Rain at last

Rain! We have rain at long last and everyone is ecstatic. It is the second day already and it does not seem as if it’s going to stop. Who knows, perhaps we will even get some floods as well? If we do, all this water will unfortunately be lost, as we have no dams where the floods usually occur. However, we hope that the dames we do have –will get some of the water.

In the meantime, the plants are celebrating. They have lifted their heads and leaves have turned to green. Our farmers are celebrating as well, as many of them were already at the verge of bankruptcy, and fruit and vegetable price were going to hit the roof!

All in all, excellent news for all concern.

Renate
Artist, poet & the Author of
 From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country  

http://www.promisedland-renate.com/

Drought - Australia

Hi to all,

Firstly, I would like to thank all of you for reading my blog. I have noticed that several of you are living in Japan - The land of the Rising Sun - and I hope you are enjoying what you read. Please do not hesitate to comment, as I love you to participate.

Australia is at the moment experiencing its 6^th drought year, and our farmers are having a hard time.The land is as dry as can be and water restrictions are everywhere. However, much of the difficulties come, from what I can see, from bad water management that goes back to the time white man first landed in this vast land.

White man has brought with it animals and agriculture foreign to this land, cleared the land of its trees, and instituted monoculture agriculture of annual crops.These inturn, produced vast areas of extended dessert, like the dustbowls of the USA, and in some salt levels rose to render the land unusable.

With much of the crops going to other lands, Australia has/is in fact, exporting much of its water and, there has been little attention given to harnessing water resources.In the area we living in, for example, there are quite often heavy dark clouds hanging overhead, but there is no cloud seeding; and in years where floods are abound, with farm animal up to their necks in water, there are no dams to collect that abundance.

Drought - Australia

In marginal land
no rain in site
the ground is cracked
like shattered glass

Salt has risen
no plant in sight
cattle and sheep
just wander about

They wonder perhaps
a blade of grass -
will stand up right
or semblance of wet
will denote a site

We uprooted the trees
lay waste the terrain
we destroyed all life
in this our land

© Renate 6.4.06

Renate
Artist, poet & the Author of
 From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country  

http://www.promisedland-renate.com/

Jerusalem today

As promised – Jerusalem of today.

Yesterday was ‘Jerusalem day’, an event celebrated each year not only in Israel but also by millions of people all over the world. The city, which has been for over 3,000 years the capital of the Jewish people, also celebrated yesterday its 40 years reunification into one city again.

During Israel’s war of Independence in 1948, the old city of Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Jordanians, and was annexed, together with what is termed ‘The west bank’, into the Heshemite kingdom.

40 years ago, in the 6 days war, Israel recaptured the old city, and reunified both part of Israel’s capital into one again.

Today, Jerusalem is a modern city. It houses the Kneset - Israel’s Parliament, the Hebrew University, Yad vaShem – the Shoah museum, and many others.

It is a city that sprawls over its seven hills, with all its buildings covered with sand stones.

When you take the bus from the central bus station to the train station, you see the city from its best aspect: You see buildings that glitter in the sun, built on beautiful shaped rounded hills that sit away from one another in the most design perfect distances which please the eyes no end.

Having said this, I am reminded of another good spot – the lookout from where the British mandate’s high commissioner used to live. It was not very far away from where my boarding school was when I was 13 years old. Today, it is a beautiful public park, overlooking the whole of the old city. By the way, you may be interested in the following statistics: Jerusalem appears in the Jewish Bible 669 times and Zion (which usually means Jerusalem, sometimes the Land of Israel) 154 times, all in all - 823 The Christian Bible mentions Jerusalem 154 times and Zion 7 times. in the Koran - not at all.

Hope you enjoyed the above

Renate
Artist, poet & the Author of
 From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country 
http://www.promisedland-renate.com/

New - My Web site is in Cyberspace

Hi to all.

I know, I have promised to write about Jerusalem of today, but I was sitting 16 hours at my computer designing my Web Site. It has taken me much longer than I thought it would and I am sorry to have been ‘off the air’ so to speak, for so long time. BUT - I HAVE MADE IT!

At long last, my website is in cyberspace!!!. It was a long learning curve that has not finished yet, but one that gave me a lot of knowledge in a field I never thought I will even think of tackling…and who said life is boring?…

Well, why not go on to the site by clicking one of these links, and even give me some feedback. I’d love that. Here are those links:

http://www.promisedland-renate.com/

http://www.rinavardi.com/

Even though I am over the moon with that, there is still a lot of work to be done that is behind the scene. However, I can take it now little by little and tend to other things as well.

As promised, I will be writing about Jerusalem of today in my next posting

Hope all is well at your end and that your life is full with activities and interests

Renate

Artist, poet & the author of

'From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country'

Promised land – Jerusalem

When I was asked: “what do you envision when asked what does ‘the Promised Land means to you?’ I saw the covenant between God and Abraham, However, when I thought about it some more, Jerusalem came into mind and has done so ever since.Then I asked myself – why Jerusalem? why not some other place you know in the Promised Land or elsewhere?

Well, Jerusalem was always the focus place of our people.It was the city of King David and the place of the First Temple – the spiritual and cultural and political centre of the Jewish people. A place of pilgrimage, of yearning.

When I was 13 years old I lived in a boarding school located at the fringes of Jerusalem.It was 1944 and we were ruled by the British who got a mandate over the area after WWI. An uncle and auntie of mine, whom I adored, lived in that city, and I used to visit them regularly. As I have written about my childhood impression of Jerusalem in my book, I thought I’d copy some of it here for you:

“As we walk along, I watch the very large and very black Sudanese, in their long white robes, selling their hot pistachio nuts at street corners, and eat the Arab-style, gooey fruit ice-cream one buys on the main street leading towards the Arab section, outside the old city.An ice cream like no other; it stretches like chewing gum and tastes heavenly to boot.

Not so palatable are the many beggars one cannot ignore, most of which are professionals.They start their day at four o’clock every morning and go, like all who go to work, to their allotted begging spots, which they have earned by fighting over them, like cats.Each has his or her specific way of begging, which they teach their children as well.Some even go to such length that they maim themselves or lie across the footpath in the most grotesque way, looking under one’s dress.Many of them become very wealthy, yet continue to live in their accustomed impoverished ways.”

In my next posting I’ll tell you about my impression of today’s Jerusalem, which I visited last year.If you have been to Jerusalem, why not post your impressions? Just click on the comment icon and write.Love to hear from you.

To read more in my book or a reviews about it click the link at the top right hand side under the first photo.

Renate

Artist, poet & the Author of

From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country

The Promised Land & The Gold Coast

Joan’s comment on the subject of ‘what does "The Promised Land” mean to you’ gives a very personal slant to it:

Are you happy where you live?

Are you satisfied with your life, the way it goes?

Joan seems to have found her place, and it is in the Australian City of the Gold Coast.

The City of the Gold Coast, where I live as well, is about 1000km north of Sydney & about 80 km from Brisbane. It is built along the Pacific shores and covers about 57 km of some of the most beautiful white sand beaches in the world. Naturally, it has become a tourist destination to many who love the ocean, the surfing, the bright sum and the not too hot a climate.

The variety in the landscape which is flat, undulating, or hilly with lots of national parks, give us places to visit and picnic and more.

In the last few years the city has developed culturally as well, and the local activities in this field and in the spots are very wide.

The city has about half a million permanent residents, and is one of the fastest growing cities in Australia. Most of us live in private homes built along artificial channels.

With the large number of visitors, we have at all time over a million people here and some of the infrastructure is far from satisfactory, mainly in the supply of water. We have therefore, the last few years, water restriction which is getting more and more severe.

Renate Artist, poet & the Author of

From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country

The Promised Land – what does it mean to you?

Yesterday I went for coffee with some friend and was posed this question.I was asked:with what do you associate this phrase

“The Promised Land”?

What does it mean to you?What reaction or emotion does it trigger within you?What word association does it bring up?

Good question.Never thought about it.For me it always meant the land that was promised by God to Abraham for him and its descendants – the tribes of Israel.

As I started to think about it, I realized that it has become a metaphor, a symbol, an image.

But of what? Of hope? Of Yearning? A place of refuge? Of resting?

A fascinating question - What do you think? What do you feel when posed with this question?. Do think about it and comment. Lets see what you come up with.

Renate

Artist, poet & the Author of

From the Promised Land to the Lucky Country