Europe in a glimpse

Westminster Abbey, London

When The Jakarta Post asked me to write an article about cities of Europe, I got a little nervous. While Paris, London and Berlin are cities that I have visited and love, I have never been to Italy, nor have I been to Austria and Switzerland.

After some research and thanks to my lovely friends Folke Kayser, Marleen Paeschke and my lovely cousin Renate Heru Utomo, I managed to put together a long article on lovely cities of Europe.

The short version of the article – there is only space for 800 words – will be published in The Jakarta Post (www.thejakartapost.com) on 8th June 2011. At the same time I will publish the full article on this blog. I hope this is useful for the reader.

along River Seine, Paris

A BIG THANK YOU TO RIVERSIDE

Thank you Riverside, for prohibiting the residents to store bicycles
     We now can drive our big engined cars to city centre in five minutes and polluting the Earth at the same time

Thank you Riverside for refusing to install secure bicycle storages
     Those who still stubbornly own bicycles can have extra exercise carrying them up to the second floor on small staircases. Hurrah, let’s ignore health and safety!

Thank you Riverside for butchering the beautiful lavender bushes along with the bird nests and baby birds in it
     For months and months, we enjoyed watching the homeless birds and dying chicks.

Thank you Riverside for leaving the soil on the flower beds empty and full of weeds
     For eight months, the front of our flats looked bare and deserted

Thank you very much Riverside, for prohibiting residents to plant beautiful organic vegetables on your deserted flower bed
     We enjoy your threat that you are going to kill our onions, beetroots, carrots and gooseberries and we love your anti-organic lifestyle

Thank you Riverside, for your “Environmental Policy” that is as good as a big fat lie (http://www.riverside.org.uk/corporate/about_us/corporate_information/policies/environmental_policy.aspx)
     Thank you for reminding us that companies tell bare faced lies, just as evil as corrupt politicians

Thank you ever so much Riverside, for refusing to speak to residents who are non-flat-owners
     You showed us that people who have no money to own a flat are second-class people and not worth listening to

Most of all, thank you so much Riverside for reminding us that evil, tyranny and oppression do not exclusively belong to third world dictators
     Thank you for the reminder that company with big money will triumph while people – especially those who cannot afford to buy your expensive flats – will always lose and suffer

Thank you Riverside. May Mother Earth bless you, your snobbish staff and your big environmentally unfriendly business

Riverside the murderer

Our building management Riverside is going to murder these lovely organic vegetables - in the name of power and capitalism.

They murdered lavender bushes and all the bird nests here before. Worse of all, Riverside personnel refused to talk to non-owners. It means that people who are not rich enough to OWN a flat witin their management are considered to be non-human and not worth talking to.