Sex in Public Park legal in Amsterdam

Earlier this month it has been announced that it will be legal to have sex in Vondel park from this summer onwards (in english)

Paul van Grieken, an alderman (city council member) for the Oud-Zuid(old-south) district of Amsterdam said . "Why should we try to maintain something that is actually impossible to maintain, which also causes little bother for others and for a certain group actually signifies much pleasure?"

There are some rules behind this though.
1. you must take your "trash" with you afterwards
2. you cannot have sex in/near the children's playing area/playgrounds
3. you are only allowed to have sex during the evening till night but not before and after..

however there will be more restriction on walking your dog and you will always have to keep it leashed while in the park not to disturb sun-bathers, cyclists.

In addition the police's National Diversity Expertise Centre (LECD) wants sex allowed in all public parks in the Netherlands, expanding this movement to Rotterdam and Utrecht etc.

In response to this the CDA(Christian Democratic Party) leader Pieter van Geel, has called for ban of sex in the park, saying "We aren't restricting people from having sex in open spaces because no one wants to enforce it. If we keep pushing the limit up, what will be next?"

In the dutch news today

there are some very interesting headlines that I would like to share..

1. Sperm donors can take more active roles as fathers..
as the study by a researcher of family law at Tilburg University shows based on the cases where the donors asked some type of rights through courts based on their biological links.. he says the cases go through quicker as well

2. The Dutch feel happy
85% of dutch replied the glass is half full, not half empty (15%) and on average feel happy 5 days out of the week..75% feel lucky/good about their job,and 60% are happy about their outer appearance.

3. Women rather talk to their girlfriends than their partners
More than half (55%)of Dutch women rather talk to their girl friends than their partners and one out of three women speak to their girl friends more/longer than to their partners..

Banned Commercial: mocking christians?

Ad watch dog decides to ban a commercial on women's hair product due to complaints that it was mocking the Christian faith.
It shows women in various praying positions, saying that the new product is a new religion..

According to an article in the Guardian

The Advertising Standards Authority received a total of 23 complaints, including one from the Archdeacon of Liverpool, objecting that the ads were offensive to the Christian faith. The complaints particularly highlighted the use of the phrase from the Lord's Prayer and the depiction of the letter "t" as a cross in "thy".

Judge for yourselves..



I think its more of a complement if you asked me..

This one exploits little children as well..



Here is another one from the same company ... using the same theme "a new religion for hair" which apparently they have used for the past seven years..

The new ten commandments

The Vatican has made a new list of sinson top of the one Moses made while he was trippin, and the Seven Deadly Sins .. since they are not suffice to keep people feeling guilty enough to spend their time and money in/for the church for salvation.

the list includes..
· Environmental pollution;
· Genetic manipulation;
· Accumulating excessive wealth;
· Inflicting poverty;
· Drug trafficking and consumption;
· Morally debatable experiments;
· Violation of fundamental rights of human nature.

Pope Benedict, in support of the move has noted that "We are losing the notion of sin ...If people do not confess regularly, they risk slowing their spiritual rhythm."

Just a couple of things I feel about this list of modern sins.. one, I like some of them, such as environmental pollution and inflicting poverty, but one can see that they are more abstract then the old ones but also they are on politically sensitive issues that people cannot agree on as being morally right or wrong(in comparison to things such as thou shall not kill, which I think most of us agree upon).

This makes me think that the church has made a move implying that they will indeed act as a political body, not just as a spiritual, and take stances/mostly conservative/ on certain issues such as abortion, homosexuality, scientific experiments and etc. They will use this list.. which this time around we all know that it was NOT given by GOD..(but maybe has been made when the priests were indeed high).. as grounds in which they can argue for their position and to (pressure politicians to)change policies to fit their conservative agendas.
If it is not enough that George W. is using God as an excuse for all his "deadly sins" committed to the rest of the world.

On a similar note, the new Korean neo-liberal conservative president Lee named as his new minister of social welfare and health in Korea someone who has written in a newspaper that the lack of belief in God increased social polarization of Korea and that we must over come issues of poverty and inequality through enhancing our religious beliefs... of course on top of that he has been found for plagiarism, not paying his health insurance contributions, tax fraud, real estate fraud and use of public funds for personal use.

Do as Christians say not as Christians do.

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here is a nice link of a book Hwa wrote in comments, but the link is broken there.
It is called The Vatican World Politics

Mixing friends

Charlie Brooker on why you should not mix friends at your party...

"you have work friends, and college friends, and various groups of random friends you've picked up along the way ... and since they're all quite different, you behave differently with them. I might be a swearing lout with one friend and an urbane sophisticate with another. Mix them all together in the same room and it gives me an identity crisis: suddenly I don't know who I am any more, and I panic and smash chairs against the wall until everyone goes home."

Charlie Brooker

Slap me like the Fender Jazz Bass that I am

I love bass players
I have always loved bass players. I don’t know when it all started since I didn’t notice my fascination until I had a collection of boyfriends or crushes with one thing that connected them all, their ability to play bass.
I never fully understood why I fell for these men, but one reason would be that I myself love bass sounds and music with good bass lines.(This is why I love funk)
However, recently I figured another reason why I like them. I feel like I am a bass, and when I hear good bass lines I feel like it, may it be the music, the bass line or the bass player, is playing (with) me. This is related to the theory that all sounds/tones hit a certain part of your body, like drums are connected to the human heartbeats, and etc. And well in relation to this, I realized when you slide your finger on the lower E bass string, it hits right there at my G, if you catch my drift. So when I date these men, I date them in hopes of them being able to play me, my body just like they funk their bass.
Oh btw did I mention of all the bass techniques I love the slapping and popping technique?

Disadvantaged groups in the labour market and US presidency

Being a labour market researcher (yes, I've said it, I've revealed my identity yet again) I tend to use the approach or view that I use in my normal labour market analysis in other things as well. I ask people about their jobs and tenure, to examine their employability and how they fare accordingly etc. Well true, not all the time, but many times, more than others would do.

Anyhow, it struck me recently that the US president candidate race that is going on these days is quite remarkable when examined in this sense.
Of course I know I am not the first person who has thought of this, but let's look at our main candidates. (and believe you me, I am not the most enthusiast in following this race as well.. so my knowledge of it is actually quite remote)

The republican party candidate, and hasn't he won already, Mr. John McCain. He is the representative of the older worker's group. which is one of the most disadvantaged groups in the labour market. being 71, his chances of employment in the labour market should be actually down to the 1 digit levels!(In the Netherlands only 5% of older workers of over 55 who were searching for jobs actually found a stable job the following year)

The second candidate, Hilary Clinton, is also from the weak groups of the labour market in two accounts. She, being a woman, is naturally a weak group in the labour market, and on top of that she is also 60 years old which means her chances in employment as an older + female worker are in the normal labour market studies very very low.

Lastly, Barack Obama. Okay he isn't a older worker, he is a male, in his prime, normally considered the most productive age and probably has the highest employability chances. However, due to his ethnicity he can be included in the migrant workers group, even if his mother is indeed white American.(I always wonder about that if black+white=black, is it that stronger colours always trump the lighter ones? such as asian+white=asian?) Also his name which is a of an arabic/muslim origin, regardless of the fact that he is in fact Christian, as many studies conducted in Europe can show you, his name alone will decrease his chances of getting a job, even if every other criteria is the same.

So there you have it folks the three major groups that are most disadvantageous in the labour market fighting for the top spot of the labour market, US presidency. Of course they only have 30% chance of getting the spot--- just statistically thinking it was a race between the three of them. Ofcourse it can be said that McCain has 50% while as Clinton and Obama has 25% since they have to win the democratic contest.. but then again.. this is all numbers.

THREE!!

I loved the BBC three blobs when I was in Britain... watching loads of TV
but then the news came, that they might get rid of them...
Then I started to find the indents on you tube...
they are brilliant
They were made by the Wallace and Gromit people

Here are some montages I've found.




some related to special events


And then my favourite

Story of stuff

My friend sent me a link to this site which is called the story of stuff.

Story of stuff
It is about.. exactly what the site name says ... story of stuff.
However, it is not what we usually have in mind when we think of stuff or products.
The whole idea of this project is to make people, I think mostly aimed at Americans, more aware of exactly what it takes for us to consume things and what the consequences of this consumption is by taking a glimpse at the whole process of ..stuff.
Although for most, especially scientists or people who deal with these issues, it is a rather simplistic view on the world, it maps out the total process of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal.

Media driven NEED
The key point of this video is that we are trained or pushed by society and capital into thinking that we are in need of things, and this is driven by media which is funded by capital. That consumption, or the golden arrow of consumption, has been emphasized especially after the Second World War so that society can generate ever increasing need for it.

It also talks about how we ourselves realize ourselves through consumption these days and well media drives our needs for new stuff and buy stuff to make us feel better about ourselves or just to sustain a certain level of self image.

Production process
But more importantly, its the point that when we do this, we forget the exact process it came through or what disposing of it will do in the longer run. In other words, when we buy a product, as a consumer on its own interest, will try to buy the cheapest product available, which suits one's needs. Not taking the responsibility of how exactly this product was made to be sold for what it costs. What we fail to realize is that us, as consumers buying the product, we are in fact encouraging the previous processes of how this product came about (thus the extraction of natural resources, production= with harmful chemicals, exploitation of labour etc). The beauty of it all is that the product manufacturers are so good in hiding this and distracting our focuses elsewhere- in our realization of selves when we buy the product = marketing. Also the key ideas of capitalism are based exactly on such things, of how individuals acting on their own free interest will eventually end up in an equilibrium and of larger profit. (such is the ideas of the invisible hand market or economic liberalism)

MEAT and food
Although this video has not taken produce/food products as its main focus point, it is the same process. I think the reason why we are consuming vast amount of meat, more than doubled per capita in the last 4 decades, its because 1) its become more cheaper and available, 2) we have no idea about how it is produced. This is due to the picture of the happy cow we see on the cover of our ham. We imagine a world where ham grows from trees so to say.
We have turned ourselves into happy blissful consumers, for our own interests. We are at the point of time, where we are able to consume as much as we want to a point of Glutonny. Raised by parents who have suffered from wars, children of the mass media and marketing age we are used to easy consumption.
However, I think times are changing and although slowly, we have came to a point when we realize that this is not sustainable. The focus on economy and capital generation with short term projections will not do.
We must be responsible and take charge of what is happening.

Revolution from within
I think we are in a age or a new enlightenment, where we critique the ideas of pure capitalism. If up the era of after WW II (1950s) to the end of the cold war (1990s) can be categorized as the fight between capitalism and socialism, I think now is the time of true evaluation of our capitalist society not from a East vs. West view, but with a post-modernist view of socialism, a critique from within. Not only must we own what is rightfully ours so to say, it entails rightfully taking responsibility of our behaviours. And what I seen now more and more especially in the societies where capitalism has already flourished to its up most, is this type of need for change. People realizing that this societal structure cannot go on like this.

In this respect Marx may have been right. We might now go into socialism... hurrah~

Hard choices
Having said all this, one last point to make is that, although everything is easily said, and maybe easily understood however, it is hard for us to change our live styles to live more responsibly. Especially when we take everything into account. I have a friend, who have said that earlier on his life, he wanted to be aware of every consequence of his behaviour, especially as a consumer and a living being of this society, it ended up him not being able to do anything and being chronically depressed. He had a point there, it is that if we think of all things, it might lead us to a conclusion that its best to go rot in a flower bed somewhere because whatever you do, and however we live, we will destroy the earth somehow.
The key point is about balance, and trying to change your whole approach to things. First of all, to be more conscious of behaviour, especially your consumption behaviour- yes including food. I don't mean just buy organic food. Eat less! Eat just as much as you need. when buying anything think of the consequences of it- see where and how it was made - such as if it is fair trade, doesn't exploit labour, doesn't exploit the earth, - as well as how it looks and how cheap it is. (I've heard that in Germany there is a book called the little black book of manufacturing... or something that tells you all about the major manufacturers' production characteristics..)
Fair enough, living with these rules is not easy. If you go out and buy only organic food- first of all its hard, because with the exception of few major cities- such as Berlin, New York etc - its probably impossible to buy all organic, and will cost you at least twice as much and have been critiqued as being the new way of showing money of the upper middle class. But yeah, unfortunately this is the price we pay, but then again if many people think the same, this will form an interest group, pressure groups for politicians and government to really crack down on the food industry so that the organic mark becomes redundant because everything is grown organic.
And then comes the balance. its hard to find out exactly what is the right balance of things, so you don’t go kill yourself and are able to enjoy yourself, while being more conscious. How can we do this?

Help groups
The most important step is to reassess your ideas on what are your wants and needs are. You need shoes, but not need Pradas. You need clothes, but do not need five pairs of jeans of different designs every year. Its hard to re-train yourself into trying to really change your consumer habits, since we are almost forced into increasing our needs making ourselves believe that we need several things to survive by media and society. Think about your current living methods, and see what can be changed, little baby steps...
It might be that we actually need rehabilitation to really change our behaviours, and well the good news is that there are groups that can help - such as those who make you pledge not to buy anything for a year or the same but just for clothes. The bad news is that joining the group ain’t the end of it and this consists of a life time commitment.

Free time comes along the package
But then again, having said this, I've actually have experienced not buy anything other than food and essentials(okay I'm sorry but this included books and CDs) for a given number of months, not really as a rational choice but more because I was lazy, and you have no idea how liberating it feels. First you gain a lot of free time, because you don't have to go and waste time eye shopping, shopping for bargains, trying various things, and lastly finding something you like. All that time shopping is used on other things.

Blog hits!

Yes, I know I feel bad. I have completely abandoned my blog in the past few months.
But for good reasons!- was busy with work, sick and well other things I would rather not mention. ...

Whichever the case, I know that most of the people who come to this blog, don't come in to see what I've been writing up on, but go to very specific entries(approximately 20~30 people come every day for these entries). Just for the rest of you, who do read up on what I've been writing up on recently to see, I've taken the popular entry list from the program I have here on the blog... you can see it as well if you press the number next to the blog that show how many hits this blog had... approximately 6600 or so I think...
Anyhow here is the list of 6 Feb 2008 with the most popular blog entries



As you see its the 3D Korean beauty entry that has the most hits.. this is due to people who want to search up photos of beautiful Korean women... also the one with titles such as "beautiful Asians" also have high hit rates.
The other hits were the entries with the words "penis" and "porn" in them.
You can imagine why these may be hits.
The rest are those which are more informative... such as ... asparagus makes your urine smell, how to get good skin, dating range and how to find housing etc.

Anyhow it actually makes me a bit sad even to think that the vast number of people who come, come for very specific entries...
I wonder if they search around for other entries or just leave after seeing that?

Doesn't really matter since this whole blog started off as something for my release of brain discharge which may or may not be suitable for others.
Anyhow, I am back. and YES once again I am using up my working hours to write on this blog, regardless of who reads it or who doesn't!