After the thunderstorm

Let's return to work on making society and the world a nicer place :)

Fitna Vlutna

Have I seen it?
Yes, the english version because I couldnt get the dutch one to load...

What did I think?
One word: crap.
Oh maybe two: cheap crap.

I mean come on. You tell us in December that you are going to make a movie about Islam. You hijack public debate for nearly 4 months. And you dare show up with this cheap shit?? If I were a professional politician I'd be highly embarassed. Anyone can do better on the average I-Mac. There is no originality whatsoever. Look at Van Gogh's and Ayaan Hirsi Ali's movie 'Submission'! Horrible stuff too but at least its got art, originality, creativity! Naked female bodies with text displayed on them is, whatever you think of it, a form of art.

This, is just well, nothing. One big copy paste action from other sources...

Btw, you do realize that you kind of lost any and all of the little believability you had right? Yanking random images out of their context and linking them to Quranic verses also out of their (historic and theological) context is unlikely to convince anyone of the fantasy world you are living in.

Oh, and you made a couple of mistakes. Although I guess you are aware of those by now... that picture you used to portray the assassin of Theo van Gogh is in fact someone else. A rapper who photographed himself dressed like the murderer to show that not all people who look alike, are alike. Which is a very clever form art btw. Actually it only shows that you on the other hand are utterly and totally incapable of distinguishing among all the different shades of gray between black and white. Another mistake is that it is pretty normal to request permission for the use of other people's art. The Danish cartoonist never gave his permission so you are kind of breaking the law there.

Then you go on showing numbers of muslims in The Netherlands... around 1905 about 50, around 1965 about 400.000, around 2004 about 1million and then in 2007 you give a number of a whopping 57million! And in the small print you mention that this number is actually the number of muslims in the whole of Europe. I mean wtf? Please, please for the sake general intelligence, next time hide your manipulation a tiny bit better. I beg of you! My intellect nearly feels offended.

Other than that after watching your movie I am left with the nagging feeling that you did get a tiny bit scared. Showing a page of the Quran being flipped, going black and hearing the sound of a page being ripped out is all good and well. But it's a bit chicken to tell me that 'This was a page from the phonebook' ... same with the utterly bad animation of the danish cartoon: counting down to explosion, going black and... no explosion but an euhm... thunderstorm...??? Like in NO explosion???

You know what? I kind of think this was all a thunderstorm in a glass of water.

Loser.

Of Equal Stature

"De dood weegt niet zwaar. Alleen voor hèm die door te velen gekend werd, en sterft zonder zichzelf te kennen."
(Death is not a heavy burden. Only for him who was known by many, and dies without knowing himself.)

"Iemand onuitputtelijk vinden, is van hem houden."
(To think someone to be inexhaustible, is to love him.)

"Onder de meiboom zitten jonge geliefden fijn lente te zijn."
(Under the maytree, young lovers are sitting, hapily being spring.)

- Hugo Claus (5 april 1929 - 19 march 2008) -

We are burying too many great writers today... :(

Flemish writer Hugo Claus was one of the masters of dutch literature. He chose to die today through euthanasia. He very much deserved the Nobel Prize for literature for which he was nominated several times. Of his grand stature only Mulisch now lives.


Waarover spreken
Translation in english...

Waarover vanavond spreken? En spreken
in een land dat wij herkennen, dulden,
zelden vergeten.
Dat land met zijn koddige genesis,
zijn klam klimaat, zijn voze verhalen
over vroeger,
zijn bewoners, hebberig tot hun laatste val
tussen de bloemkolen.
Zij blijven zich vermenigvuldigen
in een paradijs dat zij verzinnen,
tuk op geluk, sidderend, pap in de mond.
Zoals in de natuur
die onze ondermaatse heuvels onthaart,
onze weiden verschroeit, onze lucht vergast,
de argeloze koeien blijven grazen.

Spreken over de geschriften van dit land,
drukwerk vol vraagtekens
op het geduldig papier
dat steeds opnieuw schrikt van zijn historie
en daarvoor vlucht in verhullend snelschrift.
Spreken over de overgordijnen
die men dichttrekt over zichzelf.
Maar wij blijven ze horen, de stinkende
primaten die elkaar in kamers belagen.
Zoals in de natuur
de hibiscus geen geur verspreidt,
dat doen de schuldeloze koeien die zakken
in de doorzeken aarde.

Spreken in dat land van glinsterend gras
waarin de mens,
onmatige worm, dromend karkas,
verwijlt tussen de lijken die dood als zij zijn
blijven gehoorzamen aan onze herinnering.
Zoals onze natuur een enkel, enkelvoudig
mirakel verwacht dat ooit uiteindelijk
zal verhelderen wat men was,
niet alleen dit aftands spektakel
ineengeflanst door de tijd.

Spreken over die tijd die, zei men,
zou beklijven als brandmerk en palimpsest?
Wij leefden in een tijd van verbruiken
en bruikbaar zijn.
Welk verweer daartegenover?
Welke feestelijke veren in de kont?
Welk liedje in de kelder? Misschien.
Zeg het. Misschien.
Een paar krassen in leisteen
en dat is dan de omtrek van je geliefde.
Vingerafdrukken in klei zijn dan haar heupen.
Fonemen van vreugde weerklonken soms
als zij, toen zij, naar jou riep als een kat.

Spreken over haar aanwezigheid
wekt het blauw uur van de schemer.
Zoals in de natuur
het ongenadig, glazig, blauw azuur
van onze planeet gezien vanuit Apollo.

En al begint van louter spreken
je feestmuts zwaar te wegen
en begint de levenslijn in je handpalm
te verzweren
toch, niettegenstaande, desalniettemin
de bloei vereren
van de schaduwen die ons bevolken,
de schaduwen die bedelen om troost.
En toch haar schouderblad strelen.
Als de rug van een bultenaar.
Toch tuk op een wreedaardig geluk.

The Last of the Great

"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering."

- Arthur C. Clarke (16 december 1917 – 19 march 2008) -

He was the last of three great science fiction writers. Clarke, with Heinlein and Asimov changed the way we look at world. He was an visionary of equal stature as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and a briliant storyteller.

"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."

"How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean."

Shades of Gray

Sir Bob Geldof's travels with George Bush

Had anyone other then Bob Geldoff written it, I would have dismissed it as PR. As it stands, it shows a part of pres. Bush we rarely hear of. At least it strengthens my believe in nuanced thinking :) I may not agree with everything he does (and has done) but I can't imagine anyone being so deeply evil and detestable as the media usually picture him. Glad the London Times showed his other other side! :)

Within minutes btw I had a very interesting chat with Ranoch! Glad to have spoken to him, happens to rarely... guess I need to visit Leuven again sometime soon.

ranoch: the daily show had a bit about africa work from Bush, they could hardly believe they had good news from Bush as well
sirvantc: hey :)
ranoch: but, as someone there said, it's making it worse. Bush is not incapable of doing good, he just chose not to ;)
sirvantc: thats not what Geldoff said :)
Geldoff basically wrote that if Bush had put the same ideas into pratice in the ME as in Africa, the world would have looked prettier
and considering the stuff he puts forward: before Bush got into office 50.000 ppl on HIV medicine who have to pay for it
and currently 1.3m people on provided medicine
just one example
I think it shows
ranoch: yeah, like I said, the Daily Show was suprised to mention something positive for a change :)
sirvantc: The feeling I had after reading it is pity
I pity Bush
his partial blindness
his attempts to the right american thing
in a world that doesn work like that
ranoch: I just pity the world, he's the president, he should have known what he was getting himself into
sirvantc: I agree with Geldoff that he looks at america as the shining city on the hill. Spread that and the world will become better and by doing so stuff happens that prove to everyone else that the city is crap
ranoch: veto-ing a law that forbids torture, challenging international law by beginning perpetual war, is that the shining city?
sirvantc: hey I dont agre with him ;P
ranoch: I don't even agree with the idea of shining city ;)
sirvantc: me neither :)
not anymore
well never have in such an idealistic way
it's a matter of you talk the talk
now walk the walk
America is not what it claims to be
and it doesnt see that
ranoch: no, but nothing is
it's just that america is most vocal about it ;)
sirvantc: yup :)
it's stg that has always bothered me, I agree in principle with everything that it claims to be standing for
I am very much a liberal
but what it does is nothing like it
ranoch: no, far from it...
sirvantc: so the question is do you cling to an idealistic version of what you want stg to be
or become a realist
ranoch: well, become more realistic anyways :)
dreamworlds are fine, but I'm not living in it
sirvantc: I have become in more than one way much more realistic the last couple of years :)
ranoch: as long that is not coupled by pessimism, that's fine :)
sirvantc: never