Thoughts on politics and daily life
{ Monthly Archives }
I am sitting in my local cafe drinking my coffee and enjoying the view. Next to me an actress is reading her script. Her delicate skin, long red hair and perfectly shaped face make that she stands out from the usual crowd. She is still very young but she will definitely turn into a striking beauty when she grows up. I observe her from the corner of my eye. While she rehearses her lines she plays with her salad and sips on her herbal tea.
It’s Fashion Week in London. Models fill the streets of Kensington with their long, high-heeled legs and trendy outfits. Beautiful fashion-addicts have come to London to watch the shows, play with their food and fill up on champagne in the fancy restaurants and bars all over town. It is the week of the super skinny people. And I hate it!
I never had a thing with birds. I suppose I just didn’t notice them. I must have stared too much at the pavement thinking deep thoughts while I wandered through the streets. When I did see a bird it was usually a pigeon getting fed by old ladies on a desolate square. And after watching The Birds I almost disliked them.
But since I moved to London all of that changed.
Some of you asked for an analysis of how Obama has done his job so far. Before I start, let’s do a small experiment first.
Just sit back and think about the moment on the 4th of November 2008 when you learned that Barack Obama had won the election. How did you feel? Excited? I know I did! And now think about what feelings you had on the 20th of January 2009 when Obama was installed as the 44th president of the USA. Were you proud? Emotional? Hopeful? I certainly was! And now fast-forward to today, what is the emotion you have right now when you think about Barack Obama. Still positive and hopeful? Or has it changed…
If you want to catch up with the BBC’s top 5 of last week’s political stories take a look at this clip here.
For me the top 5 (or 5 low points) were: Continue Reading »
The last 24 hours I could not stop thinking about the Geert Wilders case. And I think my response I put on this blog has not been clear enough. WILDERS SHOULD HAVE BEEN LET IN !
Even though the man makes me uneasy I still think that the government has made a huge mistake by not letting him entering the UK. In a democracy the principle of freedom of speech should be prevailing above possible uneasy feelings about someone’s opinions. That is what we should stand for in this democracy. I am Dutch myself, I have worked in Dutch politics for years and I have experienced the unrest Mr. Wilders is causing in The Netherlands.
The Dutch politician Geert Wilders has been refused entry into the UK by the Home Office on the grounds that the government does not want anyone to enter the country who preaches hatred. It sounds fair. No one likes a foulmouthed visitor in his home. Definitely not a racist one. Yet for the sake of freedom of speech they should let him in the country. Let him watch his racist film with his dodgy friends of the UK Independence Party but WHY in Parliament? An obscure foreign racist film does not deserve a viewing in one of the oldest democratic institutions of the world. Fitna is not a film that can be used as material for a fair and open discussion. It is propaganda made by an Islamophobic man.
Rubbish is something I just can’t stand. Not so much in my house (it is a real mess in there) but I hate garbage on the streets. I always get really angry when I get home and find cigarette buds, sandwich bags, paper cups and a lot more in front of my door. My husband calls me jokingly ‘the garbage nazi’ but so far I haven’t given up anyone to the garbage police yet. But sometimes I wish I had the guts to go over to people who dump litter and arrest them myself!!
But now that is not necessary anymore since there is a proper website for us ‘garbage nazi’s’: Fix my street‘ This is a website where you can report problems in your street and then they will try to fix it. It works like this:
This morning I popped out of the house to get a quick coffee across the street when I accidentally locked myself out. The person who has the spare key is in Paris. Hurray! So I am a little bit homeless today. But luckily for me I do have a wallet with cash so I just wander from the coffee bar to the library, to the gym and back. I do feel the cold but I know that my homelessness is just temporarily. I am aware that this is not the case for many homeless people in London. They have few places to go to and hardly any cash to spend. With the severe weather conditions of the last weeks I wonder how they have coped.
In the current debate about the financial crisis the bankers are bombarded as scapegoats. Their immoral and excessive behaviour is the cause of everything that has gone wrong in the world economy according to politicians, political commentators and the general public. It seems that everyone is out to crucify all bankers in the city. It is a classic example of the scapegoat theory of Rene Girard. If you kill the scapegoat, the crisis is averted and a new world order can be build.
It is an attractively simple analysis of the problem. But it is a dangerous one.
Beatpolitics is created by me, Beatrijs Overdijkink. I am a writer, originally from Amsterdam, lived in London for a while and just moved to Prague. I write about political subjects big and small. Feel free to comment on anything I say. I love a good debate!
By the way, I also blog on the Dutch D66 website.