more on Amsterdam

Zinnia's comment made me want to write more about the "attack" issue because I left out in the last entry of what else came to my mind after it happened. I also thought of how easy it is for people to blame immigrants for whatever bad happens. That is basically what I thought after the man told me it's the "immigrant problem". I didn't see the faces of the men who attacked me. They spoke in English and I couldn't point at any specific accent. The policemen suggested they could have been drug addicts because yes, they do also have people addicted to hard drugs here. So... To assume immediately that immigrants attack people is racial or national or however you want to call it, profiling. Most of the people who are begging for money on the New York subway are Americans. How many times have I listened to elaborate stories of how they came to live on the street (one woman was begging for the eleven years I was in Queens for diapers for her little baby...). Of course, I understand these people are sick, weak, mentally unstable, addicted, for the most part. But they have legal status and the knowledge of the language of the land. At the same time all these immigrants work minimum or below minimum wage (if they have no legal status or they don't speak English), working long-hour and hard jobs the autochtons would never even consider doing. And they are not respected for what they do, on the contrary. I actually found an article in the Dutch paper discussing this issue. There was a voice defending all the immigrants doing the work that needs to be done but nobody wants to do here except immigrants - because immigrants have no choice, basically, but to take whatever. And lets not forget that what the "rich" and "developed" countries do affects hugely the entire world. Many of the world poverty or the political, tribal, etc. conflicts, fueled by arms provided from developed countries (and I mean ALL developed countries because I don't think there is one which would not be guilty of trading arms), made the people flee their land in search for a peaceful and better life conditions. Everything is very connected these days. Before we point a finger at anyone we should think long and hard...

After a week of living at Martijn's apartment I moved to the apartment of Nicole - a person I met in Colombia in October. I came to visit her and she offered that I stay with her as she has a spare room at the moment. Nicole was born in Colombia but has lived in Amsterdam since she was four years old. Nicole took me to an opening of a restaurant where her daughter is a manager, she took me to the huge outside market which I very much liked (with all kinds of things to wear, furniture, herbs, bikes, street food... anything under the sky) and the cafe "Granny" which she has visited all the years of her adult life and which remained unchanged all these years. We went to see a movie which was a part of the Documentary Movie Festival. I also walked on foot, since I love walking, through many streets and found some streets I particularly like and a cafe with good vibes and great capuccino on Utrechtstraat. So I found some nice things and places in Amsterdam and it will be nice to be coming here the next year for school and more wondering around.

Yesterday we also had a party at Femke and Vivhar's apartment (and their 4 cats), my schoolmates, to celebrate the end of the semester. I very much like the atmosphere at school. It's very different from my former school. I begin to fully understand the importance of Qi Gong exercises. What we did at Swedish was kind of playful and was used more for relaxation and a break from all the other theoretical classes. The Qi Gong here is really taught for the purpose of self-cultivation and basically means that we have to do the Qi Gong exercises for minimum of 3 hours a day. They are exercises which teach us the power of mind over body as everything else stems from it, from the perspective of Daoist philosophy. In the beginning the exercises are very strenous, for the body and the mind. It's sitting, standing and wide-stance meditation for the most part. I find it painful and challenging but everybody does in the beginning, so it just takes time to get into the practice. However, after the exercises I experience incredible lightness and clarity of mind. It's very hard work but very rewarding. Apart from the Qi Gong exercises I have also other subjects to study but the Qi Gong is the base. This is most important because the mind free of delusions is what makes a person compassionate and understanding so a doctor who know the mechanics of using needles and point combinations, etc. cannot be a good doctor if he is also not cultivated toward mindfulness and mind and body clarity. I think that once one does the Qi Gong exercises one fully understands the difference between self-cultivated and unself-cultivated mind. The insturctions are given in one-on-one classes and it is up to the student to decide how to schedule them, whether once or twice a week, depending on the student feeling ready to go to the next step. There are specific modules/classes to be taken but it is up to the student to design the schedule so the responsibility belongs to the student. Depending on the self-cultivation process and the student's seriousness and self-discipline, he or she will need less or more time to complete the program, and will graduate sooner or later.

I woke a little sick today, I was biking with Nicole in this cold and damp weather, so I think I will stay home today and read Chinese Anatomy and Physiology reader as a way of bed-rest entertainment. Warm hugs to everyone.