It happened that a few expositions this year moved me more that other cultural forms. I was lucky to be visiting campus of the University of Eindhoven while the exposition "Hungry Planet" took place there (http://www.menzelphoto.com/hungryplanet/). I was fascinated (again) in how much diversity the human race eventually shares the same nature; despite numerous differences, facial expressions, gestures and postures on the photos taken all around the globe appeared so familiar. If it happens that you come across this exposition somewhere, take my advice and approach the photos without seeing where they were taken: surprise yourself with the fact that you already have a quite good idea from which region of the world the image comes, with some instructive - and quite amusing - exceptions. For all the others not lucky to see the big photos, here is the link to the book where you can experience the same effects: http://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Planet-What-World-Eats/dp/1580086810, or ISBN-13: 978-1-58008-681-3, ISBN-10: 1-58008-681-0.
I benefited from a great
disproportion of the size of the city of Groningen and its cultural
offerings by visiting exposition on another global-scope phenomenon:
manifestations of religious faith around the world, "Act of Faith",
http://www.noorderlicht.com/eng/fest07/index.html. In my search for Argentinean Tango in Groningen and the Netherlands, I visited another quite impressive visual, but also musical spectacle which gave me quite a bit of inspiration: Tango ballet "Su Historia" in RAI Theatre in Amsterdam, given by Zotto Tango X2 from Buenos Aires. This year I completely agreed with the US Academy "Oscar" Award for German film "Das Leben der Anderen" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others), which was the best film I watched in 2007. For the best song, it happened that just a few months ago I discovered "Fields of Gold" of Sting. That this one has been touching to many other besides me, you can check by seeing a very nice (of a few) photo slideshows inspired by this song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCNJBopK25I (where you can also hear the song of course); you will certainly get also a link to the terrific accompanying music video of Sting. Nobody will have any problem to dance with this inspiringly gentle melody; just stand up, and if possible lean against someone you have tender feelings for - success guaranteed; and for an educated dance form, a tip: try rumba moves.
This year indeed I danced during several weeks in the spring four evenings in a week; I think I compensated for the break when I quitted dancing for the favour of martial arts and writing the thesis in Twente. I restarted practicing style dances (both standard - waltzes, foxes, European tango; and latino-american cha-cha, rumba, jive, samba...), also refreshed and much improved on Caribbean dances (salsa, bachata and merengue), and finally went further from a few basic steps of Argentinean Tango, which I learned more than seven years ago in Belgrade. So much
being busy with such things so much time outside home - is there any
sign that I mature as a person? - don't think I did not get such
questions ;-)
...and which atmosphere is still preserved in many cities in Europe, also elsewhere, think of Montmartre in Paris, but think also of Skadarlija in Belgrade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skadarlija). Belgradians who are now passing these lines will not believe me, but I was sitting in October this year in one of Skadarlija taverns for the first time! This omission of my 10-years life in Belgrade I shall surely compensate quickly. This year was indeed a year of revolutionary travels in my already intensive travelling (paneuropean) career: I visited in July the US for the first time, but standing on the American continent for the first happened in February, when I visited Canada for 10th anniversary of my close relatives emigration; during the summer visit to Serbia I finally enjoyed in August the famous Tara rafting (which is actually in Bosnia), one of the jewels in the changing image of Balkans; and finally in October the Skadarlija happened to me. What a year: only now it comes to mentioning my first visit to Prague, taking for the first a better look at Wienna, rapidly changing and strikingly charming Novi Sad, and from visiting the unexpectedly *beautiful!* Salzburg I did not even found time to select the photos... But if you asked me to name the most impression-making places I have seen this year, I would name: whiteness of Canada, highness of Alps, and cozyness of Skadarlija. Although all of these trips were simply fabulous, the October visit to Serbia was a special also thanks to my role of being a host, not only a guest. I had an enormous pleasure to host my dear Dutch friends Richtje and Tames, who returned to the Netherlands overloaded with impressions of all sorts, as anyone who has a genuine guidance through Serbia gets. You also soon?
But this year I was also hospitable at home in the Netherlands as I had visitors more often then before. In May my parents visited me (father's first visit to the NL), and in the second half of my paneuropean Tour2007 a had a company of Sanja, who enthusiastically enjoyed also the Netherlands two weeks afterwards. Sanja is a passionate photographer, she made me aware of a quite a bit more details in my everyday environment, and also Sanja is the one to get the credit for many the most beautiful photos from our joined travel and the photo at the top of this page. And this brings me to another distinguishing activity of my 2007: putting a long fantasized imagination of my first own headquarters to concrete, by solidly funded search, which in the Netherlands reads www.funda.nl. Some of the (numerous) search criteria: a walking distance to the bus/train station for everyday commuting to the work, good acoustic isolation for untroubled dancing and singing performances, high energy efficiency, a lot of space for bookshelves and enough room for affording a dedicated guest space! This last is not the least: I want to be much more often a host!
Choice of the living space is in a close relation with the choice of the job; the job after all means allocation of a good quarter of all the time. In the second year working for my company Neopost I was very happy with the diversity of my activities; I got to know the company much better, also at its international scope; and I got to know myself better. Unchanged I see exciting opportunities within Neopost to match my further affinities with the company interests. I am looking forward to the next round of our strategic talks which will take place in the last winter weeks, which will coincide with my eventual choice for the new home. This year a was an active proponent of establishing a distinct System Engineering department which actually came true in May, I had a lot of pleasure in an opportunity of embarking a comprehensive training in the area of Embedded System Architecting; I facilitated Neopost Group wide harmonisation of the intrasoftware communication architecture, entered a full-scale new product creation project, formulated an innovative requirements engineering step for our multidisciplinary architectures, led development of a new tool for our architects, intensified applied research links with other R&D-based companies and a handful of academic instances, graduated one student and articulated requirements for a new Neopost knowledge management policy. And I am eagerly looking forward to more.
I continued engaging in a lot of philosophical debating with my self and with several old and many new friends I gained in Groningen. And I am still supporting my PhD proposition number 9: "Fear and serenity are the only two components of one's mood...". Serenity you can read love. Also this year I was looking at the love and the fear in myself. But I did not look long enough, I did not allot enough time to it - improvement on this is one of the most important wishes for the coming year, to me and to anyone else. However, I've come to a somewhat less vague impression of the scope of the love that I feel; I recognized a little bit more the nature of the love bond I feel to all the humans; I was intrigued by the reach of such a bond to all living beings; and again stayed puzzled with the levels of life energies and levels of awareness among plants, animals, humans; the dilemma's about vegeterianism. To my regret, after the summer, due to illness of my Tai Chi master in Groningen, I discontinued practicing Tai Chi on a regular basis. Even then, I made extremely little time for reading - I am longing to read more, but really have no idea how to free more time for that. (Less dancing, you would say. I would say as well. But much easier to say than to do). Especially because I recently received from a few sides references to texts which elaborate in the line of my intuitive perceptions of love, serenity, God(s), soul, awareness and happiness (these I see actually all the same).
And the bottom line of my
loving activity of this year: the energy stays spread over many, it
did not happen that it focused substantially for a longer time on
one (the one ;-)
In the marriage of further developments of awareness and further developments of financial capabilities (two often opposite partners - you agree? - which I try to cherish to a fruitful ensemble), my inclination to charitable activities did not loose any of its drives, just the opposite, were fuelled by the following. Throughout this year I have been continuously shocked with striking distance between people, and general global lack of solidarity, understanding and empathy. On my beautiful travel to Canada, I experienced two unbelievably opposite mood developments in two adjacent days, 28. February and 1. March. On the 28. February I followed my cousins on a skiing day at Mont-Tremblant in Quebec. A beautiful place, in all the great darkgreen woods and an abundance of the "snow-white" snows. But that day I definitely developed my first know allergy: allergy to luxury. I have seen many people there giving away by any measure overly oversized amounts for things in essence totally unnecessary! Actually, in that one day I imagined all that mountain as a tip of a tip of an iceberg of Western squander. I am still busy to define "luxury", I hope I could formulate it in a year. It is immensely tricky, because it is so dependant on culture, time, attitude etc. But I find it important one, in order to realise our division as a race. Do you agree that in a few centuries, one global civilisation will inhabit this planet, and that civilisation will not be proud of the divided societies of today? And, for the time being, take as a definition your own perception of luxury for answering the following question: can you name any good in a human soul that enjoys luxury? The
hours by the end of that 28. February were the only bad hours during
my stay in Canada. I hear often that "one person can change nothing". But can you find any change in all known civilisations which did not actually started with one person's act? That person is any of us; this letter goes to no one living in extreme poverty - because that people are even not in position to receive an email, the great majority even not able to read their own language, let alone English. This letter as email was sent almost exclusively to you living in wellbeing, virtually the same as I do, compared to those 1200 million. It is not so that I go visiting expositions to learn about the consumer faiths; I am exposed to it every day since I am a part of such a society, and I contribute to its sustenance, although trying to stay aware of the state of my race - 0.7% of my "GDP - Gross Dusko's Product" is a minimum money donation I strived to in 2007. I am in favour of small acts coming from understanding and genuine feelings of a person; the Gods will decide to make a big difference out of it or not. What have I done this year in my consumer society to contribute to a fairer world? I was seeking for as much as possible education-rising targeted charity, and added (well, actually subtracted) monthly contributions to www.edukans.nl from my bank account. But this was a banal, not much innovative action. Perhaps I will do something similar for the funds of www.wikipedia.org next year. But at the very end of this year I have seen a unique chance for something innovative - and definitely not an one-man-act. I need your support! As in many other western countries, "C&A" recalls a massive outlet bringing garment goods to a wide body of consumers. The offer is so wide that it fulfils well even mine, by some friends attributed as "eccentric" taste and hunger for colourfulness; for an illustration, see this photo. Indeed, I was positively surprised during the aftersummer sales with a nice spectrum of colours in which I could find these quality pants for little money. On 18. December 0n my way to the bus station from my work in Drachten, to my surprise, I observed the very same models at the door of the local C&A for 2 euro per piece! Since I knew the quality of the stuff, I asked for the quantity and the sales conditions, and returned tomorrow day to buy all 67 pairs. The salesman informed me that such stocks of these ,,for the Dutch market too conspicuous colours" are in great quantities still available in the C&A shops throughout the Netherlands. On 19. December I emailed the Red Cross of the Netherlands to donate these clothing and to propose a new initiative to make use of such extreme discounts. However, neither my idea nor my donation fitted the program of the Dutch Red Cross (email and reply in Dutch). After reading the answer, I tried to reach the C&A management, but I think they did not see that email any different than many asking for gifts, and sent me one routined denial (email and reply in Dutch). I will respond to it, but without much confidence, which was actually the reason to contact Red Cross in the first place.
I already have some ideas how to bring these goods where most needed, but I will gladly listen to any suggestions any of you may have! But there are luckily other possibilities to easily contribute to a fairer global human society. For a stark coincidence (or mystic constellation? or mere irony?), when I went to the grocery for resupplies after my return from Canada, I came across for the first time Fair Trade products in the Netherlands! Imagine my delight! In the Netherlands you will recognize these goods by the following logo's
Max Havelaar again of course!! And did you know that this association under the original Dutch name, is active in other countries as well: Hopefully the beginning of this millennium witnesses flourishing of such global awareness ideas and solidarity, and hopefully this century will be a breaking point to bring relief to that already mentioned united civilisation of the future Earth. This is my strong universal New Year wish! And another is, that I will get an impression that you don't need so many words to become another bit more aware of the state of our common living place in this instance of time, and that I make this part next year substantially shorter! I wish to everyone a year of a good health, as 2007 was for me: I had not a single sickness leave day! I whish to myself in 2008 more ("unscheduled") time for meditating and reading, but also (though contradicting the previous) to be able to make an interesting report on my new free-time-investment, but an old love, which I inherited from my grandfather: woodworks. As of 23. January starts the "Old fashioned wood processing" course in the Groningen Stadswerkplaats. I wish our educated leaders to become more aware of sustainability of our technology trends; for this I find the articles in The Economist sources of inspiration: for instance safe and clean nuclear energy or stop to plastic bags. I travelled this year less with my fossil fuel combustion engine car then in 2006, but still too much (14 kkm), due to a few business trips. I wish all you to be my guests in my new home to be realized in 2008 (note that this is a few years wish; please consult me before a trip undertaking, I don't think I will afford next year such a home to accommodate you all ;-) What concerns my travels in 2008, I foresee more business trips (hopefully using a cleaner transportation than my car) and less leisure travelling - therefore I increasingly invite guest - but the following one will be a terrific, and I especially encourage my Dutch acquaintances to follow the examples of Richtje and Tames and to be my guests on this one (click the schedule for more information) - it will happen in August 2008:
But the most of all, I wish you to have a lot of time for love in all of its appearances! How would I know and how would you know if we are on the right track? Well, one small check you should perform now: have you reviewed all the photos you made this year?? I would love that the answer is Yes and that you even know the best photos of your 2008. And don't believe me that I improved on defending my free time in 2008 if I don't show you next year not only my The Best 2008 photo, but also the 2th and 3th... That there is a hope for me, confirms the fact that I found time to select the Best photo in 2007 I took:
Happy New 2008! YoursDJ8-)) |
and 
