dictatorship n : a form of government in which absolute power is concentrated in a dictator or a small clique; a government organization or group in which absolute power is so concentrated; a despotic state

I was thinking of leaving this country, taking my kids with me and become a dictator somewhere.
I wanted to put my CV up on the message board at http://www.dictatorsforhire.com
but apparently that website has been taken offline. Too bad.
I'll just have to do with getting some inspiration from these guys. Did you know Fidel Castro has only to remain in power for two more years to beat Kim Il Sung as longest reigning dictator?

Originally a dictator was someone assigned by the Roman Senate to clear up their political mess in maximum 6 months time. He was given almost full power for that period. Nowedays they are given a maximum of eight years to clear up the mess left by their predecessor. Sometimes they are told to leave after four years of close to absolute power. Personally I prefer the Roman way. Alas sometimes people take abuse of their given power.
Take Caesar for example. Or Augustus who, as dictator ordered the Senate was nothing more than for show, sort of like the English Royalty. Although England and The Netherlands both claim to be a democracy they are actually a form of dictatorship in the form of a monarchy: a non-chosen person is officially heading the country's politics. At least in the US the dictator is "chosen" by the people. Made possible by several influential bussinessmen, but nonetheless.

Where am I heading with above statements? I have no idea. Cuba, perhaps?

At least I got to spend Christmas-eve with my son and my mother and although I did miss my daughter for christmas, at least I'm not one of the 160,000 dads in this country (on a total population of 16 milion people that is a lot) who don't get to see their kid(s) ever at all.

"Someone or something" dusted marslander Opportunity so it performs as good as in the days it just landed,
according to New Scientist. Can that Martian someone or something please stop by at my place?



It's not only a mess at my place. There's also a mess at Camp Marez in northeren Iraq where today 24 people were killed, presumably by people who are not happy with the American occupation of their country..
The explosion killed soldiers and mercenaries alike. Excuse me: I should say peacekeepers and contractors.
But there's support for their loved ones: Donald Rumsfeld may send them a copy of an earlier written letter of condolance. Now, isn't that heartwarming?

What truly is heartwarming is that my son was extremele happy when he got his green belt in karate, yesterday.
Yesterday we also heard his sister will stay with us for a couple of days next week. But I'm afraid we'll have to miss her with christmas as well as during the New Years Eve-celebrations. At least I still get to see her on occassion as opposed to some 160,000 other dad's in this country with a population of 16 milion. They don't get to see their child(ren) ever, thanks to Dutch law that almost always put the mom in the favoured position after a divorce.
Even a mother that has killed, cut the body up in pieces and spread them around the country, her daughter is not deprived of the right to raise her younger daughter. Her ex and biological father has nothing to say in the matter.
Due to the circumstances I'm in (My schzizofrenic and paranoid ex still has equal parental rights regarding our son and the mother of my daughter can do whatever she likes with her although I am recognized as the biological father) I joined the movement Fathers-4-Justice.

Perhaps the US-government doesn't want its boys to come home from the "conflicts" in Afghanistan, Iraq and all those other countries that don't want America's involment in their matters. 'cause if they do want their soldiers to be safe why not increase the production of armor-plates? ArmorWorks, a company in Arizona that produces body-armor and protective humvee-kits has not yet been asked (let alone ordered) to step up production.
Can someone tell the relatives of the killed and injured why that is?



Last weekend my daughter stayed overnight to make my ex feel better. Let me explain that: last tuesday I was asked to pick up my daughter from school early and take her to work. On my arrival I couldn't help noticing she wasn't there: her mother had "accidentally forgotten" to let me know she had found another solution to the problem of afterschool being closed that day. So to ease her conscience I got to spoil Eva rotten the past weekend. Although it was very hard not to go to far I managed to keep things as normal as possible: saturday we bought two new goldfish to replace the one called Rastaman. The new ones my daughter named "Suske & Wiske": "Bob & Bobette" AND "Spike and Suzy" in English; "Neelsie & Miemsie" in Afrikaans and "Willy & Wanda" in American . Sunday we went to see the motionpicture "Pluk van de Petteflet" after a book by the famous and dead writer of children's books Annie M.G. Schmidt. Highly entertaining. Especially when you're four years old...;-)

As seen here:

Copy this entire list into your blog/journal
BOLD everything about you that is true.
Leave plain anything that is false about you.
Put an * at the end of false statements you would LIKE to be true.

Here we go;

1. I have had sex while wearing a blindfold.
2. I have blindfolded someone else during sex.
3. I have had sex while watching porn.
4. I have had sex while surfing porn on the Internet.
5. I sleep better after sex.
6. There are some nights I cannot sleep without sex or masturbating.
7. The bed is NOT my most favorite place to have sex.
8. I am turned on knowing someone is watching me masturbate.
9. I have masturbated for someone over a web cam.
10. I have had sex over a web cam.
11. I will have sex with someone I just met if they turn me on.
12. I have been tied up during sex.
13. I have had sex with someone who was tied up.
14. I have dripped wax onto a lover's body.
15. I have had a lover drip wax onto my body.
16. I have a foot fetish.
17. I have a leather fetish.
18. I have a tickle fetish.
19. I like being choked during sex.
20. I have had sex in a burning building.
21. I have erotic art on display somewhere in my residence.
22. I enjoy nudie magazines.
23. Erotic toys are a regular part of my budget.
24. I think PLAYBOY is tame, maybe even boring.
25. I click on porn links in my email.
26. I know the difference between girl/girl and lesbian sex in porn.
27. I have watched more than one gay/lesbian porn video.
28. Much of what I know about sex comes from porn.
29. Interracial sex turns me on.
30. I think we should do more to understand the cultures of sex.
31. I would participate in sex research given the opportunity.
32. My current lover does not sufficiently meet my sexual needs.
33. I currently have a "crush" on someone of the same sex.
34. I have had sex at my place of employment.
35. I am often disappointed in my sexual relationships.
36. Some people might describe me as a nymphomaniac.
37. I am difficult to live with if I'm not having sex on a regular basis.
38. I sleep better with someone snuggled up next to me.
39. I have had sex under water.
40. I have had sex in the snow.
41. I am in a polyamorous relationship.
42. I have to have music playing while having sex.
43. I have had more than ten orgasms in one night. (My alltime personal record still stands at nine...)
44. I have flashed strangers.
45. I have given sex as a gift.
46. I have set-up a three-way for my lover.
47. I stopped during this list to have sex.
48. Garrison Steelle turns me on. (I had to look that one up but...no...not my type...)
49. I have fantasies involving Garrison Steelle.
50. I would pose nude for Garrison's camera if he promised to NEVER show them to anyone.

Last saturday my son got invited to be present at the opening of a new movie. The film "Eric of het Klein Insectenboek" was shot after the book by the same title of Dutch (and long dead) author Godfried Bomans.
We stood in front of the theatre when the limousines containing most of cast and crew arrived and the male fruit of my loins managed to get a few autographs. Sunday we scheduled a quiet day as we both felt a bit under the wheather. The weekend before was busy enough with his birthday bash an' all.

Unfortunately, just like last tuesday, we again did not manage to see his sister today as was promised to us by her mom.
Maybe it's time to take some legal steps as I am still her dad as opposed to "the other guy". On top of that our goldfish ("Rastaman") is dying. We took refuge in eating a lot nice things today in an attempt to surpress our true feelings.

In the meantime Ferdinands schizofrenic mother does not visit her son on a regular basis anymore and although I try very hard
to keep his surroundings as normal and stable as possible I find it increasingly harder to pretend nothing is the matter. Shall I continue the farce or take a rigorous measure like taking both my recognized children and ask for political asylum in Cuba?

It's my son's birthday today. Nine years ago he was born at a local hospital. A lot has changed since then: he gained a sister and perhaps even two...His dad switched carier from bookkeeping to childcare;
this country's population has changed its mind dramatically on the subject of camera-suveillance
and the line "Ausweis bitte!" People die by the thousands without those in power doing anything to ease their suffering and people are hardly in the mood to even help their own relatives.
But we won't give in! We will continue to fight for a better world in our own small way. Say goodmorning to the busdriver, help your elderly neighbour with her groceries, write letters to government-officials
and spread the world that it's not only easier but also more helpful to do good than bad. And keep on smiling although this world keeps being battered by hurricanes, earthquakes and unwilling politicians.
Help make this world a better place and enjoy life to the fullest!
(And probably die trying, but that's not the point)

Me and my kids had tuns of fun the past weekend: we went to see the arrival of Saint Nicholas or "Sinterklaas"
as the good man is known in this country. Protector of Amsterdam merchants and friend to all children, this long dead bishop is still celebrated.
Afterwards we treated ourselves to a sauna-visit. As it so happened neighbour Angélique works there as a volunteer. At first it felt a bit odd walking around in the nude in front of your neighbour but then again, as insiders know, more of my friendly female neighbours have seen me naked...;-)
One of them is no longer a neighbour: neighbour Miriam is from now on: Miriam, the mother of my daughter(s).
Last sunday they moved so from now on I will have to make an appointment whenever I want to see my daughter Eva.
I brought her to school yesterday and the last image I have of her in my head is that of a 4-year old with trembling underlip whispering "I love you daddy..."
One of the present mothers asked me if her daughter could send mine a card and wanted to have the new address.
I had to tell her to ask my ex since I was unfamiliar with the requested data...

On a lighter note: Why do you think the American supreme command refuses the Red Cross to enter the once proud city of Falluja? The image of the US-marine executing an already severely wounded and unarmed Iraqi in a Mosque might help to answer that question. Well, Colin Powell can't be held responsible for the malfunction of The American System ("Let's roll in with all our tanks and then all the citizens wiil cheer and form a Democratic Nation all by themselves!"). From today on poor Condoleeza Rice holds the position of scapegoat
as being "the first black woman" to be Secretary of State. Luckily there are rules to play the game of war.
Does miss Rice have the rulebook and what will she do when a player cheats?
Go tell mommy? If Schwarzenegger had been given her position would the media talk about "The first white male former bodybuilder"? I dont't think so. But then again: I might be mistaken.

If you have trouble accessing the presidential website
GeorgeWbush.com try typing http://65.172.163.222/

For those still interested: Here's the American Presdent's resume.


Is George Junior's re-election enough reason to end you own life? A 25-year old lab-assistant from Georgia apparently reasoned it is: he shot himself through the head in New York, behind the fences at Ground Zero.


So it had to come this far: people are so unhappy wtih their government that they prefer to kill themselves.
And was George Junior really re-elected? You can start doubting that fact when you take a look at all the unragularities that took place during the elections. The most notorious one for me being the fact that in a district in Ohio a bit over 300 people showed up to vote and more than 4000 of them voted for George Junior.
That's really clever. However, if you take in consideration that of the four companies producing the ballot-machines three are in the hands of the Bush-family or direct friends then only one question remains:
why do the American people just sit back and let this all happen?


Then again: in our own small part of the world Theo van Gogh, a filmmaker and collumnist who enjoyed kicking people against the shins, whatever their race or preference, was brutally murdered by a muslim-extremist who apparently protested agains van Gogh's anti-muslim films and collumns..
So, the "whole" nation turned against Islam, extreme right wins votes in parliament and Islamic schools are being blown up. I wonder what would have happened if van Gogh's murderer had been a vegetarian Swede who protested agains van Gogh's overwhelming love for pig-meat?


I hold on to memories: I remember our Rocky Horror-Halloween-performance a week ago. And I remember the fun we had in the pool yesterday when my daughter exclaimed: "Look, daddy, there's a really big bubble in the jakuzi! O, no, it's my brother!"

Which one of the two Bonesmen, Bush or Kerry, can call himself "strongest man in the world" for the next four years? And will it matter? Will it matter for the people in Darfur, Birma or Iraq? Will it matter for the people that suffer from the American boycot in Cuba, for the people who are illegaly detained in Guantanama Bay-prison?
All we can do is find out if the two candidates mean what they said in the past few months or they just uttered some hollow words to attract votes...


My son wasn't feeling to well last week so he stayed at my moms for a few days. This past weekend I celebrated Halloween on the stage of the theatre where I experienced my first ever steps in the world of acting;
It was The Rocky Horror Picture Show back then as it was last saturday...Back to my roots!

It's not that I don't think of my non-Dutch readers. It's just that for the past two weeks there were other priorities.
Like studying. You see: the sooner I graduate, the sooner I will receive a pay-rise...;-)
On top of that our weekends were fully booked. Last weekend both my recognized children and their father went to the town of Valkenburg where we visited some ancient caves and castle ruins. Eva goes to school since she turned four recently so I had to pick her up from there. It was particularly exciting because she goes to school on the other side of town near to where she will soon be living with her sister, their mom and the latter's boyfriend. The schoolbuilding happens to be in the same street as where I used to live with my first ever girlfriend. I was young, at the time. And she was even younger...

This weekend my son and I first went to Velsen-Zuid, near the coastline, to play Trivial Pursuit with a bunch of people, including some castmembers of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The following morning we went to
Spijkenisse to see my godchild and his mother. Because we were there anyway we decided to meet up with our friend Daniëlle, who also happens to live in this town near Rotterdam.
The sunday-evening cardclub was cancelled and when the first visitor for the evening arrived Ferdinand was already fast asleep. So he mist his natural mother, neighbour Johanna and he missed neighbour Angélique who came down with a belated birthday-present for yours truly.

Cinnamon Girl is the latest video by the-artist-formerly-known-as-Prince-who-turned-himself-into-a-symbol-
and-became-a-Jehova's-Witness.
It tells of an Arab girl who doesn't look it that feels forced by circumstances beyond her control to blow herself up at the airport. The clip suggest it might all be a dream but is it really?
Has Prince made political statements before? I can't seem to remember...

It just might be possible for a non-born American te become President of the United States of America. Just in time for Arnold Schwarzenegger
to follow George Junior in his footsteps, since his brother Jeb won't be able to do so because of some controverse that will be found out about around the year 2007. The script-writers of Demolition Man might have thought it was a good joke when they let Sandra Bullock's character offer Sylvester Stallone's character a visit to the President Schwarzenegger Library. Perhaps they had a little inside-information. Who knows?
And why shouldn't citizens be able to choose naturalized people as their president? After all: of the first ten American presidents only two where born on American soil...;-)

In Demand, the US's leading pay-per-view channel, is scared. Scared of the people who pressurised them into not transmitting Fahrenheit 9/11. Like many others they don't have the guts to stand up to the Bush-family and their friends. I wonder why...

Bush or Kerry?
You decide...

For those who are not elligible to vote in the upcoming presidential elections (because they are not American citizens for example) here's a chance to make your vote count:
Globalvote.

Before I rattle on about war not being the solution to "terrorism",
"communism", "drugs", "homosexuals", "muslims" and other subversive
elements in society and America not being the greatest nation in the
world (no nation is, really but...hush...don't tell the liberals!) and
the Bush family not being the best thing that ever happened to mankind,
I think you should read what "the other site" has to say:

So. Now that you've had your laugh you can read on.

Here's a nice article on takedown (in PDF-format). Apparently seven in
ten Dutch hosting providers remove a website after one single complaint
coming from a Hotmail-address without checking the contents of the site
or checking if the plaintive (or the complaint for that matter!) is
legitimate.

According to Donald Rumsfeld there's no relation between Saddam Hussein
and Al-Qaida. According to Dick Cheney there is. Conclusion: one of the
two must be lying but which one? And does it matter? 'cause Now in
either case that might be proven, the Bush administration can always
say "Told'ya so!" whilst "the other person" just "happens" to be on
Kerry's payroll...
You can forget what I've just stated when you firmly believe I'm just
being paranoid. Which just might be the case. If I really am, I can't
be the judge of that. Unless I'm also suffering from MPS of course...;-)

Saturday my son and I were part of the third largest demonstration ever
held in the Netherlands: a quarter of a milion people marched against
the government plans: Cutbacks on education, health and pension. On the
other hand they spend bilions on a new bomber nobody needs (except for
the people building the d*mn thing) and a new trainrail-connection
no-one except for the contractors (who quite often happen to
coincidentally be (friends or relatives of) members of parliament).
It was good to have been there although the government has already let
the people know they they will go ahead with favouring themselves and
their friends. There's only one group of people in the country that
will have more to spend next year: House-owners that have paid off
their mortgage. In other words: most members of our government.
Now there's a coincidence. Right?

After the demonstration we ordered a new matras for my son and had a
couple of beers with my best friend at my place. Served by Ferdinand
who has become a big fan of the home draft-machine. Quite a few people
have one now: it's a lot cheaper than getting a beer at a cafe which is
about 2 euro's for half a pint. (Almost 2 dollars or a pound thirty)
Sunday Fer's mother came by for the use of her visiting right; my
mother came over and my son went to the sauna for the first time in his
life. It was made a little easier because neighbour Angélique now works
there as a volunteer. All cleaned up we went over to neighbour Miriam's
place to celebrate my daughter's birthday. Although officially she
would be four on monday, it was decided to have the party the previous
sunday. Tuesday marked the official very first day of school for my son's sister.
I'm told she loves it...

Searchrequest:
2004 email contacts of rich people in germany

Videoclip:
Pentagon

Of course you've heard about a radical change of opinion before.
With the upcoming elections the presidential script-writers have come up
with a new name for them: Flip-Flops. Naturally George Junior accuses
John Kerry of having Flip-Flops (And rightfully so, I may ad).
To equalize their chances here's the Top Ten of Bush's flip-flops.
Enjoy.

Winning in Florida a problem for George Junior?
Not as long as brother Jeb runs that state and Glenda Hood is in charge
of the election-procedure. Read the full story here.
Former president Carter's recommandations are not met for reasons
unknown to all citizens occupying this part of the known galaxy.

Some idiot fires a granate from a house and the Israeli's decide not to
go looking for the one who did it but simply flatten the whole area,
leaving fourty families homeless. What does that remind you of? I
immediately had to think of the once so popular zippo-raids:"Somewhere
in this village there's a spy hiding but where? Oh, nevermind, just
kill every villager and you're sure to kill the spy as well. End of
problem." Au contraire, mon ami. It's only a new beginning since a
bunch of people will be extremley ticked off by the fact that a lot of innocent
people have been killed in the proces and will start planning
"terrorist" attacks. Of course, decent law-abiding folk would never do
that. They would write a letter of complaint. Just like you, right?

Let's imagine you live in a nice suburb just outside Chicago and your
neighbour runs amok. The government troops, after a 12 minute search,
decide they can't find him and simply bulldozer down his house, along
with some fourty others, including yours. Naturally you won't blame
them, let alone sue them or get angry. You would sent a letter of
recommendation to their superiors for a job well done. Right?

I don't think so...

A good thing the men executing the 9/11 attacks on the US carried Saudi
passports. (I never understood why Saudi passports are fireproof and
those of other nations are not but that's an other issue). Should they
have had the Cuban nationality helicopter-companies would be making a
lot of money with tourists circeling over "The Curator": the crater
formerly known as Cuba or Cuban Crater.

The world is better of without Sadam Hussein. That's not what they said
in the eighties when they send Donald Rumsfeld over to meet with Sadam
Hussein, ask him not to deploy chemical weapons and offered him support
in his war with Iran in trade for oil-consessions. Why doesn't
anyone seem to remember that?

You tell me.
I'm sorry to have stated all of the above. Or let me rephrase that:
I'm sorry it needs to be done. I'd much rather tel youl about my wonderful kids,
family and friends, colleagues and neighbours. Then again: you might want to read my Dutch weblog should you be interested in my personal life. It is written in Dutch, though...;-)

Yom Kipur, A celebration of forgiveness.

Read what Danya says about it.


On Yom Kipur you ask people for forgiveness for all your wrongdoings. Sort of like saying your Hail Mary's
for Catholics. Unfortunately some people think they can get away with everything as long as they ask for forgiveness afterwards. Not so. You commit a sin, ask to be forgiven and promise not to do it again.
Yhat's the whole point: DO NOT DO IT AGAIN!


That's also the goal Emmanuel Goldstein would like to reach: for the powers that be not to arrest people
who simply use their right to demonstrate. On august 31st. he and some 1200 other protesters got arrested in New York for protesting. Officially they were blocking the curb, an act which is obviously illegal. Here's his story. A similar thing happened on the Eurotop 2001 in Sweden: Dutch activist Maarten Blok got arrested for "planning to cause trouble". Dutch minister of Justice, Piet Hein Donner, thought the Swedish police had a good case against Maarten and put him on the plane to Sweden. Although video-footage as well as witness-testimonies showed he was innocent Maarten still had to stand trial. Today the news came he is officially innocent and will not be prosecuted any further. But damage is done. Not only Maarten and Emmanuel but all people who value freedom are now afraid to express their freedom of speech and use their right to demonstrate.


The powers that be seem to have won this battle. But the war isn't over yet...



On a lighter note, now: it's obvious summer has stepped aside to make place for autumn.
The heater is burning and both me and my son are caught by a flue-virus.
It better be over by tomorrow since there's a performance planned of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Look here and here for pictures of our last performance.

I know I'm a bit late with this entry but let's just say I had other priorities..



First, of course, there was a show we did on friday. Here's the address for some more info on that:
http://www.rockyhorror.nl/english/

The Rocky Horror Picture Show has a wide following all over the world. There's even a shadowcast in Israel!
Of course I already knew that but not until I saw the Israelian "Janet" it became more than a thought.

It was my birthday last tuesday and the kids at work and my colleague spoiled me rotten and I didn't feel really comfortable
sitting in a dressed up chair with over a dozen children chanting for me...brrrr...I'd much rather address 30,000 people in a speech at a major dance-event like I did here.


At the start of this weekend I invited a few people to see me get drunk because I just made an extra move, moving towards "the big four o". A few of them stayed for the night ("or maybe a bite") to enjoy the aftermath of the next morning. I already had told her mom that I would pick up my daughter an hour later than usual. So now I'm thoroughly enjoying a quiet weekend with my kids. A whole weekend without "have to's". Great!



Although there's a lot going about in the world, in the world I call "home" all is well...

find 2004 email guestbook of multinational company in germany.

For what reason would anyone type in above searchrequest? All this effort to commit fraude...sometimes you'd think getting a regular job is less hard work!





Remember how everybody spoke with disgust when they talked about how that mean system called communism, especially under Stalin, did everything to control the people and that it was bad to have the government check everything you do and therefore communism is a bad thing? Well, in the America of today the situation has gone out of cntrol so badly that Joseph Wisarionowitschj Djugasjwili would wet himself laughing reading about the ongoing debate stating that Americans in this day and age find it a good thing that they have lost very right to privacy.
>br>

Arnold Schwarzenegger was like really really little (minus two years old) when negotiations started concerning the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Austria but amazingly enough he remembers seeing the tanks in the streets.
"Communism at work" he calls it. Unfortunately he forgets to tell why they were there. Does anyone remember? I bet Arnie's late dad did. Did you know around 70 percent of the Austrian population has nazi-sympathies?
So I guess his father was not the only one who thought Adolf H. was one of the good guys.




Top ten farces of the Bush administration.



And don't forget to check out this hilarious video.



After a very nice working-week and looking after neigbour Miriam's three cats as a result of which I had to call in sick since I got a bad reaction due to my cat-allergy, tonight a performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show is scheduled. On the deck of a ship this time...

The past week Penack Silat-classes started again, so my painfull muscles tell me..





Just came back from a visit. Neighbour Miriam, her boyfriend and her daughters will spend the coming week at a very nice camping-site. The weather-forcast looks good so I bet they'll have fun.


I will most likely have fun at a bachelor party tonight where I'm asked to play a little joke on the owner of ID&T,
an events-organizer of some of the biggest parties in this country.

I also received an invitation to a company-party organized for employees of the foundation I work for
but I don't get payed for that one so I made the obvious choice....;-)




.
Free Bobby!



Bobby Fischer got arrested for a crime he committed in 1992.
Did he rob a bank? Did he kill someone?
Nope. He played a game of chess.
He what? He played a game of chess.
Because he and his opponent, Boris Spassky, happened to be in (former) Yugoslavia

at the time of their encounter
mr. Fisher broke the law.
Playing chess in Yugoslavia is against the law?
Well, it was in 1992.
As was anything an American citizen would do that involved contact with Yugoslavia.

I think it's funny to know that I have no difficulty speaking for

30,000 people at a major dance-event called Mysteryland 2004.
But I do, however, find it very hard to speak one simple line
to a young lady I have taken fancy in. Half an hour after I had

delivered the message (A letter in which I had put down 6 options of

thing we could do together, a dice, my phonenumber and the question

"Wil you decide for me?) I was still shaking.


Danny Glover speaks up for an end to the violence in Darfur, a Sudan

provence. Good going, you'd say. The American Secret Services think

otherwise and arrests the well-known actor for disorderly conduct
and unlawful assembly. Go figure!





If you happen to like Sc-Fi you should (or probably already have)
check out the list, published by The Guardian. It states Blade Runner

as the best Science Fiction Movie ever made.


O, and for those who'd like to read a report about our recent holiday:
please learn Dutch, or use an online tranlator to read this pot.

Paris was fun.




And so is the "Vote for change"-tour.

Who gives a better salute: Bush or Kerry?










United States Grammar School Interim Report to Parents








George Junior recently said at the signing of a new defense-law:
"(Our enemies) never stop thinking of new ways to harm our country and
our people. And neither do we."





No one from his staff or from the gathered press responded.
My native tongue is not English. Neither is theirs. But is that an
excuse? I don't think so...






The past week Ferdinand stayed at his gran's, giving me the opportunity
to paint a wall, fix the bathroom light and hang up a few mirrors and paintings.
Still tired from last night when our cast performed the Rocky Horror Picture show in Utrecht
where I also suffered an injury. A black eye I can survive...
From tomorrow on I will escape the business as usual by taking my son
on a weeks trip to Paris where we will be actually living in the appartment of a friend of mine.
So "Goodbye to all of this" and "Hello, to Paris". Having said goodbye to quite a few different neighbours
it's time to say "goodnight" as the alarmclock goes at five in the morning..






A bien tot! .

A week with my son. One can do a lot worse!
We spent it with a visit to the gardencentre where we got some new plants for our "garden" of two by two metres. We went to the English expat-shop where we found out they had run out of Jawbreakers but fortunately still had a stock of Polo, the mint with the hole.
We also went to the pool with neighbour Miriam and her two daughters: Eva and Dayna and went to see my friend Sharon and her kids who basically live on the other side of town.
Visits to Ikea and a DIY-store were also part of our Father And Son week; We went to the movies to see Shrek 2 as well as Thunderbirds
(Not on the same day mind you);
We went to the Vondelpark with our friend Daniëlle where we noticed fashion requires that skirts should be shorter than last year and shirts should be tighter.


Perhaps not as tight as security-measures surrounding "important"
American targets or as tight as the "no press-cordon" around Guantanamo Bay but still. Speaking of the prison camp on Cuban (...) territory:
The three Brits that have been released earlier in a report speak of mistreatment of prisoners by American soldiers. A spokesman for the US military surprisingly enough denies all allegations.

The US-military is holding 50.000 prisoners overseas.
It is a proven fact that "only" 94 of them have been tortured
by American soldiers and a mere 20 have died as a consequence.
So why the alligations?


I tell you why: suppose I walk into a town of 50,000 inhabitants with a

loaded automatic gun
and hurt 94 people of which 20 die is that okay because
there's still more people I didn't kill?
Of course not!
So why is it okay for American soldiers to do so and aren't they

prosecuted?

Your turn to tell me why.


And do you dare to unlabel? Than here's the website for you:
Unlabeled. The people behind it collect the labels from designer-clothing.
You can join too, proving you don't care about the name but about the quality;
that you want to wear it because you want to wear it and not because some magazine
tells you it's the "Hip" thing to do.

Just an anecdote from work:
The little girl feels sorry for animals but loves to eat sausages
and ham-sandwiches. Until I told her about the ingredients that is...



Today was the last day before my three week summer-leave.
I will start it with sleeping in, tomorrow.
My son, who has just returned from five days at the beach with a mate of his,
is staying at my moms for the night. Tomorrow I will collect him and take him to the movies.
Will he enjoy Fahrenheit 9/11? Or is taking him to see Shrek 2 a better plan?

Support a group of people that want an honest presidential election
where a recount is possible as well as a way for the voter to check
his or her vote by having the ballot-machine print out a slip with the
name of the candidate on it. Take in consideration that three of the
four companies producing the ballot-machines are controled by the
Bush-family and predict the outcome of the elections. Good luck!

Fahrenheit 9/11 is raising questions and is one-sided.
Well, just about 90 percent of all American media is one-sided.
Is that a good or a bad thing?

'xscuse me!?
2004 email guestbook of terrorists

Above searchrequest came all the way from Ivory Coast.
I think this is one of the ways for the people using the Nigerian
scam-letter trick to get rich. What do you think?

Will George Junior win the elections?

What elections? There will be another "terrorist"-attack

and the state of emergency will be declared and elections

will be postponed until the situation is "safe" which will be never.

This is my prediction. What is yours?




In the States at the moment is neighbour Angélique.

Through modern techniques, known as "e-mail"

she send me a hilarious link. It's called The Sloganator. Although I wouldn'say George Junior and Dick Cheney

would find this very amusing. They probably can't even laugh about the jokes in

"Are you being served". Especially the ones about Mrs. Slocombe and her bleedin' pussy..

(For those of you who need to be told: that was a joke...).




If you'd like to know what my son and I have been up to the past week, just let me know...




Catch'ya later, dudes'n dudettes!

Searchrequest:


2004 email contacts and guestbook of all private companies and their insurance in new zealand



Saturday
I dropped my son off at my moms so I could make a start cleaning out for the coming of the new wardrobe-closet next week. Luckily a fleemarket-visit is planned for sunday.
Earlier that day Ferdinand and I went kiting with friends of ours (Marcel, Lenneke and their kids: Erin and Lyanne) at IJburg, Amsterdam's latest win on the sea.

Sunday
a friend on mine, Bas and I shared a table at a big fleemarket where my net profit existed of 46,08 euro's. Neighbour Angélique left for the States for two weeks (A gift to herself for getting her Bachelor status), giving me a bit of rest...

Monday
in the morning I did six miles on the hometrainer at the fysiotherapists and kids at work plucked me flowers. Sweet, eh?

Tuesday
the kids at work re-invented limbo-dancing with colleague Marieke and Ferdinand was happy to receive a European Soccer Championship 2004 game, courtesy of the local supermarket.

Wednesday
I took my chance to give the bedroom a paintjob since my son was staying at a friends: Samer.

Thursday
it was the end-of term drink at work where more parents showed up then was anticipated with the buying of wine. There was just enough for half a bottle per parent. And then there was this crate of beer as well...My mate Erwin came by to help my finish a crate that was still there since the Rocky Horror BBQ.

Friday
it was the last schoolday for a good many kids, including mine.

SpaceShipOne

made history as being the first privately financed craft to make it into outer space. Well, as far as we know that is.



Saturday me and my kids, Eva and Ferdinand had a good few hours of fun for ourselves before my house and garden were crawling with castmembers from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. They came to barbecue and watch football.

Sunday it was once again time to rehearse for the show. We've put in a few extra's so if you'd ever get a chance to come and see it...In the evening neighbours Debbie, Billy, Petra, Miriam, Dudo and Jafaar helped me to settle down after a little clash with some guy from my block. Neighbour Debbie got me out of my mental state by yelling:"Ter, don't hit him! He's not worth it!"
From inside I couldn't help laughing since I only then realized the man physically threatening me was a whole lot bigger than I am...;-)


Monday Ferdinand joined me for work and his gran fixed us dinner. Later that day I joined neighbour Miriam (who also happens to be the mother of my daughter(s) for a glass of wine and thus I was the first to congratulate her on her birthday.

Tuesday I passed the tests on fireprevention and reanimation with zero mistakes! My son gave Eva, her sister Dayna and their mom, neighbour Miriam a bracelet made out of so called Scouby Dou-string. Neighbour Angélique showed me her new Bikini
and friend Daniëlle came to spend the night while earlier that evening neighbour Johanna had come by to see our son while I was at his school to receive his report: he has officially passed his class and is now over to group five!

Wednesday was a really quiet day at work since most kids attended a sport-event and therefor had skipped going to afterschool. In the evening my son and I watched Holland being kicked out the European Championships Football.

Thursday I had planned to rejoin my Pencak Silat group but after a visit to the fysiotherapist decided different. I had left my keys at work but luckily I met neigbour Angélique's guests Dana and Dale, knowing she has spare keys to my appartment.
Lucky me, for my son had accidently left his keys at school. I found him wondering around in the community-garden where a friendly neighbour had left him in. From another neighbour's home he left a message for me on the answerphone.

Friday Marlon Brando, "The greatest actor in the world" left this planet in his physical form and soon when I came home from work neighbour Angélique and her two friends paid us a visit and after they had gone I made a start in sorting out a pile of photographs...

Right when everyone is sitting back, basking in the glory of UNSC's
'historic agreement' on transfer of "sovereignty" in Iraq, Naomi Klein
writing in the Guardian, brings us a timely reminder of the real
situation.





The multibillion robbery the US calls reconstruction


Naomi Klein

Saturday June 26, 2004

The Guardian



Good news out of Baghdad: the Program Management Office, which oversees
the $18.4bn in US reconstruction funds, has finally set a goal it can
meet. Sure, electricity is below pre-war levels, the streets are rivers of
sewage and more Iraqis have been fired than hired. But now the PMO has
contracted the British mercenary firm Aegis to protect its employees from
"assassination, kidnapping, injury and" - get this - "embarrassment". I
don't know if Aegis will succeed in protecting PMO employees from violent
attack, but embarrassment? I'd say mission already accomplished. The
people in charge of rebuilding Iraq can't be embarrassed, because,
clearly, they have no shame.

In the run-up to the June 30 underhand (sorry, I can't bring myself to
call it a "handover"), US occupation powers have been unabashed in their
efforts to steal money that is supposed to aid a war-ravaged people. The
state department has taken $184m earmarked for drinking water projects and
moved it to the budget for the lavish new US embassy in Saddam Hussein's
former palace. Short of $1bn for the embassy, Richard Armitage, the deputy
secretary of state, said he might have to "rob from Peter in my fiefdom to
pay Paul". In fact, he is robbing Iraq's people, who, according to a
recent study by the consumer group Public Citizen, are facing "massive
outbreaks of cholera, diarrhoea, nausea and kidney stones" from drinking
contaminated water.


If the occupation chief Paul Bremer and his staff were capable of
embarrassment, they might be a little sheepish about having spent only
$3.2bn of the $18.4bn Congress allotted - the reason the reconstruction is
so disastrously behind schedule. At first, Bremer said the money would be
spent by the time Iraq was sovereign, but apparently someone had a better
idea: parcel it out over five years so Ambassador John Negroponte can use
it as leverage. With $15bn outstanding, how likely are Iraq's politicians
to refuse US demands for military bases and economic "reforms"?

Unwilling to let go of their own money, the shameless ones have had no
qualms about dipping into funds belonging to Iraqis. After losing the
fight to keep control of Iraq's oil money after the underhand, occupation
authorities grabbed $2.5bn of those revenues and are now spending the
money on projects that are supposedly already covered by American tax
dollars.

But then, if financial scandals made you blush, the entire reconstruction
of Iraq would be pretty mortifying. From the start, its architects
rejected the idea that it should be a New Deal-style public works project
for Iraqis to reclaim their country. Instead, it was treated as an
ideological experiment in privatisation. The dream was for multinational
firms, mostly from the US, to swoop in and dazzle the Iraqis with their
speed and efficiency.

Iraqis saw something else: desperately needed jobs going to Americans,
Europeans and south Asians; roads crowded with trucks shipping in supplies
produced in foreign plants, while Iraqi factories were not even supplied
with emergency generators. As a result, the reconstruction was seen not as
a recovery from war but as an extension of the occupation, a foreign
invasion of a different sort. And so, as the resistance grew, the
reconstruction itself became a prime target.


The contractors have responded by behaving even more like an invading
army, building elaborate fortresses in the green zone - the walled-in city
within a city that houses the occupation authority in Baghdad - and
surrounding themselves with mercenaries. And being hated is expensive.
According to the latest estimates, security costs are eating up 25% of
reconstruction contracts - money not being spent on hospitals,
water-treatment plants or telephone exchanges.

Meanwhile, insurance brokers selling sudden-death policies to contractors
in Iraq have doubled their premiums, with insurance costs reaching 30% of
payroll. That means many companies are spending half their budgets arming
and insuring themselves against the people they are supposedly in Iraq to
help. And, according to Charles Adwan of Transparency International,
quoted on US National Public Radio's Marketplace programme, "at least 20%
of US spending in Iraq is lost to corruption". How much is actually left
over for reconstruction? Don't do the maths.

Rather than models of speed and efficiency, the contractors look more like
overcharging, underperforming, lumbering beasts, barely able to move for
fear of the hatred they have helped generate. The problem goes well beyond
the latest reports of Halliburton drivers abandoning $85,000 trucks on the
road because they don't carry spare tyres. Private contractors are also
accused of playing leadership roles in the torture of prisoners at Abu
Ghraib. A landmark class-action lawsuit filed by the Centre for
Constitutional Rights alleges that Titan Corporation and CACI
International conspired to "humiliate, torture and abuse persons" in order
to increase demand for their "interrogation services".

And then there's Aegis, the company being paid $293m to save the PMO from
embarrassment. It turns out that Aegis's CEO, Tim Spicer, has a bit of an
embarrassing past himself. In the 90s, he helped to put down rebels and
stage a military coup in Papua New Guinea, as well as hatching a plan to
break an arms embargo in Sierra Leone.

If Iraq's occupiers were capable of feeling shame, they might have
responded by imposing tough new regulations. Instead, Senate Republicans
have just defeated an attempt to bar private contractors from
interrogating prisoners and also voted down a proposal to impose stiffer
penalties on contractors who overcharge. Meanwhile, the White House is
also trying to get immunity from prosecution for US contractors in Iraq
and has requested the exemption from the new prime minister, Iyad Allawi.

It seems likely that Allawi will agree, since he is, after all, a kind of
US contractor himself. A former CIA spy, he is already threatening to
declare martial law, while his defence minister says of resistance
fighters: "We will cut off their hands, and we will behead them." In a
final feat of outsourcing, Iraqi governance has been subcontracted to even
more brutal surrogates. Is this embarrassing, after an invasion to
overthrow a dictatorship? Not at all; this is what the occupiers call
"sovereignty". The Aegis guys can relax - embarrassment is not going to be
an issue.


A version of this article first appeared in the Nation


www.nologo.org

Fahrenheit 9/11 is a smash hit and may even cost George Junior the presidency! Micheal Moore thanks the people who oppose his criticism such as the Disney Studios who wouldn 't distribute the film because it's "politically sensitive"; a group of conservatives that tried everything in their power to hide the film for voters...er...American citizen's eyes and the people who gave the fim an "R"-rating. Thanks to them Fahrenheit 9/11 is the first documentary ever in American film-history to take the number one spot in most seen film in its opening-weekend. Thank you, criticasters! Overhere we won't be able to see it before the 22th.




Had a great weekend with my kids, a barbecue with the Rocky Horror Cast and watching football/soccer. And Holland won! So they made it to the semi-finals and will meet the organising team of Portugal.

And as a final word for today: please be careful whom you mess with 'cause some idiot tried to mess with me yesterday and got himself arrested in the proces.

It gets weirder and weirder. Is someone out there collecting e-mail

addresses?

email guestbook for gains in world


email guestbook of world terrorists




From january first 2005 on The Netherlands will officially have become

a police state:
Police may already search you if they find a "probabal cause".
The secretary of justice refuses to elaborate on the term.
You will need to be able to show an id on demand. Mind you: you are not

obliged to carry one but if you can't show one on demand
you may be fined a maximum of 2250 euro's of face a two week jail

sentence. All this for no reason at all. Basically they can now pick up and deport all homeless people and harass every single law abiding citizen.
I don't think this government measure will prevent terrorists from blowing up the Amsterdam WTC for instance. Carrying legal documents didn't keep the 9/11 terrorists from executing their terrible plan, did it? As a matter of fact: if they didn't have valid passports they would have been stopped before they entered their respective planes...


And will a child molester not perform his (or her!) deed when obligated to carry an id?


I don't think so. Do you?


"Knowing someone's name gives the people a sense of security",
so the government claims.

Well, the guy flying a plane into your kids school tomorrow is called John Wayne. Will you now sleep better tonight?



After a very nice weekend with both my legal children I watched the football-match Holland-Germany on monday together with my son as part of his upbringing. I must be doing something wrong 'cause he said:"Dad, I don't care who wins because I am happy when Holland wins and my best friend is German so he will be happy when Germany wins and then I will be happy for him..."


My knee is getting better on a daily basis and I got the green light for doing my Pilates Groundcontrol exercises again.

I just don't understand these searches:

2004 email contacts of Zutphen

guestbook of tea in iran

Can someone explain them to me, please?




The trailer of Michael Moore's new film "fahrenheit 911" has just been released on the internet. I for one would not be surprised if the things hes says and writes will lead up to a small "accident"resolving in mr. Moore's untimely demise...






The UN-resolution concerning Iraq states there will come an end to the occupation of the country. What occupation? The country is not occupied, is it? Or have we been lied to all this time? Something I can't really imagine. Why would any government lie to its subjects?
It's totally unheard of!



After three weeks last monday I started working again. The only real difficulty were the stairs but otherwise it went just fine. Fysiotherapy is really working and I know that within a few weeks I can use my leg's full potential once more.

For "personal reasons" George Tenet and James Pavitt (successor to Jack Downing) stepped down.
They no longer form the top of one of the worlds well known cover-up...er...intelligence agencies: the CIA. There resignation has nothing to do with the coming of a report from the Senate intelligence committee which states that the CIA, and in particular above mentioned gentlemen, have blundered and even lied concerning the 9/11 attacks ("there is no reason to fear a terrorist attack")and the Iraqi conflict ("We have proof Saddam owns weapons of mass destruction").


In a few weeks Dutch Power will be given to the jackals of the free market. For our energy we will be depending on people whose sole purpose in life is to make more money than anybody else. Great.
Remember California where above scenario lead to massive power failure? That's what awaits us...



This coming monday I will be going back to work and really looking forward to it. Except for those stairs that is...The fysiotherapist
yesterday told me that apparently I've been using the wrong muscles to walk. Because of a moped-accident at age seventeen after which I basically used some back-muscles to avoid the pain in my leg. Today she wil give me some exercises that should help me to walk properly again.

Did you know Yvonne Keeley, sister of worldfamous Patricia Paay who is married to Adam Curry, once was involved with Steve Harley?
You know, as in "Ccokney Rebel feat.....".
Incredible isn't it? Not as incredible as the release of Mordechai Vanunu who was sentenced to prison for telling the world through Britsh reporter for the Sunday Times Peter Hounam that Israel
has weapons of mass destruction. In this case the atombomb. The Israelian government still won't admit they have an arsenal of nucleair weaponry. I wonder why?


I'm guessing a lot of people are wondering why Andy Kaufman chose to "resurrect" exactly twenty years after he apparently staged his own death. Is this another of his pranks or is this soem stunt from the actor who played Kaufman in 1999, Jim Carrey? Time will tell.
Or will Andy?


Still couldn't do a lot the past week due to my bad knee but believe me if I tell you I've been looked after well by my son, my mom and a bunch of friendly female neighbours...;-)

According to this story

the iraqy people have good reason to be mad at the people occupying their land. According to the American military all eyewitnesses are lying and the video-footage of the party is fake.
Tell that to the 25 dead women and children that got killed at the weddingparty.
Why are they being so thickheaded?
Do they honestly believe themselves if no one else is?
Yankees go home!
Please?
Just don't vote for the Bush-family anymore and perhaps things will change for the better...Okay?



Because I was ordered to stay home I did a few things in and around the house. You know: put up a few shelves'n stuff.
Ferdinand has been a great help and so has my mom. My daughter Eva
came to see me on regular intervals and lots of friendly female neighbours helped me out with the odd shopping and other things that keep a household going.

The coalition forces will leave Iraq should the interim-government
so wish. Hah! There ìs no interim-government nor is it likely there ever will be. Should there ever be one, it will be installed by the American forces with a personal friend of the Bush family leading the new gang. Fingers up: who thinks this so called "government" will ask the "peacekeepers" ever to leave?


While Nick Berg's loved ones still mourn a Dutch soldier is being buried today after he got killed in the Iraqi conflict. He gets all the honours for having died "in the line of duty". Now I wonder: if a window cleaner falls off his ladder and dies will he receive the same treatment. If not: why not?



My son and I had a pretty good week: he went to the zoo with his class, played an afternoon in the park with his best friend, received more compliments from his karate-teacher. And me? I got to hold Emily, new born daughter of my colleague Jennifer who is still on pregnancy leave. Speaking of leave: I have no choice but to be on sickleave since I work on the third floor of a building that has no elevator. Apparently something went wrong during last Pencak Silat class with my left leg which had already been playing up for weeks but now it looks a bit more serious: apparently a cross tie
is severed and I need to rest the leg "for a couple of weeks".
Fat chance! Highly annoying, that is...
However it does give me the chance to catch up on my studie and reading. Still about 35 books on the shelves I haven't read yet...

Nicholas "Nick" Berg from Philadelphia has been decaptivated. What does it take before American forces are withdrawn? Until a poll shows it's more rewarding for the Bush family? Until most Americans think it's a good idea to occupy Iraq the troops will stay. Simply because "most Americans" stands for "most voters"...

The beheaded American volunteer "lived for adventure". And he died for it too. Between the lines you can read that Berg was an electronics expert and as such was stationed in Iraq to help America win the "conflict", once known as "war" but under the Bush administration Newspeak has taken on a new form. "Mercenary's" are now called "volunteers" or "contractors". Fact is that they get hired to kill people and occassionaly they themselves get killed.
However awful it may be for their loved ones it comes with the job.


The price the occupying forces pay for what happened in the Abu Ghraib prison is high. For some odd reason people don't like it when you torture their mates.


Suppose the situation was reversed and the number one export product in the world was not oil but stupidity; Tony Blair would invade the US, hunt down and arrest George Junior because he's making such a mess of it. A lot of people would be cheering in the streets. Especially those who got unemployed because of his policy or can't afford to buy their mom the medicine she needs because of his policy or can't go to college because it's become too expensive because of his policy or think it's stupid to be wanting to spent bilions on a Mars trip while even in America self people are dying of starvation.
Suppose the British troops then stay "to help steady the explosive situation." Everytime they think they spot a "terrorist" (ie someone who still supports George Junior) they blow him up, including a dozen innocent bystanders because the "terrorist" happens to be in a marketplace on a saturday-afternoon. Every once in a while they will blow up a school "because it could be a training camp for future terrrorists."
Would those troops still be welcome?
What do you think honest American citizens have to say about that situation?



Had a bit of a rough week: the all favoured "blue screen of death" appeared om my monitor (that explains why I haven't written last friday) and next to my regular job I acted in a Diesel Jeans promotional video for which recordings took place in the middle of the night. I also learned I got turned down for a very promising extra job (meaning extra money!) so it hasn't been that great a week.
Fortunately there was time for fun and laughter. Like Mothers day for which my son had prepared no less than three gifts:
One for his gran: my mom who raised him as her own for over two years, one for his biological mom: neighbour Johanna and one for the woman who acted as his mom for about four years: neighbour Miriam who also happens to be Eva's en Dayna's mother.

A serious Googlewhack just hit the streets folks! Apparently my weblog is the only onlne source that states the question: "why did the americans invade iraq?"
Ain't that something?


Today we celebrated the birthday of the late Queenmother Juliana. Officially it's the celebration of the Queen's birthday but nevermind that. Today was also the first time I ever walked around in a skirt without someone paying me to do so. Unfortunately my son didn't make as much money as he had hoped for but the wheather was great
and so was the company.

We thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful wheather later in the afternoon in the presence of neighbour Miriam, our daughter Eva and her sister Dayna. Neighbour Angélique and her Australian guest looked really great in their respective outfits which I was fortunate enough to see when at the end of the day they shared their experiences and a cup of tea with yours truly.

Queensday is simply the best day of the year!

What would happen if all foreign troops would go back to their home countries and leave Iraq to the Iraqi people?


Poor European airlines: If they don't hand over their passengers data they loose their American landing rights. If they do they get sued for violating European privacy laws...


Ferdinand and I performed at the circus, last weekend. As The Blues Brothers we announced all the acts.
My daughter Eva and my mom thoroughly enjoyed themselves, watching us. Later in the week I applied for an extra job. They'll notify me of the result within two weeks.
Fingers crossed!

For those who are unaware of the fact that a great deal of American tax money is used to sustain (foreign) dictators here's a list of people who gained power with help from the CIA and still favour their supressive regime over a true democracy with the aid of money being given by the American government.


Ever heard of Don Black? A very scary person indeed and webmaster of Stormfront.org a home for people who love to hate.



Here's a worrying transcript, concerning the real happenings in Fallujah by someone who's at the spot. It tells us what the regular media don't. Please sit down before you start reading...


TRANSCRIPT - LEE GORDON

The following material was recorded at 10.30 pm (local time) Sunday, April 11, 2004 at Radio Netherlands in Hilversum between journalists (MR) in Hilversum and Lee Gordon (LG) in Baghdad/Fallujah. Approximately 4 minutes of edited material from this recording has been broadcast (internationally) on "Newsline", Radio Netherlands on April 12, 2004.

MR Leigh, are you there?

LG Yeah, yeah, (laughs), I'm here, yeah go on Š

MR You sound like you are having a conversation with someone elseŠ

LG No, no, my colleague was just talking to me. Some Italian NGOs are fleeing after the Italian army attacked one of the Islamic leaders. The Italians are fleeing Iraq (laughs).

MR Okay, let's not confuse too many stories hereŠ (to engineer) Okay, okay, sorry.

LG So are we going now?

MR (to engineer) Are we recording now? Yes we are, yes we are.

LG Oh, fine. Fire away, fire away.

MR Well, first tell me what you have been doing for the last couple of days.


LG Let's see, where are we? Since Tuesday, ah, since Monday [5 April, 2004], sorry, I have been in and out of the Sunni Triangle area - Gharma and Fallujah - with some of the locals who have been putting up some fighting resistance to the US forces. Then ferrying the injured out of Fallujah to hospitals in Baghdad where they can be treated.



MR You said to me that you had been ferrying the injured for the last two days, is that correct?



LG The last, um, three or four days, uh we - my colleague and I - have been taking the injured out. There was an effectively a blockade thrown up around Fallujah and neighboring towns by the US Marines and Airborne forces and it's been impossible to get injured people out. On a couple of occasions they have allowed um-small convoys of ambulances to take people out. But, by and large, the only vehicles that have been able to get out are those that have snuck out by the back roads. In our case, we have been able to use our press accreditation to get some injured people out past the checkpoints.


MR Now, we have been hearing there is a cease-fire. Is there a cease-fire in effect?


LG No, quite the opposite. Effectively they are fighting. The US has snipers around the city from the West into the center, in houses all around the main streets and are picking off people on the streets, cars and ambulances.


MR Do you mean they are actually firing on ambulances?


LG Yeah, I mean, indeed. My colleague and I and some international volunteers from the United Kingdom and the US had to take over the responsibility for getting patients out of bomb damaged hospitals to one of the remaining make-shift hospitals, which is actually a converted doctors surgery effectively - because the ambulances were being shot at by the US forces. In fact, my colleague who is not very far away from me at the moment, was in one of the last functioning ambulances in Fallujah when he was sniped driving. I think they fired four or five rounds at it, just missing him, I think the ambulance was destroyed. When we left, that was this morning, that was the last ambulance - more or less - in Fallujah.


MR Why is it that journalist are having to take over moving injured and wounded people? What has happened to humanitarian aid?


LG There have been efforts to get humanitarian aid into the city on several occasions. Umm. However, it's been held-up at various checkpoints around the city. On Wednesday there was a large convoy of aid that was collected from all over Iraq and one or two neighboring Arab countries, most of which was turned back. My colleague and I were actually at the main gate to the city on the East side when the convoy arrived, convoy of food and medical aid. Convoy, I suppose, oh several score vehicles; trucks, cars, vans and most of it was turned back.

MR By the American Š?


LG By the American forces, yeah. There was some this m morning, which I think was sent several days ago, so some of it is trickling in, but for the most part there has been a blockade.



MR Because we are getting the news that there is a cease-fire and that there are camps being set-up for refugees fleeing from Fallujah, is it Š?



LG They told Š was it Thursday or Friday? Bear with me a bit because I have lost my bearings, we have been in and out of the city so much. On Thursday or Friday morning HummVees began going around the town and warning people, by loudspeaker, that they had until the end of the day - sunset - to leave or be killed. Of course that sparked a mass panic and families took to the roads, picked up what they could and threw it on top of carts, or cars or what they could carrying and began the long traipse along the road to Baghdad. They didn't get very far. Later that day, we ourselves were leaving to pick up some medical aid from Baghdad and we ran into a traffic queue that must have stretched for miles: trucks, cars, vans, carts, people still trying to leave the city. There was a blockade, despite warning for people to leave the city, the US forces then threw up a blockade further down the road, stopping people from leaving. We ended up picking up a pregnant woman, eight and a half months pregnant with her husband and mother-in-law. We picked her up about 5, 5.30 and she had been walking since around 10 o'clock that morning and was obviously in desperate condition and we managed to get her into a hospital in Baghdad. So that was the scene, if you can imagine, this huge queue of people desperately trying to leave the city wondering what would happen to them, what would happen to their homes, and all the while watching the sun slowly sink to the horizon and wondering if they were going to get out in time to save themselves.



MR What's the scene been like today? You said you left Fallujah this morning, what was it like?


LG The hospital I was at this morning had a normal night. There were Drones and Helicopters overhead scoping targets, shelling and bombing, mainly of houses in civilian areas. The wounded trickle in, but at a slow rate, it's what people can bring in. There aren't any ambulances so, if anyone has a car and can make it through the snipers, they can get someone to hospital where there are some, some, equipment, but not very much. I am now standing in the office of an Italian NGO trying to rustle up some medical aid and we have boxes of surgical equipment which they desperately need in Fallujah. They don't even have scalpels, few bandages, they don't even have anesthetics. On the question of the cease-fire, for instance, it was called on Friday just in time for noontime prayer, about 12 - 12.30. About a half an hour after cease-fire had been called I was standi9ng outside the hospital and I saw an Iraqi man of 28 years old who was an Iraqi nurse come from another city to try and help people in Fallujah, shot through the liver by a sniper as he was unloading an ambulance. He was dragged into the hospital and they tried to operate on him and sew up his wound. They had no painkillers, only the painkillers, um the parecetamol, that I could give them from my own bag. Um and we were told that unless we could get him to a hospital in Baghdad within an half an hour, he would die. Of course there was no way out of the city, and he did die.



MR You were telling me Š So where are ferrying wounded from now? You were saying that refugees fleeing into the desert was also being shot at? Is that true? Did I understand?


LG Yeah, there reports that some people fleeing from the town had been caught in some kind of cross fire and had been shelled. I don't know what the circumstances were. That would have been on Thursday or Friday when people began to flee in mass numbers. Since then, the city is more or less empty, the streets are more or less empty. I don't know how many people are left in the town or the city, I am not sure anyone knows. It was suggested a couple of days ago that about half the people had left - which would leave a couple hundred [garbled] Š people still in there. Um, men of military age are not being allowed to leave. Women, children, old people are being told they can leave, but that leaves an awful lot of people still trapped in the city. Children, there are many, many children, who are actually taking part in the fighting, such as it is. I mean I have seen boys I suppose of 10, or 11 years old, toting Kalashnikovs which are almost as big as they are. Um, so there are children still in there, there are certainly women still in there - they continue to trickle into the hospital. I suppose there are families that just couldn't leave for one reason or another.


MR So what is you want to do Š what are you going to do now?

LG Well our plan is to go back in and we will continue to try to get people out. Um, and to try to get medical aid back in. I am not sure there is much more we can do. You know, at the moment, bar one chap from Al Jazeera, there are no journalists in Fallujah and the um, US forces know that and I suppose they have a free hand to um, to carry out their operations without worrying about international scrutiny. There are all sorts of horror stories emerging; entire families being shelled in their houses, um bodies being mutilated. One can never tell, you know, one can never tell if it's entirely true if one is not in a position to check on the details in that sort of situation. What I can tell you is that there are numerous, numerous horror stories that are emerging in the hospitals as people trickle in for treatment.



MR You mean things committed by the American forces?


LG Umm, yeah, unfortunately, yeah.


MR Do you have the feeling that American commanders are in control of their forces there?


LG You know it's incredibly difficult to tell. Just moving about is, is Š literally just stepping out of the hospital is hazardous. There is one sniper that has been positioned a few hundred yards from the hospital on the main street, for the last few days.


MR An American?


LG Yeah, of course, yeah. So at the moment there are snipers in houses all around the center of Fallujah. Marines are positioned in houses just west of the center, so just moving about is extremely dangerous. Drones, unmanned aircraft, can be heard overhead, and helicopters at high altitudes spotting for targets. So people aren't keen on moving about, so gathering information about what is going on, outside one's own immediate neighborhood is extremely difficult.



MR Why do you think they won't let any of the men of military age out?

LG You know, I think the purpose of the, of the attack on Fallujah has been much more a question of "shock and awe" to borrow one of the American military phrases, than any clear strategic reason. Obviously in response to the butchery of the 4 US people in civilian clothes in Fallujah the other week. I suppose the purpose is to crush the resistance that been operating in Fallujah since the beginning of the occupation. And, most of the people, or many of the men, will be prepared at some point to join the resistance. So, I suppose it's let's give em a bloody lesson.



MR You were embedded with the mujahideen for a couple of days in Fallujah, um just outside Fallujah, do you think they are going to give up because of what the Americans are doing?



LG Actually, the opposite happened. The Š. From what I have seen with my own eyes, the battle has been going one way and the other. I have seen numerous American casualties. The road from Baghdad to Abu Ghraib and to Fallujah is littered with destroyed military vehicles. This morning I saw a destroyed US tank just outside Abu Ghraib, there were half a dozen military trucks: ammunition trucks, transport trucks, burnt by the side of the road. Mainly by the Abu Ghraib area which is now in the hands of the Iraqi resistance forces. Um, the town of Gharma, which is just outside of Fallujah, has been assault for the last few days hasn't yet been captured by US forces. There have been reports, and again it's impossible to verify these things, there are reports of several hundred US casualties, um around the Fallujah area. Now, these are reports coming from doctors, NGO doctors working in Fallujah and I don't know how accurate they are. But, when I spoke to one of the NGO doctors on Friday working for an Italian organization he told me that in his hospital he had seen 200 - 250 Iraqi casualties and he estimated from reports coming in from the areas that there were up to twice as many US casualties around the Fallujah area. Now, one can never tell, but what one does know is that Š What one can tell from simple observations, is that there have definitely been significant numbers of US casualties. How many? I don't know.


MR You said to me, at one stage earlier, that this was all building up to something big tonight. What do you think is going to happen tonight?



LG It was today, I think. There was a huge push through Fallujah today, I think, and it may well continue through this evening. When we left this morning two of my colleagues, a British woman and an American man who had volunteered to help the Iraqis by manning the ambulances were evacuating some families who were trapped in an area under US control, um, after they being shot at by the troops they engaged in a parlay and evacuated the families. In the process of which they learned from the troops that there was a major push through the town due this afternoon. Of course I wasn't there, we had to evacuate some severely injured and dying people, um victims, that were described by doctors in the Italian, the Italian coalition hospital, as suffering from wounds consistent with cluster bombs or anti-personnel bombs.


MR How many people have you ferried out?


LG Let's see we took out Š uh 14 today; a kid who had half his face shot off, a boy of four who had his arm and leg blown off, a pregnant woman, some Š there was a man, a dying man, whose leg had come off Š I suppose about 18, 19 people. You know we are working from a car, we have one old battered Japanese saloon, we managed to get a hold of a bus, um which we took out yesterday. But we are now down to our last 20, 27 dollars so I think we will be back in the car. So, you know, we take what we can.


MR You are going to go back in now?


LG Yeah, yeah, we have to - the place has been cut off and we are the only people that can get in and out through the US checkpoints using our press accreditation.



[Note from MR - It was Leigh's intention to call from Fallujah to give a report when he had snuck back in, he was unable to do so. However, we did have another, short interview on Monday night when he was just outside of the town. That transcript will follow.]


My son and I spend the Easter-weekend in the city of Lochem, near Zutphen and had a very nice time there.

Don't you just love al this Newspeak?


"Hired Contractors" as in the recent happenings in Fallujah were once known as "Mercenaries". Of course it's awful what happened to the four American "Civilians"
but aren't we forgetting something? They were coldblooded murderers, hired by the American Government so they could officially keep their hands clean. Their job was to kill anyone suspected of being a terrorist leader. They provoked the people of Iraq by driving right through the city of Fallujah as conquerors while they could have easily have taken a detour to prevent unwanted reactions. Did they think they were immortal
or could not die because they are protected by their American passports?
Unfortunately (and not only for their loved ones) we can't ask them those questions anymore. Let's hope George Junior and his mates take their responsibilty and willingly pay the penalty for their actions...



Here's what American veterans have to say on the subject.


Back in 1998 this was Madeline Albright's opinion on war against Iraq. Recently, in an interview with CNN Turk she called the bombing of Iraqi soil "a choice, not a necessaty". Now there's a change of opinion...


Last wednesday I had a day off because I had the chance to be with my daughter all day. Of course I grabbed that chance and it was a wonderful day on which we went for a walk, went shopping, had dinner, picked up her brother from afterschool.
When she was picked up by her mother and sister all there was left was a deaftening silence...I'm afraid I took it out on her brother. Or so I noticed when I realized I wasn't being as forgiving as I normally am. Next day I apologized to him and luckily he accepted. So, to buy off my conscience I got him a Yu-Gi-Oh deck of playing cards.
The coming weekend we'll be spending in a hotel in the lovely provence of Gelderland.

That poor Colin Powell: he has to either admit he lied to the UN or that the American Intelligence sucks. What a dillemma! In either case he has given the UN security counsil
false data as a reason to start a war. There was no evidence for the existence of mobile
laboratories for the production of weapons of mass destruction. Except in the minds of the more paranoid people running the United States.


Big news: Bill Gates is no longer the richest man in the world!
According to Veckans Affärer the founder of IKEA, mr. Ingvar Kamprad, is in posession of approximatly 6 billion dollars more than the founder of Microsoft. Ain't that something? I've just read his bio which turned me into a fan instantly!

Why would anyone search for 2004 email contacts of those that bears love in america?



Sibel Edmonds, a former translater for the FBI told interviewers from "The Independent" that high ranking officials of the US-government knew for months in advance that Al-Qa'ida was planning to use hijacked aeroplanes to attack "large cities with skyskrapers". With this news she indirectly calls Condoleezza Rice a liar. She has been immediately silenced by George Junior and CNN won't bring the news-item. I wonder why...


King and king is a children's book about a prince in search for a princess. Finally he meets the brother of a candidate and "marries" him. Oooh! Great shock! The book should be abandoned! Well, good news for those who are against the fact that children should learn how to keep an open mind: in some schools only parents are allowed to see it.



Another great shock! This time for the record-industry:
Downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zerostates an investigation held by scientists form Harvard Business School and the university of North-Carolina, F. Oberholzer and Koleman Strumpf.



The past week just flew by. It started with two meetings on saturday that were followed by a circus-workshop and the auditioning for the Rocky Horror Picture Show on sunday. If you're interested in a part: contact me as we're still looking for the right person to join our cast...

Let's erect a "security-wall" around the Houses of Parliament!" After two activists climbed the fences and evaded security to eventually climb Big Ben and roll out a banner,
talk is now to raise a wall around the area of 4.6 meters high. This action should withold terrorists from blowing things up within the perimeter. Apparently when there's a wall, you can't apply for a job as cleaner at a local temp-agency and enter the gate with a legal security-pass. Nor will it be possible to hi-jack a Boing 747 and fly the thing into the bell-tower. Duh!
Let's build a wall around the planet to prevent terrorists from outer space from landing on it!


Last weekend our Queen mom died on the blessed age of 94. The past year she had no recollection of her loved ones whatsoever. She died in peace and what can you want more? She refused to be referred to as "majesty".



My son and I went to the fairground, in this part of the world known as "kermis".
They had a ferris-wheel, a ghosthouse, a rollercoaster and loads of other need rides and stuff. Great fun!

Friday was the last day for colleague Jennifer who has gone on pregnancy-leave
whilst Blair goes talking to Khadafi and Bush plans to talk to Sharon.
The local baker has molded a pie in the shape of the earth and now they will devide it. It has already been decided that Berlusconi gets Europe so he won't be there...

"does the bible disaprove of gay marriage?"
Is a question that brought someone to this livejournal. A good question indeed. Sofar nobody I know has been able to pinpoint the phrase in the christians holy book. Can someone help me out here?
In this message-board are a few ideas.



Seen this picture?
It shows George Junior rubbing the head of Alphonso Jackson, acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
This is how much respect he has for high ranking government officials who happen to have a dark skin colour...



David Blunkett, the Labour Home Secretary has found a nice method to cut on the costs of the British prison-politics: let the innocent pay for room and board! (Thanks to HfH)




Martin Hoogland, the ex-cop who was convicted for the murder on the Dutch Crimelord Klaas Bruinsma, yesterday got shot himself while on leave. The police suspet foul play...




The past weekend my son and I had our first lesson at this years circus-course. He decided to go ball-walking. His sister Eva and my mom went with us to see how we were doing. Eva and her grandmother get more and more attached. Always great to have my daughter be a part of my household for a few days...
Next to the fact I found this website from where you can download all these great programs dating from the time even the term "spyware" did not exist called http://www.oldversion.com my son learned that his best mate, Maurits, will be changing school shortly. It kinda depressed him so I decided to skip training-class and spent a bit more time with him. The poor lad...

A human body is not a car. Employees of UCLA apparently thought otherwise when they sold bodyparts for the sole purpose of making a quick buck.




The so called "Cheeseburger Bill" puts a stop to alll those people claiming to be somebody else's victim. Time for people to move on and take their own responsibility. It's not McDonalds fault you're overweighted: it's your own.
It's not Smith & Wesson's fault your son killed his teacher: it's you who gave him acces to your gun.




The American government has left 5 Britons out of the prisoncamp called Guantanamo Bay. Four have been arrested by the British police on arrival.
Number five, Jamal Udeen, plans to sue the US. I wish him luck...
At least now the four detainees are entitled to legal advice and a phonecall;
rights they've been deprived of in the two years they lived in American custody. Still over 500 people are being held at Guantanamo Bay without any
form of trial. For more than two years the US is challenging international rules concerning imprisonment. Election time is nearing: what will George Junior decide? I guess that depends on what the polls show most American voters want...




A nice quiet week at work with colleague Jennifer being ill and Marieke as subsitute ended with my son staying over at a friend's. Tomorrow the two of them will attend a birthday-party whilst I go shopping with my daughter: I need a costume to be used at some fetish venue next saturday...

4. 28 February 03:11 Executive Office Of The President, United States


8. 29 February 16:57 IP Planet Networks, Israel




I don't get many hits for this weblog but they do seem to come from interesting places..




For those who think the American constitution is a sacred thing, think again.
To George Junior it isn't. When electoral gain is eminent anything goes, even changing the constitution. Most Americans oppose gay marriage so of course so does George Junior. That's logical, isn't it?
So if mayor Jason West of New Paltz needs to be sacrificed in the process, so be it. Tough luck.




Sandra Tsing Loh said "Fuck" on the air during a radio-show and got sacked.
You see, in America it's illegal to say "Fuck" but not to kill thousands of innocent people worldwide and stigmatize millions more. Sex is a filthy thing and murder is not. Just ask George Junior who still believes killing people to show other people that killing is wrong is a good thing. Hopefully for him he's the only one who's stupid enough to reason thus...




The past week was an official week off for kids in my region of the country.
But not for me. For an afterschool-teacher these are the hardest working-days.
Check this: on monday we went to the Royal Tropical Institute . Among loads of other neat stuff we saw the gamelan instrumentarium that used to be used by the orchestra that filled my great grandfathers bedroom a long, long time ago. Pretty cool, huh? On tuesday my colleague took the lil'ones to see Brother Bear while I took the older ones to Neverneverland. Wednesday my son joined us in waterfun at one of the cities nicest public pools. Thursday there was an organised sporting-event where we played soccer/football (Am./Eng.), basketball, skippyball, badminton, etc. For friday we had a talenthunt for which tons of (grand)parents showed up to watch their (grand)children amuse themselves whilst singing, dancing, acting and telling jokes. All and all a wholly tiring week but also very fulfilling. Tomorrow I can sleep in since Ferdinand is in the safe hands of his gran...