Yes, yes and we all know by now that a messy office is a sign of great intelligence. Mine is always neatly arranged, alas.

@Arnon

Of course I can't resist reacting to this by sending you this 'close to home' link
http://www.trendwatching.com

Yes Arnon, it is a hard thing to live with that possibilty although it suits you to be an trendsetter. In any case your books are, although i dont recall annyone who even seems to wrigth like you do .

Arnon

Is your decadent period really over Arnon?

Hi Arnon,

Ask the Taliban to drop a bomb in your kitchen. Nice opportunity to expierence war. I hope your beloved ones won't be the target. But you can learn from it.

Helen Priso

Helen

You still don't get the point made out in the previous post, do you? No worry, there are schools for slow people too.

Concerning WW II

Former minister of defence, André Flahaut (PS), installed free busses for school trips to Dachau (for no other reasons than the obvious).
Present minister of defence, Pieter De Crem (CD&V), will put an end to this gesture towards our public schools.
De Standaard published a statement of his spokesman: “Het dossier was budgettair niet in orde. De Inspectie van Financiën heeft ons laten weten dat er geen evenwichtig en transparant kader is om dergelijke dossiers - 'prestaties aan derden' - te onderbouwen. We kunnen dit dus voorlopig niet goedkeuren.”
Another newspaper, De Morgen, puts it slightly different.
Yves Desmet in his own words: “Zijn argument dat dat een vervalsing van de concurrentie betekent voor de private bussen is te gek voor woorden. De autocar- en reisindustrie zullen niet plotseling kapseizen door het verlies van het transport van vierhonderd jongeren. En de kostprijs ervan is minder dan één vlucht van De Crem naar de Belgische soldaten in Afghanistan.”

To Arnon: I am very much obliged for your contribution to the debate concerning Barnard's and Istendael's article.

PICTURE

Arnon

To satisfy my relatively curious nature:
who is the person in the rattan frame ?
Or is that too personal a question?

Joep

Schools for slow people?

Helen Priso

I'm not sure what your comment is really trying to say, my guess is that it is nothing but an attempt at nastiness.

Joep

It depends how you define 'decadence.' One can argue that my decadent period never really started.

Pjötr

Thank you for pointing the article out to me.

Ybe Ybe

If I'm not mistaken the person on the picture is a younger version of myself.

David M

Joep means I would say a school for people with learning disabilities.

Arnon

Probably.
I never liked college boy humor.

Hi Arnon,
No it was no attempt of nastiness but I still was upset about the previous statement "more people should experience war!" ( not the right place to make my statement... I'm sorry)
And Joep... indeed I graduated on the school for retarded. Not bad for a chimp he!

Helen Priso

David/ Helen/ Arnon

David: 'College boy humor' ? That sounds a little pejorative. Please explain.
Helen: Glad to see you don't lack humor.
Arnon: Always eating in restaurants is decadence ten top. Eat cans of overdue beans like me, than people can't accuse you of being decadent.

Helen

If you look at that entry and my comments you will see that I explained myself well I would say.
Have you experienced war?

Joep

Eating out every night is not really decadence. But of course it is a matter of perspective.
“The cook, the thief, his wife and her lover” has something to say about decadence if I’m not mistaken. Marquis de Sade might be of help as well

Hi Arnon,

I’m glad I didn’t experience war myself. My grandmother, who escaped from her home under a rain of shrapnells, always told me to be thankfull to live in a free country. My mother, who survived a camp, has to shut her mouth after the war, because she was on the ( wrong) German side.
My best friend came in prison for more than ten years. After fighting in the the Yugoslavian war he was so desorientated that he went on the criminal path. I worked with fugitives with war trauma’s from Rwanda and Sierra Leone ( etc) and they told me stories I don’t like to hear. So even if I never had the experience myself, war came in my life and influenced me.

In my opinion a war correspondent is – however necessary and important- a kind of thrillseeking, adventurous war tourist. As a spectator in the war but he is not really part of the drama, because his social environment and safe haven is elsewhere.

Arnon would you experience war?

Helen Priso

Picture of yourself

Arnon,

Your answer confirms my guesses.
It's funny, but the picture looks like a 17th century portrait painting.
On my Mac's screen it looks like you face the camera, like you would face the painter then. The hairdo is royal or maybe Italian.

Most of the time, your accompanying pictures are worth a second and third look. I like that a lot.

Helen

Nobody disputes the ugliness of war. A war correspondent might be a thrill seeker (again I can only recommend the book by Chris Hedges on this subject “War is a force that gives us meaning) but you discredit the war correspondent too easily.
Some of the war correspondents die while doing their job, others come back tormented and wounded, physically or mentally or both.
I have been twice to Afghanistan, as you might know, I’ll be traveling to Iraq somewhere this spring.
I can only repeat that I can understand why the correspondent I was having drinks with on Monday said: “More people should experience war, not less.”
Your last comment is an illustration of his statement.
Your suggestion that the Taliban should bomb my kitchen is not very thoughtful, to say the least.
This is not a private conversation. Other people can and might read your comments. A little bit of prudence might be a good idea.

Hi Arnon

Being not so intellectual and gifted with a too impulsive nature. I agree this was a misplaced, sick, cynical joke ( about the mess in your “write-in-kitchen”) .
Thanks for your feedback. I’ll keep it in mind.
But......
It callenged me being critisised ( Joep and Arnon) as it was my first blogging effort coincidently ( as coincidents exist ?) entering this blog.
I couldn’t understand that a person with a jewish background wrote that it could be necessary for personal growth and understanding to experience war. I thought just such a person has to be aware of the consequences and lifelong nightmares it can cause. There has to be an other way to understand the meaning of life or mankind than war. Am I wrong????

Helen Priso

Helen

I think I explained the statement, once again made by an experienced war correspondent, and my understanding for this statement sufficiently.
But for the record: no suggestion was being made that more people should be sent to concentration camps, should be tortured or should be killed.
It is hard to deny that there is a lack of understanding what war actually is. It is easy to understand why this can be dangerous.
My Jewish background should be left out of this discussion i.e. I don’t like it when people think that Jews should live up to a higher moral standard than non-Jews, that a few Jews themselves seem to think this way doesn’t matter.

Hi Arnon,

Do you mean my opinion is prejudice? I always try not to be. I didn’t want to generalise anything . But in your comment I taste a kind of prejudice towards my opinion.
As we know, a war can start with miscommunication. I hate war. I’ll think it’s better to stop this communication. In real life I am a peaceloving and friendly person with a rather strange kind of humour.

Helen Priso

Forgiveness is the word