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Please, dear politicians, keep up the drug ban.
Our living depends on it.
How else are we supposed to earn half a billion dollars?
The drug ban is our business model.
Sure, there are some side effects.
The death-rate in the Mexican drug war is 24 times higher than in the Afghanistan war.
Not nice.
That is Guatemala is even 240 times higher.
Not nice either.
More countries have fatalities in the drug war than had in WW-II.
Something we had not planned in this way.
But to make up for it, we create jobs.
In the banks, where our money is laundered.
10,000 jobs alone at DEA.
That is the US drug authority.
Each day, hundreds of new jobs at CCA.
That is the jail concern.
We even make your cities a safer place to live in
You have only us to thank for the fact that 108,000 of the 660,000 inhabitants 
of Baltimore were in jail at the same time.
Never was there a time when the streets of Baltimore looked more lovable.
Please, dear politicians,
just think about our oh-so-modest wish,
and remember all those little contributions we make to your private accounts.

Here is my private Christmas wish:

Please, dear IF blog readers, do not listen to the drug barons.
Do something against the drug ban.
The war against drugs cannot be won.
You cannot kill drugs with guns.
And drug warriors and drug barons will grow back 
just like the poppy seed on the opium fields.
End the drug war!
End the lucrative drug business!
Put your signature underneath the petition for abolishing the drug ban!

Here is the web site “Breaking the Taboo”

SIX
(Translated by EG)

Thai Binh, May, 31st, 2012 – the Training Center (Don Bosco Shelter) for handicapped children in Thai Binh is finished. By now, 30 children are living in the house. They learn, work and spend leisure time together. The neighbours are friendly and accepting, and they donate food at regular intervals.

The Training Center was mainly financed by the Hilfswerk Deutscher Zahnärzte (Relief Organization of German Dentists).  Dr. Klaus Winter and his wife Helga Winter came to Thai Binh for the official opening ceremony where the keys were symbolically handed over to Bishop Peter. From August, the Training Center will be run by the Don Bosco Vietnam Salesians.
New Project:    
Hostel for Handicapped Children and Street-Children in South Vietnam.

My work for the Training Center is now finished and I will start a new project: a hostel for handicapped children and street-children in South Vietnam. I have now been back in Vietnam for three years. There were quite a few times when I felt I wished to leave and return to Munich. I needed three years to adapt to life in Vietnam. After many interviews with the authorities, I will now get a residence permit for three years.

Interim Resume after 3 Years in Vietnam

During the last three years, I cared for handicapped children in North Vietnam. In order to gain some experience, I was counselor for Caritas Saigon and active in various church organizations, Buddhists institutions, and also state organizations. In some way or other, I now seem to have become more mature in Vietnam and can work independently.

I am used to working, thinking and talking like a German. These three characteristics often cause embarrassing situations: in Vietnam, you cannot directly say NO, you cannot make quick decisions, you cannot think independently and make your own decisions. This is true both for the church and the government. I can adapt, but I will continue to work like a German. Because I feel this is a good idea, even if some say I am arrogant or high-and-mighty – I do not care what they say.

60th Birthday

Tomorrow, I will celebrate my 60th birthday with my children at the Training Center. We will eat well-seasoned barbecued belly of pork with rice pasta. The children look forward to a good meal, because usually we have to make do with 0.30 Euros per day.

5,500 € for a Playground, a House and a Cooling Chamber

In February, Don Bosco Bonn paid me 5,500.- Euros. It was my Christmas bonus for 2012. I used the money for financing a playground for street-children and handicapped children in the Rach Gia /Mekong Delta. It also served for building a house for a poor family with a handicapped father and a 20 qm cooling chamber for girls belonging to an ethical minority in Da lat.

Now they can store their vegetables and seasoning until the wholesale dealers come to pick them up. Now storage is improved, the vegetables will no longer rot, the girls can work all day long and do not need to get up before dawn.
I thank you very much and send the most grateful greetings from the children,

Van Hoi Francis
HUMANITARIAN MISSION FOR AGENT- ORANGE – CHILDREN
0084-903-961288
(Rivised by MS)
(Translated by EG)

Here is where you can make a generous contribution:
Empfänger: Salesianer Don Boscos
Konto-Nr: 22378015
Bankleitzahl: 37060193 (Pax – Bank)
Verwendungszweck: Agent-Orange-Kinder

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

Dear Friends,

To be sure, my yearly report is a little late, but there was much work for me. It was a truly difficult year.

1/ Due to floods and several small typhoon, the construction work on the Don Bosco Shelter took four months more than we had planned. At long last, the school is finished, the children have arrived. There is room for 50 children, but I am afraid bishop Peter will give entrance permission to up to 100 children. There are many friends – and many who envy us: the school is so beautiful, almost like a hotel. As time goes by, the school also becomes a meeting pint for other young people.

2/ Currently, I am living at the school alongside the children, because there is so much to organize. We have many helpers from Southern Vietnam. They work with us doing voluntary work in various directions and areas.

3/ Now, I and bishop Peter must see to it that the school gets under way. There are running costs to pay… Early in February 2012, the courses will start. We will have to pay materials, machines, teachers,…

4/ On December, 17th and 18th, 2011, we organized a Christmas party for the children. This year, there were also many children from the federal institutions who came and celebrated with us. On the whole, there were 1,200 children and 500 helpers. Local STASI officers presented a few difficulties, but luckily there were some officers from the central STASI helping us – so all was well eventually. This year, we had a food corner and a small kiosk. The children were handed coupons for buying various edibles or small objects. It was great fun, many of the children had never eaten quite as well as now, they also bought much chocolate.

5/ We also have two special children from a leprosy village visiting. Their illness is non-contagious, but the two siblings do look very ugly. The girl, An, is 12 years old and her small brother is 8. Both of them have suffered a lot and their skin looks like fish scales. The small boy lost his eyes.  Because she had been afraid and too poor, their mother had abandoned them in the forest. Some people living in the village occasionally brought them a little food. They lived totally separate from human society until the nuns took them in. They are not allowed to go to school. I would like to take them at our school, but the other children get scared when they see them. I have to find a solution.

Now the year approaches its end. I wish you all the best, health, peace, work, and…

In the name of all my children, I thank you all so very much. Please continue remembering my children and support my work in the future, as well. 2012 will be another very hard year for me.

Sending kind regards from Thai Binh,

Francis van Hoi and all my children

MS
(Translated by EG)

Here is the information about where you can donate money if you wish to help.

It was a nice party at the Café of the Müller’sches Volksbad in Munich, Rosenheimerstr. 1.

Our friends and partners Dr. Annegret Haffa and Dr. Horst Höfflin celebrated the 25th anniversary of their agency Dr. Haffa & Partner GmbH!

The public swimming pool cafe was a suitable location for the beautiful festivity. We cheered each other without restraints and wished 25 more successful years on us all!

Horst is a passionate entrepreneur. Due to his ancestry, he adds special knowledge in choicy wines to his technological competence in communications.

In addition, he collects beautiful, old objects. His oldtimer motorbikes, in particular, are a feast for the eyes.

He is taking this jubilee as a reason to part with a precious and much-loved piece of his collection. To be sure, it has no combustion motor, but still, it has accompanied him for a long, long time.

It is a Commodore 64. This type of computer was an important means of production in his agency 25 years ago.
Now we are talking a very special specimen of the ‘Golden Edition’. It was released in 1986 to accompany the production of C64 number one million. The ‘Golden Edition’ was limited to 200.

The one owned by Horst has the serial number 1000126.

The action will start on Friday, November, 25, 2011 (tomorrow!) at 17:02:52 hours and will end ten days later, on December, 5th, at 17:02:52 hours. I will publish the link to the auction page as soon as it starts

And here comes the best about it:

The money the auction will bring will be donated to “Reporters sans frontiéres”!

So why don’t you participate?

RMD
(Translated by EG)

The bid of the winner was 3.676,77!

P.S.
On the picture, you see the festive atmosphere of the beautiful party! The room is still empty, but as the night progressed, it really filled up!

Photograph: Ingo Weber

I owe my moments of greatest emotions and deepest memories to my children.

It happens often that the many nice experiences with every one of them creeps up in my memory. For me, however, being a parent also meant a “school of experience”. And I successfully applied what I learned from and with my children in life. For this, I want to thank them and my wife.

A successful professional career, too, was not bad and felt quite nice. Those were often a reason for me to be happy. But their highest value lay in the fact that they made it financially possible for me to afford more than the one or two standard children of today’s average household.

But, above all, you need a wife who goes along. Let me use the partner-slogan: children can turn a good relationship into a great relationship.
From good to great!
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Last Tuesday, we all met: Francis, Markus and yours truly. The appointed place was the May tree on the Munich Viktualienmarkt. We drink a Bavarian beer together. After a long time, Francis is again in Germany for a short time and tells us about his experience but also his achievements in Vietnam.

He reports about the house he is buidling for children harmed by agent-orange. About the many years he spent working and advertising for it. Now it is finished.
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After only five months, the building shell of Francis’ Don Bosco Shelter can already be seen. Here is his report:
The house will provide room for about fifty children. They will stay between six and twelve months. During this time, the children will be taught the basics of a profession and also get medical care. We will see to it that they can live well and recuperate.
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