Only 2 weeks more.....

So, I am sitting here in my boring office again. I still have 14 more days on the sea before I can leave this cruise-ship and relax again.
I spend most of my time reading the newspaper and answering the phone...ohh yes, I think I have seen EVERYTHING that is possible to see on the internet. Do you remember the artist Hornsleth that I wrote about earliere? He decide his price for the paintings in a very simple way. The smaller "HORNSLETH" is written on the painting, the cheaper it is.
Talking about money.... A 21 years old guy from Denmark just won 22 million danish kroner in "lotto" (A game based only on luck). 22 million is...hmm...Yes, a lot of money..... This guy is just a little farmer from the far west in jutland. He has never seen Copenhagne, his own capital, never tried any other jobs than at a fish factory, and now he is an milionaire. Damn, what would I do if I won 22 milion kroner....Hmm...okay, it is stupid even to think about, because I will never even have the chance of doing that....but still.... a library would always be nice to have....
The biggest problem will most likely be the freedom that one have when getting so much money in once.........Freedom is always a bit difficult...or what?

In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle the eyes. (Kahlil Gibran)

The Unknown Conflict

In the middle of the greates desert in the world, more preciesly at 27.674N and -8.148W, around 387 meter above the sea, a people with a long nomadic history lives. Stucked in 135F they from day to day, waiting to get their land back. They are forced to stay at one place, only with their tents and small simple brickhouse, and they have been there for the last 31 years.
Nearly 200.000 people lives in these 5 camps in the south-western part of Algieria, most of them are women and children because the young men has to go to the military or has died in the war - a war against Marocco that ended with a ceasefire in 1991.
According to the International Court in Hague neither Marocco or Mauritania has the right to the land in Western Sahara, still the who lived there cannot return. Most countries do not regonize Western Sahara as a country, not even the Nordic countries.

The history of the area is long, it started out with Arabziation in 11th century where also Islam had its influence in the area, therefore all the people in the camps today are muslims, however with a slightly touch of their own old history as nomades.
In 1884 the Spanish claimed their rights to the area. From 1910 and onwards there were many uprisings, where the Saharawies fought against both the French and the Spainards. In 1973 after a long fight, the Spainards lost control on the countryside and in 1975 they gave up and left the country. Franco was dying and the people in Spain had to get rid of the "conflict area" as fast as possible, so they didnt have a plan for the area when they left.
In the end of 1975, Mariutania and Marroco attacked what was called "Spanish Sahara" (Today, Western Sahara). That was even though the UN had decided that the area belong to POLISARIO (The organization that the Saharawies were in)
The Saharawies had been fighting the Spainards for many years and now they got attacked from two sides again. Many people fled to the eastern part of the country, however constanct airial bombings with napalm forced the refugees to escape into Algeria.
The Algierans allowed the refugees to put up some tents in the middle of the desert, today the tents has developed into 5 towns.
In the 1980's the Maroocans started to build was today is known as the Wall of Shame. A long wall, longer than the Chinese wall, splitting Western Sahara into two. Today there are still minefields in great parts of the area.
In 1990 a ceasefire was agreed on and there was a plan for a referendum in 1991, however it never came because of discussions about who had the right to vote. James Baker (former Secretary of State in the US) tried to get a new referendum through in 2003 but failed and tried later on with a Baker Plan 2 that also failed.

I spent two months in the camp where I stayed with a family, together with my co-year Max and a girl from Mahindra college (Alissa). We stayed in a very simple "house" (room) with mud-brick walls. Every family has their own tents, both as a reminder of their nomade culture, furthermore it is also used as the "fine room". Every family is around 20 people and they have two small "houses", a tent and a little kitchen that surrounds the courtyard. Behind you find the "toilet and bath" which is basically just a hole in the ground. Some families, like the one we stayed with, had a guest toilet (a whole surround by ceramics). The showers is a bucket of water, of course the water is freshly taken from the dwell.
It is the women who does most of the housework, the men eat, drink tea and relax, nevertheless it is not a patriach system, but strongly controlled my the Mother in the house. It is not uncommon that the kids gets beaten, the older kids just beats down the "age group". Still the respect from the kids towards some of the adults in the camp is still very little (or non-exsiting), we tried 2-3 times that small kids were throwing small stones after us when we walked in the streets.

Our students that we taught were very eager to learn. Mostly because they dont have anything else to do in the camp or because their families members already had studied in Cuba or in Algeria. The literacy rate amongst the Saharawis is more than 90%, that is one of the highest in Africa and far higher than Algeria and Marocco. The reason is that Spain still have som guilt, so they send some students to Spain every summer. Furthermore, Cuba is taking a lof students in every year. The best students are "taken" from the camps when they are 10-11 years old and then they spend 12 years in Cuba where they study at university.
It was very difficult to teach my students in the begining. Most of them were women, hence they were totally covered, every their eyes. That meant that I first of all couldnt sepearte who was who and second, I couldnt hear what they were saying because of the cover in the front of their mouths. My students were used to a very different teaching than the "Hippie kind of style" that I am used to from the Nordic school system, so instead of games they wanted to repeat every single word 200000 times. Still when asked for the 20th time: "What - is - your - name?" the answer would be: "My are from Sahara"......

The food in the camps is a whole chapter for itself. Most of it comes from the World Food Program (WFP) however, they also grow some of their own vegetables. The food is simple but also very tasty sometimes. A big dinner would normally start out with tea and dates. Then they would have slaugther a camel (for weddings for example) or a goat. To the goat their will be french frites and white bread. Of course you eat with your fingers, even though the tourists can get cuttlery.
Water is very prized in the camps and there are 5 different kinds of it. The water from the dwell is used for cooking, showering, and to wipe yourself with after you have been to the toilet. The water from some big tanks outside the camp that is pumped up from the ground that is used for drinking. Then they have special tea-water that they use for the tea. This water is pumped up from the underground, but only at some special places. Then there is the bottled water for the tourists. And finally the water that falls from the sky and destroys the house with flods.
Did I tell you that they also have a soft-ice machine in the camps?!

Politics is discussed widely in the camps, most of the times it is the same story all over again you hear. "The Morrocans are bad, we are good. Tell the rest of the world.", but sometimes you get different stories. You hear about the people who tries to do everything they can to get a passport to the west. People who complain about the way that SADR (The Saharawi goverment) is run (for example that it is all the time the same people from the same tribe getting the post posts.) Still, I felt that almost everyone in the camp would be ready to go and fight again if a war broke out again.
After 31 years in the desert they still believe that they will get their land back....even though no one knows about them.....

I would like to write a book.....right, stay blogging instead

I guess the title says it all. I have been talking with so many people the last couple of weeks, all of them mentioning their big dream about writing a book, publish some poems, be a "writer" or a "designer" when they get old.... Okay, nice, who wouldnt want to earn money write some few words down on paper? I dont know if it is a very UWC'ish thing to do, but it seems like most of the UWC I know would like to publish something (song, book, poems etc).

If you want to get famous, then do like the danish artist Hornsleth (just the fact that I am mentioning them proves he is famous): http://www.hornsleth.com/, try to read about his village projects. He went to the poor part of Africa (hmm...the poor part..hmm...) and then he gave every person from the village a sheep or a pig if they changed their name to Hornsleth. Or to make a long story short:
What is The Hornsleth Village?
• The Hornsleth Village is an art project.
• 108 people from a small village in Uganda changes thier name to ‘Hornsleth’.
• Each person will go through the official legal name change process.
• Each person will have an national Uganda ID card issued to show their new ‘Hornsleth’ name.
• Each person will be photographed holding their new Hornsleth ID• The portraits will be defined as an original art work.
• International art critics and philosophers will be invited to contribute
.• The project is a business deal between Hornsleth and the appointed village opinon leaders.
• The participators will recieve farm animals for their involvement according to agreement.
• A locally well known animal re-distribution system will be implemented.
• 5.000 people will in five years have recieved an animal from this project if it runs as planned.
• Don't worry, this is art!

The last sentence is a "typically" Hornsleth sentence.

So, to go back to what I started out with. Most people dreaming - believing? - that they will become writer or similar one day, I think that they should start out as blogger. It was just in the news some days ago, that more and more bloggers get their stories publish or at least get more than 10.000 of daily readers. So, start blogging...then one day you will most likely be famous...if you deserve it. The good thing about blogging is also that you dont have to be honest at all, if you write an "Political book" you have to prove where you have your points from, on the net you can say whatever you want to!

And as a last comment, I found this picture on another persons blog:

Here is the link for where you can buy the T-shirt: Link

madsfred@hotmail.com

Yes, I got an new email again....this time it is the last time that I will use the "internet and e-mail" world. If this one get "hacked"/deleted as well, then I will only have a normal "old school" post adress....

soo, this is my NEW MAIL and also for MESSENGER:
madsfred@hotmail.com

Fred as in peace and as in my surname.

/Mads Frederiksen

Who am I?

I was talking with Nareg today about how it is finding out who you are. About this time in your Life, where you realize that you are not the person you (hoped) thought you were. Or the other way around. Yes, I know it is early already to say now, but I think that puberty is a time of Life were a lot of aspects change and were you “form” yourself. At the college I learned a lot and I also studied the IB. I learned a lot about myself, however it was first when I left the college that I could use the virtues I had learned, furthermore it was first when I had left the college that I learned what I had learned in Flekke!
Max and I had 4-5 hours everyday in Sahara were we couldn’t do anything else than just lie down and think. We also talked a lot about our childhood; sometimes we came really deep into each other minds, other time we just talked about “nonsense”. About all the small things in our childhood, like the first memory we ever had, the first time spare time activities, the first kiss, the first toy, the first fight or the first book. I even remembered the first day that I could read. I wrote all these small stories down, and as I wrote I remembered more and more. Suddenly the old memories got overlapped by new ones. At some point I realized how various actions and episodes in my early childhood has changed me into that Mads I am today.
I guess that is also why I writ blogs. To discover myself. I guess that is why I read books. To “find” more of myself. I don’t think that all the cards has been dealt yet, but a lot of my personality was definitely created in my first years of my Life. Hence, I also like to discover new people. I have met a girl that I would like to discover even more, to hear about her small stories in her Life. To be a Christoffer Columbus in her mind. Maybe it is sick, but I would just like to hear about how other people turned into what and who they are. The mirror looks back at me and I more or less see myself very clearly, now I would like to see more. What is behind the mirror.

I read a story yesterday about how the catches elephants in some parts of Asia. A lot jeeps drive around the group of elephant and try to get the mother of one of the elephant babies attention. When the mother (who is VERY strong) starts hunting one of the jeeps, some jeeps will come out of the hide and catch the young little elephant. The “Dumbo” will then be locked up in a little village with strong chains and get beated everyday until it obey the villagers orders. When Dumbo grow up, he will be VERY strong like his mother, and he would be able to break free of the chains, nevertheless, he doesn’t do it, because he thinks that he is very weak because he has gotten used to the chains.
What I would like to say with this is just that I think that every person has 20-30% more in himself. I am still looking for this 20-30% more energy, more “brain”, more everything. Because I know it is there. I just have to break the chains.

Okay, maybe all this was too weird for now…

Just one more little note before I go. I was helping an old French jewish man 2 days ago in the reception at my job. He had some few questions and only spoke a few words English. He was at leat 80 years old. At some point, he laid his arms on the counter and suddenly I see something that I have never seen before in “Real Life”. 5-6 small numbers is tattooed into his arm. These numbers are the numbers that the Nazis gave the Jews when they got deported to the KZ-camps. I felt a shivering in my body, this man had survived the Jewish Holocaust.

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I have 2 weeks off from my job. Matt is coming to my place tomorrow. I will be in CPH the whole weekend with UWC’s.

A "re-post"

Strange how strangers actually sometimes pop by my blog (or everyone else blog). I have had more than 1000 visitors. It doesnt make sense, because this blog is mostly for my closest 200 friends ;-)...no, actually this blog is mostly for the people I talked to at RCNUWC, or never got to talk to, but wanted to...or stopped talking to, or yes, whoever from the college.

Nevertheless, I saw a forum on the internet where they had been discussing one of my posts. I also found out that an Malaysian had send my blog out to a lot of people from the Malaysian national comitee...

So, to celebrate that people read my blog and discuss it, I will hereby publish one of my old post that I know has been discussed (Maybe a bit cheap, but I promise that you also will get a new new post very soon):

Eat vegetables.
Eat vegetables.
If I should give anyone an advice for the future, vegetables would be the magic word. The long-time benefits of vegetables have been proved by all scientists, however, the advices that I am going to say now is only based on the time I had in Sahara to think about Life. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy your youth. The power and the beauty of it. Actually, never mind. My grandmom once told me that I will not be able to understand the power and beauty of my youth until they've faded. But trust me, my mom is looking at picture from 20 years ago, and she recalls in a way that she can't grasp now how much possibility lay before her and how beautiful she really was. YOU are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future; or actually, you should worry, but I have learned that worrying is as effective as trying to solve Kip's math questions by chewing bubble gum. The real problems in Life is apt to be things that never crossed your little worried mind, you know, the kind that surprised you at 3pm on some random Wednesday.Do one thing EVERY DAY that scares the shit out of you.

Speak up.

Be carefull with other people's hearts. Don't waste time with people who are reckless with yours.

Go with the flow.

I have learned from my mistakes; don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you are in the front, sometimes you are behind. The race is long, and in the end, it is only with yourself.Remember every time people praise you, or give you a compliment. Put it down in the suitcase that you carry throughout your Life and take them up sometimes and look at them. Forget the insults. (if you learn how to do this, then write me!)

Keep the letters that your friend sends you. Throw away the bills and the old letters from the bank. However, remember what Anna Garner said; reuse, reduce, recycle.

Do exercise.

Make a plan for your Life, but DO NOT feel guilty if nothing goes as planned. I have met really interesting people who do not know what to do with their Life. Life changes, so does the plans.

Drink milk or eat cheese, get a lot of calcium. Be carefull with your knees. You will miss them when they are gone.

Maybe you will go to university, maybe you won't. Maybe you will get married, maybe you won't. Maybe you will have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you will divorce after 15 years of marriage, maybe you will dance " Do You Know The Muffin Man" on your 80th wedding anniversary.

Your choices will always be half chance. That is how it is with everybody else as well....

You owe one great instrument, a perfect camera, a perfect mean of transport, a perfect instrument. Enjoy your body, your eyes, legs and nose. Don't be afraid of it....just be afraid to loose it.

DANCE! (even if you have nowhere to do it, do it in your room, or in your head)Read the directions, even if you don't follow them all the time.Do not read the glossy beauty magazine. They will only make you feel less worth, more poor and make you feel ugly.

Life has an end. Everything has en end (except for a worm, it got two).Get to know your parents, talk with them, walk with them, write them, surprise them. You never know when they will be gone for good.Be nice to your siblings. Maybe they are very different from you, maybe the took the last icecream ten years ago, maybe the got more than you. Nonetheless, they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Winter comes, winter goes. But a new winter will come again. So with friends. Understand that friends come and go, but you will always hold on to some few precious once...no matter the distance. Just work harder to bridge the gaps in Lifestyle and geography, because when you get old, you will need the people who knew you when you were young!

Travel. See the World. Explore a new culture. Study - but outside a classroom. Live in a refugeecamp once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live on the countryside once, but leave before it makes you soft. Learn from other cultures, and still stay with your own.

Accept the certain truths of Life. Prices will for sure rise. Politicians will suck up to you and lie. We will all get older, yes even you. And when we get older, we will fantasize about the time when we young, prices were reasonable, children behaved nicely and respected their elders...and politicians never lied.

Listen to peoples advice, but be carefull with what you use of it.
Advice is just memories and nostalgia. Dispensing it, is one way of fishing the past from the trashbin, clean it, round the corners, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it is worth.

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Did you remember this post?
Nevertheless, use one of my advices.
Eat vegetables.

Why I dont miss Norway

(It is very important that this is why I do not MISS Norway, not a "hate" list)

1) The distances between the everything.....
3) The rain
4) The prices on beers....and everything else
5) Sentences like: "Akurat", "Dyyy (when saying "you") and "Haaarr du en miniiiii-bank"
6) The Norwegian Sweaters
7) Hike's
8) State monopoly on alcohol
9) Norwegians saying: "According to the UN, Norway is the best country to live in"
10) The farmers, their crappy products, and their propaganda about the dangers of imported food.
11) How "non-internationalist" they are when it comes to sharing, like being a member of the EU.
12) How pissed Norwegians get when you say something bad about their country.... even like, commenting on their National Costumes.....
13) That they need two almost identical languages/"official" dialects (in written form) in a country with4,6 mil. people.
14) Ari Behn, Jostein Gaarder (After the article he just wrote in a newspaper).
15) RUS
16) Norwegians that claims that Aksel Sandemose is Norwegian, that the Vikings were only Norwegians, and worst of all... that Ludvig Holberg should be Norwegian (yes, He might lived in Bergen in the start, but he was VERY Danish)
17) The Brown Chesse

Anyway, there is also some things that I miss about Norway.....like....hmm....AHa, Ibsen, Hamsun, Munch, Thor Heyerdalh, Jan Egeland.... and the times when it has been raining for 2 months non-stop, and then the sun comes out. Still snow on the ground....wauw....I miss that.

Did I tell anyone that I am working on a cruiseship these days? I am serving more than 30.000 Norwegians every week, that is maybe the reason for my resentement. I am tired of being called "dyyyyy" or "HALLLOOO" everytime they need my help. I am also tired of Norwegians that ALWAYS want "cash money" instead of using the credit card like anyone else. I am also tired of easteren europeans asking for: "how to Global Refund" and then doubting that I am exchangeing the money correct..... Furthermore, I am tired of asian tourguides asking: "How to make room to room"....

Apart from that, I like my job! :-D ..... It is great fun to work here, and I earn quite a lot of money...

Is 11 = terrorism?

Okay, normally I dont believe in this....nevertheless, try to take a look at it.... (at least for the laugh)

1) New York City has 11 letters
2) Afghanistan has 11 letters
3) Ramsin Yuseb (the terroist who threaten to destroy the Twin Towers in 1993) has 11 letters.
4) George W Bush has 11 letters

OKay, a bit cheap...but then read this:

1) New York is the 11th state
2) Flight 11 had 92 passengers (9+2 =11)
3) Flight 77 that also hit the Twin Towers, had 65 passengers (6+5=11)
4) The tragedy happend on september the 11, also known as 9/11 (9+1+1=11)
5) The US Emergency services in the states is 911 (9+1+1=11)

Still dont get it?

1) The total number of victims in the planes were 254 (2+5+4=11)
2) 11th of september is the 254. day in the year (2+5+4=11)
3) The bombing in Madrid happend on 3.11.2004 (3+1+1+2+0+0+4=11)
4) The tragedy in Madrid happend 911 days after the twin towers felt.

Okay, all of them is bit...yeah, you know...
Anyway, try to go into Microsoft Word and do following:
Write "Q33 NY" with capital letters (This is the flight number of the first plane that hit the Twin Towers)
Then mark "Q33 NY"
Change the size to 48
Change the type to: "WINDINGS (or WINDINGS 1)

Scary?!?

On Coccinellidae

"Three people died in Jbail today"....WHAT! I read it again, this time a bit slower, analyse every word...one by one..." Three (as in 3) people (as in humans like me) died (not alive anymore) in (anywhere) Bint Jbail (phew....I missed the Bint before) today...(like yesterday and tomorrow)..

Jbail is the name of Yara's town, the town is 42 KM north from Beirut, hence not in the dangerzone.... I can breath again... Yes, I know that Yara is not there; BUT I have been to that town, I have walked in the streets there, yes, I have seen that people live there. On the 30 of July, 26 people died (16 children) in Qana, it is sad....but not that as sad as if I knew them....sad but true... If I dont want to see people dying, then I just turn off the TV, close down the internet window, smash the radio into the wall....or maybe I just go outside in the side (Enjoying it even more now), I might even go and buy an ice-cream....ahhh wonderful, the 26 people (16 children) are gladly gone from my mind. This city doesnt exist...It is only on TV.

The days are disappearing from the calender, sometimes I wonder where the days are gone. Did I really sleep whole of 21st of July away? Anyway, I can see in the calender for 2006, 2007, 2023 that I have many other days to waste, I am not in the hurried.... Hey, on the 12th of August the fighting has been going on in a month...Hmm...what did I do the last month...
1) I worked
2) I slept
3) I took walks in the sun (sometimes with ice creams)
4) I wrote a bit....read even more.

at the same time people in Israel and Lebanon has been
1) Hide in shelters
2) Been awake
3) Running from bombs (sometimes with wounds)
4) Screamt a bit... cried even more

Yeah, and so the story goes.... "What did you do in school today"
The dominos fall tonight, however I have this tendency to just run and hide away... If Fear was a flower, the garden will grow, getting closer around me.... I am not fearing for myself (why should I), but the flower grows in the places I know.....

"Your joy is your sorrow umasked" (Kahlil Gibran)