1) Anastasia's Song - Holland (From Songs From The Women Of The L.O.M) Poem by Otradom Pelogo

On a beautiful afternoon I was walking through downtown Amsterdam; you'll usually find me on either the warmest or coolest day of the year sitting down in one of the coffee shops, usually on the main drag, having a cup of coffee and staring either at or into the people as they walk back and forth past the shop where I usually sit and have a seat closest to the window, watching as they sit on the trains and stare back, trying to get from one place to the next. They, even seeming just like myself as I usually sit there although with way too much to have to do at that very moment.

As I walked pass by her, I would have thought that she was a young American woman either heading to or just coming from the beach, for with long blonde hair tied behind head in a ponytail as if not to get wet, and a red, white and blue bathing suit on, smiling and seeming to be having a nice time. So I stopped to say hello and to talk to her. And I had felt glad when she had decided to indulge me in what I had sought, asking me the questions that I wanted to hear, making me feel like she had truly went out of her way to see me, to be there for me, even when no one else would be there. Somehow being that guardian angel that shows up after everyone else has walked away and not just to console, but to create fully that world that I thought had suddenly slipped away just when I had felt comfortable reaching out for it, a bastion to a freshly built wall between the new life that you have created to go forward, and the old one that you have tried to keep at bay.

Ironically, I just started doing some research on global communities and its multi-faceted perspectives, from the fast paced business journal like Foreign Affairs to the many others that focused on The War In Iraq, to global economics and the government, even books on the royal family of Saudi Arabia and it's more complex role, not only in the global community but domestically amongst its peoples, to the direction the new European Union is heading and how it affects, sees and works with it global neighbors from Russia to the US from sub Saharan Africa to its growing relations with East Asia.

She then began to talk about each, especially being there with the coalition or rather my opinion on its (our) presence there. The Netherlands also was part of the US led coalition. It gave me a chance of hearing what it sounded like, and hearing what others sought when they thought about it and even more ironically enough, part of the answer is just sitting there and talking about it with an impartial understanding, touching over the highs and lows of each side, for the sake of searching for answers, especially when our lives depend on it, at least because of the way our world works and gets along.


Message To The Constituents

We can't transcend life; it must be lived,
Although it's the quest most arduous
I could tell you all that I know, but all
About life, that would be ostentatious

But first the inquisitive spectrum must
Be edified with true integrity
And set ablaze with spiritual as
Well as colloquial hyperbole

Things I learned at five simply amazed me,
At twenty some still seemed farcical
With perspective, tales of devils, and dreams
Of angels are even venerable

Laughing at flaws brings calumniation
Even with capricious approbation
Though resentment is a cohort, a pious
Perspective vetoes ratification

(Because) Respect is a powerful gift, it
Can commute a disposition sardonic
Faith, progression follows, is the second
And the greatest of the prophetic

Answers fall like rain, but in the midst of
Solutions which seem to desecrate
Only good ones are impossible
But none, is an impossible mandate

From the novel Stasis & Poreris, The Confrontation At Kepanni Wai. The last meeting between the Governors (heads of the different sectors on the verge of a major conflict... to remain separated or to reform the union of states.

The Confrontation at Kepanni Wai

Gov. Brenda Push - Governor, I have brought my colleague; a good friend of mine from the Netherlands to help me explain that it would be much better if we rejoined and why.
Anastasia - Governor, the records proves you right; to take a chance after depression would be difficult, but we'll be following in the footsteps of everyone else. The new order will favor those who are willing to invest the most, not those who say the most. Compromise is based on cooperation, but in the union it will be not each man for himself, but at least the three of us working as a team; and because of our relationship in demographics as well as investments, we can either help one another to emerge out victorious or fight like misguided siblings and cause everyone to miss the opportunities which we are now presented with today.

Most sectors fear the possible shifting of leverage, yet a temporary one, that we'll lose once opening up our borders as well as markets; these are just adjustments that must be made to be even more competitive than we are now, and along with that, even much more profitable. But still seeing through the transition phase, for all of us, will be the most difficult event to overcome.

Preferential policies will be at the top of the agenda; letting everyone know that reform and the external shocks due to them, will be taken into consideration; a mandated concern at the top of the referendum. Trade preference will be given to those with the least diverse markets and the ministers of the conference has created a council with members from each region to make sure that each sector will follow the policies necessary to make it through the transition phase. We know from the past that for some, the process itself can be taxing; some sectors and regions will simply consider it much too complicated and costly to follow and thus will abandon them even before attempting to see if it works, and that's where we will apply the necessary attention and seeing that they do. Reasons from acquiring the necessary information alone is one; then they begin to consider the costs of new and parallel accounting systems that will take away from an already struggling government budget and consider what we call reverting in the midst of transition and going back to the old system. Yet we know, which is why we call it a transition phase, that it want happen overnight; transforming from one to the other; but it must be prudently transformed from the existing one while the proper one is being built up; its infrastructure made just a little more efficient and perpetually worked on and seen as part of the institution and not as a transitory adjustment before being abandoned. There will be safety nets that will help support and compensate its people while they are relocated rather than dislocated into a new industry if necessary due to the changing needs of the business and global community.


... And even while this is happening, they will see the number increase in employment, growth of exports, new markets, while policies will be created to protect the interest of special social groups with the help of manipulating tariffs for the smaller and newly developing sectors. Creating a path to a sector that will make it self-efficient and soon be able to mandate its own course along with the rest of the community. The organizations are already there, with more being created as we grow, to support ourselves financially; making loans and credit available, even new bankruptcy policies along with recovery programs to help those that may find themselves in a temporary financial crisis.