And down came the Berlin Wall

Wow, it's already 20 years since the wall came down. Still feels pretty recent though.

I went to visit Berlin last year and was impressed by the speed at which the city has been rebuilt. I love that city, totally different from Paris but really great.

As my girlfriend was from East Germany, we went to see the family in East Berlin and then further in former East Germany, and that is where we got to see what communism did to those places.

They were run down, dirty and amazingly ugly. There was just no space for creation, for artists or for being different. I am posting a picture below which will give an idea of what I mean. And yet, Dessau the city I was in, was one of the hubs of the Bauhaus design movement! Modern design, art-deco all that came after the Bauhaus which was a turning point in design.

While Berlin is better than Dessau - the eastern part of Berlin still bears some serious scars from the communism era.

Well all this Berlin Wall talk, reminds me of the relief that I personally felt when the wall came down. It's odd that as a teenager in a different country (and I wasn't a super responsible teen) I personally felt a relief when this happened.

I guess this is part of the Dynamics that Hubbard mentioned in the book Scientology: A New Slant on Life on the chapter The Eight Dynamics.

Well it's great to celebrate more freedom!

Typical building - 20 years after the wall came down!

News on the Scientology case in France

The verdict of this morning was a fine to a Church of Scientology in Paris and several of the members plus a suspended jail sentence for some members. The case is being appealed and we will see what happens then. In my opinion the biggest part of this case is that the government cancelled the law permitting it to ban a religious group for the mistakes of one person.

That is a major step forward for human rights in France which has had a tarnished history when it comes to minorities (religious and otherwise). Despite a very gory revolution, tyranny came back in power only a few years later. And even though that revolution brought the first declaration of Human Rights - the country has never been famous for ensuring these rights are followed. But I believe this is a major step in the right direction.

As the case goes to appeal now we will see later how it will progress. This isn't the first time Scientology goes to court in France, nor in any other major country in the world. Spain took 17 years, Italy took about 20, US took more than that.

What really matters is what Scientology and other religious minorities do for society. The actions such as drug prevention, literacy campaigns, disaster aid and personal help to the followers make Scientology and other minorities continue to exist and expand.

Lily Allen Concert at Le Zenith in Paris

Last night I went to see the Lily Allen concert at Le Zenith.

Great concert and a great hall. Le Zenith fits about 6000 or so people so the crowd was not too big. It's a major difference to the big bands like Coldplay, U2 etc who fill stadiums and if you're not in the crowd you are just not going to see too much.

As the seats were not numbered we went early so we could catch good places. We came at about an hour early and the hall was only one quarter full. I was worried the concert would be empty, but it filled up.

By the time the warm up band came on the hall was totally full. Then Just Jack came on and the show began. I wasn't sure what to expect from them, but was pleasantly surprised. In fact I found them much better on stage than on their studio recordings. They had punch and life and really got the crowd going.

Here is a nice recording (not mine - all my photos and recordings were so bad I had to trash them) of them doing their song "The Day I Died"



Just Jack managed to get the entire crowd on their feet at the end of their show which was quite a feat. So hat's off to them.

And after them, wait...

Stage gets set up and finally Lily Allen comes on: (another video I didn't take).


She announced that she had been sick all week so her voice may be slightly croaky. But we didn't care - we wanted to see her sing. She also announced that this was her first major concert on her own and with her own big stage so we had to get this one done with her. Which we all agreed to.

She did, Oh My God by Kaiser Chiefs which was awesome, Naive by the Kooks and Womanizer by Britney Spears in addition to all her songs of course.

Lilly does "Smile"


Overall the concert was great. The worst part was probably the two people in front of us who really could have done with some deodorant.

All the best for the rest of the tour Lily.

The Way to Happiness as a Feature length film!

I was just told about the brand new "The Way to Happiness" Feature Length film! Wow, needless to say I am excited to get my copy. It was just released in East Grinstead, at Saint Hill for the 25th Anniversary of the International Association of Scientologists.

The booklet is a tremendously practical guide to life, not proselytizing for Scientology or any other religion, but just based on common sense and not in an authoritarian way. I think we are all tired of being told, you musn't do so and so and you must do the other.

The Way to Happiness is practical and useful, and it's up to date with society.

As soon as it is up on their site you can order it from here: New Era Publications Official Website or click on this links that go through their Paypal site: http://bit.ly/1twthDVD

Nobel Peace Prize to Obama

I must say I was rather astonished to hear that Obama was awarded the Nobel peace prize. I sort of confused me that someone who has just started working on peace is already being awarded the most famous prize for the subject.

If he had ended the war in Iraq and Afganistan and invested the hundreds of millions being spent there every day into the economic crisis I would have understood. But none of that happened, the war is still going on.

Now this post isn't for or against Obama, but rather on the subject of rewarding people for products achieved. There's a concept I grew up with in Scientology which is that rewards, recognitions, recompense etc are all given based on quality products achieved. And there's a balance between quality and quantity.

There are hundreds of people who have done things for peace and surely many would have earned the award. On the other hand with two major wars going - maybe the prize should be given to the one who stops these wars.

PS: Isn't it ironic that the most famous Peace Prize was created by the one who produced the dynamite for which wars are the biggest consumer.

Scientology named a religion on French soil

I just read the following article from Associated Press and thought it was quite interesting. The interesting part being that the decision was taken on French soil. Need I say more...

Scientologists win rights case against Russia

(AP) – 6 hours ago

STRASBOURG, France — Russia's ban on the Church of Scientology is illegal, the European Court of Human Rights said Thursday in a binding ruling.

The court said Russia cannot ban the Church of Scientology just because it has not been in the country for long and awarded each of the groups euro5,000 ($7,270) in damages. The groups together also received euro10,000 ($14,500) for costs, which they shared.

The case was brought to the Strasbourg-based court by two Russian Scientology branches that were refused listing as "religious organizations" because they have not existed for at least 15 years as required by Russia's Religions Act.

Though Scientology is not widely seen as a religion in Europe, the court said it was making its judgment based on national law.

The Russian Scientology branches — one in the city of Surgut, the other in Nizhnekamsk — had originally taken their case to Russian courts but lost.

The Church of Scientology of Russia said the ruling "sets another important precedent to protect the rights of all other religious communities in Europe," according to a statement from spokeswoman Nina de Kastro.

In 2007, the Moscow Scientology branch Moscow won a case in the Strasbourg court. The St. Petersburg branch has a case pending.

The Strasbourg court issues rulings based on the European Convention on Human Rights that are binding on the 47 member states of the Council of Europe.

The Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology, founded in 1954 by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, claims to have 10 million members in 165 nations.

It has been active for decades in Europe, but has struggled to gain status as a religion. Belgium, Germany and other European countries see Scientology as a cult or sect.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

How to connect Clavinova to Mac Garageband

Recently I bought a Yamaha Clavinova piano with the intention to get a Mac so I could use Garageband or other music software and have some fun composing music with tracks etc.

So today when I finally got my iMac and tried to connect the Clavinova I had a cold chill for a second as I just could not get the Mac to even see the piano. It was actually pretty simple to fix but it wasn't very clear so I thought I would post the solution.

I have a Clavinova CLP-330 and an iMac with OS X.

There is no need to buy special midi adapters etc.

1. Connect the regular USB cable to the piano.
2. Download and install the USB-MIDI Driver for Mac OS X on the following link: http://www.yamahasynth.com/downloads/drivers_software/stage_pianos/cp300/driver/
3. Install it on your Mac.
4. Restart the Mac.
5. Launch Garageband. 

And that is all.

The driver doesn't specifically mention that it will work with the CLP-330, but it does.

So there you go. I hope this helps anyone who isn't sure about this in the future. You don't need to purchase the midi adapter (Yamaha UX16 or other). It works straight from the piano.

And once you've done that and you're ready to make some music. I suggest some great reading on music and rythm. Ron the Music Maker: http://www.ronthemusicmaker.org/music/contents.htm