Radio Free South Africa with guest Gertjan Zwiggelaar

On Tuesday 3rd October our guest will be Gertjan Zwiggelaar

My family moved to Canada in 1960 taking up residence in one of the furthest northern cities in the world; Edmonton, Alberta, which at that time only had 150,000 population and was a mere 60 years old.  I came from a city thousands of years old.  Maastricht was were I grew up in that ancient land.  The Romans built their furthest northern fortified outpost there and named it, Trajectum ad Mossum.  Bernard of Clairveaux preached one of the first crusades to take back the Holy Land from the Muslims in 1066 in a basilica still in use there.  To come to such a new place with no history to speak of, was a very rude change for me.

I learned English quickly and began passing grades with honours, eventually ending up as my high school students' president, won a grand trip to Nova Scotia, starred in a weekly TV show, The Age of Acquarius, became a member of the First Saskatchewan Youth Theatre company and entered the University of Regina on scholarships, coming out with a B.A with distinction and great distinction in Visual Arts in 1974.  I took a second degree some years later from the University of Alberta; a B.Ed in Secondary Art Education; also earned with distinction.  I taught over a 20 year period, Art, Drama, and Graphic Design, indeed being the developer of a province wide high school program called, Visual Communications Technology.  I also wrote curriculum for Junior and Senior High Drama.

I practiced what I taught and am the author of nine plays, a huge inventory of visual art work which hangs in corporate, private, and public places.  Nine of my books are published, six of which are available world wide via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and from my publisher, AmericaStarBooks.pub and other distributors.