Category Archives: Berlin

Ayurveda, Berlin, health care, plant-based lifestyle, vegansim

How it all began

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In August 2020, I fell off my bike by hitting a high curb on a bridge in Prenzlauer Berg and injured myself badly. A young Indian student was passing by and went to get lengths to help me. When I insisted on carrying on my journey to visit my daughter, he gave me his cell phone number and asked me to contact him in the next few days in order to let him know that I was alright. When I wrote to him a few days later, he invited me to visit his research centre in Berlin where he is writing his doctorate on the subject of DNA sequencing. It turned out to be a very impressive, central location and even the main staircase of the building was designed in the shape of the double helix (see the above photo).

Our conversation on the roof-top café led on to health in general, and it was on that warm, late summer evening that I first encountered Ayurveda. I subsequently read a few books on the subject and was particularly interested in the overlap with plant-based nutrition and veganism.

If you would like to know more, I can definitely recommend the following two introductions: “Ayurveda” by Sahara Rose Ketabi and, for German-speaking readers, “Wie neu geboren durch modernes Ayurveda” by Kulreet Chaudhary.

Since the beginning of February this year, I have tried to follow the 4 – stage detoxification process recommended in Chaudhary book and these have been the results so far:

  • I have lost 7 kg in weight (I wanted to anyways)
  • My previoulsy off-course LDL cholesterol has decreased to an acceptable level
  • My pre-diabetic level of glucose has receded to a non-diabetic level
  • My blood pressure has normalised and I have stopped taking my medication for high blood pressure (under my doctor’s scrutiny)
  • I feel fitter and healthier and my VO2 level has increased to 47.8 (apparently very high for my age)
  • I have generally gone off foods and drinks that are not good for me
  • I feel calmer and more at peace with the world.

The down sides were a phase of unpleasant body odour, skin rashes, a boil on my leg and a nasty bout of gout in my right foot. I can’t prove that these were a result of detoxification, but I think so.

In spite of enthusiastic affirmations to the contrary from fans of Ayurveda, the scientific proof that it works is almost non-existent. Nonetheless, I can without a doubt say that it has worked for me, albeit in tandem with a fairly strict sports regime. Therefore, in the next few blog articles, I’d like to share some tips and experiences from Ayurveda that I have found especially helpful, even, or perhaps especially, during the restrictions caused by Covid-19. Maybe you’d like to give it a try?

“There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” Aldous Huxley

Berlin, Children, God, Newfrontiers

The church destroys families – Part Three

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I am guessing that this may be the final instalment in this short blog series about the church destroying families. If you have missed the first two and would like to read them, please click either here for Part One and/or here for Part Two.

So, I broke off at the point at which, under the heavy-handed guidance of the church leaders, my wife and our two youngest children returned to England, leaving our two oldest children and me temporarily homeless on the streets of Berlin.

When we managed to move back into our old apartment, we had no furniture. The churches who had promised to support our older children for three more months stopped their support without warning. So I had to take out a loan and work the night shift in a gas station in order to provide us at least with the basics you require in a family home. I remember that the early weeks together were a real challenge, not only because my oldest son and daughter were trying to come to terms with the sudden implosion of our family but also because they had made some very unpleasant experiences during the few weeks when they were living on the street. For me, too, I missed our two younger children so badly and wanted desperately to see them.

At this point, looking back, the behaviour of the church leaders becomes more and more absurd, and I still do not fully understand why I went along with all their destructive, controlling and even illegal nonsense.

The church leaders forbad me to have any contact with our younger children. They reasoned that the church was there to protect them and my wife from the pernicious, rebellious behaviour of our two older children and me. Were they to be kept away from us, they may well remain Christians. When I pushed and pushed to see them, however, the church leaders after four months agreed to let me see them, on two conditions. First, I had to agree to meet with the leaders in order to undergo a debrief and disciplinary measures, and  secondly, I had to agree that another couple from the church would accompany my wife and younger children when I met them in England since the leaders were fearful that I would try to abduct them and get them swiftly on a plane back to Berlin.

This fear was explicitly communicated to our younger boys, and especially the youngest expressed his concern that I might kidnap him while we were playing at a farm play park together in Sussex. It was such an emotional time. Our older two children, who had flown with me to England, were so damaged that they could not deal with the situation. Meanwhile, our middle son expressed already a wish to return to Germany, to go back to his Berlin school and to rebuild our family again. In his new school near Hastings, he was constantly bullied for being a Nazi (just because he had arrived as a new boy from Germany) and the school had a policy of teaching three classes together in one large room, which meant that there were at least 45 pupils in one class.

After a very tearful good-bye, our oldest son, our daughter and I flew back to Berlin and we tried to rebuild our lives, now at least with the occasional phone call to England in order to keep up a degree of contact with my wife and the younger boys. For the next few months, it was clear that our youngest son was traumatised and unable to understand why he was being separated from his father and siblings, and our middle son, who still desperately wanted to get back to Berlin, was never given any pastoral care by any member of the church.

Then, after just a few months, my wife called me from England and announced, to my amazement, that she was leaving the church and returning to Berlin with the younger boys. I will never forget the date or the moment as I watched my tears of joy discolour the sofa. Our oldest son and daughter were also very surprised, but we prepared for the return of my wife and younger boys and festooned the apartment with banners and balloons.

My wife’s decision to return to Berlin was regarded as a further act of rebellion by the church leaders and it cost her her friends as well as her church membership. She too, like our oldest two children, had now also rebelled and that would be the end of the road as a Christian woman in that church. A church for which she had given up her life, her family and personal career. To this day, the only people who are still in contact with her are either other rebels who have left the church and joined a new congregation or those whose lives who also been shipwrecked by this church.

It is now four years since all this happened. I believe that all six of us are so grateful and relieved that we have managed to escape the imprisonment of this sect. At first, I never believed that I would lose my faith through all that happened, but in time, I did. When you are trapped in a sect, you really do believe all kinds of abject nonsense and so I am also truly glad that I do not believe in God any longer. Ditching my belief in God has been the most liberating experience of my life.

As we as a family have continued to re-build our lives, there continues to be no contact from either the church in Hastings or the church in Berlin.

Of course I know that the church in itself does not destroy families. It’s just that a blog article needs a catchy headline. What can destroy families is delusional religious beliefs, combined with the social structure of a sect, combined with individuals in a church, who, when all the given external circumstances and internal character weaknesses collide in the wrong way, create the destruction of a family. It’s rather like a chemical reaction: if all of the conditions are right, an explosion will happen.

All as I can say is that I have experienced so much more grace, forgiveness, enlightenment and genuine friendship outside of the church than within it. And as I have written several times before, if my writing this blog can help any others to steer clear of religion and/or to escape a sect, then I will have achieved my aim.

If you are happy in your church, good for you. But if you are not truly happy, maybe you should ask yourself the following questions:

  1. When was the last time you saw a blind person see again, a lame person able to walk, a dead person raised to life?
  2. Why does a loving God allow young children to die in appalling suffering in Yemen or from Ebola in Congo?
  3. Whatever happened to God’s promises about a revival of the Christian faith in which millions of people turn to Christ?
  4. Do you really believe that God sends believing Muslims, Hindus and people of all other faiths to eternal hell?
  5. Are you still struggling with the same sins that you were struggling with ten years ago?
  6. Is any part of you being repressed by your faith in God, especially your sexuality?
  7. How do you really react, deeply and honestly, to the quotation at the bottom of this page? Your reaction will tell you all that you need to know.
“The Christian faith is essentially selfish because it plays on our most basic human fear: the fear of death, the dissolution of our ego. When I accept Christianity’s conditional offer of the salvation of my soul, I am admitting that the world ultimately revolves around me. Religion owes its ongoing existence to this pitiable flattery of personal vanity.”
Berlin, Brexit, European Union, politics, refugees, society, vision

Barmy budget

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This week saw Philip Hammond produce his pre-Brexit budget. A dangerous and hypocritical attempt to support our Dancing Queen, Theresa May’s claim that austerity in the UK has now officially come to an end.

What Mr Hammond announced reminded me of a very poor, unemployed British family that already has enormous debts that it cannot repay and who decide nonetheless to cut themselves off from all their remaining family and friends. Their friends all pull away and don’t even invite them to go to the pub for a drink any more. At the last moment, just as the last friends and relatives are now even blocking their social media connections with this family and deliberately changing their telephone numbers, mum and dad, Theresa and Phil, succeed somehow, by telling lies, in borrowing five times what they already owe and can never repay in debts. One evening, Theresa and Phil tell their obese children at the dinner table, as they are enjoying their unhealthy fast-food dinner, that everything will be fine. Soon afterwards, however, mum and dad die in a sinking ferry in the English Chanel. Shortly after the death of their parents, the four children realise the truth and spend the rest of their lives, in vain, trying to repair the tragic mess they inherited from Theresa and Phil.

The truth is, the Conservative Party has done a predictable volte-face after many years of so-called austerity in order to try to save face as the disaster of Brexit comes ever nearer. In order to create the impression of a wonderfully successful government, Mr Hammond has borrowed enormous amounts of money that the UK can never repay. And he has already committed to spending 97% of the government’s unexpected surplus in tax revenue from recent months rather than invest it or use it to reduce the frightening national debt.

As the nation is about to cut adrift from its only allies, he has plunged the Disunited Kingdom into financial and fiscal chaos. And based on what? There can only be two driving thoughts going through his mind. Either he is hoping for a general election in 2019 that will, thanks to their enormous, fake generosity, keep the Conservative Party in power while the Labour Party remains weak under Jeremy Corbyn. Or he knows full damn well that, should the Labour Party come to power, they will be saddled with such enormous debts that they cannot even try to reboot the economy with their customary application of Keynesian economic principles. Then, since the country cannot recover from all the debt, and after things have got even worse post-Brexit, the Tories of course blame Labour for irresponsible over-spending and economic chaos, they promise yet another chimeric economic recovery from a disaster that they had created, get back into power and the whole childish, cyclical, undemocratic tomfoolery starts all over again.

Meanwhile, across the Chanel, what a contrast is taking place in the Federal Republic of Germany. This week, Angela Merkel stood up before the nation and the world and took personal responsibility for the increasing unpopularity of her decision to allow over one million desperate refugees to enter the country in 2016. As a result, she will be stepping down from the party leadership yet remain as Chancellor until the next general election in order to provide stability in a time of great, global uncertainty. With great power comes great responsibility. What an astute, responsible, honourable and well thought-through response to an increasingly challenging political situation. Imagine Theresa May standing even before the 1922 Committee two weeks ago, taking responsibility for the Brexit nightmare and offering to stand down as party leader whilst offering to lead the country through at least until Brexit is behind her.

I find it so ironic that the UK government is pulling away from the very Community from whom it could learn so much. The ignorance caused by isolationalism is lethal. No man is an island. No leader and no political system is perfect, but in a globalised world, we need one another’s multi-cultural perspectives more and more in order to maximise creative dialectic and in order to hold a mirror up to one another and see our societal strengths and weaknesses from a variety of perspectives.

So, let’s end on a positive note. What could the UK currently learn from its more successful and secure neighbours in order to rise again triumphantly from its prevailing dust and ashes? Here are a few suggestions:

  1. Abolish the monarchy and the House of Lords. Move out of the symbolically crumbling Houses of Parliament with its silly, opposing benches and move into a round building that promotes intelligent debate and genuine democracy.
  2. Introduce teaching about politics in our schools, promote the establishing of alternative political parties and introduce some degree of proportional representation.
  3. Abolish all private schools and invest more money in state-funded education and training.
  4. Take greater responsibility for the environment, including the re-nationalisation of the rail network.
  5. Devolve power from London to the regions, counties, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
  6. Remain in the European Union, adopt the Euro as a currency, embrace freedom of movement by signing up the Schengen Agreement.
  7. Bring in new laws in order to curb social inequality. Has no one ever wondered why May, Hammond, Cameron, Blair, Thatcher are all Oxford graduates? (And I don’t say that out of jealousy because I am one myself).
  8. Reform the National Health Service as opposed to throwing away unbelievable amounts of money into an archaic system that is flawed at the core.
  9. Invest heavily into businesses that actually manufacture products that the rest of the world wants to buy. The UK needs to trade more products, not services.
  10. Finally, understand that we British are not Japanese, who achieve great results by team-work; we are not Germans, who achieve great results by systems and methods; and we are not Americans, who achieve great results – the present political climate excepted – by inspiring leadership and dedicated, creative followers, but we are a curious combination of all these attributes, which combined with a genuinely democratic political system and the right social culture, could with humility achieve results on a par with any other of the world’s leading nations.

“The tragedy for British politics — for Britain — has been that politicians of both parties have consistently failed, not just in the 1950s but on up to the present day, to appreciate the emerging reality of European integration. And in doing so they have failed Britain’s interests.” Prime Minister Tony Blair (2001).

Berlin, Cooking, health care, plant-based lifestyle, vegansim, vision

Choose vegan: Update #4

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Mixed salad topped with tempeh and vegan bacon fricassée

Well, I guess it’s been over three months now since I made the decision to become a vegan and I still have no regrets. I am still enjoying all the benefits and finding that the only disadvantage concerns the amount of time it takes to keep cooking two meals a day if the rest of your family are not vegans.

I am also still discovering new taste experiences from vegan bacon to liquid smoke and nutritional yeast and I have taken up jogging before I go to work in the morning. Although my sole motivation for becoming a vegan was animal welfare, the spin-off has been a loss of 3 kilos in 3 months and a renewed sense of fitness in body and mind.

In recent weeks, perhaps as the result of so many fatal and horrendous “natural disasters”, I have been stumbling across articles about how a plant-based life-style is essential for the protection of our environment.

Among the major issues we face in the modern day are climate change, dwindling natural resources, global health epidemics, and the inhumane treatment of animals. What do all of these problems have in common? Each one is intrinsically linked to, and largely driven by, our global society’s dependence on animal-sourced protein.

As developing nations have gained wealth and worldwide demand for meat and dairy has subsequently risen, the animal agriculture industry has mastered the art of producing animal products en masse in the cheapest, most “efficient” way possible.

As a direct result, the environment, our resources, and all life on earth are now in grave danger. In fact, our obsession with cheeseburgers and chicken wings has brought us into such a disastrous situation that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recently labelled meat as “the world’s most urgent problem.” And this is not an exaggeration.

Industrial animal agriculture is responsible for producing more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector combined. Not to mention this destructive industry is to blame for widespread air and water pollution, plus mass deforestation, all of which are threatening species around the world and rapidly advancing global warming and resultant climate change.

Given the magnitude of the problems associated with industrial meat and dairy production, scientific experts have emphasised that there is simply no way for us to meet the targets spelled out in the Paris Climate Agreement unless we significantly cut back the scale of animal agriculture on an international level. Global problems are never some one else’s responsibility.

I am delighted to say, however, that some global companies are moving in the right direction. Google, for example, has designed their cafeterias to be “plant-forward,” analysing consumer behaviour to encourage their employees (or as they say, users) to consume more plant-based foods and fewer animal products at meal times. And the Human Society of the US’s comprehensive Meatless Monday campaign that has helped 263 school districts provide meatless meals one day a week (and consequently eliminated close to 600,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and saved the lives of 10.3 million land animals in just five years).  This is especially encouraging because we know that changing human behaviour starts with education, whether we’re talking about racial tolerance, understanding that religion is a social construct or animal welfare and protecting our environment.

Furthermore, promoting a plant-based life-style has been a taboo in schools for decades since parents quickly put a stop to it by claiming their children are being brainwashed by radical lefties and animal rights campaigners, an objection which is mainly based on parents not wanting to have to change their own diet and certainly not wanting to have to go to all the extra effort of preparing vegan meals for their children. This objection is certainly not based on empirical evidence or an education that tells the truth about human meat and dairy consumption. I can only hope that this will continue to change thanks to the people in HSUS, Peta and other such organisations.

So, my friends, stopping asking others why they have become vegans and start asking yourself why you are not.

Finally, if you’d like to see the videos that effected this radical change in my life, here they are again:

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”  Albert Einstein

Berlin, Children, God, society

“Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?”

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Addressing worshippers in the Vatican this week, Pope Francis said terminating a pregnancy was the equivalent of getting a hitman to “take out a human life to solve a problem.”

Not that this is anything new. During another preach, Pope Francis has said that abortion is “what the mafia does. It’s a crime. An absolute evil.”

Sarah Cartin, from the campaign group Christians for Choice, branded the Pope’s remarks “absurd”.

She told Sky News: “Pope Francis once again shows complete disdain for women by making absurd and inflammatory statements about abortion.”

And she’s right. How insanely insensitive such comments are for women who have been abused or raped? How dare this old man tell women what they should do with their bodies? His hypocrisy beggars belief. On several counts.

First, when Pope Francis preaches on such issues, he extremely rarely quotes the Bible. He bases his out-of-date and offensive remarks on his personal opinion and occasionally on the handed-down traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. What kind of spiritual leader proclaims the message of his beliefs, however erroneous, without at least quoting the sacred writings on which those beliefs are founded?

Secondly, how can Pope Francis, a man who leads an organisation best known for the systemic sexual torture of countless children worldwide, be heralded as anything other than a steward of hypocrisy is a testament to what people can get away with when they claim to be speaking for God. The insincerity one needs to promote progressive ideals while maintaining draconian practices, like those embedded inside the Catholic Church, is incalculable.

Thirdly,  where does this “knowledge” come from that proves that a human being exists from the moment that a sperm meets an egg? If an acorn is not an oak tree, why is a potential person already a person? In the Jewish religion, you become a person only from the moment of your first breath. For abortion to be labelled as the murder of a human being, the crucial scientific, legal and even biblical facts are categorically missing.

I am not against the notion of protecting the rights of the unborn, but it is not for a man to make imperative declarations or to pass laws on what women can or cannot do with their bodies. No man will ever know what it is like to have to control one’s fertility for over thirty years, let alone to carry a child for nine months, or to experience the pain of childbirth, or to take the major responsibility for the upbringing and care of another human being for the rest of one’s life. The decision to terminate a pregnancy belongs to the mother. Period.

“Abortion is part of being a mother and of caring for children, because part of caring for children is knowing when it’s not a good idea to bring them into the world.”  Katha Pollitt

Berlin, Brexit, European Union, politics, society, vision

Having the time of your life, Mrs May?

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Especially from the perspective of a UK citizen living in Europe, this sabbati horribilis has been so embarrassing and depressing as the shambles of the Conservative Party conference took place in Birmingham.

The Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, compares the European Union to a Soviet prison. Boris Johnson is photographed running through a field of wheat in order to mock the prime minister he is openly betraying.

To crown it all, yesterday we had Theresa May literally dancing on to the stage at the party conference to Abba’s “Dancing Queen.” So was wie peinlich! Quite apart from the fact that Theresa May had to resort to a European, non-British pop song for her cringe-worthy entrance, she chose the wrong one. Abba’s “SOS” would have course been far more appropriate, especially the opening lines: “Where are those happy days, they seem so hard to find, I tried to reach for you, but you have closed your mind …”

All Mrs May could do during her speech was to reflect on the past, to knock her political opponents and to make false promises about there being no further austerity after Brexit. There was no vision, no new policies that would help to move the nation forward, and no movement in her flawed Chequers plan that is splitting her party, the UK and the EU. Yet she boldly claimed, “Let’s say it loud and clear: Conservatives will always stand up for a politics that unites us rather than divides us.”

Can she seriously believe this nonsense? Given a solitary year of majority government for the first time in a quarter of a century, the Conservatives gave the nation the most divisive event that has happened to it in four hundred years, from which it remains entirely unclear how it is meant to recover.  

Mrs May also proudly reminded us that the Conservative party “will put into place a new immigration system that will allow businesses and universities to attract the brightest and best to the UK” whilst ensuring that all low-skilled workers from the European Union and elsewhere will be banned from setting foot on the sinking island.

How ironic and hypocritical, therefore, were Mrs May’s comments about the Conservatives being the only party to give opportunities to the nation. “To dream, and strive, and achieve a better life,” she said. “To know that if your dad arrived on a plane from Pakistan, you can become home secretary.”

Sajid Javid’s dad, an unskilled migrant who worked on the buses, would never be allowed into Britain under the new immigration policies proposed by Theresa May!

Her understanding of democracy is even more nefarious than her understanding of citizenship (see quotation below).

She dismissed talk of a second referendum, which “wouldn’t be a people’s vote, it would be a politicians’ vote, telling people they got it wrong the first time.”

In reality of course, a second referendum would be the people passing verdict on how the politicians have got on with handling the first people’s vote. And that means her. The current numbers suggest that that verdict would be damning. No wonder she can’t uphold what would amount to true democracy.

Ah, well, to my consolation, yesterday, “Der Tag der deutschen Einheit” (German Unity Day), I finally completed my application for German citizenship. Not because I am worried about the personal consequences of a predictably awful Brexit, but because I am ashamed to remain British.

“If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere. You don’t understand what citizenship means.” Theresa May.

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.