And The Glass Handed Kites Mew Rar ((NEW))
Albert Phelps
Before the war, stilts were in fashion in the mountain village where we lived. And the gardener made wonderful kites. He used finely ground glass and glue on the string and when the kites were in the air, the boys tried to slash the strings of the other kites to bring them down.
I had completely forgotten this, until one fine summer day, some ten years ago, I tried to persuade a fat lazy fly to leave the room by waving a newspaper at it. Instead I killed it. The horror I felt was so disproportionate that it stayed with me for days. It was only when I read a book about our particular camp and the measures which the Japs had taken when the combination of open latrines and dysentery had caused the fly population to grow alarmingly, that I understood why. Handfuls of flies had to be handed in each day. The sickly sweet smell came back, too. Horror upon horror.
Lieve Roos
Have just discovered your (not so) new contribution. I have printed it out for my mother to read when I see her next. It all brought back to me memories of what mum told me about our stay there, all so identical to yours.
I had a lovely little cloth doll which I lost on the 'exercitieveld' in Bandoeng where we had all gathered to wait for transportation from the Karees ghetto to the Kota Paris camp. Apparently I was not aware of that as I had found something more interesting at that moment, what I called 'mijn glasje' (my piece of glass), a ring someone must have dropped. When we were finally moved on and were crammed in the railway wagons, mum discovered me clutching it. She did not pay much attention to it at that time, but with some string made it into a necklace for me and right through the camp years I have been playing with it. It cast some lovely colours in the sun and kept me amused for many an hour!
Only after the war, when we were in Holland, mum had a closer look and saw an inscription inside. Realising that this was more than just a bauble she paid a visit to a jeweller who, after scrutinising it through a loupe, declared it to be made from platina with a pure diamant, which he then (1946) estimated to be worth more than a 1000 guilders.
That was the end of my 'glasje' and I was inconsolable. THAT I do remember. Instead mum managed to buy me a small doll which looked very much like 'popje' which I had dropped, perhaps when I picked up my 'glasje'. This must have stirred something in me for I was then not to be parted with it. I was destined to loose that one too, for a few months later my grandmother, with whom we stayed at that time, threw it in the dustbin, proclaiming it looked filthy.
I did get a lovely doll though from the lady who had her ring returned, after she read the advertisement mum had placed in the magazine for repatriants. It was a ring she had been given by her husband who died during the war. Though I can remmeber 'popje' I cannot remember that new doll.
Nowadays I don't give a hoot about diamants. I wonder what a psychologist would have to say about that?
Love, Rob @->--
Dear Rob Yes, what would they say?
Knowing you a bit, this is what I would say: that you find comfort in beauty rather than money. Nowadays, when I hear 'diamond' I think 'blood'
Now, what would the psychologists say to that, huh?
Reading your reply I was reminded of a visit we once paid to friends high up in the mountains, probably on the east coast of Java. It was a very big house but what fascinated me was the long drive leading to it. Goodness knows what they used for the road surface: it was gravelly but with beautiful bits of glass in many colours. I think I wandered up and down the path for most of the visit, gathering handfuls of solid rainbow.
It must have been a year or so before the war, my father was still with us.
I am glad the ring went back to its owner, and that you brought back the memory. Love. Rose
The decline of the White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) in the Iberian Peninsula was averted within the last 30 years, partially due to an increase in food availability in landfills. In this study, we compared 2 colonies located at different distances from a landfill in southern Portugal, with the aim of assessing differences in stork diets. We also compared our current results with data from the same colonies before the landfill was built. Additionally, we studied storks' exposure to kleptoparasitism by Black Kites (Milvus migrans) as a potential factor affecting their feeding behavior in landfills. We analyzed 182 pellets collected in 2005 and 2010 in non-landfill colonies and from landfills only in 2010. We carried out >47 h of focal observations of storks feeding at the landfill. Pellet contents are primarily insects (15 families from 5 orders) as well as unidentified and inorganic materials. Our analyses of variance revealed significant local, seasonal, and annual differences in Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Hymenoptera, and total number of insects. Our observations at the landfill showed that storks feed on large amounts of organic material, mostly fresh meat and fish, which means that observational data differs from pellet data. Black Kites kleptoparasitize White Storks mainly at the beginning and end of the morning limiting their food intake and increasing the amount of time storks spend at the landfill. We conclude that foraging in landfills has provoked an important shift in the White Stork's diet, partially replacing these birds' natural food items and exposing them to potential new threats such as the ingestion of inorganic material and exposure to kleptoparasitism by kites.