Democratization and the Internet

Hassnae Bouazza

The crazy proposals and ideas launched by Geert Wilders were first put forward on peripheral websites no one took seriously. The influence of these so called marginal websites is much bigger than many people would like to believe.

English, Hassnae Bouazza, 01.06.2012 @ 09:50 [Lees verder...] [81 Reacties]

I am Aliaa Elmahdy: Luisa

Luisa Batista Samora

I want to show solidarity with all women in the world who are fighting a silent or public battle for equal rights; with the silent ones, with the more visible heroic ones who speak up. With women who show their faces and sometimes also their bodies.

English, Gastschrijver, I am Aliaa el Mahdy, 06.12.2011 @ 09:44 [Lees verder...] [45 Reacties]

Blackface

Peter Breedveld

We are making international asses of ourselves, as citizens of a backward, racist country. High time Holland pulled its head out of its own ass.

English, Peter Breedveld, 20.11.2011 @ 11:49 [Lees verder...] [62 Reacties]

Taboos

David Swatling

Moroccan-Dutch journalist Hassnae Bouazza is no stranger to controversy. Her newspaper columns provoke strong reactions. She attracts attention for her frank approach to taboo subjects such as pornography in the Arab world.

English, Gastschrijver, Hassnae Bouazza, 18.11.2011 @ 12:20 [Lees verder...] [Geen reacties]

Full Frontal

Hassnae Bouazza

What makes Aliaa Elmahdy’s protest so special, is that it is an aggressive confrontation, unprecedented in the Arab world. She addresses an essential problem with her nudity.

English, Hassnae Bouazza, 16.11.2011 @ 14:41 [Lees verder...] [45 Reacties]

‘I am not normal on the inside’

Peter Breedveld

Recently Charles Burns’ deeply disturbing but also utterly touching and darkly poetic graphic novel Black Hole hit the shelves of the finer bookstores near you. Never, in any novel, poem or song, have I seen teenage angst captured so well as in Black Hole. The book, in my humble opinion, deserves a place among the great classics of American Literature. I spoke to Burns a while ago, when he was still working on the last pages of his masterpiece.

English, Peter Breedveld, strips, 28.01.2006 @ 12:29 [Lees verder...] [Geen reacties]

The cradle of Dutch pop music

Peter Breedveld

The Tielman Brothers

Why was The Hague the capital of Dutch pop music in the sixties? Probably due to a combination of Indo-Europeans, preachers and typically Haguean bluffers.

English, Peter Breedveld, 26.03.2005 @ 11:37 [Lees verder...] [Geen reacties]

Travels Around My Bookshelf 5

Jonathan Howells

For some reason, otherwise perfectly sensible writers like John Irving don’t rate Wolfe. They’re wrong, and, given Irving’s poor form of late, would be best advised to keep their opinions to themselves.

English, John Howells, 05.03.2005 @ 10:02 [Lees verder...] [Geen reacties]

Travels Around My Bookshelf 4

Jonathan Howells

The news that Hunter S Thompson (Dr, if you like, though I never really saw the point of that store-bought title – it did him no favours) has killed himself arrived like a shock but has settled on me as being sadly inevitable. Thompson was a man with little patience for any sort of weakness, and watching his body corrode beneath his eyes (if they held out long enough to see) can’t have been an attractive proposition.

English, John Howells, 26.02.2005 @ 01:02 [Lees verder...] [Geen reacties]

Pride and prejudice in the Netherlands Indies

Peter Breedveld

Six years ago Rampokan: Java was published, the first part of Peter van Dongen’s graphic novel set in the Netherlands Indies, now known as Indonesia. The story takes place at the eve of the so-called Police Actions (a euphemism for the full-blown colonial war between the Dutch and Indonesian nationalists that took place in 1947 and 1948) and with it Van Dongens solid reputation as a serious graphic novelist was established. Recently the second and last part at long last appeared: Rampokan: Celebes.

English, Peter Breedveld, strips, 18.02.2005 @ 14:41 [Lees verder...] [Geen reacties]