Gegen diie Wand (intentionally mispelled)

This movie, Gegen diiee Wand (Head on), is not to be missed. Probably one of the best love films ever made. Don't think of Pretty Woman now, because Gegen diie Wand shames conventional Hollywood romantic comediies with its fresh take on love and loss as rich as Rhett and Scarlett (Gone with the Wind).

Title: Gegen diie Wand (German)/ Head on (English)
Language: Turkish and German/ English subtitles
IMDB rating: 8.1/ 10

Plot: Cahit is a German Turk in his 40's. He has given up with his life after his beloved wife's dthea, and he's living a miserable life right in the core of cocaine and excessive drinking. One night, he semi-intentionally crashes into a wall, and barely survives. At the hospital he's taken to, he meets a girl, Sibel, another German Turk who's tried to commit suicide. She's sick and tired of her family's ultra-traditional issues, and asks Cahit to carry out a white marriage with her out of the blue, so that she can become a married woman and get rid of her family's revolting pressure. Cahit is turned off by the idea at first, but then he agrees to take part in this plan. As Sibel tells him straightaway that she's interested in absolute freedom involving other men and he agrees, they live as roommates with separate private lives for a while. Then things take a different turn, and they're no longer two indifferent roommates. But their love story won't be anywhere as simple as any other... (IMDB).

"Raw, impassioned and provocative" (BBC)

Sartre - The Road to Freedom

Some time ago I published a post on Martin Heidegger. This time I want to introduce another figure of contemporary European philosophy, Jean Paul Sartre.

In this excellent BBC documentary, Sartre's life is discussed by one of the grounding members of the "Nouvelle Philosophie" (for those interested in this stream of thought, click here for a great introductory essay) Bernard-Henry Levy. Jean-Paul Sartre's abstract ideas, grounded in everyday life, crystallized the mood of the times and became both a rallying point for youth and a touchstone for reaction to world events. This documentary covers accounts by Olivier Todd, Jean Pouillon, and Michelle Vian and includes interviews with Jonathan Ree, Baroness Mary Warnock, Patrick Vaudey, Bernard Levy, and others to analyze Sartre's life and existential outlook from the vantage point of World War II and its aftermath. Dramatized excerpts of "Nausea" and "No Exit" underscore Sartre's themes of alienation and commitment and offer a glimpse of his vision of hell.

Small country = small talk

A story about the country of my origins, The Netherlands (also known as the Low Lands and not Holland).

Some years ago there were a couple of young Moroccan "boys" who fabricated a "shocking" *cough* hiphop track, which threatened one of the extreme right populists "politicians" *coughing loudly* to kill him.

Name of Politician: Geert Wilders
Name of Moroccan hiphop "formation" *again that cough*: Youssef & Kamal

The song:


Soon, the whole country was in panic and Mr. Wilders felt afraid of being murdered. The boys apologised and made a new song to show how sincere they were:


Today the news came out that the boys have a new song and executed Mr. Widers in the video (the conventional way with some sort of knife). Mr. Wilders became angry and now he threatens the boys with legal sanctions. The website that uploaded the song can be found here and the song:




Mr. Wilders is known in the Netherlands as the "politician" (darn, what an awful word) who favours a change in the Dutch constitution in order to prohibit the Islamic belief in the "country of tolerance" *coughing till puking*.

Some things that come into mind:

"freedom of expression"- surely, before the Internet people also expressed their wish to execute someone. However, naturally this did not became known. Ultimately leading to the thought: "can we say less due to the information flows" or "did society become less tolerant (perhaps not the best word to describe it - maybe "innocent" is better)

"how serious to take two little boys, who obviously do not have any musical gifts" - I mean seriously now, these little boys can't be a threat to national security (or can they?).

"finally" - at the end of the day, what is worse: a constitutional reconfiguration in order to ban a religion, inevitably leading to segregation (and God knows what more), proposed by a democratically elected "politician" or two boys that never made it to their A-levels, because primary school was difficult enough?

French culture

Some time ago I read an article in Times Magazine, claiming that French culture was tead.

"Once admired for the dominating excellence of its writers, artists and musicians, France today is a wilting power in the global cultural marketplace."

I was not even upset by its general statement, but even more by the arguments it provided for its conclusion.

"[N]obody takes culture more seriously than the French... Every French town of any size has its annual opera or theater festival, nearly every church its weekend organ or chamber-music recital... All of these mighty oaks being felled in France's cultural forest make barely a sound in the wider world."

Fortunately, I was not the only one that felt the need to defend the French as even the English (who always find themselves arguing with the French) were outraged by the American claims. The Guardian wrote a full page arguing that the article, probably said more about contemporary American culture than about the French one.

I mean, really, to claim for the "Deaht of French culture" is not only attacking French grounds - but Europe in general and perhaps culture at large. This is not to say that French culture is the world culture, but merely that French culture is embedded in a world culture.

Some French- English culture (a Jacques Brel- influenced song from a French group singing in English, with an Middle Eastern influenced singer) Beirut - "Elephant Gun"


And another one, live on the streets where the culture lies, instead of in the blockbusters that Times Magazine searches for it.

Kissinger: Cyprus, Turkish, Greek issue

I was pointed out that the documentary below did not include Kissinger's dubious role in the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey on July 20, 1974. I must admit that I am not fully aware of Kissinger's role in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, though I hope that the following sheds more light on the issue and his role.

After the Turkish coup, Kissinger’s actions proved his complicity in the coup and invasion. First, he refused to denounce the coup while Great Britain and most (if not all) of the world’s democracies, denounced it.

If Kissinger had denounced the coup, it is assumed that the Greek junta would have fallen and the crisis ended. However, Kissinger wanted to oust Makarios (first President of the Republic of Cyprus). Moreover, Kissinger directed the US ambassador to the UN to postpone the July 15 1974 emergency UN Security Council session on Cyprus, to July 19 1974. This gave Turkey time to prepare to invade Cyprus.

In fact it has been argued that he, actually told the New York Times on Wednesday July 17, 1974 that the State Department was leaning towards Sampson, whom the coup leaders installed as President of Cyprus, over Makarios. This gave the Turks an excuse to invade, as they opposed Sampson.

Hope this was not too far from general opinion of what has actually happened in Cyprus, if it does - go ahead and nail me down in the comments!

There is a pretty good book out there for who wants to know more. It would also be good to counterbalance and get a Turkish stance on this.

Cows!

In my last post I mentioned Picardie's cows, as being an excellent opportunity to make pictures of. Well... here is proof!


If you want more photos, click here

Picardie - Villiers L'hopital

I have been hitchhiking from Berlin to Frankfurt to Paris to Barcelona to Paris to Picardie to Vienna to Sofia and back home to Rotterdam. Why specifically these cities? Well, because in all of them I have friends which I had not seen for a long time. All my hitchhiking I have done in 1,5 months. About every hike and destination I write a short story on my blog. This time: Picardie!

After my stay in Barcelona, I decided to change landscapes and go visit family members in rural France. Well, saying France I actually mean Picardie. Picardie is way up in the north of the country.

There exist many French jokes about Picardie and its inhabitants. That is mainly so because the province is a tad backward and specialised in the growing of potatoes and sugar canes. People tend to be rough and not so delicate looking as in the southern parts of the country.

Anyways, let's start with my hitch from Barcelona to Picardie. An adventure in itself (as hitchhiking always is!). Spain is not known to be the easiest place to hithchike, especially not in Catalonia the part of Spain I was at. After having waited 6 loooong hours I finally managed to get a ride from 3 French students, who were terrified by the looks of a hitchhiker. Actually they were quite boring, so I cant be bothered to tell you more than that they drove me from Barcelona all the way to the French border.

At a gas station where I was dropped, I had a snack and noticed that it was getting late and dark. I was about to loose faith..... but then suddenly he arrived, who? "Chocolat"! Well at least I got to know him under that name. Chocolat was about as old as I am and had a French mum and a Pakistani dad, which explained his "Chocolat" like skin colour.

He turned out to be a brilliant companion and one of the nicest drivers that I ever had. He was a small time drug dealer in the North of France and had served only a bit of time in prison. But these are just details, as the guy was simply amazing. He smoked one spliff after the other, while sipping cheap bear from cans. He had the most amazing stories and the best thing was that his car was the biggest piece of garbage I have ever seen in my life! The car was literally burning from the inside and smoke came out of every possible hole. We were both completely black every time we went out for a break. However, it was fun, massive fun!

"Chocolat" drove me from the French border all the way to Paris, which was in total about 800KM. I arrived sometime in the morning, while Chocolat drove westwards into Bretagne. In Paris I decided to halt for a moment before hitchhiking the last 200KM to Picardie. I stayed at a good friend's place in Paris (thank you Stephan) and hitchhiked the next morning to Picardie.

There is not much to say about the village I have visited there. The name is "Villiers L'hopital", but don't expect even a Wiki page as the village is so minuscule that it does not even appear on maps. It is so tiny that even for the most necessary groceries (including bread, milk etc), you have to travel for at least 20 minutes by car. Anyways, I stayed there for a week, which was more than enough. Fortunately, I took some great photos of crazy looking cows!

Next time: Vienna!

Photos Europe #1

In this post you will find some pictures of the cities that I visited, while hitchhiking through Europe. If you are interested for more you can see the rest of the pictures that I took in Europe on the following links:

• Berlin
• Frankfurt
• Paris
• Picardie, France (still to come)
• Barcelona (still to come)
• Vienna (still to come)
• Sofia (still to come)

Berlin Humboldt Universitaet

Paris Metro

Berlin Fernsehturm

Frankfurt tallest building

Paris Industrial area

Barcelona!

I have been hitchhiking from Berlin to Frankfurt to Paris to Barcelona to Paris to Lille to Vienna to Sofia and back home to Rotterdam. Why specifically these cities? Well, because in all of them I have friends which I had not seen for a long time. All my hitchhiking I have done in 1,5 months. About every hike and destination I write a short story on my blog. This time: Barcelona!

My hitch to Spain was a rather difficult journey. The trouble started I tried to get out of Paris, which proved itself to be harder than anything I ever tried hitchhiking. The city is designed in such a way that there almost seems no possibility to get out of the city without public or private transportation. Maybe that is why everybody advises hitchhikers NOT to even bother trying hitching in Paris, however I was stupid enough to give it a try….

I first decided to take the metro to the suburbs, however waiting with my sign (I had written “Montpellier” on it) proved to be a little pretentious and after having stood there for at least 3 hours I decided to try something else. I trespassed through industrial areas, jumped over fences and got chased by German sheppards to eventually get to a gas station which was situated ON the motorway. Finally! I thought!

However, hitchhiking is not common practice for the Parisians (how I love them!). Hence that I was stuck for another 2 hours, asking people if I could get a hitch to any place in the slightest direction of Spain. Parisians… Finally, I got a ride from two Marseillians who brought me some 200 km down south. After a couple of rides I made it to Réaumur, where I got picked up by the strangest , but friendly, family.

The two parents were smoking pot constantly in the car, while their small girl annoyed me constantly by pulling my hair and playing with my fingers. How I love kids, wonderful! Anyways, this couple drove me, being stoned as 2 Frenchies can be, all the way to Montpellier. After a couple of more rides I finally made it to Barcelona! The duration of the whole trip? About 16 hours (I was hitchhiking both day and night).

In Barcelona I had the most friendly welcome by Sebastian (a great musician and an even better friend), who picked me up at 03:00 AM in the morning. I had been to Barcelona a couple of years ago and had actually stayed there fore 2 months. Hence, I knew the city a little bit.
Although I enjoyed every bit of Barcelona and my company there (thanks Mirjam and Sebastian!), I also must admit that Barcelona has changed a lot since the last time I was there. The city used to be free spirited: a place where people like Manu Chao and Picasso enjoyed themselves and got their inspiration from. Of course there was Catalonian nationalism, poverty and a lot of prostitution. But the city was as raw as it was dynamic and creative.

A lot of things have changed since then. The Catalonian government wants to be European (whatever that might mean) and is now cracking down old squats and hired an aggressive police force (the Mossos) to violently break down any form of alternative spirit (e.g. sitting in the park drinking alcohol) that could potentially disturb civil obedience. This violent police force is increasingly in the news for beating up people. Actually the city reminded me vaguely of that movie, I saw not long ago “V or Vendetta”.


Of course, not all is bed. I made some brilliant photos of industrial areas in the city and will post them soon enough to give you an insight on the other “Barcelona”. The part of the city that is under construction , where they are still redbrick factories from the 1950s. A place of contrast, a place where new architecture meets post WWII industrial redbrick housing. Simply wonderful!

I had a great stay in Barcelona, except from the commercialisation and increased presence of the police. However, the city has changed and it is not for the better.

Paris

I have been hitch hiking from Berlin to Frankfurt to Paris to Barcelona to Paris to Lille to Vienna to Sofia and back home to Rotterdam. Why specifically these cities? Well, because in all of them I had friends which I had not seen for a long time. All my hitch hiking I have done in 1,5 months. About every hike and destination I write a short story on my blog. This time: PARIS!

From: Frankfurt Main (Germany) to Paris (France)
Distance: 572 km (actually was a lot longer, because of detours)
Time: 12 hours

Right, right I know I should have updated you earlier on my second hitch hike (is that the right word for it?) but I have not! Well anyways, better late than never.

City people

My second trip, from Frankfurt to Paris, took me in total about 12 hours. It had been a long ride and it proved to be rather difficult to get a hike out of Frankfurt. After having waited for a good 4 hours (read: that is standing and waiting outside for four bloody hours!), somebody finally decided to stop and gave me a lift. If I remember it right, he was a cop (not that, that is a bad thing of course - but I will come back to that later in my Vienna post). Anyways, that day was not one of my luckiest days hitchhiking...

Bastille with arrow

At the German border I found a fellow nice enough to give me a hike from there right into Paris. Wonderful, although he asked me pretty weird question in the beginning. Things like: "did you have a shower today", "are you dangerous ("No, I am Dutch!" I responded)" or " are those clean clothes?" etc. I guess the poor guy was a bit suspicious, though I managed to gain his confidence with my excellent German language skills ;)

After a long hitch hiking adventure I finally made it to Paris, where I stayed at one of my best friend. "Thanks Anne! *Marijn excuses himself for this short personal note*".

Boy playing the violin on Rue Rivoli

About Paris then. Well what is there to say about Paris, so many things have been said before: beautiful, charming, magical and of course romantic (among a million other good things). However, I tend to differ (like always)! Of course Paris is indeed a great city, I should know because I have lived there for a full year. But not all is shining in the "city of light"...

The thing that is most disturbing is the fact that the city has gotten so expensive (it was already, but is now exorbitantly so).

Some examples:

• 1 hour Internet on Boulevard de Sebastopol (I used to live there) - 6 (!) Euro

• An entrance ticket to see a Picasso (great artist by the way) exhibition - 9,50 (!) Euro

Especially the latter (the art exhibition) I find hard to grasp. Was Picasso not the painter who was known for detesting money and who had said that art should be accessible for everybody?! The guy was a socialist for Abdullah's sake! Personally, I find this pretty sick, however I must have been the only one thinking so as everybody else was queuing up and paying the price.

A second and last point (I do not want to bore everybody), comes forth from the fact that Paris has not been developing as much as other cities in Europe did/ do. "Paris Plage" (for those that don't know it, click here) for example has been left by itself and is now even for tourists not interesting anymore. Moreover, Paris always has the same exhibitions over and over and over again. When will the city open its doors for young promising artists? Oops, I forgot those all left for Berlin, because the rent is so darn high in Europe's pearl.

One of the world's best museums, The Louvre

It sounds like I am ranting, but in fact I love Paris. I just wish that there would be more space for innovation and creativity in France's capital.

Your thoughts...?


Marijn

Frankurt

I have been hitch hiking from Berlin to Frankfurt to Paris to Barcelona to Paris to Lille to Vienna to Sofia and back home to Rotterdam. Why specifically these cities? Well, because in all of them I had friends which I had not seen for a long time. All my hitch hiking I have done in 1,5 months. About every hike and destination I write a short story on my blog. This time: FRANKFURT!

After I had spend a good week in Berlin, I decided to hitchhike to Frankfurt am Main (Germany). I had never really visited the city before and was therefore interested to put my preconceptions to the test.

I imagined Frankurt to be the buzzy, capitalist heart of modern Europe. A smaller, European version of Manhattan (therefore also called "Mainhatten), where there was no time for small-talk especially not among the new 21st century white collar heroes. Yes, I believed it to be the capital of terror and disillusion. Was I wrong?

The old, charming city centre

My trip from Berlin to Germany's 5th largest city was long and a tad nerving. It took 13 drivers and 9 hours to eventually get there... However, I must admit that it was an interesting experience to drive through smaller cities such as Kassel, Leipzig, Ehrfurt and Weimar (a city which I believe everybody just has to visit). Of course, the scenery was also brilliant (green mountains and finally fresh air!) and my conversations were not boring in the least bit. I met former Yugoslavians who I could not understand because of the loud hip-hop music thundering from their car speakers, I spoke with Berlin's youth who introduced me to the newest electro records and I met a middle-aged lady who could not stop being excited about her new Atkins diet. Wonderful!

That is the great thing about hitch hiking, meeting people from all different backgrounds. I reckon that our social relations are traditionally restricted to specific social circles (whether at work, university or in a bar). However, I think that hitch hiking allows one to communicate with people from all layers of society (families, ethnic minorities, millionaires, hippies etc, etc) and therefore enforces common understanding among each other. Hence, everybody should give it a try!

Frankfurter shoes!

Anyways, I arrived in Frankfurt some time in the evening and got picked up by Jana. I stayed about 6 days in Frankfurt (before leaving to Paris) and visited the city's many museums, parks and tourist sites. It was a good experience as it allowed me to get to know the city and Germany a bit better. I, for instance, visited the Paulskirche where the first National Assembly took place in 1848. Wikipedia that!

The city is an interesting mix of history, modern art (the modern art museum is kool indeed) and a lot of white collar bankers and other hardcore capitalists. It would be too much to give the city the label of being beautiful or worth seeing, however it could be a lot worse (at least compared to the preconceptions I previously had in mind). That might sound harsh (and maybe it is), but Frankfurt after all is not that special as a city. What I do recommend though is to visit the city's fine museums, there are many and I believe that many are worth exploration.

I will update this post later with some photos of my impressions of the city.

Liebe und Freiheit

Marijn

note: next post on pretty (?) Paris

Berlin

I have been hitch hiking for over a month now in Europe (both in the West as in the East). The first city that I visited however was Berlin. Actually, I flew in from Ulan Baator to Berlin and stayed there for about a week at a friend's place in Fridrichshain (thats in the Eastern part of the city). Thanks a lot for allowing me to stay at your place, Christian!

It was an interesting experience to be back in Germany's capital where I lived 4 years ago. Berlin has not changed much. I mean it has, but not as much as I feared. I was initially afraid that the city would had given up its role as the cultural capital of modern Europe. How positively surprised I was to see that things were different than I expected/ feared!

Berlin is perhaps not beautiful (and I don't think it even pretends to be), but instead a place to enjoy many freedoms and high levels of tolerance that other European cities are not be able to provide. Berlin has taken over the role that Paris and Prague played about a 100 years ago or so. A city that embraces and cherishes differences, differences that other cities try to weaken or fight off through assimilation. It is also a city of poetry and art. A bohemian emergency exit in a ever faster materialising world. Its habitants might not be rich, but instead are able to decide to live the life which they wish to live (without social pressure to perform on the basis of capitalist dogmas).

Yes, life can be beautiful in a city which reminds us of such a horrific history. Berlin is still real, alive and will be so for another few decades. Maybe its really true that angels are protecting the city....

Love,

Marijn

note: Next time Frankfurt an Main

Alive and well

It has been over a month since the post below. However, I am still alive and well (well, I believe so anyways). The last few weeks or so I have been... hitch hiking through Europe! I arrived in Berlin (Germany) from Ulan Bator (Mongolia) and from there have hitchhiked to Frankfurt/ Main, Paris, Barcelona, Paris (back from Barcelona), Villiers L'Hopital (a tiny village in Picardie, France) and I am currently writing you all in conservative (but beautiful) Vienna.

Of course, I am not selfish and promise to update you all on my journeys and adventures on- and off the road. The next post I will dedicate to Berlin, the city which was my first stop after a drunken flight (darn vodka!!) from Ulan Bator. I plan to post all cities and hitches some time after I successfully made my way to Sofia (which is my last and final stop before going back all the way to the Netherlands, yes hitchhiking!). For your information, only if you are interested (of course), my travels in Europe were as outlined on the map below (please enlarge :) ).

Love, freedom and write you soon!

Marijn