If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes... it will change

Over the course of the day from my fourth floor window, I’ve seen every type of weather imaginable but sleet and snow (not counting tornados, dust storms, and hurricanes)!!! This morning it rained, then was sunny and blustery, windy, then heavy rain, more sun and racing clouds, some more rain, patchy clouds, heavy downpour, clouds, wind, and… who knows what next. That’s what comes from being located on the coast of the North Sea!

I'll post some pictures from my trip to Berlin soon, but probably not before going to Munich this weekend.
This a "post-fall of the Berlin Wall, circa November 1989" photo courtesy of California State Polytechnic University Pomona - History 327 - Europe since 1945 - Prof. Englehart's Syllabus

Cheers!

heading to Berlin this weekend... hope to see lots of Rob's Best of Sights

I'm off to Berlin this weekend to see a friend of mine. Since I've never been to the Biggest and Best City of Deutscheland - Berlin... I thought I'd ask my flatmate Rob, (Rob ist ein guter Freund von mir und ein super Kerl), what sights he would recommend. This was condensed from three different emails.... hence a blog-versation.
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Q: Hey Rob, what sights can you recommend seeing while visiting Berlin this weekend?

A: Ok, here are some suggestions; the best of berlin ... suggested sights

Berlin’s Best Sights – By Rob Schaeffer

1) Brandenburger Tor and Unter den Linden (famous East Berlin Shopping Street with Humboldt University and Embassies)
2) Reichstag (seat of German Parliament) and the glass dome - can go up there, very nice, but always line-ups
3) Siegessaeule (victory column)
4) Berliner Dom (huge cathedral) - very nice
5) Holocaust Memorial
6) Palace of the Republic - East Germany's parliament building
7) Checkpoint Charlie and Museum
8) Rathaus Schoeneberg (City hall) - Kennedy's Ich bin ein Berliner speech
9) Potsdamer Platz/Sony Center - modern complex, shops, cinemas, etc....
10) Funkturm or fernsehturm - towers for panorama observation
11) Kudamm and Gedaechtniskirche - nice shopping street and famous memorial church
12) Kadewe - Berlin's Harrods
13) Museum Island (pergamon Museum)

Erik, this should be enough for now. if u want more or more elaborations on the above, let me know..........by the way, this is no coolness ranking.......and it would be quite hard to do such a ranking.....all of it is interesting

Geographical Locations:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 13 – are in the centre so all within walking distance
9 and 10 are only 2 stops or so from the city centre
11 and 12 are close together and also only a few stops from the city centre
7 is a lil way off but easy accessible by subway
8 is further away, maybe 10 min by subway


Have a good time!

Please pick me up a Berlin Starbuck coffee mug... just kidding!!!

Four week anniversary...

No, i'm not seeing any of the dutch chicas or anyone else. It's my Fourth week at the ICTY. I've spent the last four weeks working on a long term project regarding Adjudicated Facts. Don't want to bore you with the details, b/c unless you're a lawyer or interested in such things, it'll be.... dull!

In the past four weeks, I've made some pretty good friends. Robert (germany), Evelise (France), Alim (Canada via Texas), and Eugenia (Australia via Russia). These are my flatmates and we've shared some adventures together. My good buddy Matt from law school and his girl, Kim, came for a little visit. We had a nice time together - seeing the Van Gogh Museaum (pronounced Van Goof for some reason).

Have I learned any dutch? No, not much! I'm sorry to say that everyone here speaks English and that hinders one's ability to learn, b/c you don't HAVE to learn. In Cairo, very few knew English, so i had to learn some Arabic (taxi Arabic).

What's Holland like? Have you ever been to Lynden, WA? Lynden's dutcher than the dutch. Overcast and rainy; cool and moist. It's like Seattle, WA, without Mt. Rainier to break up the skyline. But, I love the quant dutch architecture, row houses, etc.

Well, i'm off to attend a "Beach Party" of sorts. Tis sponsored by all the international organizations based in Den Haag (the hague): tonight i'll mingle with folks from
EUROPOL
EPO
NATO
ICTY
ESA\ESTEC
OPCW
ICC
ICJ
EUROJUST
and more....

perhaps I'll meet someone who can fulfill one of my dreams.... finding a job, living and working overseas.

Cheers for now....

ps - don't mind the speelling, caus i don't =-)

Radio Free Colorado...

My favorite online radio station is Accuradio.com, but i can't access it b/c of the firewalls and other restrictions at the ICTY. So my newest favorite on-line music resource is Radio Free Colorado. Between listening to my CDs and to live courtroom audio feed, I listen to this website. It has a great collection of classic rock from the 60s, 70s, & 80s. Commercial Free!! So, spread the word & turn up the volume!!!

Click the link to the right: Radio Free Colorado. If it's broken, google it! Ciao!

phone number correction

+31-6-46695205

31 is the country code for the netherlands

Thoughts on the destruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina - by Karen Thomas

This response was by Karen Thomas, a friend and member of Centerpoint Church, the church I attend in Tallahassee, FL. I found it moving.
Erik
==========================
Thoughts on the destruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina - by Karen Thomas

Dear friends, I've been doing a lot of thinking and praying about the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, and although I generally avoid mass emails, this is the most effective way to share my thoughts with you. I welcome any comments, and look forward to hearing from you. It's kind of long, so I've attached a file that's easy to print out if you wish.

August 31, 2005

Thoughts on the destruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina

Why I love New Orleans

I grew up on the Gulf Coast in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, but New Orleans is the place I chose to live once I left home. I attended Tulane University there, and in New Orleans most of the central passions of my life were ignited: my engagement and early years of marriage to Chuck (our engagement party was a crawfish boil in Audubon Park, where we gave all the leftovers to street guys afterward); my love for teaching and academics and Southern history and literature under inspiring scholars with whom I remain in contact over fifteen years later; my conversion to a true and whole Christian gospel that broadened my individual walk with God to include and integrate His passion for prophetic social justice and racial reconciliation; my delight in the live music and food and festivals and culture of this richly diverse city, through nearly every neighborhood of which I ran, bicycled, drove, or rode buses and streetcars and Mardi Gras floats (like the thousands of residents who couldn’t evacuate, I didn’t own a car for most of the six years I lived there). Nearly every room of my home contains reminders of New Orleans: in my kitchen, authentic Blue Runner Creole red beans and gumbo file from our last visit in February to take our seven-year-old daughter Phoebe to see Mardi Gras for the first time; on my walls, black-and-white photos of Jackson Square and the gorgeous, gothic live oaks out in the bayous and the kids in the Desire neighborhood where I worked three summers and a weeping angel statue from one of the distinctive cemeteries—even my bathroom has a poster from the New Orleans Museum of Art, whose treasures are probably under several feet of water right now.

Natural disaster and God’s sovereignty

Some of the news reports have termed Hurricane Katrina "a disaster of biblical proportions." Insurance policies label natural disasters "acts of God." The Great Flood in Genesis comes to mind when I see the footage of utterly inundated neighborhoods where only the very ridges of the roofs break the surface of waters as much as twenty feet deep. But natural disaster is actually a theme that runs throughout the Bible, particularly the Old Testament. The Hebrew word for destruction carries the meaning of "the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the LORD, often by totally destroying them." So in the Old Testament, sacrifice, submission, and destruction are sometimes one and the same (e.g., Leviticus 27:28-30). But why would God use nature to destroy? He is mightier than the waves of the sea (Psalm 89:9) and when Jesus calmed the storm, witnesses marveled that "even the wind and waves obey him!" (Matthew 8:27) The answer lies in Romans 8:20-21, which points to God’s longterm purposes in allowing suffering and destruction: "For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." John Piper puts it best in his book, "Desiring God": "When God looks at a painful or wicked event through his narrow lens, he sees the tragedy or the sin for what it is in itself and he is angered and grieved. ‘I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the LORD God’ (Ezekiel 18:32). But when God looks at a painful or wicked event through his wide-angle lens, he sees the tragedy or the sin in relation to everything leading up to it and everything flowing out from it. He sees it in relation to all the connections and effects that form a pattern or mosaic stretching into eternity. This mosaic in all its parts—good and evil—brings him delight" (p. 40).

Hurricane Katrina and social justice

Given everything I know about New Orleans and what God has been doing in my life to incite me to care about urban ministry and racial harmony, my first response is to realize that the areas destroyed by Katrina are among the poorest in the United States. The disaster has affected people of all races and classes, but the inescapable fact is that poor African Americans have been disproportionately hit by this tragedy. According to the U.S. census, Mississippi ranks first in the number of residents living below the poverty line, at 18.6 percent, Alabama ranks third ( 16.9 percent), and Louisiana ranks fourth (16.7 percent). The national average in 2004 was 12.7 percent, up 1.1 million to 37 million people now living at or below poverty levels in our country. These states also have the nation’s highest percentage black populations, with Mississippi first (36.4 percent), Louisiana second (32.5 percent), and Alabama sixth (26.0 percent). New Orleans’ population is 67.3 percent black. The connection between poverty, race, and the effects of Katrina is perhaps most powerfully demonstrated by New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, one of the city’s poorest inner city neighborhoods, where a breach of the levee along the Industrial Canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain with the Mississippi River poured as much as twenty feet of water into the streets. These people were least likely to own cars and be able to evacuate, and they are the ones you see trapped on their rooftops in many of the TV reports. This is also the neighborhood where the urban ministry I used to work for, Desire Street Ministries, is (was?) located, because my friends Mo and Ellen Leverett chose to live incarnationally in the nation’s poorest inner city neighborhood that was not already served by a ministry. Though all of New Orleans is vulnerable to periodic flooding, its lowest-lying areas generally correspond to its poorest. Basement apartments and real estate in flood-prone neighborhoods are cheaper, and thus tend to attract low-income tenants. Hurricanes hit hardest at both extremes of the income spectrum: property damage is worst among the luxury homes along beachfront and other waterfront property (such as the yacht club section along Lake Pontchartrain), but mortality and human losses are worst among those who do not have the means to evacuate and whose often substandard housing is in the lowest lying areas and least able to withstand high winds and heavy rain, such as mobile home trailers.

How to respond?

"For such a time as this" I am now trying to tear myself away from the internet and TV coverage of Hurricane Katrina to consider how God wants me to actually respond. First, Hurricane Katrina presents a teachable moment. People around the country are eager to understand and process this event, as they were after September 11 (whose fourth anniversary is almost upon us). In my opinion, Katrina represents a worse domestic disaster in many respects than Sept. 11, in terms of the geographic scope of destruction and the longterm challenges of restoring a basic level of sanitation, health, education, infrastructure, and other public services (this does not, of course, include the tremendous cost and human loss of the Iraq War as an indirect consequence of September 11). After addressing the most urgent needs of rescuing those that remain trapped, providing food and shelter for the tens of thousands of refugees, repairing the levees and stemming further flooding, returning civil order, and securing basic public health and sanitation, the process of planning the rebuilding of the devastated areas will begin. This represents the most daunting and important public policy challenge since Reconstruction after the end of the Civil War. The promise of real and lasting justice and prosperity for the nation’s poorest citizens shines as brightly in the former slave-trading capital of North America as it did after the similarly catastrophic Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 (read John Barry’s excellent "Rising Tide") and exactly 140 years ago, when black freedmen, having endured the adversity of slavery and war, surged into New Orleans full of hope and ready to claim the rights and responsibilities of equal citizenship (John Blassingame’s "Black New Orleans" is an amazing account of how remarkably successful they were in the 1860s and 70s, before white supremacists used violent means to write segregation and disfranchisement into law at the end of the nineteenth century). So one thing I would like to do is reach out to the 70,000 college students I live among in Tallahassee and help organize "teach-ins" similar to those that followed September 11.

But the most important thing I want to do is to encourage my friends, my church, my denomination, and everyone within my network of influence to prayerfully consider how they can help the victims of one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, whether by giving money, volunteering for a relief team, donating blood, or even housing those forced to evacuate who may have nothing to return to. I think of two passages of Scripture: Isaiah 42:1-2, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you." This is my prayer for those who still wait to be rescued, for all the relief and rescue workers, and for all those who evacuated: that they would know God’s protection and presence and love for them in a powerfully new way. And for those of us who, through no righteousness of our own, have been spared and remain in a position to help, I pray that we will heed the example of Queen Esther, whose cousin Mordecai warned her when her husband threatened to exterminate her people, "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14)

Perplexed but not in despair,

Karen

Karen Kruse Thomas, Ph.D.
Research Affiliate Claude Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy
Florida State University
karenkthomas@hotmail.com

America's Heart, Inc: an organization helping with the aftermath of Katrina

Greetings and Blessings:

Hurricane Katrina came ashore in Florida one week ago today. Her eventual path surprised us all. Food, water and clothing were delivered to South Florida on Saturday and Sunday.

Katrrina restrengthened. We and our partners began gearing up. ACTS Ministry-Holley, Florida did not know whether to evacuate or bring in food and water. The storm hit, the tidal surge wiped out Bayou La Batre: made famous by Forest Gump. Sherry and Ronnie Johnson drove the ACTS Ministry truck into Bayou LaBatre on Tuesday while we were driving over from Jacksonville. Today 1,000 families have been supported for more than three days.

Compassion Alliance was on the ground in Gulfport, Ms., on Tuesday evening. We have been working under a letter of understanding with the Mississippi EOC and have now been given responsibility for aid distribution over a six (6) county area. We control from Pass Christian all the way to Pascagoula, MS. We are responsible for receipt and distribution of all local, state, public, corporate, private, faith-based and even FEMA donated materials. We need help and prayers. Promised monies from several ministries have not yet arrived.

We (America's Heart) currently have 134 truck loads enroute to both locations and the area south of Jackson, MS., This is not enough and this endeavor will last for many months to come. Our transportation costs average $2,700.00 per truck plus the cost of the contents. We are now beginning to move trucks from as far away as Massachusetts and this will be very expensive.

Monday we will arrive in Gulfport with a medical team, RVs and a helicopter from Christ's Fellowship-South Florida along with food and other supplies.

We are sending in Light In A Can, food, water, fluid milk which does not require refrigeration, OTCs, diapers, diesel fuel (18-55 gal drums)
thanks to supplies made available by Soy-Ultima, Taylor Outreach Ministries, manpower from H.O.M.E., Inc., two of our sons. Becky helped to find us fuel containers, Middleburg HS made a large material donation as did Waste Not Want Not and Grace Episcopal Church - Orange Park, Florida. Danny will assist by driving a truck on Monday. Our ministry friends at Cross International have been a great friend during this crunch time.

We need a portable medical clinic or a large tent much the same as what an Evangelist would use. We need tow behind generators, electric cords, portable lights, large fans and RVs or motor homes. We need portable fuel tanks to hold diesel fuel and gasoline in support of the distribution center. We can use ag diesel for this endeavor. We need volunteers willing to spend a week and assist in the efforts.

A mobile kitchen will accompany us which will be managed by Ray Pringle-Calvary Church of GOD and capable of feeding several thousand daily. The big hurdle will be keeping this unit supplied as well supported with a refrigeration unit.

Pastor Wiggins (father and son) Evangel Temple AOG - Jacksonville are helping to raise funds, food and volunteers.

ISON is traveling into New Orleans, invited by N.O. SWAT, to assist with the search and rescue effort.

Trucks must run in convoys due to the high incidence of hijacking. Security is a major concern. Nobody runs after dark.

A high ranking delegation will arrive in Jacksonville tomorrow morning. We will meet tomorrow afternoon in between loading trucks and sorting food items. We will put them into the hotel and then pick them up at 1630 for a welcoming reception at 1700 and dinner at 1800. We will have some entertainment in the form of a competitive cheerleading performance. The delegation will accompany us to church the next morning, we will have lunch and immediately return to our discussions. On Monday we will tour the hurricane devastation with the delegation. We want to thank David, Linda, John and ShaRRon for all their help preparing for the reception and dinner. We depend upon you ... Thank YOU.

Baby food, diapers, bottles, bibs, feeding spoons and bowls, baby formula, feminine products, OTCs, bandaids, coolers, water jugs, stock tanks filled with potable water ... RV's, motor homes, etc., et al still remain big items.

We will be traveling with a large number of volunteers and fuel will be a problem. This will be a very long day. We will most likely return to Jacksonville in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Our convoy may number 30 vehicles.

Ron Miller, Food For Tots, was in Florida on Monday buying food for distribution through his warehouse in Hattiesburg, MS., When Ron finally made it home he found the rear of his warehouse destroyed and the contents looted. He lost the roof to his home. They will not have electric for 3-4 months. Gypsies wanted to charge $3,700 to cut up one fallen tree. Ron needs your help and your prayers.

If teams of carpenters are looking for someplace to donate their skills we can put you to work in Hattiesburg, MS., at homes and churches.

People had become complacent even after the 2004 hurricane season, hard to believe isn't it? If a Category-1 were to threaten the S.E. coast people would begin to panic, a Category-2 and above would be a disaster simply because we do not have enough fuel for those who would wish to evacuate or simply could not afford the $3.25 to $6.10 per gallon cost. All the hotels are filled. Food is even in a short supply. Please pray we do not have another storm. Please send help for those in need.

Your drivers will need a copy of the Mississippi EOC letter. Send me and e-mail and we will fax you a copy. We are set up in the Outlet Mall parking lot at the Junction of US-49 and I-10 in Gulfport, Mississippi. Your point-of-contact is Steve Ewing or Chad Holgerson. If you rather, you may send your contributions to our location in Jacksonville, Florida and we will see the items are delivered to the area of greatest need. Our locations are provided police/sheriff and National Guard security.

We NEED a LARGE SUPPLY of MATCHES, IMMEDIATELY.

We will pull the trucks out of our warehouse parking lot on Monday and will be congregating at Evangel Temple AOG parking lot early for a 0700 departure. Some will be staying at the Best Western Hotel & Suites on Collins Road, just off I-295 and US-17/Roosevelt Blvd. We have two trucks enroute to Bayou LaBatre this evening. Due to the size of our convoy we might be better off traveling in two groups.

Mission First Coast sent out a communication identifying America's Heart as one of three ministries they recommend to receive donations for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. We were humbled by this recognition.

Thank you for your prayers and support for these ministries. Thank you and LORD Bless.

IHS,
Bill H.

William A. Henry - President / OverseerSanta Fe, Suwannee & Tampa Bay, Inc., / America's Heart, Inc.Ofc: 2531 Eagle Bay Drive (Whse: Rear-2137 Liberty Street-Jacksonville, FL USA 32206)Orange Park, Florida, U.S.A. 32073-6155 E-mail: sstbinc@juno.comTelephone: 904-278-8076 Facsimile: 904-278-8061

Katrina Thoughts From the USA - by Osbey Sayler

Some thoughts from my dad on Katrina news in the USA:

Monday night after the hurricane had passed and Mississippi and the other coasts were totally destroyed and parts of New Orleans & suburbs were destroyed, the reporter on Bourbon street was walking around on dry pavement saying there was very little damage there while every window on the high rise Hyatt hotel was blasted out, looking like the Murragh building in Okla City. The locals were out on the street remarking that it was the first time they had every seen the stars from Bourbon Street. A few police were lounging around and not enforcing the curfew becausde they wer outnumbered.

It was eerie to see this scene, and I remarked to Mary Etta that it appeared that the Devil had protected his territory.

But the last few days have shown scenes that made me cry. People walking in chest deep water to get to the I-10 bridge where they waited to be picked up.Yes, they were mostly blacks, like 67% of the population. (Today I saw white people climbing on Army trucks to be carried out of the flooded areas as well.)

We saw kids without parents. I cried real tears when saw a man with one grandchild tell how he and his wife climbed onto their roof with as the flood waters rose . He was holding his wife's hand while she held 2 other kids until the house split in two and the 3 were swept away and drowned. DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE WHETHER THEY WERE BLACK OR WHITE ?? NO NO NO !!! THEY COULD HAVE BEEN FROM THAILAND OR SRI LANKA OR INDONESIA - THEY WERE HUMAN BEINGS AND I THINK IT IS DESPICABLE FOR POLITICIANS AND ANYONE ELSE TO MAKE THIS TRAGEDY A RACIAL THING!!! We saw Vietnamese people in Gulfport MS who had escaped Communism 30 years before, worked and saved and built new lives and homes, only to see them destroyed by the hurricane as well.

While watching the tragic needs and losses that make me cry, at the same time I am DISGUSTED with certain people ( starting with the incompetent New Orleans mayor) COMPLAINING that people were not transported immediately out of danger !! - That no one brought port-a johns to them along the interstate highway !! (Guess how high and far a port-a-john will fly in 150 mph winds.) - That no one had food and water waiting for them at the Super Bowl or New Orleans Convention Center which were isolated by flood waters !! - That 500 busses did not instantly fly over the flood waters ! That 40,000 soldiers did not parachute into the city moments after the governor wished for them!! That the Navy hospital ship did not orbit the earth and hover over Charity Hospital and beam up the patients and staff !! (It actually had to take on supplies and fuel and personnel and wait for the hurricane to pass before arriving! Meanwhile, other Navy ships from Mississippi are arriving in Jacksonville where they were sent for safety) .

The TV shows all the complainers saying they were not treated as well as the tsunami survivors, etc. Some even had to walk TWO MILES to get to an air conditioned bus ! And then they had to wait all day for the bus ! (The tsunami survivors are still waiting for their air-conditioned busses 9 months later - and for an Astrodome to replace their plastic tarpaulin makeshift tents.)

MEANWHILE, criminals have been shooting at helicopters with medical relief supplies and even at the doctors and nurses trying to load critical patients onto helicopters at Charity Hospital.

I give kudos to Houston - they are taking THOUSANDS of New Orleans refugees - as fast as 500 busses can bring them. Some say over 25,000 already there. Ordinary people all over the USA are giving money and goods and time. In the Jacksonville area, about the same population as New Orleans, people have filled dozens of 18 wheelers to send. (These, however, will need to be driven through traffic and damaged roads and somehow get around destroyed bridges and will take a few days to arrive, like the military convoys that arrived in New Orleans Friday September 2, 2005, 4 days after Katrina went through and 3 days after the delayed flooding caused the most severe problems.

ABC nightline did show a wonderful piece on Houma, Louisiana, a small rural town 75 miles southwest of New Orleans and evidently of a much different demographic (racial) mixture. With no outside help, the mostly all white residents have taken in thousands ( I think 5000 but of that I am not sure) of refugees from New Orleans (mostly black from the pictues I saw) , feeding them and clothing them and housing them for now in their civic center. The private Catholic middle and high school of 900 students is preparing to accept from 300 to 600 more students. This is, I believe, a much more true picture of America and, indeed, Louisiana, than that which certain race-baiting persons seen on TV are attempting to portray (unsuccessfully, I hope).

If you want to see how people and organizations are even now producing real-world solutions to trhis monumental disaster, please see the attached e-mail from a man who has been to the heart of the disaster area in Gulfport, Mississippi, with a truck full of supplies and returned with a PLAN and real-world commitments to help ALL the victims.

Osbey L. Sayler, M.D. -

ps - Erik - please feel free to post this and Bill's e-mail announcement on your blog (posted in the next response)
Love, Dad