Leitkultur

I have made a large mistake in my past. I have chosen the wrong profession! Instead of becoming an artist and forester I should have become an investment banker.
When I do something wrong I most often have to pay a lot (anything above €30:- in my case) of money to some organization or the state I am living in...

A few weeks ago I had to go to court. I was caught by the police while driving drunk on my bicycle. I did have my lights on and did not behave anti-social. Still the government wrote me a letter in which they wrote me that I had to go to jail for 40(!) days or pay €2800,-(!). This for having 0,2 Promille too much alcohol in my blood and a very low amount of Tetracannabinol, not enough to get a fruitfly stoned.
I went to court and got €2000,- discount on my ticket, because of my nice blue eyes and the fact that I could convince the judge that I am as poor as a churchrat. I still have to pay €800,- to the German state, that is how expensive a little saturdaynight fever can be over here...Hey, I am an artist, we do like that!

If you make a big mistake as an investment banker or a pension fund manager you will get billions of money from the same government.
With a big mistake I mean for instance the loss of billions of money (not the banker's money,it is the private customer's, therefor also your money!) by literally gambling it away on the international market. The result is that many people loose their savings, their pension and the economy might collaps, resulting in poverty rates rising and making life a lot harder for many innocent people. Still, you don't have to pay a fine and will not have to go to court, you will get a lot of support and money in stead!

I am not whining. I will pay my bill of €800,- and live on, I will probably sleep on the floor in the pub next time I get drunk. I do wonder about this strange world I am living in and about the double standards our politicians are measuring with.

What is so bad about the economical growth going down? I actually see many positive aspects in it. I would love to see an icecold recession hitting in soon, as long as those banker friendly politicians will take good care of the poorest, old, sick and helpless people in our society.

Often I see that our way of living is over the top. People buy a new LCD or plasma TV just because they can, they have a proper working normal TV in the livingroom, but throw that one away. Why watch television, unless you like to stay stupid and disinformed by politicians and bankers?
A recession must be healing towards the environmental catastrophe that is going on. I still don't understand why the government does not make an emergency plan for the environment like it does for the banks. I mean, the pollution is what gives us cancer!

A while ago our washing machine (which we got from my girlfriend's parents, they had bought a new one, allthough this one was working well) broke down. I drove to an electro-garbage gathering station in the city and got another one for free. The door handle was broken. My girlfriend got a new one for a few euros and attached it with 2 screws in 2 minutes and we had a perfectly working washing machine again...
Why do people and our mentally ill politicians believe that economical growth is very important? It all goes down the drain... Why buy even more plastic crap, why buy more electro-garbage, why buy more combined metal/petrol/electro/plastic waste called "new car"?

I love gardening. While growing my own vegetables I don't even think about watching boring and fake stuff on TV, I get healthier and fresher veggies and save a lot of money while feeling good because I do achieve some self fullfillment. Ecologically seen a recession seems to be what we need the most today.
Even better; a recession would save me a lot of money, because I would have no money to get drunk in the pub and cycle home, risking fines up to €800,-. I probably would brew some home beer or wine though! (I am sorry girlfriend)....

Posted by wphmijland at 15:51 | Comments (0) | Trackback (1)

Posted by wphmijland at 10:42 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Good news for allround ecopunks, terrorists, masochists, outsiders, anti-globalisationists, extremists, anti-capitalists, fatalists, people who like to complain and indigenous people like myself (last of my own tribe, but on the move since a few years!)! The financial situation in Europe seems to go down... The media are talking about the biggest crisis and recession since the one that started with the notorious Black Thursday on the 24th of October 1929:

"Together, the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression "...was the biggest financial crisis of the 20th century"The panic of that October day has come to serve as a symbol of the economic contraction that gripped the world during the next decade." "The crash of 1929 caused 'fear mixed with a vertiginous disorientation', but 'shock was quickly cauterized with denial, both official and mass-delusional'." "The falls in share prices on October 24 and 29, 1929 ... were practically instantaneous in all financial markets, except Japan." The Wall Street Crash had a major impact on the U.S. and world economy, and it has been the source of intense academic debate—historical, economic and political—from its aftermath until the present day. "Some people believed that abuses by utility holding companies contributed to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Depression that followed." "Many people blamed the crash on commercial banks that were too eager to put deposits at risk on the stock market. "(via: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94894707)"

People might start to panic about this. Politicians, bankers, economists and other filthy capitalists worry about "normal" people getting their savings off the bank. State governments pay incredibly large amounts of tax money to private banks while cutting on budgets for development aid and social spending. Those governments recently eased many rules and regulations for financial institutions, because they believed this would be good for the market and the economy, whatever that might mean (I believe they are all legally accepted criminals in the first place).
A general increase in suicide rates is predicted as a result of the coming recession! People are like a herd of sheep, when one starts to panic most of them will freak out. People get once again fooled by capitalists and the government, basically nothing has changed since the middle ages..

Do I care? I am not scared at all, since my financial situation can not at all grow worse, since I have had severe financial problems for most of my grown up life. With severe financial problems I mean that I already have been eating from carbage cans, begging for food at the neighbors (if I had a steady place to live at that time), searching my car for fallen down small change, poaching wild animals like rabbits, ducks and geese. I have not starved out of hunger untill now. A modern artist has to be creative and innovative ! This life is a challenge and a lot of fun.
For the city people among us :

The best chance to get a quick and easy piece of meat is to go to the local park and look for the pond where all the ducks and geese and swans are. Feed them some old breadcrumbs. Make yourself small, stay calm, take your time, so the lovely birds get used to you. They will come closer. You can catch a duck by throwing your jacket on it. A goose is a bit too big for that, unless you wear a long raincoat.  Just grab the most cheeky goose by its long neck in a quick but sure move. Immediately swing it around in cirkels, so it breaks it's neck!
Other good sources are tame and slow pigeons at railway stations, use a jacket as with the ducks.
Are you in for something else than waterfowl or pigeon soup? Go to the local children's farm! It is full of tame and easy to catch animals. Go there at night when it is dark or very early in the morning. When you want extra excitement, go by daytime, just make sure to kill the rabbit quick, kill it in one move. Pretend to caress it in it's cage with your back towards the public (children don't like meat, they prefer sausage and fish sticks, the hypocrite little selfish bastards). Take it firmly by the head, just where the neck comes out, while caressing the back of the rabbit. When the rabbit relaxes, what they will do, because they are very used towards human contact, you take it just around the waist with your other hand, where the hips begin. When you have a firm grip on the tasty bunny: pull the rabbit's body from the head to the back powerfull at once, so that you hear a firm snap. Now the rabbit has broken it's neck. Repeat the stroking, because the rabbit will make some convulsions as it dies. If you already have the rabbit under your coat when it makes the convulsions, this might attract the attention of other animal lovers at the children's farm.
To check if a rabbit is still nice fresh and tastefully young, you can stroke the ears. If the ears are soft and flexible, not feeling like leather, the rabbit is under 2 years old. Older rabbits will taste good as well after you keep them in a nice marinade for a few days:

1 can beer
2 onions, sliced
Garlic powder, sprinkle
Paprika, sprinkle
¼ tsp. ground clove
¼ tsp. nutmeg
2 large bay leaves
Tarragon, pinch

Serve it with some more than a day old bread you get for free from the local bakery (be sure to get to know the employees and give them a good feeling), some mushrooms you've gathered in the woods and some Dandelion you picked up at the side of the road on the way to the children's farm. Of course you can prepare a guinea pig in the same manner.

Bon appetit and enjoy the good times coming!

Posted by wphmijland at 16:00 | Comments (43) | Trackbacks (127)

Check out "never ending voyage", a weblog by ocean sailor Henk te Velde. The mast of his trimaran ship broke about a year ago. He stayed cool and waited a few days untill a ship pulled him to the Argentinian shore. There he spended about a year to get his boat fixed. Years ago Henk wanted to sail around Northern Russia, make a north passage. He got stuck in the Russian ice for a long winter with his boat "the Campina" and enjoyed it, learning a lot about the colour white!

Today I received a very nice message from him and I would like to show a part of it here:

"It's the first of october. ---- from Explorersweb.com ----- Yesterday the stock market plummeted 700 points. "We just lost 1,3 Billion," screamed news journalists, "and whose fault is that?!" Today we regained 500 points, yet not a word about whom to credit for the one Billion "profit." Blame is tossed around along with panic -----

But does this all have any meaning ?

Our whole life and our action is based on thoughts. All things are created by thoughts. We all try to reach the other side, where we expect to find clearness. Acting or believing is a matter of insight, not of activity, will or fear. How do we get our minds calm. How do we archieve this. Do I want to archieve this ? And again we are thinking.

Did we look this morning to those beautifull clouds ? The beauty of it, the light of the magnificent clear blue sky, the feeling of something great ? A splendid sunset or an early dawn and the trees full of sounds ? The whispering and movements of the leaves ? Or the earth itself, her depths in the valleys, the greatness of the gigant snow covered mountains standing out against the blue sky ? The seashore, all the way from the dunes towards the horizon ?

Can I listen to the sound of the river, streaming by, without thinking that the sound is made by the river ? Only to listen to the beauty of the sound ?"

Posted by wphmijland at 22:46 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)