Month: February 2021

Journalist

Beijing

Reporter looking for a job in Beijing, London and Elsewhere

The China Story Amsterdam– Feb. 18th 2021 The very beginning is, when Sidney Rittenberg, The Man who stayed Behind, receives me in his home near Seattle, in the State of Washington in the U.S. He was living in China as a US Army renegade and deserter ending up to be Chairmans Mao’s trusted American. But…
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Ronnie Biggs

Please play that tune again

Innocence in Brazil Arriving for the first time on a quiet Sunday afternoon on a domestic flight from Belo Horizonte at the Santos Dumont city airport of an almost silent Rio de Janeiro. May 1969. I Immediately feel at home. The sounds, the temperature, the light that is constantly changing, the sea, the beach, the…
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Cloony the Clown

Cloony The Clown

by Shel Silverstein I’ll tell you the story of Cloony the ClownWho worked in a circus that came through town.His shoes were too big and his hat was too small,But he just wasn’t, just wasn’t funny at all.He had a trombone to play loud silly tunes,He had a green dog and a thousand balloons.He was…
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Sam Summerlin

The Very Talented And Honourable Sam Summerlin

Con or no-conman Amsterdam, Feb. 10th 2021– First time I went to Astoria, New York, to the address Sam had given me, the owner of the building laughed at me when we met and I asked for Sam. He grinned somehow and said:  ‘ No, no, there is no Sam Summerlin living here. Does he…
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Xinjiang Province Holidays

Visit Xinjiang Province Holidays

The Boys from Beijing Kindergartens, handicrafts markets, high-tech companies, hydroelectric dams … political indoctrination camps? These are some of the sights international journalists are whisked around when they take part in all-expenses paid tours to China. The motive of these invitations is, in the mantra of Chinese president Xi Jinping, to “tell a good China…
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Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges: Ode to Eternity

Amsterdam, February 10, 2021–  During the 1978 World Championships soccer in Argentina, I was hired by the KNVB not only because I lived in Buenos Aires and worked as a sports reporter for the NOS, but also and especially because I knew chairman, Wim Meulemans, from his time in Suriname. I also had several other…
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Betty Bigombe Uganda

The Story of Good Intentions That Ended Well

Betty Bigombe had already hiked eight miles through the jungle, and there was still no sign of life. She was no stranger to a long walk — growing up in northern Uganda, she’d walked four miles each way to school. She subsisted on one meal a day in a communal homestead where her uncle had eight wives. Now she…
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Team Building

Team Building for Business Success and Friendship

In Good Times and not so good Times How does Team building work?  How do you ensure that in the end the product is greater than the sum of its individual parts and of the individuals in the Team?  If I had an answer that, I would become a coach and I would have many soccer…
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China New Silk Road

The Boys from Beijing

Perhaps you’d like to take some time to read and refuel on geo-political issues, [in other words] the relationships in the world. If so, allow me to introduce Peter Frankopan’s “The New Silk Roads”.  I’d strongly recommend however to put on your seat belts and check your air bags. Reading that book I felt as if I was being blown off my seat…
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