Jan de Cock - A Life Behind Bars

 

Jan de Cock – A Life Behind Bars

Jan de Cock of Belgium has spent much if his life behind bars. He has gone from prison to prison. Not because of crimes he's committed, but, instead, because of his passion for good. Jan de Cock has done very much good for prisoners world wide.

Jan de Cock's involvement in prisons started more than 30 years ago. He was in Chile. Jan de Cock was working with street kids. And, getting to know street kids meant getting to know their backgrounds. These backgrounds were pittiful and hard, and, more often than not, directly or indirerectly involved prison. And so, Jan de Cock started visiting prisons. There he got to know inmates. Many were crying for help. Conditions were dire, usually inhuman. Jan de Cock had to do something.

Soon, Jan de Cock's prison visits turned into stays. Not just in Chile, but all over the world. And, Getting into prisons was not always hard. Usually a phone call, a contact, or a letter. There were places, however, where it was simply impossible. China was one case in point.

Jan de Cock was standing in the middle of Tian'anmen Square in Peking. He had an idea. Flowers. Jan de Cock started giving each guard a flower. Attached to each one was a note. Each with the same simple message. Freedom and peace. Things happened quickly. Jan de Cock was arrested, beaten up, and thrown into prison. But, Jan de Cock's success was only short lived. In fact, only 2 days. Jan de Cockwas thrown out of prison and Kicked out of China. Jan de Cock hadn't even said hi to prisoner.

Jan de Cock made many good friends behind bars. One of them was Diego. Diego had murdered a taxi driver. And, what Jan de Cock witnessed was truly amazing. Diego's victim's family visited Diego each Sunday. Diego had donated a kidney to his victim's sister. Diego had saved his victim's sister's life. A strange twist of fate.

Over the years, Jan de Cock has done very much for prisoners world wide. He has raised money for buildings and facilities, and through his books and lectures, Jan de Cock has raised international awareness for prisoner's needs and rights. And, Jan de Cock is still travelling the world.

There is good in us all. Circumstances destroy. Some of us need more help than others.

Jan de Cock – A Life Behind Bars

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Listen to Jan de Cock talking to Nigel A. JAMES

Dada

 

 Dada – A very brief history

Dada was an intellectual movement that started in Zurich in 1916. The world was at war, and neutral Switzerland had become a refuge for artists opposed to the war. And, Zurich, with its colony of foreign free thinking intellectuals, was perfect for Dada. In the summer of 1916, Hugo Ball read his Dada manifesto in the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. Simply put, Dada was against everything to do with the war and against everything bourgeoisie that had led to the start of the war. And, Dada was exciting and always scurile. Dada included poetry, painting,writing, theatre and everything else imaginable, too. And, Dada hit the right note. Dada quickly spread from Zurich to the rest of the world. There were Dada movements everywhere. And, the people involved were impressive. Amongst them, Francis Picabra, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Höch, and very many other fine individualists, too. But, Dada, in its original form, only lasted until 1922. Its reason for being had run out of steam. No war and nothing to object to. And, nowadays, Dada still lives on as a living Dada museum. There are still many Dada groups throughout the world. And, they faithfully continue to put on, perform and recite original Dada. And, the Cabaret Voltaire has become a shrine to the sacred memory of Dada and Hugo Ball. And, why not? Dada, after all, was a movement that burned with a passion of white hot feeling. Dada questioned, rejected and questioned again. Nothing was sacred, not even Dada itself. Dada's demise was due to its attempts at self-regulation and the making of rules. And, that wasn't Dada! Dada was a child of its time that sadly never grew up! And that, in a way, was Dada as well. Nj – 2016