The Morning After

The fairy tale of the Dutch royalty continues and Amsterdam is slowly waking up ... the first cleaning teams already long on their way ...
There are some clear reasons as to why the royalty is so popular and the first is of course the fairy tale. All children love fairy tales and if you are honest: it never really goes away. This is a story of a family, living long and happily ever after. The family members appear to be loving towards each other and give the impression, and especially in the case of Beatrix and Willem Alexander, that they are very happy in their marriage.
And people like glamour and beautiful women. Had Beatrix and Máxima been ugly, the story would have been completely different ...

So far so good. The trance is so strong, that even some sobering facts do not have any effect on the enthusiasm of the people. And everyone with a different view has been safely put behind bars, in this new trend of the government to "preemptively jail potential rebels". Probably inspired by the israelis, who always kill people and then claim it was an accident.
Royalty is something inherited. Only genes count, unless, like Máxima, you marry into royalty. Which then introduces new genes in the line.
It is just too bad that the royal blood line is such a lousy one. Willem III was a cruel psychopath and also Willem Alexander's grandfather was heavily involved with criminals and to this day still "new children" are popping up from all over the world.
And in the case of Máxima, her father was a war criminal, so that does not bode very well either ...

The Spanish king was found hunting elephants, and he is not the only royalty who enjoys murdering innocent animals: our now King Willem Alexander is a member of the WNF and this does not stop him from shooting these same animals.

The royal family is also heavily involved with criminal organizations like Shell, who can even call themselves "Royal Dutch Shell". As a Dutch citizen I feel ashamed about Shell. The death and misery they spread around the world is beyond description. And for the royal family to support this, is just worse. I always wonder what the role of Shell is in the fact that the Netherlands is one of the worst countries where it comes to environment protection in Europe. The air pollution here is far worse than anywhere else in Europe.
And as always: for the average citizen this information is unavailable. And to tell you the truth: I don't get that many people in the Netherlands care ... they have their party, can wave with their flags and enjoyed the day.
I thought yesterday was a great day to update the sympathy cards ...

Here are some Dutch language links for those who actually DO want to know:
opinie
petitie salaris van de koning
waarom geloven mensen in sprookjes?

Update from the world of bees

An update from bee-world: A great documentary on bees: More than honey is now playing in Amsterdam.

If you see this spectacular movie, it may be called a miracle that any bee survives at all, given the treatment by humans ...

More information in previous posts:
Bees and other flying creatures
and: Urban organic beekeeping

If you speak Dutch, you may be interested in a consumer program about
Bee disease and death related to consumer garden products.

Human Design Debunked

A few years back I wrote about Human Design and how I had finally found a book that seemed to work. Neither the reading that I had from a professional Human Design Reader, nor studying the book, brought me much practical value. But when a friend suggested I attend an afternoon workshop about Human Design with the focused theme on relationships, I decided to give it another go. And explore our interesting relationship dynamics (yes, one of those!) :-)

What is interesting about Human Design is that it claims to build on three powerful and well established teachings: astrology, the I Ching and the Chakra system.
So with all the complexity that it shows, it suggests some authority and back then I started enthusiastically exploring it.
People are basically categorized in four groups, the majority of the people fall into the category of "generators" and sub-type "manifesting generators". They all have the strategy of "responding" as recommended strategy.

Like I mentioned, I am not an expert. So I was sitting in this workshop, and one of the people in the group asked how it is possible that any dating site even functions at all, if all people just "have to wait" and can only "respond"? (giggles). Uhm, yes, do they tell you what the quality of the relations is that eventually come out of these dating connections? (teacher)
So then he proceeded writing down ways to look at the chart combination of yourself and your partner. He suggested to add all the connections from both people and find where the 9 larger centers come together. You see some squares and triangles in the figure above (which is an example of a "now" and not from an actual person necessarily). These are the centers. Darker or colored lines connect them. Some lines are only half "filled". If the other person has the other half of the same line filled, then you have a connection between the two centers that are involved. The more centers are "active", the better the relationship in principle. This varies from all 9 centers active (you are symbiotic and don't have room for other people) to 5 or less centers active (you have no common ground to have a relationship).
So one woman asked how it is possible that she has been married for 40 years and they both have 0 centers active (suggesting there is no "common ground" for any relationship).
There wasn't really a good answer to that.
Another woman (yes, we had an interesting crowd there!) asked what the point was, since she had all 9 centers active just by herself. Would that mean that any relationship would be perfect?
About my relationship I received the "better be free" message. So I asked more about that, does that mean (in the terminology of "should I stay or should I go?") the advice to run? Also this label, seemed to be open for many interpretations: you can also see it as "you have a lot of inherent freedom in this relationship". Sounds like a match made in heaven to me!
So the interpretations were completely useless and it seemed like many people in the group did not recognize anything for themselves. I was also surprised to get just one simple way to do a "relationship math". Maybe there are more ways to look at relationship dynamics, but this was just not convincing and certainly falls short of any other way of finding insights in this area, like astrology or the chakra system.
I had another question about the "strategy" of listening to your gut feelings. Nice try, but in relationships, that means tuning into your sexual desire in my dictionary. So I suggested it might be more interesting to tune into the heart and listen to what the heart says.
Here is the astounding answer to that question: "This is only true for you, as you have the heart connected to the sacral".
First I don't have that connection. And second I highly doubt that other people would not benefit from listening to their heart, and certainly where it comes to relationships. So that brought another question: how is it that the heart location as in the chakra system, in Human Design means: ego? And the heart is dangling on the side? I know that the physical heart sits on the left, but that is not the place where the "heart feeling" resides, which sits in the center of the chest. And then: how come the spleen is located at the wrong side of the body? That does not make sense?
For those of you who are not too familiar with the anatomy: both the heart and the spleen live in the left side of the physical body. And whether you look at a person from the front or the back, you can't possibly have the spleen and heart at opposite sites.
I guess this has finally and deadly ended my explorations of Human Design.
That does not mean that it might not work for you though. If you are interested and attracted to it, the best way is always to do your own research and find what is true for you.

Of course I cannot leave here without sharing with you my latest explorations in art:

Healing the Brain

Lately the brain is "hot" - especially since Obama announced a boost in brain research.
In Amsterdam I attended two scientific lectures for the general public this week, both on the brain, but from a different perspective.
The first one was a lecture by Prof. Dr. Herman Philipse about neurophilosophy, or: do we have a free will or not? Several Dutch scientists have published about this in the last couple of years and Prof.Dr.D.F. Swaab and Prof.Dr.V. Lamme are convinced that the brain is in charge and we do not have free will.
Prof. Philipse tried to convince us that the research of Prof. Lamme was not leading to a conclusion that we do not have free will. Apparently in science these days it is enough not to do research yourself, but to just make up a theory of why something a real scientist has indeed explored himself, could not be true. If you read Dutch, you may take a look at Victor Lamme's website yourself.
The entire concept of "free will" needs an explanation of "whom" or "what" has this free will in my view. From spirituality we know that there is no "me" (see Tony Parsons). Also physics comes to that conclusion as everything is vibration and we are all one.
If you do not know where thoughts are coming from and you do not know what exactly defines the "I" or "me" we can safely say that this is not science.
I would say it's the mystery of life ... enjoy! :-)

The second lecture was a lot more interesting, as it was about new developments in brain research and Prof. dr. P.J. (Paul) Lucassen actually knew what he was talking about. This lecture was about Alzheimer's and possible causes (it turns out not to be hereditary in most cases) and stem cell research and how the brain can actually still form new cells. This latter has been known for several years now and can be considered very good news indeed.
Most interesting is of course: is there anything we can do to prevent Alzheimer's? And there is some cute research with mice that reveals that in mice that run, the brain can clear out ameloyd plaques and tangles and restore the cell structure that is damaged in Alzheimer's. The bad news is that mice do run for hours and hours and we do not know whether this clearing is also true for humans ...
Another study focused on training memory and spatial orientation and the role of the hippocampus. If the hippocampus does not function properly, this results in memory loss.
The hippocampus is also the area where the stem cells live that can create new neurons or glia cells. Turns out training spatial orientation indeed causes the hippocampus to "grow", but if that actually leads to a diminished risk to get Alzheimer's is not known.
Then food: it is known that vitamin B plays an essential role in the nerve system. As far as I know, the levels of vitamin B that are needed according to orthomolecular medicine are a lot higher than those believed to be optimal in general medicine. For many vegetarians it may be worth while to have their vitamin B12 level checked, as it is very easy to get a shortage if you do not eat meat.
Personally, if I look at the brain of an Alzheimer's patient I see a "shrunken" brain that looks like it is "dried out". If I combine that with the fact that most elderly people do not drink enough, I cannot help but thinking that this may play an important role. Water is needed by the body to get rid of toxins and if there is not enough water, the body cannot release toxic waste. Which may very well be the cause of plaques to form in the brain ...
I did a brief research on water and Alzheimer's on the internet and it turns out that patients with Alzheimer's lack the thirst sensation and therefore tend to not drink enough.
More information:
scientific american

As you can see I added one of my latest designs at the head of this post, which is a combination of leopard print and a violin pattern ... assuming you know the influence of music on the brain ... :-) (cat song or otherwise ... :-))

Banking 101

Many of us are not that interested in money, but would love to see a world in which their children can play safely, everyone has a roof above their head, there is good health care, fulfilling employment for everyone, and animals, the environment and the handicapped and elderly are cared for in a loving way. I'm with you!
But in order for that to be our daily reality, a lot has to change and in my view it starts with the banking sector.
It is one thing that the general public does not understand anything of the banking system, but it is a serious problem that the politicians do not understand. Hence we need to point out to them how it really works and demand they take action to fix this.
I have been following Positive Money for quite a while now and they have a clear and insightful way of explaining this stuff:



You may also want to read this flyer by Positive Money.
After the Dutch government decided that they can easily steal the savings from handicapped people, they now think they can also put the elderly on the street or have them stay in their home without care (imagine an Alzheimer patient in their own home, forgetting that they put a kettle on and setting the whole neighborhood on fire ...). This has to stop!
Positive Money is about the UK, but I am quite positive that many of the same stuff is happening here and in the US and elsewhere as well ... Let's transform politics in a way that they are representing the people again, instead of just stealing from them ...

You may also be interested in a previous post about the banking system.

The call for justice

For those of us who have been around long enough to remember the tragedy of Atlantis, there is nothing new in this time and age ... or so it seems.
We also know that in all cultures there is talk about this being a revolutionary time which is supposed to turn the balance to what is also referred to as "the Golden Age". Which would give us hope that this time around, things will go differently.
Time to turn from greed to justice.
How is it that the regular media seem to just not understand this, or maybe not WANT to understand?
Yesterday things in the Dutch media reached a new low when Huub Willems, a supposed teacher at a university of law, was interviewed on the topic of a bankster who fled the country after having received a bonus of one million Euros and leaving a toppled bank with an immense debt to be wiped up by us ... the people.
A blogger had called to the people to approach this bankster and demand the money back. His reasoning was that it just is not fair that this guy gets off with one million and the people have to pay for the mess.
So why do the media of all people they could interview, find this old fashioned guy, completely out of touch with what "ordinary" people are currently going through, who pleads in favor of the bankster as not being guilty until proven so. Exactly what proof does he want in this case? We all know that such a trial will never take place. Which is exactly the problem: there never are court cases against these criminals (at least not in the Netherlands).
And the people are livid, for their livelihoods are destroyed.
And then they are not allowed to say anything, because of "lack of proof"?
These days "proof" is never requested any more, everyone can end up in jail without accusation or trial (this is standard in the US already and no doubt will be followed by the EU) ... only the banksters are too rich to jail?
If the judicial system would work properly the bankster would have to be brought to court and mr. Willems would have his point. However, he is not looking at the absolute failure of the judicial system. In the first place the bankster is not brought to court. In the second place, the system is so corrupt and flawed, that it is highly unlikely that "evidence" will be found, even though any child can see it plainly. It is not without a reason that the heading "OM blundert" (translated as the judicial system blundered (again)) is on the front page of the newspapers on a daily basis.
Firstly it would help if it becomes rule that people over 65 are not allowed to teach at universities any more. It starts with what we learn and if the law students don't get proper education, we will continue to be in this mess.
Secondly, a great clean-up operation of the entire judicial system and the introduction of laws that reflect the need for justice as perceived by the population would help.
The bureaucracy and excess of people involved in this sector needs to be eradicated. There is too much talk about nothing and not enough about what really matters. This would also reduce the ridiculous costs that are going on in this sector.
In order for that to happen we need functioning media, with a truth seeking mission as opposed to media trying to silence the people and brush things under the carpet to protect the elite.

As long as those things do not happen, people WILL take justice in their own hands and prosecute the banksters with whatever means they have. And things are not spiraling out of control because of this, it is the other way round: things ARE out of control and that is why people that are desperate take desperate measures. But I guess mr. Willems has a comfortable position from which he thinks he can afford his viewpoint ...

Mean time I launched a new web page with clocks - the ultimate sign of times ...

American Spring?

While I continue to work on new designs, currently mostly new business cards, the world around seems to be getting crazier by the minute.
Not sure what to think of this movie: Is Obama finally going to be impeached?
According to research, as it comes to Republicans in Texas, it may happen: 67% is in favor of ousting the president.
I am European and we have seen Hitler come to rise here and one of the downsides of getting older is that you see history repeat itself time and again ... very annoying really ...

From what I see around, there are a lot of people who have simply stopped following the news. This has of course long been preached by the New Age movement, as watching the news supposedly brings down "your vibrational frequencies". The downside of this is that you may follow some "sound bites" by the regular media, after which you fall asleep again and return to "business as usual" ... until the "real world" gets ahead of you.

So is there a way to know what is going on in the world, without getting depressed or lowering your "vibrational frequencies"?
I typed this question in on Google, just out of curiosity. Interestingly enough, only articles on depression came up, with just one exception: an article from 2005 pondering on the developments in time, and how in ten years time, the world would look better. So here we are ... again, hope ... leading to ...?
Another article on Forbes is even better and points out that you already may be depressed, but you just don't know it (yet): happy and blissfully ignorant? :-)
This is quite an interesting article, that also acknowledges the physical aspect of any reaction we have as humans. (chemical imbalance or physical illness having a profound impact on your life and emotions).
So far my efforts to keep sane in a crazy world (not sure to what extend this can be called successful yet ...)
Considering the large scale at which things are happing now, the reversal of corporate and government control seems to be the best bet to keep our sanity.
American spring?
It looks like every argument the US government has to over topple regimes elsewhere is now also valid for the US government: we can say that there is no functioning democracy in place and we are dealing with a gross violation of human rights, little freedom of press and we can say Obama is coming very close to dictatorship.
We have seen that those "regime changes" and introductions of "democracy" do not work out so well elsewhere though ...