Animated lunch

The Old China Hands Lunch 7 March was attended by 26 friends in total. I even had the pleasure of having an old friend attending who had just arrived from Belgium in the early morning.

The menu, see the pictures:

• Russian egg salad OR salade Niçoise
• pork piccata provençal style served with grilled tomato and pan-fried potatoes OR thin sliced beef tenderloin with wine merchant sauce served with market vegetables and Belgian fries OR pan-fried snapper with mustard sauce served with daily vegetables and mashed potatoes
• daily desert

Lively discussions as always. Even outside on their bikes – seems this picture has been making the rounds on local media…

At the end we had a mix-up with backpacks. After a frantic search we found the one who had grabbed the wrong one… he was having a nap! They ended up exchanging the backpacks later in the evening.

Next lunch is planned for Friday 4 April 2025.

Gilbert on CGTN Dialogue

CGTN Dialogue, interview in my Julong office done on 24 February 2025, first on air on 6 March 19:30.

250224 CGTNweb

The interview is on a couple of platforms. Best is on Youtube by myself.

The original from CGTN is also on Youtube. We added the subtitles.

Nice turnout

The Old China Hands Lunch 7 February 2025 saw a nice turnout of over 30 participants, despite some calling of sick, family issues, mixing up lunch/dinner and more. And icy weather! Otherwise we would have been close to 40!

Gilbert became an Eskimo! Fully equipped for the freezing weather.

Food was great as usual, see some in the pictures:

• chicken curry salad OR Morel’s chef salad (ham, blue cheese and pan-fried chicken, beef on lettuce) OR f fresh daily soup
• farmer’s pork sausage with onion sauce served with red cabbage and hotchpotch potatoes OR mini steak minute with blue cheese sauce served with daily vegetables and french fries OR pan-fried snapper with mustard sauce served with daily vegetables and mashed potatoes
• daily desert

Very lively discussions and the speech by our Chinese Dutch friend Phoa.

Drinkable Rivers with Li An Phoa

See on Spotify

“The sign of a healthy economy should be a drinkable river,” these are the words of Li An Phoa, an environmental activist and our guest for this episode. In 2005, Li An Phoa canoed the full length of the Rupert, a river in Canada. All along the way, she was able to drink water straight from the river. When she returned three years later, this was no longer the case. The river had been poisoned from dams, mining, and industry. Fish died, people got ill, and the delicate balance in the ecosystem was destroyed. Realizing that drinkable rivers are not just a key indicator of ecological health, but community vitality and resilience as well, and that rivers can only be drinkable when economic systems are post-growth, truly democratic, place-based, and respectful of the commons and Indigenous peoples, Li An decided to dedicate her life to re-cultivating drinkable rivers.
Since then, Li An founded the Drinkable Rivers organization and Spring College  and has walked many rivers, using citizen science to test the water quality, training others to do the same, and intervening when a river has been contaminated or is off-balance. Her 1,000-kilometer walk along the river Meuse in Europe was the subject of the documentary Long Walk for Drinkable Rivers. Most recently, she and her partner Maarten van der Schaaf wrote the book Drinkable Rivers: How the river became my teacher.
In this conversation, Li An goes upstream to explain why rivers are no longer drinkable, she offers her vision of a world with drinkable rivers, shares her process for galvanizing communities to care for their watersheds, and suggests invitations for how all of us could contribute to healthier rivers and healthier eco- and economic systems around the world.

Introducing Li An Phoa

Our friend Phoa gave an emotional speech, also introducing his daughter and her book. Proud father!
Happy to receive a copy, In return I gave a copy of my book Toxic Capitalism, about environmental issues.

Our Chinese Dutch friend telling his personal story and introducing his daughter and her book, see the video clip on VIMEO.