Romantic moment on Thasos, Greece, with Miel as witness
(photo by Robert Russell)
7 Pesiaran Ampang Hilir, Kuala Lumpur, 1988
Pinky Baby, Pink Buddha & me (1987)
Waiting for the ferry in Koh Samui, 1987
At the Hoesch homestead in Chiemsee, February 2019
On horseback in August 2020
Email dated 6 March 2022 from Alexander La Rosee:
I am very sad to have to tell you, that my wife Xandi died two days ago. As you know Xandi had cancer. Unfortunatly we never met, but i know, that you were a very good and dear friend of Xandi. I am so sorry, that i have this sad knews for you. I certainly hope that you and your family are well.
Kindest regards
Alexander
Dear Alexander,
Thank you so much for letting me know that she has departed. If I recall correctly, Xandi had just turned 59? Interesting that when I was 59 (back in 2009) I almost left my body but was persuaded to return to witness these amazing, intense times.
I have asked Xandi many times to include you in the photos she occasionally sent. I wanted to see what the man she married looks like. But she never once obliged!
A few years ago she mentioned that you had taken her to a Steiner healing center (in Berlin?) I was happy to know you were open to Steiner's spiritual perspective.
You will always be included in my love for Xandi, which has endured at least two lifetimes (I once had a vision that she might have been the Pharaoh Amunhotep III, my father in that scenario!) But in this lifetime, she was a truly beautiful woman I absolutely loved when we met in 1986 and never stopped loving.
Bless you and thank you for being with her and taking good care of her all these years, Alexander. May your heart be light and joyful and not burdened with unnecessary sorrow.
For, in truth, we are immortal souls who enter and exit this worldly stage to learn and experience love in all its many-splendored expressions.
Somebody left a book in my van a few years ago. I stuck it in the glove compartment and immediately forgot about it... until recently when I spotted it just as I was about to drive to Tanjong Malim and catch a bus to Ipoh.
So I brought the book along to read on the journey. It was an illustrated "People's History of Malaya" titled Where Monsoons Meet - published in 1987 by the Institute of Social Analysis (INSAN). A socialist primer aimed at secondary students, the comic-style book was designed for easy reading and I finished it in less than an hour - but it had significant impact.
Looking at our recent history from a non-elitist perspective reminded me how thoroughly brainwashed my parents' generation was. I recall that my mother and father thought very highly of the Brits. In the early 1950s goods produced in Hong Kong still carried the imprint "Empire Made" even though the sun was swiftly setting on the British Empire. Where Monsoons Meet effectively demolishes all notions of a benign imperialism. The colonizers emerge smelling quite foul.
The "Independence" we were granted in August 1957 was but in name. Before leaving Malaya the Brits had rigged the system so that it would always favor the capitalist elite comprising the Malay aristocracy and a handful of Chinese entrepreneurs.
When the rakyat began to demand better working conditions and more rights, they were brutally suppressed through heavy-handed police action. The Communist bogeyman justified the introduction of a slew of repressive laws. The truth of the matter was: Malaya was a fat milk cow sustaining the Anglo-American economy and they couldn't afford to lose control of the country's rich natural resources.
In short, British rule wasn't quite as halcyon as it may appear to the present generation of middle-class non-Malays. Every dirty trick in the book of governance as practised by Umno was learnt during the ruling class Malays' long apprenticeship with the British Colonial administration.
In the time of the British, indentured laborers imported from India were paid 12 cents a day for their back-breaking work in the rubber estates and on the railway tracks. Even if the local currency in prewar days was worth two hundred times more than it is today, these debt slaves only received the equivalent of RM20 a day. They had to dismount from their bicycles and tabik (salute) whenever a White Tuan crossed their path. The ones who spoke a smattering of English were made mandors and were given the authority to horsewhip insubordinate workers. Rebellion against injustice in the form of trade unionism was roughly and swiftly dealt with. The word "rakyat" was as little tolerated as the word "Communist."
What happened in May 1969 with the coup d'etat masterminded by Abdul Razak Hussein (right), Harun Idris, Syed Jaafar Albar, Mahathir Mohamad, Ghazali Shafie and a few other young Turks in Umno was that a new breed of educated middle-class Malays managed to wrest a measure of power from the traditional aristocracy.
In doing so, they also adopted the self-aggrandizing tendencies of the hereditary elite, hence their fondness for unwieldy honorifics and exclusive "VVIP" treatment.
Forty years down the line, we are poised on the brink of another major coup - this time involving the overthrow of a diseased and dysfunctional feudalistic concept of leadership, in favor of a more decentralized, more democratic, more egalitarian, more accountable, more interactive form of management.
And we intend to accomplish this feat bloodlessly and through entirely legal procedures. However, this is easier said than done - because it has become more than evident that Umno/BN, under the rogue prime ministership of Najib Razak, won't play by the rules.
What is called for at this juncture is optimum clarity of focus and supreme resoluteness. We the people cannot waver for a moment in our desire to shake off the yoke of tyranny and reclaim our civil rights and individual authority as free citizens of a free country. Each of us now has a sacred duty to embody all the qualities we cherish - courage, honesty, compassion, integrity, wisdom, and the ability to love more and more inclusively.
Above all, we must take time out to look inward - realign our inner and outer selves so we can become fully integrated, conscious humans - integers, in effect - as opposed to being merely ciphers; faceless, mindless statistics hypnotized by the BN-controlled media into believing that issues of race, religion, and royalty are real and relevant.
We can endorse and lend our wholehearted support to leaders whose visions coincide with our own - but we must never become dependent on them. Otherwise we will only experience disappointment and disillusionment when these leaders reveal themselves to be just as fallible as anyone else. No use pointing fingers, scapegoating and foisting the blame for failure on others.
We are the redemption and salvation we have yearned for throughout the ages. Happy Regime Change, folks! It can still happen, and sooner than you think... believe in miracles... which only happen from inside out!
[Originally published 2 January 2009 under the heading "No Turning Back". Reposted 5 June 2012 & 6 January 2016]
This meaty piece by Farish is so succulent and juicy I simply have to share it with my readers...
No, this ‘Babi’ will Not ‘Balik Cina’ By Farish A. Noor
I have just read the reports on the internet about the goings-on that led to the disruption and early closure of the public forum organised by the Bar Council on Conversion in Malaysia over the weekend. Apart from the other rather offensive remarks that were featured in the various reports that I read, I also chanced upon a rather curious revelation: Apparently during the commotion caused when some of the so-called ‘defenders of the faith’ had entered the room where the forum was being held, there were calls for a certain ‘Babi’ to ‘Balik Cina.’
Now I have checked and double-checked all the photos that are available on the internet and have seen no image that corresponds to the ‘Babi’ in question. Therefore for the sake of academic consistency and objectivity, I am compelled to ask the Bar Council this: Was there a pig in the auditorium where the forum was held? And if so, how could the Bar Council invite a pig to attend a forum that was open primarily for Malaysian citizens (who are overwhelmingly human, as identity papers and passports have not been issued to pigs or any other non-human species as far as I know)
Furthermore I need to ask how the demonstrators knew that the pig (if one was present) was of Chinese origin? Did it carry a Chinese passport, and if so, why was it in KL when the Olympic games were being held in Beijing and the world’s attention was focused there? [*ed. I can only assume that this was a rather anti-social pig from China who had come to Malaysia to avoid the throngs of tourists who have overtaken Beijing, which would be a sensible thing that I would have done myself, so I confess to having sympathy with this mysterious invisible pig.]
Lest there be any offence to pigs from China, I would like to remind the demonstrators who made that remark that there are enough pigs in Southeast Asia and that pigs are, in fact, a native species in the region (including Malaysia). To ask this mysterious pig to ‘Balik Cina’ was therefore offensive to say the least, as it overlooks the fact that it could have been a local Malaysian pig and therefore has every right to be in Malaysia. Though what it was doing at the Bar Council’s forum is anyone’s guess.
Here are some categories of local pigs (genus: Sus, subfamily species: suinea (Latin)) that have shared our very same bumi for centuries:
In Malaysia we have the babi hutan, babirusa (genus: Babyrousa) and wild boar (genus: Sus scrofa) that have been long-time residents of the peninsula.
In Indonesia, there are also many types of local pigs such as the Sulawesi Babirusa, the Warty pig of Sulawesi (genus: Sus celebensis), the Timorese Warty Pig (Genus: Sus Timorensis) and the Javanese Warty hog (Genus: Sus verrocosus).
In Vietnam there is of course the Sus bucculentus, otherwise known as the Indo-Chinese warty pig, while in the Philippines there is the local Sus cebifrons that hails from the Visayas Islands.
So how dare some people go around making wild allegations about the alleged foreign citizenship and/or origins of a pig that may or may not have been present at the Bar Council forum? To assume the foreign identity and origin of an individual merely on the basis of appearance and behaviour would reek of the highest form of prejudice, and points only to the ignorance of those who simply do not know: PIGS are not foreign to Malaysia or Southeast Asia. They are as localised and normalised as Durians and Corruption in this country.
[First posted 11 August 2008. Reposted 23 January 2014]
Validation is a fable about the magic of free parking.
Starring TJ Thyne & Vicki Davis
Writer/Director/Composer - Kurt Kuenne
A Theatre Junkies Production
Winner - Best Narrative Short, Cleveland Int'l Film Festival; Winner - Jury Award, Gen Art Chicago Film Festival; Winner - Audience Award, Hawaii Int'l Film Festival; Winner - Best Short Comedy, Breckenridge Festival of Film; Winner - Crystal Heart Award, Best Short Film & Audience Award, Heartland Film Festival; Winner - Christopher & Dana Reeve Audience Award, Williamstown Film Festival; Winner - Best Comedy, Dam Short Film Festival; Winner - Best Short Film, So Cal Independent Film Festival; Winner - Best Short Film, Idyllwild Film Festival; Winner - Best Short Film, Sedona International Film Festival.
[Brought to my delighted attention by Mei Watson... and definitely worth reposting! Last repost 10 February 2013]
Is it really just a question of strong egos pitted against the weak? There were rumors that the late Shah of Iran installed a solid gold toilet in his private jet. Yet, on his death bed, his last words to his expensive medical team were: "Please save me!"
Why are there people who think nothing of living in the lap of super luxury like the spawn of lesser gods while "ordinary" people are forced to scrape and scrabble for a meager sustenance? Could it be the manifestation of a severe personality disorder that some folks seem utterly incapable of empathy?
An old friend named Patrick with whom I recently reconnected after a long break sent me an email which concluded with the following sentiment:
Do you really think that this country will soon be rid of pirates and parasites? I think UMNO/BN is so entrenched that any alternative would be quashed before they get time to settle. I always say that this country has so much going for it, but it’s screwed up by politics. I should be careful with what I write for fear of getting a knock on the door by some unwelcome visitors...
It saddened me that Patrick is probably not the only one infected with this pessimistic view of the political situation. No doubt he thinks of it as "being realistic." The social circle within which Patrick moves is quite likely to share his cynicism as regards the possibility of genuine change. After all, they are mostly entrepreneurs, socialites, aristocrats and technocrats who have worked around the planet for decades as expatriates, getting paid in US dollars or euros. Whether they be based in Nigeria, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Burma, Dubai, Qatar, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka or Thailand, they are unlikely to be affected by the squalid conditions on the ground. Should massive trouble erupt at any point, they have the wherewithal to swiftly airlift themselves to safety.
Since Patrick happens to be someone I genuinely like, he deserves a thoughtful, well-considered response rather than a flippant brush-off. So I'm going to share my formal reply to Patrick with all of you through this post.
Dear Patrick,
I can understand where you're coming from. In fact, most of my friends and relatives who have, through their own efforts and resources, attained a comfortable position in the food chain will probably echo your views on the apparent immutability of the status quo. And by "status quo" I refer not only to Malaysia but to all of humanity on this fair earth. You might as well have asked:
"Do you really think that this planet will soon be rid of pirates and parasites?"
And my response to that would be an unequivocal YES. The reason I can state this with absolute confidence is simply because I have spent the last 45 years monitoring the frequency shifts in the human psychosphere and the dramatic increase in Schumann Resonance of the planetary electromagnetic field. In plain language, the planet is a living cosmic organism and it is evolving along multidimensional Fibonacci spirals of expanding awareness, carrying along the morphogenetic fields of all lifeforms - mineral, vegetable, animal, human, and elemental - embedded within its being.
Between 1952 and 1979 the Schumann Resonance (SR) of the Earth was measured at 7.8 Hertz. It began to rise up the scale and is currently between 12 and 13 Hz. Cutting edge visionary scientists like Gregg Braden say they expect the SR to peak at 13 Hz between 2011 and 2013.
What will happen to the botanical and biological lifeforms on the planet's surface?
Some plant and animal species will vanish from the third dimension while a few new ones will spontaneously appear. As for humans, a great many will be unable to recalibrate and realign their energy fields; these will succumb and descend into various forms of psychosis and pathology. The news will be full of deadly epidemics and outbreaks of irrational violence camouflaged as interracial and interreligious conflict.
For millennia the warlords have ruled this planet and they will be resisting their own imminent extinction by attempting to drag millions of other lives with them as they go the way of the dinosaurs.
Those who have learnt to trust their heart wisdom will have little trouble accepting the incoming frequencies, thereby accelerating their own awakening on the cellular, molecular, atomic and nuclear levels. Within the next few months (that's right, I said months, not years, not decades), even as the 3D Matrix begins to get more and more unreal, the ones who can maintain their emotional equilibrium and trust completely in the Unknown will find life becoming simpler and more exquisite. They will consciously acknowledge their own integral roles in the evolutionary passion play that will take us from micro to macro perspectives, and gladly celebrate their initiation as galactic citizens.
Institutions that have enslaved the human imagination for untold generations will crumble like stale bread, even as their adherents become discombobulated and turn upon each other in desperation and panic. Armies will exhaust themselves and disintegrate through meaningless combat even as deserters begin to outnumber combatants.
Congenital liars, hypocrites and deceivers will end up their own victims. Those that persist in assigning blame and scapegoating others will find themselves devoid of a following. Empire builders will weep as grandiose monuments to their own megalomania are reduced to rubble.
The status quo is static - and reality is dynamic. In a dynamic universe, status has no value or significance. However, humble virtues such as compassion, empathy, humility, and goodwill towards others will become the only accepted currency.
Creativity rather than destructivity will regain the upper hand.
The planet has been ruled by criminal syndicates for countless millennia. This was only possible during the Kali yuga, which has just about run its course. Only inertia and long-ingrained habit are keeping oppressive social systems in apparent operation. Secret police, spy agencies, covert programs designed to keep power in the hands of a plutocratic elite will be exposed as more and more whistleblowers begin to break free from their indoctrination and implants.
Evil cannot withstand the light of publicity and will evaporate under the burning sun of an enlightened humanity.
As the democratization of human communities begins to spread like wildfire, centralized government and ancient power cabals will weaken and die. The Anunnaki bloodlines that constitute all monarchies will either transmute themselves into a force for universal good - or be forever terminated.
Don't worry about Umno. Or the Rockefeller-Rothschilds. From a macro perspective they are merely small-time street gangs that will soon become fascinating exhibits in cosmoanthropological museums. So fear them not.
Above all, FEAR NOT.
And love, love, love with a heart made whole.
All this and more will come to pass. I kid you not, my dear Patrick.
[First posted 3 March 2009. Reposted 13 January 2012]
Mahathir, Queen Elizabeth, and Joe Biden all die and go to hell.
While there, they spy a red phone and ask what the phone is for. The Devil tells them it is for calling back to Earth. Biden asks to call Delaware and talks for 5 minutes. When he is finished the Devil informs him that the cost is a million dollars, so Biden writes him a check. Next Queen Elizabeth calls England and talks for 30 minutes. When she is finished the Devil informs her that the cost is 6 million dollars, so she writes him a check. Finally Mahathir gets his turn and talks for 4 hours. When he is finished the Devil informs him that the cost is $5.00. When Biden hears this he goes ballistic and asks the Devil why Mahathir got to call Malaysia so cheaply. The Devil smiles and replies: "Since Najib took over, the country has gone to hell, so it's a local call."
Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds was created by Daniel Schmidt and is the result of a lifetime of inner and outer exploration. Along with his wife Eva, Daniel currently lives in a forest full of tall pine trees located in Ontario, Canada, where they run a meditation and yoga center called Breathe True Yoga.
Daniel Schmidt
Daniel has studied meditation from the traditions of Buddhism, Taoism, the Yogic traditions of India, as well as the mystical traditions of various cultures, and has come to his own understanding of what is at the root of all of these traditions. Eva has studied and teaches Chakra Yoga, Hatha yoga and meditation as well as healing through dance and creative expression. Together Dan and Eva were the Shiva and Shakti forces that birthed the film into the world.
It became clear during the making of the film that Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds had to be released for free for the benefit of all beings. In the ancient traditions the dharma or “the truth” was always taught freely and never for personal gain or profit in order to preserve the purity of the teachings. It is Daniel and Eva’s belief that to awaken one's true self, one must awaken the entire world. Daniel and Eva have started the Awaken the World initiative to bring the ancient knowledge back to the earth in order to restore balance and harmony on the planet.
[Released in October 2012. First posted 5 December 2012, reposted 7 January 2014]
"Civilizations, like the penis, rise and fall, and when the towers and the battlements crumble into the earth, they return to the embrace of the Great Mother."~ William Irwin Thompson
Harald Kautz-Vella (a perfect blend of wizard, scientist & mystic) presents his detailed lecture on the two types of Black Goo, Morgellons, and Artificial Intelligence at the Bases Woodborough conference held on June 20th, 2015.
WARNING: THIS INFORMATION IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!
Call them Predator ETs, Archons, or Retarded Jinns... it's hard to ignore the evidence that this insidious blight on Life & the Evolution of Consciousness has managed to insinuate itself into the deep psyches of many generations of aberrated human egos - the same way Saruman the White was seduced by contact with palantirs into submitting to the Will of Sauron & allowing himself to be transformed into an Evil Scientist & would-be World Conqueror. (As far back as the 16th century CE, such a diabolical scenario was already envisioned by Christopher Marlowe in his Faustian play.)
After listening to Harald Kautz Vella, I experienced at first a sense of utter helplessness in the face of such nefarious revelations about the delinquent way R&D resources have been squandered on establishing a permanent Hell on Earth, rather than the opposite... then suddenly I was reminded that the Original Spark of Divine Consciousness within every atom of my physical & metaphysical being would never have permitted such a travesty to occur, if there was no possibility of our deactivating or neutralizing this nihilistic agenda.
Just as Gandalf fearlessly threw himself into mortal combat with the Balrog & transcended his own mortality & previous limitations, what we essentially require is to let our capacity to understand, love & forgive increase exponentially, while becoming fearless of our own hypothetical non-existence... & in so doing attain natural immunity against inane & demented notions (like killer smart dust & ninja nanoparticles) concocted by the insectoid Archons & their psychopathic human agents.
[First posted 28 December 2016. Reposted 30 December 2020]
Tubular Bells II, The Performance Live at Edinburgh Castle is a live concert video by Mike Oldfield released in 1992. The video is a full faithful performance from the premiere concert of the Tubular Bells II album at Edinburgh Castle.
Tubular Bells is the debut record album of English musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1973. It was the first album released by Virgin Records and an early cornerstone of the company's success. Vivian Stanshall provided the voice of the "Master of Ceremonies" who reads off the list of instruments at the end of the first movement. The opening piano solo was used as a soundtrack to the blockbuster William Friedkin film The Exorcist (released the same year) and gained considerable airplay because of this.
The piece was later orchestrated by David Bedford for The Orchestral Tubular Bells version and it had three sequels in the 1990s, Tubular Bells II (1992), Tubular Bells III (1998) and The Millennium Bell (1999). Finally, the album was fully re-recorded as Tubular Bells 2003 at its 30th anniversary in 2003. A newly mastered and mixed re-issue of the original album appeared in June 2009 on Mercury Records, with bonus material. On 6 June 2009 there were international bell-ringing ceremonies to promote the release.
Somebody left a book in my van a few years ago. I stuck it in the glove compartment and immediately forgot about it... until recently when I spotted it just as I was about to drive to Tanjong Malim and catch a bus to Ipoh.
