The American Paradox - Feb 2015

Keith Haring Exhibition - Dec 2014 - De Young Museum

Since I have been here, I have been very impressed by the sense of community Americans tend to cherish, which I found utterly positive. At the same time I have to admit I have been schocked, not to say appalled, by the seemingly callous way Americans handle their people's health care, which is to me not less than a community concern. This is what I call the American Sense of Community Paradox.

 

I recently fully experienced the best aspects of the American sense of community.
I discovered the city of San Francisco thanks to two websites.Those are great american initiatives which aim to foster local human links. 'SFcityguide.com' offers 60 different free guided tours of the city, run by savvy guides who have been selected and trained prior to their leading of a group.Those guides are mainly recently retired people who are interested in passing on their interest for the city without earning a penny. Thus I learned about the Gold rush in San Francisco,  the Earthquake of 1906, and the wonderful Victorian architecture that is so typical of the Californian city. If one day I retire in Paris I wish to emulate this wonderful organisation and set up free guided tours of the French capital, which would be awesome!
 

'Meetup.com' is also an American concept whose inception stems from the observation of a decline of community in the US, that has been rekindled after 9/11/2001. There was a sudden yearning for people to reconnect, to feel part of a local community. Though amazing the internet can be, the means to chat all over the world in front of one's computer has its intrinsic limits, for a web contact never surpasses a human contact. That is why Scott Heiferman created Meetup.com in 2002, to allow people to meet on the basis of common interests or hobbies on a local scale. Therefore, 12 years later, there are 125 000 groups that potentially allow14 million people to meet up in more than 200 countries all over the world.  That`s how I joined `Walking in San Francisco for Health and History` (but it could have been, `I love Californian wines` or `we are Bolywood friends`), and there I made some friends!
 

I also experienced this way of building a sense of solidarity in my English classes. It is very impressive to see how the American way of teaching is highly conducive to helping each other by fostering interaction between students. It is like creating a virtuous circle by getting everybody engaged in the success of all. I don't mean to fawn over the American spirit, ( my French teacher  friends will hate me!)  but all in all I find it utterly positive, and quite different from our way of doing in France...

"The last moments of John Brown" 1884 -  De Young Museum
This man was hanged convicted of inciting black slaves'insurrection.

On the other hand, with regard to this high sense of community and solidarity,  I am bewildered by the way health care is treated in the US (I am not talking about the new Obama care- nevertheless the principles remain).

In my opinion,  every citizen should have the unassailable right in a modern democracy to be taken care of in case of illness or health problem irrespective of their salary or previous health conditions. No one chooses to get cancer or to give birth to a deaf baby. A lot of those people are not covered by health insurance because the health insurance companies are private and profit driven, and thus have the ability to choose their customers, preferably the healthy ones. Were they to insure a seemingly healthy person who becomes ill, they will find all the legal reasons not to cover their medical expenses. As an example I met Jane who hiked with me in Zion Park, 59 years old, recovered from a bad cancer two years ago, she now has to pay 2000$ a month to be insured, her husband, 69 cannot retire to be able to pay the cost of his wife's health insurance - not everybody can afford that. I recommend you see "Sicko", a staggering documentary from the infamous Michael Moore. As a result a lot of patients are not treated. The evidence for this preposterous situation is given by the life expectancy of the United States which is 3 years less than Western Europe  and Canada. It is at Cuba, Costa Rica and Lybia's  level (I checked this figure for the 2014 year).

The nadir of this system lies in the governance practices of the nation. Political parties and their candidates  are largely sponsored by private companies. This is an insidioulsy deleterious system, for there is a blatant conflict of interest here. It results in condoning a legalised corrupt government. This issue was pinpointed by the French government almost 30 years ago. Thus, they passed laws regulating this financing, forbidding any company to take part in any political funding. Political parties in France are now financed by public funding according to the results of the last polls, and private funding is allowed by individuals to the extent of a 7500 euro maximum amount. I told you my American sycophantic speech was not going to last long!

No wonder it is so difficult to change the paradigm in the US, drug companies as well as health insurance companies are big supporters of politicians who wouldn't give up their crucial financial help, by taking the risk of creating laws that would hinder those companies from thriving.

Conversly our French public health care system  does not let anybody down and treats everybody (almost) equally. However some  know very well that our sense of solidarity might be tainted by selfishness. Our current system leads us to dig the grave of our children by increasing an already outrageous debt because our earnings don`t cover our expenses. This is how we will bestow an overweight debt burden to our future generations. Why: because we are unable to budge an inch when it is about giving up the slightest privileges we have acquired over time.

As you can see the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence...
Or one could also say that it is easier to see the mote in your neighbour's eye, rather than the beam in our's own!

 

The story of an Epiphany

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang

I want to tell you the story of this 'Epiphany' I experienced a year ago.

I love this word, whose primary meaning is the celebration of the visit of the wise men to Jesus newly born, in other words, the manifestation of the divine to the common people. But in English it is more commonly defined as a sudden revelation of the essential meaning of something often initiated by some simple common occurrences.

From this story actually stems my presence here in San Francisco.

I had decided to go on a trip to Asia to turn the page of an almost 10 year relationship. I was as well at a turning point of my professional life. I was kind of worn out by my job environment, after 22 years at Air Liquide company, and was wondering what could be my desire for the 20 years of work to come.

In this context I decided to travel alone, not allowing  a friend to accompany me. I wanted to leave my mind open and available to random encounters and to my new environment, and I did well.

I set off on a trip to Laos and Cambodia in January 2014.

I met a few people there. Surprisingly they didn't know what they were telling me unwittingly was going to change the course of my life and I didn't know it either!

# The trigger point for a change of life

I met Christophe and Olivier in a restaurant in Laos at the border of Thailand. They both had settled in Laos a few years ago and were so happy about their new life here. I was actually very intrigued and envious. I asked them what the trigger point for taking action was, I was actually obsessed by this question. They both had spent time in this area, were attracted to its quietness and simplicity, and were both at a turn in their  lives when they had a strong desire for a change. One of them had this anecdote : he was in the Parisian metro and smiled spontaneoulsy at a woman sitting in front of him, whose gaze he had crossed, and she responded in turning her face and pouting. He could not put up with this anymore. (Eveybody knows Paris is the capital of pouting faces whereas San franciso is that of fake smiles, however...)  They also talked me into going on this Gibbon experience trip, which I had not planned previoulsy. So I set out to do that the next morning...



The Tree house of the Gibbon Experience

# The job I would have loved to do

The Gibbon exprerience trip was created by a French man to raise people's awareness about the preservation of the jungle in Laos and its last remaining Gibbons. It is actually a 2 to 3 day hike in the jungle, using an exceptional zip line cable network throughout the forest enabling the visitors to glide above the canopy. Guests sleep in tree houses at night, with breathtaking views of the forest. The fear I had about this trip was to be surrounded by young rich westerners, which was borne out by facts. Nonetheless, it appeared that those guys mostly from South Africa and the United States were English teachers in Bankgok or Seoul and told me about their job. I found it so awsome, it was like a thwarted desire that came back to surface. I was thinking then how wonderful it would be to do such an exciting and rewarding job.






Nyaung Kew The fishermen's village

# Daring a total change of job

I met Mary on the boat trip from the Thaï border to Luang prabang: a 2 day trip on a boat that used to be authentic but that now looks like a touristic bus filled with mainly western tourists. It has lost its former charm I think. However the journey stills remains impressive for we do not cross a bridge for the two days of the trip, nor a town, rarely a village, sometimes wooden houses spread out in the countryside, mainly endless wild forests, just to tell you the level of industrialised development of the country. Mary is a 30 year old German girl from Berlin, she was sitting just behind me. We had time to talk. She was actually in the process of changing job. She wanted to study sustainable environment and quit her job in the tourism industry that had led her on luxury ships throughout the world, but she found it too perfunctory and was seeking a more meaningful job.

Same process with a Corean girl I met later on, on the little boat that drove us to Nuang Kew fishermen's village. This one wanted to leave a job in web advertising she found meaningless to a job in the tourism where she thought the could find more human relations. As you can see the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. However, I was really impressed by this turning point they both had decided to take in their professional lives.



The Cambodian young lady

# Children are a lifelong burden

When I arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, after a 10 hour bus trip, it was nearly midnight. I had actually made no hotel reservation, and it appeared that the hotels were rather full. Exhausted I asked the first rickshaw to take me to to a place he recommended. "Cheap place" he said. I ended up in a gloomy room without any window, nor any bathroom, just a mere water hose over a toilet to take a shower. In short this place was awful but It was too late, and I was exhausted to make a move. However the Young cambodian woman who was in charge of the hotel rooms made up for the ugliness because she was so sweet. She offered me fruits for I had not eaten a bite for hours, offered me to use the open air  kitchen sink to brush my teeth. She asked me this common question which was: Do you have children? To which I answered no. Surprisingly her reaction was: You are so Lucky you are free to go wherever you want, you can travel and discover the world. I am stuck here with my two kids.

A couple days later leaving Phnom Penh for Siem Rep, I was in a bus sitting next to a whole Indonesian family who was here for a family vacation. The man of the family asked me the same question, to which I gave the same answer. His reaction was : Good for you, children are lifelong worries in life. You are free!

Well that was a new insight I had not thought about !

All of those people were the stones that paved the way to my epiphany.

When I returned home, my company was offering a severance package including a training to learn a new job  to the employees who decided to leave. Then it became clear that I could change job, become a teacher and settle in South East Asia if that was what I wanted.

And so I did.



Luang Prabang



San Francisco, a Haven for Homeless - déc 2014.

 

One thing that strikes any visitor to San Francisco is its population of homeless wandering dowtown. This might be true for any big city, descrepancies are always more prominent in such environments. But one thing is that they are much more visible here for they are all gathered in the same area dowtown, in and around the Tenderloin, right next to the financial and commercial heart of the city.

To get an insight into this issue, I had the opportunity to help feed the homeless people preparing meals at Glide Church memorial. Glide is a Church very much dedicated to social causes and to helping minorities. It has been one of the most prominently liberal Churches in the US since 1960,  defending homosexual rights but also providing primary health and social care, such as a daily free meal program that serves 3000 meals a day to homeless in dowtown San Francisco.

When I went there on a saturday morning I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into. We were 10 students from St Giles. We went in the basement of the Church where there was a  big collective kitchen. We were given masks, plastic apron and gloves, and then we were all set  to work as little soldiers on a food assembly line production with a target of 3000 lunch bags. On one side: paper bags, one team filling them with mustard, ketchup, salt and Pepper. On the other side: packs of sliced bread, giant bowls of peanut butter and jam, or cheese and sliced ham, and here we are, making either jam and peanut butter sandwiches or ham and cheese sandwiches, a last team wrapping them into plastic, and filling in the previous paper bag we came across at the beginning of the line.

And that was it. No vegetable, nor fruit. It is not the soundest and healthiest diet you could imagine  for already unbalanced people but it's better than nothing, and it fits the american way of eating, sandwich for lunch and a balanced meal for dinner, therefore I assume the meals are more varied in the evening.

I had at this occasion no contact whatsoever with the homeless for we were not to distribute the meals, and there was nobody I could ask questions to.

So I tried to figure out what could have brought about such a situation in San Francisco. I was told many different versions of the story so I had to check.

Powel Bart Station (RER), a dormitory for homeless. 

The story began 10 years ago (well it can begin 100 years ago with the story of the Tenderloin area, but I won't go so far) when the mayor of San Francisco set about to tackle the issue of chronic homelessness in the city launching a big social program. Today it seems that it had a mitigated success. The city says it has succeeded in moving 20 000 homeless off its streets over a decade, but they are still there ! How come?

In June 2004, Mayor Gavin Newsome pledged that in 10 years the Homeless problem would be solved. The primary goal  was to build 3 000 permanent housing units for homeless, which they almost did for the city is short of 300 units this year, but will reach the target in 2015.

In addition the city also succeeded in finding housing solutions for 11 300 homeless people, when 8 000 have been sent home to friends or family outside SF. Which means almost 20 000 people have been moved in ten years, the size of the town of Fécamp, isn't that amazing?

And yet the most recent count found 7 350 of homeless people according to SF Guardian on line - 6 436 according to the city! (I am amazed by such accuracy). In 2004 they were estimated 3000.

Two main reasons could explain this bottomless pit phenomenon.

First  reason can stem from a lack of supportive measures  and incentives to social integration. Newsome's ten year program was actually primarily based on permanent housing before adressing people's problems, such as alcohol, drug or mental illness. Nothing seems to have been done to drive those people towards social integration. Moreover the city focused on single men but failed in taking care of single families with children. In addition, when people get a chance to get subsidized housing, there is no conditions for them, like a limited time, to leave. So when people move in... they don't move on. They stay for ever with no incentive to get trained, abide by a schedule, find a job, earn a salary and the situation is stuck.

But the main reason seems to me to be "the magnet theory".

The social Policy of the city, aimed to provide support for the homeless, has unwittingly converted itself in a haven for homeless attracting all the freaks of the US. 40% of the homeless in SF are effectively coming from somewhere else.

I heard rumors about states that did send full buses of homeless to San Francisco, which seemed to me rather doubtful. But I actually found evidence of this: The city of San Francisco is suing Nevada for having dumped thousands of poor homeless patients with mental illness into buses with one way tickets to San Francisco and told them to seek medical care there. This state has sent allegedly 1500 people over 5 years, people who should have been taken care of by psychiatric hospitals in Nevada. Can you believe that!

All this comes down to what a federal nation is based on: independant state policies, with the flip side of the coin. The absence of nation wide social program can lead to such a preposterous situation when a state is more careful than its neighbor. 

However I am not sure we have anything to brag about, when we witness the booming of slums spreading out along the northern or eastern highways going out of Paris. I have no numbers for that!

Merry Christmas !!!

The ginger bread house at the Fairmont hotel.

My acting class or How to become a fucking moralizing mother.

I have to tell you about my acting class.

I wanted to have an activity outside of my English classes to get to know other aspects of San Francisco. The first thing that came to my mind was acting because it is something I have indulged in for many years, and also because it is very interesting as an English training.

First, it was difficult to find an acting class for the acting sessions had already started when I tried to apply. I was turned down by three different classes that told me they were full and that I could come back in january. I was rather put off when my beloved friend Olivier encouraged me to try again and go directly to the class to get to meet the people there. Once cheered up, that's what I did. I went to the Shelton theater, and I met Matt Shelton  who is the director and founder of the Shelton Studios and as a matter of fact also a teacher. I was first asked if I was coming for auditing the class, to which I answered "of course not, I am not an auditor "! Before realising I was actually one! (the word "auditor" being a false french friend as you must have guessed).  I was invited to attend the class, which I did. In fact I found the level of the students really good. Véronique my dear french theater director in France would have loved to work with them : they all would perfectly know their lines when they come up on stage, totally focused on their acting, a dream for a director!
They were all already working on scenes in pairs. Coming up right in the middle of an 8 week session, I told the director "thankyou for letting me in, but I guess it is to late to join you"... not omitting to say I had been acting for about 20 years, and I had put on more than 10 plays... He told me right away: "You came here because you want to act, don't you? So chose a monologue and join us. You can do it!" And that's how I joined the class!

In a couple days I had found a monologue I liked on the internet (search for monologue for women over 40 and browse through!). The monologue is an extract of the play: How I learn to drive, written by Paula Vogel, apparently a famous american playwright that I found out later. The character is a woman telling her daughter how to handle alcohol when she is on a date with a man. This lady seems to be quite experienced in this matter. The text is quite ironic.

My first rehearsal was something. First of all I did not know my text well for I had spent the previous week-end in the wonderful Yosemite Park (!). Matt was nice not to hold it against me...I did my scene once. And then started an indepth analysis to try to get to know what was at stake for this woman? "Well, I guess that she is afraid to lose her social status if her daughter  misbehave  with alcohol"...This did not seem to be enough for Matt, "Well her social status is what matters in her life, you know". It was still not enough, something much bigger was at stake. What could it be? And what if she had been raped when she was 6, and she does not want this to happen to her daughter, he suggested! Wahoooo... that was another ball game!  I did the scene again. It was very dramatic and not fun anymore.The next rehearsal he just told me: go wild and it will be ok! And that was better.

I told you I was impressed by the level of the other students. As a matter of fact most of them want to be professional actors, some have already be part of plays or films. One is to be the main character of an upcoming film about a wounded guy coming back from war. Yet he is crippled and has a missing leg but he is a very good actor! This guy with his partner played a scene extracted from "Edmond" by David Mamet, their acting was very impressive, accurate and truthful. One other scene played was an extract of "A Streetcar Named Desire" (Tenessee Williams) with a guy playing Stanley's character (remember  Marlon Brando) who would literaly give you goose bumps! When those guys were on stage it was just as if their life was at stake, obviously mine was not. But I brought it off!
 

My acting class actually performed publically on november 13.

I was very proud to have 3 personal guests: Jane and Jerry my previous hosts, and Alissia, a very sweet Swiss Italian girl from my English class.

You actually can hear and see what kind of fucking moralising mother I was, for I was recorded!
http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=Y1KMd391lqE&u=/watch%3Fv%3D6Z8QlAp_-xc%26feature%3Dem-upload_owner




A Humming bird is not only a cocktail, this is it ! [ De Young Museum, SF]

Hereafter is the text

"How I learn to drive" by Paula Vogel .

 A lady never gets sloppy. She may however get tipsy and a little gay.

Never drink on an empty stomach. Avail yourself of the bread basket, with generous portions of butter. Slather the butter on your bread. Sip your drink, slowly. Let the beverage linger in your mouth, intersperced with interesting, fascinating conversation. Sip… never slurp or gulp. Your glass should always be three quarters full when his glass is empty. Stay away from ladies drinks : drinks like pink ladies, slow gin fizzes, Daikiris, Gold Cadillacs, Long Island iced teas, Margeritas, Pina Coladas, Mai tais, Black Russians, Red Russians, White Russians, Melon balls, Blue balls, Humming birds, Hemorragies, Hurricanes. In short avoid anything with sugar, or anything with an umbrella. Get your vitamin C from fruit . Don’t drink anything with vodoo or vixen in the title, or sexual positions in the name, like dead man screw or the missionary. Believe me, they are lethal. I think you’ve been conceived after one of those.Drink instead like a man, straight up or on the rocks, with plenty of water in between. Oh yes and never mix your drinks. Stay with one all night long, like the man you came in with : Bourbon, Gin or Tequila till dawn, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead !

Don’t leave your drink unattended when you visit the ladies room. There is such a thing as white slavery : the modus operandi is to spike an unsuspecting young girl’s drink with a mickey when she s left the room to powder a nose. But if you feel you ‘ve had more than your sufficiency in liquor, do go to the ladies room, often.Pop your head out of doors for a refreshing breath of the night air. If you must, wet your face and head with tap water. Don’t be afraid to dunk your head if necessary. A wet woman is still less conspicuous than a drunk woman.

When in the course of woman events it becomes necessary, go to a corner stall and insert the index and middle finger down the throat almost to the epiglottis. Divulge your stomachs contents by such persuasion, and then wait a few moments before rejoining your beau waiting for you at your table.

Oh no, don’t be shy or embarrassed. In the very best of establishments, there is always one or two debutantes crouched in the corner stalls, their beaded purse tossed willy6nilly, sounding like cats i

heat, heaving up the contents of their stomachs.

I wonder what it is they do in the men’s rooms ?

 

Dreadful Halloween ! 10/31/2014

I thought Halloween was only for children... well, the answer is no. There was a Halloween party organised by my school last friday. It was the opportunity for grown-ups to dress up in dreadful characters... I have to figure out why Asian girls fancy so much the Little Red Running Hood... I let you find out...

Jamie (Korea) - unknown - Miwa (Japan)-Motoki (Japan)- Halul (Turkey)

Unknowns

Alittle Red Running Hood and a skeleton (unknowns)

Alissia (Swiss) classmate, and me.

My teacher Chris, and me.



Nice house in my neighborhood

Halloween American humour (superbowl is American football)

The unforgettable bus trip to Yosemite. 10/ 25-26/ 2014

I went to Yosemite National Parc last week-end, on a bus trip organised by my school.

Let me give you the bright version of it:

We had a wonderful weather with a blue sky. I had the chance to take a picture of the most beautiful and famous scenery of Yosemite as you can see above! I also had a nice hike in the sequoia forest, admiring the oldest and biggest trees you can find on this planet!

Now let me give you the less glamorous version of it:

We had an 8 hour bus ride the first day, a 7 hour bus ride the second day. After having taken THE picture of the breathtaking view (see above), saturday afternoon was just a sheer waste of time: wandering around a cafeteria, then a few paved roads to end up in a food store...in a wonderful sunny afternoon in one of the most beautiful natural parc of California! As for sunday, we had two hours to visit the sequoia forest (more exactly the pine forest with spotted sequoias) needless to say we just ran to get to see the main part of it, with no time to even eat a sandwich! Yes this is how organised tours are, I should have known...

The good things of this all is that :

- Getting to speak to other students from other language schools, I realised I was very lucky to have chosen St Giles School? When students from other schools mainly complained about the quality of their teaching, I am very happy with mine. Actually my school appears to be well renowned for its quality.

- I almost made a friend... yet she is French (not good for my practice), and she is here for only the next couple weeks.

The uncanny mystery of Dorje Chang Buddha III

It happened that I came across this International Art Museum of America - IAMA -  close to my school, and the entrance was free, so I went in... It is difficult to describe my feelings while exploring this museum, bewilderment would be the word.

Well, this is a warning, and I want you My God and my Buddhist friends to forgive me for what I am going to say next. I do not mean to offend you.

The mission of the museum is presented as : The IAMA strives to create a bond between disparate cultures through beauty, thus promoting harmony and peace. But it, surprisingly enough,  does not mention that its mission is to praise the work of the holly Dorje Chang Buddha III!

Who is DORJE CHANG BUDDHA III? This guy is supposed to be the true incarnation of an ancient Buddha, the fact beeing identified by Dharma Kings and others (who? the Dalaï Lama does not seem to be in the loop!). He was awarded the United States presidential Gold Award in 2002...and many other awards...(what are those awards worth? may be I could get one with my lovely water colours!). His art work has been recognized by the royal academy of art of the united Kingdom, and the Organization of the American States (those organizations might be charity ones for  artists in demand of recognition).

As a matter of fact, the museum is dedicated to Dorje Chang Buddha III. It exhibits 80% of this guy's works of art, and also Chinese and European works that have been invested by the museum. The paintings, that are not his, are really of great artistic value, beautiful european19th century landscapes or masterpieces of chinese painting. I can recall: les Lavandières près du Pont, a work of Edmond Petit Jean whom I have never heard of, who has been made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor (Dorje Chang Buddha III loves the awards) but I truly find it a wonderful work. It stands next to a Vlaminck more renowned.  Some paintings of famous Chinese painters are also featured, like Zhang Daquian's (1899 - 1983). One of his work was auctioned 550 millions dollars  in 2011 (this is also a kind of reward Dorje Chang Buddha III appreciates).  Yet I can tell that I was truly impressed by the work. Then you think of universality of beauty, a master piece is recognized over times and beyond cultural frontiers... but I am not at all an expert!
 

And yet those beautiful master pieces stand side by side with the most hideous and ludicrous pieces of art  I have ever seen!

I was not allowed to take pictures. But fortunately I could find some pictures on the internet!

Those are sun flowers painted by Dorje Chan Buddha III.  This painting is simply compared  to that of Van Gogh himself, not less!!!

I have actually written down one comment I found hilarious to remember, and by chance I found the picture of the painting it is related to : the one below featuring two horses. To me it looks like the little pictures of "chocolat Poulain" we were given when we were little kids. And to tell the truth I do not think the horses were actually painted by the holly master, he added the black ink on the side, that's it!

The comment is the following:

From the brushwork style and details of this painting we can sense the profound cultivation of a renewed scholar. The abilities of a literary giant with abundant talent are visible everywhere. The scholarly tone and brushwork style are skillful and vigorous totally free of any trace of the mundane and reflect the highest level of painting and calligraphy. Anyone who lifts a brush in an attempt to paint such painting will appreciate the fact that this scholarly style cannot be accomplished by anyone other than a literary giant who is a great master of art.

As a matter of fact the work on the horse's hair is something! But as a whole I would not give a penny for that.

I have to tell you about the last but not the least of his work of art: THE HALL OF FRAMES.

This hall actually displays the most hideous crap I have ever seen.

Not only Dorje Chang Buddha III 's expertise inlcudes painting but also : literature, music, martial arts, buddhism, science, philosophy, ethics, traditional chinese médicine AND why not SCUPLTURE. That is the point we wanted to reach! That is the reason why the museum has dedicated a whole hall to his frame creations!

The Paramount work of art of His Holiness lies below. I let you take an inspiration and breathe...

WELL!!!

Now one can wonder how can a public museum (which it is) can support this cult of personality and spend money on that?

I had to find more about this holiness...So I actually found this guy is the object of quite a controversy. Already in 1993, a meeting of the Dalai lama with a group of 12 Dharmas and teachers had already published an article to warn people and especially western countries  againts so called "living buddhas"."Such kind of title pretty unusual goes against buddhist ideas of modesty" they said, giving a list of 50 personalities among wich appeared our dear Dorje Chang Buddha III  with this comment: A 'Buddha' without history, flooding the internet with self-referring messages of his coming, using all the possible titles he can find... 'Highest Buddha', 'Supreme leader of Buddhism', on and on.  This makes him quite suspicious."

 

 

Moreover this issue made its way to the BBC. I can read, in 2009:

It caught the interest of Dan Damon of the World Service’s Reporting Religion. The BBC contacted various Buddhist organisations, including the Dalai Lama’s office in Dharamsala, but “they’ve never heard of Master Dorje Chang Buddha III  ”. The International Buddhism Sangha Association appears to be rather obscure, too...

Some of Dorje Chang Buddha III  s art is sold through a company called Microputt, along with artwork by members of his family – despite the claim on the BBC that His Holiness is a monk, he has a son and a daughter. This company also runs International Arts Publishing, which sells books by Dorje Chang Buddha III.
 

My theory is : San Francisco must sponsor some well known and popular chinese figure whoever it is in support of the chinese community which is one of the biggest in San Francisco (with the hispanic one), and must be sponsored itself by rich chinese personalities...This is how the world goes... And then Dorje Chang Buddha III can sell his crap!