I'ld like to give you some hugs....

Shouldn't we be more like the animals ??

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Willy Williams, The Champion !!!

There are so many people I worked with on the movie sets, but here's one I didn't say much about yet. Willie Williams, an Afro-American Vietnam veteran and ex navy. He didn't talk much about his tours in Nam. But when he did, his face seemed to be frozen, his eyes looking for something in a far distance, his mind, his thoughts back to that war...The killer-instinct woke up in him. Anyone could see it instantly, don't fuck with this guy....

Willie had weird legs, x-knees and flat feet. He always wore his own boots cos wardrobe couldn't provide any that fit on him. So, once I happened to sit in the office of a casting bureau, elbows on my knees, head in my hands and face down (deep thoughts...:) when a couple of people entered the room. My thoughts were miles away and I didn't pay any attention to these men. But then a pair of shoes entered my 'viewpoint area' , they woke me up....!!! Without looking up I pointed down and said: "I know these feet, I recognize them."... "Willy is it you ???"... I looked up and saw a smile from ear to ear that burst in a laughter. This little moment strengthened our friendship and lasted for the time we met.

Willy also became champion... well, he won...

This was on the set of Hellcamp, there's a scene were the prisoners ( including Lisa Eickhorn) had to undress. David Light and Bill Kipp had a full front view when they 'disinfected ' them. The prisoners one by one had to raise their arms and were sprayed with something like baby powder. David later told me that he almost forgot to spray when Willie was on. He said: "OMG. that guy !! I've seen a lot, but this beats everything. "

Naïef as I was I asked what he meant... "Didn't you see Willy?" he said, "That guy's an elephant..." The other guys who saw it as well ( I didn't see much of it, cos my position as a guard was on the backside of the camp) agreed with Dave and Willy was pronounced 'The Champion'. This was another ear to ear smile for the winner. I think Willy was proud.....

Cast 'Hellcamp'. Raphael Shultz, Bert Spoor, Steve Rogers, Bill Kipp and Henry Strzalkowski..

Henry:

I remember that day well. I was in charge of the bit players in the cast. There was one shot where the director of photography had a dolly parallel to the line of prisoners to be "deloused." The shot was a slow dolly across the line-up of just their legs from the knees down. After the first dolly rehearsal, the DOP turned and whispered aside to his assistant, "I'm gonna have to lower the camera, get me the hi-hat." At the lunch room later, I waited for the right moment when Willy was at the lunch line and said aloud, "Willy, have you ever considered a career in entertainment?" The room exploded.

October 9, 2009 at 10:22 AM 

 (see all comments)..!!

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Manila flood more pix.

More pictures

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Flooded Manila, pictures.

More pix: 1.

Video aftermath, where's my car...?


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Evening prayers

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The hold-up. The whole story..

Didn't do, didn't do it ...
I hate those hold-ups.

How high ?Hé I do karate...

Hands up ? This...!

We don't belong here. We vote for Obama...

Hands low..is that OK too?


Hahaha, he's in jail.


Happy end.

Dear Lord thank you for putin' the hold-upper in jail.

Don't count me in, burb...



Hi guys, I'm David Copperfield's cat.


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After the war. When the hell was that ????

I heard it so many times in my youth: before the war or after the war. And still you can hear somebody say: This house is built before the war. Which war ?? Depends on where you live. In Europe it would be 1945. in Korea 1953, in Vietnam 1975, Falkland in 1982, Irak... ??, Afghanistan...?, Palestina...?,
WW2 isn't over yet, let the next pictures tell their own story...

http://djiin.wordpress.com/about-my-blog/

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Trade in children

Ethiopian children exploited by US adoption agencies

Andrew Geogheghan reported this story on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 07:22:00

Listen to MP3 of this story ( minutes)

Alternate WMA version | MP3 download

This transcript is a record of the Radio National broadcast. It will be replaced by the updated local radio broadcast at 10am.


TONY EASTLEY: In Australia, international adoptions are handled by the Government and are highly regulated, but that's not the case elsewhere in the world.

In the United States international adoptions are a big business, where a large number of private international adoption agencies are paid on average $30,000 a time to find a child for hopeful parents.

The number of Americans adopting Ethiopian children has quadrupled, especially since American celebrities adopted African children.

A Foreign Correspondent team has been investigating American adoption agencies operating in Ethiopia and has uncovered some alarming practices.

Africa correspondent Andrew Geoghegan reports.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Famine, disease and war have orphaned around five million Ethiopian children. It's not surprising then that the business of international adoptions is thriving here and Americans in particular are queuing up to adopt a child.

EXCERPT FROM DVD: This is Yabets. He's five years old and both of his parents died; it says they died of tuberculosis. Can you smile? Oh, nice smile.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: This is the sales pitch from an American agency Christian World Adoption. In a remote village in Ethiopia's south the agency has compiled a DVD catalogue of children for its clients in the United States.

EXCERPT FROM DVD: Father has died. I'm not certain what he died of and this is the mother. Hoping for a family who can provide for them, they're just really desperate for people to take care of their children.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Incredibly though, many of the children being advertised are not orphans at all. American Lisa Boe was told by Christian World Adoption that the little boy she'd adopted was an orphan, but she soon had doubts.

LISA BOE: There was a picture of the people that had found him, and there's a man and a woman in the picture. I point to the woman and he calls her mamma. I would never, never have brought home a child that has a mum. Never.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: At least 70 adoption agencies have set up business in Ethiopia. Almost half are unregistered, but there's scant regulation anyway and fraud and deception are rife. Some agencies actively recruit children in a process known as harvesting.

EXCERPT FROM DVD: If you want your child to be adopted by a family in America, you may stay. If you do not want your child to go to America, you should take your child away.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Parents give up their children in the belief they'll have better lives overseas. But many have little understanding of the process or that that they may never see their children again.

EYOB KOLCHA: It was considered good for the children in the community and the people came.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Eyob Kolcha worked for Christian World Adoption before quitting in December 2007.

EYOB KOLCHA: There was no information before that time, there was no information after that.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: Did their parents realise that they were now legally someone else's children?

EYOB KOLCHA: They didn't understand that. I don't think most people, most parents understand even elsewhere in Ethiopia right now.

MUNERA AHMED (translated): I have no words to express my feelings and my anguish about what happened to my children and what I did.

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: After her husband left, Munera Ahmed gave up two sons - one 12 months old and the other five through another adoption agency.

She has had no word about her children since she handed them over; that's despite guarantees that she'd be kept informed. The agency has now closed.

MUNERA AHMED (translated): As a mother not to be able to know my kids' situation hurts me so much, I have no words, no words to express my emotions (crying).

ANDREW GEOGHEGAN: About 30 Ethiopian children are leaving the country every week, bound for a new home, new parents and an uncertain future.

Koreans in the Netherlands 1 +2:
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Koreans in the Netherlands 1.

It's only since a couple of months that I had a renewed contact with a guy I worked with in the past. One morning I found me an e-mail all the way from Korea, "If I could remember Don Gordon Bell" he asked. Yes, I did. We worked on several movies together in the 80's. A long time ago but a time never to forget. Don, an ex-Vietnam veteran had a nice record of movie making already. His high light, no doubt, was his input in Apocalypse Now, a classic among the Vietnam war movies, shot in the Philippines. Don was a well skilled martal arts practicioner, doing all kind of unsown Korean styles. Due to his experiences in 'the field of action' he was connected to this film as a military adviser, casting assistant and AD or assistant to the production. Besides that he played characters and loved to do stunts. Don had started a blog as well, (also in april, like me..) His main page is 'Korean War Baby, he writes about him being a half-breed ,(Korean mother and US father) , his adoption and his search for his natural mother. Therefor I'ld like to post something about the Dutch/Korean adoption numbers.

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