the past the present and?

Is this about a journey in cultures? Maybe more about "a journey in life..".. I was asked to describe "an amazing thing" I had seen or done....Well how about...

Ages ago Portugal was ruled by a dictator and when I was 18 I was involved in helping the young portuguese guys escaping from terror and military service in Angola and so on. Years later in 1999 I worked in Lisbon for a month, a place I never had been to before. I was located in a 5 star hotel business centre. Next thing I know Indonesia "occupied" Timor, the news brought to me by the shocked hotel cleaning lady early morning..AND the big TV screen in the hall of the hotel. .. Timor, the only colony Portugal "gave independence" to, in a normal way, without a long lasting fight from their end. And the seat of the UN, hesitating.. thinking but not moving a finger was in my very hotel. A nation went crazy, young and old united and occupied the hotel and it's surroundings objecting against Timor being overruled, demanding the UN to at least "do something".. to "move"..No way in.. no way out of that place. But I wanted to be there and join the people, the crowd and demonstrate with them. Since I am not a heroe at all I first asked the reception, then the police and then army if I could safely go there. Ohh I could.. with passport and hotelpass..So I changed and dressed as all did.. in pure white, I left the front door of the hotel and...crossed the vacuated street in front of the hotel for me to join the crowd..CNN, local TV and all there..10 "emptied out"meters to cross fully on my own -more than visible with no one else allowed on it. Army behind me.. police in front of me..nobody in between but me.. dressed in white with one red flower. and I was applauded - to my shock - by the million people already standing there..as it must have looked like "a deliberate political choice"..to cross over from "the rich bastion of the UN" to "the people who cared" about a sad nation with no choice of their own..

Yet I'm most likely one of the very few non Portuguese people ( a visitor, a tourist even if I was there for work) seeing the statues of Lisbon covered in black plastic, mourning for Timor's lost independence and it's people..and using the Lisbon highway not to drive on but to sit on with thousands since Timor just simply could not wait!!

"peace" is such a fragile undefined concept..and all of us "humans""miss the point".. more than once.. and we don't seem capable to "change much"... as little as I changed in essentials since:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pih1hVdflnQ

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q9YshzOYjM

a "world united"might be an illusion..but the least we can do is respect the free choices and culture of people in "their own backyard"..
I did not think..when crossing that road...I just wanted to be "at the other side"..but I do not regret it for a sec since it could have been a choice..MY choice...

If wishes were horses beggars could ride..

Somebody I know wrote the words..


"There are different ways of life, and many of them are nothing like the little things that my little community or tribe or religion does. It is quite an eye-opener"..
and I might feel the same..about how people relate or simply at times do NOT relate at all..
An Indian friend came and visited me in Amsterdam last year and he wondered "don't you have any beggars at all here??" Well he came straight from the US then but surely he had his hometown and a slum or 2 in mind..

and YES we DO have beggars,though not many, only you would hardly recognize them as such..unless you come very close..or you know.

Our beggars..do not sit down..just looking aweful, sick and sad with a couple of hungry kids around..trying for some "compassion"..The concept does not "work" very well here..A couple of years back some gypsy Roma from Romania "tried"..sitting on our streets,looking sick and holding their hand up in "beggar pose"..surrounded by their sad looking little ones but "the Dutch"..don't go for the concept..so they would hardly get anything out..moving south.. where also "the weather"is better...for the job..(and also.. our police.. "helped them out"..

Our "beggars"..might be homeless..on drugs and all but "homeless" does not mean they can not find a shower -do the utmost to do so and keep their clothes as decent and clean as can be. (they "look good") and they would simply walk up to you asking for your petty cash as if this is a right of some sort..Only very close.. - apart from the "do you have some change for me.. I need food"..you can see they're.. "different" from the rest of the crowd..It's like a "business"..

In Brussels Belgium they have both and a white Kaukasian beggar..looking good makes 3 times as much money as any Roma "trying to provoke "compassion"..

How do people feel about beggars in any culture?? Ignore them? Feel sorry for them? Trying to help in paying them some or in "starting an action group" with a goal??

Yet every summer here in Amsterdam some Roma still come..I think they're located in Paris but travel up only if the weather is good.. And the weather is "summerlike" just now..and local people in a good mood..

The view of what a beggar is you can not really make pictures of : the beggars might have real problems.. they might be really hungry and poor and the last thing they need is "tourist pictures" taken of them but no desaster recovery plan or any country to stay in to accept them.. as human..

One exception as for a picture after all??

Of course it is "not all all allowed".. and of course.."those kids should be on school" but the Roma kids who come here in summer.. and they would come in several couples of 2.. 3....would "hop" on an Amsterdam metro -without a ticket bought no doubt - and play their accordion.. They play better than many a "professional" I ever heard and it brings the Amsterdam"working people going home" on a sunny Friday afternoon in a pure happy "holiday mood". Soft romantic tunes reminding of summer evenings in Paris.. They "go around" with a plastic cup for some money but do not at all "impose" or insist.

Is this begging? Is this sad..?? Is this "making a living"..and not begging at all? Look at the little brother..He's the best in collecting some..But also.. when I told them I would "swob" my spare Euro and some for the "picture" to be taken..(their young sister is not on it..too bad since she smiled ear to ear when I explained her "the deal"..) the little one came up running since he wanted to be on the picture as well..

What will life be for them in the long run?? I can't even ask.. and it makes me..? Well..all kids should have a fair chance in life.. All kids should be able to grow..Gypsy yes or no.. Born as an outcast yes or no..

So..maybe..maybe .. at some point in time when "we've all learned"..all are equal.

try to grasp how I feel in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTg3TxsMeU0

A different story maybe.. but still..

Helga

QUEENSDAY in Amsterdam..

In my journey in "understanding" the concept of cultures..Please join me in "Queensday"..Netherlands..30 April so "today"..
If you did not know where would you had "landed"..what would you think this is?? Brasil maybe??
Yet it is just my hometown Amsterdam.. Right downstairs where I live...(forget the windmills and cloggies)..

Every second inhabitant of my hometown Amsterdam (so 50%) can be considered "not originally Dutch".

Some of our festivals or holidays might leave our new "co-country folks"..untouched..like Christmas or Easter having little meaning to a Muslim.. or a Hindu..apart from "the day off"..

But "Queensday"..the most Dutch holiday of all, leaves nobody out or "untouched"..and we seem all "one"..all of a sudden. Queensday means "free market' so everybody can go out, sell what they like on the streets.. make music.. organize games... sell "home-food"..All this without the licenses otherwise needed for any street sales or performance at all..

The 3 boys I asked to "pose for me"..as "multicultural pals"enjoying the day..The colorful grandma in wheelchair I asked..Her, not her pushing daughter, telling her she looked beautiful, if I could take a picture and she smiled and agreed....All the rest "represent"my neighbourhood just as it is..

Fancy to join me next year???

ME....

Well.. this is me...

Understanding each other starts with knowledge..??

The way people from different cultures and backgrounds behave at times and in some situations puzzle me...And quite often - if questions are asked, or worse.. an opinion is expressed already, the standard answer or excuse is limited to either "if you do not understand we have to explain it better..(or explain it again)"or..."if only you knew more about it you would feel differently"..And my journey will be to try and find out...
Sometimes...when we act in the way we are brought up with, we CAN explain "the why" over and over again but mostly we can not..And what if...after being explained.. and after "knowing a lot about "it".. whatever "it" is I would still - with all knowledge at hand.."disagree"??
I learned to look at cultural aspects ages ago.. but a good example would be the rare human societies where "canabalism".. is just part of the culture..I might be explained.. I might learn lots about where it came from..as far as culture is concerned BUT I still "disagree" and my "acceptance"of this phenomena as "just and aspect of a certain culture".. is not likely to occur...
This seems pretty clear but what about less clear "signs of culture".."are we - when somewhere else.."better off "accepting" that things are the way they are due to it or can we still "fully disagree"..
It's an open "journey" to find out...