A GOODBYE IN JANUARY OR IS IT A GOODBYE TO JANUARY 2021

 Arcadia, Florida does not seem an appropriate place to say GOOD BYEs..there is a whisper of the gentle southern charm in the air, moss hanging fro trees, no longer do you see plants and trees that remind you of the langour of the tropics..

It is a good time , perhaps not the right place, to say good bye.

The first month of the newly minted freshly awaited year is ending. With it also ending certain expectant visions towards the southern part of this hemisphere. 

Thank you January, you gave me the Covid 19 vaccinations. Last January, I was in Indian and Oman and Cuba.. this month my travels have been within the state of Florida and the rest are all dreams 

Yesterday was 29th of the month, I fondly remembered the Noquis day in Buenos Aires and insisted that my hosts prepare Noquis. It was delicious.

Today was an introduction to AMERICA, a country I know only superficially despite coming here often over the course of 20 years. I was at a town called Port Charlotte, where I stopped at the Pharmacy to thank the pharmacist who had done a favour to a friend, stopped at the well organized and well organized supermarket to buy some good quality meat for a friend who works at the Everglades National Park.

I felt grateful to be in this land of plenty and have access to the food. I thought of those suffering from the lack of food during this pandemic.

It was nice to discover that in Port Charlotte there is a community of Germans who spend their winters here, Canadians also come here and the place is full of Retired people and their doctors. Few German Restaurants and smell of german food add to the cacophony of europeans, imported and local. 

Charlotte Harbor was named after the British Queen Charlotte by surveyor, Bernard Romans during a 1774 visit.

amidst all this beauty and excitement of discovery, I had to say Goodbye to an affection to Bauru in Brasil and pry myself off that attachment.

It is easier to depart now because so many little pleasures in life has departed in the last year of isolation.

But remind ourselves of the gratefulness we owe the Universe for all fo us being well and alive, eating healthy, avoiding doctors and psychiatrists despite being emotionally and psychologically affected by this unnatural lifestyle.

Tomorrow morning the sun will rise to warm the earth, and it will also warm my heart if there is any coldness of sadness left behind by the departures of and in January.

ESTONIA HAS A NEW WOMAN PRIME MINISTER..

 Nothing makes me happier than to hear that a woman has been chosen to lead a country.

I do not question their political affiliation, one can be sure that we will NEVER have a woman leader as destructive as TRUMP or divisive as BOLSANARO or brutal like DUTERTE. 

And the world is changing.

I think it was Mrs Srimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka who was the first ever woman to lead a modern day government . (there have been women heads of state in history). Of course, everyone loved and respected GOLDA , then came INDIRA GANDHI and Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan.. All of them had been from Asia.Since then there has been a slew of women leaders, with Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May in UK, Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland.  S. Korea, Taiwan, NZ, Austalia, Iceland, Liberia, Norway, Finland and the indomitable Angela Merkel in Germany. Also Brasil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia for a few months, earlier in Nicaragua and now USA, the last male bastion has been broken with Kamala Harris elected as the VP. I am looking forward to the day when USA will have a woman President.

So this morning, it was nice to read a short note in MONOCLE about Kaja Kallas.

Redressing the balance

It was just over a year ago that Estonian president Kersti Kaljulaid had to apologise to Finland after right-wing interior minister Mart Helme derided Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin as a “sales girl”. This week the tables turned, as Estonia got its own first female prime minister, Kaja Kallas (pictured), making it the only country to have women serving as both prime minister and president. Added satisfaction will come from the fact that Helme’s EKRE party is no longer in Estonia’s government after the previous cabinet collapsed due to a corruption scandal. “Kallas is like Joe Biden in that she brings huge relief for many, as does the departure of the far-right from the government,” Kadri Liik, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Monocle 24’s The Globalist. “It’s a return to normality.” No doubt that sentiment is shared in Finland. Marin was quick to congratulate the new government and prime minister, saying that she looks forward to future collaborations.

WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD ORDER.

END OF AN ERA... WE HAD A GOOD TIME, DIDNT WE?

 It has been a long haul..

long stretched out dinners full conversations late into the night..

catching up on the news of your dear friends..

spontaneously running into faces familiar to you from another time or country

life had to be planned. no meeting people you do not know, giving them a wide birth.

No more airports. Airline Lounges. Upgrades. overnight flights to other climes. I do miss Qatar Airways..

Thank God to the group of American Indians (indigenous) that I work with, I completed the two shots vaccine against Covid 19. 

Dusted out my old websites: Flyertalk Premium Fare deals...

but not a single country that I want to visit or  would enjoy visiting, was open or free to travel or downright dangerous with an excessive caseload of the virus.

So when my best friend called and suggested that we meet at an open air restaurant, it was time for celebration.

Felt so good to repeat the rituals of many years, greeting the maitre d', chatting with this or that person and be seated at a table away from others (safe distance) under the clear Florida skies and Royal Palm trees 

The sense of liberation was immense 

It had been a long time ..

It was a delightful evening.

Friendship is very important..

and the meal was delicious too..

The last get together with friends was in La Habana, Cuba. Since March 2020, gathering such as these (here in my house in Havana) has not been encouraged

It seems such a long time ago that my Mexican professional friends came to visit me in Cuba and this photo taken at the Hotel Nacional . it was just one year ago.

I had ordered Ñoquis, thinking of those distant days in the Porteno City. 

It was a delightful three hours before we finished our late lunch, we could have stayed on .

I told my friends about the custom of eating Ñoquis in BA. They were intrigued

Why Do Argentines Eat Gnocchi on the 29th of Every Month?

I found this at

https://www.thebubble.com/gnocchi-argentina-pasta

by an anthropologist, Stefanie Suarez.

San Cristobal de la Habana which usually is a moveable city for me is under complete lockdown. Why don't we meet at an Argentine Resto in Miami on 29th, my friends suggested.

So, the next outing for a longer conversation would be on the 29th January at a still unnamed Argentine Resto (but still outdoors) in Miami ..

the title End of an Era meaning my social isolation is coming to an end by Michele Gurevich, a Canadian singer (who is very popular in Eastern Europe, she lives in Amsterdam)

NEVER BEFORE HAVE I FELT THIS IMPOTENT ABOUT INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

 It was March 18, 2020 and I had packed my bags and ready to go to the airport to leave the USA. My sister and her husband begged me to cancel the trip or at least postpone the trip in view of the ever increasing public health menace of the Covid 19.

Today is January 22, 2021, ten months later I am still marooned in Miami. Very grateful for the hospitality and generosity shown me and the fact that I could continue to work in the project in Miami that I was engaged in.

I honestly thought that by July or september the international travel would come back to normal. i was eagerly digesting all reports about this new virus from all parts of the world and one by one, the favoured countries for me to travel to, closed their doors and none of them have opened them again.

I normally do not travel for holidays but there is some purpose to my travels, so the popular beach resorts (Cancun, Vina del Mar, Varadero are not on the screen). Lovely islands which have been very strict with their quarantine regulations and welcoming visitors such as Cayman Islands, Saint Martin or Seychelles are not in my travel radar.

I felt guilty not to be visiting the village up the river from Leticia in Colombian Amazon. My american Indian relatives had planned to come with me for us to run a Wound Clinic in Rapa Nui. France began appealing more and more to the heart. It was painful to think that i cannot return to Israel anytime soon? (they are planning 10 non stop flights per DAY to Tel Aviv from New York when things open up). Qatar and Oman are closed. So are India, Malaysia, Cambodia 

Each day I plan a trip to Sao Paolo . as of January 26th, i would need to show a PCR negative test (even though I am fully vaccinated ). Each day Quiberon and Bruxelles are in my heart.

The year 2019 may have astrologically known what a bad year it would be 2020 for travel. I had an extremely good year of travel in 2019

Cuba/USA

Colombia/Brasil

Rapa Nui

Buenos Aires

Quiberon 

Austria/Slovenia/Italy.  The alps

Spain

Portugal 

India 

Sri Lanka 

Malaysia 

Cambodia

Thailand 

Qatar

Oman

Most of the places were visited more than once...

Last night, my american indian family called and wanted to know if I wanted to go to Puerto Rico as they need a vacation. I certainly would find a clinic to work in while they are at the beach?

I do not feel sad that I cannot travel this year and I have the opportunity of being of service to more people albeit grounded in one place.

So many things to be grateful for .

Will continue my travels as it becomes feasible

Plan is  Colombia/Brasil/Buenos Aires/Rapa Nui/Portugal/Spain/France/Israel/Qatar/India/Malaysia/

Cambodia 

 

CUBA CAN PRODUCE 100 MILLION UNITS OF COVID 19 VACCINE. ALL CUBANS WILL BE VACCINATED AND VIETNAM INDIA IRAN VENEZUELA BOLIVIA, PAKISTAN WILL BENEFIT AND SOME OTHERS

Cuba alista 100 millones de dosis de vacuna antiCovid-19

La Habana, 20 ene (Prensa Latina) Cuba crea las capacidades para producir 100 millones de dosis de la vacuna Soberana 02 contra la Covid-19, anunció hoy el Instituto Finlay, líder del proyecto.

En conferencia de prensa con las agencias extranjeras acreditadas en la isla caribeña, el director de esa entidad, Vicente Vérez, ratificó que el objetivo es satisfacer la necesidad del país y también de otras naciones interesadas en el inyectable.

Hasta el momento, dijo el experto, se comenzará con Soberana 02 y ya existen países como Vietnam, Irán, Venezuela, Pakistán y la India dispuestos a adquirirla.

Recalcó, además, que la aplicación en Cuba será totalmente gratuita y el objetivo es inmunizar a toda la población este año.

'La estrategia de Cuba de comercializar la vacuna tiene una combinación de humanidad y de impacto en la salud mundial. No somos una multinacional donde el objetivo financiero es la razón número uno, nuestro fin es crear más salud', aseguró Vérez.

Además, en el mes de febrero se prevé un ensayo clínico de población pediátrica para que también se pueda aplicar a los niños, afirmó.

Este lunes, Soberana 02 inició su ensayo clínico Fase II ampliado que se extenderá a 900 personas de entre 19 y 80 años de edad.

Tras los resultados en dicha etapa, se pasaría a la tercera fase para evaluar la eficacia. En este período las autoridades sanitarias prevén incluir a 150 mil personas vulnerables y residentes en zonas de alto riesgo.

Recientemente, el presidente del Grupo Empresarial de Industrias Biotecnológica y Farmaucética, Eduardo Martínez, declaró que, dado los efectos positivos de las vacunas cubanas, el país podría iniciar en marzo el uso de emergencia de alguno de sus candidatos.

Soberana 02 comenzó su fase II de ensayos clínicos el pasado 22 de diciembre y se convirtió así en el primer proyecto latinoamericano en llegar a esa etapa.

El candidato es una vacuna conjugada, con dos formulaciones y la segunda de ellas logró gran efectividad en animales, pues provocó una respuesta inmune muy potente desde la primera semana de su primera dosis.

Igualmente, induce una memoria de larga duración en la respuesta inmune que, además de producir anticuerpos, hace que estos duren.

El Instituto Finlay de Vacunas desarrolló también el candidato Soberana 01, actualmente en fase I, y que pasará en febrero a las II-III.

Cuba cuenta, además, con otras dos propuestas contra la Covid-19, elaborados en el Centro de Ingeniería Genética y Biotecnología: Abdala y Mambisa. Este último se aplicará de forma nasal.

A BIT OF HISTORY OF CUBA-USA RELATIONSHIP

 The United States like other colonized countries: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and all of Latin America from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, do not have a good record of treating the Native people they found in the New World when they arrived here fleeing FAMINE and terror of Persecution.(much like what is happening across the Mediterranean sea and the Rio Bravo/Grande border with Mexico).

The United States of America or Mexico or Brasil were inhabited by nations from time immemorial and certainly longer than their ancestors had inhabited their territories. Did you know that Spanish is only 1800 years old ? So far they have found archeological ruins as old as 36 000 years ...

So it was with great satisfaction that I read how Fidel Castro, during his struggle against the tyranny of Batista and then the success of the Cuban Revolution, helped a small tribe, left destitute by the uncaring attitudes and disdain of the American people of Florida and Washington who had taken over their land.

The Havana Connection: Buffalo Tiger, Fidel Castro, and the Origin of M......... Tribal Sovereignty, 1959-1962

Harry A. Kersey, Jr.

American Indian Quarterly

Vol. 25, No. 4 (Autumn, 2001), pp. 491-507 (17 pages)

Published By: University of Nebraska Press

This is one of the tribes that I offer my assistance as an Endocrinologist and on my last visit I mentioned this to a patient and immediately her face lit up. She remembered, even though she was not old enough to remember when it happened but her father had been there.

She was not the first one, when she said : I would like to go to Cuba, and thank the Cuban people personally for what Fidel did for us ..

ah well.. let this virus be subdued by universal vaccination and immunity, I hope I can go with a group of them and visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vedado..and be present when they express their gratitude for something their leader did more than 60 years ago..

I always wondered, which country is the terrorist ? USA against the Native people or Cuba which helped one small tribe regain their dignity ?

DID YOU KNOW THAT BREAKFAST IS THE IMPORTANT MEAL WAS COINED BY A BACON COMPANY? IN THE USA

NEW YORK TIMES like BBC has interesting tidbits and well annotated social accounts very seldom found in more popular commercial news media. 

Who propagated the idea that Breakfast is the Main Meal of the day? or Breakfast eaters are Lean?

Not a nutritionist.. Not a scientist ..but a Public Relations person as happens in USA  (and those countries follow this type of thinking around the world)

The idea that a hearty breakfast is good for your health dates back to the 1920s, when Edward Bernays, a public relations guru, led a nationwide campaign, encouraging people to start their mornings with bacon and eggs. One of Mr. Bernays’s clients at the time was Beech-Nut Packing Company, which sold bacon and other pork products.

The causal role of breakfast in energy balance and health: a randomized controlled trial in obese adults

published February 2020

Conclusions:

In obese adults, daily breakfast leads to greater physical activity during the morning, whereas morning fasting results in partial dietary compensation (i.e., greater energy intake) later in the day. There were no differences between groups in weight change and most health outcomes

I heard that in the USA the fast food purveyor International House of Pancakes has changed its name to International House of Breakfast to continue the unscientific belief that Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

When I was doing participant observation of daily nutrition and eating habits of the people, I noticed that the people in the countryside, got up early , went to the fields to work and then took a break at mid morning and then had something to eat. People in blue zones around the world who live the longest also have a breakfast pattern much different from the western idea of high sugar breakfast in the false belief that it would give them strength all through the day.

From New York Times 

Did you know your favorite morning fruit yogurt has just as much sugar as ice cream? Or the delicious muffin from the coffee shop has just as much sugar as a frosted cupcake? And your favorite granola has about the same amount of sugar as a chocolate chip cookie? Breakfast tends to be the sweetest meal of the day for many people, so when you cut sugar from your first meal, you’re making a big dent in you overall sugar intake. And studies show that people who consume extra protein at breakfast have lower blood sugar levels and are less hungry later in the day than those who eat more carbs. Note that a lot of our breakfast habits are the result of marketing — not nutrition. The push to brand breakfast as the most important meal of the day can be traced to a bacon company, and cereal makers continue to tout a cereal breakfast as a way to stay slim. That said, if you love breakfast, keep eating it! Just cut out the added sugar.

My almost sugar free Breakfast on this day.

{hard boiled eggs, Smoked Salmon, Labne and Zatar and cafe con leche. There is SOME sugar in the above but culturally speaking it is a  Mezcla... wild caught salmon from Scotland, Labne from Lebanon, Zatar from Israel, local organic eggs , cafe from Cuba, organic Milk}

By SUGAR i am not talking about the white substance people normally associate with SUGAR but all the added sugar substances which has deleterious effects on the body .. they include High Fructose Corn Syrup, anything with the word Corn in it, syrups, maltodextrin, dextrose .. the list is long. Added sugar is high in highly processed foods. Americans get more than 50 per cent of their calories (not synonymous with Nutrition) from highly processed foods.

so, please, try Non Sugary Breakfasts. You will see how innovative you are :

To kick the sugar and grain habit at breakfast, go for high-protein or plant-based breakfast foods.  (from New York Times)

Some ideas:

• Eggs (scrambled, fried or boiled — or a frittata with vegetables) 
• Berries and a handful of nuts
• Lettuce boat with mashed avocado and tomato (meat eaters can add bacon)
• Plain, whole-fat yogurt with fruit and nuts
• Apple slices with peanut butter
• Baked sweet potato with salsa or carmelized onions and sausage
• Smoked salmon with or without eggs
• A breakfast salad with feta, avocado and hard-boiled eggs (a popular Australian breakfast)

When you decide to cut sugar and grains from breakfast, your morning meal will be more creative and more delicious.

WHAT CAN WE DO NOW? NOW THAT 2021 IS UPON US AND STILL A FEW MONTHS TO GO BEFORE NORMALCY? RETURNS

WHAT CAN WE DO NOW ? 

By the middle of January 2021, I would have completed the course of vaccination against Covid 19

Apart from Israel, no other country would be Covid 19 passport ready! by then. Cuba would be safe but still the population would be bound by strict social distancing. Other countries in my orbit perhaps not ready until the end of the year. India is hoping to vaccinate 300 million by June, 25 percent of its population. 

Brazil and the rest of Latin America (perhaps with the exception of Argentina and Chile) has large proportion of the people who do not believe that Virus exists despite loosing their fathers or aunts in the epidemic!

In France, the vaccination is proceeding at a snails pace but I have good faith in the French Health Care system and once they begin, vaccination would be offered to those who desire it, France has a large proportion of people who do not wish to have the vaccine.

Exericse is an element that is missing in my life. There are no walking the long halls of airports or lugging of luggage or walking around the bays and souqs..I have to find a place to exercise, walking being my favourite pastime..

If someone says they have no time to exercise, what they are saying that they do not know how to proportion their time. I felt such envy for my colleague from Phnom Penh who has a very busy life running the NGO mopotsyo.org but he bicycles to work, 10 km there and back per day and then on weekends escapes to the hideaway 15 km away, in bicycle. So he gets to exercise between one and two hours per day without actually having put a time away or noting in your diary: Exercise or Have Coffee with colleague, or some such banality. This is a good example of how your LIFESTYLE has EXERCISE as a part. In La Habana, because we walk every where I do not have to look at my iphone to see how many steps I have taken per day, it is always in excess of 10 000 steps.

Overthinking, re-thinking of problems. I have become aware of this acutely during this pandemic where people spend an enormous part of their time, worrying about things that wont come true. Pandemic and constant number crunching on TV by dour faced presenters only augmented the problem.

Studies have shown that only one of your ten worries would actually become reality. No wonder the song, Dont Worry, Be happy was very popular all over the world, especially in resort areas of the world where worried people hurried to be among happy people 

If you are worried about something and find yourself thinking and rethinking and mulling and regurgitating over and over again, put it aside and think about something else. My new watch reminds me when to stand up and when to take deep breaths and to me it is not a technological marvel but a monument to the human failure and how the society has failed its people 

If one more person tells me that they have no time in MIami .. I will begin to seriously think of not returning from Havana where people do have time. Right now people have idle time, and pandemic induced leisure time and during this time, do something that is not characteristic of you. I can think of no other diversion than to learn another language: download duolingo among other apps freely available.

During the pandemic exile from my normal, nomadic life, I have improved my language skills, including my native tongue, English (I try to learn one new word a day: yesterday's word was ALTRICIAL the opposite of PRECOCIAL) and definitely improved my skills in Spanish (lots of written messages and whatsapp telephone calls) and written French ( I still have difficulty communicating well in this language) and like a dream come true, my Brasilian portuguese skills have risen by leaps and bounds! thanks to a paulistana friend.

At the domestic level, I bought an airfryer and see whether I can improve my least developed of skills, Cooking!!

Doing something different from what you have been doing, or going away from your routine, is so good for your brain, your character and also your happiness.

So whether it is gardening or mountain climbing, go for it .

Talk it over in this time of not much opportunities to do so.

This is what has kept me occupied since March 2020. what started as a tickle has become a deluge which I welcome and grateful since it kept my mind very active . Questions about Medicine (not just in my specialty of Endocrinology but Health and Nutrition in general) but also psychology, politics, fake news {I pay for my news}. This has been a true pleasure be of service to people most of whom i do not know but call me recommended by friends: yesterdays' consultation included Dermatology (dyshidrotic eczema), Oncology (Glesson 3 plus 4 classification) and an hour long conversation leading to midnight, about Nephrology and Microbiome. there were psychologically related enquiries from Cuba, Malaysia, India and Brasil.. the usual circle of my movements. I am grateful for all these people who kept me occupied and made sure that my brain worked its share sharpening its skills.

Find a person to talk to, if you can do this in person, it would be good, but keeping the social distance rules. or find a person who needs to talk.. and lend them your ears.

In contrast to the people who worry unnecessarily (see above) optimists tend to be happy, everyone knows that. Even as children we knew the glass was half full and as we became adults we changed to seeing the glass as half empty. Optimists make mistakes while doing chores but do not feel inordinately bad about it. So go ahead and make mistakes. 

I believe that optimism is one of the best gifts one can give in life and to be cultivated from childhood onwards.

The above illustrations and the ideas were in BBC news. The words are mine but the illustrations are from BBC.

WORDS SOMETIMES CAN DAMAGE PRECIOUS THINGS

HOW PRECIOUS THINGS ARE DAMAGED BY MISUNDERSTOOD WORDS 

Words are the greatest source of misunderstanding. And especially when one is reading in another language. 

I have never added a moral value to the words I read in a language that is not mine, because I lack the good understanding of the context in which it was written.

I help people from around the world, a little at a time, with their English language skills and the lack of context, I feel  their lack of excellence originates from the lack of discourse.

In English, it is common to make a statement which is neither addressed to you nor the person reading it but a statement ready for discourse: Ego is the basis of all structural defects.

If a Portuguese speaking person reads this: they may think one or two things: What is a Structural defect or they may say to themselves: why is he talking like this to ME.

I am not sure who taught me this, but surely I was very young when the wise person said to me:

The WORST conversation is about YOURSELF

The next worse conversation is when you are taking about OTHERS 

The best conversation is when you talk about IDEAS.

After reading Michel Foucault, I began to relish the idea of discourse. I love discourse.

For this reason when I am writing to a non native English speaker, I try not to say:   You can understand Yogic philosophy by participation, because it is misunderstood as if I am admonishing the person by addressing THEM as YOU, not in the general way that I meant.

Lack of understanding of DISCOURSE also gets TIT for TAT responses. It was extremely annoying for me when I was in France when this Tit for Tat or action creating this type of conversation would quickly lead to nothing.

Action and Reaction are PHYSICS concepts and there Is no room in human interaction for such a mechanical thinking.

Learning a new language is a very good exercise for the brain. It is said that English is the EASIEST language to speak BADLY. I would add, unless you have lived in an English speaking country or French speaking country or Spanish speaking country for a while, it is difficult to understand the nuances of the language. And English is the most nuanced of them all.

Stop talking about yourself, Stop gossiping about others, but talk about ideas and you would see how wonderful the conversations are among FRIENDS.

In an intimate relationship or when you are living with someone, or in love with someone who is living far away, there has to be adjustments in that mundane everyday things would be necessarily included in the conversation. In fact, I had compiled a few rules for successful long distance relationships as many people around the world are in such relationships. 

Be in contact as many times as possible during the day.

Respect the other person’s time and schedule 

Talk about mundane and everyday things such as what you are going to cook for dinner

Make sure that the other person knows that you are present and that you are there for them when they feeling lonely, dejected or tired or want to talk.

Very few long distance relationships are successful because people begin to think of them as normal relationships where you see each other more often.

Languages can unite us and at the same time it can divide us also. Whenever I am in Asia, after about two weeks I want to leave because however well they speak English (English has become the International Language), the nuances become irritative to explain.  This can be avoided, but very rarely possible, by speaking in a third language which is not the native language of either of the people.

Words help you come closer to another person and at the same time words can destroy a relationship as well.

Especially if it is not your language..

I have thousands of examples of lost in translation words but they mainly are about grammar or vocabulary and not the lack of discourse.

When I was an exchange student in Sweden, one of my classmates was from Swedish Lappland  and he often say to me : Did you have a funny time yesterday? For him Funny is an adjective of FUN, but to an English speaker FUNNY has a different connotation than FUN.

In my opinion  and experience the best English spoken outside the Native English speaking world, which unfortunately includes USA are in :

Sweden Norway Finland Denmark Holland Germany in Europe 

Israel in the Middle East 

India 

PS THANKS FOR ALL MY FRIENDS FOR KEEPING ME COMPANY OVER THESE MONTHS OF ISOLATION 

LASSO ROUND THE MOON BY AGNAR MYKLE , THEN A NORDIC INFLUENCE IN LITERATURE WITH KNUT HAMSEN'S HUNGER

 I was still in high school and in the habit of frequenting second hand bookstores (why did they all disappear?) when I came across a novel by Agnar Mykle's Lasso round the Moon.

For some reason, I was very attracted to the hero of the novel (that particular relationship between writers and readers, i do not think it is gender specific, as I was very attracted to the book The Prime of Life by Simone de Beauvoir) and for many years, remembered some of the sensations he had described in the book.

I do not know why, one does not remember every book read while growing up or later, but I always remembered Lasso round the Moon..

I wanted to be Lars, i imagined myself to be blonde haired and with blue eyes and romancing through the fjords of Norway and among the islands of Stockholm.

As if a dream came true, many years later, I would be taking the afternoon train from Lund, Sweden to Oslo, Norway and be introduced to the paintings of Munch, the sculptures of Wegeland and writings of Ibsen and Hamsun.

Was it the end of the 19th Century Oslo? I remember seeing a mural of all the artists of that era, at a cafe? at a railway station? 

That nordic period while short lived gave my life an ethos and empathy for human suffering, for these norwegian writers were writing about the core of human suffering. Knut Hamsun's Hunger was later made into a movie with Max von Sydow ? 

Also the Nordic period cleansed my mind of any of the conservative thoughts put in my head by my upbringing, and instead planted a sense of justice which has only grown.

Thank you Norway and the psychologist

Thank you Denmark and the Melchiors

Thank you Sweden and the Fischbeins

Thank you Finland and the Sami from Karigasniemi 

today is 1.1.2021

A Cuban Coffee, A Malabar paratta with its origins in Morocco, and Lasso around the moon!

The tranquility of today, but the connected to the world:

Thanks Havana, Cuba

Thanks, Sao Bernado de campo, Brasil 

Thanks, Miami, Florida 

Like Frida Kahlo painted: why do I need FEET when I have wings to fly?

I began to read Lasso round the moon

it is incredible, a sensation decades old rose in my chest..i was once again that innocent school boy (more innocent than others!!)

It was at that time, I was very keen on reading Alberto Moravia, the italian jewish writer.

While looking for the mural with the faces of norwegian artists and writers, was it my imagination or did it really exist? I came across works of an artist who paints murals in Barnes and Nobles shops.

This image totally transformed my mind and took me yet in another direction 

I was sitting at the Kuala Lumpur Railway station reading a book of poems by Pablo Neruda 

Los versos del Capitan 

dedicated to Matilda Urrutia 

later there was a movie called IL POSTINO about this time of poetry, love poetry dedicated his Matilda Urrutia.

there is a connection to being junior doctors at the university hospital in Melbourne..

so connected we are all, in our memories and those memories are the fire that propels us into the future

especially this year 2021

May you find your Oslo, Isla Capri, your Matilda, your mural and learn to become Lars..