Daily blogs

This really ought to be a national holiday

More often than not, I don’t agree Hirshi Ali’s ways and politics, but in Nova she said something that I totally agree with:

Original

Translation

Want als Balkenende een echte leider zou zijn, dan zou hij nu zijn minister Verhagen naar de groot-moeftie van Syrië toesturen om hem in heldere woorden te verstaan te geven dat een film hem absoluut niet het recht geeft een eventueel bloedvergieten te legaliseren. Deze theocratische dictaturen organiseren zich om Nederland te vertellen dat zij geen film mogen maken. Ik vind dat de wereld op zijn kop.

If Balkenende (MP) would be a real leader, he would send minister Verhagen (foreign affairs) to the grand-mufti of Syria to tell him very clearly that a movie absolutely does not grant him the mandate to legalize a bloodbath. These theocratic dictatorships organise themselves to tell Holland that they are not allowed to make a movie. That’s the world upside-down in my opinion

I think this is very true. Just one person making a movie with a different opinion, doesn’t justify a bloodbath. And besides, it wouldn’t help: it would only give Geert Wilders the opportunity to say: “You see, I was right. Muslims are a violent bunch, they should be banned from Holland and their religion should be forbidden”.

I hope that Muslims in the world don’t let Geert Wilders and his movie provoke them. If they react aggressively, they would just give Geert Wilders plenty of ammo for the next couple of years of his anti-Muslim politics. Just consider him as a little kid asking for attention; if you don’t give him any, he will soon move on again…

And besides: unlike what Geert Wilders says, islam is based on a foundation of love:

“Worship Allah and join none with Him (in worship); and do good to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, Al-Masakin (the poor), the neighbour who is near of kin, the neighbour who is a stranger, the companion by your side, the wayfarer (you meet), and those (slaves) whom your right hands possess.” (Quran, 4:36)

and

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (PBUH) said, “By Allah, he is not a believer! By Allah, he is not a believer! By Allah, he is not a believer.” It was asked, “Who is that, O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “One whose neighbour does not feel safe from his evil”.
[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

And if you feel angry: sure… that’s understandable. But instead of rioting and killing, let’s talk, not fight!

“O my Lord! bestow wisdom on me, and join me with the righteous.” (Quran, 26:83)

In the last few weeks, the media has reported about several tax increases that seem to hit the working middle class the worst. They’re only rumours, because the real deal is going to be announced later in September. But if everything’s true, the effects to our household income are are going to be quite staggering. In the coming year I would have to pay an additional:

• More than 500 euros more for my lease car
• 150 euros more on regular products because of VAT (BTW) increase
• and 125 euros extra on flight tickets for family reunification (each ticket is going to have ~25 euros environment tax)

Life is going to be more expensive next year. And do note that in the list above, I didn’t even taken things in account such as the usual ~2% of inflation and increase in health insurance premiums…

I’m really disappointed with the Dutch government. Even if you work hard for it, the government makes sure you’re left with nothing more than someone that doesn’t work for it at all. Hardworking people aren’t motivated to work hard these days, if at all (maybe that’s also why the evening rush already starts at 3pm). These measures, taken in an economy that even needs a bigger and more hardworking work-force, are simply irresponsible.

As for my personal situation, I just hope that the rumours don’t turn into truth. Perhaps I SHOULD move back to Singapore like my wife has asked me so many times, or move to Dubai where professional skills are also in high demand. Life in the Dutch tax-climate just isn’t fair.

I think it was about a month ago that I was trying to watch the movie “Blood Diamond” with Haseenah. Being parents ourself, we eventually couldn’t see all the cruelty that was happening in the movie and half-way shut if off. This was actually the first time that we shut a movie off, even though we’ve went through the entire Saw sequel, Texas chainsaw massacre and all kinds of other bloody movies. The terror and powerlessness of the people and children in that movie was just too much.

Yesterday, I heard that Charles Taylor, one of the leading actors in the real version of the movie, was on trial in The Hague. They moved his trial from Africa to the international court here, and I heard how he found that he didn’t find his trial fair. He supposedly didn’t get enough preparation time and refused to attend. The international community where this trial came from should be ashamed…

I wonder what the “international community” was thinking when they heard about that. Especially those folks that were put to slavery, of which family and friends have been killed, were forced to join the army even though their age was below 10, have been raped, have been looted, had their limbs chopped off… They didn’t have a trial at all!

And the culprit is calling foul… Sad.

Not sure why I’m writing this post. It’s not even really a post, but rather a picture. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in Milan this weekend, that he was sleeping when I got back and was still sleeping when I left this morning.

I miss him.

Recently I’ve come across very good short movies coming through. A movie that I like in particular is ‘Fallen Art’ by the Polish animator Baginski.

Also worth mentioning is Elephants dream by the Orange Open Movie Project , made as and open source project, using open source software only!

Yup, the blog is up again. I’ll try to make some very careful first steps again after some pretty stressful experiences.

Note to self: The corporation vs the individual never ends in favor of the individual…

The name “Jan” is back in the top-20 of popular boys-names in Holland. The most popular boy-names are currently Sem and Daan and most popular girls-names are Sanne and Sophie.