If travelling was compulsory

We all know that civil aviation contributes to the increase of greenhouse-gas emissions. We all like travelling. An increasing number of us is aware of the fact that travelling by air is not environmentally friendly but still, we just love travelling.

But no one really forces us to travel. On the other hand, we all have to pay taxes, but we are not too excited about it. We had to go to school when we were kids and most of us were not crazy about it. We have to obey our boss/parents, even if we don't agree with them. Most of the things that are compulsory are not our hobbies.

So, does this mean that if travelling by air was compulsory, we would prefer taking the train, boat or bus?

I wonder...

Long busride

Even though Amsterdam and Brussels are relatively close, a busride between the two cities takes four hours. And last night I had the honour of sitting next to an Erasmus Mundus student from Shanghai, China. So I thought this was a wonderful opportunity to ask a Chinese person how they see us, Europeans. And to my surprise, she said: Europeans are slow.
And I was thinking all these years that we live in a crazy rat race, an inhuman stress. Apparently, everything is relative.
Are we missing out on an opportunity if we are seen from the outside as slow? Should we speed up?
I guess all coins have two sides....

What else is there to add?

Fashion

What is fashion about? I guess it should be about being appealing to the person who we would like to show interest in us. Or at least that was the initial idea. But not that I walk on the street, I look at women and judge their appearence, like "i'd kill for that bag". And that particular person with the killer bag, boots, earrings and other apparel items or accessories probably chose it knowing that other women would give them jealous looks. This however does not mean that I am the person who should become interested in her. Just that fashion is not oriented at attracting potential partners any more. But at attracting jealous looks from other women (or men). And spending way too much money on not so important things.
It works! ;-)

The golden rule

i guess there are several of them. The one I heard today from a particular Mister from Social Platform (http://www.socialplatform.org/) was the following:
The one with the gold sets the rules.
I might live in a dreamworld, which is not healthy at my age, but I find this golden rule hard to accept.
Or at least I would say, Hard work brings you gold and with gold you'll set the rules.
That gives me at least a little hope.
Call me naive if you like.

Self-branding

I saw an article in the Time magazine yestarday. It said that Facebook os good for nothing but self-branding in the end. I guess having a blog is pretty much the same! Sorry, I still hope it serves as an inspiration for others to start their own blog and say something interesting. It's a way of communicating with others, a very simple, but efficient one!
Anyways, I would like to invite anyone to comment on this. It is good to know what you might think of the things you find in this blog.
I guess I am self-branding, but hopefully I also say sometimes something useful! :-)

Belarus

What do you know about Belarus? Well, Idon't know much about the country, only that Lukashenka is the president and that the opposition does not have much power. Check out www.salidarnasc.org (and click on the EN button) on more opposition info. Many say the situation is not that bad there. I don't know. All I know that I saw this wonderful yound lady who said when asked about her family's view on her opposition to the government: I only have a husband. But it's hard. We cannot have children, we don't know who'll go first to jail.

Need more?

Way better than watching TV

It is so wonderful to sit by t he sea and look for Morocco on the other side. Well' it's too far to see and we tend to pretend that it's not too close. If you would like to acknoweldge that Northern Africa reserves more attention, visit http://www.kingbaudouinfoundation.org/ for a start. And watching the sea anyway has a tranquilising effect :-)

Chocolate

Iguess everyone knows what is the big attraction of Brussels. It's Chocolate, of course! And the big attraction of Amsterdam? Weed, of course. Since I have had the opportunity to visit both cities, I happened to compare them on their attractions. And I have to admit, the winner is Brussels. From a pure marketing point of view: weed is attractive for a smaller amonut of people than chocolate. Not everyone who goes to Amsterdam goes to a coffee shop. But I have not heard of anyone coming to Brussels and not visiting some fine chocolatiers. Also, whereas weed is an issue that is not supported by all Dutch, I have never met a Belgian complaining about the silly tourists "eating our chocolate". Basically, Chocolate is a less controversial topic and in the end, it brings more money even if just because of the nr of people buying it. And if you have been to Brussels, you probably know that you rarely get away with paying less than 10 Euros...

Lost in Brussels! Or lost in Europe?

Last weekend I was walking with Patricia around in Brussels.

And I got lost soooo many times. And she made me promise I would put this picture on my blog.

So here it comes! But I was thinking if this could be a metaphor for being lost in Europe. Well, not for me. I am at home in Europe and believe I know my way around. There is still a lot to learn, but I am a EUphoric person. Therefore, the idea of a Europe that is in many ways united makes me smile with content.

For its values should not be set but earnt from its citizens. For its beauty and diversity continue to persist. And that is good!And that's why there is a future to it. And that's what I would like to be a part of!

Boycott

Fascinating and vast and wonderful and rich the country I have on my mind may be, I shall try to boycott its products for one entire year. (I have not bought anything from there this month so I'll count the end of the year for the end of next September.)
It's not agianst that country. It's againt my consumerism.
It's to make sure that I feel good about the things I purchase.
Producers of the world, please provide enough goods to avoid the absence of choice for consumers (in terms of the country of origin of a given good). After this, I will buy products from that country only for one entire month, I promise!
Is that a deal?

Shoe story

I have realised, that not only did the heel of my boot break off last Friday, but the last time I started a new job (in Amsterdam), I wore new shoes on the first day and they completely rubbed of the skin of the back of my heel on the way to work. So I started my new job back then barefoot. Maybe there is something about shoes on the first day in a new job...what do you think?

Positive news

well, I don't know how you feel about it, but sometimes I wish news were not so negative. So sad and frustrating. So I found this gentleman, Mr. Boufford, who has a positive newsblog at http://mrpositive.blogspot.com/. Check it out! Even though he tends to be happy about profits and other financial news (which I am not that extremely excited about if I do not like the overall policy of the given organization), he does put things in a nice and promising way. I am not sure if he has any competitiors, so if you are looking for a market niche, maybe you could feel positively challenged about providing even more positive news to the rest of the human race!

Clash of civilisations

So I went to church today after a rather long time. Do you know the book by Samuel Huntigton The Clash of Civilisations? It's about the proneness to conflict in areas where civlisations/religions meet. It basically says that where the Christian and the Muslim world meet, there will definitely be a conflict. Because of immigration, the Muslim religion is more and more present all over Europe. So there it is likely that there will be a conflict in many European cities because of the religious diversity.
And today at church I saw this humble group of Christians and Arabs (also Muslins thinking of converting) singing together psalms with an Oriental rhythm. Now that's what I call not lamenting but doing something. Not writing books and being famous scientists but thinking globally, acting locally and indeed making a fundamental difference in those people's lives who get involved. I have to admit, I did have goosebums and almost a tear in my eyes. No battle is lost until we accept the defeat!
There might as well repprochement of civilisations instead of a clash!

Party time!

Yesterday was party day. I joined in. Imagine about a 1000 people like herings in a "boite" (how lucky the French call the club boite. Boite means box. Clubs tend to be like boxes filled with people.) So, no one knew no one at the beginning. During the course of the 4 hours I spent there I talked to about 30 people. I do not remember any names. I am sure no one remembers mine either. That's just fair. It felt good to get out of there. Sometimes parties are to ... unnatural. Unreal. All the dresses, the perfumes, the smells...and after a few hours the sweat, the stink - to much pretence to start off with for my taste. But I hope there are few people who feel about the party the way I do. Otherwise the boite will go bankrupt rather soon. I am not mean enough to disclose the name of the club or upload any pictures of last night's party...

My heel!

I go to work to the European Commission first time this morning - actually only to the information meeting - and right in front of the building, the heel of my shoe decided to go its own way...it just simply came off. So I picked it up, went to the reception and kindly asked if they have glue, I cannot be late for my first day's meeting! They told me go to to the closest shoe repair. Since that was not a viable solution, I was already running late, I just asked for the scotch tape. And I fixed my shoe for about half an hour when the heel came off again. I have to express my gratitude towards my colleagues for pretending that they have not noticed my white scotch tape at the bottom of my trousers all day! Anyway, I survived and repeated several times the scotch taping manoeuver today. The morals: Scotch tape doesn't fix shoes. Shoe repair people do! :-)

The most important job in the world!

What do you think is the most important job in the world? I think many of them are crucial for our survival, but there is one that most people feel not too excited to do, yet without someone doing it, all the consumers societies would be flooded with dirt and waste....YES, it's the garbage men (in other words the refuse collectors) that I would like to thank here.
Without them...most of us don't want to think what would be the state of our beloved cities!
We should thank them every time we meet them. We should invite them for a beer (or mint tea) after work! When we are staggering home drunk at 5pm., they are there be rain or snow, making sure that once we get up with our hangover, we'll walk on a clean street to get some English breakfast ingredients!
THANK YOU ALL FOR THE GREAT WORK YOU ARE DOING FOR YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS (and not only citizens)!

Just so...

Do you use public transporation or ride your bike? Does it make a differnece if you do? I guess so. Even thouth the US is one of the countries with the highest energy efficiencies, it has the highest CO2 emissions per person. So what canbe the reason? Power plants and....transportation. Europe is not much better either. Let's do something for the nighingales, the swallows, the storks andthe rest of the bunch...i'd miss the birds singing if they weren't around any more!

This is my lesson of the day!

Evil Jerry?

Do you like Tom and Jerry? They are my all-time favourites! But I just started thinking yesterday, who's the evil one? I always thought Tom was much worse than Jerry, but then I realized that this must be because I am the little sister in our happy little family. I think one of my brothers said that Jerry is the nastier one...I wonder why he said so...

So, what do you think?

Brussels

is the capital of Europe. What city do you consider to be the capital of Europe? Which one is your personal favourite? Mine is Amsterdam. I am short. And since Amsterdam is a relatively small city, I feel it's kind of "human sized" even though most Dutch people are ....way taller than me. Any place is great if you are surrounded by people who like you and vice versa! I guess that poses a challenge sometimes :-)
G'night to everyone!

Feeding the Lama

Never knew Lamas lived in the Netherlands. Apparently they do. Behind a fence, in Oud Diemen! And they love being fed :-)

A link and more

so, the link is globalreporting.blogspot.com :-)
Hope that things out there are fine! You know, it indeed is all about perceptions! Life is. We perceive it. And from the combination of the two, we enjoy life or we suffer from it. Since it is all in our head and we can make all the difference, as long as you are not a masochist, you could as well enjoy it!
I read this cool quote the other day: Worrying is the interest payed to a debt that may never come due.
Good one, don't you think :-)

Climate change

...is scary!
It's the end of June and I am still cold and it's raining all the time in Amsterdam! Yet, even this horrid weather cannot destroy the beauty of this city. It feels good to be here!

Lisbon Oceanario Mascot

Hi, how are you guys doing? I am having a bit confusing time in terms of understanding what is good and what is bad and what are our basic rights and our greediness. I´ll let you know the results of my reflection. Anyway, I´m happy spring is here and I would be even happier, if you, my dear reader, would be happy too!
Lots of hugs and kisses!
Don´t control it, live it!

Last day of February

Every day there is something important that happens. People die, babies are born, scientists discover something, some people are starving others suffer from floods. Yet, most of us, we are having our routine day, going to school, work, cook, take a shower, eat, drink, a day just like any other. Until one day something happens and the good old routine disappears. Sometimes life gets easier, sometimes harder. Anyway, life should never be boring. There is always something to do, to learn, regardless of our budget. So, let´s make most of it, life doesn´t last forever! CARPE DIEM

Ups and downs

Don´t we all have our ups and downs? It´s a matter of perspective .... maybe we cannot make opportunities from all threats in our lives, but it´s important to keep our good faith. It´s funny, sometimes its a matter of formulation, a matter of a smile or simply the waether that influences our perception of our own reality. He goes a puzzle: How do you think the crow in the picture feels? What is his perspective of the person behing the camera? And what is is perspective of 'the artist'? By the way, the picture has been taken from a submarine.

No brand

Aren´t you sick of brands sometimes? And what´s worse, once you take off the stickers, you can still recognize the bottles...tubes...t-shirts, pants and everything. Sad. But I also like brands, that´s the most annoying part of it. They got us all. Only the Marxists escaped :-)))

With love from Amsterdam

It was the SKUNK it wasn´t me ... do you need more explanation? By the way, do you know that the symbol of Amsterdam is XXX? I am not sure if they got it from the porn material or the other way round ... anyway, it doesn´t matter to me, it´s a cool city anyway ... if not the coolest :-))

Algarve figues

I hope you all like figues! They are aphrodisiacs ... or have you already noticed :-) ? And that´s me in the background. So, I am thinking of relevant current issues to share with the Dear Readers ... but I seem to have run out of ideas! Who thinks doing research on the social inclusion/exclusion of immigrants in the light of welfare state regimes is cool? I do ... But noone seems to want to finance my research. So I´ll just work as a translator or something. But if you, Dear Reader have no idea what to do with your money, maybe you could finance my PhD ... we could share it ... you can have the Ph, I´ll stay with the D, deal?

I´m back :-)

Hi everyone!
I forgot to make a NY´s resolution and thus I do not have to update my blog every week:-) I have a friend (or at least I used to have a few years ago) who used to say that he feels "at home" on his blog. Well, I really like the idea and I also feel at home when updating my blog, but fortunately it´s not the only place....where I feel cozy and happy. Lately my home has become Lisbon. It´s an amazing city, extremely diverse! Yet, I miss some kind of organisation and thus I decided to find my way back to the Benelux countries. Let´s see if it works out!
I hope you all are doing well, getting worried about global warming, recycling your trash and not running the tap while you wash your theeth! By the way, Al Gore is today at Forum Lisboa, but I already saw his movie (The Inconvenient Truth) so I´ll skip the live meeting with him. I am politically un-involved :-) (that is probably not the correct word..)
Anyway, it´s nice to be back!