Kebumen, past and present

The Mexolie factory in 1933/4

In 1933 Kebumen was a small kampong in the south of Java. My parents came to live and work there at the age of 29 (Oscar) and 26 yrs (Nelly). It will not have been easy for a swiss girl who didn't speak dutch nor malaysian, to adapt to colonial Netherlands-Indies and to Asian people she had never met. But, from the letters she writes to her parents (see Blog posthume), the newlyweds were full of energy, enthusiasm and hope for their new life together.

They drew for their parents and friends the map below. Indicated with numbers are:their house (1), houses of director and other staff (2-4, 9), station (7), tennis court (8), central park (alun alun, 29), mosque (27), palace of the Prince (26), prison (31), hospital (14), ice factory (16), a Japanese shop (18) and a Chinese shop (19), market (pasar, 21), post office (23), hotel Juliana (24), and the Mexolie factory (6, 10).

 

  

Map of Kebumen, drawn by my parents in April 1934. As indicated by the compass, North points downward.

Immediately after their arrival my father started to work in the Mexolie factory close to their house. He had to do administrations but, knowing some chemistry,he was also involved in checking the quality of the oil and in producing by-products.

  

Notebook with protocols (e.g. for saponification of butyl alcohol) and a drawing of a reducing valve.  How did this little booklet (10x16 cm) survive the Japanese camps?  We will never know....

Batak intermezzo

My aunt Vivian Woldringh-Coster (born 11 December 1927 in Bandung) lived until about her fifth year in Parapat and later in Tarutung near lake Toba in Sumatra. A year ago she told me what she remembered while showing me an album with photographs. When I showed these pictures to Julia Tampubolon, who was born and raised there, she could recognize most of the locations!

Pictures from the album of Vivian Woldringh-Coster. Left: Vivian (~4 yrs) with a governess from Suriname. Right a kampong near Banuarea; the tree could be from the Durian.

On September 3, 2015, I went with Hilbert van der Meer and his visitor, Julia Tampubolon, to the University Library of Leiden. Julia was looking for the book of a german missionary, Friedrich Eigenbrod. He wrote a story about the conversion to christianity of her great-grandfather, Sarbut Tampubolon; however the story was written in or had been translated to the "Batak-Toba" language. So, Julia had to tell us what Eigenbrod had been writing about.

The book about Sarbut Tampubolon, written by F. Eigenbrod in Batak language, found in the University Library Leiden.

She told us that the book described how the father of her great-grandfather, Guru Sumillam Tampubolon, had dreamed about his newborn son: that he would become someone to be respected and well-known with great influence towards other people because he would have charisma and power. So Sarbut became spoiled by his proud father in his very early age, even as a gambler and when he made “trouble”. Later, Sarbut became a leader, fighting with his Aceh comrades against the Dutch, burning churches  and  dutch army posts in the area of Toba. He was exiled to Padang and Aceh by the Dutch. He had to go into hiding in a cave on the shore of lake Toba. He fought together with Sisingamangaraja against the Dutch

{From Wikipedia: "Sisingamangaraja XII (1849 – 17 June 1907; "raja" means king), was the last priest-king of the Batak peoples of north Sumatra. In the course of fighting a lengthy guerrilla war against the Dutch colonisation of Sumatra from 1878 onwards, he was killed in a skirmish with Dutch troops in 1907. He was declared a National Hero of Indonesia in 1961 for his resistance to Dutch colonialism."}

During his wanderings Sarbut met the famous Lutheran missionary Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen, who "adopted him as a son".

Sarbut died on 11 September 1905; he had a son named Pamilang Tampubolon; his son was Guru Tiodorus Tampubolon, who married Lena Sitinjak. They had four sons and four daughters, of whom Julia is the youngest. They represent the 17th generation of the Tampubolon family.

Julia was born in a village called Harianboho on the western shore of lake Toba.

Houses and rice fields (2012) near Harianboho, the birth place of Julia Tampubolon.

Modern Kebumen

Kebumen is now a town with more than 1 million inhabitants. I found a web site about modern Kebumen and Julis helped me to translate it.

Left: Ravie Ananda's web site: http://kebumen2013.com/pdf-materi-sejarah-singkat-pmk-sarinabati-panjer-kebumen/. Right: Julia Tampubolon, helping me with the translation of the web site of Ravie Ananda, written in Bahasa Indonesia.

Photographs of the Copra factory in Kebumen (1860-1930) from the Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam. Many of these prints were also in my father's archive. Web site Ravie Ananda: http://kebumen2013.com/foto-pabrik-mexolie-kebumen/

On his web site Ravie Ananda describes how the Copra-factory in Kebumen developed from ~1860 to the 1920s. In the 1930s there were 3 classes of houses for those who worked in the factory. The houses were built in a classic european style. For the core staff they were located west of the factory. For ordinary employees 25 units were built, each containing a well. There were also public lavatories with wells. For covering the roofs, tiles were made with tile-press machines imported from Germany. Besides these houses many other buildings have been built as indicated on hand-drawn map of my parents.

Left: With the help of a picture of 1933, we found the house of my parents when we visited Kebumen in 2000. It had become a military post. Right: The buildings, the drying fields for the copra and the electricity poles have not changed much....

From 1961 to 1972 the production of copra-oil increased again, giving more work to local people. The factory also produced ice blocks. However, in 1986 the Mexolie (now called "Sari Nabati", meaning pollen oil) went bankrupt. Machines, steel frames and lorries were removed and sold. The factory was used for the storage of, for instance, sugar products. It was neglected for about 25 years.

In the past years, reconstruction plans are being carried out for the development of the factory area. There are plans to make an amusement park, but also a library and a museum, a recreation place for children, a sports center, swimming pool and a hotel. On the picture below a section of the drawing from 1934 is being compared with a section of the GoogleEarth map of April 11, 2013 from Kebumen as posted by Ravie Ananda. The green area belongs to a military post, the red area to the former Mexolie/Sarinabati factory.

Comparison of the drawing of 1934 with the map from GoogleEarth, slightly tilted to a similar position. The North now points upward.

When all the building plans become realized, it remains to be seen what will remain of the old buildings and houses of the Mexolie/Sarinabati factory. According to some people these buildings can be considered to represent the historical and cultural heritage of modern Kebumen.

New buildings (a hotel?) are being constructed at the factory site.

This picture was taken in April 2015, when Channoch M. visited the town where he was born in 1940.

"Oh...Keboemen"

When clearing up my mother's belongings after her death (1984) in Switzerland, my fatherfound her camp diary and letters in a wooden box. This led him to document their experiences during and after the Japanese camps in the dutch colony from 1942 to 1946.

Father, Oscar, transcribing my mother's diary and letters from the camp, found in the wooden box; 1984.

But who was my father, who broke up his study of civil engineering in Delft to study the chemistry of oil and soap in Groningen and Berlin and who brought his Swiss wife in 1933 to Keboemen in the Dutch East Indies? Was he longing for the land of his childhood or was he sent by his rich father, director general of the "Nederlands-Indische Handelsbank" (NIHB) in Amsterdam?

Thirty years later (2013), my Swiss cousin, Catherine Marchand, transcribed the letters sent by my mother to her parents in Switzerland, as described in my previous blog, written in dutch: http://woldringh-naarden.blogspot.nl/2015/07/op-reis-naar-wo-ii.html

The weekly letters of my mother are written in french. The "Blog posthume" starts with a letter written on November 14th, 1932 from Laren (Holland) describing how she had to convince one of the directors (G.A.Dunlop) to let them go together to the Netherlands-Indies:

http://java1933.blogspot.nl/2015/06/larenhollande-14-novembre-1932-comment.html

In October 1933 they settle in their house in Keboemen:

http://java1933.blogspot.nl/2015/07/15-octobre-1933-keboemenkebumen-hotel.html

On December 11th, 1933 she writes to her father in Switzerland: "The next day Mr and Mrs Röhwer absolutely wanted to lead us to a large underground cave, a curiosity in the country. So starting at 7 am in the morning, we visited the cave and had breakfast at 9 am. Then, on the way back, we went to the coast. My dear! such a spectacle, no, I could not believe my eyes and could not realize that it was me who had the chance to see such a sight, coming from fairy tales. Heat at least 45°C, true, but what does that matter. First we walked through rice fields separated by bamboo forests, Papali, bamboo forests, so beautiful, so beautiful, then sand dunes from where we saw the sea at our feet.

Blue sea, blue sky, in the horizon mountains in a purple haze, almost out of sight a grey sand bank on which tidal waves of 2 meters high come to die, making clouds of white foam while flowing back. The tidal waves are very strong on the south coast and do not allow swimming. Throughout this landscape were natives fishing for crabs, shrimps and women with large, brightly colored jars for making salt. Oscar took pictures, but they are not yet ready."

Father's photograph of the south coast of Java.

On December 15th, 1933 she writes to her mother that for the first time she felt homesickness: "...a longing for the cold, the rain, the snow, the wet streets shining in the glow of street lamps, the shops in town decorated and illuminated. But it only lasted a short moment...."

Note: "Oh...Keboemen" refers to a sighing of my mother when she remembered the first happy years in the Netherlands-Indies.

The copra factory "Mexolie"

Copra is the dried meat of the coconut harvested from the coconut palm. These trees were in every kampong; the coconuts were collected and transported (by the Chineses) to the factory, where they were first split and dried before pressing out and extracting the oil.

The drying field of the Mexolie factory in Keboemen in 1933.

In the 1910's and1920's there were many oil factories combined into the "OFI" (N.V. Oliefabrieken Insulinde in Nederlands-Indië). In that period dr. Albert Jan Kluyver spent several years (1916-1919) on Java as scientific consultant; later he became head of the laboratory of OFI in Bandung. He then heavily critisized the manifacturing of by-products. (Back in Holland Kluyver became the 3rd professor - after Beijerinck and G. van Iterson - of the "Delft School of Microbiology", and famous for his contention about the "unity in biochemistry". During the war Kluyver offered a job to Mrs. Woutera van Iterson in Delft. She met there Jan B. le Poole, who had just built the first electron microscope in the Netherlands, the "EM100". Later, in 1952, she became head of the Laboratory of Electron Microscopy) at the University of Amsterdam, where she was my promotor in 1974.)

Cover of a book by dr. R.N.J. Kamerling, a study describing the decline of the "OFI".

On the level of management, the OFI was critisized in 1918 by a principal agent of the NIHB ("Nederlands-Indische Handelsbank) in Batavia, Conradus Woldringh (my grandfather). He warned that the administrators of OFI were incompetent and too autocratic (p.74 of the book of R.N.J. Kamerling about the OFI; T. Wever bv, Francker, 1982). Although the directors in Amsterdam were annoyed and told him to mind his own business, it appeared that he was right: In 1923 the OFI had to be liquidated which resulted in the foundation by the NIHB of "Mexolie" (Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Oliefabrieken). Conradus Woldringh went to Amsterdam where he became director from 1921 to 1935 (documented in the book of W.L. Korthals Altes, "Tussen cultures en kredieten", Amsterdam 2004). But he must have known how difficult the future of Mexolie in the dutch colony would be. Why then did he allow his eldest son, my father, to go to the factory in Keboemen? And what became of the factory in present-day Kebumen?

Op reis naar WO-II

 (english follows dutch: "Traveling towards WW-II")

Vele malen heeft mijn vader mij later verteld hoe hij erbij was geweest: bij de eerste redevoering van Hitler als nieuwe Rijkskanselier in het Sportpalast in Berlijn (10 februari 1933). Hij moet er de argumenten van de brullende man hebben gehoord en de "begeisterung" van de miljoenen toehoorders hebben meegevoeld.

Hans Keilson, de psychoanalyticus en jood die de holocaust in Nederland overleefde,  schreef over zo'n toespraak: "Een kleine, onaanzienlijke man, gegrepen door iets wat sterker was dan hijzelf, praatte alsof hij bezig was zichzelf te wurgen." (Der Tod des Widersachers; 2009 Nederlandse vertaling, Uitgeverij van Gennep).

10 februari 1933, toespraak Hitler in het Sportpalast te Berlijn.

1933, in dit jaar verliet Japan de Volkenbond en werd Soekarno naar Endeh op Flores verbannen. In dit jaar trouwde mijn vader met een Zwitsers meisje, Nelly Marchand, in een klein dorpje aan de Bielersee. Zij reisden vervolgens met de trein naar Napels en vandaar op 15 september met de boot "Poelau Bras" naar Nederlands Indië.

Al vanaf de boot begint zij brieven te schrijven naar haar ouders. In totaal zo'n 300 brieven gedateerd tot februari 1942. Daarna ging zij het Japanse concentratiekamp in. Deze in het frans geschreven brieven zijn na de oorlog teruggevonden in het ouderlijke huis "Le Chalet". Ze zijn in 2014 en '15 door Catherine Marchand uitgetypt.

Catherine Marchand schrijft de ~300 brieven van haar Tante over in haar huis te Biel/Bienne (Zwitserland).

De brieven worden door haar "ge-Post" op haar blog:  

"Java 1933: un blog posthume"

http://java1933.blogspot.nl/

"Ce blog est la transcription des lettres hebdomadaires d'une jeune femme, Nelly, vivant à Java avec son mari, envoyées à sa famille en Suisse. A l'époque elle a écrit cette correspondance sur une machine à écrire portative Hermes, reçue en cadeau de mariage avant leur départ pour les Indes Néerlandaises. Ces lettres s'échelonnent de septembre 1933 à février 1942."

Nelly schrijft hoe de bedienden (djongos) geen hollands kunnen of willen spreken. Ze kan niettemin met hen lachen, ze vindt ze heel aardig, is al gauw niet meer bang voor ze en stelt zich voor dat ze hen straks in haar huis goed opdrachten zal kunnen geven.

Van "De vrienden van Sama Sebo": Semua orang yang ingin untuk berlayar ke Indië harus berbicara Bahasa (Al die willen naar Indië varen moeten wel de taal gaan leren).  Zou ze op de boot ook zo'n handleiding voor "Bahasa Indonesia" gekregen hebben?

Op 1 oktober 1933 passeren ze vlak bij Sabang, een eiland aan de noordpunt van Sumatra, een Hollands passagierschip op de terugweg. Zoals het de gewoonte is passeren de twee schepen elkaar op korte afstand zodat men elkaar kan toewuiven. Zij vraagt zich af wanneer het hún beurt zal zijn om huiswaarts te keren. Het is een vraag die alle passagiers bezig houdt en ook mijn vader schrijft in zijn eerste brief: "Vaak hebben we aan thuis teruggedacht, ... vooral toen we op heel korten afstand een Lloyd boot, de Kota Topan, passeerden, die zich op de thuisreis bevond. Vanzelf komt dan de vraag in je naar boven: wanneer zullen wij eens aan de beurt zijn om de thuisreis te aanvaarden en de onzen op te zoeken....en, wat wacht ons nog alles?"

Brief van vader geschreven op papier van de NV Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland: "....wat wacht ons nog alles?"

Travelling towards WW-II

Many times my father had told me later how he had been there: in the Sportpalast in Berlin when Hitler gave his first speech as new Chancellor (February 10, 1933). He must have heard the arguments of the roaring man and must have felt the "begeisterung" in the millions of listeners.

Hans Keilson, the psychoanalyst and jew who survived the Holocaust in the Netherlands, wrote about such a speech: "A small, insignificant man, gripped by something stronger than himself, talked as if he was trying to strangle himself." (Der Tod des Widersachers; 2009 Dutch translation, Publisher van Gennep).

1933, Japan left the League of Nations. This year, my father married a Swiss girl, Nelly Marchand, in a small village on Lake Biel. They then traveled by train to Naples and from there sailed on 15 September with the Poelau Bras to the Dutch East Indies.

Right from the boat she begins to write letters to her parents. In total some 300 letters dated to February 1942. Then she went into a Japanese concentration camp. This french-written letters were found after the war in the parental home "Chalet". They are transcribed in 2014 and '15 by Catherine Marchand.

The letters are being posted on her blog: :  

"Java 1933: un blog posthume"

http://java1933.blogspot.nl/

"Ce blog est la transcription des lettres hebdomadaires d'une jeune femme, Nelly, vivant à Java avec son mari, envoyées à sa famille en Suisse. A l'époque elle a écrit cette correspondance sur une machine à écrire portative Hermes, reçue en cadeau de mariage avant leur départ pour les Indes Néerlandaises. Ces lettres s'échelonnent de septembre 1933 à février 1942."

Nelly writes how the servants (djongos) are not able or willing to speak dutch. She can nevertheless laugh with them, she finds them very nice, is soon no longer afraid of them and imagines that she will soon be able to give them good orders in her house.

On October 1, 1933 they pass near Sabang, an island on the northern tip of Sumatra, a Dutch passenger ship on the way back. As is customary, the two ships pass each other at a short distance so that people can wave at each other. She wonders when it will be their turn to return home. It is a question that occupies all passengers and also my father states in his first letter: "We often thought back to home ... especially when we passed on a very short distance a Lloyd ship, the Kota Topan, that was on its homeward course. Then comes the question: When will it be our turn to take the journey home and visit our families.... and what all awaits us? "

  

Nelly on board of the Poelau Bras.

Bacteria in and on your body

(With thanks to Alfonso Jiménez-Sánchez for the article "ADN libre" in his blog "La Ciencia también es Cultura" and to Hans Bergmans, whose comments and corrections I gratefully incorporated)

Many different bacteria (microorganisms) inhabit all those parts of the human body that are in frequent contact with the outside world. Under certain health conditions some bacteria (so-called pathogens) can cause illnesses, but most of the time they live with us in harmony, providing functions that are vital for our survival (like food digestion and breaking down poisons).

Studies have estimated that there are about 10 bacteria for every human cell in our body. But how many cells do we have? This is difficult to determine. If our body would contain 10 trillion cells (10 x 10¹²) the weight of 100 trillion bacteria (average weight = 5 x 10^-12 gram) would be 500 gram or half a kilogram. There are also estimates that the total weight of bacteria in and on the body of an adult person amounts to 1 to 3 kg.

 

A bacterium from our gut, like Escherichia coli, can have many different sizes and shapes. These bacteria can weigh between 0.5 to 10 x 10^-12 gram depending on their growth condition.

Previously a few hundred bacterial species were isolated from the human body. In 2012, researchers from the "Human Microbiome Project" published reports describing 10,000 species in our body, based on analysis of  their DNA. The vast majority of these species have not yet been cultured. Taken together their DNA codes for some 8 million unique proteins, that is 360 times the number of proteins coded by our own DNA. Many of those proteins help us to digest and absorb the food we are eating. But, in addition, the bacteria produce compounds like vitamins that our genes cannot produce (genes are "instruction manuals" present in every single cell of our body; they direct the building of proteins, the "machines" that make our body function).

When we eat our food consisting of plant and animal tissue, we eat cells that contain DNA. This DNA is broken down into small fragments. According to a recent study (Spisák and others, July 2013) some of these fragments can contain genes and can end up in our blood stream (see also Alfonso Jiménez Sánchez, who pointed out this article to me in his article "ADN libre").

The article of Spisák in PLOS ONE (July, 2013)

How should we read such a difficult, technical article? Either, as a human being with deep-seated fears for the uncertainties life brings us, or, as a skeptic who accepts the uncertainties of life, but does not immediately accept the remarkable results in this article?

The first category is well supplied by, for instance, anti-GMO web sites (links 1 and 2) like ISIS (Institute of Science In Society), in which "the hazards of GM and other unknown nucleic acids introduced into the human food chain by GMOs" are emphasized. The second category is supplied, for instance, by a pro-GMO blog "The skeptical Raptor", in which it is pointed out that this mystery has not yet been confirmed by an independent study and that, if it is confirmed, it must always have been so. (See also "The Conversation".)

There is a strange tendency amongst critics of genetic engineering, to assume that the DNA that has been added or changed in a transgenic organism (GMO) has a special status amongst the vastly larger amount of DNA that is naturally present in the organism. The transgenes do not differ in physical and chemical properties from the DNA of other organisms. It is likely that fragments of DNA of any organism that we eat will find its way into our body. In fact, during millions of years of evolution we have developed as organisms that, for our maintenance and multiplication, have to rely on eating other organisms, and thus on eating their DNA. Vast amounts of DNA have entered our system, but there has never been any evidence that this DNA is doing something wrong. No form of cancer has been identified that results from the plant or animal DNA we are eating. Why would the transgenic DNA in a trangenic organism then behave differently?

This last question will certainly not take away the anxiety in people who do not like to live with uncertainties.

Angst voor veranderen of "Zwarte Piet verbied je niet"

Rond 1975 kwamen vele Afro-Surinamers naar Nederland. Nadat zij zo'n twintig jaar later redelijk goed geintegreerd waren en toegang hadden gekregen tot overheid en politiek, begonnen zij aandacht te vragen voor hun slavernijverleden (Zie het boekje: "Meerstemmig Verleden", Paul Knevel, Sara Polak, Sara Tilstra (red.), KIT Publishers, Amsterdam, 2011).

Internationaal werd de slavernij veroordeeld als een misdaad tegen de mensheid en de Nederlandse overheid heeft dan ook "zijn diepe spijt geuit over slavernij en slavenhandel". Maar zo'n erkenning heeft weinig zin als het niet breed gedragen wordt door de witte gemeenschap.

Nu, weer twintig jaar later, zoeken nazaten van de slavernij nog steeds naar hun identiteit en voelen zij nog steeds geen erkenning voor hun slavernijverleden. Daarom vragen zij aandacht voor hun slavernijtrauma, echt of ingebeeld, waarbij het Sinterklaasfeest een handvat vormt. Maar als je "Trots Op Nederland" bent, vind je het ónzin om óns Sinterklaasfeest ter discussie te stellen! Nietwaar?

Sinterklaas-optocht in de Peperstraat in Naarden-Vesting

Wat zijn we vorig jaar geschrokken van de suggestie dat de VN onze Sinterklaas-viering zou gaan onderzoeken op racisme! Het bericht gaf aanleiding tot stukken in de (Volks-)krant over de vlekkeloze herkomst van Zwarte Piet, die immers niets met slavernij te maken heeft. En tot discussies op TV over wiens probleem het nu eigenlijk was als iemand zich door Zwarte Piet gekwetst voelde: dat van de witte Sinterklaas-vierders of van de donkere nazaten van de slavernij.

Onze (donkere) zoon is voor de Naardense Stichting "Burgerzin" meer dan 20 keer als Zwarte Piet met Sinterklaas meegereisd vanaf de brug over de Muider Trekvaart naar de haven in Naarden-Vesting. Hij werd eerst zwart en zo'n tien jaar geleden bruin geschminkt, waardoor we hem nauwelijks herkenden als hij in de optocht door de Peperstraat danste en zijn pepernoten vooral op ons mikte.

Wie van ons is er wel eens gediscrimineerd en hoe voelt dat? Op vakantie in Curacao liepen we met onze zoon door de drukste winkelstraat van Willemstad. Hij moest nog iets kopen, terwijl wij wat snoep gingen halen in een drogisterij. Daar werden we net iets te lang níet bediend. Tenslotte kregen we het gevraagde in een zakje toegeschoven door een donkere vrouw die met een collega door bleef praten terwijl zij, zonder ons aan te kijken, haar hand ophield om het geld in ontvangst te nemen. Buitengekomen vertelde ik mijn zoon wat ons overkomen was. "Nu weet je ook eens hoe het voelt",  antwoordde hij.

Hoe vaak had hij het gevoeld? Als ik dat al niet van mijn eigen zoon weet, hoe kan ik inschatten hoe bijvoorbeeld de Amsterdamse Afro-Surinamers zich voelen als ze de traditionele strapatsen van Zwarte Piet zien?

Goed, als zoveel mensen zich gediscrimineerd voelen en als we het verleden van deze minderheid kunnen erkennen door van Zwarte Piet bijvoorbeeld een Gekleurde Piet te maken, laten we dat dan doen. We zijn toch flexibel? De "zak en de roe" hebben we toch óók al aangepast? Het zal de kinderen een zorg zijn en het is een oefening in de erkenning van de gevoelens van een minderheid.

In Suriname hebben de jongeren die geboren zijn na de onafhankelijkheid van 1975 het Sinterklaasfeest niet echt leren kennen. Veel oudere Surinamers echter sympathiseren met de "Euro-Suri's" in Nederland die gekant zijn tegen Zwarte Piet. Waarom? Ik denk dat ook zij voelen dat met een verandering van de traditionele Zwarte Piet, een zgn. make-over, erkenning gegeven wordt aan het slavenverleden van de Surinamers in Nederland. Met zo'n erkenning, breed gedragen door de Sinterklaasviering, bereiken we meer dan er voortdurend op te wijzen dat we geen rassen mogen discrimineren.

Het Sinterklaasfeest is geen Kerstviering!

Laten we ons daarna concentreren op het Sinterklaasfeest en ervoor zorgen dat deze viering niet verdrongen wordt door de Kerstman, voor wie etalages, huizen en tuinen steeds vaker worden versierd nog vóór de intocht van de Sint. Het belang van het Sinterklaasfeest is heel groot: het leert gelovige kinderen, na een aantal jaren, op ludieke wijze dat de Goedheiligman niet bestaat! Dat is een uniek leerproces en het zou een goede zaak zijn als het bij meer "geloven" zou kunnen worden toegepast.

(Met dank aan mijn Surinaamse gastheer Dennis Ch.a.F. voor zijn informatie over Suriname)

Reizen langs de San Andreas Fault en de angst voor aardbevingen en genetisch gemodificeerd voedsel

(english follows dutch)

Op 23 april 2014 haalden LeRoy en Mary Grace Bertsch ons op van het vliegveld van San Francisco en reden ons langs en over de San Andreas Fault naar Palo Alto. De weg (Highway 200) voerde ons langs een reeks kleine meertjes, Crystal Spring reservoirs, die de stad van water voorzien. Net als 40 jaar eerder zouden we weer bij hen logeren, vlakbij het luxueuse Stanford. Al vanaf de zestiger jaren was LeRoy Bertsch betrokken bij de eerste experimenten van in vitro DNA synthese in het laboratorium van Arthur Kornberg (Stanford).

Volgens de "Bay Area Forecast" in de San Francisco Chronicle van 20 april 2014 waren er de afgelopen week slechts 8 kleine aardbevingen geweest (1-2 op de schaal van Richter; rode pijlen).

25 april 2014. Hoewel er in de Bay Area bijna elke dag wel een (kleine) aardbeving wordt geregistreerd, hebben we er  (helaas?) geen meegemaakt. Je kan de Fault niet zien en angst voor aardbevingen lijkt er bij de bevolking niet te zijn.

Op weg naar Monterey maken we een omweg naar de missiepost San Juan Bautista (Doper), waar je de Fault wél kan zien.  In 1797 werd deze Missie vlak langs rift-vallei gebouwd. Misschien dacht Bautista dat er wel eens een riviertje zou stromen waarin het goed dopen was? Daar hebben ze dus in de loop der tijd vele aardbevingen meegemaakt! Het grote gebouw is in 1950 grondig gerestaureerd.

De San Andreas Fault loopt van links naar rechts langs de missiepost. Vlak achter dit beeld van San Juan Bautista is de steile helling van de langgerekte inzinking van het land (de zgn. riftvallei) te zien.

26 april 2014. Na 40 jaar zijn Lidie en ik weer terug in Asílomar (Pacific Grove). Langzaam begin ik de houten huizen, gebouwd rond 1913, te herkennen. Zaten we toen niet in de "Scripps Lecture Hall"? Ik herinner me dat je vanuit het conferentiezaaltje zó het prachtige strand kon oplopen. Maar ik had toen zeker geen oog voor al die mooie, door de wind vervormde Monterey Pines; ik was als jonge postdoc té zenuwachtig op mijn eerste buitenlandse congres in november 1974.

Nóg herinner ik mij de emoties tijdens de discussie tussen Barbara Wright (Boston) en John Ashworth (Essex) over het moleculaire mechanisme dat de ontwikkeling van de slijmzwam Dictyostelium beinvloedt. De amoeben groeien en delen als ééncelligen, maar voegen zich samen tot een meercellig organisme zodra er te weinig voedsel is. Hoe wordt deze omschakeling gesignaleerd? Wright was van de "holistische" aanpak (je moet naar het héle organisme kijken) en moest niets hebben van de moderne, "reductionistische" (lees: moleculair genetische) aanpak van Ashworth.

Maar het was deze laatste aanpak die in de meeste praatjes aan bod kwam. Per slot van rekening was dit de tijd van de opkomst van het recombinant DNA onderzoek. Hierin werd, o.a. door Paul Berg (Stanford), de techniek toegepast waarin DNA van een bepaald virus met een enzym in fragmenten geknipt werd. In een tweede stap werd vervolgens het DNA van een ander virus geknipt, waarna een DNA-fragment van het eerste virus in het DNA van het tweede virus geplakt werd. In een laatste stap zou het nieuwe, gerecombineerde DNA in de bacterie Escherichia coli gebracht kunnen worden, waarmee een genetisch gemodificeerde bacterie verkregen zou zijn.

Zicht vanaf het strand op het conferentieoord Asilomar, verscholen achter de Monterey Pines.

Maar Paul Berg heeft deze laatste stap toen niet uitgevoerd. Op een enkele maanden eerder in Asilomar gehouden conferentie (juli, 1974) pleitte hij, samen met 10 andere wetenschappers (waaronder de mede-ontdekker van de dubbele helix, James Watson), voor een uitstel van alle activiteiten op het gebied van recombinant DNA technologie.

In februari 1975 werd opnieuw een conferentie in Asilomar gehouden, waarbij juristen, artsen en journalisten aanwezig waren. Er heerste angst dat de genetisch gemodificeerde darmbacterie gevaar voor onderzoekers en publiek zou opleveren. Op deze unieke en publieke conferentie werden strikte regels besproken waaraan de onderzoekers zich moesten houden. Dankzij deze restricties kon enerzijds het onderzoek verder gaan, anderzijds werd de angst bij het publiek verminderd.

Nu, 40 jaar later, is de recombinant DNA technologie, samen met de regels van restricties en containment, niet meer uit biologisch onderzoek weg te denken. Ook zijn geen gevallen bekend waarin de volksgezondheid ooit in gevaar is gekomen.

De baai van Monterey (april, 2014).

Met het succes van de recombinant DNA technologie heeft zich echter ook de angst en het verzet ertegen bij het publiek ontwikkeld. De meeste mensen willen of kunnen immers niet met onzekerheden leven. Er is nu sprake van een onverzoenlijke, op ethische en religieuze waarden gestoelde tegenstand. Zie bijvoorbeeld websites als die van Mike Adams.

Hoe valt een leek uit te leggen dat genetisch gemodificeerd voedsel geen kanker veroorzaakt? Daarvoor is een lange weg van onderricht noodzakelijk. Voor wie geen zin heeft die moeilijke weg te bewandelen is er de nieuwe "BIO-religie": die zegt dat alleen "biologisch of organisch" gemaakt voedsel gezond en "eerlijk" is. Het geloof daarin, vergelijkbaar met het geloof in onze fragiele, "Blauwe Planeet", bespaart een hoop lees- en denktijd, maar maakt al het voedsel wel wat duurder.

Informatie over voeding op een niet-alarmistische wijze geschreven is te vinden op de website van het Voedingscentrum.

27 april 2014. Om 6 uur 's ochtends waren er nog weinig mensen op het strand van Asílomar; alleen meeuwen, bruine pelikanen en strandlopertjes. Maar een half uur later, op de terugweg, kwam er een grote groep mensen vanuit het congrescentrum naar het strand gelopen. Een achterblijfster liep met een Boek en wat plaatjes van planten en dieren in haar hand. Ik vroeg haar wat ze ging bestuderen. Ze deed haar oordoppen uit en vroeg me wat ik gezegd had. "Are you going to study?". Ze keek me met een hemelse glimlach aan en zei: "To study and pray, sir." Dat kan dus ook.

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Traveling along the San Andreas fault

and fear for earthquakes and genetically modified foods (GMO)

On April 23, LeRoy and Mary Grace Bertsch picked us up from the airport in San Francisco and drove us along and across the San Andreas Fault to Palo Alto. The Road (Highway 200) took us along a series of small lakes, the Crystal Spring reservoirs, that supply the city with water. Just like 40 years ago we would stay with them, near the luxurious Stanford. In the early sixties LeRoy Bertsch was involved in the first experiments on in vitro DNA synthesis in the laboratory of Arthur Kornberg (Stanford).

April 25, 2014. Though in the Bay Area almost every day a (small) earthquake is recorded, we have (unfortunately?) none experienced. You can not see the Fault and therefore there seems to be no fear for it in the population.

LINK: http://www.sanandreasfault.org/Information.html

We make a detour on the way to Monterey to the Mission San Juan Bautista (Baptist), who built it in 1797 right along the fault or rift valley, that is well visible here. Probably he thought that the rift was a river suitable for baptizing? In the course of time they have experienced many earthquakes! The large building was thoroughly restored in 1950.

April 26, 2014. After 40 years Lidie and I are back in Asilomar (Pacific Grove). Slowly, I start to recognize the wooden houses, built around 1913. Were we not in the "Scripps Lecture Hall"? I remember that you could reach the beautiful beach right from the conference hall. But then I certainly had no eye for all those beautiful, Monterey Pines, distorted by the wind. For that I was too nervous being a young postdoc on my first overseas conference in November 1974.

I still remember the emotions during the discussion between Barbara Wright (Boston) and John Ashworth (Essex) on the molecular mechanism that affected the development of the slime mold Dictyostelium. The amoebae grow and divide as individual cells, but aggregate to form a multicellular organism when there is not enough food. How is this change signaled? Wright was for the "holistic" approach (you have to look at the whole organism) and disliked the modern "reductionist" (i.e. molecular genetic) approach of Ashworth.

But it was the latter approach that was being discussed in most presentations. After all, this was the time of the advent of recombinant DNA research. Here, among others by Paul Berg (Stanford), the technique was applied in which the DNA of a given virus was digested with an enzyme into fragments; in a second step, the DNA of a different virus was cut, and then a DNA fragment of the first virus was placed (ligated) into the DNA of the second virus. In a last step, the new, recombined DNA could be introduced into the bacterium Escherichia coli, thus creating a genetically modified bacterium.

But at the time, Paul Berg has not performed this last step. In an Asilomar Conference held a few months earlier (July 1974), he argued, along with 10 other scientists (including the co-discoverer of the double helix, James Watson), for a postponement of all activities in the field of recombinant DNA technology (a voluntary moratorium).

In February 1975 a conference was again held in Asilomar, with lawyers, doctors and journalists in the audience. There was fear that the genetically modified gut-bacteria may endanger researchers and public. In this unique and public conference strict rules were discussed to which researchers had to keep. These restrictions allowed investigations to continue, while reducing the fear of the public.

Now, 40 years later, the recombinant DNA technology, along with the rules and restrictions of containment, has become routine and dominates biological research. There are no known cases in which the public has ever been endangered.

Together with the recombinant DNA technology, however, fear and resistance have developed by the public. Most people cannot or do not want to live with uncertainties. There is now an irreconcilable opposition based on ethical ​​and religious values. How can a layman be explained that GM food does not cause cancer? This requires a long way of teaching. For those who do not want to walk that difficult path, there is the new "BIO-religion" that says that only "organic" foods are ​​healthy and "fair". The belief in it, comparable to that in our fragile, Blue Planet, saves a lot of time to read and think, but makes all the food a bit more expensive.

April 27, 2014. At 6 o'clock in the morning there were few people on the beach at Asilomar.; only gulls, brown pelicans and little sandpipers. But half an hour later, on the way back, there was a large group of people walking from the convention center to the beach. A last person walked with a book and some pictures of plants and animals in her hand. I asked her what she was studying. She took her ear plugs out and asked me what I had said. "Are you going to study?". She looked at me with a heavenly smile and said: "To study and pray, sir." That is also possible.

Wall painting in Monterey: "Once I saw two Victorian ladies rafting on Lake Majella that used to be down by Asilomar before the sand plant ate all of the xxxx dunes".