GENEROSITY

Some people amaze me because of their generosity. They are often people I have never met personally, but they are people I have contacted because I sought their help. It amazes me how many people are willing to spend their time, even money to help me.

Recently I have been helped by a few Chinese comrades, some of them spent hours and hours helping me out. One such person is Dongfeng, a Chinese military expert in England who taught me everything I needed to know about Chinese tanks and combat training. (I am currently working on a novel in which the protagonist is a Chinese military officer who, at one point in his life is a tank commander). So when I asked Dongfeng to explain tanks to me, he would send me long explanation, often accompanied by photos like the ones below.

I contacted Jeff Widener, a witness photographer of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. I asked him per email about his experiences. And Jeff wrote back to me within a day, and explained to me that he stood on a balcony of the Beijing Hotel when in the street below him, a lone man stopped an entire tank column....

Recently, I contacted a Chinese brush painter in the USA who later learned that I don’t have the right materials to make proper Chinese brush paintings. This kind lady offered to send me a parcel from America with paper and a proper brush. I am baffled. What a kind lady.

It’s weird to receive Chinese materials from the USA, while I live in Asia. However Thailand is still in many ways a Third World country where it is just difficult to find a shop that sells a proper paint brush for adults. Most art stuff is meant for children who don’t care about a plastic thing with nylon hair and Hello Kitty images.

During my nearly three years in Thailand, I am still unable to find a shop where I can buy 100% cotton bed sheets. All bed sheets in Thailand are made of 70% polyester and 30% whatever (very sweaty in the jungle). And this stuff is expensive and only for the rich. The poor sleep on bamboo mats or on nylon sheets, believe it or not.
Thailand doesn’t produce much else than sex and rice, and most “luxury” products, including chocolate are imported from Europe, Japan, and Korea (and the prices are very steep). It’s easier to find a doctor in any street in Thailand who is able to change someone’s gender for a 1000 USD than to find a shop where they sell a proper paint brush or comfortable bedding.

So I would like to thank all of you for your generosity. I would like to thank my dear readers in America, Europe, Japan, the Middle East and Asia who visit this site on a regular basis. Most of my readers are actually from the USA. So thank you Americans for your generosity and interest in my scribbles. Bless you.

Thanks Joel for being my number one follower and a consitant commentator.

While I am watching Michael Jackson's memorial service I couldn't help but do some meditative painting. It just clicked in my mind, last night, that painting bamboo is all about "keeping it simple".