Horses

The Horses

Barely a twelvemonth after
The seven days war that put the world to sleep,
Late in the evening the strange horses came.
By then we had made our covenant with silence,
But in the first few days it was so still
We listened to our breathing and were afraid.
On the second day
The radios failed; we turned the knobs, no answer.
On the third day a warship passed us, headed north,
Dead bodies piled on the deck. On the sixth day
A plane plunged over us into the sea. Thereafter
Nothing. The radios dumb;
And still they stand in corners of our kitchens,
And stand, perhaps, turned on, in a million rooms
All over the world. But now if they should speak,
If on a sudden they should speak again,
If on the stroke of noon a voice should speak,
We would not listen, we would not let it bring
That old bad world that swallowed its children quick
At one great gulp. We would not have it again.
Sometimes we think of the nations lying asleep,
Curled blindly in impenetrable sorrow,
And then the thought confounds us with its strangeness.
The tractors lie about our fields; at evening
They look like dank sea-monsters crouched and waiting.
We leave them where they are and let them rust:
"They'll molder away and be like other loam."
We make our oxen drag our rusty plows,
Long laid aside. We have gone back
Far past our fathers' land.
And then, that evening
Late in the summer the strange horses came.
We heard a distant tapping on the road,
A deepening drumming; it stopped, went on again
And at the corner changed to hollow thunder.
We saw the heads
Like a wild wave charging and were afraid.
We had sold our horses in our fathers' time
To buy new tractors. Now they were strange to us
As fabulous steeds set on an ancient shield
Or illustrations in a book of knights.
We did not dare go near them. Yet they waited,
Stubborn and shy, as if they had been sent
By an old command to find our whereabouts
And that long-lost archaic companionship.
In the first moment we had never a thought
That they were creatures to be owned and used.
Among them were some half a dozen colts
Dropped in some wilderness of the broken world,
Yet new as if they had come from their own Eden.
Since then they have pulled our plows and borne our loads,
But that free servitude still can pierce our hearts.
Our life is changed; their coming our beginning.

-- Edwin Muir

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55 MPH in a Ferrari

One of the dangers of composing new images with the software program Adobe Photoshop for the new “PS-series” is, that easily it is overdone.
Like driving alone in a Hummer to a supermarket to buy a beer.

An image can be so manipulated that the result is looking most at what Photoshop is able to do.
It becomes all so far away of our own world of perception that we feel lost in some weird and cheap SF paperback.
The objective therefore is to create images where nobody even thinks for a split second of Photoshop and computers and digital manipulation.
This is not a simple thing to do.
How to drive at 55 miles per hour in a Ferrari?

Recently things went very berserk.
Often the morning is spent simply playing with the images in Photoshop.
Without a specific plan.
Without really rationally thinking.
Simply letting things go and have it their way.
Changing from being the captain of the ship into the water surrounding it letting the boat go where it wants.
During that process there are moments of critically looking checking if it is going anywhere.
And even if the assessment is not positive the boat in the water is allowed to flow nevertheless.
Better not disturb the river nor the boat.
One never knows at what beautiful place it will end up anyway.

This gamble sometimes results in images that excite.
Powering to continue and make more.
But sometimes the results are so bad, the protagonist looses instantly every ounce of self-confidence and concludes his days as a famous artist are over.
It is that dramatic.

Awful and bad results are needed to sometimes produce the opposite.
Hence, nothing wrong with falling down sometimes as one can easily stand up again and continue the adventures on the exciting track.
Like a player of ice hockey.
If he had a problem with falling down, his career would not be very long.

Bad results are no problem.
But what is typical is that the audience never gets to see them.
The artist dumps the unacceptable and awful result in the garbage can and nobody ever will know about it.
The audience only sees the spectacular and convincing results.
In this way the artist creates the false impression he or she is only good.

Today an exceptional event will take place on this blog.
An image will be published that is an example how an artist can stumble and fall down sometimes.
To show how things can go wrong.
Excessively Photoshopped.
And bombastically moralistic.










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A bold bolt

Soon the Combiner Box of AM Solar may arrive.
This means that all the solar panels have to come off their brackets.
To take off the current wires to replace them with new wires leading all to the Combiner Box.

Today a very adventurous initiative was performed.
In order to learn more how exactly the brackets of the solar panels were bolted to the roof of the Fuso Szulc, the silicone was peeled off carefully of one bolt.
Next, with an adjustable wrench, the bolt was taken out.

It was a piece of cake.
The bolt is of the self-tapping type and easy to get out.

Once the Combiner Box arrives, it will be a job taking time, to unbolt all the solar panels, but technically exactly on the level of the protagonist.













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The best soap opera

There are many major and dramatic world events taking place these days.
There is the ongoing war in Iraq.
There is the war in Afghanistan that is getting more and more serious.
In Africa ethnic wars are now taking place in Kenya.
And the most serious war of our times is happening in eastern Congo where already over 4 million people have died.

But most of the attention is going to the elections now taking place in the USA.
An amazing demonstration of an electoral circus having no equivalent anywhere.

There is a lot to write about the current elections in the USA.
Today we focus on two peculiar aspects of the race.

First aspect is the US senator for Illinois and presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
47 years old with a father from Kenya, Africa and an American mother.



For an observer from outside the USA it is puzzling that Barack Obama is considered in his country as a black American.
Why is he a black American?
Why is he not a white American?
Why is he not simply “an American”?
Because the father is from Africa and the mother from the USA, the man is 50 % African and 50 % American.
That logically doesn’t make him black.
Nor white.
It is similar for yours truly.
The father is from Poland and the mother is from the Netherlands.
Is this man Polish?
Or is this man Dutch?
Or is he European?
To say that Barack Obama is black is as much true as to say he is white.
To say that the photographer is Polish is as much true as to say he is Dutch.
Why is a person considered black if he is 50 % white?

It would have been wiser of Barack Obama if he had put himself above the decision to profile himself as a black candidate.
If he is elected as President of the USA, the racial issue will always be at stake.
While it should not matter at all.

The second aspect of the elections in the USA is Hillary Clinton.


In political history it has not happened often that two persons are running together to try to be elected as president of a country.
Because this is what is happening.
It is a team trying to win.
It is amazing to observe how Mrs. Clinton allows not to run by herself.
How she accepts the tremendous help of her husband.
As if she could not do it by herself.
It is also amazing how Mr. Clinton is unable to stay in the background and simply have his wife do the job.
But most amazing is that this is allowed and possible.
And that it is not an issue with public opinion.

If Hillary Clinton is elected as President of the USA, she will not be the only one in charge.
Obviously her husband will pull strings as well.
That would be a very cloudy situation.

The elections in the USA have a high level of entertainment.
It is not about political ideology of political parties as in the rest of the world.
It is about individual persons who, financed by interest groups to be paid back later through political decisions, try in a Hollywood way to charm the electorate.
It is the best soap opera to be seen.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To learn more about the war in Congo, click on:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/congo.htm






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No more policing

It doesn’t happen very often.
In fact, it has never happened before.
But yesterday Alfredo was rather nasty.
Saying not very nice things.

The issue was this.
Three weeks ago, arriving at Punta Boca del Salado, a 20-kilo (44 pounds) bag of dog food was hauled along.
Every day two to three dogs got food from this supply.
The bag is almost empty now.

It was learned that Alfredo is going to town the next day.
Kindly he was asked to buy and bring a new bag of dog food.

This made him explode.
It was of nobody’s business.
The temporary caretaker of the dogs lived in his camper and had his business there and he, Alfredo, lived at his rancho and everything there was his business.
And he knew somebody who would like to adopt his dogs and if he was bothered more about feeding his dogs he would bring them to that person.

Hey, Alfredo, relax!
It is just a simple question.
There is no more dog food.
You go to town and could buy a bag.
It is only normal you buy food for your own dogs!

This made him explode a second time.
As he had not much ammunition to defend himself, he only was repeating his remarks.

Alfredo is having a difficult time again.
He has been married three times and has children with several women.
For the last year he had a new fiancé.
But this relationship has also come into stormy weather.
It was noticed over the last three weeks that he was not going to see his fiancé anymore and was in a rather bad and depressed mood.
His idea had been to build a new house on a piece of land he has nearby and settle there with her.
That dream seems to be over and at his age, 56, that is not an encouraging experience in life.

The argument about the food for his dogs took place in front of his visiting sister Bertha and her fisherman husband Leonardo.
The sister who is partly owner of the rancho where Alfredo now lives and works.
And who doesn’t allow her brother to live there with his fiancé.
The remark to Alfredo to buy dog food in front of this critical and strong-minded sister, revealing that he had not been taking care of his dogs in the past, was hurting his reputation and ego.

The disastrous course of his current relationship and the presence of his sister and brother in law might explain Alfredo’s sensibility.

After this event a walk was made with the terrible dog Gorba, still waiting to be liberated from his chain to be transported to a goat free rancho.
Thoughts were racing through the mind.
Why bother with Alfredo’s dogs to begin with?
Why buy food for them and take care of them, even walk them when Alfredo, as a result, is nasty?

This is a realistic and logical option.
To conclude that if Alfredo has no appreciation, let him have his dogs, as he likes it.
To move on with the happy life without sharing his tears about a failed fiancé and all his other complex contractions of his existence.

However, the dogs are going to be the victim of this choice.
Alfredo doesn’t give a damn if they are hungry or thirsty.
He leaves them without food and water for days.

Although the dogs suffer, it is only Alfredo’s business.
Even his own brother and his family, living next door, do not interfere in Alfredo’s canine policy.
They are not lecturing Alfredo although they know very well his cruel attitude.

In the end, the nomadic photographer is only a guest at Punta Boca del Salado.
And a guest has no privileges to interfere in the personal lives of the friends visited.
A visitor must know his place and act in a respectful way.

It is remembered how a fellow traveller used to spend winters with a family.
And interfered deeply in the lives of his friends.
Resulting in not being welcome anymore.
And rightly so.

Alfredo must have it his way.
The photographer is neither a policeman nor a reverend.
It is unfortunate for the dogs, but life must have its course including animals.
Taking care of the dogs is not a duty of the visitor anymore.
Alfredo will notice this eventually.
And maybe that will make him think.


Meanwhile a thing happened at the other side of the spectrum.
Antonio, the son of Christina, had his birthday.
He got a racetrack he will build and operate together with his Dad.
Who is a policeman.












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A successfull birdbath

Many fervent and loyal blog readers have probably been worrying about yesterday’s posting.
Their favourite blogwriter circling among lost souls of decayed bodies only because of fear to perform and deliver as a photographer.

Long time fervent and loyal blog readers know that every long jump starts with running as fast as one can.
Followed by the actual jump and victorious landing.
A procedure similar for artists about to create new work.
The running was yesterday in the posting.

When birds see a pool they sometimes get into it to cover themselves with water.
A birdbath.
When they come out they shake their body and their wings as a method to get dry.
The drops of water shoot in all directions.

The artist is like the bird.
There is need to clean and shake and throw everything blocking the creativity as far away as possible.

Yesterday the work has started on the new images for the “PS-series”.
A first idea was materialized.

Now it is simply a matter of discipline and getting deeper and deeper in what could almost be called a temporary obsession.

Usually the results of new “PS-series” images are not published.
They are printed on special paper with special inks in a limited edition of 5.
These go to the gallery in Paris, France, representing exclusively the work of this artist-photographer.
Collectors have the opportunity to make an appointment to see the work and purchase it.

But today we are going to make an exception.
On the posting of today the image will be published that is the first of the 2008 results of the “PS-series”.

Copyright Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski
© 2008

Many fervent and loyal blog readers will realize that this is the first image of hopefully many more.
It does help every artist to get support, backup, encouragement, sales, flowers, applause, critique, insults, attention and love.
Hence, the doors are open for all fervent and loyal readers to respond.

While the hard working artist starts working quickly now making more new images.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To learn more about the gallery representing the work of Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski, click on:
www.baudoin-lebon.com







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One is

Maybe it is because of living and working at Punta Boca del Salado, Baja California, Mexico, for three weeks now.
In a rhythm and regularity and identical context repeated in detail every day.
Each morning waking up at the same time at the same place in the same expedition vehicle.
Doing the gymnastic and yoga exercises exactly like the day before.
Having the same breakfast.
The same morning of working on the computer.
Running the same business.
Seeing the same people as the days before and the same dogs, cows and horses.
The same trees and mountains and sea and beach.

The days are similar.
The events are identical.
The context is always the same.

Until yesterday, when reality and life had become so repetitive, it seemed to have evaporated.
Melted away.
Turned into a grain of sand of the endless beach.

As a result of this the feeling persisted of not being there anymore.
Like slipping out of a husk.
Helplessly and desperately searching for footing and grounding.
Existence as a cocoon and the caterpillar out of it and in a free fall somewhere in the universe of lost souls.

One is not because one is.
One is because of the family, the friends, the surrounding, the things accomplished, the history, the experiences.
But when that slips away because of being repeated over and over again in a too identical way, one is groping.

What to do when the condition of “one is” feels like it has stopped?
When it seems that one is not anymore?

There might be a thousand answers to this question.
But if one is not anymore, from that position no answers can easily come.

Obviously the situation at Punta Boca del Salado is deprivating.

But the photographer knows very well what he has to do to land back on earth.
On the hard drive of the MacBook Pro computer are all those images made last summer at El Triple.
Images that are waiting to be composed into new pictures, called the “PS-series”.
Somehow, there is strong hesitation to start working on this project.

Although, now is the time.
Now is the moment.
Everything is most favourable to do it.

But there is a terrible stage fright.
Immobilized by uncertainty.
Frozen by fear.

This situation is remembered from other times in the past.
An artist knows that these stages in the process of creation come at some point in time.
If new work was created as easy as blowing the nose and exhibiting the handkerchief, art would not be surprising and exceptional.
The artist needs to feel unable, insecure, powerless and impotent.
To get to a new stage where all those feelings are accepted and tolerated so that they don’t disturb nor block anymore.
To go from “one is not” to “one is”.

Experience has learned that to feel lost and outside oneself is nothing to panic about.
Don’t believe that the heart rate of the acrobat about to do a somersault from the trapeze is not racing.
It is something to accept peacefully and gratefully.

Today or tomorrow existence as it was will be the landing strip again where safely will be returned to.
It is unimaginable to leave Punta Boca del Salado with empty hands.
They just need washing.






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Brackets, bolts and nuts.

The mornings.
At Punta Boca del Salado.
Always to remember.

The roosters announce the new day.
While the twilight slowly changes into a sun rising out of the Sea of Cortez.

It is peaceful here.
Everything is going well.






It has been arranged now that a loyal friend will send the Combiner Box and the other hardware to Mexico in a couple of days.
To connect the 6 solar panels on the roof of the Fuso Szulc in the way as professionals do.
To eliminate the danger, as it exists now, of damage to solar panels and even fire.
According to Am Solar Inc.
And to make the production of electricity more optimal.

Thinking sometimes is about the job that will have to be performed once the hardware has arrived.
New 10 gauge 2 wire of $ 2.25 per foot must connect the solar panels to the Combiner Box.
For this the solar panels must come off their brackets in order to replace the cables on the back.
How to do this?

The solar panels are mounted on the roof with brackets.
One side of the bracket is to the side of the solar panel.
With a bolt and a nut.


However, the side of the solar panel is U-shaped.
No way one can get to the nut in order to unbolt.



This means that the bolt holding the bracket to the roof needs to be attacked.
However, the bolt is covered in silicone.


That could be removed but the next question is if the bolt going into the roof has a bolt also?
It might be that Santek Trailers has bolted the brackets with nuts to the steel beams of the body of the Fuso Szulc before they covered the inside ceiling.
When they still had access to the bottom of the aluminium roof and the steel beams.

The preference would be to unbolt the brackets from the sides of the solar panels.
Not to fool around with removing silicone and bolts going into the roof.
But the thinking does not come up with an answer.

Instead of focusing to pain the brains thinking about a solution for this challenge, the attention has moved to observe how in the coming days an answer to the question will come.






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Lower on light

The solar energy system of the Fuso Szulc is a very vital aspect of the expedition vehicle.
Only rarely is the rig hooked up to city 110 volt.
Most of the time the Fuso Szulc is boon docking and running on its own energy source and supplies like water, propane and diesel.

Another issue is that the 6 solar panels on the roof, the Heliotrope HPV – 30 DR Charge Controller and Magnum ME 2512 inverter were a serious and high investment.

Together this concludes it should operate as best as it could.

However, lack of knowledge of the builders of the Fuso Szulc resulted in an expensive system working at a fraction of its capacity.
That is something becoming very clear.
The good news is that it can be fixed.

This should be done quickly because yesterday disturbing news was found on the website of the company Am Solar, Inc..

Inspection of the roof had revealed the 6 solar panels were hooked up in the “Daisy Chaining” way.
This is an easy and convenient way of installing.
For the installer.
What they do is make a cable go from solar panel 1 to solar panel 2.
Another cable from solar panel 2 to solar panel 3.
One from 3 to 4.
One from 4 to 5.
One from 5 to 6.
And from solar panel 6 a cable goes to the Heliotrope HPV – 30 DR Charge Controller.

What is the disturbing news?

Read what AM Solar Inc. has to say about “Daisy Chaining”:

Roof Combiner Boxes
Using a combiner box prevents the all too common mistake of "Daisy Chaining" too many solar panels together. This is where you take the output cable from one solar panel and parallel it in the junction box of the next solar panel and then taking that output cable to the next solar panel and then to the next one and the next one, etc. This causes the combined amperage of all the solar panels to pass through the terminal strip of the last solar panel in the "daisy chain".

The problem with this is that the terminal strips inside the junction boxes of most solar panels are only rated for about 15 amps. If you exceed this rating, you run the risk of literally melting down the terminal strip and stopping all charging. I have seen this happen on several occasions.

Think about this ... if a typical 120 watt solar panel has an output potential of about 7 amps and you have more than two of them connected in a "daisy chain", then you are exceeding the rating of the terminal strip in the last panel of the chain. The result can be a meltdown and disruption of charging. It might even destroy the solar panel where the meltdown occurred.

These combiner boxes solve that problem and are mounted up on your RV roof and are used as a place to bring the output cables from each of your solar panels to parallel inside on a pair buss bars that can handle 100 amps or more. From the buss bar in the combiner box, you extend a heavier gauge pair of wires to your charge controller.

Conclusion of this story is that the situation on the roof of the Fuso Szulc is not good.
Even dangerous.

Yesterday it was explained how one solar panel of 60 watts produces only 0,2 amps at noon with full sunlight.
Now we know that this 60 watts solar panel receives the cable coming from 2 solar panels of 110 watts each.
This low 0.2 amps output of the panel might very well have to do with the “Daisy Chaining”.

Quick action has been taking.
A loyal friend in the USA ordered a CB Combiner Box from AM Solar Inc.
Technical staff of AM Solar sent information how to hook up 6 solar panels to the CB Combiner Box.
The hardware will be FEDEX’ed to Mexico soon.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To learn more about the company specializing in solar systems for RV's, click on:
http://www.amsolar.com/






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Low on light

When building an expedition vehicle, the success depends of knowledge.
There must be an enormous amount of technical know-how available in the field of mechanical and electrical engineering.

Gaps in the knowledge show later through malfunctioning or breaking down.

It is impossible to custom build an expedition vehicle and know everything.
Even companies specialised in building expedition vehicles in series, although with a low output, upgrade their models every year because they find out that with new experiences and knowledge things were wrong or not optimal and could be better.

The Fuso Szulc is no exception to the above observations and remarks.
Over the last year many things were working perfectly.
And some things needed to be changed.

Currently an issue are the solar panels.
There are six of them on the roof of the Fuso Szulc supposedly having a combined output of 550-watts/35 amps.
There are also 6 Trojan 6 volt batteries.




There is a suspicion this solar system of the Fuso Szulc is not working optimally.
The output rarely gets higher than 25 amps, even in Summer time.

One thing that has been learned over the last couple of weeks is that simply putting 6 solar panels of different sizes and brands is not the way to go.
At the time, together with Santek Trailers, the roof space available for solar panels was carefully measured.
Next, on Internet, sizes of solar panels were found.
Like a puzzle, solar panels were chosen and ordered that would fit the best in the available space.
As a result there are 4 x110 watts solar panels of one brand and two smaller ones of two different brands.
Hence, there are 3 different kinds of solar panels on the roof of the Fuso Szulc.
It seems now that this is not good.
Somehow each manufacturer makes panels with different electric standards and those do not work well with panels of other manufacturers and their standards.

A test has been made with the solar panels of the Fuso Szulc.
On a bright sunny day at 11.35 am and within 15 minutes all solar panels were covered by blankets.
Except one panel.
Next, on the solar monitor inside the Fuso Szulc, the produced amps were read and noted.

It resulted in some remarkable discoveries.

One was that the 4 identical 110 watts solar panels had different readings.
2.8 amp – 3.8 amp – 3.6 amp – 3.8 amp

Another was that a 60 watts solar panel produced a meagre 0.2 amps

Obviously, the solar energy produced by the Fuso Szulc is not as high as it should be.
The challenge now is to find the solutions.




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Men kissing

The last few days, there were new visitors in the dry riverbed of Punta Boca del Salado.
Remarkably, the visit consisted of two old RV’s.
In each one man.
Peter and David are friends.

They parked their RV’s at a large distance from each other.
And each man stayed in his own rig most of the time.

Later, they came over for a chat interested as they were in the Fuso Szulc.

It was an opportunity to observe a friendship between men.
That is very different from friendship between women.

Men are friends in a different way than women are.

There is competition between men most of the time.
One man tries to be on top of the other constantly.
Therefore, they are in rivalry.
It is dressed in humour or sarcasm, but the underlying issue is the need for one to feel better and stronger than the other.

This awful build-in automatism of men stops them from simply being nice to each other.
Of being sweet, caring and close.
To be vulnerable.

Men talk about a lot but some subjects are absolutely taboo.
One no-go area is sexuality.
Male friends never talk about their personal experience of sexuality.
If they talk about sexuality it is within this context of trying to be the upper dog by boosting, exaggerating and booming the own achievements and sexual escapades.
But no man will talk with a friend for example about masturbating.
No man will talk about being serviced by prostitutes.
The man is too afraid to become vulnerable so that the other might make fun of him and be stronger and dominating.

This fear of men to become intimate with other men about the real personal things in life and to have a true very close friendship, is also made impossible for most men because of an obsession.
If a man becomes really close when talking to a woman, this may evolve into a sexual relationship.
This the man usually does not fear.
Essential in this option is that the consequence of the growing closer process and the possible resulting sexual encounter is that the man ultimately might penetrate the woman.
However, if a man grows very close to another man, a possible sexual relationship might result eventually in being penetrated by the other man.
And this is for most heterosexual men more than a nightmare.
This stops many men to be as intimate with men as they are with women.

For women it is different.
If a friendship blossoms, it can result in becoming physically intimate as well.
However, there can be no penetration.
No fear for copying the reproduction act.
A woman touching another woman can be sincere and innocent.
A man touching another man is loaded with heavy-duty consequences.


In a way it is sad to see two nice guys travelling and being so afraid of each other.
Keeping an enormous distance because of games of competition and fear of becoming emotionally and physically intimate.

There are maybe things women can learn from men.
But definitely men can learn a lot from women.

Men may try in their lives to go beyond always trying to be the upper dog.
And they may want to find out that to hug and kiss another man doesn’t necessarily mean being visited where the sun never shines.
Just don’t kiss him on the lips.








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Become orgasmic

A few days ago the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, made an important decision.
It gave the green light for milk and meat coming from cloned animals to be marketed to the consumers.
Without the obligation for the marketing and distributing producers to label their products as such.
This means that an innocent consumer buying cheese in the supermarket or a hamburger in a hamburger joint will not know if the milk or the meat are from cloned animals.

It is very unlikely though that soon products will be marketed from cloned animals.
To clone an animal is a very expensive procedure.
Many animals cloned die shortly after birth.
There are worldwide not more than 600 cloned animals that survived.
Only a few companies are involved in this technique of reproducing artificial animals.

The idea of those companies is not to grow cloned animals in great numbers.
What they want is for example to copy a bull with excellent sperm or copy a high milk-producing cow.

Nevertheless, in spite of this situation, the FDA has been busy testing meat, milk and milk products coming from cloned animals to find out if it is OK for us.
One way of doing this was to have animals eat cloned food for 3 months.
The animals were tested and nothing unusual was found.
Any intelligent person would never eat cloned food if it was tested in that amateurish way.

But it is officially approved now.
And we have no idea if the food we buy is from cloned animals or not.
It will not be indicated on the label.

There was a voluntary moratorium agreed by the companies that clone not to introduce products from cloned animals into the food chain.
But as of the FDA’s decision, they can forget about that moratorium.
This in case that voluntary moratorium had any value to begin with.

This blog also has readers in Europe.
They might be laughing now for the decision of the FDA.
However, better stop laughing.
Last week, the European Food Safety Authority also OK’ed products from cloned animals.

No information on the label of a food product also goes for genetically manipulated and herbicide treated products.
Difference with products from cloned animals is that products like soy, corn, potato and dairy products are in most cases all genetically manipulated and treated with herbicides.
This can have serious consequences for a person’s health.
Especially children.

Each person must bring oneself to a moment of reflection.
To seriously ask oneself what is the food bought and eaten.
To contemplate if one really wants to eat food that is genetically manipulated.
Food that has been treated with herbicides that remain in the products and come into the body.
Or food that is coming from cloned animals.

If the answer is that a person thinking in a balanced and intelligent way does not want to consume that kind of food products, immediately a next question pops up.
If it is not indicated on the label of the food product, what can we do?

First of all one must understand why the Government allows companies the freedom to genetically manipulate and spray insecticides and herbicides without letting the consumers know.
The Government is more pro business than pro consumers.
The Government prefers to defend the interests of companies, not the interests of the people.
The Government justifies the donations they got from companies during elections and ignore the votes they got from the people.
That is the hard and uncomfortable truth.

What can we do?
Are we victims?
Do we need to suffer?
Are we helpless and hopeless?

Dear fervent and loyal blog readers, we are not.
There is something we can do that has two tremendous benefits.

This is what we can do:

always and only buy organic products.

They are widely available.

The first benefit of only buying and consuming organic products is that it is the best for the health.
Second benefit is that companies will remark the shift in consumer preference.
If too few people want a hamburger from a cloned animal, genetically manipulated and sprayed with herbicides, they will stop making them.
More and more organic food will become available and prices will go down.

Go organic.
Be organic.
To become orgasmic.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Information about the decisions of the Food and Drug Administration and the European Food and Safety Authority, click on:
http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/story.html?id=5720836e-c94f-48ac-a504-a30b7fe65eda

To learn more about how to Avoid Genetically-Manipulated (GMO) Food Ingredients, click on:
http://www.soyinfo.com/haz/gehaz.shtml

To learn more how the United States Department of Agriculture agrees with marketing cloned food:
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2008/01/0012.xml








.

From awful to wonderful

The equivalent to the BBC Worldservice is called Radio Netherlands Worldwide.
They have transmissions in many different languages that can be heard on the Internet, by short wave and through FM radio transmitters and cable channels in the USA, Canada, and Australia.

While working in Beijing, China on the project “The most beautiful people in the world” a journalist called to ask if she could do an interview and come along on one of the visits to a most beautiful Chinese person to make a radio program.

Her name was Karen Meirik and it was great to have her join the project.
It was quite a situation: we went to see a soap opera TV actor who claimed that not only he was the most beautiful but his wife and his daughter as well.
Visiting the actor was the photographer and his wonderful team member Lydia Han, the team of the national Chinese TV and Karen Meirik of Radio Netherlands Worldwide.


What a party but the actor and his family had no trouble having so many media people visiting their house.



Yesterday the radio program Karen Meirik made for Radio Netherlands Worldwide about the project “The most beautiful people in the world” was on the air.
Announced with a story on the websites of Radio Netherlands Worldwide.





Karen Meirik did a very good job.
Catching the essential of the project and making her program interesting and pleasant to listen to.

How is it to be on the radio?
To get publicity for an artistic activity?

Most satisfying is that the message of the project is presented to the attention of many more people.
That is considered as very important.



Personally nothing is noticed of the media event.
Here at Punta Boca del Salado the Gonzales family has no idea that this is going on and they are not informed.
Within the context here it is of no importance.
No e-mails are received of listeners who might have something to say in response to the radio show.
But what can be noticed is an increase in number of visitors to the website of the persisting photographer: www.szulc.info .
The address of that website was published as a link on the websites of Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

What is really exciting about the project “The most beautiful people in the world” these days, is the process of having someone join the team to go and perform the project in India in March 2008.
There is now communication with over 5 persons who all are enthusiastic about the project and love to come.
As there is time, step-by-step it is becoming clear who that person will be.
It is not a matter of comparing curriculum’s and selecting one person.
It is a beautiful process of communicating and both coming to a conclusion.

In the past, a project has been performed called “World of Energy”.
In 20 countries worldwide a person and his or her family were documented active in a specific way of producing and consuming energy.
Resulting in major exhibitions, magazine and newspaper publications and an impressive book published in May 2000.
Although there were results, besides the visits to the families, the whole production of that project was one of the worst nightmares ever experienced.
It has been the most negative experience in a career spanning over 37 years.
One of the ways to make peace with that horrible experience was to start and perform new projects based on what was learned from “World of Energy”.
And this has been successful.
As awful the project “World of Energy” was, as wonderful the project “The most beautiful people in the world” is.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To visit the website of the Dutch version of the radio program about "The most beautiful people in the world", click on:
http://www.wereldomroep.nl/actua/regio/verreoosten/080114-fotograaf-china

To visit the website of the English version of the radio program about "The most beautiful people in the world", click on:
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/thestatewerein/otherstates/tswi-080119-China-beauty

To listen to the interview in English:
http://download.omroep.nl/rnw/smac/cms/tswi_080119_beautyinchina_mp3_en_080119_44_1kHz.mp3







.

Dr. Moreau is coming!

Stem cells, as many fervent and loyal blog readers will know, are the very early cells that can develop into almost all other types of cell and tissue.
They occur in the early (five-day) embryo when it is a tiny ball of about 100 cells before it implants in the uterus.
They also occur in significant numbers in some tissues in the developing foetus and in umbilical cord blood at birth.
They can also be found in some adult tissue, e.g. bone marrow, but they can be difficult to isolate, being present in very small numbers.

In the United Kingdom last week, Parliament allowed scientists to go ahead with therapeutic cloning.
To use stem cells to generate new human tissues.

This opens the way to clone a human being.
Like has been done with sheep and other animals.
The only way this is stopped is the control of the Government.
In Britain, it is a crime to create a human embryo outside the body without a license from a Government agency, and officials have made it clear they will not issue one for human cloning.

The scientists in the UK already have announced they will use DNA from animals to mix with human stem cells to make human tissue and organs.

One thing is to get for example a new liver that resembles more one like a pig has.
If it works, it works and as long as the person is not starting to act like a pig, what is the problem?


We will see in the future availability of organs, slowing down and maybe healing of diseases like Alzheimer and Parkinson, thanks to a combination of animal and human stem cells.

The other thing is that this technique can potentially eventually result in the possibility of the cloning of a human being.
A person identical to one already there.

History has learned that what technique makes possible, people somewhere somehow will actually do.
A Government can make a law that it is not allowed, but if economical, personal or political gains can be made, it will happen never the less.

So, fervent and loyal blog readers, make yourself ready to meet people who are partly animal or identical to someone else.

One of the most beloved writers is H.G.Wells.
He was English and lived from 1866 till 1946.


A visionary man who has been writing amazing stories.
One of them is called “The island of Dr. Moreau”.
Made into a film by John Frankenheimer in 1996 with Marlon Brando playing Dr. Moreau.
It is the story of a man who is rescued from a boat accident and brought to an island.
Where he discovers that a doctor is experimenting with cloning and DNA.
Dr. Moreau has managed to make beings that are half human, and half animal.
The issue is of course how to keep those creatures under control.
Obviously this is the thing that fails and the creatures turn against their makers.

The idea H.G. Wells had for the book is founded on a wisdom many people know for centuries.
They know because they see it happen all around them.
When human beings turn against nature, there are always serious repercussions.
Human beings are supposed to live in harmony with nature.
But they don’t.
They try to become the masters of nature.
And this is simply impossible.
Every effort eventually results in disaster, suffering and defeat.

Always humans have secondary reasons to interfere in nature.
They burn down forests to have more agricultural land.
Until it turns out that the disappeared forests were playing an important role in the CO2 conditions of the planet.
They pump up oil to use it in a way that temporarily improves lives of some of the population devastating the environment leaving but havoc for the future.
Concerning health this is also exactly very much the matter.
People refuse to accept that it is only natural to die.
They try to postpone and avoid it.

However, it makes sense of course to develop medical techniques to halt suffering.
Although one would think that this effort becomes only relevant after diseases like malaria are wiped out first.
After we have improved the following facts:

• Each year, more than 8 million people around the world die because they are too poor to stay alive.
• Over 1 billion people—1 in 6 people around the world—live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1 a day.
• More than 800 million go hungry each day.
• Over 100 million primary school-age children cannot go to school.

But these facts are not stopping the developed countries to pour millions in medical research for the well to do.
With the result that now in the United Kingdom the Government has opened the doors to have cloning get out of control.
As expected, Dr. Moreau will soon be born and busy again.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To learn more about H.G. Wells, click on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells

To get the facts about poverty, click on:

http://www.netaid.org/global_poverty/global-poverty/

We are lunatics

In Europe the situation with recreation is different compared to Canada and the USA.
Although European people have more days a year free of work to make holidays, very few have an RV.
One reason is that RV’s are heavily taxed and therefore very expensive.

Many European families spend therefore their holidays in a tent on a campground.
For this they use large tents containing two to three rooms.
And an area to cook.





Next, for happy holidays, they depend of the weather.
Many travel for that reason to the South of Europe to be sure the sun will shine and it will not get wet and cold.
But many stay not far from where they live in the North of Europe and gamble.
If summer is nice, they are fine.
But if it is a bad summer, it is all very miserable.
Sitting in the tent for days playing domino while the rain pours on the canvas or polyester roof.

But now something new is coming to Europe.
A Dutch innovative businessman called Van Der Most is going to open a roof covered camping ground.
He is building a huge hall and people can come and put up their tent underneath the roof.
Yes, dear fervent and loyal blog readers, camping and tenting inside a building.
It is a concept and an idea one needs to get used to but when weather is bad it is easier to accept it and not to think it is absurd.

It is called Freizeitpark Itterbeck in Germany and is in a forest on a piece of 135 hectares of land.

Outside the huge building are a covered swimming pool and a covered playground and a covered restaurant.
People who spend time there go in and come out after their holidays never having seen the sky.
Never hearing the rain drops on the canvas.
Never hear any bird singing the glory of the morning.

This is not good, as many fervent and loyal blog readers will agree.
That is why we suggest the huge hall should be equipped with a big artificial sun.
And once in a while water should be sprayed onto the tents to imitate rain.
And hidden loudspeakers make people hear the birds sing, coyotes cry and airplanes pass over.
Options are to create an artificial earthquake or a devastating flooding by a river.
Or to liberate a wild black bear into the hall at night.

In Miyazaki, Japan, once a huge hall was visited and photographed.


Called the “Ocean Dome”, it is an enormous covered pool with walls painted like it is a tropical island.
The floor is covered with white sand and every half an hour they make artificial waves.



A covered camping ground and a covered tropical island may sound like lunacy.
But be careful!
As was learned in Miyazaki, Japan, thousands and thousands of people go to the “Ocean Dome”, change into bathing suits and relax on the sandy beach like it is the most normal thing to do in life.
For sure many people will make use of the covered camping ground.

Making them people full of sense and the observer the lunatic.






.

Deadly coffee

At 7 o’clock in the morning the work starts at the computer.
Four hours later dizziness damps the awareness too much and a visit is made to the kitchen of Ketcha to have a true cup of coffee.
Made in the Mexican rancho style.
Boiled freshly grained coffee beans.
With sugar, fresh cow milk and a chat.

Ketcha is at the age of 56 the oldest woman at the rancho.
Hence, a central figure.
With authority receiving huge respect.



But Ketcha, her real name is Lucretia, suffers of narrowing blood veins in the legs.
She has had a laser treatment recently that has not been very successful.
Being seriously overweighed, according to the doctor, the laser beams were not able to reach the veins as they are surrounded by too much fat tissue.

Ketcha has spent most of her lifetime standing in the kitchen taking care of the family.
Never doing sports or even walking.
And this on a high calorie Mexican way of eating.

Result is that Lucretia suffers of serious pains in her legs night and days.
This makes her sometimes in bad mood.
Hard to see humour when in such a situation.

Recently a muchacho by the name of Manuel Salvador came to the Fuso Szulc to make a phone call.
Many fervent and loyal blog readers will remember this vividly.
How he got in touch with his girlfriend while his horse escaped.
Yesterday this same Manuel Salavador was met at Alfredo’s house.
At the fence post was a killed falcon.
A bloody wound showing on its breast.
Before, it had been observed that Manuel Salvador was having a rifle under the saddle of his horse.
As one and one is two Manuel Salvador was asked if he was maybe the person who had shot that beautiful falcon.
Yes, he had, so he admitted.
He was asked what sense that made.
Manuel Salvador explained that he had shot the falcon by request of Ketcha.
She is keeping not only goats, but hens as well.
The falcon was going after the chicken and this had made Ketcha instruct Manuel Salvador to kill the bird.
But undeniably, Manuel Salvador loves to shoot birds.
In the canyon the other day, a beautiful owl was found.
Shot and very much dead.
That very day, earlier, Manuel Salvador had been spotted riding his horse in the same canyon.

Of course the visitor of the rancho in his Fuso Szulc is not in the position to lecture Manuel Salvador about his shooting habits.
But maybe some fervent and loyal blog readers will understand that next time Manuel Salvador comes to the Fuso Szulc to make a phone call, the Skype system is unfortunately out of order.

While having the delicious cup of coffee with Ketcha in her kitchen the shooting of the falcon was discussed.
She got very excited.
This approach of hysteria making a sense full discussion hardly possible.
Her point of view is that any animal threatening her chicken will have to pay the price of dying for it.
It was explained to Ketcha that we are only visitors here.
Guests of nature.
That falcons have been living here long before humans settled.
So we should behave nicely towards them.
Ketcha could only look in a most cynical way to this view.
She asked what she could do else to protect her chicken besides killing the attackers?
It was explained that there are these wind spinners.
Multicoloured turning in the wind.
It was proposed to get a bunch of these things and place them everywhere around the rancho where the chicken and hens were wandering.


Because it is always windy the falcons wouldn’t dare to come close fearing those moving and flashing wind spinners.
This intelligent proposal gave Ketcha one of the best moments of her day.
She laughed tears on her cheeks imagining the rancho decorated with these silly objects.

Becoming serious again she also mentioned the terrible dog Gorba.
That he will be killed as well.
Gorba is waiting to be transported to another rancho.
This is delayed and delayed.
Meanwhile the saint-like photographer is using all his authority and reputation with the Gonzales family to stop them executing the dog.
So again, effort was made to calm down Ketcha and explain that for the moment the dog was tied up securely and that soon he will leave the rancho.
To buy time while hoping that friend Erick comes soon with his truck to take the terrible Gorba away.

Having a coffee at Rancho Punta Boca del Salado is rather different from having one in a Starbucks.







.

We are primitive and barbaric

In the history of mankind repeatedly revolutions have been taking place.
Today we focus not on a revolution like the Renaissance that was most of all a spiritual awakening on a large scale.
We give our attention to technological inventions that resulted in revolutions.

Revolution, as the word implies, is intensification in the evolution process.
Getting a boost because a new technological product becomes available.

In photography over the last ten years a revolution has certainly been happening.
The reason is that the invention of the chip and ways to store digital information, has found an excellent place to breed in photography.
In fact it has turned the technique of photography upside down.

It used to be that a photographer used a camera loaded with a film.
Using different kinds of films depending of the need for black and white or colour. Depending of the available light needing films of different sensibility.
And depending of what was preferred needing films for slides or negatives.
After shooting these films, often it was needed to keep them at a low temperature, they had to be developed.

Most photographers had a darkroom and were trained in developing films.
In the same darkroom prints could later be made of the negatives: the result of the developed films.
Making beautiful prints in the darkroom was a skill a photographer had to master.
Standing in a dark room in feeble yellow light in the smoke of the chemical liquids needed to develop and fix the prints.

In those days also an archive was needed.
Every film had to be stored in a special sheet and numbered.
Every sheet in a numbered book.
And an overall book describing all the data of every film.

It was a complex procedure needing professionalism of the highest level.
But it was the only way and many were able to be successful.

All this has fortunately disappeared by the introduction of digital photography.
No more films needed.
No more darkrooms needed.
No more libraries for archives needed.

In a way operating as a photographer has been simplified thanks to digital photography.
To the benefit also of the environment.
No more silver needed and no more dumping of chemicals in nature.

The only thing has been that a photographer had to start all over again.
To learn how to work with digital photography.
How to use exactly in a professional way a sophisticated digital camera.
How to work with software programs like Bridge and Photoshop on the computer.
And how to organise a reliable archive of digital images.

One of the results of the digital revolution in photography is that eventually lesser pictures will remain from the time we live in now.

It used to be that a photographer would shoot on film.
This film would be kept in the archive no matter what.
Because on that film of 36 images, maybe one could possibly have artistic or commercial value.

Nowadays a photographer downloads the images from his digital camera into his or her computer.
And selects which images possibly have commercial or artistic value to dump all the others in the digital garbage bin.

Historians have been looking at film archives of photographers from the past and discovered important images that never had been printed.
This phenomenon cannot happen again.
In the future only those images will be seen that are selected now as being important.

Does that matter?
Maybe it does.
A solution would be that every photographer has the option to not dump his excess images in his or her garbage bin but the option to send them automatically to one central hard drive of enormous proportions.
Billions of images will get stored on that hard drive only for people in the future to study.

Until then the documentation of today’s reality is based only on our vision and selection criteria we are having now.
Scaring.
Because compared to 50 years from now, we are primitive and barbaric.






.

Skyping on horseback

This is a remote area.
Rancho Punta Boca del Salado in Baja California, Mexico.
There is no electricity here except for solar power and generators.
Water is from a well.
And there is no telephone.
No landlines and no signal for mobile phones.

An exception is the Fuso Szulc.
Because it has the Datastorm system, it can make use of SKYPE.
Basically this is making phone calls using the Internet.

This is why on his horse Manuel Salvador came by.
To make a phone call to his sister who is in Cabo San Lucas.

He tied his horse up next to the Fuso Szulc and the phone number was typed into the SKYPE box on the screen of the MacBook Pro.

It has been noticed before that people who are close to nature and who are not used to make phone calls believe they need to shout so they can be heard because the other person is far away.
At one point Manuel Salvador even put one hand next to his mouth to make the sound of his voice carry even farther.
Just as he does when he is on his horse in the mountains calling out to a person far away.

Having a conversation using SKYPE requires some skills.
Because there is a delay, one must wait before to start to speak.
And it blocks the data transmission if the two persons communicating speak both at the same time.

This is why Manuel Salvador didn’t get very far talking to his sister besides shouting constantly: “Qué ? Qué ?? Qué ???”
Not that he had something very important to say.
He just wanted to inform her he was coming to town and her house the next day.



It seemed at least this she got.
Meanwhile his horse had managed to become free of the rein tied to a pole and the noble animal had taken off.

SKYPE works much better when using broadband Internet.
When transmission speeds are higher than what a satellite system offers.
Often this gives the feeling to be in a situation of primitivism and backwardness.
As if using outdated and old fashioned techniques.
We can be sure that within a few years the current system the Fuso Szulc has to connect to Internet with its slow speed will be replaced with a much faster and easier system.

Until then SKYPE is used like being on a horse in the mountains.

Additional information for the fervent and loyal blog readers.
The first results from the project “The most beautiful people in the world” made in China are ready.
They can be seen on the website of the project.
www.themostbeautifulpeople.org







.

Peacefully busy

There is ambivalence.
Living and working these days at Punta Boca del Salado, Baja California, Mexico, the tranquillity, peace and harmony are deeply enjoyed.
An enormous contrast with the excitement and dynamic recently experienced during 3 weeks in Beijing, China.

However, in about 6 weeks there is a new departure.
Going to Europe and proceeding to India.

During this trip time will be spend in the Netherlands to visit family and friends.
And to supervise and handle digital printing in the Amsterdam Digital Photolab in charge of all printing made by this virtuoso photographer.

Definitely days will be spend with family in Poland who are waiting too long and anxiously for quality time together.

Also Paris will be visited.
To see friends and proceed with business with the gallery representing the work and with the publisher of the book of the project “The most beautiful people in the world”.

Last stop in Europe will be Spain to visit Barcelona and the village once lived in, Cadaques.
Again, to see friends and do business.

From Europe a three weeks trip will be made to Mumbay in India.
To perform the project “The most beautiful people in the world” in that multifaceted city.

Preparations are already made these days for those trips to come.
A lot needs to be organized.
Booked, arranged, scheduled, planned, reserved.


Somehow this creates another side to the peace and tranquillity of Punta Boca del Salado.
Where life is so peaceful, relaxed and harmonious.
A certain unrest slips into the being by dealing with the upcoming trip.
An unrest that also could be described as excitement.
The heart starting to beat at a higher rate.
The tension in the nerve system rising.
The fantasy and imagination shooting in all directions creating scenarios more belonging in books.

Another aspect on the plate is dealing with persons who are applying to join the team of the “The most beautiful people in the world” going to work in Mumbay, India.
This is one of the beautiful and interesting things the project is bringing now.
The project makes people meet and have them getting to know each other.

The response to the call to join the project for the last leg in India has been overwhelming.
Somehow this project touches people deeply and makes them want to join the experience to have a share of the uniqueness to enrich their hearts.

Now it is a matter of communicating with the candidates and see with who the best harmony is created.

Punta Boca del Salado is a peaceful place.
But with a lot of excitement.







.

You can run, but you cannot hide

A truck camper pulled in close to the Fuso Szulc to enjoy the fabulous location for a few days.

A green Ford F 250 pick-up truck carrying a Callen camper.
Crewed by Chris and Pamela from Alaska.


They have a company called “Liquid Adventures” that takes tourists on kayak, fishing and surfing trips in Alaska during summer.
The winter months they spend in Baja California, Mexico, camping mostly along the Pacific coast to do their surfing.
Strong winds and cool weather made them come to the East coast of the peninsula.

It is their first trip in the truck camper.
The Ford F 250 they bought from the Forest Service for not too much money.
And the Callen camper really cheap from Craig’s list.
For under 10.000 $ they have a perfect RV.




Last night was dinner.
The observation was made that Chris was cooking and Pam chatting casually with the pleased visitor.
It is always a delight when traditional role patterns are seen to have been changed.

Chris cooked sierra, a fish, with rice in a hot curry sauce.
To drink a cool Japanese Kiri beer.
As a dessert there was a fruitcake baked in a Dutch oven by Pamela.
A delicious dinner in excellent company while out in the boondocks.

Among travellers talking is a lot about experiences that are often shared.
Places both have been.
People both know.
But also the philosophy in life that is intensely shared.
Chris and Pam used to live in Southern California.
They realised that for them it was too crowded there.
Too hectic.
They wanted to be closer to nature and in a more relaxed environment.
Hence, they made the choice to move to Alaska and start a business in that state based on that what they love to do: kayaking and surfing.
Pam said: “So many people tell us that they would love to make the same kind of change in their lives because they are unhappy in their current situation.
But somehow they are unable to make a choice.”
Good for “Liquid Adventures” of course.
People escaping temporarily from an undesired situation to enjoy paradise in Alaska for a week or so.

Another subject discussed over the fruitcake was Marion Jones.
The American athlete uncovered as a liar.
And a criminal.
Now sentenced to 6 months in jail and 400 hours of community service.

The general conclusion in the Callen Camper was that the worst part of what Marion Jones has been doing was not so much the check-fraud for which the others are in jail for over 5 years.
Not so much the fact that she was cheating by taking performance-enhancing drugs.
The worst she has done is that she diarrheaed on her own country.
By winning 3 gold medals at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, she boosted enormously the reputation of the United States.
In the field of education and sports.
In the field of equal opportunities.
Her victories impressed millions of people worldwide with the idea that the American society was sophisticated, advanced and glory full.
It is that aspect of Marion Jones’ behaviour that is so damaging.
Her discrediting of the integrity of her own country.

In this line it is amazing that the Federal judge in her case, Kenneth Karas, has been put under tremendous pressure to sentence Marion Jones to probation only.
Her attorneys even quoted Shakespeare in a vicious way to work on Karas’ feelings.
Defence attorney Hill Allen recited from Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice".
Telling the judge "the quality of mercy is not strained".
And urged Karas to "look into your heart."
And Marion Jones herself used the same tactic.
After all she did, she had the guts to tell the Federal judge, before he sentenced her, that she was scared, nervous and "deeply sorry".
She implored the judge "to be as merciful as a human being can be."
With a catch in her voice, she asked him not to take her away from her two young sons, the younger of whom is still nursing.
In this way it became clear what has been the purpose of all her recent TV appearances where she would openly admit she had been wrong and was asking for forgiveness.
It was the massage to try to stay out of prison.
After the sentence she declared outside the court building:
"I'm very disappointed today".

Marion Jones has not learned one thing of her immoral behaviour, as USA Track & Field president Bill Roe and CEO Craig Masback put it.
It would have been more convincing if she had fully accepted the sentence without the whining.

Everybody in the Callen Camper was feeling pissed of by Marion Jones.
She was so cute.
So warming the hearts.
So excellent.
So beautiful.
And now we realize she was just cheating us.

Hence, the sentence of 6 months in jail and 400 hours of community service was not considered enough of a punishment.
What she needs besides that light punishment, so is the Callen Camper verdict, is to appear on international TV where she has to lower her pants.
To get a thorough spanking she will never forget.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To learn more about "Liquid Adventures", click on:
www.liquid-adventures.com

.

Bitterly complaining for nothing

An almost warring but interesting conversation with good friend Peter.

The warring came from his rather extreme point of view that women pretend to have to suffer each month but that men do so every day.
Peter means that for most of her life a woman each month menstruates during 2 to 7 days.
While having this period, the woman has to facilitate a clean and hygienic response.
Next, Peter explained that a man has a beard growing on his face and needs to shave every day.
Not only during 2 to 7 days this bodily maintenance has to take place, but every day of the month.

The tendency of Peter’s way of putting these two things next to each other was, that women sometimes make a big thing of their period while in fact it is the man who holds all the cards to complain bitterly.

It was a point of view rarely seen of such a high level of silliness.

Peter was offered the information that often menstruation comes with heavy pains.
That many women suffer greatly each month and often need medication to deal with the period.
This was waved away.
Shaving, according to Peter, was not painless either.
During the process of shaving itself, the cutting of the hairs is hurting especially when a cheap razor is used.
Often, in spite of good carefulness, the razor cuts into the flesh causing bleeding, pain and a demonstration during days of an unsuccessful shaving exercise.
Last, according to Peter, there is the “burning”.
This is a pain a man feels after shaving.
An intense pain on the cheeks like a forest burning.
“And all this a man is experiencing every damned day of the month”, said Peter, “so don’t give me that crab of 2 Tylenol days a month”.

Next, Peter was presented with the facts that menstruation is a naturally occurring phenomenon, only seen in humans and apes.
And this is the same for a man and his beard.
But the man is not obliged to shave.
A woman has no choice.
She is obliged to take care of herself.
A man can stop shaving and ignore the growing of the facial hair while it would be disastrous if a woman would have the same attitude when having her period.
To just let it go like growing a beard.

According to Peter, this is not the right way to put it.
Even when a man decides not to shave anymore, and he lets grow a beard, this needs maintenance.
A beard needs cutting and trimming and sometimes even shaving in certain areas of the face.
It continues to be a daily occupation.

Lastly, Peter was reminded that most women these days, do shave also.
“You mean, the ones with a moustache?” he unkindly asked.
Of course this was not what was referred to.
It is the armpits that are kept hairless by many women.
Peter happened to know that women shave their armpits while taking a shower.
Often eventually resulting in blocked shower drains.
And this kind of shaving, Peter claims, is not a very serious activity.
Just four vertical strokes in each armpit and that’s it!

The conversation fortunately ended on the latest news from a biologist from the Netherlands presented to Peter.
It turns out that in Europe lice have almost disappeared.
This has to do with a fashion that came from Brazil several years ago.
The Brazilian fashion is that women, but men also, shave their pubic hair.
This is not only attractive for certain persons, but it is also hygienic.

As a consequence, the conclusion is that a woman has her monthly period.
On top of that, she has to shave her armpits.
And now her leg pit needs shaving every couple of days as well.

Compared to the simple activity of the daily shaving of the face by the man, he lost all rights to complain for even one second.

To this Peter had nothing more to say.




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