Is this world crazy?
In these days we wish each other all the best and also "peace on earth".
But the words "peace on earth" do not belong to my vocabulary any more. We have been wishing each other "peace on earth" for 100s of years and what is the result?
Take Germany and its surrounding countries. They are the best of friends now. We help each other but why did millions of innocent people on both sides have to die then?
America and Vietnam are also close now. Why did it cost America nearly 100.000 good people and Vietnam many more?
Stupid world!
WHALE
On December 12th in 2012 a 12 meter long whale was found on the beach in Holland. An animal of 12 metres long that was found on the 12th of the 12th month of 2012? That was asking for problems.
And indeed, after the animal died there were demonstrations, discussions and even ministers in the government brought it up.
Though a whale is not a real fish I ask myself why millions of fish are caught and killed while this one fish caused such a commotion.
With birds it is not much different.
How much I would like to eliminate some hawks in the place where I live.
They kill and eat my pigeons and no one cares. But if the police catch you killing a hawk you are in trouble deep.
Then there was this construction of a highway. It had to be stopped since a rare kind of moss was discovered at the location. Total cost of this interruption: 300.000 euro.
BANKER
Sometimes I wonder indeed if this world has become crazy. Take that banker in England. He did not function well, was fired and... got 12 million euro.
Initially they wanted to give him 7 million but he did not buy this.
Maybe it is hopeful for me.
Imagine the following situation.
The publisher of a pigeon magazine in which I write wants to talk to me.
The publisher:
"I have found that none of our subsribers reads page three. (On page three is my article). Your articles have become boring and a shame for the paper. There are even rumours that some have this page hung up in their toilets, you may guess for what purpose. Therefore I would kindly ask you to stop writing."
AS:
"If you say so, but I have one question. How much money is it worth?"
The publisher:
"What do you think of 500.000 euro? Not too bad for a man who does not function well any more."
AS:
"Hmm. Should be better. What about 700.000?"
For that money I might consider stop writing.
People that neglect their job in the banking business are rewarded, so why not me?
CRAZY AS WELL
It is really alarming what is going on today.
Have we all lost our senses?
Take soccer. Some players earn millions per year while the only good thing they do is keep the benches in the stadium warm.
In Spain the madness is total.
The clubs over there have immense debts of tens of millions of euros.
But still they come to buy our best players for fortunes and they also pay them gigantic salaries.
Where do they get this money?
From the banks.
But the banks are almost bankrupt. Where do they get the money?
From the government.
But also the government is also nearly bankrupt. Where do they get the money?
We give them the money: Holland and Belgium.
And where do our governments get the money?
They get it from us, hard working tax payers.
So we lose the players we love by means of our own money.
LEO HEREMANS
The pigeons of Leo Heremans are hot right now. All over the world.
And when pigeons are hot strange things happen.
This winter the only Dutch pigeon magazine is full of adverts from people who have Heremans birds and who try to sell their babies.
It looks as if everybody now has birds from Leo.
A hype for a certain family is of all time but such a craze like now never existed.
I myself was at Leo"s 4 times in recent weeks. We could not have a relaxed cup of coffee since the telephone did not stop ringing.
And it was always for pigeons.
In some adds is also a big photo of Leo and they say Leo raced so well because he gave his birds stuff that they sell.
The truth is that I know for sure Leo never gave his birds the stuff that is promoted.
BRANCHES.
Recently I was approached by 3 fanciers who all had a bunch of Heremans birds. They all 3 asked me if I might find clients to sell babies from these Heremans birds.
On the other side numerous fanciers ask for direct Heremans birds on the internet.
I cannot stop thinking about what happened to me in 2005.
A fancier came to my place to buy some youngsters. I let him pick out, his basket was soon filled with 6 birds, I gave him the pedigrees and then he left.
But some time later, he was at my front door again.
Had he forgotten something?
He had not. In his car he had studied the pedigrees of the 6 birds that I had sold him and he found that one was from the 04-124, bred by Heremans Ceusters.
Since he had never heard about this name he asked me if he could have another baby for this one.
It made me think about a visit I paid to L Claessens with some Taiwanese long way back. They liked the birds, they were not expensive in those days but they did not buy since they never heard this name.
I wonder if these people did not have sleepless nights later on.
Of course the man that did not want the baby that I bred from that Heremans cock got another one.
But this is not it.
He is one of the 3 fanciers who now claim to be a branch of Leo since he has over 60 direct Heremans birds now.
That 04-124 was one of the 6 birds I got from Leo in 2004.
It was the only one that turned out to be a good breeder.
But... When one of every six birds that I import is real good I feel successful.
Because the reality is that also Leo breeds bad pigeons.
But unfortunately this is something that nobody seems to realise right now apart from Heremans himself.
Though I am not sure that any one will read this article I wish you all a healthy and FANTASTIC 2013 ! And I also wish all of you will win many first prizes. The fanciers
against whom I race excluded of course.