Africa...

more info: www.siwi.org

"The usual rejoinder to someone who says "They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Galileo" is to say "But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."
-- Carl Sagan

and a list of skeptical quotations: www.skepp.be

some of them are quite funny
Blessed are those that run around in circles for they shall be known as wheels. --

friday five

1. lineage: thoroughbred brabant draft horses? no: root directory in East Flanders, combined with very fine brabantian genetic influences (toss in some Limburgian and WestFlandrian influences). And not to forget the whole range of invading populaces (Romans, Franks & Celts, Huns, Spaniards, Dutchmen, Frenchmen, Vikings, Germans, Austrians, Burgundians, etcetera²)
2 & 3. who's talking countries in n°1? this is the Europe of the Regions... most unlikely to go to... well, we used to say the lowest priority continent was Africa, and in fact, first trip this year was there, as is the next trip (dep. 24th of august). So, you never know....
4. we feast the whole time during the year (burgundy influence), yet officially we have the 11th and 21st of july
5. the first ancestors to move to present country? well, statistically you could trace back everybody in Europe to Charlemagne or Julius Caesar. Let's just say: undisclosed mystery wrapped up in the storms of time

"La vie donne toujours une deuxième chance"

Welcoming Jan & Suzanne, 2 marvellous creatures that travel endless circles!

SIMULACRA: a work by Baudrillard or here

reference to Neuromancer by William Gibson, mix it into cleancut kungfu style fighting and an ominous soundtrack, put in some cool names such as Thomas Anders-son and Morpheus or Trinity, and get some young inexperienced yet determined directors to film the epic of their lives... and you have (or don't) the Matrix...

reading: Alain Finkielkraut: "L'imparfait du présent" - a journal for 2001...

"Aucun petit caillou dans la chaussure n'entrave la marche vengeresse des idées reçues..."
"Etre poli, ce n'est pas faire valoir ses titres, c'est se reconnaître obligé. Ce n'est pas s'affirmer, c'est s'amoindrire.Ce n'est pas se poser, c'est s'incliner." (AF, p.54)

AF se bat contre cette société de consumérisme, d'autonomie absolue de l'individu qui finit par se désintéresser pour tout. Il s'oppose à l'autocensure de la presse, à la "fuite en avant" du "bien penser" (politically correct speaking) qui empêche radicalement toute idée capable de renverser l'ordre préétabli par les lois "vertueux" des marchés et les "dictats" de l'ordre politico-socio-moral international; fruit de la marchandisation de la vie et de la créativité humaine, voire de l'âme de l'Homme.

Ignorance is bliss...Knowledge is power. Be creative or disappear.

friday five:

1. weblog presence: since april 4th 2001.
2. first post: initially supposed to adress launching of new site, postponed it, then tested it, and first real blogging in september: reference to sept.11th
3. off site first @ nautilus.blogspot.com, then integrated into new domain in september. Name changed from NiC to Wacondah.com
4. no CMS, except randomized mental categories:
5. rather read weblogs than online journals

0,06 on the PALERMO scale: that's pretty close to MAYAN certainty, is it not?

Whoah, since you only have left 'till the 1st of February 2019, check out the world's coolest places to live...
Belgium ranks on n°4... Can you believe it? Who would have thought that the country that's usually one of the first to be invaded (WWI & WWI) or blown up by aliens (check Independance Day, ID4, the movie...), presents such a great vantage point to the beautiful spectacle of mankind ruining this planet....Here's the threat list...

note: the Maya calendar in fact ends in 2012

The end is near... Or why the Mayan calendar stops in 2019...

Just absolutely f*cking great... this flash traffic is just in: ... believe it or not, all the best scientists in the world can NOT determine whether a 2K-large rock will impact the earth or not in 2019... Why have we wasted so much monney in deep space astronomy, if we can't simply calculate the trajectory of a simple piece of rock? And what about all the armements races.... The rock was discovered on july the 4th... independance day... So get out there, enjoy life, you've got 17 years left and counting...

-> BBC.CO.UK - article

-> Asteroïde raakt mogelijk Aarde in 2019

LONDEN -- Astronomen hebben enkele weken geleden een asteroïde ontdekt, die in 2019 de Aarde wel eens zou kunnen raken. De enorme steenklomp is volgens wetenschappers momenteel het meest bedreigende object in de ruimte. Dat meldde de Britse zender BBC vandaag.


Volgens berekeningen zou de asteroïde 2002 NT7 op 1 februari 2019 met de Aarde kunnen botsen. Maar er bestaan nog veel onzekerheden over deze voorspelling. Het brokstuk is ongeveer twee kilometer groot, genoeg om een heel werelddeel mee te verwoesten. Ook zou de inslag voor wereldwijde klimaatveranderingen kunnen zorgen.

Onderzoekers in de Amerikaanse staat New Mexico signaleerden het hemellichaam voor het eerst op 5 juli. Sindsdien houden astronomen uit de hele wereld de asteroïde nauwlettend in de gaten, iets wat wordt vergemakkelijkt door het feit dat ze de komende achttien maanden gemakkelijk observeerbaar is.

Volgens de Nasa zou nader onderzoek kunnen uitwijzen dat 2002 NT7 de Aarde toch niet zal raken. Er is immers nog te weinig over het hemellichaam geweten.

NT7 daait in 837 dagen rondom de Zon. Indien de steenklomp met de Aarde zou bosten, zou dat met een snelheid van 28 km per seconde zijn.

it's HEAT time again, one of the best movies ever to hit the screens..., along with the Matrix...

"I keep my angst here, I preserve it because I need it. It keeps me sharp, on the edge, where I gotta be." (Vincent Hanna aka A. Pacino)

to start off the week: some interesting links, after all this is a weblog

2nd law of Thermodynamics (ever increasing entropy) has been broken:
read the article

An introduction to Buddhism
and some interesting teachings forwarded by a friend

The Internet MARK II: THE GRID

Considering the amount of desinformation that's poisoning are level-headed minds, read the 17 techniques of Truth Suppression: the truth shall set you free. Knowledge indeed is power

And for some fun, look up the geographical situation of your family...Absolutely ridiculous...

Friday Five!

1. Brussels, B
2. Since commuting between Bxl and some major other city to the south that's connected by one of the most interesting railway tracks, don't feel like moving either place permanently right now. For the time being, both place present serious advantages. In the long run, will obviously move back there.
3. Safest? home is where the heart belongs, that's were we feel safest (practically, that could be anywhere, - for safety some basic services need to be available: water, food, oxygen, shelter and ... the heart. Otherwise, atomic shelters, underwater in nuclear submarines, in a sensory depriviation tank balanced in a salt-like solution.
4. Do you feel well-travelled? Well, sort of, in the limits of a certain geography, and then again: time-space continuum as we experience it inhibits us from going places. Just in case travelling without moving counts also: the power of the mind enables fantastic voyages...
5. Most interesting place... Jago's lookout (BE), Montania (PY), Chiloé Island (CH), Alhambra Granada, CORRUBEDO Faro, Valluga (AU)

Defaced web sites inventory: in case you need to see who's been hackked... http://defaced.alldas.org/ (Copy 'n' paste into navbar, since the administrators demand that we don't link)

the new PACINO movie: http://www.s1m0ne.com, starring a digital superstar...

http://entropy8zuper.org/; one of the great, the few, the proud, ...

The World Will go NUCLEAR

B. Richter (Nobel laureate in physics, director emeritus of Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, member of the US Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee) about climate instability : "If people don't change their fossil-fuel-burning ways in a big way and soon, surface temperatures around the globe will rise by 3.5 to 6 degrees Celsius by 2100. (...) We must act soon and nuclear power is the only carbon-free power ready for large-scale deployment now". (WSJ-Europe – 19/21.07.02)

reading: Noreena HERTZ: The Silent Takeover & La Bruyère: Les Caractères
listening to: David Bowie: Heathen ->track 11...
viewing options: The Ice Age vs L'Auberge Espagnole vs Minority Report vs The Bourne Identity vs Spiderman (definitely NOT)
state of the world: the usual incomprehensible mix of seamingly non-connected atrocities: state of siege declared in Paraguay, assassination attempt on J.Chirac (cf. The Eagle has landed), masacres in India & Pakistan, a catfight between Morocco and Spain over a few ha of deserted island, drought, famine, and holiday traffic jams.

quote of the year:
"if you can't beat 'em - arrange to have 'em beaten"

1. destabilisation & dollar/euro parity: a randomized reflection
For the first time in years, the weak dollar has reached euro-parity, reached... well plummeted through the artificial ceiling. Looking at a distance to the spectacle of the markets, and the larger-spreading panic reaction of the stocks, you wonder if the real goal of september 11th was reached: destabilisation of the so called western democracies. Is it too much to consider the reopening of the trading floors in september and the heroic efforts "not to let the terrorists win".
Worldwide confidence is at an all-time low. Seemingly random events appear to be connected, and the horrendous truth is lurking around the corner and no soul dares to speak it... Corportations worldwide profit from the 9/11 aftermath to clean out the dead bodies that they have been accumulating. Enronitis, Worldcomitis, ...
2. het witte kinderbos verdwijnt!!!
they are going to cut down all the trees planted in memory of the missing children: what can of politicians have we elected? sad but true, some of the heroes of the dutroux era are now cutting down a forest to connect the railway systems... miserable decision, for the commemorative trees... It's like the old URBANUS adagio all over again: in Belgium when we have a forest, we construct a highway trhough it, that way, we create 2 forests...
3. resistance is futile: ontological shock
http://www.playskins.com/ is just one of the applications developped to counter mass male_dominated computergame culture...
read the article (in Dutch)

Getting Mom on the Internet, a hilarious account of what a lot of people are going through...
Crossing the digital divide. The language is different, the peripherals have abstract names ("MOUSE!"). People just have a lot of trouble mastering this whole new range of techniques, technologies and content. And most of all, it's bloody scary! All these crazy messages, windows and warnings... Everything that possibly can go wrong, will go wrong. Or better: it will go wrong, even it is supposed not to...
A big "HOW HOW" for those that muster the courage to tackle these issues.


Note to self:
"Blogging" is not the same as keeping an online diary, it's more or less the work of an abstract online persona/identity that guides visitors through the world wide wait (WWW) and Jungle...

Bon, on a la pêche quoi. Thnk Gd ts Frd Friday Five is not up yet, maybe later, maybe not.
And if you're too stressed and scared, check out Zen Stories to tell your Neighboors

Just in... Some transcript from some presidential adress...Demagogy for the masses...

President Bush Admits He Saw the FIRST Plane Hit the World Trade Center ... Statement Raises Many Questions

THE PRESIDENT:
I was in Florida. And my Chief of Staff, Andy Card -- actually, I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident. . . . But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it. And I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my Chief of Staff, who is sitting over here, walked in and said, "A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack."

[Hagerty comment: Since there was no news broadcast of the first plane hitting the Trade Center, what private channel was Bush watching ... and why was he watching a picture of the Twin Towers on television if he didn't know something was about to happen? ... The link is to the White House website .... better check it before they make this item disappear.
posted by Hagerty 7:07 PM



No comment...
But if you do check out the page read one of the last paragraphs by Mr. Bush, answering a young kid's remarks:
"it all starts with a great wife, you know..." (applause)

Miscellanious stuff

A big breakthrough by Belgian Doctors: memory storage and allocation in the brain: the last mystery resolved?

The site that belongs to the book: MichaelMoore.com

Feest van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap vandaag: haal uw vendels maar boven... of uw Goedendag...

When is the last time you saw a real pig, a real cow?
Emergency on planet earth. The latest "Living Planet Report" by the WWF... Read this and think about it, then think again. YOU can make a difference! Start today, not tomorrow...

*** Notice to our visitors ***
We regret to inform you that the proposed deadline for the update of wacondah.com has been crossed. Due to a collusion of unforeseable circumstances, we were unable to develop the necessary time-space continuum that would have enabled us to post our new version. We do apologize.
However, we are seriously reconsidering the scope and aim and range and intent of this site. If you do have any suggestions, please contact us
One of our new chapters will be called "la ciénaga - the swamp". Paul R. and his whooping adventures will be back in force, "Travelling without moving" will continue and the usual, crazy and enhanced linking system will bring joy to the world.
On a more metaphysical level, Wacondah.com will continue to bring you the Frogg's view of the world...
After all, right now, you're in the getting entertained by us business...

Oh and by the by: the Second Matrix film is set to be released May 15th 2003, that's one day earlier...
"I know you're out there, I can feel you now ...
I'm gonna show a world without you, without borders or boundaries...
A world where anything is possible"
We are looking forward to see Hugo Weaving morph into characters again. Dodge this!

listening to: Nusrath Fateh Ali Kahn & Michael Brook: Remixed (realword!)
reading:
Alain de Botton: The Art of Travel (writer of these great books: "The Consolations of Philosphy", "On Love" and "How Proust can change your life"
Conversations with Umberto Eco, on the subject of "time"
viewing: Mulholland Drive (David Lynch)
bar of the Month: "Belga" at Flagey, Brussels
last vista-visita: Herentals: where the living is easy, the woods green & the people real friendly
last concert: Wawadadakwa
last piece of action: "SS" by Josse de Pauw, our allready legendary actor-playwright
idiot of the week: the guy that got caught this morning, descending from the Thalys from A'dam, dressed in unwashed army fatigues. We don't understand why these low-life drug runners don't travel in Frist Class, dressed up in clean and cheap C&A suits. They would be able to make a sh*tload more monney

Webstek van de VIW:: Vlamingen in de Wereld

it's that the day of the week again....

Friday Five

1. Where are you right now? in reality: sitting @ desk in office between Opéra and Madeleine (Paris/France/Earth/Solar System/...), virtually: arriving at Bxl's South station, on time, the moment right before you meet the One.
2. What have you lost recently? myself, in some labyrinthic area of Paris,
3. What was the first CD you ever purchased? Does that embarass you? Aerosmith "Toys in the Attic" - still a fine record, and kept in pristine shape, no embarassment whatsoever.
4. What is your favourite kind of writing pen? MontBlanc ballistic of course, but more generally any kind that comes with the real stuff, with real ink that smothers your hands when you attempt to fill it. Otherwise, anything available that "writes".
5. Favourite ice cream flavour? Wittamer's framboise with a "coulis" of fresh red fruits

Nice site in case you need it. learn morse...

A l'agenda:

WSSD: Rio +10 World Summit on Sustainable Development, Aug/Sept 2002 - Johannesbourg - South Africa

Défini en 1987 dans le rapport Bruntland,
le développement durable a pour objectif de
"satisfaire les besoins actuels sans compromettre l'aptitude des générations futures à satisfaire leurs propres besoins".

3WWF: 3rdWorld Water Forum: Osaka, Kyoto & Shiga, Japan: 16 - 23 march 2003

"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience
Knowing grass, I understand the meaning of persistence"

Hug a tree once in a while, ... you'll feel recharged with energy

Nieuw Stamcafé te Brussel

Found THE bar last Saturday::
Café Belga @ FLAGEY...

fashionable and popular at the same time, they serve their drinks over the largest "zinc" (counter) in the world. Brandnew, opened barely 10 days ago, and without publicity, 2000 people flocked together...
Flagey Bar is on a corner of the Flagey building, next to the "étangs d'Ixelles". The neighbourhood looks a bit run-down, but sooner or later it'll be incredibly fashionable, à la place St Géry. The same designer as Mapamundo, Roi des Belges & Bonsoir Clara, took care of the interior, quite retro, but respectful of the architectural heritage. Sooner or later we'll have our own "costes" tradition in Brussels

Flagey will be opening the last week of September. Be there...

News of the Day in France:
a corporate raider falls in disgrace, and is ousted by the north-american shareholders (Bronfman family), backed by Mr. Bébéar, éminence grise of the french bizniz establishment.

News of the Day in Belgium:
upbeat Mr. Anciaux, minister of culture resigns "because no one is interested in my politics anymore". Sniff,
we will miss you in the cultural sphere, especially since you increased the alloted budget by 50 percent. You wonder why he's getting the sack...
As a result, the Flemish regional governement is no longer legitimate, because a "bruxellois" (well, sort of...) is required for the legal composition. It's going to be a long hot summer. Yiehaa, a little AMOK in the usually dead months of the year.

Site of the Day for today: www.engrish.com, for fun with the japanese...speaking English...

Reading:
Michael Moore: "Stupid White Man... and other excuses for the sorry state of the Nation"
Listening to:
Nusrath Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook, a real world produced encounter of the Sufi Singer with the Canadian Composer
Travelling: without moving...
Link of the week: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Chapter 7: The end of a men: a hilarious account of how nature will eventually eradicate the men of the face of the earth. Not only have men been rendered obsolete by the advancements in science. Men are also by far the biggest threat to the earth's ecosystem....
It's meant to be funny, but underneath the surface, a sharp reality will bite you in the face.

As the saying goes:
"The planet doesn't care whether rainforests live or die, ...
Only humans do..."

11 juli 1302:
GULDENSPORENSLAG / la bataille des éperons d'or / the battle of the golden "whatever"
this little battle positionned the Flemish against the French, the Flemish won (but the French took everything back a couple of years later...
So if your region/country needs a celebration, you start looking for some interesting event in the past.

700 years have gone by, now that's a reason to celebrate....
The Flemish newspaper launches a competition to rank the most "culturally-historically influential Flemish person".

You can find the alphabetical list of candidates here...

We believe there is a need for debate, whether we want to have this kind of ranking anyway... What's the point? But it's a competition, a reader's digest, pre-selected information with absolutely no relevance whatsoever.

Our choices:
Brueghel;
Vesalius;
Frans Van Cauwelaert;

We do not believe that the first Belgian in space has an impact on the Flemish cultural identity.
We do not believe that Eddy Merckx greatly influenced "une prise de conscience politique".
An awful lot of cyclists and "flamingant priests" from the 19th century.
And where is Erasmus, who lived for soo long in Anderlecht, Brussels?
And what about Raymond Ceulemans, who put snooker on the map?

Go see for yourself and VOTE!

Lightning might strike...

40 000 bolts of lightning counted by some weather station last night... Amazing...
Topdown or bottomup: that eeezz the question


Oh, and just for your information...
a NEO, near-earth-object (diameter 1OO METERS!!!) apparently missed our basic means of transportation through the endless void of the galaxy by a distance smaller than 1/3 Moon-Earth. AND NOBODY SAW IT COMING. Only after it missed the only known planet with Life in the Universe, was it discovered by our mesmerizing astronomers. 2 bloody days after the near-impact.... The last time a rock this size hit the ground beneath our feet, it struck down an area as big as Flanders in the Siberian Tundra. Imagine if it hit one of our densely populated metropolitan areas... Chaos, panic and destruction. We ain't seen nothing yet.... Or what if it hit the oceans close to shore... a gigantic tsunami would swallow up whole coastal areas.... Armaggeddon, yiehaa! Ride that wave, guys, tomorrow another NEO may be there, and we never see it coming... Go figure why the Mayan calendar suddenly stops in 2015... Eat your shorts out, Nostradamus!

The Japanese Code of the Warrior: BUSHIDO

Jin - to develop a sympathetic understanding of people
Gi - to preserve the correct ethics
Chu - to show loyalty to one's master
Ko - to respect and to care for one's parents
Rei - to show respect for others
Chi - to enhance wisdom by broadening one's knowledge
Shin - to be truthful at all times
Tei - to care for the aged and those of a humble station

Check this out: a great site to determine your compatibility with... yourself, some *stars* or someone else....The site is causing raging enthousiasm all over the world now. Spread the link.

our profile:
TAROT: The Emperor: Worldly authority and power. Social mastery. One who is intelligent, experienced, confident and reasonable. A patriarch or primary male influence. The motive force of politics and society. The ability to fulfill plans and use mental control over the emotions.

RUNE: Ger is one of the runes that touches on the cycles of the year, in this case the fall harvest. These cycles are eternal, which is represented in the rune by the fact that it is unchanged by reversal. Ger can represent pregnancy or other forms of fruitfulness, and is especially indicative of the cycles of providence and karma - that which has been sown is now being reaped. This rune can also represent the cycles of wealth, for crops were frequently a sign of wealth.

Celebs: Identity: Adolf Hitler, Alyssa Milano, Angelina Jolie, Dean Martin, Denzel Washington, Ice-T, Lee Harvey Oswald, Liv Tyler, Lizzie Borden, Mao Zedong, Mick Jagger, Osama bin Laden, Pol Pot, Steve Martin, Steven Spielberg, Theodore Roosevelt, Toni Braxton, Uma Thurman, Wes Craven

Public Role::
Identity: Chameleon, Fiction, Guitar, Master, Pentacle, Revenge, Ripple, Rodent, Scholar, Skunk, Victim
Mirror: Alchemy, Challenge, Clown, Guru, Killer, Lyric, Soul, Touch, Water, Work
Distant: Biology, Clone, Contract, Creation, Danger, Destruction, Emerald, Endurance, Enigma, Falsehood, Father, Freemasonry, Garden, Glass, Green, Harmony, Healer, Helix, Indigo, Jaguar, Judgment, Juxtaposition, Kiss, Library, Loop, Lord, Matrix, Mentor, Muse, Night, Pattern, Pledge, Poem, Puppet, Rune, Science, Script, Silver, Speed, Spin, Storm, Teeth, Tequila, Terror, Thirst, Unicorn, Uranus, Violence, Whale

Private Persona::
Identity: Allure, Ghost, Husband, Jungle, Knight, Leather, Romance, Rough, Spite, Wealth, Whore, Worm
Mirror: Atlantis, Freemason, Knowledge, Playboy, Society
Distant: Artist, Constellation, Decision, Dolphin, Gladiator, Justice, Priest, Retreat, Tornado, Travel, Truth, Tundra, Watcher

Whoah, even De Standaard devotes an article to the Blog phenomenon... And they cite "the belgian blog"...
go c for yourselves...

The dude even published a reaction to the article, and we mailed him to support free speech. The press is just too powerful nowadays

Peace by Superior Poetry

"4th/643/251/beige"

"Staring out through a dirty window, lonely and scared and in pain, motionless.
Suddenly you realize that there's a shadow moving about.
A comforting sound drifts through warm summer air - almost inaudible,
The woosh of this grey owl sweeping down and settling on the window still.
Staring into brightly yellow, piercing eyes.
Ontological shock.

Mind-bending figments of imagination absorb your world and
then
you drift away, gently, peacefully.

Home at last - where eagles, falcons and nightowls roam."

Thomas VW - copyritght MMII

In the previous post, obviously forgot to mention a strange coincidence that occured yesterday::

The words "Brazilian and Sex" have a special meaning in Paris: they're used when refering to the Transvestites roaming the Bois de Boulogne after nightfall.
On the subway yesterday, two of these dudes/ladies (and we don't mean to get into an argument over this) were chitchatting along in some funny portu-parisian language, when I suddenly noticed scabs on their skulls, with little white worms coming out of them.
So much for our appetite that evening...


Other great discovery: www.archive.org
this site is like the memory of the Internet....
check out your own old preferred sites back in the innocent ages, when surfing was simple....
We discovered old old versions of W4:: wacondah's world wide web pages, at old hosting servers, now in the biggest electronic database ever... multiple libraries of congress united, and the race is on to index all this info that's out there

the original site was hosted at www.geocities.com/wacondah, unfortunately there is no trace of that left except this
version 2 of W4
version 3 of W4

Conclusion: it's hard to leave no traces....

[Pornstar in training....]

quote on the t-shirt of a couple walking down the streets near Trafalgar Square. The British really are very funny...

Thing to see in London: TATE Modern where one can admire the beautiful Seagram Murals by Mark Rothko.
The Millenium Bridge and the London Eye are tourist traps, but hey, you're going to a major bustling town.... So you can at least expect some form of ripp-off.

World Cup Idiosyncracies:
Against all expectations, the old Marc Wilmots did not score against the Brazilian team. Well, sort of ... HE DID SCORE, but for raisons that remain undisclosed, the goal was cancelled, the Brazilians positionned some superior firepower, and in a haunting final sent the Belgians off home. At least they can keep their heads up, for they dominated the game. It makes you wonder who sold the competition out? We'll repeat it over and over again... This mother of soccer game is a threat to our mental sanity....

Question::
just thought of a new title for a new section: what do you think of it...
la ciénaga/ the swamp
You know that we're in the process of redesigning wacondah.com, deadline moved to end of June. So... We'll see with what we can come up with in 2 weeks.

Remark

Blogger is on the Fortune "sexy company" list.. Whatever that may mean. It is supposed to be some kind of reference... Anyways, the tool is great, it's still free, and it gives YOU, yes YOU, free speech... So why not post a link to it...

You wanna be making moves on the streets... in Brussels...
check out this great site; nicely designed with interactive partying:
they send a puzzle to you and your friends, solving the riddle will get you the access to the parties they organize...

Vert Bouteille is where the action is. A shame it's only in French though, you can wonder why...


Flut FoetBal:
So Belgium goes to the 2nd round, they beat France in a friendly game a month ago, and now they manage to be in the 2nd round, whereas France, reigning world champion as been cruelly eliminated. Unfortunately, they'll be meeting the Brazilians on Monday... Deathmatch, or rather a walk in the woods for the South Americans?
Well, anyway, we really don't care much for this publicity driven event. Who cares anyway? If at least these guys would run for the monney they're earning and score some goals... What do you expect but bread and games nowadays. People should be out on the streets playing ball.
Liberate yourselfs from television slavery!!!

In France, the world cup frenzy is over, some of them walk around really depressed, others will run for office this weekend (also depressed). Prediction goes that for the first time in a decade and a half the "drôle de cohabitation" will come to end, for the first time a president will have a government of the same side of the political spectrum. Quite a swing. ..

end of the work week, off to an island somewhere in the Atlantic, should be nice, as they say.

"Everyone hears what you say,
friends listen to what you say
Best friends listen to what you don't say"

De molen van Kapitein Zeppos: online restauratie van cultureel erfgoed. Er bougeert vanalles in ons landje...

And you thought your computer cables were a mess,
check out how the greatest computing effort of all times has difficulties in being organized.
So much for organizing your data in neat files and all, using powerful and clean software,
sometimes it comes down to physical labor and cleanup...
And you still think everything is neatly organized all the time...

"in September we passed the ZettaFLOP (10^21 operations) mark -
by far the largest computation ever performed (at least on Earth!),
and recently we surpassed one million years of CPU time."
- from the newsletter of the SETI project

the power of online journals: here's the one by Christopher Walken, very powerful indeed in The Funeral by Abel Ferrera:

"you don't want to mess with walken on any day that ends in y. you just trust me on that. you can bring that to the bank and cash it."

http://www.livejournal.com/users/chriswalken

In De Standaard van vandaag stond een artikel over slaapgedrag en droom-ervaringen. Leuk om te lezen, nog leuker om toe te passen...

Marmotten die we zijn als crepusculaire zoogdieren, is het van het grootste belang dat we ook dat grote deel van ons leven zo aangenaam mogelijk doorbrengen. A sane mind, by sane sleeping - piano ma non troppo...

Verder was het leuk vanmorgen om "les Bleus" op hun bek te zien gaan. Definitief uitgeschakeld in die wereldbeker waar niemand zich eigenlijk wat van aantrekt, behalve de sponsors. Een circus van jewelste, dat bij ons weinig enthousiasme oproept. De impact ervan op de wereld economie is echter niet te onderschatten. Het aantal excuses vanochtend was niet te tellen: auto kapot, metro in panne, treinstakingen, embouteillages, geen warm water (dat was wel zo), ziek, een beetje welverdiende R&R,...
En dan de ontgoocheling...
Ach, voetbal is oorlog, dat wisten de Romeinen al...

!!! announcing....!!!
FLAGEY: http://www.flagey.be
a old cultural Ship sets sails for the Seas...
opening: September 30th 2002

Depuis que je ne cherche pas, je trouve
Pablo Picasso.

"We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces."
¤¤ Carl Sagan ¤¤ & the SETI project

Humans are CREPUSCULAR MAMMALS...

That's exactly what your boss wants to hear before you ask him to buy a new office sofa for mid-day napping.
Tell him that you function early and late during the day and that a 60 minute nap after lunch increases your productivity.
30 minutes of real sleep stop the "concentration decay" after lunch break.Or you can always go for a walk....

¤ ¤
¤¤¤
« In the era of globalization : either a war is impossible or everyone will be brought to conflict »
Umberto Ecco’s sharp analysis of the cynica in the world today…
It’s actually the first intellectually sound reflection I’ve read since 9/11/01.
A great analysis of history and of the stakes involved in the present state of the world.


Here's a little fun for you: just imagine your Neo in The Matrix and start dodging these kungfu-dudes...
The title of the website reminded us of a great book: "Hagakuré: The Way of the Samourai", that was later adapted for the movie screens, featuring Forest Whitaker.
By the way, KP, if you're reading this: man, we hope you're enjoying that book as much as we did.

The Frogg's out there....
Yeah, we know, we miss him to, so here's a little link to the dude.
( ¤ Picture taken from the top of Tours & Taxis in nov2001 ¤)
Don't worry, by the end of the month, the One should be back...

And by mere coincidence: here is a Canadian version... from a webmaster we have absolutely no affiliation with...
It seems there are whole colonies out there. Well, by principle the web is a place for hypertextual linking based on reciprocity...

Life's funny little coincidences.

Quote of the day
"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge."
(Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 1872-1970)

A fire drill in the office is always an excellent opportunity to meet some co-workers! And to discover the bowels of the building you work in. and to exercise by walking back up stairs. Imagine hundreds of knowledge workers standing patiently in line in front of 2 elevators...

While standing outside we could hear the excitement from a small group of Red Hot Chili Peppers fans, waiting at the back-entrance of the Olympia Hall, which is right next door to one of our exits. These guys almost riotted when they saw the tour-bus approaching... Fighting like braves...

World Cup frenzy: the kitchen staff is running around in Jap-Korean T-shirts, serving as fast as they can. "Oui j'aimerais bien me couper dans les doigts, comme ça j'aurais au moins quelques semaines pour regarder la France...." - et la France, elle perd évidemment son premier match contre le Sénégal! Le comble.

It seems that Roland Garros and the World Cup are more important than the upcoming legislative elections.

Panem et circenses all over again

proudly welcoming MUSE °6/2/2002
Marc, Mona, Magda en Mieke

In a nuclear world, the East is coping with the fear of the nuclear umbrella. Pre-emptive strikes are part of the only military doctrine the Pakistani governement can uphold, hereby reducing anywhere from 12 to 25 millions people to pre-historic times. The mutual deterrent theory doesn't work if one army is clearly the weaker one. Asymetric warfare might be the present state of the post 9/11 world.

Las deze morgen een artikel in de "grootste kwaliteitskrant" van Vlaanderen.
Over demagogie:
er stond een hyperlink onder naar een desinformatie-website die zogezegd dienst doet als een ouderwets bulletin-board systeem uit de jaren '80. Those were the days. Pure tekst defileerde over het scherm, en er was geen info-overload. Je vindt de info hier (met een tool dat je toelaat om iets of wat anoniemer te surfen, je weet maar nooit wie jou in de gaten houdt...)

Anyways, in deze tijden is het nogal moeilijk om jezelf een opinie te vormen in de cynica die op internationaal vlak tot hoge kunst wordt verheven.

Laten we toch een beetje kritisch blijven, en een beetje sceptisch. Maar niet paranoia.

listening to:
Craig Armstrong & Bono: Stay (faraway so close) - reprise from the 90ies version
Afroman: Before I got high!

reading: Zadie Smith: White Teeth & A. Finkielkraut: L'imparfait du présent

Europees Parlement stemt in met inperking privacyregels
Italië vraagt toestemming voor het aanleggen van databank met vingerafdrukken van alle migranten
Belgische Staatsveiligheid krijgt meer middelen.

3 artikels uit de Standaard van vandaag.
Drie artikels die ons eigenlijk niet zouden mogen verontrusten.
Drie artikels die de vinger aan de pols van onze beschaving leggen.

Informeer uzelf, want binnenkort weten anderen (overheid, banken, werkgevers en verenigingen) meer over uw persoonlijke levenssfeer dan U voor mogelijk hield. Geen nood tot paniek, maar wel nood aan legitieme reflectie!

Performing Arts:
Anne-Teresa De Keersmaeker & Rosas: contemporary dance:: 20 years of investigative movements into reality.

A packed "Théâtre de la Ville" enjoyed the now-already classic performance of RAIN by 10 pupils of ATDK.
Rosas on tour to celebrate 20 incredible years. A dream come true for a young aspiring dancer.
An hour and a half of instant bliss and expression that knocks your socks off. Dancing is a difficult code to break! But the intensity speaks for itself. You wonder how they are able to memorize the whole chain of movements and where the get the mental and physical courage to master this incredibly complicated choreography.
Only smiling faces yesterday evening as the crowd dispersed into the Parisian night.

check out their curriculum @
-> www.rosas.be

¤ Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? ¤
Watching the watchdogs: next June 3rd

related links:
-> www.eff.org
-> www.epic.org

An interesting article: Jihad vs. McWorld

¤¤¤ sites of the day ¤¤¤
www.37signals.com/svn
:: the institute for the future...:: where there was an article on turning consumers into marketeers/advertisers !

Consumerism is a way of life... We should be aware of what is going on...

een rare wereld...

Russische communisten en nationalisten ervaren vooral de toetreding van de Baltische ex-Sovjetstaten als een ware kaakslag voor de grootmacht die Rusland ooit was. Ook de Amerikaanse president George Bush is er erg op gebrand de koude oorlog te begraven ten voordele van een nieuwe agenda: die van de strijd tegen het internationale terrorisme.

uit De Standaard Snelnieuws (28 mei 2002 @ 1400)

commentaar: zou het dan toch zo zijn dat er bepaalde "oorlogen" artificieel in stand worden gehouden: checks "n" balances..., om de aandacht af te leiden van...
Ja van wat eigenlijk?
En in diezelfde lijn: waarom laat de "internationale gemeenschap" - als die al bestaat natuurlijk - toe dat miljarden mensen in mensonwaardige omstandigheden leven.... zonder zuiver water of sanitaire voorzieningen.... (meer hierover morgen)?

Scheduled ***site maintenance & overhaul ***notice: Sub-versive & conform-mystik

all pages on wacondah.com (except those for private use) have been disabled. Access is no longer provided from the index.htm & html files.
A major site overhaul is long overdue and the efforts to strive for consumer satisfaction push us to take down obsolete (des)information.
In the process of developping new tools, nav-structures and *content*, the only page that remains "as is" is the Blog from Paris, enabling us to push-button publish without going through the hassle of ftp or remote access balastical problems.
wacondah.com will be back online en bonne et due forme in 1 month: deadline for grand re-opening June 29th 2002 @ 2100.

you can sign up for the mailing list here or by mailing to info@wacondah.com
you can also visit our partner in crime on http://www.worldpeaceradio.com/

Server humor... from a so called mailer-daemon

64.4.x.7 does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable
Giving up on 64.4.x.7.

quite absurd

Listening to: Massive Attack: Protection - a true classic ;-)
Reading: Stefan Zweig: "Meisternovellen" & Montaigne
Playing: F. Mendelsohn-Bartoldy: Lieder ohne Wörte #1
Travelling & not collecting mileage (there is, unfortunately, no Thalys frequent traveller program): from Gare du Midi to Gare du Nord
Last scenic Drive: Bxl -> Sart-lez-Spa
Site of the Week: Book X'ing
Last movie: Bridget Jones' Diary: mixed feelings before viewing it, hilarious fun

In het kader van duurzame ontwikkeling, zou het geen slecht idee zijn om de "armen" te laten verdwijnen. Zij overbevolken toch de vochtige warme en vervuilde gebieden, die moeten gesaneerd worden.
genoteerd als grap (voor alle duidelijkheid)

"I don't know how the 3rd World War will be fought,
but the 4th will be fought with sticks and stones..."
A. Einstein

"The planet doesn't care whether rainforests live or die...
Only humans do"

There are no stupid questions: only stupid answers...

networking in the year 2002: read this article...

0800 zulu time

Sleep, cold sleep, cold sleep, cold sleep,
Only to wake up with a smile
And the heart leaps from way down deep.
Everything will be okay, all right.
Just smile! Don't utter a word,
The look in your eyes speaks thousands of words
And the one soul understands.



Een koude bodem die jou vult met angst, vol van
Levenslust die net openbloeit.
Kou die alles vangt, maar niet definitief en dus tevergeefs, want ...
Een hand en een stem, en je wordt weer jezelf.

Reading between the lines is the challenge.
The unspoken, the unwritten, the unsaid,....
yet understood.


TRAFFIC CONTROL
RER E: Gare du Nord/Magenta to Gare St Lazare/ Haussman:

de trein spuwt een worm van mensen, die allemaal nors proberen zich zo snel mogelijk een weg te banen door de poorten van een ondergronds station. Geen doorkomen aan, een fout om de roltrappen te nemen, leidt snel tot een chaos van jewelste. Niemand kijkt opzij, valt er iemand, dan gaat de stroom eromheen, kolkend als een kei in de rivier die wordt voortgerold. Aan de controlehekken is het duwen en trekken. De meest sportieve commuters springen erover. Oh wee als je bagage meesleurt, oh wee als je treuzelt, je krijgt een lading verwensingen naar je hoofd geslingerd.
En dan, dan is de verpeste lucht van de bovenstad een verademing.

Een glimlach om zoveel drukte, om zoveel stress, en dat al van bij het begin van de werkweek. Je zou er haast al je energie aan verknallen.

Vertel hoe je reist, vertel hoe je je verplaatst, en men zal kunnen afleiden wie je bent.

"Vivre à la campagne, ça implique quand même une diminution de ta qualité de vie..."

Variations on the word Sleep
- Margaret Atwood

I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.

Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.
For knowledge itself is power.
(Sir Francis Bacon)

nemo me impune laccessit

and other assorted latin sayings....

Sit vis vobiscum
May the Force be with you...

"Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him."
- Aldous Huxley

"Ed was aware of how "wonderfully" everyone thought he had "coped" with what had happened to him. Of how impressed they were with his "bravery" and "constant high spirits". Ed could have simply collapsed in a heap and sobbed all day long. He knew that his greatest ennemy wasn't his blindness. After all, he'd discovered at an early age that his body could let him down. No, dispite all the grim jokes, he knew that his greatest ennemy was self-pity...
He'd lost his sight, but not his insight, nor - miraculously - his self-esteem"

[p. 196, The Smoke Jumper - by N. Evans]

The important things in life never happen by accident, ...
or do they?
But even with those things that are meant to be,
sometimes you have to wait a while,
and then... give 'em a little nudge!

¤¤ Morpheus...
"I believe it is our faith to be here...
it is our destiny.
I believe this night holds for each and everyone of us
the meaning of our lives. This is a war and we are soldiers.
What if tomorrow this war could be over?
Isn't that worth fighting for?
Isn't that worth dying for?"

(Rage against the machine music picks up...)

Matrix Reloaded teaser available @ What is the Matrix

"Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait pas"

Tonight @ 2100 PST the Teaser for The Matrix Reloaded will be aired...

"I know you're out there, I can feel you now..."

"Fortune favors the brave, and god looks after the fools"

Tomorrow is Election Day in the Netherlands.

Expected: a landslide and shocking result that will electricize the rightside of the political spectrum across Europe, just as the FN did in France 10 days ago.
Yet it is still too soon for analysis.

Well, let us just say this: in September 2001, we posted our first blog as an outcry against violence and hatred. Please stay tuned for more insights!

"I do not know how the 3rd World War will be fought....
But the 4th will be fought with sticks and stones..."
Einstein

reading: The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans

Book starts off really slowly and halfway through you almost put it down, then you suddenly realize: sometimes it's worth reading something that comes nowhere near the great Prousts or Pasternaks or Poes. Bottom line: sometimes you have to respect the work, the craft, and EVANS has that gift. He proved it in the Horse Whisperer, but now he relies on old-fashioned and tested structures. But that's okay. In order to appreciate the things of beauty, being receptive to everyhting else will get you a long way. We cannot expect only the best, we can strive for it, yet never attain it. So: it's a good read, nothing more, and you're not wasting your time in front of the T.V. at least...

If you have time in Paris: check
- Thomas EAKINS (Musée d'Orsay)
- MONDRIAN: the early works (Musée d'Orsay)
- La révolution surréaliste (Centre Pompidou)

And stay a friday night to go rollerblading along the Seine Quais...

..................................Wow

quote of the decade::
PVDR: "Ik pak mijnen hemel op aarde... Als er toch nen hemel is, hebt ge d'er twee, als er gene is, hebt ge'm al gehad"

Site of the day: KARTOO

m'illumino d'immenso

Je m'éblouis d'infini.

In these days of violence and anger, of war and hate, of darkness, obsession and futile information,
it is a pleasure to cherish the garden of RODIN in Paris, to walk along the Seine Quais and to observe mankind in its activities. Heightened senses after a morning jog around the Tour Eiffel and an early may outside breakfast start of the day with smell of roses in the air, and the sounds of little birds that wake you at 5 o'clock in the morning.
Thinking back now, all these years, you wonder how far and long ago you have to reach, to find this peace of mind and fullness of life. But that is not necessary anymore.
The everlasting now...

Als alles op zijn plaats valt...

En zelfs de regenboog het einde -
van het begin -
in de avondgloed tovert

Als gras en regen unisoon
Stil toekijken en niet verstoren
hoe rustende golven
klaar en duidelijk
het ritme van een hart beroeren

Dan zijn geen woorden nodig
en ook geen dromen
Enkel zwijgend glimlachen
-
om de zon en de maan
die elkaar zo goed verstaan

In het land der blinden is éénoog koning.

It's about time to re-watch "The English Patient" and "Ripley"...

Autres Directions...

een volledig hertekend Frankrijk:
de ongelooflijke resutlaten van de eerste ronde voor de presidentiele verkiezingen hebben dit land een serieuze kaakslag verkocht,
het failliet van "la gauche plurielle" is duidelijk, en weze een waarschuwing voor idiote politici allerhande, zoals in Antwerpen bij ons, die denken dat ze met zo'n pluri-coalitie iets kunnen besturen.
het resultaat is dat de fransen binnen 10 dagen de keuze hebben tussen "supermenteur" en een fascist,
en dan nog eens naar de stembus voor de legislatieve in mei/juni...

in elk geval zijn onze interlocuteurs hier serieus onder de indruk van wat er zich afspeelt de laatste dagen, de manifestaties zijn legio, en in de banlieus hebben ze echt schrik gekregen.
dé vraag is natuurlijk, WIE zijn die 10 miljoen fransen die voor extreem rechts stemden!

niemand kent er zogezegd,
het klinkt ons maar al te bekend in de oren, en we maken dan graag de vergelijking met de situatie in ons landje, waar die zogenaamde zwijgende meerderheid toch durft extreem te stemmen, wansmakelijk!

men hoopt op een mobilisatie van links, maar 't zit er dik in dat we naar een uniforme regering gaan, en dat het gedaan is met die eeuwige cohabitatie.

allez, wij rechtgeaarde democraten moeten ons niet laten doen, maar hier - met hun kies-recht, en geen plicht- voelen ze de gevolgen van het absenteïsme en de schandalen,
tijd dat politiek eens de burgers begint aan te spreken! En tijd voor de burgers om van achter hun TV te komen...

De vergelijkingen met andere landen in West-Europa gaat niet echt op, maar het is een verontrustende tendens om te zien hoe de Fortyuns, de Berlusconi's, de Haiders, de Le Pen's en hun companen uit Noorwegen en Denemarken, Duitsland en België aan een opmars bezig zijn.
Zou het subjectieve onveiligheidsgevoel (zoals Brice de Ruyver het gisteren zo mooi stelde in De Morgen) dan toch zo zijn toegenomen?
Of scheelt er iets aan onze systemen, aan die vastgeroestte belangengroepen, dat exclusion-model bij de syndicaten en drukkingsgroepen.

Les acquis sociaux sont en cause! En we weten allemaal dat de elasticiteit nihil is... Verworven rechten worden niet meer afgegeven, en als men in een hallucinante spiraal van "étatisme" terecht komt, of zelfs op Europees vlak, dan krijg je situaties zoals hier nu, waar schreiende burgers betogen omdat ze kwaad zijn dat ze hun stemRECHT niet hebben uitgeoefend. Vijgen na Pasen natuurlijk...

vanuit Parijs, uw correspondent...

Mr. Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada
when asked: what do you believe in, after life?

"Everybody has to believe in something....
I believe I'll go canoeing"

Wacondah on Canoeing
TSC
Fires of Friendship
(recently asked for updates and missing data -
please go check them out if you're a TSC Alumnus)

Last post of the week # 16, my agenda tells me there are 259 days left this year:
horrifying to see this!

Everything passes sooooh quickly, it's hard to keep track of the days without training your memory to remember some stuff. And even harder to train your brain to forget the "ballast" everybody's carrying around, none-essential-information-overload that fires away all this energy and allocates brain process CPU time to the wrong tasks. We, humans, are the greatest multi-taskers around.

At the office, they call us knowledge workers, or PR sharks, non-exec's or corporate gnomes, functional operatives and stuff like that. It's great how a business card can give you a totally different identity. Your badge tells more about you to the skilled eye, than that you realize as a neophyte working bee!

Walking around, being alert, and full of loving attention to the small-sized details that nobody seems to notice:
"m'illumino d'immenso"
starting a string on Metro Poetry in our finally full operational online discussion forum, check it out!

So, for now, closing the laptop soon this afternoon,
it's been a pleasure,
reporting for wacondah.com
and keeping some high spirits alive:
in fact: you don't need eyes to see - you need vision
(repeat this to yourself over and over again!)

Clint & Lawrence of Arabia

Gnomè / Knowledge Workers

metro music for this week by wacondah.com

¤ Dusty Springfield: The look of love (...!)
¤ Gladiator Soundtrack #17: Elysian Fields
¤ Pascal Obispo (whoah!)
¤ Limp Bizkit: Take a look around
¤ Neo in The Matrix: voice extract: "Choice"...
"I know you're out there, I can feel you now..."
¤ Chemical Brothers (2 frm latest album)
¤ Alanis Morsissette: Hands clean
¤ Bruce Springsteen: Missing (remixed)
¤ Faithless/ Back to mine
¤ The Tango Project: Scent of a Woman tango (great to start the day)
¤ Daft Punk: Discovery: first and last track
¤ Mick Jagger: God give me anything I want
¤ Prince: Adore
¤ Prince: How come you don't call me anymore

Why don't you once in a while take another way home??? autres directions...

Listening to: Mahler 5th symphony, movement 4...
Reading: "The decline and fall of practiacally everybody"
site of the week: Prince Lyrics

moving from conferences to conferences, meetings to meetings...

Went to a bar with absolutely no "beautiful people" and drank a KOMODO Rose,
on the basis of rum and Rose petals,
i guess it was plain juice...

So that's the way it goes in Paris: l' ARNAQUE totale
Even if you get a discount somewhere, it's still a rip-off.... But it's funny...

So that's the report of the week for now,
only at wacondah.com

[ The uncharted identity with the limitless possibilities is one of the distinctive qualities of urban living, a liberatory state for those who come to emancipate themselves from family and community expectation, to experiment with subculture and identity. It is an observer's state, cool, withdrawn, with senses sharpened, a good state for anybody who needs to reflect or create. In small doses melancholy, alienation and introspection are among life's most refined pleasures. ]

quote from R. Solnit: "Wanderlust - a history of walking", p. 186

listening to: A. Morissette: "Hands Clean"
dreaming of the Eiffel Tower
welcoming EDUARD
rollerblading on Quay d'Orsay
travelling from 1 metro Center to Havre Caumartin

personal fear factor: below zero, thank you very much
international fear factor: 23.55 - crisis in the Middle East

news: if you have a place for rent around the 16th, 7th, 8th or 9th precinct,
from july 1st 2002 onwards: i'll be checking into that: mail us...

site of the day: http://www.pariscope.fr

State of Siege:
travelling through airports and metrostations,
military checkpoints
"Sir, please take off your shoes"
Quantum particle analysers in airports sniffing for prohibited substances
HUM-V's with big guns pointed at you.

All you want to do, is travel freely, have a nice holiday weekend.

You're being carded everywhere, at every corner of the street.
Everything is prohibited, forbidden, except if noted otherwise.
Do you realize that you're not even allowed to take a picture of a governmental building?

But nevertheless, it's fun to walk around these days

now reading:
"Wanderlust, a history of walking" by Rebecca Solnit
and listening to
Prince: the rainbow children !

Un con qui marche deux jours, ira toujours plus loin qu'un intellectuel qui reste assis

there is a german car that has a nice slogan...
Vorsprung durch Technik

I can tell you this;
if you can drive a car on 3 wheels for 50 km at an average speed of 120 km/h,
you got a safe car...

so the audit gnomes are still running around, they have a gaunt outlook, and have to share 1 telephone, 1 internet connection and 1 printing machine.
i just noticed today that there are no windows in the room where they sit together with 15 persons...

horrible, i bought one of them a coffee after lunch, i felt sad for him, he looked afraid to go back into the room.

so far, this job is extremely interesting, but can't say to much about here on a virtual forum.
Corporations keep taps on everything, and when they're sure they have all bases covered,
it appears that the competitor is the owner of the company that collects and supposedly destroys the "confidential paper bins"..

So much for physical and network security...

for those of you who haven't been in the loop...

there is a young landscape architect in Brussels called
Erik Dhont: his site is supposed to be up and running by now,
go check, you might find it amazing, after all he's a great inspiration for "Moving hedges"

I've known this guy for about 10 years, saw him evolve from a starting, insecure and hesitating artist, to a conceptual master of the zen-like capacities that are required to engage in the most difficult of arts: restauring nature to itself.

that's after all what we all admire right: true nature. And since there are no more virgin forests in our immediate surroundings, we try to recreate something of the wild we all crave for.

we have a little bonzai tree here, nice to look at, but the surroundings are tough: airco kills the plants, and spreads diseases.
For the last 2 weeks i've been running around with a full-blown infection, viruslike because it's so absolutely contagious and strong.
Virusses rule the world, don't let yourself be led to believe that we humans are the strongest: it's the cockroaches, the virusses, the flies and the rats that dominate this planet...

salute, hasta pronto, and expect a major update this weekend

For the last ten days a bunch of consultant/audit gnomes has been sitting on our floor. They're locked up in a big conference room and it seems that they even sleep here. It's crazy. Even if you get here at 0745 and leave after 0800, they're here. They're always here. Luckily I saw that meeting room empty the first week I was here, so I know that they're not always here, but it's impressive. The smell coming out of that room fits no description: it's the stench of gnomes being pushed on harder and harder by their seniors ("partners").... Whoew, they're hunched over their portable computers, running around like madman and racing eachother to the fax, copy and printing machines, because they all want to make good impressions, they wanna "score". All they do all day long, is type numbers into spreadsheats/spreadCHEATS, who do some calculations and math on that input. The gnomes then analyze the results, and interpret them with majestic appreciation: oh they made more than 25% more profits this quarter: IMPOSSIBLE... So they go over the numbers once more, typing like madman, and then they change some parameters in their godlike equations; until... the story fits, the results are within acceptable ranges, and everybody's happy. At the end: you've got a trade of service: the company now has an officially signed certificate by a so called independant auditor that everything was done "by the book", the consulting/Auditing firms strikes the bull's eye ammassing FEES and FAME for providing the EXCUSE, the poor consulting gnomes hit a big bonus at the end of the year. But nothin really happened... Nothing was produced really,... Well, yeah, a lot of paper was consumed, print cartridges and computer time, not counting man hours, electricity, coke and cigarettes. All that resulting in a defiant declaration that everything is A O.K. And you can be damn well sure that the taxman doesn't have the resources to go over all these magical calculations, let alone the judicial system.
Funny how the world goes around...
Come to think of it... What did I produce today? Or what did I consume?

Troubling question for a neophyte worker - bee...

Sometimes I get the feeling that my leg talks to me: it's just my imagination of course, but it's a strange vibration that travel through my body saying: stop working for a second, yo've been at it long enough. But it's tremendous,
today I went to visit the CIA WORLD FACTBOOK, an interesting resource of information. Once you start reading it you can't help but smile for the tone, music and style of the frases in that factbook. You read stuff as "major narco-traffic problems and substance abuse". It's funny. As for the capacity of the US Army: they have no idea, why would that be? Not offering too much information, are we?

Just to acknowledge that most information we digest every single minute is probably FALSE and full of BIAS/ biaisé...
Control the information, and you control society

La mer porte le regard,
la terre nos pieds

La plus belle des choses que la Terre nous a données, et ce qui fait de nous des êtres humains, c'est le bonheur de partager...

Listening (once again) to: Mick Jagger: Goddess in the doorway...

Hello and Welcome to Wonderland

now and again we stumble across a fantastic book:

Marc LEVY: "Et si c'était vrai..."

Une maman qui meurt, c'est une bibliothèque qui brûle

L'amour a un goût merveilleux:
souvens-toi qu'il faut donner pour recevoir
souviens-toi qu'il faut être soi-même pour pouvoir aimer

Nous sommes parfois impuissants face à nos désirs, ànos envies ou à nos impulsions et cela provoque souvent un tourment insoutenable. Ce sentiment t'accompagnera toute ta vie: parfois tu l'oublieras, parfois ce sera comme un obsession. Une partie de l'art de vivre dépend de notre capacité à combattre notre impuissance...

N'oublie jamais que le don de la vie... c'est l'émerveillement, le réveil au merveilleux...

metropolitan vision::
excerpt from an email to one of my consiglieris

when i got off the metro station in the 16ième:
you know the drill, fantastic urban environment, beautiful houses and long
boulevards with shady trees, fantastic architecture and that typical bourgeois
french art de vivre
Me, i was enjoying the moment, you know, walking out of the bowels of the
hectic city and finding myself in this very topnotch exclusive surroundings,
ready to go to my friends' beautiful appartment where i was going to take a
refreshing shower (with a view on the eiffel tower: i "moon" the tower every
single day ;-)) and maybe afterwards go for a little tour on rollers...

but then it came to me: we cannot afford to waste soo much time not enjoying
life; it just hit me smack in the face; and a smile came to me...

but then i looked around, and saw nothing but tired parisiens, with a weary
look and a grim expression, sad eyes and hunched shoulders...

so much for my vision, right,
but inside i'm still glowing
and metro visions are still coming

"The sustainable world will be a world of social and technological innovations, experimentation, high transparancy, and a fully interconnected community, a world in which agreements are reached through mediation, and with respect for civil rights. In this world, NGOs, governements, concerned consumers and businesses would act as partners. Thanks to dialogue and mutual respect, contiuous environmental and social values will be incorporated into market mechanisms..."
---
"We are at an essential moment in human history, for the first time, we are widely aware that our day-to-day decisions have the power to destroy our own habitat, the Earth..."

- 2 quotes from M. Gorbachev: President of Green Cross International

This made me think of the scene in the Matrix, where this sentient computer programme is explaining to T.Anderson what the world became...
Scary right... If you think about it, everything around us can in one way or another be related to the Matrix...
Or to David Lynch.
Saw Blue Velvet last night, and was shocked to see the same images as in Lost Highway... That haunting dark road, with the yellow lines snaking over it, whoah...
So Mulholland Drive is next...

More information:
daily per capita use of water
North America 350liters
Europe 200liters
Sub Sahara 0 - 20 liters

Metro Advertisement: Une force mystérieuse me pousse vers un but que j'ignore...
And you see this peregrine falcon flying over the mountains, it makes you wonder

¤ wacondah enterprises: we endeavor where no consortium of competitors has ever boldly gone before ¤
mais en tout cas;
"les horodateurs du quartier sont tous pêtés (sic)..."

Some days, you just discover too many mysterious messages

over & a domani

Oh, just another little thing or 3 about the view the French have of the Belgians:

- the only thing we EVER eat is steak + fries + MAYO + BEER (lots of it); so I try to get them to stick to the image, because everybody knows that Belgian Cuisine is actually a lot better than the French would dare to admit.
- they love our beer, in fact every bar serves LEFFE around here, and STELLA is on TAP in half-liters
- Brussels is the Capital of Europe..., yeah right, but since it's now officially the BANLIEUE of PARIS (by THALYS), the French are happy.
- the same goes for LONDON: it is the financial capital of Europe, but by EUROSTAR it also became one of the BANLIEU'xsss.... so the french are happy
- so in fact PARIS is nothing else than a museum with a lot of banlieu's attached to it by some sort of railway...
- but on the other hand, when the french have a problem with a ring of child molesters in the Pas de Calais region: they IMMEDIATELY call it a FRANCO - BELGIAN network...
The French never STEAL public monney, they just find it in big suitcases sitting in their offices,
And The Belgians are absolute Robbers, and the Palermo of the NORTH is CHARLEROI, just like Bruges is the sinking Venice of the swamp (or something like that)
Belgians are RICH, because they can afford themselves twice the French number of Cabinet ministers/1000 inhabitants,
so the French are actively preparing to run over the country....
Belgium IS a French department; people even speak French there, and there is cultural protection for the other languages (just like for the Langue d'Oil, the Bretons,...), the code napoleon is the juridic basis of the belgian's department's law system, and they had FRANCS, and now EUROS.
And even old Jules César (who by the by était français) called the Belgians the fiercest tribe of all GAULES (the present day Renchman), like in Charles de Gaulle...

etcetera ad infinitum

You're on the Thalys from BXL to Paris,
tired, but longing to get there,
you try to scan the airwaves for radio signals.
This is an exciting experience, since you're moving along at say >240km/h or even more?
You get a station, and just when you start to make out who's singing, it fades away.

Calling all stations, What's the frequency?

So, estoy en la tercera semana, 3rd week has begun.
took some digital snapshots (uploads next weekend), and brought my rollerblades to the city.
So hopefully i'll survive my workout on the streets tonight and get back to you tomorrow.

to all those working out there: KEEP ON WALKING during your lunch breaks...
Much healthier than running tredmills, etcetera. Less strain on za bones.
(the article was in TIME last week, so it must be correct...)

And also, another obsession of mine: fight those free radicals with anti-oxydizers...
by eating fruits and vegetables...

that's it for the advice today.
Was in a cab last night, after standing in line for about 30 minutes, and luckily the driver didn't mean to strike me down immediately with his insights, wit and conversation skills. We drove along in silence through rainy streets and empty avenues. Even in Rain, Paris looks like a Goddess.... in the doorway.

So long fellas, this cowboy has got some more horses to tame today,
light a big white man's fire, and get some coffee into his zoned-out system

Mañana màs

P.S. Some dude tried to show off his intelligence yesterday: it was real funny: he asked me to solve a very difficult riddle:
The rich want it,
Th poor have it,
If you eat it you'll die
What is it?
---
And I snapped, sharp, on the edge, where I gotta be: "NOTHING"
The dude looked at me, staring at me as if i where some supernatural cowboy, instead of the stupid belgian he mistook me for; and kept on begging for an explanation...
He'd just spent the last week figuring that one out all by himself.
Now,
my faithfull visitors: THIS is way you have to come back to visit, because WACONDAH.com posted this riddle about 6 months ago...

Talking about coincidences right! So I'm sort of acquiring a reputation around here,and not the typical one of a Flamand Rose, stupid Belgian dentist, or Das Diktat from Brüssel, or even worse.

So we'll continue to do research for this site, and post you our little discoveries and adventures into the familiar and the unknown,
after all, you may yet learn something, or simply smile, and think about the last time you felt great.