Cogs can think.

Princess Maxima, Prince Heir Willem-Alexander, Queen Beatrix

How unnervingly moving is this.

It was Koninginnedag today in The Netherlands. An Afghan refugee, who fled to our country in 2001, walked 50km from Heerenveen to Franeker last night. Franeker is one of the cities the Royal Family visited today. It was his goal to extend a personal letter to the Queen in which he thanked her for the support The Netherlands has given, and is giving, to the Afghan people.

Noble.

He got to shake the Queen’s hands, but she didn’t take the letter. He got to shake the Prince Heir’s hand, but he didn’t take the letter (these people have to shake 4395398589307593 hands, no surprise there).

He was sad.

And then, at the last minute, Princess Laurentien passed by. She shook his hand, he explained his intentions, and Princess Laurentien took his letter, and assured him she’d give it to the Queen.

God I love this place.

One key feature for most users was a sense of community. Even though blogging is an inherently one-to-many activity, most readers felt a personal connection to the author. This could foster the feeling that the reader belonged to the community even in the absence of participation, and led those who did participate via comments to agonize over their content.

Hi, I’m Thom Arvid Holwerda, born on 1 December 1984. I have two brothers I never talk about, because their (in)actions severely damaged the connection I had with them - most likely beyond repair. And I don’t even care. My mother suffered from breast cancer a few years ago, which taught me a serious lesson about mortality. I have a lot of friends whom I appreciate and love dearly. I vehemently oppose the death penalty, legalised guns, and intolerance. The principle of unconditional equality is one of the two most important values - together with unconditional loyalty to the people I care about.

I am superawesome, incredibly smart, incomprehensibly funny, and NOT AT ALL ARROGANT.

Now, CONNECT GODDAMNIT.

Speaking of Wilders, here’s another gem.

Ultimately many fundamental problems in the Netherlands are directly related to migrants, like infrastructure, traffic jams, housing problems, the welfare state.

Traffic jams are caused by immigrants? And there I was, thinking they were caused by badly laid-out highways with too little capacity.

This weekend, Geert Wilders was publicly exposed for the xenophobic idiot that he is.

As the world knows by now, the guy has made an anti-Islam film - well, he says he has, but no one has ever seen it, for the simple reason that he has no venue for publication. Dutch broadcasting companies are not willing to broadcast the film, YouTube doesn’t want it either, and the announcement website has been taken down by Network Solutions.

Wilders always said that if a broadcasting company knocked on his door, they could broadcast the film the same day.

And that’s where the Dutch Muslim Broadcaster comes into play. This extremely small organisation, who gets a few moments of airtime on Sunday mornings, officially offered to broadcast the film. This organisation is not extremist at all - they have a history of allowing criticasters of Islam to have their say on their shows. Theo van Gogh, Ayaan Hirsi-Ali, they’ve all been there.

There were two conditions. One, they get to see the film prior to broadcasting, just to prevent any legal issues if it contains content against the law (racism, for instance). A perfectly acceptable condition, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find any broadcaster or network in the world who will broadcast anything without screening it first. The second condition is the more important one. They said, ok, we’ll air the film, but we do want you, Geert Wilders, to go into a televised discussion afterwards, with other people.

And this is the reason Wilders declined. Wilders has never gone into discussion with anyone; he never comes on debate shows on TV, he never accepts any invitations to public debates, he even always refuses to go into discussion with any other politician. This is the big point of criticism on Wilders, and it’s a very, very valid one.

The job of an elected representative of the people is to go into discussion with them. Not doing so just proves your arguments are weak.

And of course, they are weak. He claims that the Islam culture is inferior to ‘Western culture’, and that it is lightyears behind in development. According to him, it’s a retarded culture. This is the funny thing. If our culture really is so much better, so much more divine, so much more developed - then why is he so afraid all the time? If our culture is so strong, shouldn’t we consequently be able to withstand any influences quite easily?

Islam poses no real threat to our way of life. Sure, there are difficulties, but we’ll work them out. Our way of life survived two world wars, social change during the ’60s, and the cold war - I think we’ll survive a few religious nutjobs. I mean, let’s face it, we can handle the religious nutjobs in the Christian and Jewish worlds too.

What poses the real threat are those people willing to give up unconditional equality simply because they are insecure about their own culture. Unconditional equality is undebatable, and cannot be forfeit. It is the very building block of our society. Without it, we are no better than those Muslim extremists.

The last few times we decided to take away the rights of people based on race or religion (what people like Wilders want), we ended up in worlds of shit. Never forget that.

Has it already been 5 years?

Apparently, it has.

And almost 90000 documented civilian casualties. Documented casualties. There’s something chillingly bureaucratic about that term. It means 90000 times, someone, somewhere, added a little tally mark under the header of “civilian casualties”. But behind each of those tally marks, behind each of those few molecules of ink, there’s a person, a human being. A man or woman, boy or girl, with a history, a story to tell, friends, relatives, hopes, fears, dreams.

It all seems so far away. Did you know that the amount of genetic variation between all of mankind, between all of its members, is smaller than the genetic differences between one troop of chimpanzees? This means that for all intents and purposes, those 90000 men and women are not strangers, they are not mere tally marks somewhere in a dusty office without a corner view. No, they are relatives, closer to you and me than most people are willing to admit.

I hope none of us can sleep tonight. We are all responsible for all the people in the world, and these 90000 tally marks should haunt you tonight. Like 900000 nails on a chalkboard.

I was just watching State Secretary of Defense Jack de Vries (is that a Tom Clancy name or what?) on TV, explaining how he wants the Dutch people to show more appreciation and respect for our military and its personnel, despite whatever you might think of our mission in Afghanistan. And I couldn’t agree with the guy more.

I’m against us being involved in the mess the Americans and Brits created over there. It’s not our war, let them sort it out.

But, that’s a political issue. Our democratically elected politicians have decided that our men and women of the army should be there, and even though I fully disagree with that decision, it was not made by the army itself. They get stuck with doing the hard, dangerous, and intensive work over there, trying to do their goddamn best to help the people there, to create better living conditions. They are putting their lives on the line every day, and they do it with such commitment, passion, and determination that I can feel nothing but respect and pride for the work they do.

It of course helps that one of my best friends is in the Royal Military Academy (cavalry). The way he details life at the Academy, what they learn, the toughness of the job, the intense preperation they receive for being officers in the Dutch armed forces makes you realise more than ever how much respect these men and women deserve.

It’s easy to stand on the sideline, and critique our military. It’s easy to sit in your lounge chair, bag of Doritos, a beer, and 6 remotes to control your DVD, Blu-Ray (or, HD-DVD if you’ve been stupid), 50″ plasma, and whatever, while knowing you have to get up at 7am the next day, only to start up your 1.4 Opel Astra, to traffic jam your way to your boring 9-to-5, for the rest of your life, ever and ever, until you die.

Our guys and girls in the military are doing their very best to deliver, and they work hard, much harder than most of you will ever realise. And because of that, I support our troops in Afghanistan. Good job, guys.

You know that feeling, you’re lying on the couch after going to university and playing some squash, you’re closing your eyes, reality drifts off, your thoughts sizzle out, and you relax fully. The news is on TV, but it doesn’t really interest you. Until you hear these words. In one sentence.

Sex. Animals. Lower house. Debate. With.

Yes. Our lower house had a serious debate on whether or not to declare bestiality illegal. As I learned today, The Netherlands is the prime exporter of bestiality pornography, and that’s of course totally unacceptable (I’m for real here. People that get off on that nonsense should be put away in mental institutions). I mean, relaxed drug laws, legalised prostitution, gay marriage, that I can handle. But sex with animals? That was actually not illegal here? What the fcuk is wrong with this country? And they say the influence of Islam is a problem? While at the same time, people were allowed to have SEX WITH ANIMALS?

There is something very, very unnerving about seeing distinguished, Christian politicians speak about sex with animals. I’m SO not going to sleep tonight without a double dose of Temazepam.

May I note that I can see what Google query you used to get here. Remember that before you comment.

I love the Dutch media. Not because they’re the best in the world (because they’re most definitely not) and I’m proud of them for it (couldn’t resist) but because they fell on their ass so bad during the night.

You see, the Dutch media are quite obviously supporters of the Democrats. During the coverage of the primaries, the Democrats get all the attention, after which they quickly say something along the lines of “oh and yeah, McCain did this and that but all of you Dutch people shouldn’t give two shits”. Of course, I made the second part up, but you can almost hear them say it. Not that I’m in any way a Republican, but still, I expect impartiality.

The second problem is that they are also quite obviously supporters of Obama. Famous journalists, TV presenters, newspapers, other public figures: most of them are pro-Obama, and this shines through quite clearly during TV shows and in newspaper/magazine articles. Whenever they interview someone pro-Clinton, he or she has to defend himself. Whenever they interview someone pro-Obama, the journalists and media people go easy, and talk about how Obama makes celestial choirs sing (thanks for that one, Hillary).

Yesterday evening, they were all more or less certain Hillary would be out, over, and done with. She wouldn’t win Texas and Ohio, and you could see the twinkle in the media people’s eyes whenever they talked about it. Obama would win, and right from then on, roses, lilies, and marshmallows would sprout all over the United States. Suddenly, there’d be no more poverty, crappy unaffordable healthcare, and hate towards the US.

Until Clinton won Ohio. And Texas. And Rhode Island. And despite her not being any closer to winning the nomination than last night, she did win them. And gone is the twinkle. The battle is still on, and I’m sure that we’ll see Clinton win the primaries after all.

Let’s hope the Dutch media can start reporting on the whole thing with more objectivity now. Obama will be a good president, but he ain’t the 2nd coming of Christ. It’s time the Dutch media realised this too. The honeymoon’s over.

Björk ftw. Seriously. During a performance in Shanghai in China, she shouted “Tibet! Tibet!” a couple of times while performing the frantic and utterly crazy “Declare Independence“. The Chinese could not handle this; they left the hall, and millions of Chinese are now all offended. The state media (as if there are any independent media in China) are ignoring the incident.

Thank you Björk. You have the guts to do what most here in the west do not dare to do: go into the lion’s den, and say it like it is.

“Declare Independence” has almost become my ‘motto’ - every people has the right to belong, to govern themselves in a way they deem fit, to protect their sovereignty, to declare independence. I fully support the people of Kosovo, the people of Schotland, the people of Tibet, and so on. This world will be a better place if people and cultures get the freedom and breathing room to develop themselves, to make their own decisions, while working together for the greater, common good under organisations like the EU and NATO. There’s no need for a global, bureacratic megagovernment in order to create world peace - all it takes is to give cultures independence and sovereignty on a local level, while working together closely on a global level.

It has worked pretty darn well in Europe. Except for the fact that the EU has invaded the local level a tad bit too much.

Speaking of sheep, I just sat down and watched last night’s debate between Clinton and Obama (all of it) - and I must say, it was a good debate. It was what I call a ‘table debate’, where the debaters are sitting down around a table, close together, instead of standing before choir stands like they do in some other debates. Table debates tend to be more focused on content, while also being looser and more intimate. Last night certainly confirmed that.

I did think Clinton ‘won’, but not by a huge margin or anything. To me, she showed her experience and deep knowledge on several key issues (especially foreign policy is what is important to me), but Obama wasn’t far behind. On two key issues they both reflected my feelings properly and strongly: Putin, and Iraq. They were both firm about condemning the undemocratic actions of Vladimir Putin, and did not tiptoe around that matter at all. I found it very encouraging to hear that - it’s something Dutch politicians can learn a lot from.

On the issue of Iraq, I was stunned and very pleasantly surprised about how much they both valued the concept of sovereignty - the question was, if the sovereign government of Iraq asks you, as potential president of the United States, to retreat all troops from Iraq, even a residual force, will you do it? Both were crystal clear: yes, we will. Sovereignty needs to be respected.

This meant a great deal to me, as sovereignty is a very important element in world politics; not only is it a concept, but it is also a feeling that people living in different nations around the world have. Sovereignty must be respected at all costs, and I’m very, very pleased to hear these two Democratic candidates commit themselves to respecting, and protecting, sovereignty around the world.

In the end, they’re both darn good candidates for the presidency of the US, and I believe both of them can give some much-needed change to not only the American people that need it the most, but also the rest of the world. It’s going to be a breath of fresh air to have an American president that is not, well, a total idiot.

Clinton-Obama. Clinton running for president, with Obama as vice-president. One may dream.