Europe is our playground...

It took some time, but it was needed. A lot of things happened since my previous announcement; things inspiring enough to be added to my post.

Stupid to speak about the weather, I hate it when people do, but weather is really not helpful at all for the mind, my mind, to be productive.

But now it's OK, I am in my balcony and there is some fresh air crossing my nose occassionally. And some good, trippy music in my ears...

And Suede's "Europe is our playground" is finally downloaded...

Honest as I am with you, the idea for this article came after my participation as a trainer in the European Youth Week held in Brussels, beginning of June.

Now that I am looking back it seems like it was a naive feeling; a feeling that I am "European"...Well, maybe this was the reason why we were all there; and it seemed to have worked on me...no, no past tense, it works even now. I am just trying to scrutinize if it is just a naive feeling. There were many things to make you feel "European" there; the big buildings, the celebrations, the "officials"...Artificial or superficial, you would correctly respond.

And there were people; many people; different people; again, different people. And the outcome was explosive; I mean the cognitive flow within my brain, was explosive. So many ideas and thoughts about us, people. About our role in Europe. About our voice in Europe. About our responsibilities and rights in and for Europe. All in all, I had a wonderful time there, because of people. And this is what made me feel "European" at the end. Or it simply made me feel a human being with a geographically (and a bit, politically) defined label, useful enough to the extend of being adequately general for my brain not to explode.

Practically speaking, I worked there with a wonderful group, participants and trainers/organizers. We made music. We discussed. And we blended music with what we discussed in a unique and creative way. Despite the outcome - that was impressive and incisive, at least - the process was the real achievement. And the people was the "chaotic" force; the creative determinants. Great great great to have been there...

Don't still know why I have chosen this particular song and although it is played for 4th time in a row, can't really get it's meaning. Another "chaos"; be patient Sakis, it will come...

Writing these lines now, my brain is more or less stuck to the memories of the near past but also to what is happening in Brussels today and tomorrow. Talking about the Summit. So many things going on there; or they better go on because it takes a lot of effort and work from everyone involved there for something good to occur; otherwise we are heading to a failure. At least, this is how I see it. Or, as I recently learnt, IMO.

And the contradiction; I have seen "Europe" working great and has a reason for existence (Youth Week but also all of my related experience) and at the same time there are forces (see Summit) trying somehow to dismantle "Europe" as if it was an atomic bomb. Because no one can convince me that what is demanded by those demanding it, is for the good of "Europe" and its people; no loves, it is for their own fucking good, or what they believe it's good for them...or they are just misleaded, confused, what to say...

"Europe is our playground" because, yeah, let's just play...let's just open up a little bit, and be curious, and let's just be scratched as well; we will never know if we don't try...

Pufff, it's getting late and I am gonna be camping tomorrow :)

Spent a day in the mountains recently. It was also somehow related to "Europe" (and somehow everyday I discover for my self how related I am to "Europe"). Organizing a training there soon and went to explore a bit. Wonderful places and an amazing discovery in the middle of the forest (seen in the photo) and one in the end of the forest (unfortunately no photo yet); six puppies. Abandoned puppies. In the size of the palm. Cruelty at its worst. Someone left them there. But destiny can not be avoided; so we caught up with the puppies. We took them away from cruelty and did our best to ensure a safe life for them in the future.

The singer just said "Europe, with my baby now"...Wise words...Practically, it's the only way to build a real "Europe"...to find our "babies" there...Think!

Another great way to build "Europe" is the so called couch surfing but this is a term coming from the States. Take a look at cafebabel.com and you will know what I am talking about.

Naive feeling I said in the beginning; maybe naive should be to be real and worthy...

Great to see many of my new friends blogging. New Democracy I would call it. Need to work on this thought a bit more to explain adequately...Or maybe Democracy 2.0 :)

7th time listening to the same song...

DON’T KNOW WHY I’M SAYING THIS
DON’T KNOW IF YOU DARE
JUST EMBRACE EACH OTHER
SHOW THAT YOU CARE

a piece from the song produced during our creative times in Youth Week...

Goodnight.

Europe is our playground...

This would be the title of my next article...And the question is: Why don't you write it now Sakis? Well, simply, because of 3 things: over tiredness (almost no sleep last night, long train traveling etc.) , not having the song with the same title with me (somewhere in my oooooold CDs, lyrically not something special but back in time, rather inspiring for some naive thoughts) and last but not least, being in Gouda in the Netherlands and still facing the "stupidly smart" ability of blogger.com to recognize the languages of the countries where my IP comes from...
Well, I ll be back home in few days...huhhhhhhh

Silly

My silly photo on the right doesn't match at all with the atmosphere created by my last texts and I would love to change it...but the stupid blogger.com (well, it is a great tool and I am thankful to its people for giving me this space, but at the moment it is stupid...) is smart enough to track my Belgian IP and change all of the menus into dutch/flemish language...So I don't really know how to do it and I felt like making this comment...
G'night...

For Amalia

...I never got to know this person; neither did the thousands of thousands of the people that have taken a mass, organized and "online" initiative to support her struggle against a Health system which for once more has proved to be more than a system and much less than health...Amalia is dead now and I am personally very touched by her story; sitting now in my room in Brussels and feeling an inner force to make a reference to it in my "own world", shaped partly by this blog. It's the second death I make reference to the last days; simply because I am touched and I am inspired. She didn't stop fighting for her right to life, even at the very end, even if she has been suffering for many years...Her blog (in Greek) http://fakellaki.blogspot.com/ has become a reference point for legitimate and justified angerness, among others, towards bloody doctors that besides their incompetence that sometimes is annoyingly obvious, they ask money from people in need just because...just because they have been given (by whom?) the legitimacy to do it...or simply because they are fucking bastards...

Friends and people inspired by Amalia's story have created a blog where texts in different languages, other than Greek, can be found http://giatinamalia-blog.blogspot.com/; videos in Youtube can be watched also; the movement is growing rapidly...There are so many side effects of this action that maybe it is not appropriate to comment now...

The death of Amalia (may she rests in peace unlike the monsters that made her suffering) is proving that there are human beings still left; and that they have power to bring about change. It is really sad that such stances are nourished and developed mainly after unfortunate events but at the same time we need to focus on the positive aspect of it; which is that people are not indifferent or better, that there are still people that are not indifferent...

Even a moment of reflection about her, can constitute an important part of the overall change that we, all of us, need to go through...

...you will be happy, wherever you are now; thank you for reminding me my human side...

In a rush...

...well, I'm not sure that there is inspiration flowing through by brain cells at the moment but still I feel like putting down a couple of ideas tickling my brain and being eager to be shared!

One of them, which is a little bit sad but that's life unfortunately, is that one great figure of the European youth world died on Tuesday...Mr Peter Lauritzen...Never got to know him in person but I got to know him through his writings...May he rests in peace and his loving ones live long to remember him...His legacy can only be of inspiration for all of us that want to bring about change in Europe...and responsibility.

Responsibility, what a concept! I made a deal with my self; to become more responsible. And I made a deal with my self as a trainer; to focus more on the development of the self responsibility of the people I am working with; this is the fertile ground where everything else will grow; unfortunately this is what life, to most of us, have taught us not to be; responsible. We are always expecting things to come from outside (knowledge, wisdom, support...) - which is OK, but can't be the only way - and there is always someone or something else except ourselves whose fault was...on anything. There are exceptions in this "rule" that I can only tell them "thank you for being here and inspiring us"...

Being very inspired at the moment and I am sure it will last a lot, by all the wonderful people I met the last month; some made me angry, some made me laugh, some made me happy, some made me turn by back and think why, some made me feel so unique and some others made me feel I am nothing...You see, I am already placing the reason of my angerness, happiness etc. outside! Heck no, I just proved what I said above. But maybe I said it cause what I think and believe at the end of the day, is that nature is a circle not a line...and everything someone feels or does is stimulated by both worlds...the inner and the outer. I could say so much about these ideas now, but I am in a rush...

In a rush to catch the plane to Brussels where I'll have the chance to drink my favorite Chimay blue beer; well I just got to know that I can drink it also in my city, but it's a different thing to drink it in Belgium...In between beers ;) More wonderful moments and/with people are waiting to show up!

Until next time, put some music in your troubles...at least this is what I do...and troubles dissapear, puuuuuuuum!

If you still wonder why I have put this photo for this text, the reason is because creating this "metaphor" was my most creative moment of the last month...imagine :)

Nagemiseni... (lovely Estonia, once more you proved to be an amazing country!)

It could be "make love not war"...

...indeed the overall headline of the last days could be "make love not war". But before I let you know why, thank you primo for your encouragement, thank you Andrea for the wonderful photo, thank you New Order for the Perfect Kiss and thank you Bulgaria for the wonderful selection on your Eurovision song!!!

So, the first part of the headline, "make love" is shaped by the following little stories...

Brighton (where I was from 27/4 to 1/5) is the city of love - in a way - in England. Despite what the people say, it is a city that I would like to spend a couple of days with my future love...

It's been a while since I've last seen such a lovely, lovable and loving group in a training course...Well, in fact I don't want to categorize or to compare the groups I am working with once every group is unique, special and wonderful...But this one, hmmm...still I can't answer why but it, at least, offered me a lot of stimuli for reflection...

Connected to the previous paragraph, last night in this training course, party night, was love-overflow...Pfffff, so much love in the air, we could share with half of the world!

And Perfect Kiss is a lot about love...It was late in the night, dancing and singing with lovely people (see above) and suddenly someone (I think it was Marion...) selected it; and it did so from my laptop. I have this song since ages ago but never listened to it before...My reaction was, f*********************ck...Coelho was so right to let us know that the things that value the most are very close to us; it just takes a whole trip to the universe to make our eyes able to see them...

And the 1st of May was a lot about love and unity. The farm of "Daskalos" offered the necessary space for nice young people we are, to discuss, to play, to dring, to eat, to share and to enjoy the wonderful day and the atmosphere.

Fuuuu, the flow inside my brain is so smooth and tender that I find no reason to switch it to the second, "not war" part... But our friends need support and will to support starts from awareness...

I was shocked to hear my friend Maris from Estonia telling me about the situation the last days there; in fact my friend Stelios had already told me a couple of things about it (and he will be happy to know now that I made a reference to him :) ). I hadn't been so emotionally charged since....I can't recall. I looked for and at the news, I watched at videos (cafebabel.com) and to be honest I am worried a lot about the situation there. Fortunately, the days now are very peaceful, and I hope that both sides will take the necessary measures and make the necessary steps towards harmony before the 9th of May, a day planned for a demonstration...Not sure who is right or wrong, but in fact I don't care...I only care about the safety of the people and the peace among them and for this I am determined to do anything...Anyway, the 18th of May I'll be there for another training, so I will have a "first hand" look at the situation... And above all, I will be with my friends that I love so much.

It doesn't smell like war, but still situation in Turkey is totally unstable, at least this is what I can pump out of the news...With the wish that things will get better for our Turkish friends...

Just please, wherever you are and whatever you do, think of the fact that some people, friends, are suffering (yes, suffering...it is even much more than suffering not to be able to approach your home...) at the moment and they need support; our support. So give!

Indeed, a week with lots of emotions; and lots of clothes in my wardrobe (another "war" :) ) waiting to be packed; Poland here I come!

Love ***

Not yet finished but a promising cold all over my body doesn't let me enjoy the last night with the people; well I have already pushed my self and frankly speaking, I had a very good time tonight, for the last 2 hours. But can't stand it any more...

It's been a wonderful experience; in a wonderful place; woody and muddy; green and grey; cold and warm. All in one.

The wooden houses and the fireplace; the green fields and the river; the dark clouds and the starry sky; the burning wood smell and the cold mornings. All as one.

My body surrenders...

It's so weird, and magic at the same time, how a bunch of "strange" people, never met before, become so close in just a few days. Well, this was not the first time to think about it but let me say that this idea was really reinforced during this course. How deep or how artificial is this "close"? Anyway, don't really know if this is the right moment to bother my mind, cause it really is tired. And it needs relax, rest and refreshment.

My body's failing...

Almost 15 days on the road around Europe...Running in the underground city of the airport of Frankfurt, arriving at Brussels straight to a "organized by friends, surprise birthday party" and then enjoying a fast "13.00 - 14.00" Brussels lunch, running to and being the last to arrive at the European Youth Week meeting, being through an interesting process of investigation on "what are we going to do?"...Ufff, more meeting, more Brussels, more airport, more skies...Since 10 days ago, in beautiful Estonia; developing and being developed.

My body's detached from my mind...

It seems like an endless discussion taking place...

Indeed, no end in mind from the beginning; but maybe now it's the time.

Anywayzzzzzzzzzzzzz...