Bangkok, dramatic changes

Bangkok, fast walking, almost jogging, down the street. Then steps out. Crash! the young guy is run over by a motorbike. He falls badly, his head smashing to the ground, then lies paralysed, just with a foot shaking like on a boxer knocked out.

During less than a second life is dramatically changed. Some dangers may be avoided by thinking first, by being careful, others just happen.

Six months later I wonder about him. Is he alive? Maybe badly damaged in a wheelchair. Or maybe just walking down the street like before, just a bit slower, more carefully.

Ross, gold for diggers

Ross, New Zealand, West Coast, South Island, was first a goldfield discovered 1864. Became famous as the richest source of alluvial gold in the country. The new town built up here was first called Georgetown, then renamed Rosstown and soon called only Ross. So it is today. 3500 diggers was the peak, but around 1920 there was no more gold to find. They wrongly thought, because 1988 a new successful mining operation was opened.

Old empty houses here and there reminding about the golden era. We can not see much activity. The diggers are spread on the terraces around the township. And some tourism is now built up around gold digging. Don't let the global financial crisis become your personal headache – find your own gold! 

Crail, a beacon is not enough

Crail, Fife, Scotland, we drop off the bus from St Andrews in the pittoresque village called Crail. It's November, streets are empty, the air is peaceful. In the harbour is a beacon helping the ships to find the safe way.

Today is January 27th, an international memorial day of the Holocaust during World War II. More than 60 years have passed. The symbol is maybe too much used, but looking at the beacon of Crail I think of a bigger one, a lighthouse guiding people and humanity in right directions, to avoid inhuman actions. United Nations has become more of a beacon, so please switch on the light!

That day, in November, we took the next bus a little bit further on, to Anstruther, to taste the best fish-n-chips in Scotland.

Toledo, busy children

Toledo, Spain, road signs and other public signs work with simple symbols, pictograms. The point is that people fast and easily understand what it is about. Especially road signs have to be clear, so fast running car drivers will have a chance to read them.

In eastern Berlin the green light man is a real gentleman, okay a little ridiculous, wearing an oldfashioned hat. Here in Toledo car drivers get the message that children are always running – to school or home from school, maybe by happiness, maybe because they are seriously scared. Anyway, they are fast running.

Houses on the way to fall apart are dangerous. If you open the door and get in you have to be carefully prepared by finding out the meaning of a lot of pictograms about what to do and not to do. I wouldn't take the risk to open the door. Maybe it's a good way to keep thieves away...

Stockholm, flowers in grey

Stockholm, electricity is switched off, something has happened and we have no light. It's 10 a m, cloudy and dark outside. What can I do with no electricity? Walking out to do some shopping, food stores closed. Walking home, dark windows everywhere. One exception: the guy selling flowers is there, an old lady looking for money to pay in the tiny light of a candle, I buy some flowers,  don't know which is the color. We talk for a while about what might have happened, how many people around here might be without lights and how many hours we may have to wait. 

Home, cooking coffe with gas, think of places around the world without electricity or with daily interuptions in distribution. There are big and small problems.

Sandemar, a fire makes a camp

Sandemar, Sweden, today out looking for birds, preferably birds seldom seen, for example a white-tailed eagle. It sometimes appears just here, silently gliding along the coastline or circling upwards in the afternoon thermals. A raven is crossing the sky with its power call, about something to someone. A beautiful black bird, smarter than a chimpanzee. 

No eagle is there, and not many other birds either. Winter time is sleeping time. 500 meters away on a rock is a man fishing. I guess it's about the same: watching or fishing is the thing, not birds or fishes. Excited waiting for something to happen is enough. 

I sit down for a while, drinking coffee, looking at strange clouds. 

Where it's a fire, there is a camp.

Dunedin, to give or not to give

Dunedin, New Zealand, some years ago. The boy playing clarinet got his audience. My registrating, documenting camera made his face very concentrated. Performing is a serious thing, collecting money is a bonus. Of course I put some coins in his box, this was great.

Now I think about the moral when giving money away. There could have been for example a drunk, poor maori man asking for help. If there had been any I had thought twice before giving my coins. A wealthy boy playing for fun, no problem. A poor, dirty man and I have to think about it. Shouldn't a poor, needing man get twice? Without thinking.