The Wilders "movie"

Dutch politician Geert Wilders has released his so called movie. It can be seen on this site.

Wilders made a couple of errors in his 16 minutes statement on the Internet. He showed a photograph of the murderer of Theo van Gogh. It was actually the photo of rapper Salah Edin
Wilders showed in Fitna some images of terrorists attacks and showed Quran verses.
It isn't much to talk about. It wasn't the talk of town. We expected more. Mind that Geert Wilders had almost 5 months to realize his so called movie. He said a lot about it in public but at the release it appeared to be a copy and paste effort of the Dutch Parlementarian.

The Dutch Prime Minister was afraid that it could harm Dutch interest abroad like it did Denmark with the cartoons printed in the Jylland Posten
Also Wilders violated copyrights of the maker of the Mohammed cartoons he used in Fitna.
Also the voice of a Dutch journalist was without permission in the Internet broadcast interviewing Theo van Gogh.

Note: Fitna has been removed from the Liveleak servers tonight.
Is this freedom of speech?

Optimism about the future

Geert Wilders, L'Enfant terrible of Dutch society, has a problem. His US-based internet host doesn't want to host him anymore. The website is out of work.
He told the media that he wanted to make his movie public this month. (March 2008)
Friday (yes, Good Friday) there was a protest manifestation in Amsterdam because of what Wilders might state in his movie and what he has said in public. It widens the gap between different ethnic minorities and the ethnic majority in the Netherlands.

As I write this down, it reminds me that this is a big difference between the US and the Netherlands.
In America there is no majority. The only majority, the native Americans, the Indians, are almost ethnically clinched.
The white man in the US made history by conquering land on the native Americans... Does he consider himself as the new native American?

We actually live in the Netherlands in different ethnic boxes. There are some exceptions, but those exceptions confirm the rule.
That is the difference between the US and over here. The horizontal movement to another box needs time. An ordinary Dutchman doesn't fit in an ordinary Moroccan culture. Both have to grow to each other. Time does it all.

Young Moroccan families have almost the same preferences as young Dutch families. They mix together, the styling of their houses is the same {thanks to Ikea ;)}, they work more and more together.

I think that in the future there will be one common culture. Of course the old cultures must be preserved... I'm optimistic about the future.

The near future is the Mont Ventoux. The first ride with the team was in very wet conditions. Completely soaked we arived in the pub where we found seats a the bar. I'm not only training to be prepered for the summer ride but also I'm gaining some pounds of weight because endurance needs slow burning fats. Also I want to be able to resist cold. This night I found out that my sleeping bag is a bit small for me. How did I sleep in it last year?
With Eastern I'll read the roadmap to Avignon and Sainte Marie á la Mer and find a horrible picture of the top of the Ventoux. Ventoux means wind, always wind.

Note: Hours later after riding in wet conditions again I read about the real background of the name Ventoux; it's a derivative of the occitanian word ven which means mountain. It has nothing to do with the mistral-wind.

Hopefully everyone is okay

Since November/December 07 I didn't write about my downstairs-neighbor. She'd a huge tumor in her oesophagus. The surgeons removed her oesophagus and due to complications she literally lost her voice. She could only whisper. In the weeks after she had to recover by gaining weight. But how? She cannot eat like we do. Her stomach is used for a new oesophagus so food was nothing more than bouillon or a very light soup. The intestines couldn't bear the food. But now she's improving however still fears the dumping-syndrome. She doesn't gain weight so the doctors fear that her body might affect her muscles. She must gain weight by eating and not using energy. (no walking, no household, keeping temperature in the house comfortable, try to eat every hour some bouillon)

At work I asked a colleague of mine who dealt with my neighbors case if he heard something about her new application to get some extra support for several weeks.

A few hours later this colleague told my roommates and me the terrifying news that he has a tumor in his head and possibly cancer in his liver. Last week he had a MRI-scan which made that obvious.

Hopefully everybody else I know is fine...

Milestone

Riding is going well. Today I reached the first milestone on my way to the 1300 kilometer trip to Avignon. I cycled 1 k in 22 rides this year.

TOTAL till 8-3-08 1,001.25 kilometer

Total hours I used 37:59:25

Have you heard about Fitna

.... the movie of Geert Wilders? There isn't any at all... It's all an ordeal.
It's a might be movie to destabilize the nation.

Was The last temptation of Christ a movie which was blaspheme according to some orhodox Christians. Now Fitna of Geert Wilders is almost censored under pressure of the Dutch prime minister Balkenende and his cabinet. the anti-Islam movie might cause Holland big personal, social and economic problems. You can all name it.

If Fitna isn't broad-casted the anxiety for terror has won, do I want that?
No of course not. I can only think that the movie doesn't exist. It's fake, like the Organ Donorshow was. (see the post -BNN's great Donorshow- at May 5 2007)

However there is a dutch countermovie on Youtube.. really good I think if you understand Dutch

March 1 spring

I'm more or less preparing myself for the holidays in May/June.
Riding from my hometown in the Netherlands to the Mont Ventoux in the south of France.
It's about 1,300 kilometer. At this moment I rode as much as last year but the total distance was somewhat larger. And as a logic consequence I feel stronger than last year. Yesterday I made some kilometers on my race bike and I didn't do my utmost to keep the average above the 30 k/hr.

It might be the weather that I could do this. We didn't have wintry weather since the second decade of December 07. No, temperatures are high and from a bright sunny on Monday we went to a rainy Tuesday, a sunny Wednesday to a wind-still Thursday. But tomorrow it'll rain again and Saturday we'll have storm.
I can't say however we had a stormy winter, far from that. And beside that Saturday is March 1st. The meteorological winter 2007/2008 is over. The book can be closed. Spring can start.

An awful lot of wheelchairs

and this was half of it... All these wheelchairs are shipped to countries where the care for disabled people is poor. Turkey, Morocco, Sri Lanka and Hungary will benefit from this gift.

My criticism is that there is no plan what to do with the wheelchairs when they're out of work. In the Netherlands each part will be recycled so there will be no environmental pollution.
The gift can be criticised because we save the recycle cost. When the wheelchair reached the end of it's life cycle the different countries have those recycle costs.

World Press

It wasn't a good year according to the organiser of the annual press photography contest. Judge yourself....

Watch these pictures.

If you got a problem with wintertime, bear in mind that every winter came to an end (so far)

my wonder years

It's been a great day. I woke up early to have some time to cycle as the forecast was that in the morning there would be some sunshine. Maybe it's the first time in this young year to cycle in sunshine. Ha ha, my short term memory (< 1 year) is like good cheese; it got holes in it.
In the last working week I spent my lunch-break outside the office. My colleague and I walked through the neighborhood. Everything looks so different then. Normally I don't walk in other neighborhoods other than my own, especially not on a working day. I only cycle through other boroughs. I saw many houses for sale, some for a long time now, expensive ones and cheaper ones. In none I would like to live in.

I'm still looking for a new place. So was my new neighbor. I met her today "I'm your new neighbor" she said. She told me that he's got to paint the interior next week. That's what you do when you move into a new house.
Well, bon change!
She bought the house which I don't do, not my own house.

This week I analysed my behaviour concerning buying things, or even my house or another house.
I wonder if it has to do with the stress I had as a child loosing all his toys and relations built up in the child-years, in the wonder years, either by divorce (of parents) or removal.
I just know that one can easily loose everything he has. However from zero one can also build something up easily. Especially when there is time.
Am I afraid of loosing?

At work I was a kind of angry when my boss came to me with the question if I could explain something to her. It was something 2 colleagues asked me on a Friday. (So I had a weekend to think it over and build up the anger) I answered them the same day and my conclusion is that one colleague did something for which he's authorized, but apparently without knowledge. Murphy's law will be suitable then. You can wait till things go wrong. The other thing is a payment which went wrong. In this case the procedures have to be followed, they were not. Nevertheless the payment was mistaken.
Luckily the creditor has seen that and did the right thing in his opinion. Unfortunately he didn't inform my department till now.
Well, being a little bit angry is showing my responsibility for my job. Hopefully my boss interprets the same way.

One colleague I told about my concerns. The next day she asked me how I felt. Okay, I said, but how are you, how was your holiday I asked.
Holiday, she said, I'm planning again.
Where do you go? I asked.
Israel, she said, hopefully we fly El Al.
A colleague asked if she's Jewish then.
Yes, she said, but don´t tell anybody.
The colleague asked if her mother's too.
Yes, she said, but don´t tell anybody

In my life there are people who told me their secret.
Some of those I don´t remember
Other secrets I understand that it´s my secret as well
This secret is so weird.
It frightens me because is there so much to be scared for that one can't publicly be Jewish?

US secretary criticizes NATO approach in Afghanistan

The undertitle should be: in a war we'll never win.

US Defense secretary Gates said in the New York Times in this article that NATO forces don't know how to fight the insurgents. The names of the countries who are operating in the south are mentioned. The Netherlands is one of them.
In the Los Angeles Times Gates is quoted

It seems to me that the US defense secretary doesn't know anything about the mission and possibility of the NATO forces being in South Afghanistan.

The Netherlands lost 2 soldiers on January 12 in so called friendly fire.
They were well trained men, but with 20 and 22 years of age they were only kids.

These soldiers were not trained for the Fulda Gap. The LA Times thinks that European NATO forces are trained nowadays to stop a Soviet invasion.
If that's true the countries united in NATO including the USA should blame themselves and should redefine the mission statement.

Maybe Mr. Gates never heard of a Quick Reaction Force, the Provincial Reconstruction Team and the real mission.

Wasn't it the US who don't know itself how to deal with insurgents in Iraq until David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Baghdad who co-wrote the military's new counterinsurgency field manual? And this manual might be implemented in south Afghanistan? Don't they know that you never win a war from insurgents with a hit & run tactic? It's a way of living they're better adapted to compared with us staying in Afghanistan for a 3 months period.

The Netherlands has to get out there immediately, else they face a defeat like Srebrenica in 1995. But instead we extend our mission with 2 years, until the end of 2009.

Hopefully we can say mission accomplished by then.

What would you do?

What would you do if you're a suspect in a disappearance.
You live on an island and with 2 friends you meet a girl.
On the beach you get drunk and apparently you seem to be the last person who saw the girl.
You are suspect in a missing case. What would you do?

First of all you got to deny everything.
Secondly you write a book about the missing.
Thirdly you talk in the press about the case.
Fourthly you go to the United States.
Fifthly you present yourself with mother and dad in a talk-show in your homeland.
Sixthly you are questioned by an eager man, he's a guest in the show too, well known in solving murder cases.
Seventh you say that you weren't honest to the police because you didn't know what to do.
Eightly at the end of the talk-show you throw a glass of red wine in the man's face.

Mind that you are only 20 years of age and that you were 17 years old when the case started.

Yes I'm talking about the Natalee Holloway disappearance on Aruba.

If I were Joran van der Sloot, that's the guy I'm talking about, and happily for me I'm not because he's a spoilt young man, I wouldn't do the same except the wine-throwing-part.

Spielerei, together we can make it work

The Addled writer got an e-mail about this thing where her story "Carrie Pilby's New Year's Resolution" is nominated. It didn't come out in 2007, so she doesn't know how she is eligible, but she's on the list, so take a look and vote...third category down!

I thought why not, let's all vote for the book of Caren Lissner.

the past and present, photo's of my birth home.

I found the old photo on the internet. This one is made in the 50's.


This photo is made in May 2007 by myself.

For me the first picture is like a little present on the brink to 2008

Any plans for 2008?

For myself I wanna climb the Mont Ventoux by bicycle. The MV rises more than 1900 metres above sea level. May 2008 will be the month. Cycling from home to the top of this mountain in the south of France. That is my goal.

To give you an impression in 8 minutes of the climb of this mountain, watch this video