Marley's harder edge

Right now I am in Poland and have spent a bit of time walking around listening to my ipod and pondering life in general. I have gone back to listen to some of the Bob Marley that I normally pass over... a few of the lesser known tracks. It has been amazing: once I stepped outside the 'best of' I found a series of deep, violent and angry tracks, all played with a calm and calculated reggae rythme.

Favourite tracks of the moment are 'Zimbabwe' and 'Burnin' and Lootin''. Burning and Looting starts of with the crushing line: 'this morning I woke up in a curfew'... geesus... where do you go with that, it's not wonder these tracks aren't played in bars. Burning tells the story of when the police surrounded Trenchtown and placed it under military rule. About feeling alienated in your own community and how, when you have no other choice, you must respond with violence. 'There's going to be some burning and looting tonight'... Deep.

Zimbabwe was written around the time that Robert Mugabe was liberating Rhodesia. It is a joyous song, a song that celebrates a people but has a hard edge. You are going to have to fight if all else fails. This is one of the verses.

To divide and rule
Could only tear us apart
In everyman chest
There beats a heart
So soon we'll find out
Who is the real revolutionaries
And I don't want my people
To be tricked by mercenaries

Brother you're right, you're right
You're right, you're right, you're so right
We gonna fight, we'll have to fight
We gonna fight, fighting for our rights



Today I visted Auschwitz... yeah... not sure what to say. Today was yet another piece in my travels including Anne Frank's House in Amsterdamn, the bombings in Frankfurt, the Jewish ghettos in both Prague and Warsaw and finally this... Auschwitz... I feel like I am worlds away from Germany and the Netherlands... but this is where it all took place.

czech police

czech police
Originally uploaded by jrwestgarth.

A picture tells a thousand words, or four: 'most awkward moment ever'... but it was hell funny.

Amit's glass

Amits glass
Originally uploaded by jrwestgarth.

Amit never figured out how to bang his mug euro style, resulting in the deaths of two glasses... ahh Amit, you crack me up.

Warsaw

Warsaw
Originally uploaded by jrwestgarth.

This wall makes me think of the ghetoo, even though we are a fair way from it. Spent the afternoon walking Liene and Marceij. Marceij took us on a walking tour of WW2 related monuments, Warsaw has seen a rough history... but is somehow haunting in its modern industrial-ness.

Conference site

Conference site
Originally uploaded by jrwestgarth.

This was the place where I sat for many an afternoons reflection. When we arrived it was completely covered in snow, when we left it was all gone. Over the hill is a tiny wooden church. Very peaceful.

John and Brett and Snowman

John and Brett and Snowman
Originally uploaded by jrwestgarth.

Meet our snowman. Gibbo and I managed to play up the 'it is summer in Australia' thing. This was our snowman. We never named him... he lies in an unnamed grave...

Prague - Old Square

Prague - Old Square
Originally uploaded by jrwestgarth.

The site of fried cheese, kafka and warm wine. I like it for the snow. Prague was noble and proud. My first 'post communist' city, I had many an amazing thought walking through those ancient cultured streets.

Europe - Expros and Communism

Right now I am in Warsaw, Poland. Yep, last place I expected to be but here I am staying with a friend I met over the course of conference. The conference was spectacular in every way shape and form. It has been 18 months since I have been a delegate at a conference and this experience has surpassed the feeling of my first ever AIESEC conference way back in 2002.

I'm a bit at a loss as to how to explain the experience except that it was challenging global direction backed by personal mentoring/training on how to implement the information. It re-adjusted my perception of what AIESEC is and provided the next tools for taking AIESEC forward.

The greatest thing about the conversation was meeting a swag of new AIESEC people. Croatia, Serbia, UK, India, Spain, Poland, Canada, Romania, Austria, Denmark, Czech Republic and Netherlands all came out of the AIESEC woodwork with their best people on display. The conversations were great... and deep. It has been a while since I have stayed up discussing life till 6.30am. The faci's were on the ball and able to connect with the members quickly and easily. The entire experience was one of positive learning, cultural challenges and straight up good fun.

This conference has also made me pay greater attention to my own learning path and asked me to concentrate on all the peripherals of the AIESEC experience, that under developed 20% of AIESEC that is oft forgotten but makes the 80% difference.

The conference also bought with it the realisation that a current stage of AIESEC is coming to a close.

Now I am in Poland, exploring more of eastern europe and helping to correct my perception of 'cold, unhappy, concrete, grey' post communist cities. Tonight I had dinner with a Polish family, walked through what used to be the Jewish quarter of Warsaw and listened to first hand stories about Poland's move into the post communist world. Tomorrow I will travel to Krakow and visit Auschwitz...

A moment of clarity

Why is it that airports are not an all powerful centre of philosphical thought? It has been many centuries, eons even, since the airport served nothing more than the humble port of transport. Some say airports did not exist eons ago, to those people I say: have you nothing better to do than critise my blog? Okay, so where is this going?

There is something about airports and stations of transit that bring out the best in me. The curious side. Thousands of lives are passing, sharing this one portal, for just a brief moment in time. These people come in all shapes and sizes, are carrying different loads and heading different places. This must fundamentally affect how they are feeling and viewing the building/location around them. Me: I am off to a conference in Czech Republic... the family next to me are returning to Austria after living here for 'a while'... if this is an example of two frames of mind: what must the other thousand look like?

Mei and I caught up for lunch today. We talked MC talk, direction etc etc before drifting into how people are doing etc etc. That conversation sparked a memory of what I was up to this time last year. It made me realise how much of my personality had changed since I returned to Australia in March last year. This time last year I was in Val Paraiso, Chile. I was tired after many weeks of travel and hiking. I was returning to the first world after having my third eye ripped open by the wonders of northern Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Chile is not Bolivia. Things work, prices are modern, they have a functioning transport system. To take it one example further: in January Chile elected an ex political prisoner, a woman to boot, as their President. Bolivia elected a coca farmer whose previous political position was the head of a farmers union.

I documented my trip well. Using the humble pen and diary format. In these last few weeks I have been studying my diaries trying to capture some of the carefree spirit that the trip had instilled in me. One could argue it was the fact I was floating up river on a barge drinking tea and fishing with the locals... but I think it is something extra.

At the time I was following the line: no matter what the situation it is you that control your response. You have no control over external factors but what you do have control over is how you deal with the situation. Smile and nod was the thought at the time, just chill and things will work out. That was a little under twelve months ago... so what happened?

Not sure. Somewhere it was lost. So hear I am at the airport making a concerted effort to reclaim this mentality. The link is this: around me are people heading every which way in life, some are heading for adventures, some to sick families, some are moving forever... one thing we all share is this airport. It is the constant in this story.

It is all about how we interpret what we see. How we respond to the people and the variables that come and go. Whether I enjoy life, enjoy every passing moment, depends on whether I decide to enjoy it or not.

Right now I am in an airport on my way to Prague. About to visit a friend of mine and see his new life. About to attend a conference of two hundred inspirational people. About to catch up with an old friend I haven't seen in ten months. It is going to be great.

A quote I have been using of late comes from Pulp Fiction: 'I do believe I have just had, what drunks call, a moment of clarity'.

cheers

W

Recent quote

A quote a read on another nomadlife blog:

"I am a postmodern vegetarian... I eat meat with a sense of irony"

Blog lapse

hmm.. time to break the dreaded blog dry spell. There has been a whole bunch I have been to right about but haven't so here goes. the last time I wrote was on the 21st of February... roughly two weeks ago. The last two weeks have been quite different, a lot has been going on, some of it has been like working through mud, other moments have been fantastic.

1. Backgammon - a new game, a lot of fun

2. Coffee/tea with Ceyda and Ilker

3. Tropfest - rained out, lightning and all

4. Infusion and Hexstatic @ Home nightclub - crazy night with strange visuals... first/last time I will ever hear Ren and Stimpy's 'Happy Happy Joy Joy' played in a club

5. Goonies - a great movie night in with my mates... too funny

6. Gym - slowly creeping back to the pre Christmas levels... have pretty much been out of it for two months.

7. IPMs - caused chaos for internal communications

8. Arabic - have started work on my Arabic lessons/tapes.. it is slow going because I keep forgetting what I learnt and cant apply it

9. Beach - have managed to get to the beach three weeks in a row. Loving it. Weather is still good.

10. Palm Beach - last weekend went walking around the northern headland of Sydney, the limits... it is 40km north of my house and would be considered by some as still 'next to my suburb'

11. Johnny Cash - Right now I am into the Man in Black in a big way... loving Ring of Fire and Boy Named Sue. The guitars are pure rythme, they don't mess around. The lyrics are dark and sharp.

12. Drinking - last week saw one of the most relaxing 12 hour benders i have been on in a while. Starting in the afternoon and working through until the security recommends I start drinking water. Hope everyone enjoyed the messages and phone calls.

13. Guitar - ever since my laptop was stolen (and I lost Reason) I have taken up the guitar again. The current song of victory is BLACKBIRD by the beatles - white album. Clever little song, simple but techincal, I love it when something is just that extra
bit challenging. Second up is Ring of Fire: Johnny Cash.

14. Sleeping - another recent highlight of my life... trying to get to sleep before midnight... managing to wake up at 7am.

15. St Jerome's Laneway festival - imagine your top 10 hot indie bands decending on a laneway in the middle of the city. Awesome stuff, I saw Gersy, Wolf and Cub, the Drones, Les Savy Fav, Darren Hanlon, Broken Social Scene and The Hold Steady. An unorthodox but awesome concept.

16. Reading - currently reading The House of bush, The House of Saud - looking at Saudi/US relations leading up to September 11.

17. Ipod - Broken Social Scene - Fire Eye'd Boy is the song of the moment... followed by Johnny Cash - Man In Black

18. EURO XPROS!!! woot. I have been selected to represent Qatar (and I believe Bahrain as well) at Euro Xpros next week. The news came through on Saturday and... well... Im stoked. I haven't really seen that much of international AIESEC so I am really looking forward to it. this is a short turnaround... I leave in 6 sleeps! I am counting sleeps like it is christmas.

So these are the things I have been meaning to write about but never did... the blog lapse has been broken.