April 11, 2007
On Friday, 20 April the Volkel airbase in Uden, Noord-Brabant will host a very special demonstration between a Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 and a Dutch Spyker Formule 1 car driven by Dutch race car driver Christijan Albers. Unfortunately, the event is invitation only. The Air Force hopes to recruit personel and the Spyker F1 team wants to be seen and heard. Once upon a time, back in 1915, Spyker had been in the business of building airplanes.
(Link)
Tags: air force, Christijan Albers, F-16, Noord-Brabant, Spyker, Uden
Artist Marc Mulders was commissioned by the Church to make a stained glass window depicting an image of the World Trade Center attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. On Easter Sunday, it was blessed by a Dutch bishop. The window, made up of about 20 different panes with representations of heaven and hell, has the WTC pane at the bottom, showing “hell on earth”. The window in the Sint Jan Cathedral in Den Bosch, in the province of Noord-Brabant got worldwide media attention because of the Twin Tower image, according to pastor Geert Jan van Rossem.
(Link)
Tags: 9/11, churches, stained glass, WTC
April 10, 2007
The amount of people who choose not to work and receive welfare benefits is dwindling, according to Dutch newspaper, De Volkskrant. Apparently, there’s pressure on them to get a job. The amount of people living off the government decreased last week to 300,000 (population 16 million), the lowest level in 25 years. In De Volkskrant, 51-year-old Gertjan van Beijnum, who has been unemployed for 28 years and receives benefits, says they are a dying breed. Van Beijnum stopped his art school studies in 1979 and has been unemployed ever since. “It’s not that I can’t work, I just don’t want to. I am against paid work.”
Orangemaster’s quick guide to avoid sloth:
1. Start your own business
2. Do volunteer work
3. Become a starving artist
(Link: fok.nl)
Tags: welfare
April 9, 2007
![[Cover of Zone 5300, issue 14-1]](https://www.24oranges.nl/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/zone_5300-14_1-cover.jpg)
The spring issue of Zone 5300 (tagline: Comics, Culture and Curiosa) is out. Apart from the usual suspects (Mr. Mack, Maaike’s Diary, Troglodytes, Olga, Boerke, Cowboy John) there are:
– Carrièremoves (Career Moves) by Robert van Raffe, showing that the meta-comic isn’t dead, no matter how hard we club it over the head
![[panel from Armand and Ilva]](https://www.24oranges.nl/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/zone_5300-14_1-the_tjong_khing.png)
– An interview with Thé Tjong Khing (right), perhaps best known for his children’s books illustrations, but also for his recently republished Arman & Ilva sci-fi comic (written by Lo Hartog van Banda)
– An admission by Fool’s Gold editor Frits Jonker that he has taken part of his variety show to the Web in his new Showcase blog
– An interview with Utrecht-based collage artist Raymond Teitsma (left)
– And also comics by Wasco, Vladan Nikolic & Aleksandar Pavkovic, and Brooklyn-based Israeli artist Koren Shadmi. This month no Plageman (Beachman), I’m afraid. I should have nagged more.
Tags: collage, Fool's Gold, Lo Hartog van Banda, Thé Tjong Khing, Zone 5300
Last Saturday, the police in Nijmegen received various reports that men were jumping off the Waalbrug (Waal bridge, here opposite) and immediately rushed to the scene. They found two men in their underwear who were about to jump off the bridge, while down below, two other men were climbing out of the Waal River. Attempted suicide? Not even close. Apparently the men had met some women in a cafe who refused to date them unless they jumped off the bridge.
(Link: blikopnieuws)
Tags: Darwin awards, Nijmegen
April 8, 2007
On Thursday the criminal court in Amsterdam threw out a case against reporter Teun van de Keuken for complicity in slavery. Van de Keuken, who co-hosts a consumer advocacy show on TV called ‘Keuringsdienst van Waarde’ (a pun referring to the Dutch Food and Drug Administration), instigated the case against himself after eating a number of chocolate bars that he claimed were produced by slaves. During the case, the court heard testimony of a former slave who was forced to work on a cocoa plantation when he was a child.
The case was dismissed on technical grounds, since Van de Keuken himself was not a harmed party, and therefore could not initiate the prosecution against himself. Van de Keuken is now contemplating a civil suit.
Van de Keuken started his own guaranteed slave-free chocolate brand two years ago called Tony’s Chocolonely, using cocoa produced by Ghana’s Kuapa Kokoo co-op. The chocolate bars were made in co-operation with Dutch fair trade company Max Havelaar.
Earlier this year, Van de Keuken was sued unsuccessfully by chocolate importer Bellissimo Foods, who claimed that it is impossible to produce slave-free chocolate. Irony is dead.
Tags: chocolate, Chocolonely, fair trade, Keuringsdienst van Waarde, Max Havelaar
April 7, 2007
This week, city sanitation workers in Maastricht, Limburg all received iPod nanos “in hopes of making them all appear more happy while doing their jobs.” The story goes that the people of Maastricht were unhappy with the sour demeanor of local sanitation workers. Searching for a way to improve the situation, the city council came up with the idea of letting the workers listen to music while working. A few weeks later, the city ordered 280 new ipod nanos for the sanitation team. After two weeks, the music seems to be doing the trick.
(Link, via Funtechtalk)
Tags: iPod, Maastricht, working
April 6, 2007
Apparently, The Netherlands is top dog when it comes to distributing animal pornography, as it is one of the few countries left where this type of pornography is not forbidden. Filming animal pornography mostly takes place in Central Europe and Brazil, as the legislation there is also non-existent.
“The top two companies are located in The Netherlands,” according to the Director of Topscore in Doetinchem, one of the two companies in question. The other one is Cybermedia in Nieuwegein. “Of the 10 new films we release every month, the three animal films sell the best”. Many foreigners come specially to Amsterdam to buy animal porn and most animal porn websites are hosted here. The Minister of Justice Hirsch Ballin is considering banning animal porn in The Netherlands.
Why is this news? There was a recent Dutch article about a man raping another person’s pony 45 times (!) who could not be prosecuted because there’s no law against having sex with animals. They were thinking of getting him from breaking and entering.
(Link)
Tags: Animals, bestiality, porn, records
April 5, 2007
The idea of a ‘visual assault’ was taken quite literally by an action group who got rid of some of the posters and put up some of their own last night. Here, you can read ‘Amsterdam, free of adverstising’. They claim – as many people already believe, if you ask around – that “the advertising firm in question is working on the further commercialisation of the city, destroying the charactertisitc street image.” Translation: nobody really likes this stunt and everybody thinks it’s ugly.
A Labour Party politican of De Pijp neighbourhood told 24oranges that this entire incident will be discussed in the next city district council meeting.
(Link)
Tags: advertising, Amsterdam, De Pijp, streets
April 4, 2007
Until April 6, the Marie Heinekenplein in Amsterdam will feature a forest of adverts from the firm JC Decaux, which have been placed there for a contest. Nevermind the fact that the neighborhood ‘freaked out’ as soon as they saw this ‘visual assault’ on their otherwise nice square, 24oranges was called up and told to go and see for themselves.
I suppose you too can vote for the best advert in the hopes of winning a trip to Paris.
(Photo: Natasha, Tip: SM)
Tags: advertising, Amsterdam, De Pijp
