The randomness of countries

What would the news do without countries? There would be no bankrupt nations that need a bailout, no wars, no jubilee of the queen and no hunting trips of the king. Worst of all – no European football championship! Nothing to fill the endless pages of daily news coverage.

Countries are weird though. Have a look at this photo:

On the right, where the lighthouse is, you see Spain. The rock in the middle is Gibraltar and the mountains to the left are Morocco. We have Africa, the EU and the Commonwealth, all happily represented within a radius of 50 miles.

Now, on the far left of the photo is Ceuta, a little town in Morocco which, at time of writing, is Spanish. Gibraltar used to be Arab, then Spanish and now it’s kind of British. Morocco used to be French, Southern Spain belonged to the Arabs. A few hundred years ago neither the EU nor the Commonwealth existed and a few million years ago it was all Dinosaurland. Pretty messy, to say the least.

One morning last month my 9-year old daughter was staring at the silly rock between the two continents and asked following question:

“Dad, is Gibraltar a country?”

“No, not really, it belongs to England.”

“To England? How is that possible, England is far away.”

“I know, it’s just like that. Not that long ago, even India belonged to England.”

“India? Really?”

“Yes. Stupid, isn’t it?”

The conclusion: The best word that decribes countries is RANDOM. Because that’s what they are, random lines on the map! They are totally unnatural and only exist because we decided that we need them for some reason. They are political constructs that are subject to constant change, they come and go – in fact, most countries have probably less survival chances than the Orangutans in Borneo.

Culturally they are of little use either, because culture is rooted to a certain area. Geographically, culture is far more permanent than a country. Take Flamenco – it’s from Andalucía and it will always be from there, no matter what country Andalucía may belong to in the future. Using Flamenco as an example of Spanish culture, although common, is simply wrong. Same as if you use the Oktoberfest for an example of German culture – it’s Bavarian, not German, and it will always be Bavarian.

So – who the fuck needs countries? My suggestion: Let’s keep the flags so we can have the Eurocup, Worldcup and, if necessary, the Olympic games. For everything else we are much better off without countries. After all, why do we need borders to live together on the same planet?

Writing

Most of you will have heard by now the exciting news – my book
THE LITTLE BUDDHA has been taken on by a big German publisher and will be re-published in early 2013. Time to celebrate? Yes and no.

Yes, because it took many years of hard work and endurance to make it happen. It’s fantastic to finally be able to harvest some fruit. At the same time, no, there’s no reason for endless celebrations. As always, life goes on! Also, I am still as poor as most other artists so I can't afford enormous champagne bottles. Saying that, in times of crisis and financial chaos that’s probably not a bad thing – if you don’t have anything, there’s nothing you can lose.

Writing a book, or doing any long-term project for that matter, is similar to climbing a mountain: You need to really motivate yourself, you got to invest a lot of energy, you struggle and there are many moments when you want to give up. If you continue, at some point you will reach the top, that wonderful place you’ve dreamt of all along the way. However, most mountaineers don’t climb to reach the top – they climb because they enjoy climbing.

I love holding a finished book in my hands. But even more I love the actual writing process. So since January 2012 I have been working on a new book. To sum it up: It has been one of the most intense, difficult and also most satisfying experiences I’ve had so far. And with a few chapters left, it ain’t over yet!

While the new book is a fictional story, it also overlaps with my own reality. It’s very personal and, at least for me, very emotional. As a result, I have been spending much time during the last months locked away in my little room; battling with sanity, protected only by four crumbling walls. I know I have been (and still am) a bit weird and distant, and I’d like to apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. But I am sure – if you entered into my skin for a day or two, experiencing the ups and downs of an author, you’d understand. Just look at me...

Finally, once I have finished this book, you might have to send in some happy messages to remedy my sadness – ‘cause when a journey ends, the traveller will be sad. After all it’s not about reaching a destination, it’s about travelling itself. Just as life is about living.

Friday the 13th

I was lying in bed, thinking about various projects, when it dawned on me – today is Friday the 13^th! I had an unpleasant feeling creeping up from my gut, this feeling that something might happen…something bad. I might burn the food, or lose money, or even die. So I decided to investigate…

Wikipedia says that the first mentioning of Friday the 13^th was about 150 years ago. There are some theories which suggest older origins, like the thirteen apostels who had to be twelve and thus expelled one. One source says that the myth around the doomful date kicked off when a book called ‘Friday the 13^th’ came out at the beginning of the 20^th century. The story went that an “unscrupulous broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th”. With our financial world falling to pieces, this could easily happen in real life – no matter which day.

Millions of people are said to suffer because of their fear of Friday the 13^th, ranging from mild states of anxiety to full-blown paranoia. Some avoid plane rides and risky business, others hide for 24 hours in bed. There’s even a pathological name for it: friggatriskaidekaphobia – fear of the number 13.

Looking at it rationally, I don’t have a problem with Friday the 13^th. However, I can’t say that superstition doesn’t affect me at all. It’s a bit like, ‘I am glad when it’s Saturday the 14^th’. And it’s also very difficult to simply ignore the day, given all the attention that it gets. So, what to do?

A basic law of physics states that ‘energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be converted’. So I have decided that, from now on, every Friday the 13^th I will take on the mindset of an Italian – because in Italy, thirteen is considered a lucky number. Transforming bad luck into good luck, just by changing the perspective.

Friday the 13^th might turn out to be a beautiful day, full of success and wonderful experiences. Who knows? Friday the 13^th might even be the best day of your life. Just like any other day really...

Creating time

The following conversation will be a familiar one:
"Hey, do you want to meet up tomorrow?"
"No, sorry, I can’t."
"Just for an hour."
"No, really, I don’t have time."
Isn’t that weird? How is it possible to not have time? I mean, seriously – isn’t it always there?

As evolution has progressed, human life has gotten busier and busier. We have so many jobs and responsibilities, so many hobbies to do and TV series to follow, so many dreams to chase and emails to send – it seems that there are just not enough hours in each day.

We have started to believe that we lack time. But do we? Just think about it for a moment – all the stuff that you do each day, how much of it is really necessary? All the news you watch and read, the never-ending shopping trips, boring lectures and useless meetings. All the worrying. All the hours on the phone or on Facebook. Aren’t we wasting a big chunk of our time with random crap?

Ultimately it’s a question of priorities – what do you really want to do? Because when you really want to do something, you always find the time. When you are ill and want to get better, you find the time to go to a doctor, even if you are really occupied with work. When you want a career change, you find the time to study; when you crave love, you find the time to date. As Ernst Ferstl has said:

“When we don’t have enough time, ususally we don’t have enough desire.”

Whatever you want to do in life – there is time for it. It just depends on how you spend those precious hours… If you prefer to stay lazy on the sofa when a friend invites you out, that’s fine, but don’t blame the lack of time. Equally, if you prefer to stick to a secure job, don’t blame the rigid working routine for not allowing you to explore the world. Don’t say that you are too busy too cook a healthy meal when you spend all night long watching TV. And if you really want to iron your pyjamas, don’t complain that there isn’t time to read a book.

Whatever it is we like to do – by setting priorities, we create time for it. Whether it’s realizing a dream, having a drink with a friend or simply watching a sunset. Giving importance to what we love, the stuff that really matters to us, and reducing all the unnecessary things that keep us so terrfibly busy.

There is always time. The question is – what do we chose to do with it?

Planting possibilities

What do fears and dreams have in common? They both represent possible manifestations of life. It’s like having the idea for a film – it’s real, even though it may never be realised.

Life is full with endless options. There is no written script, there are no limitations. As they say in India, „Sir, everything is possible!“

Many people argue that this is not true, that not everybody has the same possibilities. An African boy who hardly goes to school won’t have the same chances of becoming a scientist or a rich businessman as, say, an English boy who gets private tuition four times a week. But there is a big difference between chances and possibilities. Chances talk about whether something is likely or unlikely to happen; possibilities say whether it actually CAN happen.

If you want to make friends, but you stay at home all day, then meeting somebody will be impossible. You have to make an effort, you have to create situations that favour whatever it is you want to do. In other words – you have to plant seeds.

Lots of things will grow in any garden, even if you don’t put out any seeds. But most probably nothing will grow that could be of any interest to you. Only weeds and fruitless trees. If you want to be able to harvest something that you want, an apple for example, you have to go and plant that apple tree first. And then you have to wait – because seeds need time to grow.

It’s the same with possibilities – you have to create them. Sometimes they arrive with surprise, like when you suddenly find a full fruit tree in a hidden corner, planted years ago and already forgotten about. But somebody, at some point, must have planted that tiny seed which made the tree become possible. No seed, no tree.

So whatever it is we want to do in life, whatever our aspirations, dreams and hopes are – if we want them to become real, we have to first create favourable circumstances. Planting the seeds of possibilities.

Being patient

Here we are in 2012 – might be an exciting year...

With the economy, environment and even society all moving rapidly in a downward direction and stress coming from all sides, I’d like to dedicate the first blog entry of the year to something we probably all wished for on new year’s eve. Something we all need – good health!

When we are ill, we usually become a Patient and go to a Doctor. But what does it actually mean, being a Patient? And who's a Doctor?

Although the origins of the word have to do with suffering, PATIENT, in common use, means to be able to wait. Of course there are the waiting rooms in each health centre, but being a Patient is much more than that. Looking at illness and the healing process leading to health, patience is possibly the most important remedy for any complaint – giving your body and mind time to rebalance.
While quick treatment is vital in the emergeny room, with pretty much all other problems it’s best to allow for a slow approach to getting better. That doesn’t mean that it always has to take forever, but taking copious amounts of drugs to speed up healing is not really what being a patient is about. The best cure for a nasty cold is still to have three days of hot lemon and bedrest. Everything else might be good for the pharmaceutical industry or your employer, but it won’t provide what a sick organism most needs – time.

Fast-food has become almost a religion, we love fast communication, we value fast transport, fast careers, fast growth. Fast, faster – who’s fastest? What is it with our 21^st century’s obsession with speed? What is wrong with slowing down?

Looking up DOCTOR in the dictionary, this is the first definition that comes up: ‘A teacher; one skilled in a profession, or branch of knowledge learned man.’ 'From the latin docere – to teach.’
This means that when you go to a doctor, ideally you would be taught something – that’s what you would expect from a teacher. The reality looks very different though: Impatient patients give the responsibility of THEIR health to the doctor, who takes on the role of a car mechanic – that is, fixing things.
Despite massively increased wealth and scientific advance, the people on this planet are as sick as they always have been. Just the names of the diseases have changed.
The problem is that, really, we have hardly learned anything yet. And how can we, without guidance from a teacher? And without wanting to take responsibility for our own health?

So the next time you see a doctor, ask for some decent advice on how you can improve your health. If your doctor doesn’t want to teach you anything, find someone else who will. Whether it’s helpful information related to diet or exercise, the power of the mind or what to do with gut feelings – there is so much to learn! All we need is a little patience.

Do what you love

There is a book by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt called “The two lifes of Adolf H.” In it, Hitler is portrayed as a young man who had always wanted to become an artist. When he finally applied to art school, he was rejected by…the Jewish director. The rest is history. Creation turned into destruction. Free thinking into an obsession.

What if Adolf H. had been accepted at art school back then? No world war, no holocaust? Maybe instead a new Picasso? Who knows…

A few days ago I saw a photo on Facebook saying, “The world needs more people who do what they love.” I couldn’t agree more. We have so many people stuck in some job they don’t enjoy, how can anything good come out of that? Despite all material wealth the world is hosting less and less happy souls. Depression is quickly becoming the number one disease of our civilization.

When I talk about this with others, often I get told, “yeah, but not everybody can do what they want.” No, not all the time, that’s true. But there’s a big difference between having a shit day at work, and not liking what you do. If you have a shit day, well, let it be a shit day. If you don’t like what you do, change it!

The beauty of humankind lies in its diversity – everybody is different, everybody likes different things, different partners, different jobs. If everybody chose the career they really wanted, there would be very few jobs no-one would want to do. And if we can send somebody to the moon, surely we could come up with a system and technology so that nobody has to do these unwanted jobs.

What happens when you don’t like your work? Over time, you become depressed. And, possibly even worse, you become dull and lose creativity. Creativity that is so desperately needed to solve all of our problems. To evolve into something better. To change.

By not encouraging everybody to do what they desire to do, sadness and destruction are being promoted. Sometimes more sadness, as seen in the many unhappy faces on the streets, and sometimes more destruction – with the extreme example of Adolf H.

So here’s a call for a DO WHAT YOU LOVE revolution. If you spend more time sad than happy while at work, then what’s the point? A waiter who doesn’t want to be a waiter will be a crap waiter. I have met plenty of people who love being waiters, let’s them do it. Same with car mechanics, lawyers, cleaners, doctors, builders, engineers, teachers, farmers, and so on. Not everybody wants to be a football player, musician or president. I have heard that there are even some who still want to be bank managers…

Whatever it is – chose something you love to do and get inspired! And then share this love and inspiration. Spread happiness! Because the world needs it. And life deserves it.

PS: For additional reading I recommend the chapter of ‘The unsuccessful merchant’ in THE LITTLE BUDDHA. Happy X-mas!