On Happiness and Wisdom.

 We all find it important to be happy; and it is easy to be happy, but it is an activity to make oneself actually happy.

Happiness does not always come just like that out of nowhere. Just like unhappiness or suffering comes from some reason.  Happiness is the contrary of suffering. Our most well-known and followed Holy teacher Jesus the Christ, which means actually: any unexpected deliverer, savior or rescuer; acknowledged the suffering of the people of his religion, which was Judaism.  He saw that an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth would leave the whole world blind and speechless. He came therefore with His New Message of Love, and was rejected and killed.

600 years before Jesus there was another teacher who saw the suffering of his people, and he found The Way to stop the suffering. He was one who had achieved a state of perfect enlightenment, a holy man, a holy person, a saint, a person of exceptional holiness, which was the Buddha. He taught Wisdom as a way to overcome suffering. 
Western scholars have pointed out a number of curious parallels between certain passages given in the Buddhist Astasahasrika-prajnaparamita-sutra and the Christian Revelation, and here I quote of the Astasahasrika-prajnaparamita Sutra:

“Perfect Wisdom spreads her radiance…and is worthy of worship. Spotless, the whole world cannot stain her. In her we may find refuge; her works are most excellent; she brings us to safety under the sheltering wings of enlightenment. She brings light to the blind, that all fears and calamities may be dispelled…and she scatters the gloom and darkness of delusion. She leads those who have gone astray to the right path. She is omniscience; without beginning or end is Perfect Wisdom, who has Emptiness as her characteristic mark; she is mother of the bodhisattvas*. She cannot be struck down, the protector of the unprotected.”

The word marked by the asterisk* explained here:
*Those who are allowed to see the truth under the agreement that they will communicate it to others, also: An enlightened being who, out of compassion, forgoes nirvana in order to save others, or literally an "enlightenment being"- to keep free all beings from the coils of suffering.

Bodhisattva Captain Zen

Respect is the keyword today and very much concern about the lack of it. Re- means again, like in return, review, research, -spect comes from looking, as in spectator, spectacle. Respect means look again, to look twice, to double look.If someone respects the law he looks very good at it and if someone demands respect he has something that merits looking at him again. Where people live impulsively, acting on the spur of the moment, doing whatever the basic instinct dictates, respect does not come into play. Only to look once, without thinking and to do without thinking is lacking respect. Know Thy Self means the same as respect yourself, look at yourself. Not after it is too late, after a stupid act took place, when one finds him/herself in trouble, but before. Apologies always come too late, sorry always is a waste of words. It always means disrespect. My wish to all educators and all who want to learn: look again, and again and again, until you see. Remember the words of Jesus: He who has eyes, that he may see.

To answer the Jewish person that replied on my letter about Israel and wanted to know my religion. I am religious, yes, and very much so, but I have not one established so called religion. I have been called a Gnostic, someone who has God in his very being; and nothing stands between me and God. No dogma, rule, organization,  cult or group. From my earliest days the world has tried to make me believe that the Jewish god is jealous and should be feared, the Christian god is not one but three, the Islam prophet with his twelve wives was the true One and that Krishna should be my guide to the Divine, as well as Buddha whose teachings will lead to enlightenment. I studied all and every way, followed all the ceremonies, kissed the hands of priests, visited the Pope, drunk Jesus blood and ate his body, I saw the Dalai Lama and sung Orthodox Gregorian psalms, all to no avail. Not an inkling of the Divine. Untill my journey was directed inward and I got rid of the endless teachings of the religious conmen and priests and leaders. Only when I made myself empty of the past and arrived at the present, now, did I start to see the light. In the nothingness wherewith the Bible begin, in the emptiness of nothingness, did the Divine enter. By putting away myself God could enter. Call it meditation, or watchfulness, or awareness, call it love.. When I see the trees dance in the wind and the flowers open to shed their perfume, when the children come laughing to dance around me and the birds sing their song, I know that I am part of the universe, part of what you call God. By dismissing old rules of the past and becoming a presently living human being, I experience religiousness. And I recommend every person to look inward to find the center of your being where no other than pure knowledge can judge your self, where God resides in all its pureness and love. Unfortunately, this truth cannot be thought, it can only be experienced. It cannot be learned or received or given. You can only discover yourself by observing yourself and by fading out all lies and untruths, Until the Truth takes over. You was born out of love, it is your very core. Rediscover it it by shedding all learned rules and regulations, peel away layer  after layer of so called knowledge until you find back your inner emptiness, where the original you, made of love, resides. I'll meet you there.

Let me tell you once again, the reasons for  violence, crime, insecurity, lack of respect.

Like a blind man groping in the dark is the person asking about solutions for the violence, the lack of concern, the hate and the pain it causes. Jesus message of love has never been implemented by the churches that have sprouted up around His ideas and teachings. Born out of love and born with love everybody should be loving. But the politicians and priests have destroyed that love from day one. Love makes one a rebel. Rebel against the lies and the hate. Against the possessiveness of the world. Love does not posses. Love is freedom. And freedom does not exist in this world of frontiers, religious laws and capitalistic money hoarding. Frustration is the result of those people who cannot suppress their love any longer. The church wants you to be their member and nobody else’s member. You  belong to this or that church, you are not free, you cannot be love. Love cannot be restricted to one thing only, then it is not love, then it is preference. One must love his country, but can only do so by hating ,or not so strong, disliking other countries. Every nation calls itself best, implementing that others are worse. There is no love in that. Every persons intrinsic nature is love when born. From the beginning this love is curbed, destroyed and corrupted. What of a jealous God that tolerates no other? Is that Love? The religions have created fear, the opposite of love. Only people that are afraid are easy to manipulate. A person of love knows no fear. Love is courageous. The politicians and the priests work hand in hand, you always see them together at official happenings. They do not want loving people, they cannot be manipulated. The natural love that is everybody birthright is hidden, hurt, damaged, but not destroyed completely, it cannot disappear totally. Hence the rebellion, the frustrated violence, the crazy deeds from those who themselves not know why they go crazy. In fact everybody is part of the madness. Except for those few that come like Jesus, with words of love, and whips to chase the moneymakers, and words of comfort for the whores, nobody gives in to the natural love that is the basic source of life. People like Jesus that want to change the hate policy and the wrong of the authorities are killed, deported or otherwise eliminated. Society has no place for those who are filled with love. When love is in a person, why should he go to a church or temple to look for God? When he is dancing, happy, full of gods love, why look for god in books, temples? That is why we have this violence, crime and problems in the world. And here in our own backyard. When more people are involved in planting trees and flowers than in making weapons and war, maybe the world would begin to heal. It won't happen. For those who feel the wrongs, because love is still alive  inside, hold on, you are not alone, a few of us are always around, But to protect ourselves we must operate under the surface, low profile. Because we upset the policies from church and state.    

I am here again to educate and help to modernize your old fashioned view of sexual conduct. Because the way you and most older people have been thinking about sex has only led to HIV infections, teen pregnancies and  abortions, frustrations, feelings of guilt and domestic violence, rape and unhealthy sexual practice.

Your habit of hiding the truth about the beauty of  sex has never done any good or helped young curious people one bit.

I agree that sex is not the only matter in the life of men and women. It is however the means by which all men and women came and will come into this world. And it is on the minds of every young person, if not all of the time, then much of the time.

Humanimals  are the only animals that can consciously enjoy sex for other reasons than procreation. Western religion-makers of old needed to control the masses and as sex is enjoyed by everyone, they made sex a sin, and they condemned sex as long as it was not done like animals, for multiplication only...Which scared the ignorans enough to do what the church told them to do.

In the East this mean idea was never developed and there it was that ways where discovered to reach heavenly ecstasy and even enlightenment through artful sexual conduct. They call this art Tantra. The pleasures of the body are cultivated, and things like bondage, rape and sado-masochism are unheard of in the East. They are the product of the churches condemnation of the most natural thing that can happen between two humanimals.

In mother nature’s world, sex is the main reason for everything that happens, for how things look, smell and sound. Flowers that turn into fruits do that for procreation. Fragrance of flowers and also smells of humans are to attract the other gender. It is for the joy of living that sexual activities are created by God. All of us are equipped with the tools to enjoy each another. Colors  and fragrances of  flowers are to attract insects that will enter the flower to get at the honey that is deep inside so that the insect will get pollen on its skin which often is hairy, like the bee, in order to pick up as much as possible to bring it  to other flowers so they can reproduce.

Songs that birds sing in the forest, are to attract birds of the other gender, in order to meet and breed. Even the good taste of some berries and fruits eaten by birds are sexual tricks from the trees and bushes that produce them. The birds and  other animals that eat them do often not digest the seeds inside these fruits  and carry them far away  from the original source.

Lipstick, eye shadow and other cosmetics are to make men  look, and to arouse them. Today’s fashion of  bare backs with a few flimsy strings,  super low pants that reveal  belly buttons and at times more, are to arouse  men, because men get visually turned on.

What the Church does, to use the sexual urge as a means to control people is nothing but a crime against humanity. We have seen that the so called celibate priests go to young innocent boys to satisfy their sexual urges.

It is up to us, responsible adults, to inform the young ones about the great pleasures that can be had with good sexual  conduct, how to avoid pregnancy and diseases, how to get the most out of each encounter. Forgiven are those adults that themselves never had the pleasure and cannot transmit this knowledge. If you are one of those you should abstain from informing the young and the curious, because what you didn’t experience yourself, you cannot teach.

Beware of the one who knows not, but be warned even more for the one who pretends to know...

It's hard to put a date on it, but some time ago, women became emancipated. They invade the workplace, other than housemaids and nurses I mean, and they became a considerable force in the economics of the country. Also in politics do we have women active, and often more so than their male colleges. The emancipation has changed society. It has made many women independent and free. For the family value, many still seek the company of men, which is not always the reason why men seek the company of women. Men for the most part have not kept up with the emancipation and men have not developed and progressed at all. They still live in the past where women had to rely on them for shelter, food and protection. Many men today still do not accept that women are just like them, that they like to be free, independent, strong and in command. I try not to pinpoint exceptions, outstanding examples of excessively strong women, female presidents. pirates even, or scientists. I try to look at the many women that have not had the chance to good or higher education, that have no good paying jobs and that still find themselves in the hands of men that abuse them. It is those men that cannot accept that their dominant role is over. Through centuries of male dominance, men feel that they can abuse women and get away with it. Even today, even here on Sint Maarten do men beat up women and think that they are right. How to stop this is beyond my comprehension other than to tell every man who reads this that he must watch himself and all other men he knows. That every man must look deep inside and find that he is only half of Gods creation, and that woman is the other half, which makes us equal. If man has rights, so has woman. if he can screw around so can she. If he can work, so can she.

If there is no equality, then slavery is not yet abandoned. Mental slavery, economic slavery. And religious slavery as well, because the Bible makers of old where men who did not want to admit the power of women and women have been underrated from the first days of so called Christianity. They could not and still cannot get into the high church jobs, reserved for men only. How long it will take before men understand what it means to love a woman or how to love women, apart from getting sexual favors of them, nobody knows, but every man can start to watch his own behavior and in case it needs adjustment, do it. Is it not amazing that for the protection of battered women a foundation had to be made: Safe Haven, while no such thing is needed for men. That should explain enough.

To those who seek (and will find, at some point in time), I recommend: the Masters.  Look for them in the library, on the internet and everywhere, because they are here to help. Call them what you want, do not believe (in) them, but study what they have to say.  And do not stop by One, seek More of Them, All of Them and recognize that there are many. You are not alone.

Here follow the names under which some are known. 

Bob Marley

Jesus

Osho

Neale Donald Walsh

Mahavira

Rudolph Steiner

Gautama the Buddha

Michael Jackson

Gurdief

Erasmus

Eckehardt

The Masters have tried through times memorial to help mankind and the human individual. There are two kind of Masters, those that dwell in the  Radiant Light and sit still to  wait for  seekers to find them and those that also found Enlightenment but go out to teach as many individuals as possible to lift them over and above their present state of ignorance, poverty, suffering and loneliness. Some use songs and music, even jokes and tricks. These Masters or Enlightened Ones, or Buddha’s, or Saviors, or Christ’s, call them Stars, have given methods of learning, solutions, ideas and concepts to alleviate the pain and the mental agony that exists in every human being that has a thinking and awakening mind.  You know in your soul that there is more than what we have here now. There must be more than the killing, the intolerance, the sexual repression, the hunger and poverty. Not one Master alone can satisfy all. But all the Masters together can teach many. Study them, read them, listen to them. Do not follow them but take their advice and ideas and create your own reality with the knowledge they supply. The list of Masters is very much longer than what I put here, and some are more appealing to you than others. Take your pick, you will find more of them while you go along. They will confirm your deepest hidden knowledge and bring it to the surface again. Do not follow them, they do not want dogs, do not obey them, they set no rules.  Recognize your deepest self in their words and let your True Being emerge. Their Word is  the same Truth that  lives deep inside of you but has been buried and covered over by useless information for many years. Throwing out your learned nonsense makes place for the Emptiness or Void that is required for Gods Wisdom to enter. 

Imagine an engine block of  a car, or a plastic housing for a telephone, or a pillar supporting a house, or an ice cube. These things have been made in molds. A mold is an empty space in the shape of the thing wanted. A liquid substance is put in the mold where it takes the shape of the cavity. The liquid substance, be it hot plastic, molten iron, concrete or water solidifies inside the mold which is then opened for the object to emerge. The item could not come into existence without the emptiness of the mold. The same is true for what you call “God’s” Wisdom. This what you call “God”  is Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Creativity, Perfect Compassion and Love, it can only enter you when you create  space for it. As long as you are full of thoughts and ideas of what you call God or Allah or Brahman or Jehovah, It can not enter you. It needs a totally virgin, empty mind. Does not the Bible begin with the words: In the beginning there was NOTHING? That NO-THING is needed for “God”, which I call the Unified Field, or simply the Universe, to begin its Work. The Masters try to let you find that Void, that Emptiness in which “God” can manifest itself. Through you “God” wants to Be. But how can “God” enter you when your mind is full of so called “knowledge” (of religions for instance), which is believed by you, which you cling to as a barnacle to a ship. The space that “God” should occupy is already filled up. You have stashed years of useless information and your mind is churning the same information over and over and you reach no where. If only you could empty your head, let go of all you ever learned, all you believe in, all that you are presently “following”. You could then find the Light and be True and Free and an instrument for God to play.  

Hearing the dreadful news on the international radio waves, I realize how very fortunate we On St. Maarten/Martin are. Earthquakes, floodings, wars, murder and rape trials, ethnic and religious violence, the list is endless. The world has made hell for itself. Man against man in all its ugly forms. Why this is so, I cannot understand. How men have let themselves be so sickly indoctrinated with beliefs in superiority and so blinded as to fight other men, of the same race and country often, anyway, of the same planet, the globe. This silly idea of globalization has until now done nothing to bring peace and understanding to the planet. Neighbors are fighting as never before, weapon production is in full gear and the hate between nations goes on. The primitively is everywhere and civilized behavior is almost unheard, of. Efforts to curb violence are not made, to curb the fabrication of weapons, to educate for love and constructive environment protection, to broaden the minds of the young, none of it. Religions continue to shout their superior position over others, nations continue to reinforce borders. Immigration policies separate poor from rich, exploiting only those  it can use. Disgusting hypocrisies within beliefs, nations and industries are rampant. The USA fabricates *tools for human torture, high voltage stun guns and belts, for export to countries it condemns for human rights abuses... It bans tobacco at home, only to export it to third world countries... It does not want to curb its greenhouse gas emissions; instead it wants other countries to halt the development of the same, so it can continue to emit its overload of co2. Wish I was ignorant of these truths and live in blissful innocence Now I am bothered by the fact that I know at my fellow men are abusing their Own. And there is nothing I can do about it.

From the book: "Conversations with God, an uncommon dialogue", (available at our Jubilee Library) I quote a short passage, to show my readers that already five years ago, when he published his book in 1997, the author Neale Donald Walsh saw the downfall of the American "dream". I quote from page 88, as "God" speaks and explains:

 "Thoughts do create physical form--and when many people are thinking the same thing, there is a very high likelihood their thoughts will form a reality. (That is why "We'll pray for you" is such a powerful statement. There are enough testimonies to the effectiveness of unified prayer to fill a book.)  It is also true that un-prayerlike thoughts can create "effects." A worldwide consciousness of fear, for instance, or anger, or lack, or insufficiency, can create that experience--across the globe or within a given locale where those collective ideas are strongest.

 The Earth nation you call the United States, for example, has long thought itself to be a nation "under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." It is not a coincidence that this nation rose to become the most prosperous on earth. It is also not surprising that this nation is gradually losing all that it has worked so hard to create--for this nation seems to have lost its vision.

 The terms "under God, indivisible," meant just that--they expressed the Universal Truth of Unity; Oneness: a Matrix very difficult to destroy. But the Matrix has been weakened. Religious freedom has become religious righteousness bordering on religious intolerance. Individual freedom has all but vanished as individual responsibility has disappeared. The notion of individual responsibility has been distorted to mean "every man for himself." This is the new philosophy that imagines itself to be harkening back to the Early American tradition of rugged individualism.

 But the original sense upon which the American vision and the American dream was based, found its deepest meaning and its highest expression in the concept off Brotherly Love.  What made America great was not that every man struggled for his own survival, but that every man accepted individual responsibility for the survival of all.  America was a nation that would not turn its back on the hungry, would never say no to the needy, would open its arms to the weary and the homeless, and would share its abundance with the world.

Yet as America became great, Americans became greedy. Not all, but many. And, as time went on, more and more.

As Americans saw how good it was possible to have it, they sought to have it even better. Yet there was only one way to have more and more and more. Someone else had to have less and less and less. As greed replaced greatness in the American character, there was less room for compassion for the least among the people. The less fortunate were told it was their "own damned fault" if they didn't have more. After all, America was the Land of Opportunity, was it not? No one except the less fortunate found it possible to admit that America's opportunity was limited, institutionally, to those already on the inside track. In general, these have not included many minorities, such as those of certain skin color or gender.

Americans became arrogant internationally as well. As millions starved across the globe, Americans threw away enough food each day to feed entire nations. America was generous with some, yes--but increasingly her foreign policy came to be an extension of her own vested interests. America helped others when it served America to do so. (That is, when it served America's power structure, America's richest elite, or the military machine that protected those elite--and their collective assets.)

America's founding ideal-- Brotherly Love-- had been eroded. Now any talk of being "your brother's keeper" is met with a new brand of Americanism--a sharp mind toward what it takes to hold on to one's own, and a sharp word to any amongst the less fortunate who would dare to ask for their fair share, for their grievances to be redressed.

Each person must take responsibility for herself or himself--that is undeniable true. But America--and your world--can truly work only when every person is willing to stand responsible for all of you as a Whole."

America's lack of seeing and understanding itself has lead to the present situation.

I strongly recomend this and other books by Neale Donald Walsh to those that seek insight and wisdom. N.D.Walsh certainly has reached and is enlightened and his books can help to clearify many questions people have about spirituality and religion.

 Listen to the radio, what do we hear? Songs with young fresh male voices, trembling with emotions that sing: “What am I supposed to do without you”, and: “Lover come back”, and , “Please don’t go, I don’t want you to go”, and “Do not forsake me Oh, my darling”, and: “Baby give me one more chance”. These are lines from different songs sung by evidently troubled young men. Men who are left alone by their girl friends or women friends. Weak men. Men without guts. They are begging and asking and pleading their woman- friends to come back, to stay, not to leave them alone. Lamentations and expressions of weakness. None of these singers is able to be alone and take care of himself. Crying for the woman to return. Like children asking mommy to stay. Any woman with ears that hear will silently laugh at those helpless impotent men that beg and plead and pray to them.

 What is music supposed to be, and what do we want to hear? I always thought that music was an expression of joy, of celebration, of energy flowing from one heart to another. Not lamentations for lost lovers.

 Women that are left alone by men never beg them to come back. At least not in songs that I hear on the radio. Do you ever hear a woman sing that kind of begging words? On the contrary, they sing that they wish men love, when they go out alone into the world. They express their force, by singing that they can stand alone. Women are stronger, they get on with life.

 Men who read this, take notice. Are you a feeble one clinging to your woman’s skirts or are you a real man who can be alone and feel good alone? Because only than a woman will find you her equal and her love will be true. Otherwise her love is like pity, or mercy, coming from her inner source of mother power, to rescue a lost baby, those men in their suffering lonesome situation. When both partners have realized true love for the world, for everything and everybody else, when the man has become love, there is no need to beg for her presence, she will be attracted naturally. You know the saying: “If you look for a friend, be one”. The same applies for love. “If you want love, be love”. Once you are love, you cannot fall in it any more, and you cannot fall out of it any more. You can only rise in true love.

 Then they say,” A woman’s place is in the kitchen”, but chefs in good restaurant kitchens are always men.

 Men do not bleed naturally and in reality they are afraid of blood. Women take care of bleeding victims in hospitals, male nurses are rare. To hide their cowardice, men fight and compete and box and wrestle. They war and try to draw blood from each other. They deny women the natural fact that they are stronger, by calling them “baby”. Men cannot get baby’s, they are not equipped for that. So, most men are baby’s themselves, most of their lives, wanting a mother-like girlfriend or wife to take care of them. When she has enough of mothering and bothering to care for him, and finally goes her way, he cries and begs and laments. Worse, often he becomes violent and tries to hurt her and scare her into staying, by physical force.

 Listen to the radio and hear the lamentations and identify if you are a man who depends on your woman’s mother-power, or if you live independent and free, if you are a woman who mothers her man, or if you both are real lovers, and together for the joy of life, for the celebration of living.

 This observation will help you to evolve into your Higher Self and to become the: One You Want To Be. To Be Who You Really Are.

There are a few fundamental things to be understood. First, a man and a woman are on the one hand halves of the other, and on the other hand, opposite polarities. Their being opposites attracts them to each other. The farther away they are, the deeper will be the attraction; the more different from each other they are, the more will be the charm and beauty and attraction. But there lies the whole problem. ten they come close, they want to come closer, they want to merge into each other, they want to become one, a harmonious whole— but their whole attraction depends on opposition, and the harmony will depend on dissolving the opposition. Unless a love affair is very conscious, it is going to create great anguish, great trouble. All lovers are in trouble. The trouble is not personal; it is in the very nature of things. They would not have been attracted to each other— they call it falling in love— they can not give any reason why they have such a tremendous pull towards each other. They are not even conscious of the underlying cause hence a strange thing happens, the happiest lovers are those who never meet. Once they meet, the same opposition that created attraction b becomes a conflict. On each small point, their attitudes are different although they speak the same language, they cannot understand each other. The way a man looks at the world is different from a woman. For example, a man is interested in far away things — in the future of humanity, in the faraway stars, whether there are living beings on other planets or not. A woman simply giggles at the whole nonsense. She is only interested in a very small closed circle— in the neighbors, in the family, in who is cheating his wife, whose wife has fallen in love with the chauffeur. Her interest is very local and very human. She is not worried about reincarnation; neither is she concerned about life after death. Her concern is more pragmatic. She is concerned with the present, here and now. Man is never here and know He is always some where else. He has strange occupations— reincarnation, life after death. If both partners are conscious of the fact that it is a meeting of oppositions, that there is no need to make it a conflict, then there is a great opportunity to understand the totally opposite point of view and absorb it. Then the life of a man and a woman can become a beautiful harmony. Otherwise it is a continuous fight. There are holidays. One cannot continue to fight twenty four hours a day, one needs a little rest too— a rest to get ready for a new fight. But it is one of the strangest phenomena that for thousands of years men and women have been living together, yet they are strangers. They go on giving birth to children, but still they remain strangers. The feminine approach and the masculine approach are so opposed to each ether that unless a conscious effort i5 made, unless it becomes your meditation, there is no hope of having a peaceful life.  Those are the words of Osho , late enlightened spiritual leader. Next time more , as letters should be short and to the.

There are a few fundamental things to be understood. First, a man and a woman are on the one hand halves of the other, and on the other hand, opposite polarities. Their being opposites attracts them to each other. The farther away they are, the deeper will be the attraction; the more different from each other they are, the more will be the charm and beauty and attraction. But there lies the whole problem. ten they come close, they want to come closer, they want to merge into each other, they want to become one, a harmonious whole— but their whole attraction depends on opposition, and the harmony will depend on dissolving the opposition. Unless a love affair is very conscious, it is going to create great anguish, great trouble. All lovers are in trouble. The trouble is not personal; it is in the very nature of things. They would not have been attracted to each other— they call it falling in love— they can not give any reason why they have such a tremendous pull towards each other. They are not even conscious of the underlying cause hence a strange thing happens, the happiest lovers are those who never meet. Once they meet, the same opposition that created attraction b becomes a conflict. On each small point, their attitudes are different although they speak the same language, they cannot understand each other. The way a man looks at the world is different from a woman. For example, a man is interested in far away things — in the future of humanity, in the faraway stars, whether there are living beings on other planets or not. A woman simply giggles at the whole nonsense. She is only interested in a very small closed circle— in the neighbors, in the family, in who is cheating his wife, whose wife has fallen in love with the chauffeur. Her interest is very local and very human. She is not worried about reincarnation; neither is she concerned about life after death. Her concern is more pragmatic. She is concerned with the present, here and now. Man is never here and know He is always some where else. He has strange occupations— reincarnation, life after death. If both partners are conscious of the fact that it is a meeting of oppositions, that there is no need to make it a conflict, then there is a great opportunity to understand the totally opposite point of view and absorb it. Then the life of a man and a woman can become a beautiful harmony. Otherwise it is a continuous fight. There are holidays. One cannot continue to fight twenty four hours a day, one needs a little rest too— a rest to get ready for a new fight. But it is one of the strangest phenomena that for thousands of years men and women have been living together, yet they are strangers. They go on giving birth to children, but still they remain strangers. The feminine approach and the masculine approach are so opposed to each ether that unless a conscious effort i5 made, unless it becomes your meditation, there is no hope of having a peaceful life.  Those are the words of Osho , late enlightened spiritual leader. Next time more , as letters should be short and to the.

Who is the God of Random? It is the God that many St. Maarteners believe in.

Those that buy lottery tickets and numbers, those that visit casinos and and pray that the God of Random will favor them.

Devoutly they look every day first at the page that shows the winning numbers. Eddy Williams announces with his graveyard voice those numbers, more serene than a prayer to the Virgin Mary, every day on the radio. It is so serious that a nationwide industry is built around the worshiping of the God of Random. Worship booths are abundantly placed at every strategic corner of the land, not a mile can you travel without seeing one or other sect represented. At those booths you can pay your offering and sacrifice your contribution so that maybe the God of Random will favor you with money. All over is the God represented? The God of Random voted for me as I could not make up my mind who to vote for. Who of the candidates merits my confidence? If I look at what the politicians have accomplished the last few years, I worry so much that my ulcer starts to play up.

 Here goes: Mullet Bay problem still not solved, road markings not done, no white lines, domestic violence not made a major criminal offense, mareachausee still not invited back to help curb crime, still nothing done at the road over the St.Peter hill straight into Marigot, which would be a real improvement, instead Link One Phase Two, ending up at the same bottleneck down the hill at Cole Bay, where still no roundabout is planned, the sewage still running wild at the Middle Region road, Dutch Quarter area still looking worse than the fourth world, the lagoon still too polluted too swim in it. And more signs of disastrous conduct by politicians.

So I made 23 scraps of paper and numbered them, folded them and put them in a box, shook it well and choose one . Voila, my vote was decided by the God of Random who is so fervently worshipped in this country. This God decides which team starts at international football( soccer) matches when the umpire flips a coin. When on a narrow road two cars face each other and none wants to give way, the God of Random should be asked to decide who should move first, by flipping a coin in the air and catching it, lay it flat down on the other hand. The stubbornness of drivers is ridiculous and childish. The mentality of the people is so immature; one wonders what will become of the country once it is on its own... The God of Random certainly should be worshipped, as only He knows the outcome.

A conversation with a young American girl who is having a relation with an older man. She is quit bold and I try to transmit or convey her style as close as possible.

I’ve been reading advises many times and I find that you always advice against us, young women, or girls, having relationships with much older men. Where did you get that negative position from? Who are you, and where do you come from? Are you giving your advice in the interest of the Caribbean young people or are you an egotistic woman who just wants to rule her own style?  Most people may not know, but fact is that when He got born, Bob Marley’s black Jamaican mother was 17 and his white English father was 52. He was three times her age! My question is, will any such couple’s child be like Bob Marley, Saintly and making wonderful music for all people? Will history repeat itself? From Bob Marley’s parents we learn that the most unlikely alliance can give the most wonderful result. Will you stop advising against young women making love with older men now that you have also learned the Truth about Bob? Or will you continue preventing possible Stars coming into the world? Any way,I will make love to my very sweet old man for he is a young spirit in an old body, that’s all.

Young black with old white

Not a little reluctant to write about this worn out subject, I am so disgusted and fed up that here goes: the quality of the movies on channel 7 and the most possible influence it has on our future peoples conduct. 9 Out of ten movies are about violence. Every American movie has the same boring ingredients: a gunfight, a car chase and an explosion. Not always in that order but always the same three ingredients. an explosion, a car chase and a gunfight, or several of each. When you've seen one you've seen them all. The so called wrestling madness with bulky unhealthy looking persons with hormonically unnatural pepped up bodies that will deflate after a few years, fill the screen with violence of the worst kind, what exactly is the message? What does the provider of these movies want its public to see, to learn, to become? Monkey see, monkey do, so it is well clear that TV looking youngsters, those with little education will copy the way a gangster holds up a store, restaurant or couple of tourists. Youngsters see and hear the foulest language, what the hell, repeated by the rude awakening dogs on a radio show, and feel important and great when they can foul mouth each another. Is that the way the world is to be? Violent like the old cowboy mentality, that killed the local Indians and now sprays the movie screens with blood, bullets and curses? What a boring culture and way down the drain of civilization. Badly educated youngsters are good to go in the army in order to kill the poorest dressed fighters from other cultures and fill the world with coca cola and Marlboro. Scantily dressed , foul mouthing wrestlers stand as role models for our youth. With decorations from the most hated Nazi time, they walk around the screen as brutal beasts that can hardly speak coherent language. Bashing into each other like crazed animals they depict human creatures at their worst. That the world was so in its earliest days, I can understand, but that it still goes on today, 2000 years later, I find incomprehensible. I do not belong here and I will take my leave, because I see no hope for a place that entertains its TV lookers with gore and blood, fights and explosions in its most primitive form. No educational products, no emotional love stories, no scientific solutions here, nothing to give the viewers any information onto better times. Destruction and hate, made in the USA, thank you, I pass.

I am sick and tired reading about men abusing women. I am a lover, and maybe addicted to love. But I'm also a free man and I will fight for freedom. Freedom in the  total sense, that means my freedom, your freedom, her freedom, their freedom. If dogs are free, why not we? Sung Bob Dylan generations ago. And those sick men that want to take away her freedom, own a woman, to believe that she is his must get cured of their stupid ideas. If a woman loves you, she will be with you, of her own free will. If she is not in the mood to love you, you cannot make her love you. Love is a two way thing. Although the Dutch law prohibits the carrying of pepper spray, no prosecutor will press charges if you managed-  to defend yourself successfully with a can of acrymogene as the French call it. In Marigot it is legally sold over the counter at the gun shop. Anybody can get this defensive article, as small as a woman lipstick, easy to carry in handbag or trouser pocket. Then there is also a gun for sale that is with two barrels that can shoot protection ammunition-  as it is called: rubber pellets, buckshot, or a rubber bullet. It goes of with a loud bang (130db) so as to alert others and to scare away attackers. The bullet or the pellets can hurt when hitting someone within 5 meters. Another gun with rubber bullets is legally for sale over the counter in Marigot, a cylinder revolver with 6 rubber small  shot per cylinder, it comes with two cylinders in a box.Any woman that feels threatened by a man should equip herself with one of the above mentioned defensive items. Maybe not legal Dutch side, but remember, better in jail alive for shooting a rapist or a madman, than raped or dead because of no defense. And I repeat, no prosecutor will press when the defense was proven and necessary, take my word. I do not want to read one more fatality of sick male behavior, I love women too much. The law against defensive items, pepper spray and rubber bullets should be changed right away. That's my idea. What's yours?

One more time I feel the need to express the truth about my origin. Now that the question of local or not local is again on the minds of many people. This person of mine is made of dust, of earth and air. Through the miracle of love did I come into this world, and found myself on this planet. An almost spherical ball with a circumfence of roughly 40.000 kilometer, or 25.000 miles. With my head sticking in the air, and my feet on the earth, I am a citizen of this planet. Of this world. The air that I breath is coming flying from the east, and from any other direction. The food that I eat comes from my own yard as well as the butter from New Zealand, on the other end of the planet, and many many other countries. If one is what one eats, then we all are true internationals. And being the result of breathing the life giving air in our lungs, the air that circles the planet freely, we all are planetary beings, from the life giving free air. Many fathers, brothers, sons and other members of families went overseas to work somewhere else. Would any one want those people, those relatives, treated as unwanted foreigners in those countries they went to? How do small thinking folks try to defend this local rights thing? Through being born one is automatically a world citizen. One has to grow into understanding that we are all together. I can sent you out of my house, out of my yard, out of my village, town, out of my country, of my island, but I can never sent you of the world. And this world is my home, and I share it with all the other living beings. I conclude that if one is what one eats, then it is clear why some people behave just like chickens. Fowl too, can never eat, or live together in peace. If one eats chicken most every day, one may starts to behave like one and does not tolerate others that are not born in the same nest.

click onto  www.Osho.com,  and see for your self. Or find OSHO in bookstore, library or  amazon.com. He gives you the days “no-thought”,  not a “thought for the day” , those are  outdated and belong to the old-minds.  It bores me to have to put up with a world  full of people that are not free and progressing. The Truth has set me free.  People that still make this world are stuck hands and feet in the quagmire of the same old ways, work with the same old ideas and  bring the same wars, the same fossil-fuel burning engines and the same eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. As long as people follow those old ideas and religions, I cannot mix with them . Study OSHO if you want to get anywhere ,  if you want to get into the present, the now.

 I will write more comments on everything, for I  am new. ( read Conversations With God 2 , by Neale Donald Walsch, Jubilee Library)

Dear friends, information by enlightened people, OSHO and Neale Donald Walsch   confirm only what you know deep down is true. I was already new, I never was old. Only suppressed by society, put down. When I wanted to soar high, I was to be low, with them. Where I was free, I had to be shackled. To follow rules made for fools. To be a free mind  is the hardest  thing in this world. Confined by religions, by political directions, by skin color or language, by nationality and god knows what more, to be free is almost a crime. You may try to understand, but unless you are free, you will not know the pain. To be born free and find oneself in this unfree world is a curse.. That is why reading the authors I mentioned is such a comfort.  They know where we are coming from, where the pain comes from. Osho comforted me when I cried my heart out. Walsch comforted me when I carried the worlds pain on my shoulders. And very young women comforted me when  tragic disaster struck. Young ones comfort me when I cringe with loneliness,  because  old women cannot understand the freedom-suffering-boy inside . Only very young women who are not yet set in society's rules. It is why Jesus loved  whores , because they also defied the rules, they rebel against the laws of the world. They ease the pain of  boy-men. A very young woman  still  has  freedom, defying everything. Differences in age do not exist  when a young woman caresses an older grieving man. When I look in loving ageless eyes, there are only two immortal free spirits. I may end up on a cross, judged by the ancient rulers and criminal lawmakers that call them self right. I puke of them and on their world. They believe in their  jails, they build more jails to lock up anyone that is not following their decrees and laws and religions and rules for refugees and passports  and rules for their material possessions and for drugs, and AIDS patients. Freedom flies out of the window with a whiff of incense, burning on the altar of ignorance. From behind  tears for lost freedom this mail is reaching you, slipped through the keyhole of a jail door. Will  you  ever open that door ? 

Now you read the true reasons for drug and alcohol abuse, for domestic violence. People are never angry for reasons they think.  They are angry because their original freedom, that is, their birthright, is taken away. And they and you, you rebel, you dream, you drink, you drug, try to escape. You get so frustrated, you take it out on your wife, your girlfriend, your neighbour, none of them have done you a thing, but  you find yourself frustrated in this world of rules, while you were born free. Acceptance, surrender, consent, words that describe defeat. I know that deep inside of you, freedom is asleep. I will awaken it  gently with the truth. Rest assured friends. The Truth shall set you free and it will curb your violence, make you a loving human being again.

 What exactly is pride? Is it a good feeling for something one has done? Or because one belongs to a group that one finds better than others? Or is it because one possesses something valuable, that came from labor, heritage or winning the lottery? It's hard to say and so I did a little research into what the ancient sages say about pride. Surprising to you maybe, read here the comments of the wise: Pride is a prison. Pride ends on the dung hill. Nothing is more dangerous for a poor man than pride. The proud are petulant and the petulant are foolish. God does not listen to the prayers of the proud. Concerning the man of pride God has said? “I and he cannot abide together”. ( Talmud, Sotab 55) A proud man never praises anyone. (Zohar) When pride cometh, then cometh shame; but with the lowly is wisdom.(Book of proverbs 11:2) Pride is a reservoir of sin. ( Sirach, Eclesiasticus 10) The proud man cannot humble himself to learn wisdom. (Gaon) There you go, on pride. So whenever I feel a little proud of having the Dutch nationality, after all, Holland does not have any enemies like the USA, I feel also shame to be of a nation that long used slavery, that exploited Indonesia and installed apartheid. Americans may feel proud of being part of the mightiest military nation of the world, if they also are ashamed for having stolen their country from the native inhabitants, waged war almost continuously world wide, but never at home, have more people in jails than any other nation and have more than 15 percent of the population illiterates...Have a very nice day, and just feel good.

Like a blind man groping in the dark is the person asking about solutions for the violence, the lack of concern, the hate and the pain it causes. Jesus message of love has never been implemented by the churches that have sprouted up around His ideas and teachings. Born out of love and born with love everybody should be loving. But  the politicians and priests have destroyed that love from day one. Love makes one a rebel. A rebel against the lies and the hate. Against the possessiveness of the world. Love does not posses. Love is freedom. And freedom does not exist in this world of frontiers, religious laws and capitalistic money hoarding. Frustration is the result of those people who cannot suppress their love any longer. The church wants you to be their member and nobody else’s member. You belong to this or that church, you are not free, you cannot be love. Love cannot be restricted to One thing only, then it is not love, then it is preference. One must love his country, but can only do so by hating ,or not so strong disliking other countries. Every nation calls itself best, implementing that others are worse. There is no love in that. Every persons intrinsic nature is love when born. From the beginning this love is curbed, destroyed and corrupted.

 tat of a jealous God that tolerates no other? Is that Love? The religions have created fear, the opposite of love. Only people that are afraid are easy to manipulate. A person of love knows no fear. Love is courageous. The politicians and the priests do not want loving people, they cannot be manipulated. The natural love that is everybody birthright is hidden, hurt, damaged, but not destroyed completely, it cannot disappear totally. Hence the rebellion, the frustrated violence, the crazy deeds from those who themselves not  know why they go crazy. In fact everybody is part of the madness. Except for those few that come like Jesus, with words of love, and whips to chase the moneymakers, and words of comfort for the whores, nobody gives in to the natural love that is the basic source of life. People like Jesus that want to change the hate policy and the wrong of the authorities are killed, deported or otherwise eliminated.

 Society has no place for those who are filled with love. When love is in a person, why should he go to a church or temple to look for god? ten he is dancing, happy, full of gods love, why look for god in books, temples ? That is why we have this violence, crime and problems in the world. And here in our own backyard. ten more people are involved in planting trees and flowers than in making weapons and war, maybe the world would begin to heal. It won't happen. For those who feel the wrongs, because love is still alive  inside, hold on, you are not alone, a few of us are always around, under the surface, low profile. We are not wanted, because    we upset the policies from church and state. What courage  must the newspapers have, to dare print this very letter of mine.

 Where truth and love is, crime does not happen

What makes the difference between primitive and civilized people? The complicatedness of their paintings, their music, the depth of their writings, their knowledge of the soul, of science, of what exactly?

Those questions sped through my mind when a terrible noise broke free close by my home last night. Through the bad quality of the amplifier and other technical equipment of the group the language they used  was indistinguishable from any stormy seashore noise, wave after wave of noise came crashing through my door and windows and I even thought I felt the earth tremble. How long these sessions must torment and terrorize people all around I do not know. What I know is that man is born with only two natural fears: that of height and of noise. Thunder scares a child naturally and standing on an edge of a cliff looking down is scaring to every one.

The making of noise with amplifiers and speakers does no harm directly, is what one thinks. But deep down it is a violent action or crime against all who are  in the immediate vicinity. Insanity, madness, hypocrisy, fanatism, globalization ion, war crimes, let's look at that word: war crime. First, war. Which is a crime.  Killing is a crime. Now, war crime; a criminal crime. Madness in its pure form. Cleansing is next, it means to make clean, to make proper, take away dirt. Ethnic cleansing; an impossible idea. No ethnic group is clean. If it was kept pure through time it would have been inbreeding to the point that most members were bubbling mongols. Any group must let outsiders in to strengthen its genes. Globalization would suggest coming together, in stead countries that once formed a union are trying to separate.. .Mad cow disease, it is not the cows that are mad, the people who abuse them are. Imagine feeding a vegetarian animal like a cow with meat rests. Nature responds with sickness. In a world like this, so full of lies, poison and hate, it is difficult to stay loving and straight. The true love from a mother to her child is the example of how all people should love each other. She would not scream to her child if she has love. Wars have been going on from the days of Cain and Abel and will only stop inside your loving heart if you want it to.

Is it the drugs that I tried when I was young! Is it the mind that awakened by meditation? Is it the result of the travels I did and the observations of all the dozens of different peoples and colors and religions and cultures? Anyway, tat ever it is, I am a free man. And detest patriotism, nationalism and fanatism. The world is One, this globe that hurls through space with an incredible speed. We are like fleas on the skin of a dog, we humans on the surface of the planet. And we manage to fight each other, we manage to be afraid of each other, so possessive of our own, so egoistically thinking of only ourselves, it is ridiculous. Fights erupt over the most stupid things, killings and murder in uniform are allowed,  in civilian clothes they are not. Ideas about an invisible God make people so hate full of others that they justify land stealing, war and sufferings untold. Way cannot other people see that we are all together on this planet circling the sun? Why must 99.9 percent Of all people follow those to bully others, be it by ideology, military might or money. Why are others not free like me to see the truth ? ty is only the result addressed and not the reason of conflicts? Way are only the symptoms reported and not the source of the troubles? Way is there no unity amongst men? How long will this madness continue? Untill all men have killed each another and polluted the earth so bad that no life will continue? liy do I see and they don’t? Am I so strange when I see the cost of war, the pain and the suffering against peace, sharing and happiness? tat am I doing here if I cannot join an army of fools and walk with them and perish with them? Way should I be free and cry to see the behavior of those that lead his, my world into fights and destruction? If only  could be blind and deaf again, without a brain, how happy would I be. To be just like them.

Originally the December parties had nothing to do with Jesus, the Christ. It has an older, more primitive feeling of happiness that stems from the fact that winter is over. On the 21st December, that day is the shortest day of the year on the northern part of our planet Earth. The longest night is passing and the 22nd day of December is a little longer and the light returns. Nobody knows if Jesus was born on the 24th; my Bible, the Christian Community Bible, even tells me that Jesus most probably was born a few years before what we call year 0.  It were the religion makers later that conveniently put the magic personality on the most celebrated time of the year, even if they got it wrong by few weeks . No matter at all, it is the time that the light returns, and that is the true reason for the good feelings that originated in the northern part of our planet long before the Christ was created.

Frustrated, in the southern part of our planet, the nights grow longer and the days shorter. Nothing to celebrate there. It was the northern man who brought the December party to the south, Australia, South America , South Africa... So if your origin is from the south, and you don't feel that inner relief and happiness that is deeply ingrained in the northern soul, do not worry, celebrate anyway, as you are here now. On 17 degrees north over the equator, where we are, we have only two hours difference with the longest day,21 June, when the turn takes place, which should be Christmas  for the southern half of the planet. In Holland and England the difference is as high as 12,13 hours between mid- summer and mid winter day. That is where the change is really felt and it explains why we have a northern tree, the pine tree, cut down as a sacrifice.

In the high north no daylight at all reaches the earth in winter; no wonder Santa Claus gets away from the north Pole, it is permanent night there now. A very happy New Year to you all, that you may have Health ,Love and Good Fortune.

No wishing list this year for me. I finally realized that Santa Claus comes every day. In whatever form, or appearance, the good giver is always there. How else did I get through all those years? What did I do for the world, for my fellow men and ladies, for the children? I surely did not do enough, by far. And still, everything was always there for me. Shelter, food, luxuries like telephony, wheels to go, radio, often choice of foods, clothes, and things to do. How very rich am I. Compared to many poor men and women, children in the cold and wounded refugees so very many, displaced by evil thinkers and evil deeds by ruthless men to men. How very poor are those, that suffer so much. Compared to me who has it all, although compared to a middle class suburban dweller I have nothing. My house is so small, I have no TV, I have no bathtub. Not even a swimming pool or a garage to put a car. Modest to the limit, I still have everything, gotten from the world, from other men who made the things I have. The things we must maintain as long as we own them. And I have it all year round, not only for Christmas, not at all from a man in a red coat who comes on a flying sledge with reindeer. What a great strange story; what people do for the kids; it is shockingly serious foolery. Painful for poor people who can't buy things, hurting for those who have no family or those who are displaced. No wishes for me this year, at this particular time, all my wishes have come true already, why ask for more. Wish for contentment with all your heart, I welcome you to it. Then your Christmas will last forever.

To the readers that do not yet know what Chamba Chada means; I will explain, it means: the little boy. Like the boy in the famous story of the new clothes of the emperor. Once upon a time, three men came to the then reigning emperor and told that they were weavers of a most wonderful and magic cloth. This magic cloth was only visible to those that where legitimate children of their parents. Those born out of wedlock would not be able to see it.

The three spoke with such persuasion and conviction that the emperor decided to want some of that cloth made for him. And so the three weavers, who where in truth conmen, asked and got a room to put their loom in, silk and gold threat, and food and drink. Soon the       sound of the loom was heard outside the room and after a week the emperor send his first minister to go and report for him on the progress of the magick cloth. When the first minister was in the weavers room and did not see any cloth, panic came over his mind. Maybe he was not his fathers son, he thought, as the cloth was only visible to legitimate children. So he didn't admit that he could see nothing and praised the weavers on the beautiful result of their labour. To the emperor he reported good progress and within another week the cloth would be ready. The second minister, send to see  the cloth was ready, could not see it either and afraid to lose his job when admitting that maybe he was born out of wedlock did like the first and pretended to see it when the three conmen showed it and pointed out the beautiful (invisble) patterns. Then the measure was taken of the emperor and his ministers who would be dressed in it to take part in a parade to commemorate independence day. Also the emperor pretended to see; what was he to do when his two main advisers saw it clearly? Admitting not to see it would be impossible. Dressed in invisible clothes the three highest authorities went on horseback through the city. All the citizens lined the streets, and nobody dared to say anything. Except the little boy, who pointed his finger to the naked emperor and screamed: Look him, he has no clothes. That boy was Chamba Chada. And I write what I see, not what others pretend to see. I see Israel trying to murder all Palestinians, I see Irish and Ulster English occupants fight each other, hypocritically calling themselves Catholics and protestants, I see the rich nations angering the poor nations so bad that suicide fighters (now called terrorists) hit back. I see them say nothing religious is the problem, while in churches and mosques they are praying to invisible gods in order to get help to destroy their enemies. I see those calling themselves  Christians throwing bombs and creating misery for thousands of civilians that flee their country. The rich nations that have for many years let the Taliban exercise  terror on their own population without lifting a finger now throw (Christian) bombs on (Islamic) targets. I see 60 countries angry at the USA and I cry of frustration. That centuries of so called civilization has not produced a peaceful coexistence of nations in the world. I cry to see the same primitive behavior between people that can put a man on the moon, do a heart transplant, make a classical concert or built ingenious worldwide electronic information networks. These highly developed nations behave like primitive warmongers and destroy, scare, kill and maim others instead of practicing what they preach.

Wealth, sharing, global development, international cooperation, all empty words and hypocritical speeches. So called Christian nations behave in ancient Jewish fashion: an eye for an eye, etc. I cry for all those that suffer through the misconduct of their leaders.

It will be a bit strange for many people to read the next lines, to find out things maybe better left unknown. However, to understand why terrorism exists it may be helpful. The mightiest country on earth likes to control that earth and does everything to keep control. South America is close by home so let us go there. From the book : Voel Maar, by Jan Brokken, everyone can learn some terrible truths. I do not have to write this but for my asking to pray with me for all those victims of the teachers of the School of the Americas. In Panama, only 17 years ago the School of the Americas closed its doors for good. It was the American Military Academy . Today access is free, 10 years ago still no one could enter. The building is in the colonial style on the edge of the jungle. There almost all the officers were educated who made Latin America notorious with their revolutions, coupes, juntas, dictators and with their refined interrogation techniques. How to drop ennemies from airplanes with concrete blocks on feet. How to torment, how to torture and to terrorize, and how to rape was thought at the School of the Americas by American GI's who knew what they were about since they had experience from Korea and Vietnam. In the Hall of Fame One can see the portraits of Roberto D’Aubuisson and Hugo Banzer, respectively the leader of the death squads in El Salvador and the leader of the military dictature in Bolivia, from Raoul Cedras, the Haitian coupe leader, and of Manuel Provis Carrasco, the colonel who after the murder on Allende started the biggest concentration camp in Chili, from Galtieri the junta leader who started the Falklands war and of Jorge Vidal the Argentinean mass murder. All these gentlemen look back affectionately at their time in the Panama School of the Americas where they learned the tricks of the trade. The accumulated hate after the immense suffering caused by the pupils of the American teachers may and may not result in revanche and retaliation. I pray that it may not, however, no one should be surprised if it does. The School of the Americas in Panama closed in 1984. I hope no other such school opened elsewhere. Knowing the world a little by now, my hope is most possibly in vain. I heard that US manufactured torture electrical belts and other tools of the trade still are exported to various countries in the world...Pray with me that all this evil, terror and torture may stop, even if it means that the USA will lose a little control.

I am tired of trying to give ideas, to give advice, to point out  errors, to ask for betterment. I will stop writing to my beloved readers. Because nothing is done about my ideas.  I do not ask God for help, I do not pray to some invisible power, I ask the men in charge to do their job. Read here the incomplete list of  things that are not done.......

No white lines on the roads, no pavements for pedestrians, no cleanliness in the ghettos of Middle Region, Dutch Quarter and Cay Bay. No garbage bins in the ghettos, no better behavior by young police men. Nothing done about the abandoned hotel at Upper Princess Quarter. Or at the salt crushing ruins at Arch road. Still no solution on Mullet Bay Resort. No local industries, no schools for young artists, jewelry repairing or making, no souvenir manufacturing, no schools for teaching  tourist guiding, no high level service teaching. No road over the St. Peter hill straight to Marigot. No garbage recycling bins like on the French side. No stop on free plastic shopping bags that pollute the environment seriously. No refunds on bottles. Do the people in power never travel to civilized countries? And if they do, are they blind to see how things are done there? Are we governed by blind and deaf mental cripples? And most annoying, still no education towards inner development, instead churches full of ignorance and lies. Church leaders, priests and others, are under investigation everywhere in the world for child sex abuse. They should also be under investigation for keeping the people ignorant about the truth of God. Real teaching of how to reach enlightenment, spiritual liberation, would lead the real world to become a better place. Then, the plea some weeks ago in the newspaper by the craft producers did not get answered by the governing powers, who seem not to be interested at all. The whole island economy and spirituality is in a pitiful  mess. What I can see and understand is that the people who should take care are not competent. Resulting in the economic stranglehold that the tourist industry has over this island.  The political ignorance  and ill will of not wanting to be full member and part of Holland, without different laws, just like a county, a province, a part like every other town and place, has brought about the poverty and dirty roads and lack of social  assistance that we enjoy now. How blind can people be not to see the prosperity and civility of the French side that is a normal part of France, and the ugliness of our roads and dirty shambles in our shanty town ghettos that are locally ruled. Time for a change, but as the good artist Michael Jackson sings: “they don’t really care about us.” Us being all people that are not in the Antillean Governments pay. Imagine the tourist say:  “How pretty , the dirt road leading to the old wooden shacks, how outlandish, no sewage under ground, it runs over the roads, what an attraction, see the poverty and the empty bottles, how different from home.”

 Dear readers, it makes no sense to write about the things that everyone can see. It makes no sense to write for the blind.  Those that are in power and do nothing about the ugly  reality in the ghettos and everywhere else, once they leave this life of opulence, squandering and neglect, I hope they will see their errors. Only then it will be too late.  Have a nice day.

Earlier I explained how to observe your thoughts. This is done with your mind, spirit, and soul, whatever it is that holds your sixth sense. This makes it possible to feel things, like the need to go see an old friend, or a certain client, who just when you arrive exclaims that he was thinking of you and wanted to see you. That may be called telepathy. It works between a mother and her child, if the child is in need, the mother feels it. With the sixth sense one observes political ideas, meanings, and abstract things like love and hate and moral issues. One uses it to judge. Church and state do not want you to use it. In [state] schools you learn that you have only 5 senses, not six. The Church says: Judge not, that thy will not be judged.

However, you do judge, if you are aware of it or not. You judge if you feel attracted to this place or that, if you shall wear this dress or another and if you shall feel sick, happy or sad.

What you tell me there, I judge how I feel?

When I feel sick, sad, angry, or happy, I can’t help that, you will say...

But you can I tell you: Start to observe   your feelings. You are not your feeling, you are only having it. How do you feel just now? Grim? What thoughts made you feel so? Did your partner get you irritated? Don’t like the traffic? Or was the coffee not strong enough at breakfast?

Don’t worry, no feeling stays forever, unless you  keep it there. A feeling is the result of how you think. You will never be able to keep the same thought all day in your head. It may come back tomorrow, likely it was there yesterday, but it will  not stay 24 hours. When you observe what you think, you soon will realize that any bad  thought can be replaced with another, a happy or pretty, thought.

Things you learn when young stick to you like barnacles to a ship. Traumas from the past may return unconsciously and behavior may be reduced to something that happened in the past. Psychiatrists are called in to evaluate sufferers that become a nuisance for their surroundings. Psychiatrists  do not even know the thought-observing process and will only listen to a patient, judge the severances, reduce it to something that happened long ago and say; now that the reason for the behavior is known, it is acceptable. How amazingly stupid. To teach a criminal thought-observing would cure his/her bad behavior. Any one who learns to see him/her self will become a better person. And a free person at that. Thought observing should be taught in prisons.

When a person starts using the sixth sense, [the mind, spirit, soul] and starts to observe the Self, s/he will find out that the past is gone. That the Present is all there is, that behavior today must be reduced to what is important today. The word is: Present, as Gift, Hand out, Grant, Award. It is a  gift  from the Unified Field, from Life itself, from God if you so prefer. The past is what you drag up from a time that is gone and should not be Here Now. People paste the past into the Present and so destroy the precious Gift. Realize that the Present should be graciously received as it is the best moment in your life.

Now look at yourself and say: I love you.

Earlier I explained how to observe your thoughts. This is done with your mind, spirit, and soul, whatever it is that holds your sixth sense. This makes it possible to feel things, like the need to go see an old friend, or a certain client, who just when you arrive exclaims that he was thinking of you and wanted to see you. That may be called telepathy. It works between a mother and her child, if the child is in need, the mother feels it. With the sixth sense one observes political ideas, meanings, and abstract things like love and hate and moral issues. One uses it to judge. Church and state do not want you to use it. In [state] schools you learn that you have only 5 senses, not six. The Church says: Judge not, that thy will not be judged.

However, you do judge, if you are aware of it or not. You judge if you feel attracted to this place or that, if you shall wear this dress or another and if you shall feel sick, happy or sad.

What you tell me there, I judge how I feel?

When I feel sick, sad, angry, or happy, I can’t help that, you will say...

But you can I tell you: Start to observe   your feelings. You are not your feeling, you are only having it. How do you feel just now? Grim? What thoughts made you feel so? Did your partner get you irritated? Don’t like the traffic? Or was the coffee not strong enough at breakfast?

Don’t worry, no feeling stays forever, unless you  keep it there. A feeling is the result of how you think. You will never be able to keep the same thought all day in your head. It may come back tomorrow, likely it was there yesterday, but it will  not stay 24 hours. When you observe what you think, you soon will realize that any bad  thought can be replaced with another, a happy or pretty, thought.

Things you learn when young stick to you like barnacles to a ship. Traumas from the past may return unconsciously and behavior may be reduced to something that happened in the past. Psychiatrists are called in to evaluate sufferers that become a nuisance for their surroundings. Psychiatrists  do not even know the thought-observing process and will only listen to a patient, judge the severances, reduce it to something that happened long ago and say; now that the reason for the behavior is known, it is acceptable. How amazingly stupid. To teach a criminal thought-observing would cure his/her bad behavior. Any one who learns to see him/her self will become a better person. And a free person at that. Thought observing should be taught in prisons.

When a person starts using the sixth sense, [the mind, spirit, soul] and starts to observe the Self, s/he will find out that the past is gone. That the Present is all there is, that behavior today must be reduced to what is important today. The word is: Present, as Gift, Hand out, Grant, Award. It is a  gift  from the Unified Field, from Life itself, from God if you so prefer. The past is what you drag up from a time that is gone and should not be Here Now. People paste the past into the Present and so destroy the precious Gift. Realize that the Present should be graciously received as it is the best moment in your life.

Now look at yourself and say: I love you.

The title could also be: The Way to Truth, but because the Truth shall set you Free, it is the end-result that  counts.

In part one I told you to observe your thoughts. I compared your thoughts with clouds that block the clear blue sky, which is you. A thought never stays, just like a cloud and a thought is not you, you are the one that thinks the thought. If you have started to observe your thoughts you will have found that most of the thoughts you think today are the same as the thoughts you had yesterday. They do not progress, and you are not [yet] creative enough to think new thoughts.

Now comes the most important part of this lecture: Between two thoughts is a moment of NO-THOUGHT. Just like between breathing in and breathing out there is a moment of no-breathing, so is there a tiny moment between thoughts when you think not. That is the GAP. You shall have found that observing your thoughts is possible for a moment or so, but soon after, you will be living again without giving it attention. That does not matter, go back as soon as you notice it. To help the process very much, also start to observe how you walk, how you sit, how you talk, how you read this letter. When you can observe your breathing you almost have it made, you are fast getting closer to Who You Really Are. The strange fact is also that the more you observe yourself, the clearer other people become. You can know others only after you found out who you are yourself. While you observe your inhaling and exhaling, you cannot at the same time have disturbing thoughts. You are then not exactly in the gap, but you come close. And because you are traveling inside yourself, wisdom can come in. Yoga can lead to the gap, but yoga is not needed to reach there. When you notice the gap between thoughts, stay there. That is not easy in the beginning, but try anyhow. It is this moment of

NO-THOUGHT that we started out to observe our thinking  for. When you think not, Wisdom enters. That’s how easy it is. To stop thinking though may take  quiet a while for you to reach.

Wisdom has nothing to do with knowledge, it cannot be learned. It can be invited, a place must be made for it. It comes to fill the Gap, that is the Void, the Emptiness  between thoughts. Knowledge you can gather from school, from books, from the library, from the internet. You can become a professor and still not have wisdom. Wisdom comes from the Unified Field, from God if you want to call it that. It is Omnipresent,  it knows All, it is the Truth, it transcends knowledge. To finish this part two of the Way to Freedom, I’ll tell you why you need an empty mind in order for Wisdom to enter.

I need an Empty Space on this page of this newspaper in order to get this printed, you need an Empty Stomach in order to eat, and you need an Empty Mind in order to let Wisdom enter. As long as your mind is full of thoughts, of lamentations, of prayers, of anger, of wishes, there is no place for wisdom. Church and State want you to stay away from Wisdom, because the sage needs them not. That is why you shall never learn this in school or church.

Recap: first observe your thoughts, then discover the gap, and stay there. That’s all there is to it. In Wisdom you find Truth, which leads to Freedom. In Wisdom you find yourself.

Now look in the mirror and say: I love you.

In the past 100 days not much has changed. Except for the new Dutch government, the killing of the most famous politician in Holland, and the American President, eager to revenge the blunders of his father. With thoughts always in the ancient past, most poor souls still think that revenge and violence and killing can solve problems...So far so bad. 

Remember that those who revenge a crime are no better than those who started the crime in the first place. They do this in the name of religion. The ideas of religion and state are only a justification for some to dominate others. State and church work together to keep the small man quiet, promising a better world, forgiveness for crimes, salvation from [imaginary] sins and paradise in the hereafter... So far so bad...

There is hope though, for the doubter, for the seeker, for those that are right now wondering what is true and what is false of all that church bell ringing and those endless political debates that lead nowhere.

The truth can be known however, because Truth is Love, is Life, is Nature, is All. Only is the Truth twisted and hidden behind the lies and the empty promises and the beautiful singing in the Sunday service. I will reveal in several parts written over the coming days how you will find Truth. And who you really are.

It works as follows, first and foremost: you  start to observe your  thoughts.

You may be thinking of work, or of your partner, or of what is for dinner tonight, no matter what you are thinking of, observe it.

When we where young we learned that we had 5 senses, for: smelling, touching, hearing, seeing, and tasting. However, you have 6 senses. You wasn’t told that, because  this knowledge will set you Free. The sixth sense is your mind, or spirit, or soul, whatever you call it. The 6th sense you use to sense what is wrong and what is right. You take decisions with it. You weigh with it if you shall buy  this thing or that. If you like a  person or not, if you shall go out or stay home. All that and more you do with your sixth sense. And with it you can observe your thoughts. Your thought is not you. Say, you are full of sorrow, you have lost something, or someone, and you are grieving. Now the thought of grief is overwhelmingly blocking all else, it is like a cloud blocking the sun. But, the grieving thought does not stay for ever, sooner or later it is gone. As sure as the sun comes up, another thought soon takes its place. Maybe your next thought is a happy one, you won the lottery, or you feel good in your new shirt and look in the mirror while you put on a fresh after shave, or while trying to get out on the road another car stops to let you get out of your driveway, whatever. That happy thought soon makes place for another thought again, you follow? Perhaps your next thought is angry, you found a scratch on your car when you got out after parking, it must have happened sometime when you wasn’t there, or the cup of hot coffee you took from the drive-through spills in the car on your skirt. Again, you are under a cloud, blocking your true own self.

 Because you are still you, whatever you lost, you are not lost, and the lottery money did not even cover what you spent on tickets over time. The scratch is on the car, not on you, and  your mind did not get soiled, only the skirt.

To find the Truth, first start observing your thoughts. As if you are sitting next to yourself and watching yourself and witnessing what is taking hold of you right now. YOU ARE NOT THE THOUGHT, always keep in mind: YOU ARE THE THINKER.

Learn this and soon you will find out who you really are, and all by itself you will see that the thought is nothing but a thought, it is not you. Next I will tell you how the thought observation process leads to Truth.

And why do you think, is this never told to you in school or in church or anywhere else?? Because when you know this you cannot be mentally enslaved, and you will become free. Which is very much against the interest of church and state. To be continued.

Black history month is fine, yellow history is fine, all history is fine, but it does not make a difference today. Whatever teaching from historic figures has survived the times and can still today be applied is worthwhile, but otherwise, history is past and doesn't come back. Useless is the time spent on history, as useless as the time spent on future. All we have is here and now. And me, as a light skin member of the human race enjoyed last night a fantastic evening with members that are fitted out with dark skins. So what? What in Gods Name has the outside to do with anything? It was our souls that met in a surrounding of colorless music, dance and merry laughter. It was our souls that celebrated life together, and nothing could come in between our happiness.

How sorry are we for those that have no inner eyes that see joy and love more clear than skin and race and all that superficial layers of color and where are you from and what language do you speak... When love is present, nothing can upset the feeling, and all this talk of black history is dust in the wind, it has no substance at all. Who can feel pride for what someone else has accomplished is a thief of the others doings. Be proud of who you are, not of anybody else. I am proud of the intense bliss that I felt with the friends of different skins and countries of origin and language, what do I care, the feeling of togetherness and warmth is all that counts. Bless all people of love, as love knows no color, no gender, no restrictions whatsoever. Love is timeless.

It is said that during Jesus' absence, where no texts explain where He was, He visited India. That’s where He learned Divine wisdom. He may have learned about the Buddha who ordered the world in 10 levels, of which Buddha-hood is the tenth and highest, divided in 6 lower worlds and 4 noble worlds, which are from the bottom up:

1. Hell

2. Hunger

3. Animality

4. Anger

5. Humanity also called Tranquility

6. Heaven, Rapture, which is the last of the lower worlds. Then come the noble worlds:

7. Learning

8. Realization (of what is learned)

9. Buddhisatva ( almost, or the path to Enlightenement), and the last, the highest state or world; Buddhahood; just like how Jesus was on many Occasions. And it is clear that only learning can start this liberation. Towards a peaceful 2002 I wish our island, with many liberated minds, celebrating life. I wish the clowns and the conmen, the tricksters and the thieves, the stubborn and the lame, the sleepers and the dreamers, the healers and the hunters, the rough riders and the tender gliders all a fantastic year, full of action towards the inner depth of the self.  With cultivation, with uplifting, lightening thoughts maybe we get enough people who think positive, and the roses will have no thorns, and nobody will pull the plug from the island so that it will not sink to the bottom of the sea.

My women and girl friends love me already many years. They also know about each other. I take care of them as good as I can, and I am faithful to them. I am as honest as a judge, I never lie to them. I like you to tell me what you mean with those baser feelings you talk about, when you think a man doesn't understand what love between one man and one woman really means. Our love goes to the core, to the deepest point of our souls, we merge into one, we have known each other for many lifetimes and we know our love is forever. But our love is not restricted to one person only. That is not natural, dictated by dogmas, churches, laws and is nowhere in biological evolutionary natural life to be found. Of all animal species there are only two or three rare cases which are singled out by the advocates of marriage, who have singular unions, the other thousands have not. If two people voluntarily rest together all their lives, blessed are they, if they have enough love, tender care and attention for others as well, who are you to judge that or find them less than the two who are only restricted to each another? Jesus is my guide and His love was without restrictions, total and all encompassing. And baser feelings, what are they else than cuddling, holding each other, reaffirming the comfort of togetherness, making of a baby, bringing more love into the world? Today with AIDS protection and safety are first important, perhaps it doesn't lead to pregnancy, but apart from that, the physical part of loving is in no way any baser than a conversation, watching tv together or having a walk along the beach, dressing the kids, or what? If you think sex is no good, than how did you come into this world?? And what love does a woman deserve other than the love she gives? Love is a two way lane, and knows not possessiveness.

It is with great sorrow that write these words, as my friends and readers may know my sentiment in these days of world madness, I have searched the source of these primitive dealings. As a child of the last days of the 2nd world war, I believed in peace and in a better world coming. The prosperity of my youth made me believe that the world was becoming truly better. My travels, through the Arab world, made me aware of the best mankind had to offer. Hospitality, friendship, sharing , understanding; at least to my eyes it was a good world. North Africa,the middle, far and farthest East, Europe and even the then communist lands I crossed, did not prepare me for the misery that is unleashed right now. Yugoslavia was a downer all right. Already living in the gay and friendly Caribbean, I followed with disbelief the atrocities unfolding in what formerly was Tito's country. Always asking myself how the European nations could allow that violence to erupt and continue, why no power stopped that foolish fighting, I was forced to accept a new and crazy world. Based on foolish pride, on destruction and the economy of the military I saw groups of people murdered, in Africa, in what once was Yugoslavia, in Tsetsjenia, and in many smaller places, small groups, individuals, freedom fighters, terrorists, defenders of justice and religion. For whatever reason, I see the primitives fight each another with a ferocity that borders insanity. The reasons why soldiers get the order to shoot are as unclear to them self as to their commanders. The politicians who order the commanders themselves are in the darkest of spheres wherein they decide over the misery and sufferings of untold numbers of real victims, while they drive their expensive cars and eat their exquisite meals from fine porcelain, waited upon by perfect servants. I have not lost my believe in the good world, but I am loosing my believe in my fellow men. Also a president has to relieve himself just like you and me, truly, we are the same, why then can we not make it together? What foolish pride has come in between men and men? A reservoir of sin is pride, the wise have always condemned pride as the most dangerous of sentiments. And none will admit that the rich wealth they enjoy is resulting in poverty somewhere else. The inequality of wealth makes some people so mad that they will kill them self with their enemies together. I say give them all a car, a fridge and a mobile phone, a health insurance and a TV, and see then if terrorism does not stop.

Zionism is or is not racism, casts in India are not sure of what to do about it, and the past behavior of the white countries in the context of slavery. And if apologies are proper, and even financial compensation for past slave trades. Arab countries that provided the slaves to the whites seem to be forgotten. African tribes that warred on each other and sold captured prisoners as slaves to the Arabs are not mentioned. Before that we had Egypt, where thousands of slaves built the pyramids. Today’s economic slavery is not mentioned where low wage people in underdeveloped countries manufacture Nike shoes and Hilfiger clothes. To bicker over the past suffering of individuals a who are long dead and gone I find stupid. To talk about compensating the rape of the countries in Africa would be more useful. Where basic materials are mined in Africa and taken away by the white countries to be used for the making of all kind of things to be sold back to African countries with huge profits. The basic materials are mostly not even paid for realistically, but with guns for tribes to fight each other. Divide and rule. The European way of managing Africa. All kinds of metals are /were mined and taken away, also uranium to fuel nuclear power stations. Gems and gold, agricultural products. Never compensated fairly. That now I finds an issue to address. And ask yourself, if your skin is dark, do you rather be where you are or would you prefer to be there where your forefathers where captured and imprisoned to be sent away to where you are now. Gods ways are mysterious. Make the best of today and don’t look back. Yesterday cannot be undone, not with money, apologies or monuments to those that went before. And if the past was bad, better forget it and make tomorrow a nicer day.

The reports I follow on the radio international news touches me most when the survivors suffer the missing-partner -syndrome. They cannot imagine how death works spirituality. That the body is not functioning any more they can grasp, but that the persons light and life are gone, baffles them. The more as nothing about the way how to die has been taught in schools, church, temples etc. My curiosity has lead me to the most satisfying: "Book 0f the Dead", from Tibet. The ancient unperturbed monks in the monasteries high on the slopes of the Himalaya have preserved the teachings of the Enlightened Ones and composed a guide for the spirit of the dying person. The symptoms of the arriving death are well described as in normal cases death takes about the time it takes to use a meal. This manual for the spirit of the dead person is to be read out loud by a friend even as minutes and hours and days go by. Time exists only on our side of the clock, and after 7 weeks it is said that the spirit must have found its way and the guiding prayers cease.

This reading while one is alive, for a dead friend or relative, or for only one self, while living, gives the reader the wisdom to help others that happen to die in the

field of influence of the present. It makes life so much richer, this knowledge of how to die. That, if it comes, at least I have an inkling as to where to steer my spirit, if it is true that it cannot die and live forever. The information, once stored in the brain, after reading a modern translation, will be of use in case an instant death takes place. Life becomes so fearless and easy, bad habits are laid off , morality strengthens, integrity sublime, here follows the name of the book: The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-500223-7.

This version is a bit old-fashioned and I recommend you find a newer edition. I have seen one that explains the message clear and good. Life becomes more marvelous and full when you have understood that you have been here forever and will stay, no matter how many death we pass. We grow towards fulfillment of the Lord and appreciate His mysteries the more we do scientific research to celebrate His ways.

Gurdjieff tried from one corner. Raman Maharishi tried from another corner. He made it a meditation to ask, to inquire, "Who am I?" And don't believe in any answers that the mind can

supply. The mind will say, "What nonsense are you asking? You are this, you are that, you are a man, you are a woman, you are educated or uneducated, rich, poor." The mind will supply answers, but go on asking. Don't accept any answer because all the answers given by the mind are false. They are from the unreal part of you. They come from words, they are coming from scriptures, they are coming from conditioning, they are coming from society, they are coming from others. Go on asking. Let this arrow of "Who am I?" penetrate deeper and deeper. A moment will come when no answer will come. That is the right moment. Now you are nearing the answer. When no answer comes, you are near the answer because mind is becoming silent or, you have gone far away from the mind. When there will be no answer and a vacuum will be created all around you, your question will look absurd. Whom are you questioning? There is no one to answer you. Suddenly even your questioning will stop. With the questioning, the last part of the mind has dissolved because this question was also of the mind. Those answers were of the mind and this question was also of the mind. Both have dissolved so now YOU ARE. Try this. There is every possibility, if you persist, that this technique can give you a glimpse of the real- and the real is ever-living. From Osho.

O,la la, les francais. They are checking on religious sects. Well, they better talk to me, as I am someone who has checked them already long ago. My conclusions are that the biggest sect is the Roman Catholic one, then comes the Protestant Christian one, then the Muslim and Hindu ones, and following those, all the other ones, too numerous to mention. All those sects are in some or other way discriminatory towards the others. Which is the explanation for the French investigation. Being Christianized some centuries ago, the originally pagan country worshipped trees, fire, the moon, stones and what not. Once they became members of the Roman sect the most hideous crimes were committed in the time of the inquisition. If you so much as owned a black cat, you would end up on the pyre. Today they jealously look at any other club, group or organization that takes away members from their powerful lobby. Oh, la la, les francais, Liberte, Egalite... Talk about freedom of religion. I do not commit myself to any club group, lobby, party or religion, although I have been invited to join by many. I rather stay a free man, with my own knowledge and my own god in my own soul. My own God, who has no name, no

substance, no attachment whatsoever. That way I see clearly what others are doing or trying to do. And honestly, most are very good and commendable indeed. The biggest is not to my mind the best, as it insists to blind faith, which is logically foolish. To blindly accept anything not even a blind man should do, let alone one that has eyes that see. Obedience, guilt and repression are the pillars on wich these sects' credo is built; and calls itself a religion because they mix the idea of God with it. To attack other religious groups under the excuse of human rights is nothing but the same that the Romans have done since the time of Julius Cesar, accuse and destroy, in order to rule alone. In these times that (some) people slowly

become educated, the dominating superiority of the church leaders is crumbling and people are looking for alternatives to winged creatures, the magic tricks of changing water into wine, and walking on water. Those things belong to fairy tales. People are looking for more realistic experiences. How many enlightened beings did 2000 years of Christian religion produce?

Not more than one can count on the fingers of one hand. It is like a gardener with 1000 trees and only one blooms, is that a good gardener? More like the one tree blooms in spite of him, not because of him. So it was with master Eckehardt who was enlightened in the Middle Ages, and a few others. They became enlightened to show the church its absurd demands on the minds of the people. And to become enlightened should be the ultimate goal of religion, of any religion. Once awakened, when one sees the light, and God is found, is realized, nothing else is important and a group, a leader or a place of worship has become superfluous, unnecessary. That is why the religious groups do everything to prevent its members from becoming enlightened.

Nobody but a master can help a seeker. Jesus had found it, Buddha had found, Mohammed and Krishna had found. However, they could only help those that were with them, once they died it was over. No matter how one follows the memory of those masters, only a living master, a present One can help, but they are few and far apart as the world does not tolerate Holy men, they destroy the groups’ reason for existence. Oh, lala, who shall awaken next? And: how to keep the group together??? Ask the French, they may know.

Now that springtime is here and the buds are bursting with new life, hens are trotting along with their chicks, the dogs are making little puppies all over the place, I have this impossible wish. For a springtime of the mind. For a new awakening of all enslaved minds. This came about because I was visited by a certain individual who carried a Bible, and wanted to chat with me. So I made him sit down and let him talk. "Who made the mountains, and who made the fair blue sky?" asked he. “Not relevant", did I reply, "Those things are here, how they came to be does not change my day a bit, I just enjoy all that".

"But mister", said he, "do you have no respect for He who made all that?" came the accusing answer. When I asked where he got all that knowledge from he triumphantly held up the Book and told me it was Gods word. "Well, that may be as it is , but where are you yourself,?" asked I. He wondered what I meant with that.

"Where are you, what do you think, where is your mind about this, what does your spirit say?" I insisted. After a good while thinking he admitted that he had no mind of his own, he believed the book and that was all there was for him. Then I pointed out that he was thus an extension of the book, just another page, an appendix, a useless addition. I told him to go look for himself, and when was found to come back and talk to me as a man to a man, I could look in the book anytime myself, he did hot have to be the book for me.

Springtime of the mind, wake up from the long long sleep, the mental slavery that Bob Marley sings about, be someone, not a zombie who cannot think a single original thought. The free man Jesus called Lazarus out of the death back into life in the symbolic parable to illustrate how people should wake up from the spiritual death and come to life again. So am I calling all to wake up in this new spring, and live. Only when Sint Maarteners have become free people can the island become free itself. It is my believe that as long as people have no minds of their own, they cannot become free of anything. Then they will always follow those that scream loudest, even if that scream is foolish. My wish is impossible, I know it, so to all that are deep asleep I better say: "Dream Sweet".

Sitting talking to this person of the other sex, less than half my age, it were our two spirits that met. My spirit was happy to contact another free being, her spirit happy to meet with information that not even the internet could provide. Our two spirits merged, complemented each other, melted into one. Our skincolors, our age, our education, our social status, all external values dropped away. Our spiritual beings had suddenly no say over our material hunger and now anything could happen.

What other people, who saw us, said about the two of us, whatever they thought, was non-existant. God was close to us, so close that we were out of this world. And forgetting our selves we became one and we made love and experienced bliss complete. The alchemy of extasy had brought us total oneness with our Maker.

Afterwards we lay completely satisfied, entangled in each others arms and legs, reluctant to separate and return to our individual realities, wondering if we were for real.

To Richardson Julians questioning the lack of morality and consequent misbehavior of the youth. To the Lions that organize a day of "Peace". To all that are asleep and dreaming.  The young people today , those that are coming into adulthood, teenagers especially are getting desperate from the lies, the hypocrisy and the falseness of the (so called) authorities. A baby is born with an open skull. Fontanell it is called, an opening at the top of the skull that allows the brain blood volume to expand at will. The total potential of the brain s available to the young child and it is evident that it can use telepathy to call when it need help without words. It only presses more blood to the head, the face may get a little red, and the mother feels that the child is in need, even if she is in another room. Growing up, the child absorbs information like a sponge absorbs water. In no time it speaks the language, any language, whatever is spoken by the people around. Put a Spanish child in an English surrounding. in 3 month it speaks English. Try that with an Spanish adult. The brain blood volume cannot expand anymore once the cranium, the skull, is grown closed, at age 20-21, what we call adult age. The adult has a hard time learning new things and relies mainly on what it learned as a child. Only those individuals who learned to learn, those who studied learning, and subsequently escape the adult sleeping state, stay free. The youth can be indoctrinated with anything, any idea, fairy-tale, information, concept or ideology. Sadly enough the only institution that uses this fact is the religious lobby. Already at birth the child is condemned to a lifelong membership to this or that religion. Nationality is next and bewares the military who can turn a young loving person in no time into a veracious killer. With today's access to information on the internet, and before that by TV and radio, young people that are growing up have insight in what is and how it should be. This world is producing weapons. Weapons that have no value at all when all people were loving each other. So, hate is instigated all over the world. Country against country, religion against religion, political ideas against each other, what a mess. To see that, makes one look for a rope to hang oneself, a joint of ganja, even a pipe of crack. At least for some moments the worry of a rotten world can be forgotten. And who is guilty for this mess? First of all the church, who tries to saturate the child with absurd stories of fear and guilt and sin and commandments that itself does not follow. Second the politicians who promise to work for the people but only seem to enrich themselves and brake their promises. Third the capitalistic idea of greed and consumerism that leads to world pollution, slavery and envy.

Is it a miracle, a mystery, that young people show disrespect for the world that forces them to study for years and does not provide a job afterwards? A world that says: Thou shalt not kill, while the news is full of murder by armies, revolutionaries, police, rebels, Israelis, and the rest? And so on and so forth. Get Real is my motto. Which is possible after all, when one has the courage to stand up against the established liars, learns an independent profession like shoemaker, mechanic, artist, goldsmith, gardener, musician, in order to produce something. Computers are nice and interesting but they do not produce anything and are for 95 percent a waste of time and energy. Get Real. And learn to study love. That may not be easy but it is possible.

The old man is getting older but no wiser. The new man is getting wiser but not older. The old man says to someone who has lost a leg: do not complain, there is someone who has lost both legs. The new man says: One cannot feel better for someone that suffers more. If the suffering of someone can make you feel better, there is something basically wrong with you. The old man believes everything the priests and the politicians tell him. The new man questions everything. The old man tells non-sensual stories, the new man tells jokes. The old man is full of desires, when he sees a beautiful woman and cannot get her, he makes her look bad. The new man sees a beauty and gives her a compliment. Seeing a beautiful car, the old man will find something wrong with it, the new man congratulates the owner. The old man begs to his god to give him things and calls it prayer. The new man sings and celebrates and his dance is his prayer. The old man sees no violence in the threat to hunger strike to death; the new man begs to differ. The old man is proud of his nationality; the new man wishes that all borders would disappear and feels sorry for the division between nations. The old man sticks to religion, the new man is religious. The old man spends time with the past and the future, the new man loses no time in the here-now. The old man is prisoner of his society, his club membership, his religion, his nationality, his skin color, his culture. The new man is free.

Dear Mr. T .Priest, after reading your article about the ugly Mr. Lynch and his sick ideas from 289 years ago, I wonder, why did you write that? Your explanation to provide ammunition for the healing process does not strike me as valid. For healing One needs medicine, not ammunition, that is for weapons, killing, hurting etc. Let me ask you also if reminding one the ways of the past can do anything to make today a better day. I may suggest a healing method that is timeless, although mentioned first some 2600 years ago by a spiritual master. I do not mean: the Older the better, but this method can surely help the ones that find themselves in trouble, from whatever origin or reason. Imagine a water Lilly. A lotus flower. As it sticks its multi petaled flower out of the water, with its golden center that emits a fragrance delicate and fine. The water Lilly exists in many colors, every One as beautiful as the next. The stem of the flower grows from roots that stick in the mud. They grope in the dark dirt, in the slime and grime of the bottom. There the plant has its roots. Then it has the will to go up. It grows through the water, until it emerges with a flower so exquisite and clean that the muddy source from where it came is all but forgotten. The comparing of a persons life to the lotus flower is my advice to all you troubled souls, from whatever mud you came. Grow out of it and leave it behind and emerge as a pristine, clean, new human being. We all that have our roots in mud, and emerge as beautiful flowers.

Most of us know what a molecule is; it is the smallest part of any given material. An atom is more difficult to grab, as it is in itself not a material thing. Although every molecule is made up of atoms, they are basically different. An atom is 99,999 per cent empty space; the rest is energy and information. Subatomic particles, too small to see, move about a centre with the speed of light. Scientists can only photograph the trail they leave behind, as the particles are too minute and too fast to catch.

A thought in your head is also made up of empty space. It is like the atom, energy and information. To project your thought outward into the world, the atomic energies

are bound to connect and the universe clumps atoms into molecules that become the thing or action that first was a thought. A coffeemaker, a theater play, a dollar, a marslander, an eraser, a holy book, all came into the world first as a thought.

Also a crime, a gun, and a bomb start out the same, it is of utmost importance what one thinks. I never learned to observe my thoughts, until recently I read something about that. To think positive is not a worn out cry, and it merits more than just attention I say to our Suckergarden Vodoo worriers. If you think voodoo, you will make voodoo, if you think baby doll, child toy, in the tree instead of on the dump, than that is what you get. If you think that those dolls once were loved by a child, and that love still lingers on in that doll, it gives its love out to all the people that see it. If you have a bad conscious and feel you need punishment, you may see yourself hanging there. That is the power of thought.

That God is Love I agree, about the title calling God: HIM, I Object. He or She, better then: IT. Fine with me if you defend various religions, I still maintain that in the name of religion much evil is brought into the world. Yost all conflicts present and past have religion at the base. ten referring to a loveless religious book, check Dayananda's  Sathiarth Prakash, and you will find hate, almost on every page. And this is a so called spiritual book. Then you state that words in various scriptures are words of the Lord Himself. I object: these are words written by people who say they are inspired by God. Now, who can prove or disprove that my, or your words are also not inspired by God? What criterion must one's words have to be holy? My love for mankind and all that is, is genuine and total. My understanding of what man does to man is great and I see how few of us are awake, alert, observing, witnessing, loving. That now bothers me, as Ghandi was not nonviolent, even as the world says so: I see it as violent if a man threatens to kill somebody, even if that somebody is he  himself. Ghandi threatened to kill himself if he did not get what he wanted, and that was as violent as the ones he opposed. And Marten Luther King had a dream, it means that he was still asleep. When fully awake, one doesn't dream, but speaking to dreamers, he was right. To love is a conscious living art form that sharpens the wits that makes one a human being. To end this reply to Mr. Pawa, do not wait for god to ask you: What have you done, ask yourself now and here the question all the time: what am I doing?

Emptiness does not long stay empty. A vacuum is soon filled up again. An empty stomach soon finds food. The trick is to get the right thing to fill up the empty space oboe it is created. like the mind that is full of thoughts. Most people think today the same they were thinking yesterday. Thoughts come and go like clouds in the sky. Thoughts of work, of the partner, of the bills to pay, of the kids; endless thoughts leave no place in the mind for peace. But as those thoughts come and occupy the mind , they also go, to be replaced by the next thought. Like a monkey jumping from branch to branch the thoughts jump from onto the other. Between thoughts though there is a tiny moment of no thought. Like the quiet between the songs on a CD or cassette. A little moment of nothing. Silence. The gap between thoughts does exist, like the blue sky between clouds. That gap is what is going to save you. What can safe you if you look for abetter you. If you can look for the gap of silence between thoughts and hold on to it. Fake that quiet moment yours. Make it longer, draw it out. And you will become silent .This gap is the silence that God needs to enter you. How can God enter you if you are occupied with thinking all the time? God will not force itself upon you. You have to invite Him. You have to make place for Him. Stop thinking all your busy thoughts, stop even thinking of God, just create emptiness. does not the bible say In the beginning there was nothing. Then God came and filled it up. So you have to create nothing. Even you have to make place. The egoistic, self centered you, your ego has to make  way for the Divine to enter. Only when that happens does the real world that was meant to be reveal itself. Until then you will be tied up with what others have told you, what the people around you have tried you to believe. There is nothing to believe. There is no art or inspiration when you are thinking your endless thoughts. Only in the silence can creation take place. Only when you forget who you are in lovemaking with your partner, can a new being come into existence. Once you are not anymore you, when the two of you have become one, without knowledge, without ego, without mind, deep in love together none, can a new creation come into being. And so it is with everything that you want. Create it in the gap. Let all thoughts go and let the universe do the rest. It is there to help, and it can only help when you are not. ten your busy thoughts are gone. Then God enters and lets the harmony return were it was gone, the light enter were it was dark. The pureness will take over the intoxicated mind when the thoughts have stopped and the silence has arrived. Try it and see for yourself. There do you think I get my funny ideas and knowledge from? Or any painter or artist that plays his instrument, from the silence. In the beginning there must be nothing. Then suddenly everything that you was looking for enters. These letters appears out of the silence of  my mind that has stopped working. Zen calls it The sound of one hand clapping. Or tea from an empty cup. This is the remedy for stress, trouble and anger. Create emptiness. watch the thoughts inside yourself. Become a witness to all you do and you will become the true you that you was meant to be. Full of the love of God. Once you let Him in. When you have silenced your mind and made place for Him

The complaining writer who got no job. Sorry, I found it very hard, but also true. However, without exp(t)ensive education nobody can write a nice letter. Mastery of anything needs teachers, masters, guidance, pupils, students and/or apprentices. Most all handmade articles need professionals to make them. Hands-on teachers is what is needed. To manufacture things. Ones handwriting is irrelevant. What job did writer seek? Tailor, shoemaker, goldsmith, sculptor? Knowledge gives security, wisdom and art give peace. Why not give the man a boost. Tell him to go observe people that are making things, so that he may learn it too. I learned all I know by watching for it. How it was done, to do it later all by myself. That is the curious child inside. Now I show others how to do it, that they may learn it too. Everybody must pass the time one way or another. By doing anything, knitting, soldering, stringing, sewing, one cannot do anything bad. And the miracle of creating happens in your own hands. Baskets, handbags, rings, shirts and shoes can be made in Sint Maarten. The profit would be enormous. Tourists always ask for things made local. At present all goods are imported, except some booze, that is mixed and bottled here. The manufacturer abroad made his money, then the shipper who brings it here, and the salesman also makes his profit, to the shopkeeper who sells it for profit again. At least three markups, which we could keep here by only getting the basic materials and producing. Especially jewelry, as that is article number One. It can keep hundreds of people busy. A school for professionals would not hurt a nation that wants to become independent. Local power to the local people. Power in making it nice. Fight apathy and steer violent thoughts into making sweet and pretty things. We are in the material world, we are not all pen pushers. Every person likes things that are made with taste and pleasure. Small things deserve respect. Super rich Japan never invented anything, it only made existing things smaller. As god lives in the details, hands-on teaching workshops are what Sint marten needs. Nothing that is sold did not get made somewhere. Lets make it here. And to improve on letter writing skills, once you know how to make a pretty thing, that can always come later.

Most everybody that has had some schooling knows what a molecule is. It is the smallest part of any given material. Molecules are made up of atoms. Atoms represent the elements of which there are about 105 discovered. Water is not an element, but made up of two elements, Hydrogen(H) and  Oxygen (O). H2O is a well known way to describe water, it means that a molecule of water is made up of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, stuck together. Now comes the strange thing: an atom is not a material thing.  The atom is made up of 99 .9999 percent empty space. The particles that make up an atom are not particles in the material sense and they are so small, so minute, that they cannot be photographed by our most sophisticated apparatus. They move with the speed of light around each other, the inner ones called protons and outer ones neutrons. Our scientists can photograph the trails these particles leave behind but at the moment of observation, they are already gone. As I stated, the atom is 99,999 percent empty space, the rest is energy and information, not any material substance. How then can a molecule, which is a material thing, exist??? This is the mystery that we all live. It is a fact that all that exists is in reality 99.999 percent empty space. Whatever one looks at with an electron microscope disappears in the emptiness of the atom. So however solid you think you are, and your bank account and your house and your family, and your car, know that all of it is just an illusion. The Buddhist from ancient times, knew all this, their Holy number is 108, and scientist believe that that is the true number of elements, a few have not been discovered yet, and , the Buddhists say all the time that the world is nothing but an illusion...The only thing that keeps it together is your mind, your thoughts and your accepted ideas. Thoughts are also made up of the same stuff as the atoms. Your thoughts are 99.999 per cent empty space, and a little energy and information. The relation between thoughts and atoms is direct; whatever you can think of will come to pass. Anything that now exists in the material world started out as a thought. So,observe your thoughts and think positive, that good things may come of it. And wanting , desiring something very much,will lead to the creation of that sornething. The universe has nothing else to do than to create for you that what you desire. Just please do not ask for anything bad, the universe does not have a mind of its own, it creates everything that we can dream up.

Knowledge about dying is hard to obtain. Nobody escapes that one certainty, and still it is never discussed. It is not studied or talked about and the art of dying is at a very low point in our society. I myself do foresee my death. And I do not want no wailing and snottering at my departure. Feast and be merry when I am set free. Address me as if I where still there. Nobody knows in what Wisdom and Light I will have gone. So I start saving for the party after my death. Every coin I get through the neck of an empty ketchup bottle adds to the party money. When the bottle is full of coins I bury it. It holds approximately  $50.- When long after my death someone finds the bottle full of coins he will have a little party. When I have buried enough for a big party I make a map. With a cross at the spot and a dotted line to the nearest tree. With numbers of steps to be taken in various directions of true north. To maintain the Caribbean dream of buried treasure, I recommend all future party mongers to bury more treasure, deeper, When so much treasure is buried by me as to make people want to kill me for it I have reached. Then I will reveal it all to a good friend shortly before I go. I will hand him the chart with the secret of the buried treasure and he may do with it as he likes. If I die as planned the party may be delayed by my friend or consumed ad hoc. If I do not die, I keep adding to the hoard. If my body is to be disposed of I would prefer to be thrown in the deep, clear  waters of the sea. My organs may be reused if desired, the rest cut in small pieces for the seagulls, burnt, or eaten by worms, that does not bother me, but a party with happy people, cake, sweetmeat, drink and music, that must be. I hoard my  treasure now for the people that live longer. Cheers.

Human beings of ordinary wit are scared of freedom. Also it is never given to them and those who are free are rare. Mostly looked upon by others with contempt. It starts as soon as one is born. Post newly born beings are robbed of their freedom of religion, as they straight away get it from their parents. Catholic, Jew, Moslim or Hindu, there goes the spiritual freedom. Of course it happens in some country, so the nationality is next. The newly born is American, Dutch, French, Colombian Saint Lucian or whatever. Freedom to be a world citizen or a universal person is taken away. A few years later one enters school and it becomes more evident in wich class one belongs, well-to-do, rich, middle class, or poor. Belonging to one class means that the other classes are out of bound and the freedom to mix is frowned upon, especially when a few years later marriage comes into play. Now the profession. Studied for doctor the person now is stuck in that line of work. Having grown into a merchant, manual labour is out. And he who tills the land might just as well do that for the rest of his life. And if this prison of religion, nationality, profession and wealth is not enough of a prison that locks out the rest of the world people tend to form groups where one has to become a member so as to exclude all others who are non-members. Lions, Freemasons, Rotarians and not to forget political parties. Now it becomes clear what freedom means to be imprisoned in a self created cage of strict limits where others are kept out. Reflect on this idea when you believe that impedance makes us free. It only makes our prison smaller. True freedom knows no master, no boss over one, no credo or creed, no dogma, principle or class. True freedom mixes and mingles with all that are imprisoned and bound by rules to show them the limits of their beliefs. A slave is a free man if he is content with his lot; a free man is a slave if he seeks more than that. Prison is envy, pride, ignorance, greed and all the above. It takes much power to be free, so I wish you strength, if you really like freedom.

Soul has no color and the soul is the reason why we are here. Inner beings are inside of us, the outside is an illusion. Time has come to harmonize, tolerate and waive all dark thoughts. Acceptance will be my force, humor be my weapon. I shall alternate my ordeal reports with short stories, hoping to challenge others to come forth with some witty solutions Or explanations for our situations.

We would all be rich, if we didn’t have to eat. Food for the soul though, is for free so no more dawdling about my lame foot; here comes the story of the mouse who went away: He  walked through the high grass and couldn't see far. He then did something that no other mouse had ever done, and jumped up as high as he could. He saw at the end of the world the sea. That was where he wanted to go. Well on the way he met another mouse who asked him where he was going. To over there, was the answer. What is there, asked his companion. And mouse tried to explain what he had seen. But as no mouse had ever seen the sea it was hard to find the words. It is big, and far away, and shines with the sun and it is blue with a white edge on a yellow border. His companion didn't understand a thing and said: you must be mad and left him there. Once more mouse jumped to see if he was on the right way and he went on. The next brother mouse he met walked up a while with him, also asking where he was going. Over there , said mouse and tried to explain what he had seen, but as there are no words for sea in mouse language, the other shook his head in wonder and left him also. By jumping up now and again mouse found his way to the shore, where he met mister Crab who asked him where he came from. From the mountains, said mouse, many days  away. Now crab had never seen or known about mountains and if this story is true, they are talking about it still. Of what use is wisdom, when folly reigns???

One of my favorite subjects is: symptoms and source of things. These ”things” are the ills of our world. Have you not noticed that the newsmedia always only tell the public the symptoms of the problems and never the source? Take drug abuse for example. What a noise we got from the testing results and the fact that so many youth are intoxicating themselves etc, etc. Not a word about the untenable conditions that some or all of the victims of drugs are living in, the fatherless families, the lack of recreation, ball fields, you name it. Or take the bad roads, photographs show us the holes and the problems, but not a word a about the years of neglect of the then reigning commissioners and responsible people, who could have prevented the present horror.  An airplane hostage taking, one hardly hears the underlying terror that has driven the hijackers to their deed. And about the victims, refugees and sufferers of war the papers are full, as truly the agony is so terrible, that the whole world must hear about it. But not a word about the weaponmakers who make the weapons That get sold to any One that pays and starts a war, small or big. The real source of misery is mostly hidden and not talked about, so much the more about the symptoms. Is it not time to get the real information to the people, so they know why all these problems are in the world? The symptomatic treatment never solves the problem, the reporting of same is shallow and  in itself no news, a respectable newspaper should get to the roots and report on the  causal the ills, instead of only reporting the ills, That way the public can help to prevent future wrongs better.. Right now world—level discussions are about the poor countries that need help from the rich. Not a word about the exploitation, and pillage of the poor uneducated by the rich. The rich who had no morality or compassion, and who created the poverty by taking more than is fair. This discussion can go on for ever, so I stop here, and hope that you reflect a little on the reasons for the wrongs that are everywhere, all around us

The island was compared with an eagle and the two sides with the two wings of the bird in the poem from Ruby Bute. It ended the speeches by the highest dignitaries of Sint Maarten/Saint Martin in French quarter on Saturday, 11 November. For all those people that could not be present I obtained a copy from the one and only nonpolitical recital on that total political performance. The counselors Arnell and Mussing ton, our very inspired Sarah Westcott and Albert Fleming where followed by the boss man from France mister. Patrice Laton who spoke in French and perfect English how keen his country was following the development of the Dutch side... Our Own ambassadrice of culture Ruby concluded the recitals with:

St.Martin, the beautiful, the peaceful domain,

Let's fight to protect and preserve her tradition and treasures

special and unique, forever she'll reign.

I plead today to those who ignore distress for the sake of progress.

My words, my thoughts are for St.Martins best interest.

It's tine to take a stand to save our land.

There's an urgency for national pride and friendship,

Let's find it again through care, brotherhood and worship.

Times are testing our faith, but may there never be for my

Island any sort of unrest.

Oh no, not for this haven where battered soldiers daily come to rest.

Since days of old papers were shuffled around the table.

Treaties were signed, and the people were left behind,

With courage and love we labored, by nature loving and kind,

we became one family, one culture, one mind.

Therefore my cry is to claim what is still left of your traditions

and treasures.

St. Martin, the beautiful, the peaceful domain.

St. Martin people believe in yourself, forget not your noble

history of pain and survival.

There's no burden too great that we cannot bear

If you remember the travels that brought us here,

then never should we despair.

My words flow today for this little rock,

St. Martin the beautiful, the peaceful domain

Your rolling hills spread from Concordia to Reward,

From Reward to French Quarter, all around to Simpson Bay

Contradicting the story, proclaiming one island

please unite, become one head and both wings will fly

like an eagle in the sky.

St.Martin the beautiful, the peaceful domain,

Forever you'll reign

It is most reassuring to have a representative of our culture department stand in the row of dignitaries. As the only one who does anything for the promotion of culture, Ruby Bute should be the example for all those who sit in the office of the department and produce nothing at all. Well done Ruby.

As a victim of a recent traffic accident whereby the other party clearly was wrong, I, together with many others, am experiencing a very frustrating time. A time that I have to  live with a newly acquired handicap, a loss of income and a period of waiting for justice. I am waiting for my lawyer to get my case before the judge, who must after carefully  considering the facts come to a just verdict. Why the public prosecutor not immediately prosecuted the traffic offender is to my mind still an enigma. Wrongly parked cars get towed and fined, helmet less bikers and other small  offenses right away get punished right away by the policeman who in the case of giving a fine acts as witness, prosecutor and judge all in One, the offender who drives one into hospital and lifelong invalidity can, after haven given his name and license number, drive on unpunished. I have spoken to the highest police official in our force and he told me that we do not have enough prosecutors. The few we have are so busy with drug offenses, violent crimes and the like that the file of traffic victims from traffic offenses is sky high. He told me that we have no prosecutor who is specialized in these matters and so they are not considered important enough to be dealt with fast and conclusive. Here I feel a most terrible injustice taking place. Especially because of marijuana. That(soft) drug is allowed in Holland for over 25 years and it does not cripple people, it does not lead to criminality and no marijuana user ends up in hospital as do traffic victims. Which is the more grave occurrence then? Not even cocaine puts people bleeding on trolleys in the emergency room, unless it is from shooting of jealous and greedy dealers. These so called drug offenses are economical, they drain money through the users away from the system and to those that are not supposed to have it. But the drugs do very little harm compared to what careless car drivers do to each other and to pedestrians. There is something definitely wrong in the handling of our justice. And I will keep on pointing to this until it is rectified or I have gotten satisfaction, as I am most likely to be corrupt enough to let matters rest once I am compensated... I hereby ask anybody that has been involved in a traffic accident without getting justice to write to this newspaper to let the public know how the case is solved or not. How long it takes to get settlement after an accident, how much was the compensation for a lost leg, foot, hand or eye??? How many times one has to return to the past to be reminded of what happened by asking the lawyer how things are progressing, what the results were from the last meeting and when the next negotiations are taking place...Why this painful part of out justice system is not corrected while punishments for many crimes are doubled not long ago, to overfill our already full jails, is an enigma. This riddle has not been solved, not by a high police chief, not by my lawyer and not by insurance officials that I spoke to. Whomever can comment and add any information to this problem please write to the Herald so the public can learn about it more