From Knowledge to Wisdom

Time Travel

Been time travelling.

My parents, in their nineties, are preparing to move from the family homestead of more than fifty years, to an apartment. My mother is boasting that she has not thrown out even a bus ticket since 1950. So I joined my brother and sister in getting some momentum into the process of emptying the house. My childhood and teenage years were in that house in that city. But that is a lifetime ago. Going back there raises so many memories that it is like going back in time. An effect reinforced by all the junk, stuff, books and memento's being brought to the surface. (My mother presented me with a fairly comprehensive collection of my artwork from primary school. A salutary confrontation.)

And the journey was seamlessly handled by the interconnecting components of the travel machine. Rather like the round green door of Bilbo's house, from which the road leads down and onward to a myriad places, the travel machine begins at the bus stop two minutes walk from my house. The bus stopped to pick me up on time at 13:54 on Friday and delivered me in eight minutes to the intercity station. As I ascended to the platform the intercity to the airport rolled in. Just time to grab a cappuccino from the Kiosk before the train departed - the marketing machine nibbled at me "normal cappuccino, sir, or would you like the winter cappuccino with a hint of cinnamon?".

There were only a few students in the afternoon train. Having been visiting university open days with Sophie in recent weeks, my mind has been wandering over the choices I made at that age. Another aspect of the time travel effect. I passed the time on the train with the opening chapters of "The Time Traveller's Wife".

Karwan and Ruth, Ruth and Karwan

Updated 2007-07-22

We recently paused at an important family milestone. On 30th June our daughter Ruth and her betrothed, Karwan, were married. The ceremony was in Amsterdam.

Family of the bride and groom came from far and wide - Italy, Poland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Switzerland. And many friends from Amsterdam, Eindhoven and elsewhere joined the celebration.

It was a special celebration in many ways - Ruth is the first of our children to marry. The bride and groom chose to give the ceremony and programme its own unique form. Most significant is their choice to marry as an expression of their commitment to one another at a time when it seems marriage is out of fashion and only indulged in by people in their thirties.

It was a civil marriage ceremony according to Dutch law, but around the legal process there were many elements reflecting the diversities of culture and world-views coming together in this union.

For several years both Karwan and Ruth have been active in the International Socialists. The choice of location for the ceremony reflects their world-view and historical awareness. The ceremony opened with an introduction to the building by their friend Maina. Catherine, sister of the bride, was master of ceremonies for the occasion and provided translation from Dutch to English where necessary.

Maina explained that De Burcht had been designed by Berlage at the end of the 19th century for the Diamond Workers Labour Union. At that time the diamond industry was the second most important industry in Amsterdam, with 10,000 employed. However the workers had not been strongly organized, being split along religious, Jewish and Christian, lines. Eventually a general strike took place involving all those engaged in the industry. Out of that strike the Diamond Workers Labour Union was established and Berlage, himself a socialist, had designed this building for them. The building now functions as a museum of the labour union movement.

Keeping Track of the Kids - the Court Case

The Case: The State against Catherine, Ruth, Marieke Mieke and Bram

Characters:
The accused: Catherine, Ruth, Marieke Mieke and Bram, members of the International Socialists, Amsterdam
The Public Prosecutor: a tall blond guy who could not communicate well
The Judge: a blond of about forty with a high intelligent forehead
Advocate for the defence: Jelle, one of the gang, looking very smart in his toga
Clerk of the Court
Three journalists
The public: concerned parents and close friends

The Scene:
A courtroom for criminal offences in the Amsterdam Courthouse, the Parnas Building designed by Ben Loerakker.

The charge:
Refusing to follow the instructions of a police officer according to Article 184 Section 1 of the Criminal Law of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

A Hearing in Eight Acts:
1. Identification
2. Introduction of the case
3. The accused tell their story
4. Review of the personal circumstances of the accused
5. The case for the prosecution
6. The case for the defence
7. Closing remarks
8. Judgement and sentence

Keeping Track of the Kids

The kids have made the AT5 News again. (Link to previous).

Basically the news item says the four students, members of the International Socialists, who were arrested on 10 November at the request of the Hogeschool Amsterdam, will be in court on Thursday. They regard their arrest as a restriction of their right to freedom of speech.

So we will be in court on Thursday to see if the judge is of the same opinion.

The Basics of Life

Four weeks ago, about lunchtime on Saturday, I was driving across town to pick up my wife from her Aglow meeting and listening to a discussion on the radio about our healthcare insurance system. We have a new insurance system in NL that is supposed to be more effective as it is driven by market forces. A director of one of the insurance companies said that the next great step forward should be the creation of a market in the delivery of the healthcare itself. His discussion partner, a socialist politician, responded that this was nonsense, maybe for people with a long-term condition some choice of healthcare provider would be useful, but if you have an accident or a heart attack you have to get quickly to the nearest hospital and all hospitals must be good.

Within half an hour an ambulance arrived for my wife who had slipped and fallen in her meeting room and was stuck on the floor in pain. The first question the ambulance crew asked was, "Which hospital do you want to go to?" How do you make that choice, lying on the floor in pain with a suspected fracture of something? Anyway, E. came up with the answer  "St Anna".

Keeping Track of the Kids

Catherine phones home today: "just to let you know we were arrested (again) for a while this afternoon". The piece on AT5 Nieuws roughly translates as:

Anti Verdonk Activists Arrested
Four activists were arrested on Thursday afternoon at the Amsterdam College (Hogeschool) because they were collecting signatures in favour of the resignation of Rita Verdonk. The International Socialist activists were demanding Verdonk's resignation because of the fire on Schiphol which cost the lives of eleven people. According to the  Socialists "the arrests are a continuation of the police policy which lead to the earlier forcible removal of protest banners against Verdonk from house fronts." The police arrested the activists on the grounds of breach of the peace".

According to the news reports their arrest by the police was initiated by the College management. The police sent four cars to arrest four students who were peacefully collecting signatures on a petition.

After being held in a police cell for six hours and questioned about the organisation of the protest they were suddenly released without charge. Theories about what triggered their release include that the national TV news were onto the story, it is a good follow up to the police removing the protest banners. But bad news for Job Cohen, Mayor of Amsterdam, his speech at the memorial to Theo van Gogh last week was full of stuff about Amsterdam being a great place for liberty and freedom of speech.

Dutch Police Beating Students

See the attached mpeg video file. Download maagdenhuis.mpg This shows Dutch police beating students with their batons. Two of my daughters are somewhere in there. This took place on the night of 28 February / 1 March 2005 at the Maagdenhuis in Amsterdam, the head office of the University of Amsterdam. There is an honourable tradition of students occupying the Maagdenhuis in protest. On this occasion the students were protesting about government policy on education.

The main part of the plan about which they are protesting is a voucher scheme that is intended to create a market in education with the idea that students can easily switch from one institution to another. In this way it is expected that quality of education will improve because the universities will be competing for students.

The Minister of Education, Mr Rutte, claims that expenditure on education is being maintained, whereas over the last twenty years there has been a steady rise in the number of students going into higher education without a comparable increase in funding.

The week before this took place Mr Rutte, in a television broadcast, challenged the students to protest about his plans by, for example, occupying a building. The student organizations are now making a legal case against the minister for provocation of public violence. He challenged the students to occupy a building. When they did, he refused to appear for negotiations. The Governors of the university requested the police to break the protest which lead the violence you see on the film. The people inside the building, where there were no cameras, were being treated more violently than you see here.

I find it ironic that this took place around the same time that the EU authorities were publishing self-righteous indignation at the treatment of a women's protest by police in Turkey.

Not so long ago Dutch law was passed which makes it illegal for me to beat my children. But apparently it is ok for the police to beat them.

What do things like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights mean? At what point does the rule of law in a democratic society flip over into the beginnings of the slippery slope to oppression?

NL prides itself in being at the leading edge of civilisation. Nevertheless, it seems that when issues get hot between the people and their government, ritual application of the government monopoly in the exercise of violence still has to be part of the communication and negotiation process. Democracy and dialogue are not yet fully functional means of running a civilised country.

The Minister of Education is trying to introduce more market forces in the education system. I wonder if the Minister of Justice has similar plans that would, for example, enable the students to choose which police unit applies the ritual beatings.

See more details at LSVB student union   Maagdenhuis Bezet