PIKIRAN2 and VAN OVEREEM
It is now almost 8 a.m. and I am to start my self-imposed working day. Reluctantly and eagerly.
The former because I gave in to my latest addictions last night and only got to bed at 2 a.m.
The latter because Mercia brought me breakfast in bed before she left for work at the ghastly
hour of 7 a.m. It contained a rock-hard challenge of van Williger's Aged Gouda cheese,
so something you can really get your aged teeth in, wondering if they might stay in or worse.
Meanwhile, I ponder weak and weary what to do to-day.
So let me retrace last night briefly: I was preparing for a possible joint trip with my friend
Ferenc Szucs to the Balkans and got to the problem of balkanization: Is Montenegro independent
of Serbia and what about Kosovo? Is Kosovo safe yet? Quarrying Google helped me in my quandary.
Kosovo's fate is to be decided this very year and presently it is in the process of being
allowed by UNMIK to make many decisions and have elections. The Serbs do not agree but are overruled.
Some ethnic minorities in contested areas of their(?) s.l. country where they are also in the minority
were genocided as late as last year, which took my search to genocides, another Dr. Stein and his
website on that topic: Hitler's holocaust, Cambodja and Rwanda - to each of which I have some
weak personal link but strong attachment by curiosity. Thus I surf in on
Carla Del Ponte of the
wicked nicknames. In turn, another link takes me to the Dutch Ministry of the Exterior, which
I scout out for positions and projects. One deals with coastal zone management in
India and
shows some interesting videos about the recent tsunami generated near Aceh. Do violent political
events prefer violent tectonics? Let's look at the staff of the Dutch consulting firm: the name of
the director, van Overeem, rings a bell: Billiton Tin, Fugro-Cesco, the Bison, all from the 1960's
and earlier. By now it is midnight and I am ready to go to bed except for my other and more
recent addiction: Spider Solitaire, which makes a good dent in my will-power and beauty sleep.
So on to more recent stuff, an hour ago. What to do? Since I just worked on my autobio and reach
the date that I married Mercia in 1964 on what I calculated yesterday to be page 357, and also
am getting ahead of my Balkans search, I should do a story. What about serendipity:
how I was interviewed in Copenhagen for the job of team leader of coastal experts in a Danish
project in the Orongo Region of Namibia? (links with Sri Lanka and also coastal zone management)
Or the sugar-cube project aboard the US helicopter at the mouth of Delaware Bay, which needs to
"get out of the way" (rhymes with Aceh or Atjeh), that looks "current" . . .punny. Or the
planning and implementation of OPA's Strawbale Pavilion?
The ship's chronometer on my wall sounds one bell and I am still making up my mind as to what's
next. Let's just take a chance ands a break and see if that last night Overeem fellow might me
the son (grandson??) of the 1960's casual acquaintance (recall that I took my dad aboard their
R.V. "Bison" in 1960 when I was searching for an oceanography job). And perhaps recording my results
would complete this unanticipated, therefore serendipitous story for to-day and allow me to go
back to bed for a bit?
Real life: Erika just called and complained about the 7 cats and drywall installation dust in
Steve's house and ended the call with a barphing demo when I started reading the stuff about role model Carla...