After nearly two years of living in Copenhagen, I am finally moving to Sweden! It has been the plan since 2018 and unfortunately could only happen with the passing of my father in May. Needless to say, it is all very bittersweet and, much to my surprise, Copenhagen will be sadly missed! I am not too worried about it, though, as I plan to go back and forth at least four times a year!
I have moved into my childhood home and it is such a wonderful feeling! When I was a child, there were so many more trees and we never saw the Baltic Sea, but a lot forrest management has revealed a view that I will never tire of!
Here is a preview of what awaits me and I plan on doing a lot of exploring and road trips!
I participated in the ceremony and march for peace in Ukraine yesterday and will have to admit to being very moved by the somber mood and faces. Sadly, only about 200 people showed up (we can do better than that for our fellow Europeans!) and marched from Rådhuspladsen via Strøget to Kongens Nytorv. We then walked through the very busy Nyhavn and ended up in front of the Ukrainian Embassy.
There are no words that can describe the sadness, fear and anger that I have felt for the past two months, so I will just let the photos speak for themselves and hope that peace will soon come back to Europe. СЛАВА УКРАЇНІ ! / GLORY TO UKRAINE !
I am dedicating this post to the many Jews of Budapest who were pursued and killed during World War II. In a world that is increasingly intolerant and with frightening right-wing populist leaders on the rise, it imperative not to forget this somber past in order to prevent these atrocities from it ever happening again – anywhere.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum writes:
“Hungary’s capital, Budapest, straddles the banks of the Danube River and is the country’s most populous city. Budapest was created by the union of three cities: Buda, Obuda, and Pest.
Before World War II, approximately 200,000 Jews lived in Budapest, making it the center of Hungarian Jewish cultural life. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Budapest was a safe haven for Jewish refugees. Before the war some 5,000 refugees, primarily from Germany and Austria, arrived in Budapest. With the beginning of deportations of Jews from Slovakia in March 1942, as many as 8,000 Slovak Jewish refugees also settled in Budapest.
Hungary was allied with Nazi Germany. Despite discriminatory legislation against the Jews and widespread antisemitism, the Jewish community of Budapest was relatively secure until the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944. With the occupation, the Germans ordered the establishment of a Jewish council in Budapest and severely restricted Jewish life. Apartments occupied by Jews were confiscated. Hundreds of Jews were rounded up and interned in the Kistarcsa transit camp View This Term in the Glossary (originally established by Hungarian authorities), 15 miles northeast of Budapest.
Between April and July 1944, the Germans and Hungarians deported Jews from the Hungarian provinces. By the end of July, the Jews in Budapest were virtually the only Jews remaining in Hungary. They were not immediately ghettoized. Instead, in June 1944, Hungarian authorities ordered the Jews into over 2,000 designated buildings scattered throughout the city. The buildings were marked with Stars of David. About 25,000 Jews from the suburbs of Budapest were rounded up and transported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center. Hungarian authorities suspended the deportations in July 1944, sparing the remaining Jews of Budapest, at least temporarily.
In October 1944, Germany orchestrated a coup and installed a new Hungarian government dominated by the fascist Arrow Cross party. The remaining Jews of Budapest were again in grave danger. The Arrow Cross instituted a reign of terror in Budapest and hundreds of Jews were shot. Jews were also drafted for brutal forced labor.
On November 8, 1944, the Hungarians concentrated more than 70,000 Jews—men, women, and children—in the Ujlaki brickyards in Obuda, and from there forced them to march on foot to camps in Austria. Thousands were shot and thousands more died as a result of starvation or exposure to the bitter cold. The prisoners who survived the death march reached Austria in late December 1944. There, the Germans took them to various concentration camps, especially Dachau in southern Germany and Mauthausen in northern Austria, and to Vienna, where they were employed in the construction of fortifications around the city.
In November 1944, the Arrow Cross ordered the remaining Jews in Budapest into a closed ghetto. Jews who did not have protective papers issued by a neutral power were to move to the ghetto by early December. Between December 1944 and the end of January 1945, the Arrow Cross took as many as 20,000 Jews from the ghetto, shot them along the banks of the Danube, and threw their bodies into the river.
Soviet forces liberated Budapest on February 13, 1945. More than 100,000 Jews remained in the city at liberation.”
Few Memorials outside Ground Zero in New York have touched me as much as the Shoes on the Danube. Created by film director Can Togay and the sculptor, Gyula Pauer, these haunting shoes are located just South of the majestic Parliament. The Jews were told to remove their shoes, as they at least had some value in the eyes of the Third Reich, before being shot and thrown into the Danube River. I was definitely not the only one crying on the brink of the river that day. Never, ever again.
More than 200 refugees have had their residence status revoked and given 60 days to leave Denmark. The Government claims that it is now safe for them to return to war-torn Syria and is kicking out people who have been leading productive and peaceful lives for many years and feel safe and at home in Denmark.
I attended the march organized by Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke yesterday. Whereas I always get very moved at occasions such as these, this hit me harder and on a more personal level. I realize that my leaving the United States after 23 years for political reasons pales in comparison with what these people are going through, but as a person who has been a foreigner for 97% of my life, I can relate. The big difference is that, as a Danish citizen, I was able to waltz into a country that I left 37 years ago and that is safe and peaceful. These people, often children, are being sent back to a hellhole of war, torture and dictatorship. I fully realize how unbelievably lucky I am, but my heart is aching for these fellow human beings.
What saddened me the most were the children. Young people who have found a new and happy life in Denmark with friends, health care and education. Some of them stood up and held speeches that had me in tears. I wish I knew their names and I wish I could help. No human being should have to be yanked from a safe future to a life of uncertainty and fear. Denmark is a rich country and can afford to keep them here. It used to be a tolerant and welcoming country – what happened?
We need to raise awareness to put pressure on the Government NOW. A 14-year old boy is scheduled to be sent to a Deportation Center on the 19th of November. That is 5 days from now and he is terrified. Please help! Share my photos, use Social Media, keep marching and contact your local politicians – the municipal election is on Tuesday!
Thank you for listening and for caring.
(I am usually too self-conscious to publish photos that are this grainy and fuzzy due to the low light, but decided to swallow my pride and focus on the message. If anybody would like these photos, please contact me and I will donate them).
I cannot believe that we yet again have fight for the right to inhabit a planet without toxins, poisons and destruction. While the summit in Glasgow went on, people across the globe mobilized to get heard by governments and businesses that fail to fully understand or simply acknowledge the severity of the times we are in. Ice is melting, oceans are rising while certain parts of the world will become uninhabitable due to lack of water and fresh air. Food supply will dwindle and we will see a mass exodus from corners of the planet where life as we know it is no longer possible. Yet, we fail to plan ahead for that inevitability and continue to look down upon and fear refugees. What other species on the planet would achieve this level of self-destruction?
The fact that I have no children of my own is to me completely irrelevant and I see red when people use this as an excuse to not care. Should we not simply care about the only planet that we know, treat it with the utmost respect and care for our fellow human beings?
To quote somebody who clearly is more in tune with nature than most of us:
“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.”
The recent violence against Asians simply needs to stop!
I am outraged and saddened that one man’s words have rippled into hatred against a large part of the American population. My beloved San Francisco, once a beacon for tolerance and neighborly love, is now a hot bed for attacks against often defenseless elders. By calling Covid the “Kung Flu” or “China Plague”, an entire part of the country is now demonized and vilified and it is completely unacceptable.
Asia has always been a big part of my life. My fascination started with Shogun, the 70s series based on the book by James Clavell. My mother later took me on a trip to Thailand where I fell in love for the first time with a gorgeous Thai. In 1993, I started making yearly business trips to Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore and a love for the East was born which changed everything from food preferences, medical practices, music, self-care and religion. Yes, I am a proud Buddhist, although I do not consider it a religion, but rather a philosophy.
I chose to honor Asians with a collection of these beautiful people from all over Asia and some American Asians from San Francisco:
After hellish months of packing and preparing, I enjoyed one of the easiest trips ever from San Francisco International Airport to Copenhagen on SAS. Strangely enough, there was absolutely no problems going through customs equipped with a few souvenirs of California in the shape of tinctures, gummibears, marzipan/chocolate bites and one cat, nor any Covid check points.
Wednesday was a huge moment, as I got to experience Covid Testing Danish Style. A gigantic soccer stadium has been commandeered as test center and long lines in the pouring rain and wind did not make it a particularly warm or fuzzy experience, but what a feeling! I still remembered my old social security number which was all I needed to provide and not a dollar or a krone. Test results appear 20 minutes later on the cell phone and VOILA.
Vaccines have started appearing and first in line are front-line workers and old folks – as it should be. I will be the last group in line, but suspect it is a matter of a month or two. After 9 months of almost constant lockdown, and this miserable weather, I am pretty sure to be able to stay out of bars and restaurants! Besides, they are all closed.
Let me start this year by wishing you all a much Happier 2021/Year of the Ox!!! I will be sharing lots of photos from Scandinavia from now on – stay tuned!
I have always tried to limit my use of Lightroom/Photoshop to turn my raw files into what I saw with my eyes. Sure, I will remove distractions and perhaps add a very discreet vignette to keep the eyes within the frame. But should I worry more about making images pop and create attention? Everybody else seems to be doing it with pride and is not adding physical polarizers and other filters really the same thing? Did Ansel Adams not dodge and burn? I am conflicted, but suspect I will eventually get over it and fall into the action/overlay/filter trap and maybe even love it!
Here are some examples of photos that do not quite reflect reality – what do you think?
Peaceful Morning in the little Harbor of Sisimiut.
People enjoying the warm evening in Nyhavn, Copenhagen.
Like everybody else, I hear the names of places that get attacked by hatred; the Twin Towers, Oklahoma City, Norway, Paris, Istanbul, Miami, Baghdad, Brusells, San Bernadino, Kabul, Jerusalem, Dublin, Ankara, Moscow, Thailand, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, China, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, London – places we have never heard of and/or places we love dearly.
And now Nice…. Un quatorze juillet.
This year, I have personally been so emotionally affected by the places that mean something extra special to me, but there are people in places I cannot even place on the map who are crying and feeling hopeless and helpless just like me right now.
The rational me can fully understand anger, jealousy, fear of the unknown, social injustice, desperation, lack of education, lack of communication. The caveman (and of course I include the cavewoman) has evolved so very little in spite of their gadgets, but I had hoped that history would have taught us that war, brutality and hatred have never solved a conflict or embellished our world.
Neither has passivity. Not reading the news because it will ruin my day will probably make me feel a bit less pain, and so I have gained 10 minutes of living in a bubble. My world will still be as ugly as before when I open my eyes again.
I am a Buddhist and I do not say that proudly, as if that would somehow make me a better person. Nor am I “die-hard-Buddhist” who feels the need to observe rituals that make no sense to me. If a two-year old were to ask me what it is to be a Buddhist to me, I think my answer would be “I want to create ripples”. It is the only thing that is in my power and the only thing with which I can affect the world. My ripples would be love, a smile, a helping hand, a shoulder to lean on, absence of violence, an open heart to listen to the person on the other side of the room. We all have that power regardless of our background or religion. To choose a positive or a negative ripple to send through the Universe. Not just on Christmas, Ramadan, Chinese New Year, but every day, every moment. So when I hear that people say that there is nothing we can do, forgive me for stating that you are wrong and just start sending out a little baby ripple in your own backyard and see where it takes you. I guarantee no overnight miracles, but have to believe in positive ripples over retaliation or my life has no purpose. And as far as I am concerned, we only have this life, this planet and each other, so let’s cherish it all with respect – and together.
There you have it. No photo to become the next Ansel Adams, no brilliant philosophy. Just my two cents in an ugly world, but that still makes me hope that Louis Armstrong was right. Namaste.
