User:Brnbalenda/Balthazar Rodrigue Nzomono-Balenda

Balthazar Rodrigue Nzomono-Balenda (August 29, 1981), sometimes called Rodrigue or Balthazar is a French-born Danish poet, author, translator, multimedia designer, blogger and social critic. He is a poet from the International Library of Poetry, also known as Poetry.com which is now purchased by Lulu Press, Inc. Balthazar was a student at the University of Southern Denmark, where he studied Bachelor of Arts in Business, Culture, Language and IT, but didn't complete his education. He moved to the Nordic Multimedia Academy (NOMA), where he studies Multimedia design.

Interest in poetry
Balthazar became interested in poetry by accident in 2003, when he was following the basic 10th school. Balthazar was on my way to the HF (Higher Preparatory Examination) in an Adult education center, in the northern part of Denmark. he felt was underestimated by study consolers who didn’t think his Danish was good enough. In his opinion, they didn’t even think that he was able to handle the Higher Preparatory Examination, which is a 2-year general upper secondary program building on to the 10th form of the Folkeskole and leading to the higher preparatory examination (the HF-examination), which qualifies for admission to higher education, subject to the special entrance regulations applying to the individual higher education programs. Balthazar felt down and he was very angry because he knew that he was able to do it. He started to put it in words on the internet when he found a website where Danes, Norwegians and Swedes write poems. Balthazar decided to join and I began to express my frustrations in words. That’s how he began to write poems. The site where he started to write poems is known as www.digte.dk. Balthazar uses poetry as a powerful tool to expressing his feelings and emotions. Poetry is a way for him to handle circumstances life offers. According to Balthazar, poetry is an art form because it may be written independently, as discrete poems, or may occur in conjunction with other arts, as in poetic drama, hymns or lyrics.

Poetry, and discussions of it, has a long history. Early attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from prose.

Poetry.com and Allpoetry.com
In the beginning of 2005, Balthazar decided to publish poems in English and that's where he felt most comfortable with.He published his poems at Allpoetry.com's website and most his written poems were worshiping Christian poems. Balthazar also used poetry to express himself about social issues that bothered him like: wars, abuse, religious bigotry, dictatorship and much more. He had the same approach, when he published his poems at Poetry.com. Balthazar usually participated in Poetry.com's monthly poetry contests and he has never had any problems with poetry.com, in spite of victories and defeats. Balthazar was a nominee of Poet of the Year 2006 and 2007. He was also invited twice by the International Society of Poet's Summer Convention in Las Vegas.

Personal history
Balthazar was born in Oullins, which is the suburb of Lyon, France's second largest city. He is originated from Republic of the Congo, where he also lived with his family and started school. Balthazar has 5 siblings and he is the second oldest child of his parents, André and Rose Nzomono-Balenda. His parents were diplomats in South Africa and Balthazar and his family lived there from 1995 to 1999, under the mandate of the former democratically elected president, Pascal Lissouba.

As they were living in RSA(Republic of South Africa), there was a civil war in Republic of the Congo in 1997 and the current president of the country, Dennis Sassous Nguésso took power by force by making a coup d'état. Sassous Nguésso was support by Angolan troops and a French oil company, Elf Aquitaine, which now is Total S.A. When he came to power, his goal was to torture and kill diplomats who were working for Pascal Lissouba, include Balthazar's father. The South African government under Mandela could not guarantee the Nzomono-Balendas' safety, that is why the U.N sent them in Denmark. Balthazar and his family live in Denmark. Balthazar is a French-born Dane, but he would rather be viewed as a French-born Congolese because he feels more connected with France and the Congo than his adoptive country.

Balthazar’s parents André and Rose Nzomono-Balenda were diplomats in South Africa and they were living in RSA from 1995 -1999. When there was a civil war in the Republic of the Congo, in 1997, the current president, Dennis Sassous Nguesso sent some of his supporters to localize André Nzomono-Balenda and other diplomats who were working under the mandate of the former democratic president, Pr. Pascal Lissouba, in RSA, so that he and the others could be killed. Former South African government could not guarantee their safety and the UN sent them in Denmark. Balthazar has four siblings and he is the second born. His mother Rose has 32 siblings and his father, André has 8 sisters. Balthazar father is from the Republic of the Congo, and his mother is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Balthazar’s nuclear family lives in Denmark, himself included.The causes, which Balthazar are justice, freedom, human rights, peace,dignity.

Religion and Atheism
Balthazar was raised a Christian. His mother is a dedicated Christian, while his father is an Atheist. When Balthazar was 13, he began to be interested in knowing the Bible and he believed in both God and Jesus. From April 2008, Balthazar stopped being a Christian and he turned to Agnosticism. He was still an Agnostic Theist. Balthazar couldn't stand the idea of not knowing and he decide to make a choice to either believe in a god or reject theism. He chose to reject theism and became an Atheist 9 months later. He was inspired by Pat Condell, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and other Atheists. Balthazar stopped publishing Christian poems and he puts more efforts on criticizing religion on his books and he also criticizes religion on Youtube.

Published works
Balthazar became a published a published author in January 2009 and he published his first book of poetry with I-Proclaim.His first book of poetry, The Depth of My Soul, where he focuses on injustices such as wars, corruption, war crimes, religious fundamentalism, child abuse, dictatorship, genocides,rape etc.His message is that peace without justice is not possible, if you let justice win over you. He went on publishing three other following books of poetry The Struggle of Power and The Fight for Survival, Freedom of Press:The Sitting Duck and Silent Talk(ing).

Language skills
Balthazar speaks French, Lingala, Danish, Norwegian and partially German, Dutch and Afrikaans. He is also learning Chinese and Japanese. He has also published hundreds of poems in both Danish and Norwegian at Scandinavian Poetry Organization