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Wednesday, June 30, 2004
 
ROBBEN ISLAND, South Africa



Nelson Mandela lit the Olympic torch on Robben Island
where he was imprisoned for 18 of his 26 years imprisonment,
for opposing apartheid.
South Africa for the first time took part
in the global relay of the flame.

Mandela, who struggled a bit to light the torch,
jokingly told photographers,
"Don't worry about taking photos of the torch.
Rather take a picture of me"
before displaying a broad smile that triggered
a barrage of shutter clicks.



"I have been here for a very long time and to a very large extent
Robben Island is a place with which I identify," Mandela told reporters.
"I am very happy and honored that this honor
has been given to Robben Island."


Mandela, who turns 86 next month, was among the 120 South Africans
who took part in the torch relay in Cape Town.

The flame is expected to arrive at the Athens Olympic Stadium
on August 13th shortly before the opening of the 2004 Olympic Games.



"The flame unite us!
This place of pain and injustice is becoming
a symbol of friendship and justice."


Thanks to Madiba and to the "little people",
the South African miracle goes on!

Thank God!


Tuesday, June 29, 2004
 
Born free!

You didn't ask to be born
Nor wished it and yet
Oh! the planet were all the poorer
without you, dear friend of all, of mine!



"O Thou the One from whom breath
enters being in all radiant forms
… in each new instant"

I thank the creator who imagined you
so as you are: unique amongst other "uniques"
and Oh! so alone among so many
who dwell in your heart like
on an open market place…
You play God's reed

"…A reed that is empty
until the Breath of God
fills it with infinite music:
And the breath of the Spirit of Love
utters the Word of God
through an empty reed".
(C. Houslander)



The word of God
is infinite music
in a little reed.

YOU!
Oh! what a beautiful day!

"Blow, blow, blow till I be
But the breath of the Spirit,
blowing in me".

"I live, nevertheless not I,
but Christ lives in me."




Saturday, June 26, 2004
 


Wedding bells

They've met and they've fallen in love!
Nothing more beautiful than that!
From two different continents et cultures,
butlove bridges deserts, and seas and gaps of any sort!

This sunny afternoon, the little church bells
rang raputurously, cascading from a green illtop
right into the Leman blue waves down below!
Singing for joy!

So beautiful, so radiant, the groom, the bride and their
old wise friend, the priest, who said:
"do you intend to live together the best you can?"
"Oh! yes", they said.



Then put this blessed ring on your finger!
They did so and their lips joined.



A modest honey moon with a modest honey moon trip
and they'll be home, giving it a go to live life
in mutually respected freedoms.

The work of creation goes on and on and on
In my heart I prayed: burn on, little lights,
till you burn out and make our planet what it is
meant to be: a sweet, sweet home for all!




Thursday, June 24, 2004
 
THE FLAME




The connection that existed between religion and burial
traditions is due to the belief of the ancient Greeks that
the relationship between life and death is dialectic.
From the lifeless ground, birth is given to a bud.
The symbol that represents the idea that life and death
are connected is the sacred Olympic Flame.

In 1948, Lausanne and Geneva were on the Olympic Torch Relay
route from Greece to London for the Olympic Games.
Earlier that year, the Olympic flame was flown from Greece
to the site of the Olympic Winter Games, in St. Moritz, Switzerland.



Thursday 24 June 2004: The Olympic Flame passes by
the Olympic Museum. For the first time, the Olympic Flame
will pass through all the five continents.
A journey covering 78,000km in 78 days.

Pass on the flamme, unite the world.

And Jesus said:
"Walk while you have the light
believe in the light
and you will become children of light!"
(Jn 12:36)


Monday, June 21, 2004
 
Space tourism today!

SpaceShipOne Makes History: First Manned Private Spaceflight
(freely and gratefully adapted from Leonard David's report)


MOJAVE, CALIFORNIA – The first non-governmental rocket ship flew
to the edge of space today and was piloted to a safe landing
on a desert airport runway here.

Civilian test pilot, now turned astronaut, South African born,
American Mike Melvill (62) brought SpaceShipOne
down to the Mojave Airport tarmac after flying to 100 kilometers
(62 miles) in altitude,
leaving the Earth’s atmosphere during his history-making
sub-orbital space ride.



After touchdown, Mike Melvill rolled past thousands
of spectators in the early morning Sun, flashing the thumbs up.
Then he got out and spoke to the cheering crowd.
"The flight was spectacular," Melvill said.

Roaring to life



Take-off occurred at about 9:45 a.m. ET, or 6:45 a.m. local time,
with SpaceShipOne tucked under the White Knight carrier craft.
Once set free an hour later, and after a few seconds of glide control
at around 47,000 feet, Melvill ignited SpaceShipOne’s hybrid rocket motor.
From the ground, flame and smoke could be seen
as the rocket plane roared to life and shot upward through
Mojave Desert skies.

Slicing skyward and outside the Earth’s atmosphere,
the vehicle and pilot spent about three minutes
in freefall weightlessness.

After the speed-reducing maneuver, SpaceShipOne’s tail piece
was put back into glide mode. The vehicle circled overhead as
onlookers who had filled up local motels and camped at the airport cheered.
The craft landed at around 11:15 a.m. ET directly in front
of a public viewing area on the same runway on which it took off
roughly an hour and a half earlier.

What do I think of it? Of course it is an achievement
that goes together with big money!
That being said: it needs tremendous courage just as it took
great courage for Charles Lindberg and St Ex and many others
to take off for the first time! And many times after!

Congratulations Mike Melvill! Well done!

We, the millions tiny centipedes (South African Songololos)
are all moving ahead, flying or crawling, taking off and touching down
as we pass on through our tiny planet looking up
to the ONE who made it, who made us, who waits for us among the stars,
where we shall meet Him, with or without a spaceship!

Cheer!





 
Sunday, 20th May 2004

World refugee day



Along highways ans byways they flee
from an unkind inhumane world of war and violence
seeking a home
a refuge
a shelter

Fleeing the war lords who bring money to arms dealers
while the blood of innocents flows along dirt roads

All over the world, refugees
seek sanctuaries and seldom find it

How is it that in Switzerland
asylum seekers are feared and put aside
to be put away on a plane for "home"?

How is it that newspapers and TV and Radio
blame Christopher Blocher
fearing he and his own UDC will push forward
new threatening measures and laws
to keep Switzerland "swiss" and very clean?

Blame Blocher?
When I listen to fellow swiss people talking
at home, in pubs, in the streets or even in churchyards
I hear people say : "Blocher, you know, he's not wrong after all,
let them go, those strangers, a danger indeed for our
comfort and security!".
So help us God! The struggle continues!