Arriving in Bangkok after the long flight from Berlin, we immediately took the shuttle bus to Pattaya and checked into the Perfect Place Hotel. The next two days were spent preparing for the flight home, jogging, swimming and catching up on our blogs and e-mail. Finally on June 7 at 3:30 am we took the 75 minute taxi ride to the Bangkok airport where we boarded our flight back to San Francisco (via Tokyo).
It was wonderful to see our daughter Jessica, who picked us up at the airport and drove down to Santa Cruz to stay in our little mobile home. We will stay here until the end of June since we have rented out our place in San Francisco until then. It has been great to visit friends here, catch up on stacks of mail, work in the garden, and enjoy the mild Santa Cruz weather. We have a lot of things to do and feel good. We especially enjoyed it when our son Randy visited us with our 10 year old grand-daughter Gabriela along with Jessica and her boyfriend Matt one Sunday.
I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to take this once in a lifetime kind of trip and have so many wonderful experiences. Now it is time to get back to work and join the fight against the budget cuts and rejuvenate my former activism in the people's movement. I am also looking forward to teaching the fall semester at City College.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Concentration Camp visit
Our last day in Germany, June 3, Walter and Gudrun drove us to Tegel Airport (Berlin) to fly back to Bangkok. On the way, we stopped to visit the former Sachenhausen Concentration Camp near Berlin. This was the first concentration camp set up by the Nazis in 1936 and was supposed to be a model. About 200,000 prisoners (mostly Jews, political prisoners, and prisoners of war) experienced this camp between 1936 and 1945 and about half of them died. Shortly before the war ended, the guards forced the surviving prisoners (several thousand) to endure a death march to the Baltic Sea. The plan was to put them on ships and kill them. The Red Army intercepted this death march near Schwerin, but many thousands died along the way before they could be liberated.
It felt strange to be in a place where such horrific atrocities on a mass scale had taken place; to be in this place of suffering and cruelty. Both my parents were German Jews who fled Nazi Germany in 1934, and my uncle Eric (my father's older brother) was a prisoner at Auchwitz and Buchenwald for three years. I was very moved to be here. One wonders about the psychology of the perpetrators and how people can treat other human beings with such brutality. Anyone who would argue that education should only emphasize reading, writing and math, and not ethics, social justice and critical thinking, ought to come to a place like this and reflect about how this could have happened and how it can be prevented from ever happening again.
Visiting the concentration camp made me reflect again on the causes of fascism and war and on the immense sums of money and resources being spent on war and so-called defense. The world is spending about two trillion a year on military, and the United States spends about half of that. That means that Californians alone sends about $130 billion a year for military spending to the federal government. What if this spending could be converted to social spending? With half the world living in misery, social spending would create conditions that could help prevent wars and oppression. Instead of selling weapons to poor countries, the more affluent countries could demand more spending on health and education and less on military hardware.
It felt strange to be in a place where such horrific atrocities on a mass scale had taken place; to be in this place of suffering and cruelty. Both my parents were German Jews who fled Nazi Germany in 1934, and my uncle Eric (my father's older brother) was a prisoner at Auchwitz and Buchenwald for three years. I was very moved to be here. One wonders about the psychology of the perpetrators and how people can treat other human beings with such brutality. Anyone who would argue that education should only emphasize reading, writing and math, and not ethics, social justice and critical thinking, ought to come to a place like this and reflect about how this could have happened and how it can be prevented from ever happening again.
Visiting the concentration camp made me reflect again on the causes of fascism and war and on the immense sums of money and resources being spent on war and so-called defense. The world is spending about two trillion a year on military, and the United States spends about half of that. That means that Californians alone sends about $130 billion a year for military spending to the federal government. What if this spending could be converted to social spending? With half the world living in misery, social spending would create conditions that could help prevent wars and oppression. Instead of selling weapons to poor countries, the more affluent countries could demand more spending on health and education and less on military hardware.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Back to Germany
We pulled into Dresden late in the evening after taking four different trains beginning in Como, Italy in the early morning. During the next three days, we visited a nearby medieval city, Meissen, famous for its production of China porcelein. We walked up to the impressive 13th century Gothic cathedral constructed on a hill overlooking the city. Maren and I biked along a beautiful bike path along the Elbe River while the others drove. The next day Walter and Goodrun (Maren's parents) joined us from Schwerin (up north)and we all walked to the neighborhood train stain and boarded a train that went along the Elbe River to the "Saxony Alps" from where we took the ferry across the river and then hiked for several hours in the wooded mountains that string along the river. As it was a weekend day, there were a great many people who had the same idea as us. It was impressive to see this clean and comfortable train stop so often to pick up hikers. I think the train stopped seven times n Dresden alone. Everyone seemed relaxed and there was a lot of conversation going on in the train. The train had big windows good to see from, too. Finishing our hike, we came down to a village, took another ferry across the Elbe, and boarded the train to return to Dresden.
Along the road before we started on the trail, we saw several signs posted in favor of the Neo-Nazi candidates (NPD); they are running in the European parliament election next week under the slogan "teach them a lesson". This part of Saxony is one of the places where the extreme right has enough support to actually have won some seats in the German Congress. The left is stronger though; Der Linke (the Socialist left party) received about 9% of the vote, but over 20% in the East and the Green Party got about 7% in recent countrywide elections, so the left is quite strong in Germany.Der Linke is for economic justice, getting out of Afghanistan, and saving the environment among other things. The Germans are quite conscious about the need to do more to protect the environment.
Along the road before we started on the trail, we saw several signs posted in favor of the Neo-Nazi candidates (NPD); they are running in the European parliament election next week under the slogan "teach them a lesson". This part of Saxony is one of the places where the extreme right has enough support to actually have won some seats in the German Congress. The left is stronger though; Der Linke (the Socialist left party) received about 9% of the vote, but over 20% in the East and the Green Party got about 7% in recent countrywide elections, so the left is quite strong in Germany.Der Linke is for economic justice, getting out of Afghanistan, and saving the environment among other things. The Germans are quite conscious about the need to do more to protect the environment.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Last days in Italy
From Sapri in Southern Italy, we took the train back to Salerno and the next day boarded a high speed train to Firenze in the Tuscany region of Central Italy. The train, moving well over 100 miles an hour at times, covered the 400 or so miles in about 3 hours of travel.
It was a delight to be in Firenze, the famous renaissance city, for a day and a half. We spent time walking the narrow cobblestone streets and admiring art work and old plazas, churches and towers constructed during the renaissance period that florished here already in the 13th century.
From Firenze we took the train another 2 hours north to the city of Reggio Emilia to visit the Loris Malaguzzi International Center dedicated to implementing the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. This approach emphasizes organizing a curriculum focused on the chidren's interests and fostering children's creativity. The exhibits at the center explored the historical context of approaches to childcare and children's education in Italy and demonstrated some of the successful examples of this kind of approach.
The next day we took a morning train to Milano,where we changed trains to continue on to Como. Como, only 35 minutes by train from Milano, lies by a beautiful lake at the foot of high, steep mountains near the Swiss border. In the late afternoon we took a pleasant walk around the lake shore and walked back through the old city.
The next morning we boarded the 6:55 train for the short ride to Lugano, another city by a lake with towering mountains in Switzerland. There we had about three minutes to catch our train to Basel. This train wove its way over and through snow capped mountains that tower over narrow valleys and rushing rivers and waterfalls, and past small picturesque towns and villages. Soon we were out of the Italian language area and into German speaking areas and train announcements reflected this change. We also noticed how the style of the houses changed as we moved from the pastel colored houses with tiled red roofs to the Swiss chalet style houses.
Around mid-day we arrived in Basel, near the German border, where we had to change trains again. About 4 hours later, we got off that train and had 4 minutes to get to another track to board our final train of the day which would take us all the way to Dresden. On that train, we sat for a long time in our compartment with several other passengers without any interaction. However, after a few hours we got into a conversation, first trading small talk and then quizzing the businessmen about the health care situation in Germany. They were quite satisfied with the public health care system here but seemed resigned to increasing costs that have been instituted and expected some deterioration in the future.
In Germany everyone is covered with adequate health insurance and the payments are extremely low by U.S. standards. Having health insurance is mandatory. Wealthy people have the option of paying for private health insurance.
It was a delight to be in Firenze, the famous renaissance city, for a day and a half. We spent time walking the narrow cobblestone streets and admiring art work and old plazas, churches and towers constructed during the renaissance period that florished here already in the 13th century.
From Firenze we took the train another 2 hours north to the city of Reggio Emilia to visit the Loris Malaguzzi International Center dedicated to implementing the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. This approach emphasizes organizing a curriculum focused on the chidren's interests and fostering children's creativity. The exhibits at the center explored the historical context of approaches to childcare and children's education in Italy and demonstrated some of the successful examples of this kind of approach.
The next day we took a morning train to Milano,where we changed trains to continue on to Como. Como, only 35 minutes by train from Milano, lies by a beautiful lake at the foot of high, steep mountains near the Swiss border. In the late afternoon we took a pleasant walk around the lake shore and walked back through the old city.
The next morning we boarded the 6:55 train for the short ride to Lugano, another city by a lake with towering mountains in Switzerland. There we had about three minutes to catch our train to Basel. This train wove its way over and through snow capped mountains that tower over narrow valleys and rushing rivers and waterfalls, and past small picturesque towns and villages. Soon we were out of the Italian language area and into German speaking areas and train announcements reflected this change. We also noticed how the style of the houses changed as we moved from the pastel colored houses with tiled red roofs to the Swiss chalet style houses.
Around mid-day we arrived in Basel, near the German border, where we had to change trains again. About 4 hours later, we got off that train and had 4 minutes to get to another track to board our final train of the day which would take us all the way to Dresden. On that train, we sat for a long time in our compartment with several other passengers without any interaction. However, after a few hours we got into a conversation, first trading small talk and then quizzing the businessmen about the health care situation in Germany. They were quite satisfied with the public health care system here but seemed resigned to increasing costs that have been instituted and expected some deterioration in the future.
In Germany everyone is covered with adequate health insurance and the payments are extremely low by U.S. standards. Having health insurance is mandatory. Wealthy people have the option of paying for private health insurance.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Southern Italy Days
From Salerno we took a two hour train ride south along the mountainous coast and got off in Sapri, a small town of maybe 15,000 people situated along a beautiful bay. Steep mountains rise just beyond the town and up and down this coastal area. We found a pleasant hotel across from the sea promenade with a view of the bay from our room. We are staying here four days visiting nearby towns, going for hikes and relaxing by the beach. The water here is warm and the air temps have been near 80 degrees every day. We have the hotel breakfast buffet and share a restaurant meal once a day at most. To limit our spending, we buy salads and casseroles from the supermarkets that we eat in our hotel room or have a picnic. We also grab food from the breakfast buffet to supplement our lunch.
Italy is gearing up for elections and you can see political posters all around, right, center, and left. In Salerno I saw two men systematically posting right-wing posters over the center-left candidate's string of posters. The right wing probably has a lot more money and a lot more publicity, like in the U.S., since they control the mass-media.
Italy has been very charming and picturesque and has been a delight to travel in. However, we have sometimes noticed seemingly hostile stares from local people maybe because Ana is perceived as an immigrant or else because of my scruffy appearance. On the other hand, many people, especially the hotel staff, have been very helpful and friendly.
Some difficult moments have occurred trying to get information at the train stations where people have been quite unhelpful. Sometimes we have waited at the track to get on a train and then at the last minute the track number is changed and we have to scramble to figure out where our train is leaving from to catch the correct train.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
From Germany to Italy
After a long train journey through the Swiss Alps and into northern Italy, we arrived in La Spezia, Italy, a small city on the Italian Mediterranean coast about 90 miles east of Genoa. La Spezia has a beautiful location tucked between coastal mountains and the sea. A few miles to the west lies a rugged coastal area called Cinque Terre, a UNESCO protected area in which there are five medieval-looking villages perched along cliffs overlooking the sea. We took the train to the beginning of the trail that connects the villages (there is no road)and hiked the 6 miles along the coastal mountains. It is a wonderful area combining wilderness with some family farms with gardens and fruit trees (oranges, lemons, grapes, etc.) The weather was hot and there were many people from different countries hiking along the trail. In the afternoon, we diverged along a path down to the rocky shore, and Ana had a nice swim (I refrained because of my cold). In the evening we shared a delicious dinner at a restaurant near our hotel that included different kinds of seafood, especially clams, a mixed salad and clam and tomato sauce linguine.
Afer two days in La Spezia, we took the train down to Salerno, in the south past Rome and Naples. Salerno has a stunning seaside location at the foot of a high mountain ridge (the Amalfi coast). Arriving at the train station in the early evening, we walked along the beach promenade for a few kilometers to our hotel. Unfortunately, there is a lot of garbage along the beach. We passed many bars and pizzerias, the main businesses in this part of town. We had a great view of the sea and the mountainous coastline from our hotel room. Here we rested a day while I tried to recover from a bad cold. Nevertheless, I spent much of the morning trying to find a bank where I could change some t-checks into Euros. I had to go to four different banks before finding the bank that would change my travelers checks.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Arriving in Germany
Arriving in Berlin, Germany from Bangkok on May 11, we stayed a few days with our good friends, Maren and Feurio in Dresden. They have two kids, 12 and 14 years old and live in an apartment building in this city on the Elbe River in the former East Germany. Dresden was the site of the horrible allied bombing during the war that killed 10s of thousands of people of which Kurt Vonnegut wrote “Slaughterhouse Five”.
My father met Maren’s father (Walter) in 1968 on a visit to Berlin, his former hometown that he fled in 1934. Walter is a doctor and he and his wife Goodrun became very close family friends whom my parents visited quite often in the 70s and 80s. In 1987 Walter was able to visit us in San Francisco. Many were surprised he was able to get permission under the Communist ruled German Democratic Republic (GDR). Since the wall came down and Germany was reunited, Walter, Goodrun and Maren and her family have visited us several times in California, and Maren and Feurio and their children lived two years near Atlanta, Georgia where Maren taught in a high school for two years.
We spent two very nice days with Maren and her family. Maren teaches English in a public elementary school in Dresden and she invited Ana and me to be guests in two of her fifth grade classes. She introduced us and had the kids (about 25 in each class) ask us questions. The kids were very polite and asked many questions about our lives. In each class we also got a question about Obama and responded that while we have been supporters people need to watch what he does now and organize to make sure he does the right things because he is under a lot of pressure to maintain the status quo.
The physical conditions and technical infrastructure of the building on this particular school site were not on a par with most U.S. public schools I have seen. However, the beautiful surroundings with ample green space is very impressive and the children seemed happy. The lack of diversity among the students, compared to California schools, is very apparent. Even though Dresden is not a major German city, I am surprised to observe how rare it is to see a person of color in the streets of Dresden.
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