Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Two Tribes

I was a little girl when Frankie said Relax. I was a little girl when I saw Frankie's video to 'Two Tribes'. I must have been about 7 or 8 years old. What does a 7 or 8 year old know about the world? The Cold War? World Leaders? Apparently enough to be fascinated by the video. I remember being captured by the television when they showed the video and still the song stands the age of time (sadly). The biting off the ear. The bizar nature of the video and how this was reality. I knew this, I must have known that the world was a weird place to be with world leaders battling each other over idiot issues. Politics was something that hit me at an early age, apparently.

The world's easiest tax-raise defence. We got 'em!

I've been relatively on the politic front. I spit out an occasional frustrating discontent but that's it, at least as far as I know. Dutch Politics is making me ill and I can't allow a bunch of idiots who somehow have to run the country ruin my health. What I have followed though is the tax raise on theatre and concert tickets, going up from 6 to 19%. That's quite a lot. This happens mid-season. No one had really the time to prepare themselves for it. The consumer will have to pay more which the theatres won't see. If a consumer has to pay more they might not spend their money on tickets. Well, it's a long list of arguments why this tax raise is the stupidest things since electing Bush jr. and I won't bore you with that. The reason why I'm writing about this in another anyway.

This raise is one of the most talked about issues in The Hague at the moment and today the government confirmed once more that they won't turn this back, the tax raise on tickets is definite. They're still confident it will make them 90 mln euros. Which is probably the calculation with current sales. But even that isn't what stirred me this time. No. Not even the fact that it's mainly the PVV of Geert Wilders who keeps hammering at this tax raise isn't it. Oh no. It's that one small little thing our minister of Finance has said to justify their moves.

"These plans were part of our election campaign all along."

The theatre and concert goers are for the larger part NOT THE ONES WHO HAVE VOTED FOR YOU! That's by far the easiest defence of 2010. Congratulations.

Here's the best edit of 2010: the tax raise on concert, festival and theatre tickets will be postponed until July 2011. Alright!

And we party like it's 1983 (this is an Orwell reference indeed)

The gap between left and right hasn't been so big since the nazis invaded the former republic of Russia. It's a worrying climate the Netherlands are in and it is getting worse by the hour. Here's a recap in short about our government: largest party is VVD with Mark Rutte as our MP, together with CDA (4th largest party and biggest loser of our last elections). They are two mid-right parties. By no means they have the majority so after a four months (!!) coalition formation they decided to reign together with support of the PVV, the party of Geert Wilders who is notoriously known for his hatred against immigrants (I say it politically correct, he however does not) and the 3d largest party, 100% right-winged with no democracy whatsoever in the party structure. These three parties together have 76 seats, the opposition has 75.

You might wonder what happened to the second largest party, which is the workers party (left indeed) PvdA. They gained 32 seats during the last elections, against 33 of VVD. If this makes you scratch the back of your head right now, join the club.

Ever since the elections something happened, I didn't call it an attack at the time but I will call it that way now. Literally everything that is associated with left wing politics or even considered something only left wingers are interested in (culture (!!) being the top target) has been put into bad lighting. I had no idea where this suddenly came from, left is blamed for everything, the bad economy, the traffic jams, the immigrants, the lazy students, safety in trains, playing children, the weather, you name it, left did it. Question though: when did left reign this country? The former largest party was CDA, right, and they have been for 8 years with 4 different formations. Yes, you may scratch the back of your head again.

Left is blamed for helping the ill and the old and fragile, taking care for the asylum seekers, drinking tea with immigrants (this was one of the leading phrases during our last elections), wanting better care at elederly homes and hospitals, supporting useless goods such as music, theatre, performing arts and art. To compare, PVV is blamed for rasicm, spreading hate and having violent people in there party. Seems black and white and you might think this is left-propaganda. I wish it was. I would like to say something positive about the PVV because they do have some good points but so far all these points have been put aside and ignored. So much for sticking to their programm, it's all about power isn't it?

Let's get back to culture, which is suddenly called an unecessary good. Something you don't really need. People do not need to unwind. So, let's stop the allowance to the cultural section. We need to save right? Look, we all have to save up, and that you're cutting allowances, no big deal. But not as radically as they're planning to. As if culture relies on this allowance. As if we pay for the violist on the street corner. We don't. We do however pay collectively for the security of Wilders. But at least it saves a lot of money right? Well, it's enough to pave about 3 km of new highway... It comes down to an average cut of allowance of 8%, except for the cultural section, that depeartment will be cut with 20%. That's without taking the tax-raise on tickets in consideration.

This tax raise on concert, theatre tickets will be the end of a lot of venues as they won't get more money as the only thing that's raised is the taxes. It will lead to less income because less people will be able to even pay for this tickets. Which will lead to venues contracting less artists will lead to less culture in this country.

Success for those who want to kill culture. Success for the right winged barbarians. Who exactly is responsible for this tax raise anyway? Our PM? No, PM Rutte has given up STOPPING the tax raise for one reason: Geert Wilders wants the tax raise. And to stop the tax raise on tickets, reasons Wilders, you'll need an agreement of all three parties.

Wilders is the supporting party. Rutte is the PM. But Rutte is bowing down to Wilders. Wilders is having the power. Wilders is able to control and direct everything our government is supposed to to. Wilders is NOT part of the cabinet. But he CONTROLS the cabinet. What the fuck man, just, what the fuck.

Wilders and the PVV, which contains members who have been charged for violence (knocking down someone at a news conference for instance) and sexual offences are not just creating hatred against immigrants in this country, they are effectively tearing this country apart in left and right and putting all the blame on left. Say what you want, that guy is highly effective in what he's doing.

Isn't left doing anything? I doubt what PvdA will do, but the smaller ones, GroenLinks and D66 are barking loud. Which the media often doesn't portrait too nicely. The only left-winged party that seems to address this big dangerous issue with intelligence is the SP. Ooooh, the SP, scary! SP stands for Socialist Party. But right now it just seems that the entire future of this country is in the hands of the SP and their new and capable leader Emile Roemer. He speaks clearly and is determined. Also, it may not seem important but it is, this man has wit. For instance, this party fights for the socially disadvantaged such as the disabled, the elderly but also for the mailmen and this for years, because they'll lose their jobs due to ridiculous restructuring of the company caused by the government allowing other mail-companies in this country. But all these things are 'linkse hobbies' now, left-winged hobbies.

I'm a concert go-er. I'm a photographer. A blogger. A woman. I'm a member of the SP. I'm an immigrant. Though, my parents are German and as MP Rutte will reason, Germany is not Turkey. So maybe I have the right to lead a normal, carefree and not-hunted life after all, protected by Rutte. But I doubt it. If everything develops the way it does now, I'm pretty much screwed and might have to, eventually, fear for my safety.

Disgusted by men

There are many reasons why our current government sucks. It's easy to say that something sucks but for now, it quite covers it. The newest fact why we have a terrible government are the latest revelations about one of the members of the chambers of the PVV, the party lead by Geert Wilders. This Erik Lucassen has a criminal record and certainly someone with a criminal record should not be part of any government, PVV is the party that supports our minority cabinet. With this criminal record he should be fired from the party, meaning that the cabinet with support of the PVV will no longer have the majority in the chamber as this majority was only one chair. Wilders now whines he had no money to backtrack the records of his people in the chamber. Only a look on this man's CV should have resulted in ringing alarm bells and worth the E30,05, which a backtrack costs, alone. This in short. Imagine the crisis in our government. I told you Rutte 1 would not live to see the end of 2010.

This all however is not the reason I fumed with rage reading the latest news about this. Lucassen's criminal record includes sexual offences, as a higher officer in the military. He is supposed to have had sex with two female cadets which is strictly forbidden as it implies abuse of military powers. As it now appears, things are a lot worse than a difference in class.

In 2000 someone within the military already warned that within the military school 30 'bastards' as he called them, have been threatening females cadets between the age of 17 and 20 to not hand them out their well-deserved diplomas unless they were having sex with them. These girls were used as (I translate the original quote) 'play balls' and passed around between these instructors and were named 'fuck dolls'. Whether Lucassen was one of these 30 remains unknown at the time I'm writing this, fact is he had to leave the military in 2002 due to 'sexual offences'.

What the fuck is going on? We can't trust priests because they are abusing little boys, we can't trust cops because they abuse their 13-year-old neighbour girl and killing her as well (this is a current trial in the Netherlands, apparently he has psychological problems and a 'troubled youth'. How this man made it into the police force is beyond me) and now the military is abusing women as well? What is this? Are men really these sex-obsessed monsters who will fuck any women within their reach and get extra high if they can use power and possibly violence? Am I, as a woman, the hunted every time I go on the streets? Are women really just 'fuck dolls' in the eyes of men? I don't want to generalise and surely the majority of the men knows it's perfectly normal to keep your dick in your pants for most of the time but you really start to doubt this. I start to doubt this. Sex is all a men wants and he is going to get it. He will take the weak (children and mentally handicapped, not overreacting on the later, a swim-instructor has admitted to 'take' the mentally handicapped because according to him they wouldn't remember so he would do no damage) and of course women because that's what women are for right? To lust over, to humiliate, to rule over, to have sex with whenever he wants it. Oh and to serve him of course. It disgusts me. 21st century and we still act like we're living in the stone age. Yes, I'm utterly disgusted. Again, thanks to the current government but this time in a way I least expected it.

The ballad of the Dr Martens boots

For some reason of another I have a weakness for Dr. Martens boots since the early days of the 90s. Something about punk and grunge. During Spring and Summer I practically sleep in my green Converse, when the weather turns grey and therefore wet, kissing them goodbye isn't so hard as my Dr. Martens boots are waiting.

It's not that I have a complete rainbow of boots lying around in the house, it's been too long since they only cost 19.99 in the UK so quite frankly, I would refuse that. I'm a sales shopper, because money can only buy you so much so make the most of it. It doesn't mean I don't walk past windows and sigh to all the pretty colours on display. I'm really content with my pink boots, the most expensive pair I own. I bought them in Manchester and I felt like splashing out. Women are known for shoe-addictions, I don't really have that but those, I fell in love. I took my time fitting them and they're regulars on my feet. As are my white ones. These, I'll admit, are actually fakes but they have been mistaken for real and you know what, they are comfy, they are cool and they are white. Deal with it. And there's the purple ones I bought on sale, 80 euros off! Only that one pair! Of course they went home.

In case you never wore any Dr Martens boots, here's a few basic rules. The size you need is usually larger than what you're usually wearing (I have the smallest possible feet, it's a blessing and an ego-booster), you need to remember the number of eyes in case you're buying none-matching shoe-laces and every pair of Dr. Martens boots require a (at least) two week torment walking in the boots, making them fitting to your very own feet and soften the leather. Get the bandage! But you will not speak of it while walking, but everyone will tell by the look on your face and the way you walk, especially the way you walk. It's the Way of the Boots and we follow that.

These purple ones. They are half a size smaller than the pink ones. But, they fit. They honestly do. But still they hurt like having stone cropped around your feet. The leather seems to refuse to soften up. The right foot is fine, but then it's my smaller one (my feet have different shoe sizes) but the left. As if a knife cuts on top of it. The stitches feel like they left the needles in. It's the Way of the Dr Martens Boots. So you are brave, one day the left boot will be just as comfortable. Because, as we all know, once you've been through torture, those boots will be most comfortable and even if they're not they are. I'll get you purple boots!

There's total understanding in all of this if you're able to sing 'Dr Martens, Dr Martens, Dr Martens boots. No, don't you want me' perfectly out of tune and are able to perform the dance to it too. They send out a signal as well and especially now, in the grim dark Netherlands, I'm wearing them with more pride than ever before. Something about the repressed working class.

Vinegar pissing all the way to my grave

All my colleagues, both of them, had a bit of a conversation today about how it's not such a good idea to become a first class 'azijnpisser' (azijn = vinegar, pisser = well, a guy who pisses) as it only makes you bitter and not a pleasant person to be around with. I didn't take part in that conversation partly because I was actually doing some work but also because I don't own a badge saying 'voted most likely to piss and moan all the way to the grave' for no reason at all. With the work done, reading some news headlines and reading some tweets from respected musicians I got to say, today I'm really in top form when it comes down to be an edgy moaning bitter depressed human being. Marvin, eat your heart out!

For once it's not the grim politic climate the Netherlands is in, though it is a constant factor. For instance, yesterday I read that not just 60% of all Dutch venues are running the high risk of having to close if the ticket prices will really rise with at least 13%, it was something I was already aware of, but what I wasn't aware of or maybe didn't want to see (I'm a first class music doom-thinker, sadly I'm often right too) was that it would also result in less bands coming to the Netherlands. Even less! And whenever there is an article in the papers you can respond to, no matter what the subject is, there will always be people attacking left-wingers. Everything is the left-side fault. Whatever did we do? Have we been in charge lately? I feel like there's some propaganda going on. I feel extremely paranoid but if the (right sided) government wants to shut off the public broadcasting from the internet, because they have no business there, what else is going on? Since when do we FORBID people being online? Have they committed crimes? Are they offering illegal contents on their websites? When will the readers be fined? Come on! Has anyone read George Orwell's 1984?? In there the news and all history is systematically changed in favour of The Great Leader. Just saying.

Today's headlines yelled about a plane crashed in Cuba. They probably wouldn't have yelled so much if there hadn't been 3 Dutch people onboard and all 68 passengers had died. To be honest, I haven't really read the article, it was depressing enough in itself (lifting out the three Dutch people is one thing, like they matter more than the other 65 people who have lost their lives in this tragedy) plus the picture of a huge ball of fire, I think it was what is left of the plane, spoke for itself. Also, 20 people died in a plane crash in Pakistan. And a bomb has been found in a plane that departed from Schiphol. Slightly depressed I went to twitter, the number one resource for news. If there's a place news spreads like the plague it's Twitter. Every time I see a famous person trending I think that person died (which is the case half of the time). Surely the plane crashes are trending.

The world is coming to a dramatic end but fear not: the MacRib is back! Yes it's true, MacDonald's brings back the MacRib in all its top-trending glory. Of course people don't talk about planes and bombs! And people still wonder how one can be such a cynical bitch. If you got a mind of your own it's really not that difficult.

Don't read the papers at work or else

I'm at work after a good two days of vacation which has been good to the extend that I have not really a clue what it is exactly what I'm doing here 5 days a week so let's say that's a good thing. It gave me some time to catch up with the domestic news. Please, someone, take me out of here!

Today the trial against Geert Wilders starts. And modern day society seems to think we have to watch this live in television and so you can. Why on earth do we have to see trials live on television?

But anyhow, what really pissed me off is that once again mister Wilders complained about how badly he's been treated, how this is an attack on freedom of speech and an insult to him and the 1,5 mln people who voted for him.

I am so sick and tired hearing him whine about him and these 1,5 mln people. I don't know who these people are but what makes them so special when there's 15,5 mln people who didn't vote for him. Freedom of speech dear Wilders, oh, and this is also this thing called democracy. Majority counts.

Which, in a slightly unrelated note, makes it totally unacceptable to be stuck with this retard right-winged government we're rapidly heading toward to. The majority of the Dutch people does NOT approve of this government. But never a word about that of course.

I dare to be a FEMINIST!

It's a small start but a definite start. DARE TO BE A FEMINIST! That's for both the girls and the boys. As if this ignorant country (the once oh so very liberal and open-minded and tolerant Netherlands) will understand but I'm willing and going to fight. Like I said, small start but at least a START.