Advise Yourself

I was browsing through a blog talking about how the person like us look back to his past and forward a question of what to advice a younger-self when the idea about judging actions of one-self, learning from others, teaching others lessons we learn from the past clicked in my exhausted mind.

All this came to my mind in a fraction of a second.

I don't know why my mind drifted into politics when I had these thoughts, maybe because of all the news about elections: elections in Iraq, elections in the Netherlands, and last week first round of the regional elections in France where all my thoughts circulated around it. The news of these election all agree that right parties in France, including president Sarkozy's one received a big slap in the face from the French citizen.

Life is about questions and answers, and we learn by seeking answers to our questions, and this blog had and will continue to have a lot of questions about life. Sharing with other by writing these questions on my blog is one of the ways to find answers for my questions, and learn from others. There are people who never learn from other people lesson and experience and that's why two people know each other and they advice each other, but each fall in the same mistake over and over again. I guess this is some human nature: we advice each other, but we sometimes never take that advice seriously, and fall in the pit

Back to French elections last Sunday: I have been to France twice in the last two months. I talked to people there and the impression I had that no one is happy with the direction and strategy their government is taking, particularly President Sarkozy. In fact there is a growing resentment towards their leader, some called his strategy indirectly as "the Americanization of France" policy. However, Sarkozy's attempt to pull France nationalism away from its people is not the only reason. People there are not happy with the outcome and situation, and this is the reason that they look for another leadership.

This has been proved, of course, last Sunday and we will see the final result next Sunday.

On the other hand, last week Dutch labor party leader, Wouter Bos, has announced his resignation due to family commitments. Shortly after that there was an announcement that the 63 years old current mayor of Amsterdam, decided to take the helm and became the new leader of the prominent political party. Cohen's move has been widely praised, because he will be the party's representative in upcoming general elections in June.

Job Cohen, I want to emphasize, is known for his strong personality and acknowledged political career, so he is not just "another" politician who is trying his luck by going out and spray words against this ethnic group or gather people in a specific park to announce the birth of a new party while bashing another ethnic group.

Yesterday, a survey took place among Dutch citizens and the result was shocking: if general elections took place on the day of the survey, Job Cohen would be the next Prime Minister so easily, on the account of other political parties, such as that of SP and PVV (I rather call it Wilder's political sect than Free Netherlands party).

Isn't that enough indication that voting for Wilders in the last municipal elections was done out of emotional rather than rational look at things?

I wrote about these elections here)

I talked once or twice about emotional factor, and I talked once or twice about how fear is the main reason behind people rallying behind Wilders in last election until this day, but comparing the results of yesterday's survey with the results of the regional elections in the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago shows how the Dutch citizen is looking for a symbol to have them united. Like any citizen from any population living on this planet, no difference between third world or first world country, every citizen in every country is looking for a leader to look up to. Observing the lack of satisfaction with current leaders the people in the Netherlands began looking somewhere else. This has been taken advantage by people like Geert Wilders (among other things he took advantage of, such as bad attitude of some Moroccan teenagers on street and put that attitude on the shoulders of the whole Muslim community all around the country and in whole Europe.

The result is natural when you are afraid and looking for someone to unite you, in fact to protect you: you choose for him.

Yesterday's survey in the Netherlands, and the result of France's regional elections are good lessons for the voter to prepare for the next elections in June. People with extreme ideology, people with hatred against other people must not be given the chance, because these are not the standards for living together regardless of ethnic background, race, nationality.

How many lessons it takes for a human being to learn and to be able to choose what is right and what is wrong?

Or do we need some Yoga to exercise our brains on how to forecast a disaster that might take place in a peaceful country?

But why forecasting? We have enough lessons from the past: Hitler's extermination machine is still in people minds, when he ripped off society from the concept of living together, peacefully.

Another Damage!!!

Another damage Geert Wilders will definitely make to his own country, according to Bernard Wientjes, chairman of The Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers, based on the article below.

Well done, Geert, for being fanatic, keep your racist sick-mind the way it is, boy.

Geert Wilders became one of the sources to mess up society in a beautiful small country after gradually poisoned the minds of some of its people.

Check out the news article below:

The head of the Dutch employers' federation has accused far-right politician Geert Wilders of "seriously" damaging Dutch interests abroad.

Bernard Wientjes, who chairs The Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers (VNO-NCW), said it was outrageous that Mr Wilders recently presented himself in London as the next Dutch prime minister and then derided Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as "a complete fool". Mr Wilders' statement, which was broadcast around the world, caused shock in the British press.

Mr Wientjes, who heads the largest employers' organisation in the Netherlands, says Mr Wilders poses a serious threat to the Netherlands and the Dutch economy. He underlined that three quarters of Dutch GDP comes from revenues earned abroad.

Mr Wientjes stressed that his federation will do business with any Dutch cabinet, including one joined by Mr Wilders' PVV party. But he emphasised that he hoped Mr Wilders party would not be included in the next government following parliamentary elections on 9 June.

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Municipal Elections in the Netherlands

As expected by many, the three major parties the Christian Democrats (CDA) and the Labor Party (PvdA) and VVD remained in their position as the favorites among Dutch, yet, the loss of votes is a source of concern for them. Voters decided today to give their voters to other competing political parties, such as the PVV (Geert Wilders), which became the second largest party in the capital, the Hague, and the Groen Links (Green Party) where it became the largest party in Utrecht, in addition to small local parties in different cities in the Netherlands.

I don't know what is the secret but D66 did great and scored big time in many cities like Amsterdam, Leiden and Delft - the bond between this party with students is strong, I guess that is the reason.

The boost that the PVV (party of Geert Wilders), in particular, got from this elections is the center of focus, naturally because of its controversial personality of its leader and his hostile (and on many occasions reckless remarks). It is no surprise to me (this has been predicted in various news forecasts in the past weeks) that Den Haag (the Hague) and the city of Almere would be the golden chicken.

The Labor party, a party favorable by thousands of immigrants, is back based on tonight's result and according to the speech of its leader, Wouter Bos, but the challenge for the Labor party is immense, because from now on till the date of the general elections in June the Netherlands will witness a fierce that would change the face of the country's political system. The same goes with other major parties, of course, the neck to neck competition between left and right has been going for more than 4 years, many new faces and new political parties and entities want to prove themselves as the best for the country, in fact, a lot from those politicians learned big lessons from the past years and they don't want to disappoint the voter in 3 months time. For that reason there will be a lot to talk about, a lot to be heard and a lot to do by each party.

The emphasize, I think, will always be on Den Haag, this is where politician reside and where they should do the most work. Evidence is today’s results which is the most surprising.  

I see that in their debates, all major parties, exception is PVV, sit with each other, congratulate each other, and discuss everything; from the future of the country (who is ready to put differences aside and discuss coalitions), share responsibility (as one collective force to lift the country through the current economic crisis), and admit failure on some aspects (the fall of the government last week). Remember, this country made the impossible by having a government that consists of both right and left in one coalition.

Speaking of the fall of the government, it is natural, because it is almost impossible to have unity of two entirely separate ideologies and have them sail one ship towards the high seas, especially when the country is sinking in all problems plagued by global economic crisis.

The conclusion from all this is loud and clear: 4 years went by and still one thing dominates common Dutch citizen mind: emotions. It sounds awkward, taking into the consideration how Dutch mentality is known as being rational and not emotional, but it doesn't seem the case when it comes to vote for political entities.

There are emotions expressed by the immigrants from being harassed by extreme right parties, this is one of the reason they vote for the labor party. On the other hand, we see the popularity of Wilder's party take a boost up due to the fear of many Dutch from losing their own identity in addition to the fear from what they consider Islamic threat. In the middle of that, we see people who focus on detailed issues related to daily life and the requirement from the government to provide better support and services for the common citizen.

Will the picture becomes clearer in June when the general elections would take place? In other words, will the voter will go and make up his mind to select either right or left? this remains to be seen.

Arabic Books in Amsterdam

Some refer to it as not a good commercial idea, but my visit to a district in Paris where a number of Arabic bookshops located there – they were closed by the time I arrived, I was a bit early, so I waited in a cafe and decided to visit the Arab Institute in Paris. I have never been there.

This institute, as I heard is the effort, financially mainly, of all Arab countries in the 1990’s. The exception was Iraq because it was under the economic and political sanctions after invading Kuwait. The building is astonishing and so huge. The library does not only have Arabic books, but also English and French, maybe more, but the number of the books and the variety was something I would spend hours in it, not to mention spending a lot of money at the end.

I bought six books from there, if someone like to know

After leaving that place and on the way to the airport I kept on wondering why there is no such a bookshop in Amsterdam? Never mind the cultural awareness thing that an Arabic Institute have in a European city, so I skip that for now, but what about a bookshop and why there is none in Amsterdam equivalent to Ibn Sina bookshop in Paris, for example?

I asked this question before and there were many answers, but all of them pour into the same pot: Arabs don’t buy books, so a bookshop will loose money. I had my suspicions then, but when I went two years ago to a Dutch bookshop to buy Saidety magazine for my mother, I asked the buyer about such a thing. By the way, Saidety is a Gulf-published magazine focusing on women’s life of all ages, in addition to celebrities and entertainment news.

The buyer was originally Turkish, he told me with frustration that only that magazine is available in Arabic, and even this magazine is hard to sell in Amsterdam, because people think that it is too expensive!

Does this means that Arabs in Amsterdam are less educated, and that their counterparts in Paris or London are more literate and more eager to spend a cent on knowledge and information?

Amsterdam, Most Romantic City???

The last thing I could think of is to consider Amsterdam as the most romantic city in the world!! I was surprised while watching an old episode of Smallville last weekend when Lex was asking his girlfriend if she likes to go to an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

I lived long enough to identify this beautiful city as being something but romantic. Amsterdam is a very commercial city - in spite of the decline in the number of international companies opening offices in it due to a number of reason that I am not going to discuss here. Amsterdam is a city for fun of all sorts, mainly for young adults, actually it is the city where "sex, drugs, and rock n' roll" can be perfectly applied to.

Many agree and I heard it from many visitors as well as locals that Amsterdam is not a city for families, and many families realize that the time has come to move out to another city when their kids has reached certain age.

In addition, Amsterdam to me is a symbol of a spectacular architectural beauty with its unique houses built tightly next to each other and queued on each side of the dark-gray edge colored of its canals.

It has been once said that it is the only city in the world where all languages in the world is spoken, and I am talking about people who are living in the city and not tourists who come and go. If I am not exaggerating, 90% of Amsterdam inhabitants nowadays are originally from countries all around the world.

Speaking of languages, the dominant language any observer can hear most is Spanish - I think more than English itself. There are a lot of Spanish youth roaming the streets day and night. I would simply see there is harmony in the relationship between the two, because Dutch too love to go to Spain a lot - Even men and women who are retired from work, they go and buy a house in Spain because of the sun mainly.

There are a plenty of places in Amsterdam but my favorite one still to this day is Kalverstraat. I used to go for a walk on that very long street every Saturday. It is one of the most crowded street (if not the most) in all Amsterdam, pedestrians are only allowed to use that street - the police will stop you and maybe fine you if caught riding a bicycle on through that street.

Yet, on a second thought one can argue that all what mentioned above can in fact make Amsterdam a romantic city, depending on the definition of romance, but would such a definition can be equal when taking a city such as Paris as being a romantic city? or maybe Rome?


Image by liketobite

Get Rid of Your Culture!

Below is a new study on what it is defined as the "integration" issue in the Netherlands, came out of a study / research results done by a government-social institute:

" Almost 40% of the Dutch think there are too many immigrants in the Netherlands, a drop of ten percentage points on 2000, according to a new report from the government's social policy institute SCP.

The report also shows both the native Dutch and immigrants consider new arrivals should learn the Dutch language and leave behind their original cultures."

Source DutchNews.nl

I agree that learning the language of the country you are living in is essential. In fact it is the most important thing to do after arriving in a country, before searching for work or get adapted with new life and new society, but to leave behind original culture??

This is the most bizarre thing I have ever heard.

A Night To Remember... Forever

Yesterday was horrible

No!!! I don't mean Progressive Nation 2009 night. I am talking about the heavy rain and traffic jam on the highway while driving south west to Rotterdam. I know it was also the time when people driving back to their homes after eight hours (or more) working day.

But it never stopped raining, never, till today early in the morning!

Anyhow, Arrived in Ahoy much later than expected - there are a lot of people who also got stuck in the traffic because I saw a lot were just parking their cars, or walking under the pouring rain, or standing in long queues waiting to get their tickets investigated and bodies searched for any sharp objects.


For that reason I missed the first band, Unexpect. I also didn't see Bigelf from the beginning of their fantastic performance.

I really wished that Bigelf would play longer, because surely they blew me away with only the last couple of songs they played - one of them is the excellent "Money, it's Pure Evil". Their playing and overall performance was so powerful, musically tight, and full of melodic epics. This is how I can describe Bigelf - Not to forget Damon Fox's voice and keyboard/organ playing; this was the first time I see a combination of Led Zeppelin's Plant and Deep Purple's Jon Lord depicted in one person performing on stage. His voice is even better than studio recordings.

Then came Opeth, quietly walking into stage and picking up their instruments under the cheer applause of the public.

There was a big blast of laughter when one fan shouted "Norway". The band lead singer and guitartist, Mikael Åkerfeldt looked calm and straight to the direction where he heard that rant, with pure tone in his voice, he said "We are from Sweden..." he paused, kept looking in the same direction and said "... and... our name is Opeth". Big applause followed that rocked the hall.

Opeth does need introduction, I call their music deviant progressive metal, with mid-tempo as the main on almost all songs.

I was surprised they didn't play acoustic-guitar songs as I hear on their album. Things to note about Opeth (apart from their musical perfection), are the singer's powerful ability to change from the warm tone in his voice to the growling that would tear every thing up, and the very long and repetitive composition on every song.

Between each song Akerfeldt was deliberately used to be giving false meanings to the next song they were going to play, with sarcastic remarks every now and then.

By the way, I didn't get was the last song: it was to me like the band was playing that song thinking that it would last longer, or they just decided to ended the way it ended. I don't know, but something was not quiet right at the end.

This did not ruin the joy of watching them live for the first time.

For almost half an hour, busy stage crew was preparing everything for the headliners, Dream Theater. A huge gray curtain kept blocking the most psychedelic stage I have ever seen - simple but glamor until the first song already began.

I was hoping they would play at least one song from their newest (and best to date) Black Clouds & Silver Linings, and was expecting them to play "A Rite of Passage".

I was wrong!

Dream Theater performance started with thunder, sound of thunder and playing like thunder. They started the show with the first and one of my most favorite songs from that album: A night to Remember.

They proved me wrong many times, in fact, because Dream Theater played not only one song from this superb album, they played "A Rite of Passage", "Wither", and ended their stunning performance with the epic ""The Count of Tuscany".

I am sure if they had more time to play, they would not mind to play the remaining two songs from that fantastic album.

Dream Theater played songs from their old catalog too, and joked with the public on numerous times - loved the moment when drummer Mike Portnoy stick his nose or take one drumstick into his nose while playing his drums aggressively and with speed of light. This was hilarious, it made me wonder how perfect such a drummer like that can do complex compositions on his instrument while keep the good spirit and control on everything around him.

One of the things I noticed is how guitarist John Pertucci's gain of weight, contradicts to the big loss of weight of drummer Portnoy.

Oh, and James LaBrie was amazing too... I heard him life a lot of times, but this time I was stunned to see and hear him singing life. I don't need to mention the rest of the band because they don't require some compliments: Does the rattling bass playing of John Myung or the Keyboard/synth's playing by the wizard Jordan Rudess needs introduction?

I am sure that there are a lot to tell, and there are a lot of people who can write reviews better than I do (especially when writing so quickly like I am doing now) in describing the Dutch leg of progressive nation tour 2009, for those four bands there is one definite fact: It was a night to remember

Below are videos from last night

Dream Theater - "A Night To Remember"



Opeth - Windowpaint


Dream Theater - Count of Tuscany

Don't Always Believe in What the Police Say

So he is not addicted to alcohol and drugs! The killer of Arzu Erbas, his name is Nevzat K., 41 years old is also has no records by the police related to violence or anything related in the past. All this stated by the suspect defense lawyer, Niels van der Laan, today, which bring us to put forward the same question: from where and on what basis the police spread the news of a drug and alcohol addict killing a peaceful woman in mid day?

In such an important case, I say important because of the circumstances and the victim, and after all the silence from the police side now and suddenly this news erupts out of nowhere to tell us that the main suspect has a different record than it was thought. Another week, we might hear that the suspect is free and the police was mistaken with the identity with someone else because all Turks and Moroccans are look alike!

This is scary, for normal citizens to think that way, which would make them loose trust in the only tool to enforce law in the country. For that reason, reliable sources such as the police must not make such a grave mistake...

I am not exaggerating

The Killer

His name is Nevzat Koya, 41 years old. According to police, this is the name and age of the person who killed Arzu Erbas. He is dangerous, addicted on drugs and alcohol but above all, he has no permit to live in the Netherlands.

Until this moment, this man is free and undetected, neither anyone knows, according to police, the motives behind the crime he committed, especially that that man has no link or relationship with the day care center and any of the children or their parents.

One person I talked to a couple of days told me "so what the use? they will catch the killer, lock him in prison for a couple of years, end of story: two children lost their mother with no obvious reason, a mother who wanted to do something good for her community and the people around her just got killed like that, is this fair? where is justice?? and what someone can learn from all that???"

Mourning Or Gloating?

The news last Monday of the murder of Arzu Erbas, 33 year old owner of a creche in Amsterdam has been to many, including me as the biggest shock ever. The attack happened at 6.40pm after Mrs. Erbas finished her work at the “Moedersschoot” childcare centre and was on her way to her parked car, when a man attacked her and stabbed her to death, and ran away – until this moment the identity or the whereabouts of the man unknown, according to the police.

Not long ago she was in fact with her husband and two sons enjoying their summer vacation in their father-land, Turkey, when she decided to get back here because of her busy work scheduling.

The motive for the attack is unknown, said the police, who are appealing for witnesses to come forward and tell what they saw. Yesterday was a special coverage on TV program Opspoor Verzocht on the crime where the police appealed to any one who has tips or witnessed anything who might help them to find that merciless murderer.

Arzu Erbas, or as many like to call her “the mother of all children” or “the perfect woman” was born in the Turkish coastal town of Rize and moved to the Netherlands when she was at a very young age, she studied Pedagogy and married later. Her energy and determination to make her dreams come true were beyond description. She got the idea of establishing her own childcare center was not a mere idea. Her dream was to make that childcare center something special for the children and not just a shelter for little children when parents go to work for eight or more hours. The success of the first “moedershoot” (in English Mother’s Womb or lap) motivated her to take a step further and to open a bigger establishment, not far located from the first. She had plan to open a third one in addition to her plans to open an orphanage in Turkey, not to mention her voluntarily work regarding integration in the Netherlands, as the case with her beautiful contribution to the work of Stichting Waterval in the city of Almere.

I visited in the past different child care centers, and I know people close to me (relatives and friends) who described the atmosphere there and told me stories about how childcare centers in Amsterdam and other cities where they took their daughters and sons looked like (I don’t blog about everything, I know), but to me, Arzu’s dream was spectacular (no disrespect to other owners of other childcare centers), because for the first time I see in the Netherlands a merge in dealing with babies and children between western-methods and middle-eastern upbringing: something that many immigrants (as well as Dutch) found it unique and perfect.

Some might say from reading and knowing Arzu Erbas that she did not achieve everything she was dreaming of. I tend to disagree, because such a wonderful woman had one dream, just one: care for children in any way possible and with any means. In fact, seeing what she established and what she provided for many children and their parents is a big proof of what I say.


I am not going to politicize this tragedy as some did. I am not going to ruin a moment of mourning many of us are living at the moment for a lovable person like Arzu, BUT it outraged me seeing the amount of disgusting and low-level comments put on Dutch newspaper Telegraaf related to this horrible news! The comments by many sick-minded people changed in the past days, and based on the assumption for the motive of the crime: such as how come that a 33 years old woman has own a luxury Mercedes? Later on the focus was on the one and only thing a typical Dutch person would think when seeing or hearing about a Muslim woman wearing a head-scarf being murdered: murder in the name of family honour. Yesterday night, drugs and mafia was involved! I am sure there will be more and more speculation. Before I forgot, some of those who were putting comments took the opportunity to express their pride of showing their lova and support for Geert Wilders!! I don’t understand what Wilders has to do with the whole thing, unless the telegraaf became the ultimate portal for Wilder’s fans. However, one thing can be attached to Wilders in this regards: thanks to him, he is one of the main igniters to trigger such sentiment among people put comments on the Telegraaf.

I agree with the opinion that the Netherlands is not the same compare it to 10 years ago, but it is not that dramatic as I see, unless I am seeing the wrong picture here and someone has to show me the way through- I would be grateful, though, relying on my experience I would be shocked when I hear someone say that “that concept of tolerance Dutch are famous with is just a big lie”.

I am not going to carry on with this, seeing other media sources and their warm words and passion, their sadness, from everyone, all reflected how much common people are shocked with what happened to Arzu – I personally cannot believe such a thing can happen, but that’s our cruel reality.

There is no overrated assumption if I say that The Netherlands has lost a great woman. She is the perfect symbol of social integration for people migrated from her country and for people believing in her faith – does that pause any threat to anyone? Yet, whatever the reason might be, killing in such a way as happened to Arzu will never be justifiable, because all those who knew that woman, all those around her remember her smile, her hospitality, her care, and her determination to reach out for her dreams.

Rest in peace, Arzu


P.S. There is a memorial forum made for the victim where people can leave their thoughts and wishes for Arzu and her family

New Website For RNW

Radio Netherlands Worldwide (or Radio Nederland Wereldomroep) put a new effort to their website. This media organization is considered the best and only source of Arabic news in the history of the Netherlands. The new layout is different from the old in its more friendly and readable sections. It is not by any means the same compact news I used to see in a list soft of columns as before.

In the past months I noticed that the website administrators are focusing more on the media by attaching sound and video clips with most of it coverage of news in the Netherlands and abroad. This is another evidence of an emphasize on providing interactive experience for the reader, instead of just reading like any newspapers. I personally see that many steps forward for providing services for the visitor to the website.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide is not just about news. In fact one of the most interesting elements on the website are the reports and analysis about the different events and personalities living on the globe.

The only thing I noticed, which I wish the team working on the website should pay attention to is the font size of the Arabic letters, which I find it a little small compare to the overall page size and the pictures attached with each headline.

But that would not stop me from visiting this site, the important thing to me is the content, the information, the message that this organization seems to put an effort to keep it professional, to the point, and enjoyable all at the same time.

Question For An Asylum Seeker

She told him "how come you Iraqis have been denied asylum by the ministry of Justice, you have the chance to leave voluntarily, and you also have the chance to ask for an amount of money to help you get a new start after return to Iraq, yet, there are a lot of you still here and don't want to go!"

These are the words of a social-worker lady addressing an Iraqi asylum seeker in the Netherlands in one of the camps in the Netherlands.

Stupid Drivers Day

Another day that can be regarded as "Stupid Drivers Day".

Driving in the neighborhood where it is only 50km/h allowed, and get blocked by someone pulled up without any signal into the middle of the street while his turned to the people with him trying to find something in the car to give. That's another 5 minutes lost.

Stopped at a traffic light, a Mercedes Benz, the latest model, in front of me. Lights green and the car in front moves like a turtle to the right, ok? now the traffic rules allow 70km/h maximum speed on that street, but the Mercedes man keep driving between 40 and 50km/h aaaaagh! He even all cars behind me slow down.

Move on, yeah, I arrive at the junction that leads to the highway, but this is Amsterdam ring and I am not allowed more than 80 Km/h maximum. No problem. The signs on that area is very clear (as in Rotterdam, Utrecht and Den Haag)

But why there are some people drive 60/70 KM/h?? and why some drivers in front of me just decided to change lanes without any notice, AND WITH SLOW SPEED????

OK, there comes the end of the 80KM/H rule, which means that I can speed up to 100KM/h... no problem I am already late for work............................................................................. oh oh why that young guy with the cab is driving 70km/h while he is talking to the young woman sit beside him? He blocked the whole traffic at the point of speed rules change

and suddenly a small truck coming from far quick, sign to the right, passing the young man with the cab car and in a fraction of second he slows down while moving from one lane to the other

I move on to the left quickly and speed up to 110km/h... another exit which I have to take to the other street and there was more chaos waiting for me

The whole highway, three huge lanes were only driving 50km/h... why?

A couple of drivers driving 50-70km/h

so when all cars slowly passed those intellgent creatures - one of them is a 50 years old man who was driving but his eyes was focused down on a spot between his legs...either he peed himself or regreted that he put on the pants he is wearing, because it is impossible that the way he was driving would made think that he was worried about something going wrong in his car.

Now that another 20 minutes has lost in this damn situation, I arrived at the exit of the hightway and where I have to drive 50km/h.

What is this?
why all of a sudden all cars driving in such a confusion
and why the ambulance car is just standing there at the side-walk with the driver just watching the passing cars with a calm and comfortable face?
why isn't he moving?
I couldn't find an answer

I drive on and there is that driver (couldn't figure out if it was a man or a woman) with a big Audi or Lamborghini who was driving very slow and when he saw the next traffic light became yellow he just speed up, but for me it was too late to catch up because the traffic light was turning from yellow to red... but I am already late for work... I can't take it anymore and a rational reflex was to speed up if it is red.

Another couple of traffic lights before I finally arrived at work.
The 20-30 minutes time I would normally take, it took me an hour and 5 minutes
What a start of the day

Intellectual Dishonest

I posted his interview with CNN not long ago and this is a follow up to that. The video below is of analysis on CNN dated back to 26 February, where experts discuss both sides of the issue concerning the U.S. visit of controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

From the discussion the one and only conclusion I can think of, which in turn both ladies shared about Wilders to label him as an intellectual Dishonnest.

Did Fitna backfired on Geert Wilders? I keep ask this question.

I guess it is too late for Wilders to backup, neither for those regarded as moderate Muslims (the sleeping factor in the formula in general) to lend a hand and ask Wilders "lets work together against fundimantilasm". The US now became the focus for both Wilders and the Muslim world, taking into the consideration the timing i.e. new administration, and Obama's inaguration speech where he appealed to the Muslim world to work together on many fronts. The timing for Wilders is no coincidence, and no surprise to many, but the surprise is the reaction to Fitna.

Do I have the feeling that Fitna was recieved with the same "shrug" as Europe received it? This is the reason I keep ask the quesiton is that immature "power point presentation" sort of a film has backfired against Wilders.

On the other hand, I agree with the experts on this video when they put part of the blame of this problem that Wilders is using to his benefit on Muslims everywhere - one of the experts put the responsibilities on the moderate Muslims. Will this would be a tip to Wilders to take the tip? I don't think so because "He believes that there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim. His aim is to stop “the Islamic invasion of Holland."


The last quote I put is from a post by Instablog about Wilders, and making reference to a very interesting article on New York Times, titled "Totally Tolerant, Up to a Point":

The writer of the article pinpointing that "If it were not for his hatred of Islam, Geert Wilders would have remained a provincial Dutch parliamentarian of little note, and that he is now world known for his views on Islam." The writer put the contradictory that every teenage can recognise by saying that "Whether Mr. Wilders has deliberately insulted Muslim people is for the judges to decide. But for a man who calls for a ban on the Koran to act as the champion of free speech is a bit rich." He added to that by saying "Since Muslims still constitute a relatively small minority, and most are not extremists, this seems an exaggerated fear, even though the danger of Islamist violence must be taken seriously."

I wouldn't agree more, but would that minority outlaw the Will of the majority of Muslims in Europe?

Did Hasan Zaitony Fool The MBC?

Yesterday I was watching the 7PM news on MBC news where a special report from the Netherlands was given on how traffic lights in Amsterdam (which was the focus of the report) are equipped with special installation with a small loud speakers that peeps continuously when the light turn to green for pedestrians. This system is meant to help blind and visually impaired people to identify crossing marks and easily walk across to the side of the street. In the report, Hasan Zaitony, the MBC reporter explained that this new technique would be implemented in other EU countries if this experiment would succeed in the Netherlands.

I watched the report till the end, where Zaitony interviewed a visually impaired man, he called him Alex, and most of the filming was done between the end of kalverstraat (the opposite side to Central train station) and Rembrandtplein (one of the main tourist attractions in Amsterdam).

I have been living in Holland for many years, and I can assure the MBC and its reporter that this facility for blind and visual impaired is not new at all – at least it has been installed for more than 10 years in different cities and the Netherlands, such as Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam.


Is there a lack of reports that MBC is complaining from i.e. lost the sense of news making, that they take one old means of daily life in one country and turn it to a report just to fill the half an hour time given to the news bulletin? Or it that Mr. Zaitony tricked the MBC group (I watched his excellent reporting by him during the Yemen civil war in early 1990s) with such report?

I did not find any other explanation other than that, especially if I want to make a report, I have to look and research its background, something I don't think the MBC did for that report

Bodykini

Whey did the owner of the swimming pool in Zwolle did not allow a woman wearing bodykini? The first time he was interviewed he said that it is matter of money making and seeing a woman wearing this thing will make customers ran out and never come back to that swimming pool. The second time this owner of the swimming pool said that wearing this swimming suit is not hygine enough and for that reason it was banned.

I am not in a position to judge the opinion of that swimming pool owner/manager. I also won't defend or condemn the woman who was wearing that swimming suit, but the question if wearing as such would violating one of the essentials into integrating into Dutch society (where women wear either one piece or two pieces swimming suit)? I am saying this because there are some swimming pools who did not allow women to wear tight shorts to the knees - this happened in The Hague (Den Haag) a couple of years ago.

When talking about this subject it makes some people frustrated and angry, mainly because this is not common within society, and I don't blame anyone for that. But would it be a solution? or the woman who would like to go to a swimming pool with a bodykini must think of another alternative?

Nebahat Albayrak For Wilders

What would Geert Wilders say or think when he knew about her being in Brussels, putting the case forward before the EU. I am referring to Nebahat Albayrak, the Dutch Deputy Justice Minister met with EU counterparts yesterday in Belgium (News in Dutch) to protest the decision made by British government on the 12’th of this month to deny entry to United Kingdom? Based on my little knowledge on how an extremist like Wilders would think of the situation, he would say to himself:

• She is doing her job, fulfilling duties towards the kingdom based on her post in the government
• She is an exception to other Muslims, maybe because she does not wear the headscarf, so she is an integrated Muslim into Dutch society
• Maybe he thinks that “She fears me, her party and fears my party; the government fears me, because it is getting more popular than ever, especially after the Heathrow incident.”

This is funny, the last person I would think of is a Muslim and an Immigrant (it doesn’t matter which country he or she from) defending Geert Wilders and helping him in submitting his case (and do the promoter role for his film, Fitna) as part of waging war against his version of Islam and his delusions about how Muslims would look like. Everyone knows that Wilders is against migration of foreigners to the Netherlands, but Albayrak is an immigrant, she was born in Istanbul, Turkey. Wilders is against Islam, but Bebahat Albayrak is coming from a Muslim country. In addition, when Albayrak was appointed at her post, the right wing Party for Freedom, which is the party Wilders established and lead tried to prevent the installation of both her and of her fellow Muslim MP Ahmed Aboutaleb (of Moroccan origin, who is now the mayor of Rotterdam). The party of Freedom also tried to pass a motion of no confidence in parliament then directed against all parliamentarians or executive branch politicians with dual citizenship, claiming these politicians have a loyalty conflict or have the appearance of having one. Nebahat Albayrak has a Turkish and a Dutch passport. The motion was rejected by the Tweede Kamer (the lower house), since no other party than the Party for Freedom supported it.

I don’t believe that it her duty as a minister responsible for the justice of her own people is the only reason that made her convinced to go to Brussel and put the case in front of the EU parliament. She even was debating the essence of that decision by wondering how come Wilders is not considered a threat to public security to Italy while in another EU country, Britain in this case is considered otherwise. By the way, its worth to mention that the Dutch Deputy Justice Minister’s visit to Brussel was part of a meetings to discuss free transport and free movement of people in European community nations.

I guess that the teachings of Willem van Oranje to his citizens and followers about tolerance and accepting the other has gave results after all. It happened before; Fitna was lame after all, though!

The Sun of the Netherlands

I put my jacket on and went at the entrance of the building to have a smoke, when a colleague of mine joined me. He looked up in the sky and asked: where did the sun go? I gazed back at him. It has been cold, very cold for the whole month - even was snowing a little a couple of days ago. I told him "what are you talking about?" He replied that the sun was shining earlier in the morning. I didn't see the sun he was talking about, I answered back "are you kidding? the sun is like a very quick visitor in the Netherlands, appear for a very short time and then disappear behind that curtain of gray sky for the rest of the day.

I think it is the weekend magic that is getting into that nice colleague of mine! Otherwise, I would recommend him one of two things to do: the first is to see a psychiatrist, and the second is to migrate to another country.

The Triumph of Death

The first time I saw that painting was in late 1980's, on the cover of an un-official greatest hits album of heavy metal band, Black Sabbath. I don't remember anymore how long it was, staring at every detail of that horrific piece of art. In the beginning and before starting searching for the origins of this painting I thought it was a depiction of some event from Dante's Inferno's i.e. The Divine Comedy, but I was proven wrong when I knew that the original author is no one but the Belgian artist Pieter Breugel "the Elder", born in 1525 in Breda, the Netherlands but lived all his life in present day Belgium (between Antwerp and Brussels). He died in Brussels, on September 1569. Breugel is considered by many as the greatest Flemish painter of the 16'th century. One of the distinguished trade-marks of this artist are the details he emphasized on in each of his paintings. He focused mainly in his work on landscapes and peasant's life. These trade-marks he used granted him some uniqueness regarding his work, mainly what I call it the manipulation in the different dimensions illustrated on his paintings that gives some sort of a story telling - see his stunning work on "Netherlandish Proverbs" or "Fall of Icarus", or the amazing "The Tower of Babel ", and all these little details spotted here and there on each painting. "The Triumph of Death" was no difference from the typical Breugel style. The painting was completed in 1562 - some 6 years before the 80 years war in the lower lands, led by Willem van Oranje. It has been made by oil on panel with 117 x 162 cm in size.

This painting is about skeletons, all about skeletons - reminds me of the movie "army of darkness". These skeletons is in full charge attacking mankind of all sorts.

The first impression I take from looking into the details of this painting is that no discrimination whatsoever regarding the life-style or class of humans, all must die, from the king to the peasant, man or woman, old or young, it doesn't matter, all were destined to be dead. In addition, the painting doesn't show the end of the story, there is an ongoing process, the advanced skeletons on each side approaching in huge numbers, the attempt by some to stop them, the skeleton on the horse carrying a lamp looking for skulls (maybe), the net held on each side by other skeletons trapping humans in it - and maybe throw them to the water near by, while another skeleton riding a horse and with his sceythe harvesting what comes in his way of human souls.

I can imagine the artist sitting on his own, thinking and calculating the ways of killing human beings; by sword, drowning, hanging, beheading, slitting throats, even by the fear of what to come. In addition, one can see death that comes from animals in the form of a sort of a mutilated dogs and horses predating peasants and other humans. Pieter Beugel did also illustrated the devastation that death would bring to a whole civilization - smoke here and there on different places. So death is extending its arm to include nature, the ground and the sea.

Another observation that I see it as a very strong and effective of the artist is his group of skeletons wearing like Romans watching the massacare, with a huge cross erected in the middle at a panel, with a man dead hanging from the edges of that panel. Is this a symbol of the artist view on religion during that time? a time of conflict between the various Christian groups, which involved political domination and military oppression? Or is it that these skeletons do believe in God as human do and that's an indication at such?

But wait a minute, when I look at the big tent far near the coastline, where thousands of skeleton queuing and waiting for their turn in the slaughter, would the sinking ships indicates something like a failed attempt to purge those skeletons from existence? or were these skeletons came by sea?

I realized a fact after reading about this great actor how he became famous with his simplicity in the way he made his paintings. However, one of the things I was puzzled with is the women that was sitting with an open book in her hand and her face looking down at the man sitting at her feet and playing music on his lute. In spite of all this blood bath, there are who are doing two things, reading a book (praying maybe?) and playing music! Speaking of music, Beugel did align music to the advancement of the mass of skeletons by putting a skeleton standing at a higher spot and hammering on war-drums.

Some sources assume that Peiter Beugel predicted in this painting what would be happening to his people in years to come i.e. the 80 years war and how death and plague (which is also can be considered as a theme for this - both existed at that time) can take over everything.

The original painting is displayed at the Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.

Arabic Broadcast From Amsterdam

A number of weeks back I created a new discussion thread on Facebook on the Iraqi Community In the Netherlands Group. I was seriously eager to know or to see how appealing the idea of having an Arabic Radio station in the Netherlands, like other Arabic speaking internet and FM radio stations, such as Orient Radio (France) and ABS (Australia) - there is another one in Belgium which I heard about recently, but forgot the name.

However, the good news for Arabs living in the Netherlands came to me today: Radio Netherlands Worldwide resumed its broadcast in Arabic language from the 15'th of last month under the name "Here's Amsterdam". The broadcast can be received on radio, satellite, as well as on the internet on different times of the day. Information in Arabic and in English are also available on the site on times of broadcast. It is worth mentioning that Radio Netherlands Worldwide used to broadcast in Arabic for more than four decades but stopped in 1994. In addition, a number of professional presenters from various Arab countries, such as Iraq, Morocco, Libya, Sudan are working for this broadcast, to whom I personally wish them all the best with their work and effort.