Month: April 2005




  • I try to keep my work and private life as separate as I can. But sometimes fate, karma, destiny or whatever just makes it impossible to hold on to that principle. This morning, I walked into my office and had a quick look at the press releases of the prosecution service on my computer screen, just one of those daily, mechanical habits of mine, almost as routine-driven as my half-hourly trips to the coffee machine. One headline in particular caught my attention: an alderman on the city council of a town in the south of the Netherlands had been arrested.  Although not quite in the same league as the recent family killings or the utch Hannibal?story of a few months ago, news items like this are relatively uncommon so I read the full story.



    Within minutes after I read it I was on the phone telling Ren嶪 that a cousin of her mother -who indeed is an alderman for the liberal party in that particular city which also happens to be the place of birth of Ren嶪 mother- had been arrested and charged with child molestation. Apparently, back in the nineties, this 61 y/o man had been molesting a teenage boy for several years. This boy, now a 25 y/o, had been arrested on unrelated assault charges, but during the investigation the police had discovered that he had been planning a murder attempt on this alderman.
    Why? The detectives asked. Well, when I was just a kid, there was this alderman who?/FONT>



    Our prosecution service is just like any other; theye not in the habit of detaining people with a high public profile on the basis of a mere hunch, the repercussions for doing so would be swift and severe. So my guess is that the evidence must be pretty firm, otherwise they would have chosen a more discrete approach. Instead, the alderman was arrested like a common criminal and carted off to the local jail.


     


    Although the case is as sad and sordid as any other of its kind, there are two aspects that make it stand out from the rest. At least to Ren嶪 and me. First of all, it a cousin of Ren嶪 mother, and secondly, because of his public profile, it will get enough media attention; her mother won be able to feign ignorance.
    Given the fact that Ren嶪 mother has a history of total denial when it comes to the abuse of her own daughter, and avoids any confrontation however remotely related to these matters, having a well-liked and respected family member in jail on molestation charges must have really rattled her cage. Yet another sign that all not well with some of the people she trusts and respects.


     


    Ren嶪 and I know that it must really bother her because she always used to describe her cousin as a respected member of his community, a family member who done well in life with a cheerful character, someone whom we should certainly visit should we ever be in the neighbourhood. Yeah right. Just tell me where and when...



    My guess is that there are precious few confidants with which she can discuss the case, because child abuse is very much a no-go area for her. Wel see how things develop. But it seems that the whole abuse issue just got more intense, and it definitely getting harder for Ren嶪 mother to keep avoiding the subject.








  • This week's photo_challenge is hosted by nevragn , the subject is: Let's go junkin'


    That's me behind my what used to be my desk, but is now pushed into service as My Personal Junkyard. It's a multi-layered, seismically unstable platform of miscellany, including such items as magazines, bottles (this week: mineral water and Pennypacker Sour Mash whiskey), nuts and bolts, small and not-so-small tools, computer kit, empty packaging, DVDs, and a Disneyland Indiana Jones Fedora. The big red object on the right is the Junk Generator. It's one of the many projects that stand between me and my precious Xanga time...



    On a more serious note, those of you who thought The Netherlands was all about windmills, wooden shoes and tulips and lots of comfort and security: it's not true. At least not as far as the security department is concerned. Crime and violent incidents are as common over here as in any other West-European country. And my job with the prosecution service secures me a royal view on all that's wrong with this nation.


    In January, a mother living in a town less than 7 miles from here, killed her two young children before jumping in front of a train. And yesterday, the details of another such horror were released to the press. Three weeks ago, a man from the same town, killed his wife and two children, and then reported them missing. To add insult to injury, all of the children involved in these killings, went to the same elementary school. It will be the second time this year, these schoolchildren will have to bid a couple of their murdered schoolmates farewell. I don't see how they can possibly be expected to feel safe as they grow up.
    And last week, a police officer in a place near Amsterdam, used his service pistol to kill his wife and their three young boys, before pulling the trigger on himself.     Is it something in the air??!!! I don't consider myself particularly squeamish, but when files like these pile up on my desk within a few months, I really wish I had another job.







  • Hmmmmphhh! My computer just died on me. Seems that we're in one of those cycles during
    which electronic devices suddenly and mysteriously kick the bucket in lemming-like numbers.
    First the wash dryer gave up on us followed by Ren嶪's camera, and so now it's my puter's turn.
    I've narrowed the problem down to its mainboard, and I'm sure I'll have this contraption working
    again by tomorrow evening. But until then I'll just have to bear that most uncomfortable, yet
    indefinable feeling, akin to flying a supersonic fighter at Mach 1 through a canyon, only to discover
    that the joystick has broken off.


    The experience has given me a valuable insight into Ren嶪's feelings concerning her camera that
    is currently under repair. In spite of the obscene number of cameras lying around our house (digital,
    film, underwater, you name it), she strongly prefers -to put it mildly- her OWN camera. Just like I want
    my OWN computer back in working order as soon as possible. Which of course is bleedin' nonsense 
    considering the fact that I'm writing this post on one of the six other computers...     
    I think I'll take a day off from work to get this little project under way as soon as possible.






  • History


    This week's photo challenge subject is history and is hosted by the Queen of Swords.


    The Hague (or Den Haag as Ren嶪 and I call it) is an old city, dating back to the 12th century, not counting the Roman settlements that once stood here. Much of its history can be traced back through its architecture. Ren嶪 covered the old city centre pretty exhaustively, but there are a few things of my own I'd like to add.


     



     


    (l.) Central Station area, thoroughly modern and not without a reason - I'll come back to that. (c.) 18th c. square, station area can be seen in the background. (r.) Drugstore facade, with so-called "yawner" above its entrance, which was a way of advertising your business to the illiterate medieval masses. The coat-of-arms at the top indicates that this particular shop has earned the title of Purveyor to Her Majesty The Queen. She may actually buy her aspirins there, since her offices are only a few hundred yards away.


     



     


     


     


     


     


     


     


     


     


    (l.) This street is called the Groenmarkt (lit.: green market) where vegetables used to be sold. We also have streets called river fish market, or pig's market. You can find similarly named streets throughout Europe's cities, and I'd expect to find them in the eastern US as well. (c.) A cafe in one the aisles of the Great Church. If anything, the Dutch have always had a liberal outlook on life. (r.) Denneweg (Fir Street), an 18th c. shopping street. Nowadays most of its shops are considered pretty upmarket by Dutch standards.


     



     


    (l.) A quaint (love that word) little silverware shoppe, wedged between two other buildings. (c.) Plein 1813 (1813  Place) commemorates the year Napoleon was defeated, and The Netherlands reverted to its status of independent monarchy. (r.) My daily view from my office window. It's located between the modern Central Station area, and the pre-WW II city quarter called Bezuidenhout, where my highschool still stands and where I used to play a lot as a kid. I realise that the outlook from my office doesn't exactly treat you to a pre-war residential area, let alone a medieval one.


     



     


    Obviously, the photos above are not my own, but they explain the modern character of the Bezuidenhout and Central Station areas. On March 3, 1945, as the 2nd World War in the European theatre was closing to an end, this part of the city was accidentally bombed by a flight of more than 50 allied bombers, dropping more than 65 tons of high-explosive ordnance on the unsuspecting population. At the time, all of The Netherlands was occupied by the nazis and the targets should have been the German V-rocket launching sites, some two miles to the north-west.
    Unfortunately and for reasons that have never been explained, the first wave of bombers dropped their bombs on the Bezuidenhout area and the adjoining Central Station area. The following waves followed the first bombers without checking their position and dropped their bombs as well, eventually leaving 500 citizens dead and thousands of others homeless. Adding insult to injury, the Germans resumed their V2-rocket attacks on England that same night since their launching sites had remained intact throughout the bombardment. One of the missiles however, veered off course shortly after having been launched and slammed into nearby Bezuidenhout that had been all but obliterated that very same morning. The impact of the V2-rocket killed 8 fireman who were still battling the firestorms caused by the bombardment. I remember that as a kid, I used to play between the mounds of debris that you could still find here and there in the late sixties.


     


    (r.) Aerial shot, mid-90s, showing the present lay-out of the bombed area, and the positions of my office and my old highschool. (c.) A KLM Aerocarto picture taken from one of my highschool's reunion albums, showing the devastated area shortly after the war in The Netherlands ended in May 1945. (r.) A national archive pic taken days after the bombardment.