This story might jolt some bloggers. After reading this story I thought: "Hey, bloggers are journalists."

What happened was this:

Dutch blogger Retecool placed on his blog a copy of an article by a magazine called The Sprout which alleges that there has been a conspiracy to protect a pedophile ring surrounding the Marc Dutroux case.

The Sprout is a printed newsletter co-published by Gawain Towler, a senior advisor to the British Conservative Party in the European Parliament. As evidence for the allegations it makes, The Sprout included photographs from the autopsies of two of Dutroux's alleged victims, Julie and Melissa. The Sprout's claim is the photographs show that the children were beaten to death while the official version is that they starved to death. If they were indeed beaten to death, Marc Dutroux couldn't have done it because he was in jail at the time of their deaths. This would also support Dutroux's claim that he was not responsible for their deaths. [Although, of course, he is a monster just from what he has confessed.] One also wonders how and why somebody like Gawain Towler came to be in posession of the photos.

In any case, before that edition of The Sprout could reach the newsstands, a lawyer acting for the parents of Julie and Melissa obtained a court order seizing all copies of the newsletter because it violated the privacy of the parents, and enjoining The Sprout from publishing the photos.

Dutch blogger Retecool probably thought the whole thing stunk, so he placed a copy of the article and the photos on his blog. He promptly received a letter from the same lawyers demanding that he remove the photos and article from his site and requiring him to pay 5,000 euros (about $5,750) in damages.

So being an unresourced blogger he has removed the story and photos from his blog.

What occurs to me is that this is a classic freedom of the press issue. If what The Sprout claims is true, the public has a right, indeed a necessity, to know. Does this outweigh the rights of the parents to privacy? In my opinion it should. There is also a jurisdiction aspect here. In the United States freedom of speech and the press is more respected and guaranteed than in Europe.

But being honest, how would the average blogger anywhere react to getting threatening letters from lawyers? As a rule bloggers don't have any journalistic training or an organization to fall back on, or funds to fight legal battles. But there's no real distinction legally between bloggers and journalists. We're often basically doing the same job so we face the same hazards.

I must add that I haven't seen the autopsy photos myself (nor do I want to). I have read the article, it is cached as HTML on Google. I treat it's claims with caution, but it does make some serious and worrying allegations and asks some as yet unanswered questions.

This is absolutely bizarre:

The Erstes Wiener Gemüseorchester plays music on fresh vegetables.

If you're curious what zucchinis and carrots sound like, listen here to:

the Radetzky march
letschko 74
ambiente
(all in Real Media format)

The sound of 40 kg of finely tuned cucumbers, leeks, potatoes, radishes, peppers, aubergines and marrows entertained a German audience at a weekend concert by the Viennese Vegetable Orchestra.

The nine-piece orchestra plays a range of original compositions on instruments constructed from vegetables - including a flute made from a carrot, a saxophone carved out of a cucumber and a pumpkin converted into a double bass.

"I would never have thought you could get sound out of a cucumber," a young woman at the concert said.

Others commented on the raw vegetable aroma accompanying the melodies.
ABC News Online, 25 May 2004

Jorg Piringer, the lead musician, plays a "gurkophone" horn made from a hollowed cucumber, a green pepper and a carrot reed. Fresh vegetables are bought for each concert. Afterwards, a cook adds them to a big pot of soup or stew for the musicians and audience to eat.
Telegraph, 26 May 2004

See also: Transaccoustic Research

For do-it-yourself lovers: How to turn a rubber glove into your own bagpipes (parental supervision advisable)

A week ago I went to a debate about the elections for the European parliament. There were candidates from left and right-wing parties, and the centrist parties too.

I noticed that one theme was common to all the parties: the need for a strong Europe to counter "Mr. Bush". While none of the parties were for Europe becoming a military power, all of them saw the need for a united Europe to withstand American pressure. Implicit in this argumentation is a call for a more independent Europe and the decoupling of Europe and America.

This is not due only to European dreams of grandeur. The Bush administration has frightened the wits out of many Europeans. No matter what line their national governments take, a large majority of Europeans have grave misgivings about President Bush's motives. He is not seen as a friend of Europe.

While I understand and empathize with these concerns, and I do feel that a more assertive Europe would be a good thing, I also find this line of thinking worrying.

For one thing this attitude seems to be solely aimed at the United States. I don't hear anyone saying that a strong Europe is necessary to offset the immense economic (and hence political) power China will have in the future.

The goal of US foreign policy has always been to project American power and protect American intests, and the Bush adminstration is following distinctly imperialistic policies. (To be honest, Bush and his cronies are a really scary bunch in European eyes.) But the EU also pursues its interests and subsidized exports to the detriment of other countries and the ruination of third-world farmers.

In the long run, however, North America and Europe are natural allies and partners. In a way, the US and Canada are Europe in the new world. It is true that there are differences across the Atlantic, but there are big cultural differences between European countries too. Spain and Sweden are very different. I am not sure at all that what the world needs is a lasting split and a power struggle between the EU and the US. In general US and European (and Japanese) interests coincide.

I suppose it could be argued that this new-found need for a strong Europe might actually be due to a void left by the waning of American power and the US distancing itself from the international partnerships it formerly regarded as vital. Or that the slow dwindling of the world's resources means that Europe and the US are already competing for access to these resources. Neither of these interpretations bodes well either.

What I find particularly worrying and bothersome is that several speakers at the debate spoke of the need for Europe to be a "civilizing influence" in the world.

Wasn't it Europe that tried to "civilize" South America by wiping out most of its native inhabitants? Didn't Europe claim to be "bringing civilization" to Africa by plundering its resources, waging wars on the "savages" and hunting down most of the wildlife? Wasn't it "civilized" Europe that gassed six million people because they happened to be Jewish just 50 years ago?

Today, in 2004, we seem farther away from "one world" than ever. When will we as the human race finally realize that there is just one small Earth, one atmosphere, one ocean and just one humanity?

I recently picked up a copy of Content by Rem Koolhaas and OMA. Naturally, the book has a lot about architecture. But it also has a lot about trends, ideas and the state of the world. It provides a lot of food for thought. If you see it somewhere be sure to give it a look.

I found the analysis of Wired magazine's success (and demise) very interesting. I was involved with Wired when it was still Electric Word ("the least boring computer magazine in the world") and based in Amsterdam.

Content's analysis is entirely based on demographics and consumer profiles.

During the boom, the genius of Wired was to create a vehicle where four typologies of geek could overlap.

Wired captured a moment of historical change with iconic perfection - the advent of the Internet, the triumph of the market economy, the optimism for a technologically enhanced world and the promise of a digitally fueled political revolution: all found their voice in Wired's alchemy of four distinct audiences. The geeks that ruled the '90s can be classified into 4 typologies, and Wired consistently identified the fronts on which all could unite.

Geek Typologies
Pragmatist aka Venture Capitalis
Idealist aka Hippie
Technocrat aka Organization Man
Nihilist aka Cyber Punk

Content - Rem Koolhaas/OMA

While this might be true to a certain extent. I think the Content analysis lacks insight into the main thing that made Wired interesting.

Wired was about people not computers.

Louis Rossetto, the founder of Wired, wasn't a techie or a corporation man. He was interested in trends, the future and the people that made things happen. Above all, he had the insight to see that most computer magazines of the day were essentially extremely boring, and that a market for a "people and trends" magazine about the computer business existed.

Electric Word ran up huge phone bills interviewing key people, and trying to understand what was going on. They regularly got [the late] Timothy Leary up at 3 am (California time) to hear his opinion.

Also a lot of Wired's success was due to Louis' own enthusiasm and hard work, and the group of enthusiastic and interesting writers (including Dave Winer, see also here) he gathered around him to form Wired.

When Louis Rossetto left Wired magazine and was replaced by some magazine publisher found by Conde Nast, the magazine took a nose dive. That was long before the end of the tech boom.

To reduce everything to geek typologies is really quite insulting. But it is food for thought, as I said

It's well into spring here in Holland. Everything is incredibly green and the spring flowers are in full bloom. It's an exceptionally warm and dry May.

Unfortunately though, all the pollen in the air has given me bad hayfever and asthma for the last two weeks. It seems to get worse every year.

Several other people I know are badly affected too.

I don't know what it is, but I get hayfever in Holland and Germany, but never in South Africa. It was also less bad when I was living in the center of Amsterdam, but that's probably because the pollen count is just lower in the centre of a city.

    

A week ago I went to Mohamlet by Hakim Traida.

Mohamlet is a fairly autobiographical show by Hakim which recounts the story of how he came to Holland from Algeria 20 years ago.

I first met Hakim about two years ago when my daughter and I went to see one of his shows for children in De Krakeling children's theater. Hakim is well-known in Holland from his appearances in Sesame Street. In fact so much so that he complains that everywhere he is "Hakim from the Sesame Street" or just "that man from Sesame Street". Children love him - there is something deeply human about him.

I saw the first version of Hakim's show for adults in the Cosmic Theater in Amsterdam, which specializes in "multi-cultural" productions. Last week's performance was in the Kleine Komedie and was almost sold out. There was something more intimate about the first performance - something less rehearsed, more honest and more emotionally raw. Although Hakim's show is basically humorous, there is something deeply moving about it because a lot of his story is about the reality of being a North African with a Dutch passport living in The Netherlands.

He makes jokes about the fact that even though he has a Dutch passport, the immigration authorities always make a big fuss and check everything at the airport. The feeling of automatically being a suspect since September the 11th. He also talks about his memories of his youth in Algeria (then a French colony), his toothless grandmother who baked bread and his grandfather's words of wisdom.

In the end he is very successful at reminding us all that we are all human beings, even after 9/11.

On "bevrijdingsdag" (5 May) the Dutch celebrate the liberation of their country from German occupation at the end of World War II.

In Almere there was a "bevrijdingsfestival" with various bands. Of course, Almere never was liberated. It couldn't be, it just didn't exist yet. Where Almere is now were just the waters of the Ijselmeer, which was once the Zuyderzee.

The Socialist Party in Almere had a tent. People could write a peace or freedom message and attach it to a helium-filled balloon. The balloons were released to carry the message with the wind.

We put our e-mail address on the card and requested the finder to tell us where they found it. So far no one has responded.

Many children also just wanted a balloon. While teenagers wanted "unknotted" balloons so they could get a "chipmunk" voice by inhaling the helium. Some had fun calling on their cell phones while they had a funny voice.

At the same time, we launched our local campaign for the European elections on 10 June. Our slogan is: "Send a watchdog to Brussels"

  
(Photos by Nuh Demirbilik)