Vietnam

Letter to Obama by Agent Orange victim Trần

June 27, 2013 By Atalwin Pilon 2 Comments

The effects of the chemical campaign against the people, the land and the animals of Vietnam are still lasting. You can see many disfigured people crawling over the markets or children lying drooling in the back of a shop. Dioxins are made to last, if poison that is used against people and nature would be biodegradable it would be useless, wouldn’t it. Luckily companies like Dow Chemicals and Monsanto have understood such things and made sure they delivered poison of the highest quality.

I saw a letter on the wall of the exhibition and I found it in the internet too. I want you to read that letter. It is written in 2009 by a Vietnamese women of 23 back then, 27 today. I feel she deserves it that we read her letter.

A powerful meeting in Hanoi

June 19, 2013 By Atalwin Pilon 4 Comments

The fan is cooling me. Kind of. I am shirtless, sweaty and surrounded by backpackers. I am on on the 5th floor of the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel, the communal space with internet access, a pool table and couches with young, sweaty kids reading books, staring in their phones or preparing their bags as they are heading off to their next destination. I have a bag of lychees within reach.

I feel quite emotional, stirred up. As if I can start crying any minute. These are the times that I want to write because I know I have a chance to dig up something essential. I can feel the knot and I know I can untie it. And I am not too afraid of crying in public. But a little bit more peace and quiet around me would be helpful. So I want to write and I do not.

Goodbye Shakti Princess

June 14, 2013 By Atalwin Pilon 4 Comments

The past 6 weeks I spend with the girl who I met a year ago in India when we both attended a tantra course. At the time we both weren’t available but unexpectedly ‘something happened’ during one of our Skype calls months later. Somewhere in January, when I was in Colombia, I decided to do whatever necessary to meet her, which meant going to the other side of the world and coming up with plans how to finance that along the way. I went from Colombia to Argentina, from Buenos Aires to New York and from New York to Hong Kong. We finally met in Thailand.

All this time I referred to her as the Shakti Princess and she called me her Shiva Warrior.

Are you ready to become a Warrior?