Merah Mas, launched in 2007 (cc2007/249193/23) is currently a one-person company. The vision of Merah Mas is, however, not a one-person vision, as the projects on these pages and in the blog show. Bernelle Verster is the CEO and also the only ou. On top of that, Bernelle is currently doing a PhD, on the core component of Merah Mas: IndieBio.
behind the name: Merah Mas
language: Indonesian
what it means: Red Gold (very roughly translated)
what it refers to: The red sands of the Namib desert.
why: The dream started with setting up shop in the desert, on alternative everything. I was 12 when this was dreamt up, logistics, or logic, for that matter, did not apply. This was also before alternative energy, water resource management and environmental concerns became cool. In the desert, water and any other resource just can not be taken for granted. In this environment, the usual constraints did not apply, everything had to be approached differently. It was OK to be weird, different, innovative - those were the only creatures to survive.
Another reason for the name is that I really, really, like orange.
About Bernelle
Bernelle Verster CV
Bernelle is a maverick. A lot of passion, a lot of naughtiness, not a lot of focus. Bernelle doesn't break the rules, she just reinterprets them. But, sometimes, that's a good thing.
Favourite quotes
There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you turn back. Life's point of no return.
Dag Hammarskjöld
I looked down now
It is all changed
Whatever it was I lost
Whatever I wept for
Was a wild and gentle thing
The small dark eyes
Loving me in secret
James Wright, Milkweed
You already know enough. So do I. It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and draw conclusions.
Sven Lindqvist, Exterminate the Brutes
Gabriellas song – As It Is In Heaven
Artist: Helen Sjöholm
Text: Py Bäckman
It is now that my life is mine
I've got this short time on earth
And my longing has brought me here
All I lacked and all I gained
And yet it's the way that I chose
My trust was far beyond words
That has shown me a little bit
Of the heaven I've never found
I want to feel I'm alive
All my living days
I will live as I desire
I want to feel I'm alive
Knowing I was good enough
I have never lost who I was
I have only left it sleeping
Maybe I never had a choice
Just the will to stay alive
All I want is to be happy
Being who I am
To be strong and to be free
To see day arise from night
I am here and my life is only mine
And the heaven I thought was there
I'll discover it there somewhere
I want to feel that I've lived my life!