Getting older (29-11-24)
Another year has passed and we are older. In your youth, time seems to stand still, later it goes so fast that you realize that a human life is just a coming and going. At the turn of the year we hope for better, but that seems to be a vain hope. It seems to be getting worse and worse, as evidenced by the many bomb shelters that are being built. It's better not to follow the news.
- Pedophiles are released with a hefty pocket money because of a procedural error.
- Asylum seekers who, at our expense, go on holiday to their country of birth, which they fled earlier because it would not be safe.
- Job-shy thugs who set fire to a train will not be prosecuted for not having a place in prison and still not getting anything.
- The good, hard-working citizen who drove a little too fast on a deserted road will be ruthlessly fined. In the first 9 months of 2024, 768 incidents involving explosives were registered in the Netherlands. In the event of explosive attacks, family feuds that are settled with it, neighbors' quarrels resolved, ...
HORRIBLE
Putin says his latest missile, which is ten times faster than the speed of sound, does NOT YET contain nuclear weapons. NOT YET.
A professional pigeon fancier who wins the 1st prize in the club with his 231st nominated? The collective madness worldwide has reached a chilling stage. Nothing scares me anymore. I saw the Belgian national team fiddling, plodding and fumbling around. The same team that I was able to enjoy so much only a short time ago. Names of footballers in the Netherlands such as Naujoks, Eddohcourri, Kelian Nstona Wa Saka, Nabil El Basri, Mbuyamba, Bial Ould Chikh, Sayf Ltaif. I just can't get used to it.
CRIME
Not to mention today's crime.
Romanticism has completely disappeared from this ‘industry’.
What is left of the man who managed to rob your house without violence so that you could survey the disastrous emptiness with a mixture of anger but also a little respect? In my childhood you sometimes came across such a dark person with a cap and mask who moved stealthily with an ordinary flashlight.
And then you knew: There goes a thief, such a small self-employed person. Full of nostalgia you sometimes think back to that old-fashioned intruder who managed to take money out of your jacket next to your bed while you were quietly snoring. Those were professionals. Endearing.
Nowadays they ram into the facades of banks in broad daylight. If there are deaths, they are surrounded by welfare workers and psychiatrists. Worried, they ask such a murderer whether he has not hurt himself in the crime, whether he has not had an unhappy childhood, whether he can be helped with anything. The judge asks the criminal in return whether he does not want to help by not reporting for a prison sentence for the time being because of a shortage of cells.
There is one thing you should not do in this country: Fool the tax. 'Yes', you may be thinking, 'and that is precisely the only crime I can still understand a little.' Don't do it. The state is allowed to rob with impunity. You may not do anything to prevent this.
ALSO INSANITY
For young pigeons that have never been basketted before, 125,000 euro is paid. For real Supers more than a million.
But why do you think people want to get rid of pigeons of three or four years old on the internet? You also see more and more that in reports about pros and in sales lists the number of basketed pigeons is no longer mentioned. Something to hide?
And always those names and races. This works mainly abroad. The question is for how long.
HEALTH
What does 'get along' is turning pills. Nowadays you are inundated with literature that deals with health. If you do everything that is recommended you will live to be 150, or so they want to believe, it seems. I don't have to. My 100 meters is not what it used to be and there are also the statistics that you have to respect.
So I don't follow the advice of those healers.
I don't feel like looking for healing herbs on the side of the road until I'm 150 and I don't want to live to be 150 either.
100 is beautiful enough not to feel lonely among the youth of 80 or so. But trading in health is cash register.
Give your fellow man the illusion that he can no longer be beaten to death if he drinks certain herbs and he is willing to sacrifice his last savings.
To get a tan, for a calm feeling, sagging breasts, dry hair, there is something for just about everything, 'scientifically composed' based on herbs from the virgin forests of Brazil'. The credulity of fellow human beings is so great that I consider some capable of wearing a checkered cap when they read somewhere that it increases their bed performance.
WE TOO
Disturbing also what is on the market for 'the well-being' of our pigeons. As if they would fall back steeply dead of misery without that rubbish. Beware of those brokers of gaps in the market. They are already looking forward to possible failure in the coming spring because they know that you will then look where you should not look for it. Leaving aside the honest sellers and their products of course.
LITTLE SUN
East Flanders alone had 29,000 fanciers in 1980, now half of Belgium. Still enough to play with pigeons, but we can't have much more.
We need to be more in the media, work together more and, above all, stay away from shrinking clubs as much as possible. Every week maybe only 10 people come to basket, drink a pint, talk about pigeons. Some don't even have a car. Remediation is good. Basketting rooms for national races are also restrictive, but allow the little fancier in that small club in that cosy café to have fun.
ALSO WE
Disturbing is also what is on the market for the 'welfare' of our pigeons. As if they would fall backwards to death of misery without that rubbish. Still, beware of those brokers of gaps in the market. They are already looking forward to possible failure in the coming spring because they know that you will be looking where you should not look. Leaving aside the honest sellers and their products.
HUMOR
Many clubs nowadays have a group app. People want to keep in touch, even in winter and that's fine. In 2024, there is too much 'doom-mongering' and too little laughter! And it is mainly the atmosphere in the club that determines how many stay and which way the sport will go. Or am I getting too old?
