Fire at Schiphol Detention Centre

"The Netherlands has one of the toughest immigration policies in Europe, and is in the process of deporting 26,000 asylum seekers who have been refused the right to stay." BBC

As everyone living in Holland would know, the Dutch immigration law has tightened up considerably in the recent years, thanks to Rita Verdonk, a hard woman with strong, somewhat rightist beliefs.

Recently she came up with the idea of sending back Antillians who don't have jobs or study, if they commit a crime. And even Oranje coach Van Basten is annoyed with her that Salomon Kalou, a Ivory coast-born forward at Feyenoord couldn't get Dutch citizenship which would have enabled him to play in the next World Cup in Germany.

At a ceremony in Amsterdam Oost earlier this month, she was booed as she made a speech, and her and her bodyguards hastily made their way to a limousine.

And then this happens.
Fire at detention centre at Schiphol airport, where bolletjesslikkers (drug smugglers who swallowed balls of cocaine) and illegal immigrants are locked up.
Out of 43 who sat in the wing, 11 died. At first serveillants didn't take the imprisoned seriously, until panic broke out. The doors to 24 cells (24 x 2= 48 detainees max in the wing) had to be opened manually, and the quick spread of the fire took lives of helpless detainees.

I feel for all the family members of the dead and injured. Apart from Bolletjesslikkers who commited crime, there were innocent people who didn't even set a foot on Holland.

This can be seen as a freak accident, just another fire or something symbolic to where Rita's taking us to.

peace,

arata

Kandinsky, my little gem

I just got back from Kandinsky, nothing much to do with the artist himself, but in stead one of the most gezellig (cosy, nice) cafe's in Tilburg. It boasts about 200 beers, predominantly Belgian but also Dutch, Irish, English, German...you name it.

Today I had Maredsous 6 (6%) and Edelweiss (5.4%) both straight out of 'vat'. Edelweiss, a white beer from Austrian Alps, tastes like herb and was really lekker (yummie). Maredsous is a nice blond-beer too, little on the lighter side (blonds are usually between 6 and 7.5%) for an amber coloured beer, but in a way, quite refreshing.

Croix loved this place too, once he even managed to get a couple of unopened bottles of Kandinsky beer to bring back to Seattle!!!!
On Sundays they have Beer-tasting, 5 different beers in a smaller glass for 7.50 euro. I went there once on my own, and it started with a 6% beer, then 7.5, 8, 10 and to finish (me) off, 11%. I just wished I'd grabbed some food before I got there! A must if you visit Tilburg.

Oh and Paradox, a jazz/crossover/world/whatever joint is stone's throw away. Behind the little, somewhat shabby-looking facade you find the most ecclectic mix of music in town, and crowds equally so--me and Caroline had a blast here once! Man we got properly---jazzed.

The triple Maredsous with 10% alcohol content is one of the favourite beers of Michael Jackson, the outstanding beer ’pope’:
"These beers have long been my favourites. Above all the 10° is an especially tasty beer."

above is quoted from Maredsous website. and no, they don't mean THAY guy but this man.

Vertigo building, TUe

This is my architecture faculty. It used to be the Chemistry faculty bulding built in the 50s. It was totally stripped to bare structure, modified and rebuilt by a former student/architect Diederen Dirrix van Wylick. The staircase leading up to the foyer/lecture hall pictured on the left is designed so that the tread is not long enough for 2 steps but way too long to walk confortably in one step. Apart from that, ground-floor student workshop is airy, and so are the offices on the top 4 floors with its atrium. The facade is glass with green pattern printed on them, a bit like the University library in Utrecht by Wiel Arets and Associates. The grass field in front of it is perfect for lunch if weather permits! In all, a welcome change from TU Delft architecture faculty which is 50s brutalist concrete monolith. (although there you can smoke on the ground floor 'smoking area'--basically 3 tables and chairs no partition or nothin', which was cool) Also Vertigo, or so it's called, is right in front of the station--very handy for a commuter like me.

more info on Vertigo and Wiel Arets' new library
and forum about Sterling Prize 2005 where Vertigo/Wiel's library are briefly mentioned

One Self gig in Patronaat, Haarlem

She is Yarah Bravo, the cute singer of One Self, the new project of DJ Vadim, Blu Rum 13 and her. She stuck her stickers on me tiger t-shirt... Their new CD is pretty good too. Especially 'Bluebird' check them out on www.ninjatune.net or www.yarahbravo.com

The new Patronaat building is designed by Diederen Dirrix van Wylick Architecten, the architect who converted the old Chemistry building into our Architecture faculty at TU Eindhoven. Patronaat, with its bright red facade looks very nice seen across the canal.
www.patronaat.nl

'Bedkamer' by Lijs Vosselman

I met Lijs at this year's Robodock festival. I found this picture of her work on internet. Isn't it amazing? The contrast between warm colours of the surrounding and the cold bodies is wicked. It reminds me of old police crime-scene photos with somewhat biblical feel to it.
The original measures 233 x 175 cm

http://bloemen.galerie.artolive.com/
copyright Lijs Vosselman

Snorting coke on Dutch telly

On Monday nights on NOS2 (a Dutch public tv station), there is a program called "Spuiten en Slikken" (Literally, "Shooting and Boshing " or "Squirting and Swallowing ") being broadcasted.
It has been controvertial from the start when it was announced on news that someone from the program will be taking hard-drugs on camera.

The first episode contained one reporter (shown above) testing the effect of the 'worst drug', alcohol.
He got pissed with 2 girls in Amsterdam 'kroegen' (bars), puked a couple of times, started throwin beer glasses onto the street and couldn't remember much the next morning. (Was surprised how quickly he got pissed--the girls did better...)
Another guy/reporter went into a bedroom (and on the bed, a Dutch couple) built right next to where panels and presentator are sitting, came out 20 minutes later and declared--'I just had sex!' at which point Sophie the presentator became a bit abashed but really nieuwsgierig (curious).
So i see a task-division here. One guy does drug and the other explores sex---thus the double meaning of the name.

Yesterday, on the second showing, the same dude snorted a couple of lines of coke in his Golf before appearing in front of the audience, and had a discussion. One of the panels, a coke-expert added, somewhat carelessly, that in his experience, drinking alcohol at the same time had maximized his high.

The minister of justice, Mr Donner (kebab anyone?-----sorry....) has shown his concern to the public viewing of hard-drug consumption (obviously).

But to my amazement, the current Dutch drugs law ALLOWS pocession of hard-drugs upto 0.5 grams!!!!! I don't know how many lines you can make out of that, but my friend assures me that that is 'enough'. Of course selling or smuggling is illegal.

I actually missed yesterdays aflevering (episode), but if anyone is interested, here is the link to the last episode (Windows Mediaplayer stream)....enjoy!

hurrah!

me first post....

i'm a 1st year architecture student living in Tilburg, Holland. i'd like to post here my random thoughts about everything and anything, as they flow out of me head. if you can find something worth reading then i'll be very happy.

cheers,

arata