![[Visualisation of the new city]](https://www.24oranges.nl/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/waterstad-brihgt.jpg)
Architect Taco Tuinhof proposes this city on piles to be built in the sea near Goes in Zeeland according to Bright (Dutch). The city would be called Westerschelde Water Stad. Tuinhof is currently looking for investors.
Image: Bright/RDH.
April 16, 2008
April 15, 2008
Unemployed? We have reincarnation therapy for you
Sometimes, there’s news that continues to perpetuate the stereotype that the Dutch are actually all on drugs, or at least the bureaucrats on their lunch breaks.
“The City of Maastricht is pressuring the unemployed to follow reincarnation therapy. Anyone who doesn’t want to may see their welfare allowances cut. Social Services, which grants allowances and attempts to get recipients back to work, urged at least one unemployed resident of Maastricht to accept the guidance of a reincarnation therapist. Returning to a previous life would supposedly help them regain their balance and enhance their chances of finding work.
(insert astonishment here)
The local newspaper was tipped off by local councillor John Steijns. As leader of a local party, the politician came across documents revealing the alleged spiritual tendencies of the Maastricht government. The alderman responsible, Luc Winants (Social Affairs) does not want to dismiss the initiative yet. “It might very well be true that reincarnation therapy is a means to get people back to work,” said his spokesman Joep Delsing.
(insert continued astonishment here)
Winants is a member of the Christian democrats (CDA). Delsing said the case is to be inquired into “with the highest possible priority and at the highest possible level.”
(insert “It figures” comment here)
Psychotherapist Marcus Huibers, senior lecturer in clinical psychology at Maastricht University, is baffled. “We are speaking here of an entirely obscure therapy that does not even merit the term therapy”. According to councillor John Steijns, “the therapy would involve ten sessions of 90 euro each. In total we are talking about 900 euro in tax payers’ money.”
(Link: nisnews.nl, Tip: Alix)
Tags: Maastricht, quacks, reincarnation, therapy
April 14, 2008
Quacks get legal recognition
Last Wednesday a trio of judges held that quacks are responsible for their diagnoses, and can therefore be prosecuted when something goes wrong. The case was brought by the Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij (Association against Quackery) and the Stichting Skepsis (Skepsis Foundation) against the public prosecutor, after the latter had decided to drop prosecution against two “alternative” physicians and “faith healer” Jomanda. The alternative healers had been accused of leading comedian Sylvia Millecam to her death in 2001 by steering her away from regular medicine. Millecam had been diagnosed with breast cancer, from which she died.
The court held (Dutch) that the association and the foundation had standing, and that care givers have a care duty, even if they are not accredited. This means that quacks who were able operate in relative safety in the Netherlands will now have to face the criminal consequences of their “healing” practices gone bad, just like regular physicians.
Tags: comedians, faith healers, medicine
April 13, 2008
Amsterdam syndrome: Italians and YouTube amore
So many expressions in English about the Dutch are negative: ‘Dutch uncle’ (finger pointing criticism), ‘going Dutch’ (splitting the bill when you go out) and ‘Dutch courage’ (alcohol induced courage), but now the Italians have come up with a new one, ripe for the Internet age: The Amsterdam Syndrome.
The Amsterdam Syndrome is known by Italian sexologists as ‘Sindrome di Amsterdam’, according to Italian newspaper La Stampa yesterday. Vice-president of the European Federation of Sexologists Chiara Simonelli explains: “Thanks to YouTube (sarcastically speaking) and an amateur video camera or mobile phone, men film their wives and lovers cheating on them and place it on the Internet. Notice the opposite is not mentioned.
“Everbody can see her, in fact everyone has to see her, but nobody can touch her.” A form of revenge for some, but also (trying to understand how Italians think here) a form of exhibitionism that is sometimes consentual. And here I thought that the cliché was that some 30% of Italian men fantasize about their mothers when gettin’ busy.
Why does Amsterdam ‘get the shaft’ linguistically speaking? Bearing all is apparently what they do in Amsterdam’s Red Light District (now I’m being sarcastic), which is not true. They all wear underwear tops and bottoms when you go by so you can use your imagination.
(Link: telegraaf.nl, lastampa.it)
Tags: Amsterdam Syndrome, sexology, YouTube
April 12, 2008
Colour photos of WWII soon online
The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation in Amsterdam has been given 1,500 colour photos from WWII by Alphons Hustinx, a rich photographer from Roermond, Limburg who used the rare technique at that time of colour slides. When we think of photos from WWII, we usually picture black and white images, but this new collection will actually add colour to an otherwise grey era.
The entire collection will be available for viewing online at the end of April.
(Link and photo: rtl.nl)
Zone 5300, an abundance of bunnies
In issue 81 of Zone 5300 one Eric van der Heijden is giving Maaike Hartjes a run for her money with his own brand of tiny comics, although his intellectual absurdities remind me most of online comic XKCD. A hunter walks up to a giant rabbit, wraps his arm around its shoulders, and tells it with a big grin: “There are too many rabbits here. That’s all I am saying. Draw your own conclusions.”
There’s a four pager by Floris de Smedt where Mr. Bunny (see image above) escapes from his prison and exacts a terrible revenge from Brussels. Luckily Mr. Bunny is no match for The Professor, who has a brilliant brain and ready access to dragon eggs. No bunny can resist eggs!
Illustration by Eric van der Heijden: “Does this make you feel more of a man? Does this make you forget for a fleeting moment that your wiener is tiny?”
Toen ik klein was (When I was young) is a translation of a comic by Mr. Stocca (Milan Pavlovic) about a boy/bunny who has a crush on his school teacher, and then she dies. I love the atmospheric drawings (see below)!
Also: voyeuristic drawings of young women by Barend van Hoek, a look at artificial creatures, and the regulars (Hibou, Cowboy John, Fool’s Gold, et cetera).
Tags: bunnies, Fool's Gold, rabbits, Zone 5300
April 11, 2008
I amSterdam, Madrid is mad
You can say many bad things about Amsterdam’s city marketing campaign I AmSterdam, but at least in some respect it works. A mix of the phrase “I am Amsterdam” and “I heart Amsterdam,” the slogan lets people express their positive feelings towards the city in a tacky but unified manner.
Madrid tries to copy the formula, and copies everything that is wrong about the I AmSterdam campaign. It is tacky. You cannot force a meaningful emotional response with a cold marketing campaign. The formula replaces core values—the reasons why people like Amsterdam or Madrid—with empty slogans. And in doing so, the campaigns are insulting to their audiences’ intelligence.
But Madrid’s copy takes things one step further: it just doesn’t work. “Madrid about you” is a funny pun, but the way the logo is styled makes it say: “Madrid equals mad” (the “about you” is de-emphazised by shoving it to the bottom and printing it in a smaller font.) Critical Spanish designer Rafa Celda says in El Pais that the people who came up with this campaign are trying too hard. “This is like one of those logos that comes with a manual.”
Via Nieuws uit Amsterdam (Dutch). Photo by Matt Rubens, distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 license.
April 10, 2008
Maaike’s diary in English
Maaike Hartjes, who was already the grand old lady of Dutch comics when she was yea high, has started an English language blog in which she documents her next book.
The work title is ‘Enjoy Your Life and Your Socks’, something I saw written on a shop in Japan. I’m going to try to add a new page every day.
I first met Maaike when I was co-publisher of the Iris fanzine in my student days. I believe it was at the Haarlem comics con which takes place every two years, where she showed up with her “folder.” She had wanted to publish her work with another fanzine but they never showed up … and she went on to become a figurehead for our magazine until we quit in the mid-nineties. Maaike is an incredibly versatile artist—though she hates to show this versatility in her comics, focusing instead on what fellow cartoonist and fanzine editor Reinder Dijkhuis once called “her irresistibly funny minuscule drawings,” with which she fills and publishes diaries.
Tags: blogs
April 9, 2008
Brabant gets lesbian only hiking paths
On 20 April, some 20 kilometres of hiking routes for lesbians will be officially opened in the province of Brabant. In the woods near Alphen lesbians will be able to enjoy nature and “get together”.
The first Dutch “ladies’ route” was opened in North Holland, and there are also routes in Zeeland and Drenthe. Noord-Brabant is now the fourth province to go lesbian friendly. The goal is to have lesbian hiking routes throughout the country.
(Link: omroepbrabant.nl)
April 8, 2008
Badly chosen picture with health article
I don’t care about the story, it’s the picture that basically cancels out the story for me. The story is about “experiments to increase health with young people,” which sounds fine, but the picture shows a teenager eating ontbijtkoek, which for the foreign crowd is gingerbread for breakfast. And it’s chocked full of sugar and fat. The background shows a vending machine with Balistos, a muesli (granola) based candy bar, with chocolate and tons of sugar. The captions read “Eating healthy in the cantina of the Werkplaats Kindergemeenschap.”
Did the photographer just do their job or is the author of this article stupid, unaware, fat or something else? With this kind of well-intended advice, no wonder Dutch kids are getting fatter. The road to obesity is paved with junk food.
(Link: ad.nl)
Tags: candy bars, children, junk food