Categorie: English

United In Silence (2020 End of Year Speech)

Geplaatst op door Justin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Normally when I speak to a group, I start with a silence. A long silence. Ten seconds. Fifteen seconds. Twenty seconds. I look around the audience, see who is there, see which people I speak to. And, as the silence lasts longer, see how they react to it. The longer it’s quiet, the more uncomfortable they start to feel. Then they start looking around, looking at others. Smiling uncomfortably at each other, wondering when that man in front of the group will finally start talking. This is much more difficult as a writer. I don’t see an audience to speak to, I can only see myself. And yet I like to use the silence, the long silence, or the too long silence, as an opening. Those who feel comfortable during a silence have the power over those who are not comfortable enough with it. Until it’s time to break the silence.

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Will you Mary me?

Geplaatst op door Justin

“If I could only reach you.. that would really be a breakthru” | Queen – Breakthru

I didn’t keep it dry. Again not. For the third time. I couldn’t keep it up for 110 minutes without getting tears in my eyes. And that while I already knew what was going to happen. But maybe it hit me just as much as the first two times, because I knew what would happen, and how it would happen. This time I watched the film in a different way.

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Lonely Writer, Anonymous Reader

Geplaatst op door Justin

In February I taught a series of MoneyWays classes to a school on behalf of Diversion. During these lessons we discuss money with pupils and students, where as a peer-educator, as my position is called, I am open about my own money matters. One of the things we share with the students is our stumbling blocks, in other words, everything that does not always go well in, in this case, the financial area. One of my stumbling blocks is that I never look at my money when a band or artist announces a concert; if I want to go, I immediately buy a ticket, without looking at the money in my account. A number of students thought that was strange; why should I go to concerts when I might as well watch live streams or recordings of old concerts on the internet? Meanwhile I am actually at home watching those live streams and old concert recordings. After all, all concerts have been cancelled. I eventually followed the advice of the students.

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Your Paradise = Something I’ve Endured

Geplaatst op door Justin

“The point where we break gets closer every day. But where do we go?” | Rise Against – I Don’t Want to Be Here Anymore

I think it is inappropriate to immediately continue to post nice messages again after last week, as if nothing has happened at all. What would my own article from last Monday be worth then? That I pay brief attention to the anti-racism movement, but that I do nothing with it afterwards? As I wrote in that article; I don’t like to participate in anything just because everyone is doing it at the time. At the same time, I don’t want to pay too much attention to it either, because that can be counterproductive; if people read too much about a particular topic or if they come across it too often, interest slowly but surely disappears. In addition, I want this website to focus on creative freedom, without any agenda. That is why I decided that this article will be a combination of different parts, in which, on the one hand, I still want to dwell on the anti-racism movement, but on the other hand, I also want to pay attention to beautiful things in life. Because if there aren’t any beautiful things in life, then why would you fight for anything at all?

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Post-Amerika

Geplaatst op door Justin

“Neutrality means that you don’t really care . ‘Cause the struggle goes on even when you’re not there. Blind and unaware.” | Rise Against – Collapse (Post-Amerika)

In the past few days, I have doubted whether I would also join in sharing articles and statements about the anti-racism movement that has dominated Western media for the past week. On the one hand, it’s a very important topic that needs to be discussed and that needs to change completely. On the other hand, I personally am absolutely not a fan to suddenly go along with certain popular developments that will probably hardly be talked about in a while. I’m also not someone who regularly talks about racism. In addition, I doubt that my words will add anything to the many messages that have been shared to date. I have therefore decided to give it a try to write about it, and if you read this I have apparently been satisfied enough with the end result to share it with you.

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Jus(t) a Bad Human

Geplaatst op door Justin

About a year and a half ago, I went to the House of European History in Brussels with my fellow students. In that museum, a narrative is told about the origins of Europe, in particular about the past 250 years, and the origins of the European Union. After a tour in the museum, we discussed the following statement: The House of European History is a form of European propaganda. The teachers wanted to use a critical and questionable statement. Given the slightly startled reaction of the woman from the museum who attended the debate, they had succeeded. My team had to argue in favour of the statement and I was allowed to open the debate.

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With All My Favourite Colours

Geplaatst op door Justin

“With all my favorite colors, yes, sir

All my favorite colors, right on

My sisters and my brothers

See ‘em like no others

All my favorite colors”

                Black Pumas – Colors (Black Pumas, 2019)

What I sometimes wonder is; what would the world look like if everyone wore colourful clothes? When I walk through the city on a cloudy day, or when I wait on the bus with many people, I sometimes imagine what it would look like if everyone wore bright colours. Dark colours can be beautiful, but if everyone wears it, isn’t that a bit too much? Doesn’t the world look much more beautiful on cloudy days if people expressed themselves in a colourful way?

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The Playlist that turned into a Musical Diary

Geplaatst op door Justin

Sunday 23 April 2017. On a sunny afternoon I finally decided to turn a plan that had been in my head for a while into reality. A plan to make my own playlist with all my favourite songs from all genres mixed together. The most important rule: I can only add one song per day. The song I add may be linked to what music I listened to that day, what I did or how I felt. When I told a friend about this list a while back, she made the interesting comment that it’s actually some kind of musical diary. And that musical diary celebrates its third anniversary today.

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