Identity Crisis

Today, when I got home, I went to my mail box, as I always do, opened it and, to my surprise, saw a letter. I don’t get many letters… It was from my landlord, and I thought it was to announce me an increase on the rent, since it will soon be one year that I live in this apartment. You cannot imagine my astonishment when I opened it and found out that, actually, he plans to sell the apartment, which means that I will have to leave the apartment quite soon… by the end of June, to be more precise…

This poses me several problems: first of all, it means that I have one month to find a new apartment; it also means that I will have to spend money to pay for the relocation; and, the worst part of it, is that I will have to move out of this beautiful apartment and leave my nice neighbors behind… and, as if all this wasn’t enough, I will have to change my blog’s name!

Tuesday: World Cup day...

Tuesday!


Day for the weekly match between several players, carefully chosen amongst the worse of countries like: Belgium, Croatia, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Slovenia, UK...

YMCA

Sitting by a swimming pool, at 10am, wearing a t-shirt and looking for the shade… yes, you guessed it right… I’m in Portugal! More precisely, I am close to the city of Albufeira, in the Algarve, the south coast of Portugal. I arrived on Wednesday to represent the European Youth Forum at the General Assembly of the European Alliance of YMCAs. I will be leaving in a couple of hours to Lisbon, where I’ll spend the weekend, together with my son and good friends. The forecast says that the weather will remain nice, with blue sky and temperatures around 30 C. I’m glad I decided to bring the swimming suit!

Attending these kinds of meetings it’s always a bit weird… in one hand, it’s nice to meet new people and find out more about the Member Organisations of the European Youth Forum; on the other hand, it means to hang around with people I don’t know, trying to be nice and to follow discussions in which I feel completely lost… But there are always highlights and some of them deserve to be shared.

My favorite anecdote from this meeting, which I want to share today, was the Secretary General’s speech yesterday. Rev. Johan Vilhelm Eltvik is an easily approachable Norwegian in his early fifties, with a whitish beard and a quite big belly. He looks nice and I think he must really be. His report to the General Assembly was a very good and truly inspiring speech, full of metaphors and parables, with references to the Holy Scriptures, but also to things he heard and learned from people he met in his YMCA work. One of my favorite parts of his speech was when he referred to how some children he met express their understanding of eternal things; or, as he called it, the Gospel according to John, 6 years, Nicole, 5, and Carl-Fredrik, 6. I give some examples:

“Jesus died on Good Friday. Then he came back from death three days after. He was dirty and full of mud, but in excellent mood.”

“Jesus flew up to heaven and there met Jesus. Now he is sitting on the right side of himself. That is completely impossible to understand and nothing to worry about.”

“The best thing with God is that he likes children who are not nice. He is the only one who likes children who are not nice.”

Apart from these apparently funny but really deep quotations from these little children who seem to understand much better than the vast majority of adults the powerful message of the empty grave, the speech included another really funny story which can also be considered a very nice parable… It’s about church gossip and it happened in the State of Missouri.

Mildred, the church gossiper and self-appointed monitor of the church’s morals, kept sticking her nose into other people’s business. Several members of the church did not approve of her extra curricular activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence. She made a mistake, however, when she accused Henry, a new member, of being an alcoholic after she saw his old pickup parked in front of the town’s only bar one afternoon. She emphatically told Henry and several others that everyone seeing it there would know what he was doing. Henry, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just turned and walked away. He didn’t explain, defend or deny. He said nothing. Later that evening, Henry quietly parked his pickup in front of Mildred’s house… walked home… and left it there all night…

You got to love Henry!

Albufeira, May 26, 2006 (10.30am GMT)

Diversity

Lisbon, 8.48am, 15°C, sunny.
Brussels, 9.48am, 9°C, light rain.
Athens, 10.48am, 26°C, partly cloudy.

Europe

Europe is now very close to have 49 states.

The concept of European state is based on the signatories of the European Cultural Convention of the Council of Europe. At this moment, 48 countries are signatories of this convention.

Therefore, after the independence of Montenegro, the list of European states shall be the following:

Albania / Andorra / Armenia / Austria / Azerbaijan / Belarus / Belgium / Bosnia and Herzegovina / Bulgaria / Croatia / Cyprus / Czech Republic / Denmark / Estonia / Finland / France / Georgia / Germany / Greece / Holy See / Hungary / Iceland / Ireland / Italy / Latvia / Liechtenstein / Lithuania / Luxembourg / Malta / Moldova / Monaco / Montenegro / Netherlands / Norway / Poland / Portugal / Romania / Russian Federation / San Marino / Serbia / Slovakia / Slovenia / Spain / Sweden / Switzerland/ ”The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” / Turkey / Ukraine / United Kingdom

(*) The map above represents the member countries of the Council of Europe. From the list above, Serbia and Montegro represent nowadays one single member state, Belarus is a candidate for membership and the Holy See is an Observer to the Committee of Ministers.

Montenegro

Montenegro is now on its way to become the world's newest independent state.
The official results dictated the will of the majority of Montenegro’s population: 55.4% claimed for independence.
Through this referendum, the Montenegrins chose to abandon the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, a union legatee of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, where Montenegro was included since 1945, as a consequence of the geo-strategic ‘rearrangements’ done after WW II.
But in fact Montenegro was already part of Serbia since 1918. A Serb-approved legislature, based in Podgorica, voted for Montenegro to become part of Serbia (and afterwards the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), as a way of breaking free from the Austro-Hungarian occupation.
Almost 90 years after, the "black mountain" wants to take its future back into its hands. After leaving one union, they want to embrace the future within another: the European Union.
In a country with 43% of Montenegrins, 32% of Serbs and 25% of the population from quite different origins (Bosniaks, Albanians, Muslims, Croats, Romas and Egyptians), Union represents a dichotomy, the same that can be set between past and future.
Dobrodošlica i srećno !!!

Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean Sea. Tourist attractions in Crete include archaeological sites at Knossos, Phaistos, Gortys and many other places, the Venetian castle in Rethymno, the Samaria Gorge and many other minor gorges. Crete was the centre of the Minoan civilization, the oldest civilization in Europe, and holds a long and very interesting history. I spent last Friday in Crete but didn't have time for history. On the other hand, I saw beautiful hotels and amazing landscapes and understood why Crete is one of the most popular holiday destinations in Greece. Places like Hersonissos and Agios Nikolaos are now part of my wish-to-come-back list and I hope to do it as soon as possible!

Athens

Athens is the capital of Greece and one of the most famous cities in the world, named after goddess Athena. Modern Athens is a bustling cosmopolitan metropolis, home to some 3.2 million people. The Athens metropolitan area is currently growing both northwards and eastwards across Attica and it constitutes the dominant centre of economic, financial, industrial, cultural and political life in Greece today. The city is also rapidly becoming a leading business centre in Europe.

Ancient Athens was a powerful city-state and a renowned centre of learning, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum. It is considered to have been the cradle of Western civilisation, largely due to the immense impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 4th and 5th centuries BC on the rest of the then known European Continent. The heritage of the Athenian Enlightenment is still evident in the city, portrayed through a number of spectacular ancient monuments and artworks, the most famous of all being the Parthenon on the Acropolis ("high city"). The latter is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of Classical Greek architecture, still standing as an epic legacy to the West and indeed to the rest of the world.

During the Byzantine era, Athens gradually lost a great deal of status and, by the time of the Crusades, it was already reduced to a provincial town. It faced a crushing blow between the 13th and 15th centuries, when the city was fought over by the Greek Byzantines and the 'French' and Italian Crusaders. In 1458 the city fell to the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Mehmet II the Conqueror. As the Emperor entered the city, he was greatly struck by the beauty of its ancient monuments and issued an imperial decree that Athens' ruins not be disturbed, on pain of death. The Parthenon was in fact converted into a mosque and therefore preserved. Despite the Sultan's good intentions to preserve Athens as a model Ottoman provincial capital, the city's population went into decline and conditions worsened as the Ottoman Empire declined from the late 17th Century. As time went by, the Ottoman administration slackened its care for Athens' old buildings; the Parthenon (or Mosque) was used as a warehouse for ammunition during the Venetian siege of Athens in 1687, and consequently the temple was severely damaged when a Venetian shell targeted the site and set off several casks of gunpowder stored inside the Parthenon. The Ottoman Empire relinquished control of Athens after the Greek War of Independence (1821–1831). The city was inhabited by just around 5,000 people at the time it was adopted as the capital of the newly established Kingdom of Greece on 18 September 1834. During the next few decades the city was rebuilt into a modern city adhering mainly to the Neoclassic style. In 1896 Athens became the first host city of the revived 1896 Summer Olympics.

The next large expansion occurred in the 1920s when suburbs were created to house Greek refugees from Asia Minor. During World War II the city was occupied by Germany and fared badly in the war's later years. Athens grew rapidly in the years following World War II until ca.1980 and suffered from overcrowding and traffic congestion. Greek entry into the EEC in 1981 brought massive, unprecedented investment into the city along with problems of increasingly worsening industrial congestion and air pollution. Throughout the 1990s the city's authorities undertook a series of decisive measures in order to combat the smog which used to form over the city, particularly during the hottest days of the year. Those measures proved to be successful and nowadays smog is much less of an issue for Athens, even when temperatures soar above 40 C. The traffic congestion has also significantly improved in recent years. Part of this improvement is attributed both to the transformation of the once highly problematic Kiffissos Avenue into a modern, 8 lane urban motorway that stretches for more than 11 km along the ancient Kifissos River, linking many of Athens' western suburbs, from Peristeri to the port of Piraeus and to the construction of the Attiki Odos motorway.

Today Athens is a vibrant metropolis with a state-of-the-art infrastructure, breathtaking ancient monuments and museums, a legendary nightlife featuring a vast spectrum of choices and world class shopping malls.

Since I moved to Brussels, this was the third time I visited Athens. And, one of the reasons that makes me love Athens, especially since I moved to Brussels, is the fact that Athens is one of the sunniest cities in Europe! Between April and October, Athens remains largely rainless, with average maximum temperatures of around 32 C. Just like Brussels...

Vienna

The capital of Austria, with a population of about 1.6 million, Vienna is by far the largest city in the country, as well as its cultural, economic and political centre. Situated on both sides of the River Danube, and only 60 km off Austria's Eastern border, Vienna lies in the South East corner of Central Europe and is close to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Vienna is the seat of a number of United Nations offices and various international institutions and companies, including the OPEC, the IAEA and the OSCE.

Originally a Celtic settlement, Vienna became a Roman frontier city guarding the Roman Empire against German tribes to the north, in 15 BC. In 1440, became residence city of the Habsburg Dynasties and a cultural centre for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. In 1804 Vienna became the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and, in 1918, capital of the First Austrian Republic. After 1945 and during the Cold War, Vienna was a hotbed for international espionage and, since its end, is actively rebuilding ties with its Eastern neighbours.

Vienna is also one of my favourite cities in Europe. I love it for the music, the museums and the architecture, but also for the public transportation system, the nightlife, the coffeehouses, the parks and gardens, the "schnitzel" and the "apfelstrudel". Should go there more often!

NYC

The City of New York, is the most populous city in the United States and the most densely populated major city in North America. Located in the state of New York, New York City has a population of over 8.1 million within an area of approximately 830 km².

Nicknamed "the Big Apple", the city attracts large numbers of immigrants, with over a third of its population foreign born. Moreover, it attracts people from all over the United States, who come for its culture, energy, cosmopolitanism, and economic opportunity.

The city is a centre for international finance, fashion, entertainment and culture, and is widely considered to be one of the world's major global cities with an extraordinary collection of museums, galleries, performance venues, media outlets, international corporations and financial markets. It is also home to the headquarters of the United Nations.

This time, I haven't had much time to enjoy the entertainment and culture, as I've spent half of my stay in the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, attending a meeting of the UN Alliance of Civilisations hosted by Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, the Consort of the Emir of Qatar and Chairperson of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development.

This was a new experience and one more which will be associated to New York on my mind. For me, New York will remain as the best representative of both Heaven and Hell on Earth. Nothing in-between. And I guess this is why I love it so much!

Catch me if you can!

Last week, the only day in which I didn't board a plane was Wednesday... On Sunday, I did New York - Brussels; on Monday, Brussels - Vienna; on Tuesday, Vienna - Brussels; on Thursday, Brussels - Zurich - Athens; on Friday, Athens - Heraklion - Athens; on Saturday, Athens - Zurich - Brussels... I guess that some flight attendants flew less than I did...

The Wide World Over

Last weekend I was in Portugal. I went for some meetings, but, of course, going to meetings in Portugal it's always special... First of all, because I always have the opportunity to see my son and meet good friends I left there; but also because Lisbon is still the place where I feel at home. I love the light, the food, the ambiance. I love everything about Lisbon, and every time I go there, I realise how much I miss it.

Tomorrow, I'll go to New York. If I remember well, this will be my seventh or eighth visit to the city that doesn't sleep. But New York is the kind of places where I wouldn't mind going every month! I love it! The first time I went there, back in 1997, I attended a meeting at the UN. I went back two more times that same year, for the same kind of meetings. Then, I went back to New York in 2002, this time for professional reasons connected to my previous job with AFS. I've been there two or three more times for the same reason, later that year and, then, in 2003. Now, I'm going for a reason that, in many ways, it's a synthesis between the two: I'm going for a meeting held in the UN framework, dealing with issues connected to the dialogue of civilisations, something that is at the core of AFS values and work. I'm very excited about this trip and I'm only sorry that I will stay for such a short period.

I will come back to Europe already on Sunday... almost directly to Vienna, where I will attend another meeting. Then, later next week, I will travel to Greece. And, then, right before the end of May, I will go back to Portugal, to close the cycle.

It's funny... today, I celebrate one year since I have moved to Brussels and joined the European Youth Forum secretariat. It's been a very intense year, full of joy and happiness. It's also been a hectic year, full of work, many meetings and many travels. But, at the end of the day, the only thing that counts is that I'm not only enjoying it, but also learning a lot. With the support of all my colleagues, and the challenges ahead, I feel ready and looking forward for the year to come. And this is exactly what makes life beautiful: the thrill of finding out what comes next!

9th May - Europe Day

"You may have come across a reference in a diary or elsewhere to the fact that 9 May is "Europe Day" and perhaps asked about its significance.

Probably very few people in Europe know that on 9 May 1950 the first move was made towards the creation of what is now known as the European Union.

In Paris that day, against the background of the threat of a Third World War engulfing the whole of Europe, the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman read to the international press a declaration calling France, Germany and other European countries to pool together their coal and steel production as "the first concrete foundation of a European federation".

What he proposed was the creation of a supranational European Institution, charged with the management of the coal and steel industry, the very sector which was, at that time, the basis of all military power. The countries which he called upon had almost destroyed each other in a dreadful conflict which had left after it a sense of material and moral desolation.

Everything, therefore, began that day. That is why during the Milan Summit of EU leaders in 1985 it was decided to celebrate 9 May as "Europe Day". [...]"
[extracted from here]

Calling All Angels

and every day you gaze upon the sunset
with such love and intensity
why it's... it's almost as if
if you could only crack the code
then you'd finally understand what this all means

but if you could... do you think you would
trade it in all the pain and suffering?
ah, but then you'd miss
the beauty of the light upon this earth
and the sweetness of the leaving


PS - Thanks for the cuddle and the smile!

It takes time

Sometimes you can't tell whether you're waking up or going to sleep
Spiralling
Unnumbered streets
All the games cannot be yours
All the sights, the treasures of the eye
Does the divided soul remain the same?
No equation to explain
Destiny's hand
Moved, by love
Drawn by the whispering shadows
Into the mathematics of our desire

Breaking News: Leaving Las Vegas

Sera: Don't you like me, Ben?
Ben Sanderson: Sera... what you don't understand is - no, see, no. You can never, never ask me to stop drinking. Do you understand?
Sera: I do. I really do.

When I grow up, I want to find a woman like Sera...

Burocratic "Deburocracy"

This is one more example of the things I don't get about Belgium.

Last year they introduced the electronic tax declarations. And they announce it very proudly! I don't get why, if the system is in place in less developed countries like Portugal for at least 7 years.

Today I tried to get access to Tax-on-Web. I couldn't! They asked for the national registration number, the social security number and the belgium ID number. As I am a foreigner, I don't have a Belgian ID!

I call the Help Desk and as a result I start a chain of several phone calls to different services. In the meantime I had to stop, because one of them was closed for lunch.

After calling 6 different services I get to the right one. "Yes, we can help you but you have to come to our office", "OK, what's the address?", "I can't tell you now, only after we schedule a meeting".

No comments! In less developed countries like Portugal you just have to click on the web, introduce your tax number and you get it in 2 working days.

But nothing special. I'm much more upset with the fact that I didn't get my tax reimbursement for 2004 (yes, 2004!). In less developed countries like Portugal you receive it in less than 6 months!

Previleged

Back from another YFJ meeting. A big one. An important one. And a successful one!

At least it is the way I feel. And how good it felt to see the result of all the hard work and to see everyone in the team feeling proud of the work done.

These are the moments that make me believe I made the right choice and that many of the efforts and difficult moments are nothing compared to these good ones.

And that reminds me how privileged I am for working in something that I like so much, but more than that, were friends became colleagues and colleagues become friends.

Thank you guys!

International Workers' Day

International Workers' Day is the commemoration of the Haymarket Riot of 1886 in Chicago, Illinois, and a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labor movement. The 1 May date is used because in 1884 the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, inspired by labor's 1872 success in Canada, demanded an eight-hour workday in the United States to come in effect as of May 1, 1886. This resulted in a general strike and the riot in Chicago of 1886, but eventually also in the official sanction of the eight-hour workday. The May Day Riots of 1894 and May Day Riots of 1919 occurred subsequently.

Due to these left-wing overtones, May Day has long been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist, and anarchist groups. In some circles, bonfires are lit in commemoration of the Haymarket Riot usually right as the first day of May begins. In the 20th century, May Day received the official endorsement of the Soviet Union and celebrations in communist countries during the Cold War era often consisted of large military parades and shows of common people in support of the government.

The Red Scare periods ended May Day as a mass holiday in the United States, a phenomenon which can be seen as somewhat ironic given that May Day originated in Chicago. Meanwhile, in countries other than the United States and United Kingdom, resident working classes fought hard to make May Day an official governmentally-sanctioned holiday, efforts which eventually largely succeeded. For this reason, May Day in most of the world today is marked by huge street rallies of workers led by their trade unions and various large socialist and communist parties — a phenomenon not generally seen in the U.S. (which has a history of strong anti-communism) or the UK.

Prato

Prato is a city in Tuscany, Italy, with a population of around 180,000. Historically, the economy of Prato has been based upon the textile industry; Prato is also a centre of the "slow food" movement; culturally, Prato is rich, with many museums and other cultural monuments, including the Filippo Lippi's frescoes and the Donatello's external pulpit in the Cathedral of St Stephano. Prato is also the city where Roberto Benigni started as a theatre's actor. And, last but not the least, Prato is the city where I spent the last days, due to the fact that the European Youth Forum's Council of Members took place there.

It was a long, tiring and difficult meeting... but apparently everything went well and all the participants seemed quite happy about it. Therefore, even though I'm tired, I'm also happy. Very happy!