Imagine, and be an artist in 2012 and beyond

Imagine a world in which its leaders talk about space exploration, about new supersonic commercial planes, about cheaper gasoline, or even about new energy source. Imagine a world in which success is not measured by money, and in which weapons sales is not the most lucrative business. Imagine a world without capitalism and communism. Imagine a world without hedge funds and credit default swaps.

Imagine a world in which you are not told that you must consume and be obedient. Imagine a world without United States of America and European Union. How about the world in which George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice are serving life sentences for war crimes. Imagine a world in which banks are regulated and all corporate banksters are in prison.

Imagine a world in which former colonial powers return everything they stole to their rightful owners. And they take back their dirty technology.

Imagine a world in which Palestine exists instead of Israel. Imagine a world in which you would be allowed to say this without fear of prosecution.

Imagine a world in which Iran recognizes Israel and Jews and Palestinians live in country without walls.

Imagine a world in which Bradley Manning and Julian Assange are given Nobel Prize for a peace. Imagine a world with Walmart goods manufactured in USA. Imagine a world in which Gary Kildall is CEO of Microsoft.

Imagine a world in which you actually talk to people, instead of texting them.

Imagine a world in which rare metals are mined in USA again.

Imagine a world in which our cultures didn't engage in a Faustian bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for stability.

Imagine a world in which great power really means great responsibility. Imagine a world in which Chinese president is chosen by common Chinese people.

Imagine a world in which Barack Obama keeps his word. Imagine a world in which this same president talks to Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Raul Castro, Kim Jong-un and Hugo Chavez.

Imagine a world in which residents of country called United States Of America can freely travel to Cuba.

Imagine a world without Guantanamo Bay.

Imagine a world in which Japan apologizes to China for WWII crimes and Nanjing.

Imagine a world in which someone from Busan boards a train and goes to Beijing.

Imagine a world in which you won't be called a leftist because you care about others.

Imagine a world in which you won't be called a right wing assh...ole because you tell hard, cold truth.

Imagine a world without walls.

Imagine a world without fear.

You can also imagine a world in which we as species, have been replaced by apes.

There are so many imagines I could write about.

All of these things might sound like a dream, but in many cases dreams come true. All of us witnessed first changes in our world, from Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Israel, Libya, Portugal, Greece, UK, USA, Canada. The protesters started a global wave of dissent.

These protesters belong to young generation, and this young generation is awakening. They want to send people to Mars, they don't want a war with Iran. They want to make nuclear fusion usable. They want to build a world that might resemble Gene Roddenberry's vision.

They don't care about reality TV shows and mainstream media 'news'. They are engaged into real issues.

The world we grew up with is a mess. It's falling apart at the seams and a lot of people I care about are in pain because the things we thought would work don't. Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to hold it back. They have become victims, pawns in a senseless system that uses them up and undervalues them.

It is time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. Stop settling for what is good enough and start creating art that matters. Stop asking what's in it for you and start giving gifts that change people. Then, and only then, you will have achieve your potential. And all of us will get the world we dream about.

It is the end of 2011, and for more than 250 years, we've been seduced, scammed, and brainwashed into fitting in, following instructions, and exchanging a day's work for a day's pay. That era has come to an end and just in time.

You have brilliance in you, your contribution is valuable, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must. I'm hoping you'll stand up and choose to make a difference.

There will be a day when your kids will ask you: "What did you do when the world was changing?"

Be an artist in 2012 and beyond.

Christmas Cards

Ever since we've got all the computer technology, and ever since we've become more technologically advanced, I've been getting less and less postcards. "We", in this context, are these lonely people from this lonely and amazing planet, a species that has become proud of all advancements that we have achieved.

There has been this great digital divide that has produced uber lazy humans. They want to do everything just by "clicking" once or twice, without much thinking. They hide behind their desktops, laptops, netbooks, playbooks and who knows how are all these other new devices called.

We've become amused to death again, 26 years after Neil Postman said that in his book, this time we've become stupefied to death.

Where are the interesting questions? They are gone too - beside postcards and Christmas cards extinction, questions became extinct too - nobody is asking interesting questions anymore. That means there are no interesting answers. Or better to say there are no answers at all. Everybody asks questions that they can "google", and after they click once in their browser they'll get their answers. That's why I challenge everyone to ask me a question I cannot google, or to be more precise, to ask me an interesting question that Google won't answer well. When I ask humans this question about asking this interesting question, I usually get a smile, and a bit of confusion, and than a question:"How am I going to ask you that??"

Uber lazy humans stopped thinking and all what is left are mediocre questions. OK, to be fair, in many instances I am one of these uber lazy humans, as I use google algorithms to get what I need. This is about being effective and efficient.

Still, I send my postcards and my Christmas cards. Every time when I am travelling I look for postcards, I buy them, I write couple of sentences there and send them to humans that matter to me. I love them deeply because if they were not there, I wouldn't have anyone to send those postcards.

And then, sometime in every November, I go and buy Christmas cards. I choose them carefully, some of them only have 'holiday' greeting, as some of people I love don't celebrate Christmas. I buy the cards, and I feel them in my hands - they are tangible, they have their weight, texture, scent...They are alive, they are more than sets of zeros and ones. Later at home, I write to people I love. I write couple of sentences to each one of them - I always want them to know that I think about them and that I am thankful that I can write to them.

Since I started doing this, and that was a long time ago, the number of Christmas cards I write to people I love every year is smaller. Some of people I loved left this lonely and amazing world, and their addresses were not reachable anymore. Certainly there were other new people who I started loving in the meantime. I hope there will be more new people I love than people who leave.

All of their addresses are written in my brain. I remember them all. When I write the addresses on the postcards, it feels as I am there, at their far destinations. I see their faces too, people that I love, and I always imagine how their faces will look like when they get my postcards and my Christmas cards. It will be something different, not that advanced, I know, and perhaps they'll have to abandon their digital gadgets for a little bit to read couple of sentences written by a real pen, with a real hand, that come from a real heart.

People ask me why I write my postcards and my Christmas cards. I say:"If you could take my youth and hold it in your hand...you would understand".

(At the end I want to pay a tribute to humans who are not lazy and who are aware. You know who these people are).

Kristallnacht in America

I came naive to North America. I was certainly green and I didn't posses knowledge of this foreign world. I certainly didn't know what was real and what was fabricated. I knew what I saw in their films and what I read in their books.

Much of that was brilliant. It took me some time to realize that this art that opened my eyes was created by people who didn't belong to so called "mainstream" movement. They were real artists, their creations were not measurable, they resisted to become drones.

In order to really assess what North America was, I had to see and experience it with my own eyes. I had to live a life in North America to paint a real picture. This real picture, it turned out was not pretty. It was quite opposite to what was presented by the drones who were supported and created by North American regimes.

My brilliant friends have been opposing North American regimes. They have been very lonely in their quest. At the same time they have been very resilient. They've taught me that I should never want to belong to the majority, because by definition, there were already too many people there. On the other hand, minority was the right spot for me.

Through the years, I have been tempted to question everything I've learned before I came to North America. I've been also tempted to question everything I've learned from brilliant North Americans.

The regime wanted me to believe that "greed was good', that there were enemies in every part of the world, and that every other part of the world was inhabited by terrorists. This regime also wanted me to betray real skills that I inherited from my parents and my family - they've never liked my honesty, genuineness and my maturity. They wanted me to lie, to be fake and arrogant, and naive. They wanted me to be unattached.

They wanted me to blindly believe in their freedom and their democracy, in their buzz words and their creations.

They wanted me to see Iranian, Cuban, Russian, Chinese, North Korean, Bolivian, Belarus, Palestinian people as enemies. They've spread lies about these people, and they wanted me to hate them.

I learned what was 'right', what was 'left', and I learned why they have been talking so much about 'freedom' and 'democracy'.

The more they pushed with their propaganda, the more I questioned their motives. I started learning on my own. I started learning who real enemies actually were. I resisted this "amusement to death". I stopped watching their media, only using it for entertainment and to collect proofs about North American regimes crimes.

Real artists that I've learned from continued to deliver their astonishing work, and I was pretty lucky to befriend some of them. However, there were less and less of them - they've got replaced by the regime 'artists'. I knew that the regime has become nervous.

In the meantime, something happened in the land of freedom and democracy. Their own people started getting real motives of their regime masters. These people have been asleep for many years, but now, it seemed, they started waking up.

They've finally got it. They started their revolution to overthrow the regime.

The regime got confused and didn't understand what was going on. I expected that, as drones cannot understand artists.

I was raised to believe that there was justice, equality, and freedom. I lived through that before I came to North America. I was pure and I was not poisoned. The regime tried to pollute me, and tried to enslave me.

They wanted me to be like their drones.

However, I was lucky and smart to recognize regimes intentions. I was lucky to meet all those artists who helped me resist the regime.

Last night we've seen Kristallnacht again, and we've seen some of regime's soldiers. That was one of the first tipping points that will trigger more tipping points. That was start of the end of this North American regime.

Force, called people with hearts and brains started their historic mission. There is no way back. Point of no return has been crossed. The regime still doesn't get it, and when it finally gets it, it will be late. Their heads will roll.

Idea which time has come is here, and it will stay here. No force will be able to stop it. Not even all mighty power that is in regime's hands will be sufficient to stop the outcome of this idea.

It is now clear to me why I came here at first place. I am here to help overthrow the regime. Good thing is that I know how. I know that all artists will join in this fight.

That's what this life expected from me.

The Speech

I haven't written anything for a long time. Not that I was lacking good topics - I just didn't feel I wanted to write anything. However, I got that urge to share something that struck me deeply. It does not need much introduction - you only need to listen to it, to read it....

I didn't write it- someone else did. Charlie Chaplin did it 1940, for his great movie, "The Great Dictator". Also, someone else created a video based on this speech that I borrowed as well.

Sorry for lack of creativity in this case.

The Speech:

I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor, that's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate;
has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in:
machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.
Our knowledge has made us cynical,
our cleverness hard and unkind.
We think too much and feel too little:
More than machinery we need humanity;

More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.

Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish. . .

Soldiers: don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers: don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written:
"The kingdom of God is within man"
Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power, let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!...

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting, the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.

The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow, into the light of hope, into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up.

Default, Greece, and help bring down the corporate gangsters

We took a tram to go to Asklipio Voulas. It is always more exciting to merge with locals and see how people live. We went to this southern part of Athens to have dessert in one of locally recommended restaurants. It took 1 hour to get to Voulas from Acropolis.

Our dessert was irresistible, combination of ice cream and fruit - and when you combine that with a perfect view on Aegean sea, life cannot be better.

We started chatting with our waiter. He was in his early thirties, very professional and polite. We asked him how safe was in Athens, especially now, when government protests were happening on a daily basis. It was safe, but everyone should listen his/her common sense, not to go to hot areas, and those ones were on Syntagma square and around the parliament building. We thought that we have to go there anyway, as our hotel was a block from Syntagma square.

Our new friend became more passionate, and we had quite a conversation. Good thing was that there were no many customers, so he was able to talk to us. He was mad because of everything that was happening in Greece. I asked many questions as I wanted to know more, what Greek people were feeling and thinking about austerity measures applied and forced by the government and European Union.

"Whose fault was all of this?", I asked, and my new friend said: "Rich bastards. They did all of this. See that beach down there?", he pointed to beautiful Apolonies Aktes beach just below the restaurant, "People of Athens have to pay 10 euros to get there, to touch the sea....."

"And now, the government wants to sell our islands to rich bastards, and that means that we'll lose Greece. We won't be local anymore, in our own country. They'll take everything".

He was talking, giving me more examples, and I was listening. I was thinking as well. Similar pattern was applied in Croatia, where people were becoming foreigners in their own country. "Rich bastards" came and bought everything that had some value. They'll get it much easier once Croatia is granted membership in EU.

I was thinking how economic hit-men assassinated governments and spread new colonialism and corporatism to the world.

Greece was a good target, and I actually admired hit-mens work, as they hit 'prosperous' western country - appetite of their employers has grown, so they were not anymore satisfied with some "rogue" south american "regimes". It was time now to enslave even well off countries. To steal their resources.

They need them in order to feed their ponzi scheme.

Of course, Greeks were stereotyped as lazy, as inefficient, and it was concluded that social policies applied through many years drained government pockets. Everything that had to do with word 'social' was the real cause of Greece's demise.

If there is a crisis, everyone should get a life boat or no one should. It was unfair for the ship Titanic to only have enough life boats for the rich, it is no less unfair to save the rich from the austerity measures imposed on the middle class and poor.

Banks, investors, and others of the rich connected to Greece's debt problems, who have benefited from Greece's past borrowing, are not even to be subject to the taxes to be used to pay off that debt. Are the workers in Greece wrong to protest the fact that

they are being forced to pay for the present and future profits of these powerful interests?

During a crisis like WWII, when everyone was considered to share in on the danger, the rich paid 90% taxes, and really did not enjoy nearly so much luxury as they did before the war, until the crisis had passed.

There is a crisis in Greece: While the homes of the middle class and poor burn, the rich, especially banks, should not sit idle and play their fiddles.

Frankly, the entire Western World should reconsider ignoring the permanent crisis created by one sided trade policies that guarantee the permanent poverty of the third world. Why stop with just helping Greece?

Western media keeps referring to events taking place in Greece as the "death throes of socialism". I appreciate the need of apologists for capitalism to misrepresent the facts concerning the economic collapse in Greece. However, the events unfolding in Greece are not the results of socialism but the results of a capitalist system that is not based on free market principles. Instead its a system where oligarchic and monopolistic interests have been allowed to exploit Greece for their own ends without regard for the consequences. It is as Mussolini said: " a better name for Fascism would be Corporatism". That is what has destroyed Greece. Corporatism in its most rapacious form.

I told my friend the following:

"25% of Greeks now live below the poverty line due to previous measures taken to pay of the banking cartel. Follow the examples of Iceland and Argentina and tell the bankers to pound sand. Capitalist vultures are waiting to buy up your country at close-out prices, in cahoots with your politicians and rich elite. Who refuse to pay taxes as the middle class do. Your corrupt companies, allied with foreign banks, have brought you to this. The billions spent on the owelympics franchise was the straw that broke your back. Odious debt incurred by the corrupt does not need to be repaid by the citizens. Default, Greece, and help bring down the corporate gangsters that are the root of this. And then reform your government and your business and tax laws".

Welcome to the Hague. Your final resting spot. Enjoy the stay.

I just came back to Canada from my Himalaya’s trip. After a couple of days getting back to normal, I was ready to start writing some of my impressions. I thought it would take me days and weeks to process all information, and much more for writing. There was so much that I've seen and experienced.

And then something happened that changed my train of thoughts. Some old memories became alive; they were buried and forgotten for many years. In the past they would come more often to the light, but I would bury them quickly. It bothered me that they would come back, and I didn’t understand why I wasn’t able to get rid of them, to delete them, to shred them, so that they never come back.

Those memories were related to one of real life monsters that got big media attention on May 26^th. He was finally ‘found’, after more than 15 years. Those memories were related to one ideology that is still very much alive and scary.

I was thinking about these memories, how they were still there, and how heavy they were. The memories were still existent, and uneasy feelings were flowing through my body and my brain. I became quiet, and I needed solitude, as I knew that there was nobody close to me who would understand why my eyes changed the colour. My eyes became sad.

Because of this ideology and this monster, there is a picture of Viktor Frankl in my office. He was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, and beside that he survived Nazi concentration camps. His book Man’s Search for Meaning talks about his experiences as a concentration camp inmate, and describes his method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, and consequently, a reason to continue living.

I read this book many times, as I was trying to understand my own meaning, because my own existence was in jeopardy for many years, thanks to the ideology that was propagated by the apprehended monster. I had so much in common with Viktor Frankl.

When I was little I would ask my mom if there were real monsters, and as I was waiting for her answer with my open eyes, I was imagining that there must be some little monsters that scare little kids when they go to bed. My mom would confirm that, and told me not be scared, because she was there to protect me.

I would be impressed by little and big monsters from cartoons, comics and books I read, and sometimes I would imagine how I would be able to fight them with a sword, and defend my family and myself. I believed that all kids had similar thoughts and dreams.

Later, when I was already grown up, but still very green, I got a chance to meet real monsters, not just little and big monsters from my books. One of them looked exactly like other people on this planet, and now, after long hiding, he was visible again, after 15 years. This monster was now a sorry looking man. Once powerful and strong, now weak and sick. I was wondering how could he have led his people to commit crimes and murder? Instead of pride, his nation and human race should humble themselves before God and the world.

I was lucky and smart enough to outsmart the monster’s ideology, and to go as far as I could, in order to forget monster’s followers’ "heroism". However, I still saw what the monster and his hordes did to propagate their ideology.

Memories would still come back, and I was worried because I couldn’t make them go away. Only after I read one of Viktor Frankl’s interviews in which he was asked if he still remembered his days in concentration camps, I was able to let it go.

This is what Frankl said:

"You asked me earlier, do I still think of these things? Not a day goes by when I do not! And in a way I do pity those younger people who did not know the camps or live during the war, who have nothing like that to compare [their own hardships] with…Even today, as I lose my sight or with any severe problem or adverse situation…I have only to think for a fraction of a second and I draw a deep breath. What I would have given then if I could have had no greater problem than I face today!"

Once I read this, I understood it all. In same way, I could even say ‘thank you’ to my monster and his people ideology.

I didn’t have problems any more. Thanks to this “hero” that put 300,000 people including me, into super size concentration camp, and kept us there for 1435 days.

Monsters’ followers never wanted to accept their responsibility – we actually locked ourselves up, we cut all water, electricity, and natural gas, and we bomb shelled ourselves. That’s why they have been protesting in their own country, after the monster was apprehended.

I felt sorry for this old man, and I felt even sorrier for his followers, and especially for their society. He didn’t only damage his victims, he demolished his own people, as what does one say about a society that creates monsters like this and protects them for 15 years? I am worried about this country in which they are protesting for a murderer and majority of the protesters are teenagers... This is even scarier then monster itself. If any of people saw with their own eyes the mass graves they and they alone would understand what this man and his followers were and are still capable of.

Of course, they didn't do anything. In their world, their victims abused themselves.

This society and their smart politics that created and protected the monster played another great game in which they were supported by their friends. Their friends have created and protected many of their monsters. Of course the monster was extradited. It was a political matter and predetermined ahead of time. Monster's protectors and jailers wanted to join the EU and this is seen as part of the admission price. They look now as good guys.

Good thing, after all, is that actually, there are some good people there. They identify themselves as 'people', as 'human beings', and they are not blind. They are awake, and they are hope, for their own society, and hope for rest of us. As other monster kingdoms might see the change in them.

When I would talk to my mentor Howard in the past, and that was before Viktor Frankl helped me not to have problems, I would mention to Howard my anger, that was deep inside me, and that was somehow trapped inside. As it was waiting to be released. I would ask Howard, why I was still so angry, even though I left super size concentration camp long time ago. He would ask me what I would do if saw the monster, or other monsters on the street? I replied: ”I would run them over, break their knee caps...”

He said that I wouldn’t do it, as I was angry, and anger was making me less civilized. “You are not a monster, and you are genuine human being”.

He said that one day all of that would be gone, and that I would be free.

And that day came. I was lucky and smart enough to see it. My eyes still hasn't returned to their normal colour. I can't stop thinking about my friends, acquaintances, and all unknown people who were not that lucky.

I will need couple of days.

I know there are many other monsters, around us, who are free. I am telling them that their turn will come soon.

Life is still a fairy tale in which monsters end up alone, betrayed, forgotten and dead.

It is only economy that can save us

I did my citizen's duty yesterday. I gave my vote to my candidate in the newest election. It was advanced voting, as the elections are on May 2nd, and I won't be in Canada on that day.

It was interesting at the voting station - a guy who worked there, looked very much like Chinese, and his accent was telling me that. Not that I wanted to label him, I asked him if he were from China, as I was going there in couple of days, and he said that he was from Hong Kong. I said that Hong Kong was in China, but he showed me with his body language that he didn't like it.

I thought how funny that was - politics and lunatics created borders that still exist.

Before I went voting I was actually debating if I should vote. Somehow I felt there was no platform, and there was no candidate that I would vote for. I didn't hear anything positive from them. They have used majority of their energy to attack each other, and to say how great they were. None of them actually presented their platforms.

They talk all the time about leadership, but that's where everything ends - I only hear words - nothing gets done and that tells me that there is really no leadership. I don't want them to talk about leadership, I want them to demonstrate it.

The current government did everything only for themselves - and that is normal because their first and only job is to get another term. What is not normal, is to create this culture of absolute control. Group of control freaks gathered together, that actually want more control.

They emphasize one word in their presentations: economy. As economy is the only thing that exists. As there is nothing else. As everybody can see only one thing. And as the only thing that people need is work, more work, and stuff.

For me, that's such a narrow view. They only see very close future. There is no strategic view - they only offer tactical solutions. They don't think what will be left for future generations.

What is worse than narrow views, is that people are buying it. They really believe that economy is the most important thing in their lives. They would do anything to be able to spend, and spend, and spend. To maintain their consuming life styles. To scale up. To get everything bigger.

I am not saying that we don't need economy, we certainly need it - I am also saying that there are other things that we need, except economy. We have to think about our own sustainment.

My problem was that I didn't see anyone with a vision. There are no visionaries in Canada. At least those ones who are nominated by their parties. Their vision is blurred, and they are blind to needs of majority of people.

They respond to the 'needs' of their friends, actually to the needs of the elite - and all of us know who they are. That's why corporate taxes were decreased, and they want to decrease them again. They want to go to 15%, and that is 20% less than in USA.

They say that by doing that, they are saving the economy, that people are getting jobs, and Canada is save from recession and depression.

Idea is to work, to work, and to work. People don't use their vacation time, I've seen it - and I actually I haven't seen any of my Canadian friends taking vacation longer than 3 weeks.....

Well, there is no time to rest, as economy has to continue its progress.

Because, it is only economy that can save us.

I will wait

We've had one of the best ski seasons in last 10 years. It was snowing almost all January, and it continued during February and March. This produced superb conditions - lots of Alberta dry powder, with soft slopes, and no ice.

Another reason for the great season has been lack of people - that's my selfish side speaking, as there were many days when I had all ski hill almost for myself. Local businesses wouldn't endorse my previous sentence, as struggle that started couple of years ago, continued with even more vengeance this year. The latest casualty was Suginoya Japanese restaurant in Banff - the rent increased so much that the owner said:"Enough".

Too bad that in even Banff, successful businesses have to struggle. That means that something is wrong, and definitely not right.

Even though the racing season is finishing with FIS Miele Cup Finals this weekend at Nakiska, the ski season will go on for next almost 2 months. Mt.Norquay postponed the closing day, until Aptil 24th, and Sunshine will close, as usual on Victoria Day, and Lake Louise around May 8th.

Normally, I would be skiing until that last day, but this year, my season ended on March 27th.

I was skiing moguls on Norquay's Lone Pine, and somewhere at the middle of the run I lost my balance - I don't know why, and how, and what happened at that moment. I don't remember what was my mistake.

I only know I tried to stay on my skis, and even though I was pushed to my heels, with my hips below my knees, I still pulled myself up, and by doing this, I saved myself from certain big crash.

That was good thing, I stayed on my skiis - bad thing was that I heard a loud "pop", from my left knee, during my maneuver. Once I stopped, I felt immediate pain in lateral area of my knee.

It was funny, I even didn't crash, and I felt that something bad happened to my knee. I was still 400 m far from the bottom of Lone Pine, and I had to ski down. Well, normally, that's easy, but with pain and fast swelling of my left knee, I knew it would be challenge. To make the story short - I did it, basically, on my right leg, sliding from one side to the other.

I immediately removed my ski equipment, and applied icing cream to my knee. It was painful, and it was getting bigger. I drove home, as I knew I had to rest and take care of it.

This was my first ski injury - it sounds unbelievable, but I was able to stay healthy all of these years. This time I guess, I ran out of luck.

My doctor was worried, and she sent me to sport injuries clinic for experts assessment. In the meantime I read as much as I could about knee injuries - and now I know that, if something similar ever happens in the future (I hope it won't!), I will never read anything about injuries.

All of that material scared me so much - I had all the symptoms of the major injury, and these white papers confirmed that.

I was not able to straighten my leg, I was not able to flex it - only comfortable position was when it was bent 15-20%. I was not able to walk, climb, or go down on the stairs.

I was hoping that sports clinic assessment would be positive - I was thinking how am I going to climb Yunnan mountains in May, if I need a surgery? I was also thinking how bad timing for this injury was. I was also thinking about what I thought, when I boarded North American chair lift that took me to the top of Mt.Norquay - how that was my last run of the day, and that it would be really stupid to crash.

Good thing was, at the end, that actually I was born under lucky star, how my mom would tell me. My knee was strong as ever, except that there was a partial lateral collateral ligament and lateral meniscus tear. Blair, my savior, said that I will be as new in 4 weeks. No surgery needed, just rest, and slowly starting to exercise my quads.

Today, 3 days after my 'crash' (well, I don't know if I could call it an accident), I am almost able to straighten my left leg. There is very little pain in the lateral area, and I was even able to walk upstairs. There was no feeling that my knee would "give up".

It feels so good to know that I won't be out of action for a long time. It doesn't feel good to know that we always take our body and its abilities for granted. Only now I realized how hard is to deal with bad knees - I definitely have a better understanding for all people I know (and I don't know) who've had challenges with their knees.

I will wait for them when we climb stairs together.

I love January

I love winter and I love January. I always loved it. I always felt so playful during short January days, as I could smell snow and winter. And certainly the best thing was playing in the snow. As a kid, and as an adult.

When I was little I was always excited when it was snowing - I would get up during the night to see how much new snow fell, and I always wanted more of it. I was dreaming about 1 meter or 2 meters of snow, that nobody could clean, and everything would be white and pristine. I didn't understand that almost everyone else would be very upset with that amount of snow, and that many people would get a heart attack if so much snow fell!

January 2011 is over now. I will remember it for a long time as I was sick majority of it. I got sick during last year's Christmas, but I didn't take it seriously. Well, it was nothing serious, let's say that some nasty flu ran me over, and left me without energy. Good thing is that it is over now. However, I still know that I need more time to completely recover.

So, I got sick, and then I guess Murphy's Law kicked in. Obviously, I wasn't able to go skiing, and at the same time, my favorite mountains got the most snow in January in the last 30 years! Lake Louise got more than 160 cm, and even Mt.Norquay got more than 1 meter. It was powder everywhere. And I was nowhere. If I were OK, there wouldn't be any new snow, as all these previous years. Last 10 years we would get a lot of snow in November and December, and then nothing until March.

On the other hand January was exciting, again because of the winter and because of the snow. Somebody might ask, "How can the coldest month be exciting?". "How all of this snow shoveling can be exciting? Well, there were 14 World Cup skiing races in January. 'White Circus', how ski racing at the world level is usually called, was in its prime time.

I've always watched ski racing and Ski World Cup. Ever since I was a little boy. And I still follow it and watch it. For spectators, January is the best month, because the biggest races happen in January. It was super exciting this year as well, as Wengen and Kitzbuehel hosted spectacular races.

It was exciting because there were casulties again. Well, it was exciting in a bad way. I am not sadistically inclined to enjoy when people suffer. There is nothing worse when injuries happen in alpine skiing. These super dangerous ski tracks claim new (and old) victims every year. Unfortunately this year was not different than previous years. It's been actually worse than any previous year.

There were big crashes in Wengen and in Kitzbuehel, and the worst outcome was for Austrian skier Johann "Hans" Grugger who crashed heavily on Mausefalle in Kitzbuehel. Grugger is still in induced coma, after sustaining head injuries. Hopefully he will recover. Jan Hudec added a broken hand to his long list of injuries - he broke it in Wengen.

Prior to January, in Bormio, Louis-Pierre Helie tore ligament in his knee. Bormio claimed Marco Sullivan, last winner in Chamonix in 2008. Olympic champion, Dider Defago, didn't even start this season, as he tore ligaments in his left knee during training in September in Zermatt.

Big 'surprise' this year was that the biggest casulties were not in Wengen, or in Kitzbuehel. The most treacherous hill was in Chamonix, where 3 big names got injured and they are done for this season.

Mario Scheiber crashed during the last training run, breaking his shoulder blade and facial bones. Manuel Osborne-Paradise broke his left leg and torn ACL in his left knee, and Georg Streitberger broke his left leg as well. Less known Ryan Semple tore his knee ligaments in Chamonix as well.

For someone who doesn't understand how alpine skiing works, this wouldn't be news at all. However, for people who ski, and who perhaps love January and snow like me, this certainly sounds over the edge. There are too many injured athletes in World Cup Skiing. These skiers are not amateur skiers. They are well prepared and strong, and experienced. They certainly know how dangerous is their sport. But, when the start list becomes shorter and shorter, and when the best of the best get "eliminated", then, questions started to be asked - how all of this could be prevented, hopefully stopped?

Current World Champion, John Kucera crashed in November 2009, in Lake Louise when he fractured his left leg. He is still not back to racing, and he will not defend his title in Garmisch Partenkirchen in 2 weeks.

This year's World Championship (in Garmisch Partenkirchen) will not see Olympic (Defago) and World champion (Kucera) on it slopes.

Luckily, January brought good news too. The biggest was about Ivica Kostelic who broke record in number of wins during period of 1 month. He won 7 races, something that never happened in history. Last time when someone won 6 races in 1 one month was in January 1998, when Hermann Maier won 2 super-Gs, 2 giant slaloms, 1 downhill and 1 combined race.

That is statistics, but Kostelic made news in January, wining everywhere. Currently he alone has won more points than all skiers from USA together.

Tomorrow, we'll be in month of February, and I will be dreaming again about big snow, and about playing in that big snow. I hope that February will not bring new ski injuries.