he just dies

This Coptic Pope who just died in Egypt , Shenandua  I believe was his name -

banned members of his congregation from visiting Christian sites in Israel, stating that Christians should only go to Jerusalem hand in hand with Muslims once the conflict between Israel and Arab states was resolved.

That is a stance I haven't heard before!

White can be evil, all about food

Of course there are white witches and wizards who belong to the cast that is above average grey. That is not what I am talking about. Those are cool. I am talking about food.
There has been a study out there the other day, that hepatitis-B is more common amongst people who eat white rice only (to their meal). And that is a majority of people in Asia and in the USA, maybe in other places as well, I don't know.
White should be out-banned in foods in general, except for the occasional exception.
1. Refined white sugar
2. Refined white salt
3. Refined white rice
4. Refined white flower
So, if we sometimes are so gracious to ship bags of rice to African nations who are starving - remember this phrase: White kills white AND also black!
I guess that is a statement that enters the non-food section.
All I wish to say is, "refining" (whitening) foods don't make them better.
Time to go back to the actual harvest, the crop that nature intended to offer.

and so it goes

http://youtu.be/umRRCkspaQU

Lighten up, not all things in life are devious.

Click on at at the title "and so it goes", that is the hot link to the short video.

Filth

Look at this picture one more time, perhaps somewhat more closely. This is a man who happens to have a long neck, a mustache like Hitler - and a third of his brain is cut off. The top of is head is flat like a pan.
Then look at his eyes, narrow, close together, a susceptible sign of zero tolerance. His lower ear-lobes are not free but connected to the skin of the upper cheek. A sign of self-indulgence and self-righteousness.
I could go on forever. And even with the possibility of a death-squad knocking at my door, I will remain honest and tell the world that this guy is evil, always was, always will be. I mean, look at this picture - is this not pitiful?
I do not know what fate brought him to the "throne of Syria", little do I know what is happening there in the present. One thing I do know, this idiot has to go.
Sorry Assad, but you really look like the fool on the hill.

No more

Irrelevant. The pretentious whore turned out to be a filthy, hairy male prostitute, not that she or he was of any interests to me, but I stayed curious. 12:30 in the afternoon, she came back from a smoke outside, and then it (he/she) raised it's arms, revealed a super hairy belly, it almost made me puke at the restaurant in this train station. Transvestites are not my primary choice.And then there was this old  papa, sitting there every-time when I wait for my train connection after I have went shopping. He is absolutely "out of it", derailed, talks sweet nonsense to everyone, starts singing songs at times randomly, well known tunes, with a passion. 
Then I observed a father and a child. They were kind to each other. Very refreshing. I wondered how the mother of this child looks like and where she was hiding, or working?
I know one thing now, perfection is not a pursuit of riches and money which we seek. Instead somehow your blessed palm will capture a sparkle that dropped from the sky. And it sparkled long enough for you to get inspired indefinitely.
That is linear, and this non-linear complexity supported by Einstein's theory of self-persecution, e2-what? You forgot the formula? Perhaps you are an artist! It never mattered anyway - Einstein was a freak, and he never made a secret of it. He was able to compose passion and still keep his posture. And sort of left-handed he jerked out the theorem of relativity. Pretty brilliant move. Do I adore him? Absolutely.


(All imagery is mine of course, soundtrack is stolen from the Web, it happened to be from Whithesnake - cheers!)

Alcohol

What is interesting with these statistics is, that Mushrooms and LSD fair on the bottom of all the habitual poisons of self-destruction, and that alcohol tops it. On top of that, they (the hounds of statistics) found out that LSD will decrease the desire for alcohol, taken just one trip (medium strength) and thereby decrease desire towards alcohol, and the effect will last a year. Funny how one drug cancels out an other. 
I am not advertising Hoffman La Roche's "miracle cure" here, and I am definitely not giving you a green light to try LSD. That drug is not a trip, it is a voyage. And if you do not have a good coach (or several) - taking this substance might turn out to be disastrous to your health and well being - and, you might experience permanent damage.
So said, I have to be honest, I did try it once myself, in 1981. The journey was  spectacular and I found myself crossing borders and opening doors I had never touched before. All inner energy was absolutely focused, you were able to shatter a brick-wall with the blink of your eye, no kidding. And you perceived the future about three seconds before it happened. 
Would I do it again? NO! Once was enough. I do not want to spoil the treat. It can not be redone.
So what do I do now? I silently moved up to the top of the list, namely alcohol, and I hate it! And I am getting rid of it as I speak ... even with help - not my usual style, but I accept!
What is missing on this chart is mescaline, that cactus derived thing. Or maybe I just oversaw it. Never would try it anyway.
One of the more stupid songs of Lennon comes to mind here:
"All you need is love, tatahdadadah". Drug of the future? Maybe.

I am kind of pissed off

I am kind of discombobulated, because the friend who originally invited me to Switzerland to work here, said that all my writings are worth shit, garbage, no purpose. His Zen mastery elevated him to an other plain I guess. You know, give him grief to be able to learn more about Zen, perhaps that will suffice, first suffering, then clarification. You can climb a mountain barefoot, but you can not walk a mountain ridge without shoes.
Snow calms my valleys, but spring will melt the ice.
You all be well.

I am tired about Syria, Israel and Iran

All the time, the BBC reports about Syria, since days and weeks on end. I am sick of it. 
Netanhaho met Obama in the US, and Obama said, Israel will always be supported, no matter what....  no matter what cause, no matter what situation. 
So Iran is the target of Israel now, their so called capability to produce nuclear bombs? 
I am not sure why there is always unconditional, unilateral  support from the US to Israel?!  It actually bothers me. Is it the film industry (mostly Jews), the bankers (mostly Jews), the politicians (mostly Jews)? What makes it possible for the US to always have a blind eye, when it comes to the situation of Israel? What is so special about this British, after WW2 constructed enclave?What is so special about Israel that makes it untouchable?
Obama: "When the chips are down, we will always support Israel. Israel will always be our partner."
Is this a game or a gamble?
Netanhaho: "When it comes to the security of Israel, we will never falter and always pursue our own interests, even if we have to bomb Iran to protect our national security". 
This is a sad line from a country who produced some of the worlds most gifted and talented artists in the past (20th century), writers, musicians, free-thinkers, architects, biologists, scientists. 
Now they are just fighting for their blood, not their geniuses, not their intellectuals, not their artists, not their reasonable common man or woman.
They act just like Nazi's towards Palestine and the local population, kind of queer, if you consider this reversal of history. The promised land is not a state with borders. It is in your heart that you embrace nations without fences. That is the only method. Religions might be important and cute. But in the end, on the bottom line, tolerance and mutual cultural understanding will rule the day.
Hence, Obama and all of the US support systems of Jews is wrong, Netanhaho and Israel is wrong. I do not say this easily, because I respect both sides. 
Welcome to WWIII!
Why don't we simply let regional people figure out their own fate, may it be in the Middle-East or in some other continent without interference. But I guess that is too hard for a cowboy to understand.

What focus?

Now that I am still struggling to find the right stellar constellation in the passing of my own biography, I simply went to the little Zoo in La Chaux de Fonds. Kind of interesting, haven't looked at caged animals for a while. We should stuck some of the human species in there as well, might give it more suspense. These humans who can't even protect themselves with adequate skin or fur. They use cloth instead, very dependent on that stuff. So I saw these purple fishes, and I kept wondering why in all earth they choose to be purple - some kind of vanity maybe?

Then I spied a donkey or a mule with a fine girl, the mule or donkey being free to trot around wherever it wanted. That was more to my liking.

Then I past the snake behind thick glass, a poisonous viper, don't know which hell they came from. If I ever visit a tropical country who harbors nasty snakes, I will get a gun and shoot them all.

I hate snakes

Three churches in one block, what's up with that?

The "old" part 

The "new" part (mini Manhattan)

This animal, some kind of mountain lion, is more to my liking. I wouldn't mind if this beast would catch me and then kill me. A snake NO, this animal YES! I suppose I am a biased creature.
I went to a church today in Langenthal, about two hours away from my place. I do it out of curiosity. I was singing along, text was projected with power-point.
The melodies were simple. But why this structure. Do people really need a church to find the spirit within themselves? I sometimes wonder. On the way home in the train I talked to a Sikh  from India, about religion and Swiss watches, who he does import to India - and of course also about the faltering US economy. I am not sure where this is going, but the kernel is: The west is not (anymore) the best.
There is still innovation "here", but all production is outsourced to Asia. The workers starve, because there is no more job to do, there are no more factories or production centers. The USA has become a wasteland. It is sad - with so much potential... but unfortunately a complete breakdown of all infrastructures. Water, electricity, roadways, trains, etc. It will collapse, and I am truly not a doomsday fagot. All there is left, is to start anew, kind off a bit of a  Eisenhower mood, though I did not particularly liked that President. Obama will probably win second term. But what is he gonna do? There is shambles by his feet, there are ruins in Detroit, (worse than Eastern Europe before the wall came tumbling down) - a health care system that mimics disaster, and 1% who earn 75%, 10% who earn 20% of all other the possible income - and the best of the rest, that thing which was supposed to be called middle class, those forlorn 89% of the population are poor suckers who carry the rich. Pretty disgusting really. Almost 90% people pay, for the rest to get away in glory.
The proposal Obama came up with to tax people fairly who happened to earn more than one million dollar, vanished in quick sand. It didn't gel with the Republicans.
Apple (God bless Steve Jobs) is now the number one company in the world counting assets and income. But what do they do? They invent new projects and designs on the West Coast in the USA, then ship manufacturing to China. Levi's is the same, once a brand-mark or trademark of US pride, now a conglomerate of different factories on mainland China. Nothing against China, they do it the way they have to do it. Nevertheless, it takes my breath away.
More close to my own reality. I carved and copied old carvings for a year, for a museum, earned about 28 US dollars an hour - not a big deal you would say. Now then, after a year, the museum wanted to save money. So they send plaster casts to be worked on to Malaysia, the wooden copies came back, not as refined and as authentic as I had manufactured them, but oh well, they were there, they were cheap, for 15 Dollars a day. Good enough, nobody will notice.  
I am not sure if capitalism in its present form will survive, it acts like a scorpio who is ready at any moment to kill itself. That is not a futile future.
I watched this Australia filmed movie series "Mad Max" - desolation, fear, brutality, anger, despair, complete loss of reality --- I do not need to go there now, but being there, in such a space - this is not who we are. It does not need to end up this way. We are always stronger than  this ghost of self-destruction, who keeps bugging us to succumb to insanity.
We are still humans, and not machines.
We actually can care about each other.
And, we will give it a new try!   




  

Nordic Light

This is a copper relief of mine, pinned up at an outside  wall of a restaurant in south-western Germany. The dimensions are roughly four by five feet. The name "Nordic Light".
It is a bit crowded with forms, I would do it differently now, more simple. 
Simplicity can be a form of life, perhaps a solution to our ever accelerating lifestyle that wastes the focus and essential on the immediate. I do not know much about Zen-Buddhism, but I am attracted by its contemplative simplicity. What is quiet, can also listen. 
I do not want to go into great lengths of this, but no matter what your spiritual outlook, your religion - or even if you are a gnostic (you know, atheists don't really exist, they just think they do) - simplicity in life matters, the beauty is in front of your nose. And that can be spiritual.
With all the accelerating troubles in the world, I wish that you can demonstrate to be a beacon, a true "nordic light" that does shine all over. 
And next time I say it simpler, more in the Zen way.
That's Zee for you today.

Ani Difranco performs Manhole@Bonnaroo

 I am not a super fan of hers, but I do like this life performance. She also did a "song" called Self-evidence short after 9/11, it was brilliant. Sometimes I see her more as a poet (feminine term escapes me right now) than a musician. Though when she hits the strings, it is skillful bouncing all over. A gifted lady indeed!

"Manhole"


I'm holding here a book
Notable, but not the greatest
Stolen for me by the latest
In a long line of thieves
And I'm just about to drop it
Down that manhole of memories
When I realize it doesn't bother me
Like love's mementos usually do
And I look up to see who's different here
The latest me or the latest you


Course, you're the kind of guy who doesn't lie
He just doctors everything
Chooses some unassuming finger
And quietly moves his wedding ring
Who rewrites his autobiography
For any pretty girl who'll sing
But you can't fool the queen, baby
Cuz I married the king


And maybe it was I who betrayed his majesty
With no opposite reality
Like a puddle with no reflection
Of the sky or the trees
But after my dreaded beheading
I tied that sucker back on with a string
And I guess I'm pretty different now
Considering


I kissed you on the street that night
On the far side of four
But I didn't like the taste
In my mouth or yours
And ignoring the persona you wore for my benefit
For once I had the balls to call it
Just call it
But a lesson must be lived
In order to be learned
And the clarity to see and stop this now
That is what I've earned


And maybe it was I who betrayed his majesty
With no opposite reality
Like a puddle with no reflection
Of the sky or the trees
But after my dreaded beheading
I tied that sucker back on with a string
And I guess I'm pretty different now
Considering


I'm holding here a book
Notable, but not the greatest
Stolen for me by the latest
In a long line of thieves
And I'm just about to drop it
Down that manhole of memories
When I realize it doesn't bother me
And heartache not so dire
Cuz I looked up to see integrity
Finally won over desire

as I understand

A woman or a man flew a kite, the picture is fuzzy I know, it was cold. My camera did not obey. Sorry.
But from my window I saw this person struggling with air and wind, amazing!
Sometimes he or she was grounded on the icy snow, just being there ... just contemplating.
How much courage does it take to fly a kite on a midd winter afternoon,  how much energy can we spur up for such a task? It might seem banal and unimportant to you, but I still believe in the finding of the treasure.
Now  - that is this thing, the treasure  is buried in your heart, a golden ray which goes beyond anxieties, beyond worries and pain. The thread becomes the path.
The kite-flyer maybe had no message at all, but what she or he did was to unbound gravity, even if it was just for a moment.

As the Syrian, Egyptian and other Middle Eastern States' struggle to go on - I sometimes wonder and muse about my own directions, what kind of revolution or evolution do I picture and want?
And most importantly, if I happen to have such a vision, even if it is scant, what would it be, how would it be transformed? How can something be implanted which is created in good will to common grounds, for anybody to be picked up. I don't know the answer yet, but it will come to me when I see it. I used to do sculptures with 
a passion, I thought I could meander into peoples mind, cheer them up, make them wonder. It is not anymore so. One of my later creations - which I actually finished, was "Diving for Pearls", a contribution for a girl who actually did that, not in the ocean, but in her heart.


Neil Young, the old junky hippie once wrote a song, it was called: "Searching for a heart of gold" - and on every ending line he said ... and I'm getting old.
That is how I feel, I am getting old - and the world in general grows old on me with all their bullshit, their endless survival techniques to vitalize capitalism and endless growth, instead of capturing that what is in front of their nose, the shiny dew drop that fell from the heavens, sparkling. A gift.
Still, I propose that sculpture is the bond or the link between humans and nature. Many have succeeded to do so, I will try my best to follow suit. 

Stupidity Tax to save the World

I have a new concept, it is called the "stupidity tax".  While Obama raves about normal statue of  taxation for people with over one million Dollar income, the G20 people in Davos chitt chat in hotel rooms of how to solve the "Euro crisis", Brussels will be next, same spiel.
Despite Obama's energetic speech when he addressed the Union, the question remains, and that is a question also to the "occupier movement":
  can emphasis on growth and  a "smart" budget  work? It does not belong into my vocabulary, that you can shrink and be lean and grow at the same time, that is an oxymoron.


They better make up their minds, those politicians and bankers, the CEO's of larger companies, the  investors who invest in blind faith.
Hence I propose a "stupidity tax" - only payed to me, for people who just blab in Davos and other places. I will keep 10% as overhead for the administrative costs, the rest will be donated to viable and needed projects around the world for people in need.


The "stupidity tax" is 5% of your annual income.


Once the world becomes a bit more sane, this tax will not be needed anymore and all goes back to normal. In the mean time - donate!

pastel

The moon rises in the east,
just like the sun
to whom it may concern
reflections have begun.
-----------------------------


I wish you could visit me here again
after you left your wild flowers
gathered on a common pasture,
dried up now, colors still imbued
and life goes faster and faster
we build our own towers
but will they ever sustain?






Now, it is not about moon and flowers
we tend to survive by will and fate
which lies in our heart, a fragile gate


Love is like a broken arrow buried in your flesh
you know it is there, but it is beyond rescue
the whole web of things these days will test you
it is time to escape this mesh


Love is like a Big Mac from MacDonald's
you taste one slice, then you discover number two
will and heart combined
isn't it fascinating?
you will just have to bite through.


I wish you could visit me here again,
after wild flowers have dried
I certainly have tried
but I am still in pain.

I have no grasp on this

Since I live in Switzerland, I got accustomed to the reality of Swiss radio.
It goes like this: 10% World News, 20% National News, 40% Financial News - the other 30% are dedicated to sports and traffic irregularities, and the weather of course.
The biggest chunk of reporting tries to analyze the financial sector. I listen to it, but as much as I do, I understand less and less. Perhaps I am just stupid, but the so called "financial crisis" in Europe makes no whatever sense to me at all. All I hear, is that countries wish to borrow money from other countries, and preferably with low interest rates. Now Standars & Poors downrated several European States, which leads again to a credit crunch.
Now, you must correct me, show me the way to understand. Why is it so, that all countries need to borrow money from other states (especially the United States) to fill their coffers?
How can this work? You borrow money from each other, then again from each other just to make the government work ... somewhat, until the next crisis.

This is a bit complicated, because I have had not the energy to think this through. So I will act as Simple Simon! Here are my questions.
When states borrow money from states who have no money either, where does the actual money come from, or be held?
How can nations get away with flabbergasting debts and continue on that course, while we citizens are ordered to keep a sane fiscally balanced household otherwise greedy banks will chop our head off with two digit interest rates and penalties.
And Italy whines - if they have to pay more than 4% interest on loans for their state coffers.
I guess my question really is: How come that capitalism got so harsh, that it defeats it's own means and direction?
Unlimited growth,  and expansive profit gains for each quarter can not be the future, it is against all common sense. No government can expect longevity on such premisses and borrow money from something, which there is not, in order to maintain a certain status quo.
They just found some fossil collections of Darvin's in a drawer. Perhaps Darwin was right after all: The world evolutes around the fittest for survival.
But how does that apply to nations? Borrow less? Be more self-sufficient?
I have no specific recipe, just like the demonstrators at Wall Street. But I have a feel that this whole system will come to a halt, just like the cruise ship on the Italian coast.

Stairway to what?

In the German language, sky and heaven have an identical name, there is just one word for it: "Himmel".
God lives in the "Himmel", clouds pass randomly there above, the sun sets there. It is an interesting fusion. The English tongue differs. 
You either go to heaven or hell, but while your at it, you might watch the splendor of the sky. 
Language reflects an interesting issue about the mentality of cultures. I wish I could speak them all!