Monthly Archives: September 2018

Berlin, Brexit, European Union, politics

There is a tide in the affairs of men

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“Nobody is ruling out remain as an option.”

When Keir Starmer made this comment at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool yesterday, it will be no surprise to you that this was music to my ears. Finally, we have a UK politician who is not only bold enough to make this statement but also a man in the making who could lead both a party and the country. The long, standing ovation he received was also a significant sign that the mood in the nation is changing. I would not be surprised if the Labour Party were to approve a motion that included remain as an option.

Meanwhile, as if disconnected from the real political landscape and real human beings, Theresa May grasps on to her Chequers Plan,  knowing that she is a dead woman walking, and Jeremy Corbyn, when asked by Sky TV five times about a second referendum, simply cannot give a simple answer to the question. I do admit that Corbyn did well in his concluding speech at the conference today. He was more confident than in previous years, raised important issues that concern those who Labour has lost to other parties in recent years and his offer to support the Conservatives in the event of a successful Brexit was undoubtedly a sound tactical manoeuvre that will protect the Labour Party in the months ahead.

Nevertheless, he is not the right man at the right time for the UK’s current attempt at kamikaze.

Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar: “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.”

It is my sincere and deepest hope that, while May and Corbyn remain bound in the shallows, a humble and gifted leader such as Keir Starmer recognises the tide and leads the UK back to good fortune, a fairer society and a key European player on globalised stage.

There are still many more interesting days ahead, and who knows what might happen …

“I believe things cannot make themselves impossible.” Stephen Hawking.

 

 

Berlin, Children, God, new writer

The church destroys families – Part Two

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… continued from “The church destroys families – Part One.”

The church I had come to know back in 1991 that had preached grace, family and friendship turned out to be a sect shaped by rabid competition, the male ego and fake relationships.

Tragically, I found myself in the perfect environment for me to blow everything up. For in me there had been a time-bomb ticking away since my childhood about which I had no real knowledge. Until, of course, the bomb went off. It was not consciously a cry for help. I completely lost control. And I am truly sorry.

Once this had happened, there was a rush of hysterical activity amongst the Newfrontiers church leaders. I was disciplined and within 12 hours my existence was deleted from every Newfrontiers church website with whom I had ever been associated.

As you will see, there is no mention of my decade of leadership or the enormous sacrifice our family made to plant a church in Berlin.

My wife was instructed by the church leaders to return the UK with all four children and to leave me on my own in Berlin. While I was out one afternoon, three church members came to my home and removed over 1,000€ worth of my books and other property and all the church members were instructed in no uncertain terms that they were not to have any contact with me. The only couple who refused to obey this command were thrown out of the church which today calls itself Mosaik Kirche Berlin.

A photo of just some of my things that church members stole from me.

My wife was put under so much pressure (church leaders and their wives were flown out from the UK to Berlin to convince her) to return to King’s Church Hastings that she felt she had no choice but to shut down our apartment in Berlin and return to England, even though our two oldest children were telling her that they would not get on the plane unless I went with them. The church in Hastings  paid for the flights for her and our four children as well as for the removal expenses of all our furniture.

However, when the day of departure arrived, our two oldest children, aged only 16 and 14 at the time, did indeed refuse to go with her and so remained literally living on the streets in Berlin for several weeks. The dreadful consequences of this church-induced  rejection and homelessness are still to be felt to this day.

Meanwhile, I secretly went to the airport to say good-bye, in my heart at least, to my wife and our two youngest boys but was caught and even blocked by one of the church members, a very dear young woman whom I had personally brought to salvation and who now works for King’s Church Hastings, and who had accompanied my wife and younger children to the airport. I had been so proud of this young woman and had loved as my own daughter. Solely out of respect for her, I decided to leave the departure area and went to the top of the airport car park from where, with my face drenched in tears, I watched the EasyJet plane take off, believing that I would never see them again.

A secret photo, taken on 1st October 2013, of the EasyJet plane on which my wife and two youngest children left me in Berlin. I call it to this day “Der fliegende Sarg” (the flying coffin).

I was subsequently reprimanded by the Newfrontiers leaders for being so stupid, selfish and unrepentant as to go to the airport.

These same leaders also told me that I was to have no contact with any of my children, not even the older ones. Out of a mixture of fear, bewilderment, sadness and guilt, I initially obeyed. Then one morning, my daughter contacted me by SMS, asking to meet up with me, and my paternal instinct suddenly overcame my obedience to the sect. At this time, I too was living as a tramp under railway bridges on the streets of the city, next to drunken old men masturbating into their sleeping bags, and the entire remains of 53 years of my life as a christian Oxford graduate could be found in a locker at Berlin Alexanderplatz station.

The locker no.25 at Berlin Alexanderplatz in which I stored the only “property” I had left with which I lived on the streets with the homeless.

By the way, not one single friend from the church I had started and sacrificed our lives for in Berlin made contact with me, except for the couple who had been thrown out. And just like David Stroud, the so-called Newfrontiers apostle to the UK churches, who had sent us to Berlin, never once visited us, so the current leader of King’s Church Hastings, who would never have been appointed as a leader there, had it not been for my heavy intervention with Newfrontiers apostles, never came to Berlin to help me through this devastating crisis. A betrayal that reveals the ugly level of devoid-of-relationship, personal ambition involved. And actually, the Newfrontiers apostles were right. This man has transformed the church from a pioneering, exciting, Holy-Spirit-charged, working class, mission-orientated church to a comfortable, middle class, sheep-stealing, politically project-oriented church that will inevitably go the way of Wesleyism. And I only just realised whilst writing this blog post, that  most of the current leadership team,  were discipled by me and not by him. He hasn’t even brought one single person that he has personally discipled into leadership. Fail.

Meanwhile, grace, understanding and genuine friendship were all to come instead from secular people, in particular the parents of my children’s friends. With their advice and support, I quickly built up the contact with our two oldest children and soon the three of us made arrangements to return to our former, empty apartment.

Slowly, we began rebuilding our lives. My two oldest children tried to get back into school, I continued to work to provide for them and I managed to buy enough new furniture for us to get by in our old home. Whatever happened, we had to remain there for 3 months until the rental contract came to an end.

At this time, I asked the leaders of the Newfrontiers churches who had been supporting us with the new church in Berlin for 3 months’ financial support so that we would not get into debt until we could downsize our apartment. I was told at first that they would help us. I still have this assurance in writing from a leader who was nicknamed “the old woman” by other, even so-called apostolic, leaders.

The promise of financial help for my children for just three months, after all that they had endured for the sake of Newfrontiers church mission, that never materialised.

However, all the financial support was withdrawn without any notice a week later and my children received no support, mainly on the grounds that they were rebellious sinners who should have obeyed their leaders and gone back to England with their mother and two brothers.

To be continued …

“To be fair, much of the Bible is not systematically evil but just plain weird, as you would expect of a chaotically cobbled-together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and ‘improved’ by hundreds of anonymous authors, editors and copyists, unknown to us and mostly unknown to each other, spanning nine centuries.” ― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Berlin, health care, tourism, vision

VanMoof Electrified S

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I am a UK citizen but have  been living in Berlin for the last 8 years. I have been a keen cyclist since a teenager but have got even more into cycling since moving to Berlin. I cycle from north Spandau to Prenzlauer Berg every day (roughly 38 km a day or last year 9.800 km in a year).

My third bike got stolen recently and on the night I went to my local bike repair shop in Gleimstraße to buy a replacement, I happened to see this cool dude on an amazing bike outside the Schönhauser Allee Arcaden. I knew that this was the bike I wanted, had no idea that it might be electric etc. I didn’t even remember the name right (thought it had a “Z” in it) so couldn’t find it on the internet. In the end I searched for “Fahrrad mit Lampe im Rahmen” and I found the bike straight away. When I read the vision of the company on their website, I was overwhelmingly convinced that I had found the right bike. Then I discovered that the only branch of Van Moof was in my Kiez! So I went there and I have to say that the customer service/sales team were outstanding.

Now comes the honesty moment. I on purpose tried a non-electrified Vanmoof before trying the Electrified S, thinking that the latter would outshine the former. In reality, I preferred the non-electrified version since I am used to changing gears and feeling in control. Plus I love the bonus of daily exercise for my health. Somehow, however, perhaps in part due to the 30 day opportunity to change one’s mind, I decided to take a risk and to go for the Electrified S. I freely admit that this decision was guided also a bit by the desire for prestige and wanting to turn some heads (which the bike in an understated way definitely does).

After just a few days I was totally convinced. The bike is superb in every respect. The attention given to detail is truly amazing. Design: amazing. The quality of the parts: amazing. Riding position and comfort, even without suspension over cobbled streets: amazing. I still get my daily exercise, however I am constantly travelling at 30 km/h and nearly as fast uphill or against the wind. It’s a great experience for anyone who needs to get around a city like Berlin. I am a single parent father with four children, yet I am easily able to do the daily shopping with the carriers attached to the rear bike rack.

By the way, the app is also good but a bit glitchy and has masses of room for exciting development. And the “peace of mind” warranty does what it says. If your bike gets stolen, thanks to the built-in GPS, the VanMoof guys go looking for it. If they can’t find it, you get a new bike. Simple.

I have also noticed that this wonderful cycling experience comes with a health warning! I can’t help noticing how both car drivers and pedestrians are not accustomed to bikes travelling so fast! Hence, cars so frequently cut you up because they do not realise how fast you are travelling and pedestrians, who often do not hear you coming, are also shocked and step out unexpectedly right out in front of you, so you have to be much more alert than when you are riding an ordinary bike.

Conclusion: if you live in a city and you like cycling and you have some money to spare, buy a VanMoof Electrified S. You won’t regret it.

“Cycling is possibly the greatest and most pleasurable form of transport ever invented. It’s like walking only with one-tenth of the effort. Ride through a city and you can understand its geography in a way that no motorist, contained by one-way signs and traffic jams, will ever be able to. You can whiz from one side to the other in minutes. You can overtake £250,000 sports cars that are going nowhere fast. You can park pretty much anywhere. It truly is one of the greatest feelings of freedom once can have in a metropolitan environment. It’s amazing you can feel this free in a modern city.”  Daniel Pemberton

 

Berlin, Brexit, European Union, politics

Abuse of democracy

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Theresa May wrote last weekend in “The Sunday Telegraph”  that she is determined to get the best Brexit terms for the UK, that there will definitely be no second referendum on the issue and that she will deliver the will of the British people.

Meanwhile, Michael Barnier has made it very clear last weekend that the terms of the Brexit deal that Mrs May is proposing are completely unacceptable.

On Monday morning, Boris Johnson wrote, also in “The Telegraph”, that the UK will get a very bad deal out of this “war” with Europe and the UK will “remain in the EU taxi, but locked up in the boot.”

Apart from the disastrous consequences of any form of Brexit, I remain very concerned about the general abuse of democracy that is at the root of this mess.

First off, as I have written before in this blog, the UK is very far from being a functioning democracy: unelected “representatives” in the House of Lords, a first past the post electoral system with moveable, electoral boundaries, laws passed by two opposing parties screaming verbal abuse at one another, and so on.

Secondly, Theresa May talks stubbornly about delivering the will of the British people. Quite apart from wondering how this woman, who opposed Brexit two years ago, can now try to deliver something that she doesn’t really believe in, why does she pretend to be deaf to the voices of the majority of the UK who now regret the Brexit vote and want a second referendum? She is obviously a disciple of Winston Churchill who once wrote that  the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

The older generation, who ignorantly voted for Brexit, now realise that they, unlike the younger generation, will not have to live with the devastating consequences of Britain leaving the EU and are open to a second vote. They realise now that the anti-european posturing of the gutter press over the decades was actually all lies. The younger generation, many of whom are usually not that interested that in politics, now realise that they should have taken part in the referendum and want a second chance. Those in the middle now realise that, as a result of the terrible way in which the negotiations are being handled, Brexit will be a disaster and they too would prefer a second referendum. Millions of Britons, from successful entrepreneurs such as Euan Sutherland to the GMB are now rightly calling for a second referendum.

I only hope that Theresa May, whose political career has been over for many months now, has an epiphany and gives the British people want they really want: the opportunity to say that they have made a mistake and that they would like second chance to put things right before more multi-nationals move their offices and factories to Amsterdam and Frankfurt. And before an already flailing economy descends into dramatic recession.

If this does not happen, the UK, Europe and large parts of the world will remain increasingly polarised. More Obamas will become Trumps, more Mays will become Johnsons. We will see more Putins, Erdogans and Assads emerge on the political stage while racism and brutality increase on our streets.

Come along, Mrs May, stop hiding your political failure behind your abuse of the word “democracy” and give the British people what they want. History will honour you for it.

“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.”  Franklin D. Roosevelt.