hosting

Cinema Jeffrey

2012-01-22T23:33:00.004+01:00

Met ingang van 2012 wordt de wekelijkse filmavond Op de Valreep/Dierenasyl een keer per maand geprogrammeerd door Jeffrey Babcock. Al geruime tijd voorziet hij andere locaties in de stad, zoals OT301, Nieuwe Anita en aloud filmhuis Cavia. En nu dus ook in Oost. Hieronder licht hij zijn keuzes toe voor de komende twee keer.
Wie meer wil weten over zijn visie op de alternatieve cinema, leze intussen twee essays van zijn hand - Throw Away Your Books en Cinema Detour: No Logo Cinema - in de online-editie van het filmmagazine → Off-Beat Cinema #8.

26.1.12 ZABRISKIE POINT
Michelangelo Antonioni
1970, 107 min., in English

An epic portrait of late Sixties America, as seen through the portrayalof two of its children: anthropology student Daria (who's helping aproperty developer build a village in the Los Angeles desert) anddropout Mark (who's wanted by the authorities for allegedly killing apoliceman during a student riot).
This film got a lot of critical flack when it came out, but many consider it a cult classic. But then again most of the negative reviews for this movie came from americans. And ofcourse - it seems that the film is entirely directed against americancapitalism. Most people I talked to about it in America thought it was shit. But if you talk to a guy in a store in Brussels about it, he says "Wow, it's such a beeeaauutiful movie!"
And indeed the ending is nothing short of monumental, a poetic ballet of destruction which is unmatched anywhere else in cinema history. It's a love it or hate it kind of film for sure, but those who have seen it have never forgotten it and it has stayed alive in the hearts of film lovers across the world… it's visually stunning. It's a film that didn't play according to the rules, and today it is an amazing postcard from a bygone era.
WARNING: If you ever were going to watch this film on your goddamn laptop or flat screen the film wouldn't make any sense. This film is a moving painting designed to be shown in a theatre where images can dominate story. With music by Pink Floyd and other 60s counter-culture icons to help psych-out the desert landscape.
Wanna see the → trailer?

9.2.12 THE NEW BABYLON
(Новый Вавилон; Novyy Vavilon)
Grigori Kozintsev & Leonid Trauberg, 1929
93 min., Russian inter-titles & British subtitles

The New Babylon is one of the greatest masterpieces of the Russian cinema, rarely ever seen (in relation to the films of Eisenstein, for example). In fact, the film was "re-discovered" only in 1958. It depicts the events of the Paris Commune of 1871, the uprising in which the city of Paris revolted against the oppressive French government.

The film depicts the events leading up to the revolt, and uses expressionist camerawork to illustrate the frenzied passions of consumers and the debauched lifestyles of the rich. It then follows the tragic story of two lovers separated by the barricades of the Commune. Filmed in a dazzling black and white, it's been described as "a metaphorical clash of glittering surfaces" and "the climax of Soviet cinema".
On top of it all, it turns out that the original music for the film was written by Dimitri Shostakovich. And not only was it his first attempt at a full score, but also his only full length live accompaniment to a silent movie. Of course we will be presenting the film with Shostakovich's music, which sweeps gloriously over the images. I should also mention that footage from the film was included in Guy Debord's cinematic version of The Society of the Spectacle.

Aanvang beide avonden 20.30 u.
Op de Valreep einde Polderweg, A'dam Oost

Back with an even worse bill

2012-01-21T14:49:00.000+01:00

Lamar, the author of SOPA comes back with an even worse bill…
(Can't this guy be KICKED OUT of congress at the next election PLEASE?
The guy is obviously a "let's destroy internet for the children" type of guy.
Threatening New Bill H.R. 1981 – Worse Than SOPA/PIPA – This Bill
Entitled “The Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act Of 2011″
Is A Bill With Overly Broadened Language That Greatly Threatens All Of Us.)

H.R. 1981: Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011.
Sounds good right?That name is what brought the anecdote back to me.
A better name for the child pornography bill would be The Encouragement of
Blackmail by Law Enforcement Act.
At issue is how to catch child pornographers.
It’s too hard now, say the bill’s backers, and I can sympathize. It’s their solution
that appalls me: under language approved 19 to 10 by a House committee,
the firm that sells you Internet access would be required to track all of your net
activity and save it for 18 months, along with your name, the address where you live, your bank account numbers, your credit card numbers, and IP addresses you’ve been assigned.
Tracking the private daily behavior of everyone in order to help catch a small
number of child criminals is itself the noxious practice of police states. Said an
attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation: “The data retention mandate in
this bill would treat every Internet user like a criminal and threaten the online
privacy and free speech rights of every American.”
Even more troubling is what the government would need to do in order to access this trove of private information: ask for it.
I kid you not — that’s it.
As written, The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011
doesn’t require that someone be under investigation on child pornography
charges in order for police to access their Internet history — being suspected
of any crime is enough. (It may even be made available in civil matters like
divorce trials or child custody battles.)

Nor do police need probable cause to search this information.
As Rep. James Sensenbrenner says, (R-Wisc.) “It poses numerous risks that
well outweigh any benefits and I’m not convinced it will contribute in a significant way to protecting children.”Basically just like SOPA. Using a "feel good reason", they want to track everyone and have unlimited powers on the internet.
What about they go after the Pentagon FIRST?
→ Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography.
Or these guys?
→ SEC Porn Problem: Officials Surfing Sites During Financial Crisis, Report Finds.

→ Above Top Secret

Beyond the Beach

2012-01-19T16:23:00.004+01:00

'Stanley Kramer’s classic film → On the Beach (1959), depicting the end ofhuman life following a nuclear war, assumed that it would take 5 monthsfor radiation from north of the Equator to reach the last survivors inAustralia.
The script, based on a novel by Neville Shute, was much too optimistic.
Fallout from the March 11 meltdown at Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant landedover Oceania within five weeks.

Even that is a snail’s pace, compared with riding the HAARP-assistedelectromagnetic field line. Following New Years earthquake in Japan,much more concentrated dosages of Fukushima particles were measured inAustralia
in a mere five days.
What a difference technology makes! The cast of On the Beach(Ava Gardner, Gregory Peckr and Anthony Perkins) would have thought a skybridge to be fantasy out of science fiction, even though it was createdjust a year before the movie’s release.'
→ HAARP And How Fukushima Radiation Beamed Down To Australia

Costa Discordia

2012-01-17T14:48:00.001+01:00

The captain said that the rock the ship hit 'was not supposed to have been there'. The next thing you heard, he had been arrested.
Property of Carnival Corporation, for 47 percent owned by Israeli-American Micky Arison, the ship was said to be related to Skynet. Not the Skynet from Terminator… 'but similar'.

Skynet (satellite)
Skynet is a family of military satellites, now operated by Paradigm Secure Communications on behalf of the UK Ministry of Defence, which provide strategic communication services to the three branches of the British Armed Forces and to NATO forces engaged on coalition tasks.
→ Wikipedia

Skynet, the main antagonist in The Terminator… 'interesting enough'.
Known to be America's first neural net defense network super computer.Artificial Intelligence Controlled Network Defense Computer System'- as in Frakes' Terminator 2: Judgement Day:

It wasn't a fair universe, nor a kind one. If there was a God, his love and forty-five cents would buy you coffee. No one seemed to be at the cosmic controls anymore. It was every man for himself, until SKYNET became alive and filled the void left by a seemingly disinterested God. Its vision was very controlled. The ultimate dream of man, carried out by one of man's lowliest tools; eliminate evil men. But there was a touch of evil in all men, and SKYNET was having trouble separating the worst of them out.
→ 'No one really cared if SKYNET was happy, it was, after all, just a machine'

At sea reality had fallen out of a magic show, and backfired.
'Passengers watching the magic show in the ship’s main theatre, felt an initial lurch, followed a few seconds later by a shudder. The ship then listed, the theatre curtains seemed like they were standing on their side. And then the magician disappeared.'
'There was a loud crash and the magician just vanished!'
Chaos overwhelmed passengers and crew alike as if it were a scene from Titanic. Amid screams, the crew appeared helpless.
'It was the Marx brothers watching these guys trying to figure out how to work the boat.'
'We attended a safety presentation on the first day of the cruise, but it was only a sales pitch for shore excursions.'
The ship had already gotten a movie reputation by itself, having delivered as setting for - his latest - Godard's Socialisme. One's eyes

may have suspected that the Costa Concordia was heading for trouble. The cruise liner was the setting for the first 'movement' of Jean-Luc Godard's ambitious, infuriating 2010 picture, serving as a self-conscious metaphor for western capital ploughing through choppy waters. In Godard's film, the Concordia plays the role of a decadent limbo where the tourists drift listlessly amid the ritzy interiors.
→ Guardian

Who remembers the Polar Sea hitting an 'uncharted' rock?
→ antartic cruise
'Uncharted rock is totally retarded with the navigational equipment of today. That is unless it completely FAILS. Question is: Why would it fail?'

Why they sank the Titanic, 100 years ago?
Just before the creation of the Federal Reserve banking system, that is.
On board of the ship were Astor, Strauss, and Guggenheim. the three most powerful and richest men in the world at the time. All of which were against the creation of the FED.
All three died on the Titanic. The FED was created one year later, without opposition.

White Star Lines was a subsidary company owned by J.P. Morgan. He wanted a central bank and had aboard 600 very wealthy capitalists who didn't want a central bank. He told them they would talk about it during the maiden voyage to America on the Titanic. And of course the ship sailed and J.P. never boarded.
If the 600 industrialists had made it safely to American soil, J.P. Morgan would never have gotten his Federal Reserve Bank.
The Titanic did not set sail that day (because of repairs being down) but one of its two identical sister ships did. White Star just changed the name to fool the many people who thought they were on the Titanic but were really on its sister ship.
→ Secret ones

Antisec Bitch Slaps Stratfor

2012-01-07T07:00:00.001+01:00

ANONYMOUS
'2011 is over and what a chaotic year it's been: brutal tyrants and inept dictators were overthrown while multinational corporations and lazy security contractors were systematically targeted for embarrassment and elimination. Was it the year of protests, occupations, revolutions? The year of the hacktivist? Looking back, we’re not quite sure what the hell it was, but we certainly had lots of laughs contributing to the mayhem by owning pretty much anything and everything we wanted to.

Did you enjoy looting and plundering the pocketbooks of the rich and powerful during Lulzxmas? Did you enjoy using and abusing thepersonal emails and passwords of feds and corporate executives? How about all those "Law Enforcement Sensitive" documents stolen from NY police chief emails? And that epic cslea.com defacement on New Years Eve? Yes, many lulz were had during this past week, and rest easy fellow pirates, that was only a taste of the chaos to come.

We're ringing in the new year with another exciting #antisec zine release, and this is a big one. Lots of servers were rooted and rm'd. More than a few clueless sysadmins had their .bash_history and mail spools spilled. A lot of cops got doxed — shit, with all the live passwords being dropped here one could easily own police departments in nearly every U.S. state.

To match this truly epic hacking spree, we also had to go on an epic shopping spree. In an act of loving egalitarian criminality, we used company credit cards to make donations to dozens of charities and revolutionary organizations, including the Bradley Manning Support Organization, the EFF, the ACLU, CARE, American Red Cross, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, some commies, some prisoners, various occupations, and many more unnamed homies. It took weeks of hard work, but it paid off: to the tune of over $500,000 dollars liberated in total. Some examples we publicized were eventually returned: other payments made more discretely were confirmed to have been received and changed to hard cash. Of course, we had to engage in some pranks as well. What’s life without a little laughter at the expense of the 1%? We sent Pop-Tarts to the sysadmins with the hopes they would appreciate the humor. We also transferred to ourselves some form of anonymous currency that can't be traced or returned. Maybe we even sold or traded some of these cc dumps and password lists with other black hat comrades for botnets and 0days. Fuck em' if they can't take a joke!

While we attacked the institutions of capitalism, it would only make sense to attack those who enforce it, the inherently oppressive protectors of property and purveyors of social control; the pigs, the fuzz... the police. Do you remember a month ago when the mayors of over eighteen major cities in the U.S. collaborated with the swine to launch a coordinated attack on Occupation sites? The indiscriminate, and unprovoked, arrest and brutalization of thousands of protesters? We the 99% face an endless cycle of evictions and layoffs, while the powerful elite laugh all the way to the bank, comforted by their lucrative federal contracts and billion dollar bailouts. All our lives we have been robbed blind, and now it's time to start pointing our guns in the right direction.

In retaliation for this unprovoked, premeditated police-state brutality, we executed our own raid against New York and California police targets. And no, we will not be using pepper spray or tasers: we'll leave that for the boys in blue. Did you think we forgot? Did you think we would let you kick us out of our parks, teargas us, send veterans to the hospital, and conspire with other police forces to repress our uprising? We do not forgive, we do not forget: our vengeance will swallow you whole, and we will shit you out in to a place more hellish than the prisons you fill.

On New Years Eve, our while revolutionary comrades brought the noise to the front of jails across the world in support of the incarcerated, we were opening fire on the websites and emails of the 1%, publishing stolen information from police departments in both California and New York. From coast to coast we lulzed as we hit the top police chiefs: skimming their private email andFacebook accounts, blissfully abusing their internal law enforcement portals, and making off quick with their private documents which we then published on tor hidden services and BitTorrent. Finally, we defaced their websites and rm'd their servers, live on IRC and Twitter for the whole world to see.

While we attacked police targets, we also decided to go after their supply chain. We bring you the full story of how we gutted the military and law enforcement equipment supply store, SpecialForces.com. Truth be told, we had been keeping quiet about this particular target for a time while we lived large off its pillaged goods. However, just prior to this release, a former member leaked the cleartext password lists, and some media picked up on it. Now that the jig is up, the full story of this owning can be told. To top this target off, we threw in some credit cards and home address info to thousands of their mostly military and police customer base. Hope they don't mind. Just kidding.

We're calling upon all allied battle ships, all armies of darkness, to rise up and use and abuse all the personal information of these tyrannical agents and supporters of the 1%. You wanted lulz? With the sheer amount of passwords, credit cards, and mail spools we plastered all over the internet, you can guarantee that the richest and most powerful people will continue to get owned hard well into 2012.
In this release, we will detail the lulzy and agonizing death of Stratfor.com, a premiere "global intelligence" company out of Austin, Texas. Long story short, they got owned hard. Really hard. The sheer amount of destruction we wreaked on Statfor’s servers is the digital equivalent of a nuclear bomb: leveling their systems in such a way that they will never be able to recover.

We rooted box after box on their intranet: dumping their mysql databases, stealing their private ssh keys, and copying hundreds of employee mail spools. For weeks we used and abused their customer credit card information (which was all stored in cleartext in their mysql databases), eventually dumping all 75,000 credit cards and 860,000 md5-hashed passwords of their "private client list".

And if dumping everything on their employees and clients wasn't enough to guarantee their bankruptcy, we laid waste to their webserver, their mail server, their development server, their clearspace and srm intranet portal and backup archives in such a way that ensures they won't be coming back online anytime soon.

"But why Stratfor?!" came the cries from many butthurt customers, right wingers, confused pacifists, and many others who have never even heard of Stratfor until we blasted their asses off the internet.

Now those who are already familiar with Antisec know we have always had a burning hatred for the security and intelligence industries (especially private companies with lucrative federal contracts).

After all, these white hat "professionals" work for the corrupt governments and multi-national corporations to develop and protect technology that allow the oligarchical elite to better monitor and repress the general public while plotting for global financial and military dominance. They protect their assets and systems, while providing "accurate" and "non-ideological" intelligence and risk forecasts which the rich depend on to maintain global market stability.

Bet they didn't see this coming. Should have expected us. We found out that just like the cracks in the armor of global capitalism, their professional looking website was vulnerable as hell. Despite all their expensive degrees, meaningless certificates, and padded resumes of the elite, they remain woefully clueless in all matters related to security.

Besides the internal email correspondence between Stratfor and their "private clients" (which are sure to be quite revealing and embarrassing), what we were really after was the names, addresses, passwords, and credit cards to their customers.

Who really pays $39.95 a month for daily right-wing political spam and access to a shitty drupal site?

The DHS, FBI, Army, Navy, Bank of America, Raytheon, BAE, Lockheed Martin, Merrill Lynch, BP, Chevron, Monsanto, KBR, Booz Allen Hamilton, Microsoft, International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank are just a few on this list made up of the mightiest corporations and government institutions that exist.

We shook the rotten tree of Stratfor and some ugly ass ducklings tumbled out: notorious war criminals Henry Kissinger, Paul Wolfowitz, ex-Vice President Dan Quayle, former CIA director Jim Woolsey, and many, many more.

Australian billionaires Malcolm Turnbull and David Smorgon? They're on it. So is Nick Selby from "Police Led Intelligence" who advises pigs on how to secure their systems. Fuck, even notorious white hat right-wing snitch Thomas Ryan from "Provide Security" is up in this shit. And we're really asked why we hit Stratfor!?

About the only person we felt bad about doxing was Harry Shearer. Besides the massive headaches these rich scumbags will have to go through to try to recover all their ill-gotten cash, the password information in these databases will ensure many future ownings of the 1%.

So we decided to dump it all - not only because we wanted to share the lulz with everybody, but because we wanted to bring absolute mayhem upon the exploitative capitalist system in which Stratfor and it's clients perpetuate. Suckaa!!!

The question is, will Stratfor ever recover? If they manage to clean up the remains of their charred servers, analyze the source of the breach and attempt to put up new websites with the hopes we won't be back for more, will they ever survive as a corporation? Who will trust them ever again? How are their customers going to feel when they realize how hard they've been owned? Will anyone ever take their analysis and risk predictions seriously again? We're excited to hear all the embarrassment and controversy that will ensue in the fallout of this epic death of a corporation, but we'll let the researchers and journalists handle all that.

We don't normally give out security advice, but here's some for free: next time, consider running a free service.

/************************************************
*** HILARIOUS QUOTES FROM OWNED SYSADMINS !!! ***
************************************************/

// TO KICK IT OFF, SOME INSPIRING WORDS OF WISDOM FROM IT MANAGER FRANK GINAC:
"You do realize how preposterous it is to suggest that stratfor simply shutdown completely for 2 days, right? The plan that you've attached paints a gloom and doom picture claiming no chance that such a move will succeed. Does that really seem a rationale conclusion?"

// YOU DONT EVEN KNOW THE EXTENT OF THE GLOOM AND DOOM WE HAVE PLANNED, FRANK
"Attended the TakeDownCon security conference. Focus of the conference was on wireless and mobile security. No vendors pushing product or service at this conference. Instead, great presentations by renowned white hat hackers (good hackers) and security experts. Bottom line is that no mobile platform is secure, including the Blackberry, but there are best practices that minimize the risk of their use within the enterprise. We will be incorporating these best practices in our operation over the coming months."

// INCORPORATING PRACTICES FROM "GOOD WHITE HAT HACKERS"? HOW'D THAT WORK OUT?
"It blew my mind to discover that our email server backups are being stored on the same physical server. I'm affectionately referring to these little discoveries as 'Mooney turds'."

// SO SAD WE RM'D YOUR MAIL SERVER AND ALL BACKUPS, FRANK
"Most if not all of us use professional and social networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. All offer levels of privacy ranging from wide open where everyone can see your profile, activities, and posts to closed allowing only your immediate connections (or friends) access. As a private intelligence company we must all take extra care to protect our personal information from those who would use that information to exploit us personally or professionally. Although we don't have hard and fast rules on how to set your privacy settings nor do we restrict use of such sites, I suggest that you temper your need to share with prudence and consider the business that we are in. It's also important to check your privacy settings regularly to ensure that the sites you use haven't changed the meaning or scope of privacy settings -- we've all heard or read the news regarding this practice at Facebook. I suggest that you never include any information in your profile -- regardless of privacy setting -- that could be used to compromise your identity. Specifically, never include: your birth date, your exact street address (although this information can usually be found on the web quite easily), your cell phone number, SSN or other government issued ID number (that should be obvious), or any other information that someone could use to compromise your identity if your account were compromised."

// EVEN WITH ALL THE BEST SECURITY PRACTICES LEARNED FROM THE "RENOWNED WHITE
// HAT HACKERS" WE STILL MANAGED TO STEAL ALL YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION. UMAD?
//
// Frank Ginac CC Number: 376792323491009 Expiration: 5/2014 CVV: 9385
// Pass (md5): 6c0e721556401ce239ad454e83f0dc60
// Phone: 512-788-3882 Address: 7901 Bee Caves Road #23 Austin, Texas, 78746

"I've called IT again, about both email problems and the fact that the site's down again. There's a ghost in the machine, apparently. It's been a crazy night. Cheers! " // ^ UJELLY, MITNICK?

// THE SENIOR PROGRAMMER KEVIN GARRY GETS WIND SOMETHING AINT RIGHT
"just logged into prod and seeing this in logs (/var/logs/php/php.log)
[06-Dec-2011 20:33:04] PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function myshellexec() in /var/www/vhosts/www.stratfor.com/includes/common.inc(1707) : eval()'d code on line 11
last shows a lot of concurrent autobot users - rsyncing get hosed up maybe? df on prod seems fine. can we get a full list of any recent changes please""

// BETTER CALL UP OUR TALENTED NEW SYSADMIN NICK GERON
"Re: changes between 3:15a and 4:30a? Major changes in the cabinet. Please send any IP/hostname/dns/whatever weirdness you see my way and I'll try and track it down. Been fighting this cabinet all night. -Nick"

// HOT ON OUR TRAIL!! HAVE WE BEEN DISCOVERED?
On Dec 9, 2011, at 22:16, Nick wrote:
Due to an as yet undetermined cause, there was a significant amount of load on www this evening starting sometime after 6:55PM (first alerts just before 7). Cacti graphs for memory and traffic on www and db2 do not indicate that there was an increase in demand. The only anomalous data point is the increase load/queued processes reported. Unfortunately, I have yet to have time to get detailed diagnostic monitoring up and running, otherwise I would likely have been able to pin down the source. Logs may yet reveal something worthwhile.
>
> Once on the system, I discovered apache processes were consuming the majority of CPU and RAM resources - so much so that the host was swapping heavily. After an apache restart, load quickly dropped to normal levels. This is unlikely related to a (D)DoS attack due to the rapid recovery following the restart and the lack of abnormal traffic patterns.
>
> Inspection of the logs revealed that a local process initiated an initialization script driven restart several times. This led me to another Mooney easter egg. There is a script (/root/apacheup.sh) configured to grab robots.txt from the site via wget and if it fails, will stop/kill and start apache. Looking at the times for this scripted activity shows that they line up with nagios reports that the site was down. There is some question in my mind if the way the script is written could have left orphaned processes around, which after three cycles sapped all available resources. That needs more thought. Its hard to say definitely without more evidence.
>
> -Nick"

// NICK'S SECURITY ANALYSIS: WHEN IN DOUBT, MAKE SHIT UP AND BLAME SOMEONE ELSE
"At 10:00 AM Central on Friday (12/16), you will be required to reset your email password. This process will take just a few moments and it is a task you can perform on your own. Follow the procedure below:"

// TOO BAD WE ALREADY COPIED ALL 160GB OF YOUR MAIL SPOOLS,
// BUT THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP WE'LL BE SURE TO CAPTURE THE PLAINTEXTS !!

"-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: User accounts on website
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2011 13:05:32 -0600 (CST)
From: Kevin Garry
To: Frank Ginac
CC: Nick Geron

both are stored in the database.
usernames are plain text, passwords are one-way md5 encrypted.
employee accounts are treated the same as subscribers in the current (intranet+billing+consumer setup)

thanks
__________________________________
Kevin J. Garry
STRATFOR, Sr. Programmer
ph: 512.507.3047
em: kevin.garry@stratfor.com

----- Original Message -----
From: Frank Ginac
To: Nick Geron , Kevin Garry
Sent: Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:56:18 -0600 (CST)
Subject: User accounts on website

How do we store user login info for accounts on the website? Are usernames and passwords stored in the db? Are passwords encrypted? What about employee accounts?

// ONE WAY MD5 YOU SAY, KEVIN?
// Password: L!@u21c3 CC Number: 4744720059117396 Expiration: 8/2013 CVV: 463

/* FACEBOOK HILARITY!!! *******************************************************/
Shortly after news articles came out about Stratfor's destruction and their customers started to realize how hard they've been owned, hundreds of angry customers rushed to Facebook to rage. Many were rightfully mortified how a self-described intelligence corporation could fail so hard to protect their customer information. The second irony is when those customers who had some harsh words against Anonymous themselves found out the hard way how maybe it was a bad idea to post using their real names.

"STRATFOR
Dear readers,
It's come to our attention that our members who are speaking out in support of us on Facebook may be being targeted for doing so and are at risk of having sensitive information repeatedly published on other websites. So, in order to protect yourselves, we recommend taking security precautions when speaking out on Facebook or abstaining from it altogether. // TLDR: WE CANNOT PROTECT YOU

We thank you so much for your support during this situation - it has helped to make Stratfor what it is today. Keeping you and your information safe is our number one priority." // SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED US

Victor Gebilaguin: "The hackers ought to be shot then hanged upside down in
public."

Name: VICTOR A GEBILAGUIN
CC Number: 4055984392110004
Expiration: 2/2013
CVV: 101
Username: vgebilaguin@gmail.com
Pass (md5): 3f31469d10163c60620d48698f3445e2
E-mail: vgebilaguin@gmail.com
Address:
Name: Victor Albert Gebilaguin
Phone: 63324911214
Address: B1 L5 Ruby St Countryside Homes
Lawaan III
Talisay City, Cebu, 6045 Philippines

David Anderson: "@Brian Houston...I bet most of these people don't even know what Stratfor does, they are just getting links from Twitter and spreading some hate because that's what their "leaders" are telling them to do. Way to think freely, and openly - lemmings."

David Anderson: "@Seb... Nice selective observation and added distortions. Clever, yet completely unfounded. And, what exactly is going to change for me? How did this help? What exactly was accomplished? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Nice vieled threats as well. You guys are unbelievable."

David Anderson: "Justin, answer the question: Where do you get your information? I am talking about getting news and information...where do you get yours?"

Name: David A Anderson
CC Number: 4873010000171400
Expiration: 5/2013
CVV: 655
Username: anderson@gkccf.org
Pass (md5): 2ae2d5290154402d28a80321e15d3463
E-mail: anderson@gkccf.org
Address:
Name: David Anderson
Phone: 8167922550
Address: 5 Westowne St, Ste 500
Liberty, Missouri, 64068 United States

Jim Erickson: "i saw what they posted before startfor took it down. lots of talk about quitting work, joining communes and insurrection. pretty childish stuff."

Name: James J Erickson
CC Number: 4121262344022290
Expiration: 2/2012
CVV: 405
Username: jimerickso@gmail.com
Pass (md5): a3bdce32679619b31f45f8a22357a068
E-mail: jimerickso@gmail.com
Address:
Name: James Erickson
Phone: 5156890237
Address: 1412 Indiana Avenue
Ames, Iowa, 50014 United States

Roger W. Isom: PUNKS and CANNIBALS!!! that is EXACTLY what the GROUP ANONYMOUS STANDS FOR.... I'd have NO TROUBLE FEEDING THESE DUDES STRAIGHT to the GREAT WHITES for a feeding FRENZY!!!

Roger W. Isom: THESE thugs ANONYMOUS are the typical SUPPORTER of the ASSAD REGIME in SYRIA and THE LOONS in TEHRAN....Their LEADERS need to be IDENTIFIED then GIVEN TO THE PEOPLE OF SYRIA.... LET THE SYRIANS HANDLE THESE FREAKS THEMSELVES!!!

Roger W. Isom: They need to be HURT and HURT BAD!!!!I put Anonymous in league with POL POT.... and I view SUPPORTERS of that group JUST AS POL POT nothing MORE!

Roger W. Isom: I do NOT feel sorry for ANOYMOUS getting MUGGED in PUBLIC....

Roger W. Isom: ANONYMOUS BE PREPARED!!!! HACKING IS A TWO WAY STREET!!!!! and YOU CAN BE BURNED!!!!! WHEN YOUR SECRETS are EXPOSED how'd YOU FEEL looking like a PEDOPHILE THAT JUST GOT CAUGHT IN THE ACT?????????? HEY at that point.... I WALK!!!

Roger W. Isom: ANONYMOUS.... BE WARNED!!!!!!!

John Anon: "As a non-professional subscriber to Stratfor I can say to Anonymous: suck my ass. If we ever cross paths you will have no quarter. You people a leeching ass-suckers and will pay the price."

// OK WE HEARD ENOUGH FROM STRATFOR'S SUPPORTERS... NOW THEIR DETRACTORS:
"Honestly: keeping your client info (no matter how current), with no additional safeguards (eg. SHA1 instead of MD5 for. passwords, a feature that even MySQL provides) is completely reckless. Every halfway decent web coder (meaning: not your nephew) would do better."

"Stratfor needs to pay, they may have broken the law, at best they were reckless jerks who couldn't secure a hammock. Either way anyone defending them on here is really pathetic. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE."

"The news is reporting that only folks who bought publications had their data stolen. This is hogwash. As a subscriber since the beginning, I have never bought anything other than the service. And now my data has been compromised through what looks more and more like extremely shoddy business practices -- non-encryption of data, careless storage, etc. This reflects poorly on your entire business model and I will be reviewing carefully whether or not I renew in the future."

"You've been shown exactly what happens when you make claims that are false - you will be embarrassed by those with actual talent. I hope all your customers drop you, as your fail was one of capitalism; it's cheaper not to upgrade security and encrypt users' data, so you cut corners to make a profit. I understand, but do your customers?"

"Yeah, just what you need when you get up on Dec. 25th, two hours on the line with AMEX trying to get a human to get your card killed before some prickly fourteen-year old script kiddie buys boatloads of certain implements intended for specifically female orifices, typically pink, to send to your house..."

"And it's hillarious a company with links to MNC, the UN and gov't agencies is relegated to posting on facebook to tell the world about their problems like a 15 year old girl ahahahah"

"Some of which have been compromised the past week. ALL have which canceled their memberships."

"You'd be better off switching to mall security advisory work."

"hey you heard that NWA TRACK - Strat OTTA LULZVILLE. lol"

// SECURITY ADVICE FROM OUR WHITE HAT ENEMIES
// KEVIN MITNICK WHORES HIS CONSULTING COMPANY ON AL JAREERA ENGLISH

AJE: For more on this, I'm joined from Los Vegas by Kevin Mitnick, he's a computer security consultant and a former hacker. Thanks for joining us. So how do s-
Mitnick: Thank you for having me on your show.
AJE: Sure. So how do security breaches like this happen Kevin?
Mitnick: They're constant, and, uh, I think it really illustrates that there are a lot of companies out there that are still the low hanging fruit, and in this particular case, allegedly Stratfor's website was compromised, which likely means that there was a web application that was internet-facing that wasn't secure.
AJE: So can companies put any systems in place to ensure something like this doesn't happen again?
MITNICK: Definitely, there are security products but more importantly there is security testing. I don't believe Stratfor has done the proper security testing , and that's by hiring companies to do what is called penetration testing, I mean I've been doing penetration testing for years, and I have a 100% success rate. So it really shows there's a lot of low hanging fruit...
AJE: Ok now, you're a former hacker. Help us understand, why do you think it was that Anonymous went after big business?
Mitnick: Well, who really knows if it's Anonymous, I mean one group can be claiming they are Anonymous to steal credit card information to make the real Anonymous look like it is doing it. So we don't really know who did it, but its obviously to get media attention, that's what I think the goal is here, and it's causing a huge mess because what happens when they use a credit card, uh, fraudulently, what happens is the merchant has to do a thing called a chargeback, and it's very costly and time uh, and it's very time consuming.

// ONCE AGAIN MITNICK USES OUR HACKS TO GET MEDIA ATTENTION TO ADVERTISE HIS
// PATHETIC SECURITY CONSULTING. DAMN HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU HAVE TO GET OWNED?

CNN: KEVIN MITNICK'S SECRET WEAPON FOR AVOIDING JAIL: TALKING TO COPS
Of course, Mitnick isn't wearing the accessory with any expectation that he will ever be arrested--he's a security consultant, speaker and author (his memoir, "Ghost in the Wires," came out last year and is a fun read). For him the bracelet is mostly a novelty and a bit of an inside joke, much like the version of his business card that doubles as an aluminum lock-pick kit. Plus he likes the "Harry Houdini" aspect of it, having been fascinated with magic since he was a child. "I show it to cops. It's a conversational piece," he said of the bracelet in a recent interview.

// NICK SELBY FROM POLICELEDINTELLIGENCE.COM GETS DOXED
"To summarize, on Christmas Eve, the illegal hacking group AntiSec/Anonymous announced that it had taken down the STRATFOR server, and made claims about some 200GB of email, along with a private list of STRATFOR customers, and credit cards used to pay for the STRATFOR commercial intelligence services. These services are provided to individuals, businesses and government agencies, and the price starts at around $99 annually.
Yesterday evening, STRATFOR put out a quick email to its customer base saying, essentially, “Holy crap, we been Pwnz0r3d!”. But this was really good and fast action on STRATFOR’s part. In fact, they did very well ... This is great: they took responsibility for investigating and scoping, and the implication is that, regardless of how it happened, STRATFOR was standing behind its customers. It’s cheap to do, but it means a lot and ultimately presents a potentially huge liability – they were clearly aware of this when they stated this."

// CAN'T MAKE UP YOUR MIND? NICK GETS PERSONAL ...
“With That Revealing Shirt? He Was Just Begging to be Hacked.” Blaming The Victim in the STRATFOR Hack
In the days since the STRATFOR breach, I initially gave the firm high marks in communicating with its user base after idiotically allowing all their data go bye-bye. I’m going to modify that stance a bit in another post – I now see that they have in fact fallen very short of what they could have done in some serious and substantive ways. I list one way below.
But in this post I am mainly speaking to the Information Security Digirati, the suckholes in the opinion bubble who have used the opportunity to become, to paraphrase J. Frank Parnell, ‘half-baked goggle-boxed do-goodies telling everyone that the reason they lost their credit cards was because they didn’t use an @ in their password.’ This is the same school of thought which makes everyone hate information security: “Security must be working because everything sucks, it’s hard to use and a pain in the ass.”
The reason that the STRATFOR breach occurred had absolutely nothing to do with users using STRATFOR or password or other forms of stupid passwords. The reason was that STRATFOR spent no time or energy on its information security, were bad stewards of my data and broke industry standards and guidelines as to the protection of specific data such as passwords, credit card numbers and personally identifiable information of its members. It systematically refused to address core, fundamental problems, despite claiming expertise in cyber OSINT.
That has nothing to do with my password strength, ace.

Nick Selby
CC Number: 4388576036478199 Expiration: 5/2012 CVV: 638
Username: nick.selby@tridentrm.com cracked: vg9nas
Pass (md5): 5f68e911423d3dbe46b40d075efc7dbe
E-mail: nick.selby@tridentrm.com
Name: Nick Selby Phone: 5186724784
Address: PO Box 61 / Philmont, New York, 12565 United States
CC Number: 372733586691004 Expiration:3/2012
Username: nselby Pass (md5): 5f68e911423d3dbe46b40d075efc7dbe vg9nas
E-mail: nick.selby@gmail.com
Name: Nick Selby Phone: 34767582795
Address: 207 Washinton St Ste 470794 / Brookline Village, MA, 02447

MIKKO @ F-SECURE.COM:
At the first glance, actions like this look a bit like the actions of Robin Hood — steal from the rich, give to the poor. But unfortunately, in this case the poor won't get a dime. These anonymous donations will never reach the ones in need. And in fact, these actions will just end up hurting the charities, not helping them. Merry Christmas.
// THE GRINCH WHO STOLE LULZXMAS

BY GREGORY W. MACPHERSON COMPUTER SECURITY EXPERT, CISSP, ETC.
"One would like to think that people who boast of academic, government, or military credentials would be more cognizant of their responsibility to protect the privileged information entrusted to them, but apparently they too, despite their august credentials, are idiots when it comes to authentication credentials and the management thereof ... For those sites which rely solely on the arcane userid and password combination, I suspect that this holiday season was less than merry as their security staff worked late to try and head off the inevitable compromises that would result after dozens of credentials were published."
// FINALLY SOMEONE GETS IT

RICHARD STIENNON, INFOSECISLAND.COM
"The most painful lesson the Stratfor hack is about to demonstrate is the importance of email security. The Anonymous member who appears to be taking the lead in this attack against Stratfor has already posted to reddit.com that they will be recruiting volunteers to analyze the 3.3 million emails they stole from Stratfor. These emails have the potential for embarrassment and real harm that could equal the infamous State Department leak. One last point. A quick scan of the 28,517 leaked email addresses reveals the conspicuous absence of any addresses belonging to .gov and .mil. Were there none, or does Anonymous have plans for those? My only prediction for 2012: it is going to be a very interesting year."
// SOMEONE GETS IT

KRYPT3IA:
"Another oddity has always been the LulzSec/Antisec logo. It always came off as being effete and French. This connection now with the Tarnac 9 and the Coming Insurrection now kind of makes sense to me. Could it be that there are some core members here who have a background with the movement from France and all that surrounds it post their arrest in 2008? More so, one wonders just how many of the followers within AntiSec/LulzSec are in fact Anarchists with a penchant for all of this?"
// THEY R ON TO US

J.R. DUNN, AMERICANTHINKER.COM
"This intrusion went quite a bit farther than most -- the Guy Fawkes boys actually managed to extract funds (a reported $500,000 worth) from Stratfor's clients (whom the company insists on calling "members"), which they then gave to charities. The humiliation here is total, and Stratfor will be lucky to survive. But should it? ... For example, assertions that Stratfor was manipulating its information to support certain agendas. (I was once told by an individual involved in the company that they were taking a certain stance concerning the Gulf War because his daughter was serving as a naval officer in the Persian Gulf. This kind of thing is understandable but not excusable.) But all that is secondary to the simple, undeniable fact of the break-in. That alone puts Stratfor in the clown car with an orange wig and two-foot-long shoes. There are plenty of ways an organization can go wrong and recover, but there is certain kind of error that is almost always fatal -- the type that turns you into a punchline. If you were to make a film about Stratfor, it wouldn't be a thriller -- it would be a comedy. There's certainly a place for a professionally run and seriously intentioned private intelligence service in the U.S. But Stratfor isn't it. Much as I hate to say it, this is a case where the Anons have done us all a favor."

// JUST ONE MORE COMMENT FROM OUR AL JAZEERA CORRESPONDENT:
wow. these hacks are insane! you aren't afraid of the DIA?
i mean military intelligence man.
?!

/******************************************************************************/
THE TIME FOR TALK IS OVER. LET'S RIDE ON THIS MOFOS!! BUST OUT THE HACKLOG!! '

(http://bolt.thexfil.es/84e9h)

OCP Logo

2012-01-03T16:02:00.001+01:00

Mila: Grafik asked us to write about any logo that we like. We already decided to talk about the OCP logo from the original RoboCop movie. OCP stands for Omni Consumer Products, which is the megacorporation that is also running the Detroit police department.

Egon: I still don't really know why we picked that particular logo.

M: Hmm yeah, maybe we can think about an excuse later. So here's a print out. As you can see here, the designer didn't even bother getting the letters in the right order. Nor making them recognisable.

Franz: In medieval architecture the octagon was seen as a representation of god-like perfection. Looking at the somewhat lazy execution of the logo this seems kind of ironic, doesn't it. But what is striking regarding the form-feeling of the OCP octagon? It looks like a fortress, it's aggressive, and self-centered as well as sealing-off and protective. Now the question is: is this logo well designed or not? Does the brutalist style build a harmony with the realm of RoboCop?

Ziggy: Can I say something? I think the logo gives us a dark future vision of graphic design. I mean a corporation like OCP doesn't really need a well-designed CI since they are the only player in the market anyway. The logo doesn't have to appeal to the customer. I also believe OCP have an in-house cyborg taking care of all their CI and advertising. He's fast and cheap. He doesn't ask questions because he's just following his prime directives.

E: That's the future. We're all going to melt into our Macs. We'll look like Björk in that video where she was making love to her double. We'll be shiny white design zombies producing crude logos for one and the same company.

→source

RoboCop
do 5.1.12 ⌛ 20.30u
⌖ Op de Valreep/Dierenasyl

The Source

2011-12-31T22:10:00.000+01:00

The Source: The Story of the Beats and the Beat Generation (1999)
'traces the Beats from Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac's meeting in 1944 at Columbia University to the deaths of Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs in 1997.
Three actors provide dramatic interpretations of the work of these writers, and the film chronicles their friendships, their arrival into American consciousness, their travels, frequent parodies, Kerouac's death, and Ginsberg's politicization.
Their movement connects with bebop, John Cage's music, abstract expressionism, and the Living theater.
In recent interviews Ginsberg, Burroughs, Ken Kesey, Ferlinghetti, Norman Mailer, Jerry Garcia, Tom Hayden, Gary Snyder, Ed Sanders, and others measure the Beats' meaning and impact.'
→ American Masters

"In the winter i am a Buddhist, in the summer i'm a nudist"
As an intro, extro or alternative for The Source 4 out of 5 doctors advise Village Sunday (1963).
'Take a stroll through the streets, parks and neighborhoods that make up Greenwich Village. Before Washington Square became the New York University undergrad film school back lot, the area was known for its street art, spontaneous hootenannies, poetry jam sessions and fairs. Take a walk around the Village before it became too cool for you.'
Narrator: Jean Shepherd. Director, producer and screenwriter: Stewart Willensky. Poetry and music by Charles Mills.
→ Archive

Gooische Moordenaar

2011-12-17T15:26:00.004+01:00

Vanaf 1881 reed er een tram van de Gooische Trammaatschappij van het voormalige Weesperpoortstation, op de hoek van de Wibautstraat en de Tweede Boerhaavestraat, via de Vrolikstraat en de Linnaeusstraat naar de Middenweg (zie kaartje onder). De tram stond bekend als de Gooische Moordenaar. Op de foto boven ziet men 'loc 14' in de Linnaeusstraat, ter hoogte van de huidige HEMA, schuren langs de toenmalige Oostergasfabriek.
In 1940 maakte de tramlijn plaats voor Lijn 9 van het GVB.
→ Gooise Stoomtram

1935

De Oostergasfabriek was in 1885 in gebruik genomen. Er werd door steenkool te distilleren (verhitting zonder luchttoevoer) gas gewonnen. Dit gas werd bewaard in gashouders en vervolgens door een gasbuizennet gedistribueerd. De gemeente Amsterdam, vanaf 1898 eigenaar, gebruikte het gas voor straatverlichting.
Het gebouw in de noordoosthoek - waar nu de Valreep is gevestigd - deed dienst als ammoniakfabriek.

Ammoniakfabriek en gashouders gezien vanaf de Valentijnkade

Lang heeft de Oostergasfabriek niet bestaan. In 1917 stapte de gemeente over op elektriciteit en werd de gasproductie afgebouwd. Zes jaar later sloot de fabriek definitief.
In de voormalige koolgasstokerij werd in 1929 het Sportfondsenbad Oost geopend. Daarnaast werd in 1935 een openlucht zwembad ingericht.
'Het bad bestond uit een met water gevulde betonnen bak van ongeveer anderhalve meter diep en had een oppervlakte van 2.400 vierkante meter. Bij het bad was een talud/tribune aangelegd waarop zwemmers van de zon konden genieten. Speciaal voor hen werd er ’s zomers zand op het talud aangebracht om een strandidee te geven. Jammer genoeg spoelde dat zand bij flinke regenbuien naar beneden en moest het later weer handmatig worden opgebracht.'
In de winter werd het natuurbad omgetoverd tot ijsbaan. Deze baan heet de eerste kunstijsbaan van Nederland te zijn geweest.
→ Geheugen van Oost

Ook op de Ringvaart werd geschaatst - schilderij Christina Mercken

De ammoniakfabriek werd in 1926 verbouwd tot dierenasiel. Als zodanig heeft het tachtig jaar gefunctioneerd. De bijgebouwen uit die periode zijn intussen allemaal gesloopt. Het hoofdgebouw kreeg een monumentenstatus en is - na vier jaar leegstand - in de zomer van 2011 gekraakt om in gebruik te worden genomen als Op de Valreep.
→ bron

'In naam der wet'

2011-12-12T01:36:00.011+01:00

foto Paul Texeira

'In 1985 is in de Staatsliedenbuurt van Amsterdam de harde kern van de kraakbeweging sinds jaar en dag actief. De net aangetreden burgemeester, Ed van Thijn, wil er alles aan doen de macht van de kraakbeweging te breken. Bij een heftige ontruiming worden 32 krakers gearresteerd. De volgende dag wordt een van hen, de 23-jarige Hans Kok, levenloos aangetroffen in zijn cel.
De foto die van hem gemaakt is, direct na zijn arrestatie toont hem in goede gezondheid, terwijl hij uitdagend het V-teken maakt. Krap 20 uur later is hij dood. Hoe is het mogelijk, wat is er in die tussenliggende uren gebeurd? Dat is de kernvraag, die de film In naam der wet (1991, Barbara den Uyl) op grond van officiële rapporten probeert te achterhalen.'

⌖ Op De Valreep Dierenasyl
13.12.11 aanvang 20 u.

→ Een kwart eeuw na de dood van kraker Hans Kok

Poëzie & muziek

2011-12-07T23:00:00.001+01:00

Diana Ozon

zo 11.12.11 ⟡ 16-20 u.

live ⌖ de Valreep

poëzie & muziek

G.w. Sok (ex-Ex), Diana Ozon

stadsdichter F. Starik, Leendert Busch e.a.

alsmede het potentieel drama
Peter 'En dan jij als laatyste' Posthumus

'Ware poëzie ontstaat uit het niets en laat een leegte achter'

✍

Deze herfst verscheen A Mix of Bricks & Valentines: Lyrics 1979-2009 door G.w. Sok. Achter die naam bevindt zich Jos Kley (foto). De bundel bevat teksten die hij schreef gedurende de drie decennia dat hij zanger en tekstdichter was van The Ex. 'Songs of agitprop, lyrics, poetry and rantings, written with a sharp pen, provocative, creative and witty.'

→ 30 Jaar Teksten G.w. Sok
→ Sonic Youth Gossip
→ 'Ik heb er nooit over nagedacht hoe lang het kon duren'

✍

→ Hoe wordt een stad jouw stad?

♫

Leendert Busch is bekend als drummer van de Amsterdamse band The Outsiders.

Op de Valreep komt hij met een cagon, een 'kistje waar je op zit en waarmee je 4 soorten geluiden maakt: snarentrommel, base drum, bongo's en conga's.'

✍

'Ik ga dood om jullie hoofd'

2011-12-02T16:21:00.000+01:00

do 8.12.11 ⟡ 20u.
screening ⌖ Op de Valreep Dierenasyl
IK GA DOOD OM JULLIE HOOFD (2010)
• met regisseuse Cindy Kerseborn

In het kader van het alt-docu festival Bajesdoc wordt 8 december in De Valreep Ik ga dood om jullie hoofd vertoond. Over de Para-Amsterdamse schrijver en schilder Edgar Cairo (1948-2000) die opgroeide op een Surinaams achtererf en laatstelijk huisde in de Vrolikstraat. Cindy Kerseborn poogt met haar eerste grote documentaire de culturele nalatenschap van Cairo veilig te stellen.
→ Op de Valreep

'Pijn en schaamte over de koloniale geschiedenis van Nederland in Suriname overheersen in het leven en werk van schrijver en dichter Edgar Cairo. Ze belichamen het zogeheten "negerverdriet", zoals dat hem uiteindelijk noodlottig werd. Edgar Cairo overleed in 2000 thuis, in de Vrolikstraat. Met tomeloze energie en kracht heeft hij geprobeerd tegenstellingen te overwinnen zoals die tussen Surinamers of tussen Surinamers en Nederlanders heersten. De getourmenteerde Cairo werd in Nederland academicus, maar bleef zich tegelijk een Creoolse volksjongen voelen.
Hij onderzocht de invloed van het witte denken en de daarmee samenhangende taal in het hoofd van een zwarte Creool.' Schiep tegen de achtergrond van de grimmige jaren 80 z'n eigen idioom uit Nederlands en sranan tongo, zoogde onze straattaal.
Schrijvend, delibererend legde Edgar Cairo open wat anderen wellicht liever met schaamte bedekten. Zijn uitwaaierend oeuvre omvat naast verhandelingen en onversneden poëzie tweehonderd schilderijen die hij aan het eind van zijn leven maakte, waarvan eenzelfde 'passie, ongeduld en avontuurlijkheid' spat in extatische kleuren.
→ Caraïbisch uitzicht

✍

→ verder

✍

A KULTURI EGI SANI FU EDGAR CAIRO

→ De culturele nalatenschap van Cairo in Suriname

✍

ACHTERERF Tien jaar terug overleed de Surinaamse schrijver Edgar Cairo (52), diep verzonken in de Vrolikstraat. In mei 2010 werd op zijn geboortedag een gedenksteen onthuld en deze zomer exposeerde het CBK een serie schilderijen uit zijn laatste, getroebleerde levensfase. En 16 november, zijn (vermoedelijke) sterfdag, kwam een film uit van Cindy Kerseborn, gemaakt om de unieke Cairo voor de vergetelheid te behoeden. Ze voert ons mee naar z'n negerwortels, district Para, het achtererf, het idioom. Memorabel tochtje.

→ Ik ga dood om jullie hoofd
→ Het uur van de wolf

✍

Ma'fo
wáárom al die figuren, die probeerden, om jou te strippen?
Je moest van álles af, je ziel, je taal, je leven.
En vooral je denken!
Geen al teveel thuismanieren van vroeger laten blijken!

✇

Nikole Tesle the movie

2011-11-21T20:26:00.007+01:00

'This rare, digitally restored full-feature cartoon features Superman, in his first animated movie (1942) where he battles Nikola Tesla, the Mad Scientist. Animated by the award-winning Max and Dave Fleischer Studios of the 1940s, it demonstrates how Tesla was turned into a mad scientist by the mainstream media and his inventions subsequently suppressed (he died in 1943).
Sadly enough 70 years after Tesla's death most of his inventions have yet to reach modern consumers. What would have happened if Tesla had conquered the world? Includes great drive-in commercials and previews including rare trailers for Karloff and Lugosi's The Invisible Ray, Radar Men From the Moon, The Mysterious Mr.M, and more. A great full-length cartoon movie filled with Tesla Technology and a must for Tesla fans.
Transferred froma mint quality 35mm film print and digitally enhanced.'
24.11.11 ⟡ ⌖ de Valreep

'The Energy Crisis is a lie, the problem was solved 100 years ago by a scientist named Nikola Tesla. He had discovered a way to harness the naturally occurring electricity from the ionosphere, and then in turn rebroadcast it to individual relay stations that could be placed anywhere and were no larger then your average car antenna. each primary tower could produce, renewable, safe, clean, electricity, and would then broadcast it wirelessly to points as far (as his experiments in Colorado springs showed) as 30 miles away from the primary tower.
Tesla's primary investor, J.P. Morgan, thought he was investing in the world's first radio tower, but unknown to him, that was only one of its purposes and capabilities, the project was known as Wardenclyffe. When J.P. Morgan learned of the true capabilities of Wardenclyffe, the ability to harness an almost infinite amount of power and freely broadcast it wirelessly to anyone who had the proper antenna(with no way to monitor energy consumption) he immediately canceled all Tesla's funding. The pursuit of profit wiped one of the worlds most revolutionary inventions ever conceived under the carpet, and away from the eyes of history.

Upon Tesla's death on January 7th, 1943, the U.S. Government immediately moved into his lab and apartment, confiscating all his scientific research (including his work on Wardenclyffe and research on the ionosphere) to this day none of this research has been made public. This is a clear example of how corporate greed has bought the government, instead of providing this information for the benefit of ALL mankind, they have deliberately hidden it from public view, in order to prop up corporations such as the oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear power industries. It is time we stop looking towards these horrible alternatives to gasoline, all of them are poisoning the planet, and draining the economies of the world. It is time we stand together and demand that Nikola Tesla's research be released, so we can finally become a sustainable society.'
→ call

→ Freie Energie Wettlauf

→ Memorial Society
→ Musej Nikole Tesle

Vandaag zes jaar geleden

2011-11-15T01:59:00.001+01:00

Vandaag is het zes jaar geleden dat Louis Sévèke te Nijmegen op straat werd doodgeschoten. Hij was 41 jaar oud en ooit als student naar de stad gekomen.
Midden jaren tachtig werd hij actief in de kraakbeweging en ontwikkelde zich als activist.
Vanaf de jaren negentig richtte hij zich vooral op juridische ondersteuning voor jongeren, activisten en daklozen die een klacht hadden over optreden van politie. Hij had een voortrekkersrol in de Vereniging Steunpunt Inzage PID, die ijverde voor inzage in dossiers van activisten bij de voorloper van de AIVD, de BVD. Tevens deed hij onderzoek naar, en publiceerde over ontwikkelingen bij inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten.
In dat kader verscheen op 3 november 2005 een artikel van zijn hand in NRC handelsblad onder de kop → Overheid moet eigen rol bij 'terreur' niet verdoezelen. Als veronderstelde terreur deels op conto van eigen medewerkers geschreven kan worden, aldus het betoog, moet de overheid absolute openheid van zaken geven.

Zwaarbewapende politiemensen van een bijzondere eenheid bewaken een pand waar die nacht een terreuractie zou kunnen gaan plaatsvinden. Het huis zelf wordt ook van binnen bewaakt door vier politiemensen. Deze agenten weten niet beter dan dat het huis doelwit kan zijn van een relatief onschuldige actie. Om 5.20 uur die nacht gebeurt het dan: een bom explodeert en slaat een gat in de gevel van het pand. De bewakers in het huis blijven ternauwernood ongedeerd. Ze zijn later razend: de geheime dienst bleek te hebben geweten dat er een bomaanslag op het huis ging plaatsvinden. Maar daarvan had men de bewakers geen mededeling gedaan.
Gaat dit over een actie van de 'Hofstadgroep' in het 'Nederland in de greep van terreur', anno 2005? Nee. Plaats van handelen is het Gelderse dorpje Renkum. Datum: 29 februari 1980. Doelwit: het huis van een Nederlandse hoofdofficier van justitie. De aanslag wordt opgeëist door een groep die zich het Rood Volksverzet noemt. De groep houdt de desbetreffende justitie-autoriteit verantwoordelijk voor het afdekken van de mishandeling door bewakers van een gevangenzittende 'kameraad'.
Vorige week werd door publicaties in NRC Handelsblad en een uitzending van Netwerk bekend dat handgranaten, die gebruikt zijn door mensen die volgens justitie tot de 'Hofstadgroep' zouden behoren, geleverd zouden zijn door een agent van de Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst (AIVD). Deze man, B. genoemd, zou figureren in verschillende terrorisme-onderzoeken, maar nooit aangehouden zijn. Dat wil zeggen: tot de publicaties. Nu zit hij vast. Netwerk opende met de veronderstelling dat het eigenlijk te absurd voor woorden is: "Een medewerker van de AIVD, die handgranaten geeft aan een groep mannen die ze beschouwt als levensgevaarlijk."
Die praktijk behoort echter tot de werkwijzen van een dienst als de AIVD.

De veronderstelling dat Louis Sévèke uit de weg werd geruimd om meer van dit soort publicaties te voorkomen, drong zich al snel op en is naderhand eerder gevoed dan gelogenstraft met de aanhouding van een junk of ex-junk in 2007 die voor de moord is veroordeeld. In haar vonnis merkte de rechtbank op dat 'vanuit gedragskundig oogpunt geen verklaring kan worden gegeven voor de moord op Sévèke, terwijl een invoelbaar motief voor dat misdrijf ontbreekt.'
Een als openhartig bestempeld dagboek dat zowel voor als na de moord is bijgehouden door de veroordeelde en waarin op geen enkele wijze naar de moord wordt verwezen, is nooit vrijgegeven omdat het manuscript 'auteursrechtelijk beschermd' zou zijn.

Door de nabestaanden is Louis Sévèke omschreven als een 'integere, betrokken en lieve persoon. Zijn betrokkenheid bij maatschappelijke zaken uitte hij scherp en direct. De bevlogen manier van discussiëren ging echter altijd gepaard met respect en een evenwichtige blik.'
Zijn dood markeert een absoluut dieptepunt in de geschiedenis van Nederland als rechtsstaat en mag om die reden nooit worden vergeten.
→ website

't Blijvertje?

2011-11-02T18:33:00.048+01:00

1.11.11

De actie OCCUPY 't BLIJVERTJE is van start gegaan

'Zo, zo, zo… en we lusten allemaal wel een bakkie zeker? Dacht ik 't niet…'

hansfoto.wordpress

'Hij is Rain en ik ben dus Bow'

Foto van de dag op de site van Het Parool door Elmer van der Marel

'damned hippies'

'♫ Girls Talk'

→ 'Als laatste werd 't Blijvertje ingenomen'
→ 'Oost ontruim je niet in een dag'

→ 'Persistent Resistance'

***

30.10.11

→ 'Aangenaam, ik ben uw sloper'

2011-11-01T07:04:00.008+01:00

America's Death Porn Culture

2011-10-31T00:50:00.006+01:00

The United States government and military revels in death and pornographic intimidation. The videos and photographs of howling Iraqis celebrating the hanging of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein after his U.S.-administered kangaroo court trial in Iraq and the physical abuse, alleged sodomizing, and execution of Libya's Muammar Qaddafi by NATO-armed and directed rebels after his convoy in Sirte was reportedly struck by a U.S. drone-launched missile, exemplify America's fixation with pornographic death scenes…

The George Walker Bush and Barack Hussein Obama administrations share a fascination for displaying the dead bodies of their vanquished enemies. For Bush, it was the gruesome stone-slabbed corpses of Qusay and Uday Hussein, Saddam's sons, after they were killed in a firefight with U.S. troops in. That was followed by the body of Sadaam after his hanging.
Of course, it did not suit President Obama to broadcast a photograph of Osama Bin Laden, allegedly killed while resisting arrest in Abbotabad, Pakistan. In the case of Bin Laden, there is a strong reason to believe that Osama's body could not be shown because there was no body of Osama. Whether an Osama Bin Laden look-a-like was killed or not may never be known, but what is certain is that the Obama administration’s explanation for "Osama's": burial at sea from a U.S. aircraft carrier appears dubious.

There was also the curious designation of the operation to kill Bin Laden as "Geronimo." President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were in the White House Situation Room when they heard the news from the strike team: “We’ve ID’d Geronimo,” followed by “Geronimo EKIA” or “Geronimo enemy killed in action.”

There was outrage among Native Americans over the designation of Bin Laden as Geronimo. But the code name has its own ghastly history. In 1918, in another macabre display of ghoulishness by America’s political elite, Prescott Bush, the future U.S. senator and father and grandfather of two future presidents, allegedly dug up the grave of the famed Apache leader Geronimo and stole his skull and some bones.

The remains are said to be among the prized possession of Yale’s elite and secretive Skull and Bones society, along with the skull of former President Martin van Buren, the only president of the United States who was not in the blood line, close or distant, of the British royal family.
As Qaddafi’s body, along with those of his son, Mo’tassim, and the former Libyan army commander, Abu Bakr Yunis, rotted in a meat freezer in Misrata – for the whole world to see -- more details emerged about Qaddafi’s last hours in Sirte.

On October 19, at around 8:00 am in Sirte, a convoy of 70 vehicles departed the heavily-bombed out city, heading west. There were also Twitter messages coming out of Sirte reporting that several white flags of surrender were seen in the city at day break.

However, a CIA Predator drone tracking the convoy passed its coordinates on to NATO. French and other NATO jets pounded the convoy, incinerating many of the drivers and passengers. Many of those killed were black Libyans. There are now reports of mass graves in Sirte containing the bodies of scores of Qaddafi supporters and fellow tribal members.
There have been some reports that a truce and a surrender by Qaddafi and his forces was worked out between some rebel leaders and Qaddafi’s entourage through the auspices of the Qaddadfa (the tribe to which Qaddafi belonged) tribal leaders in Sirte.

After the convoy was on the highway heading west, with reported white flags from some of the vehicles, the motorcade, which was not engaging in fire with rebel or NATO forces, was set upon by NATO forces.
Witnesses to the surrender and/or safe passage negotiations will be hard to come by, since one of those murdered in his home in Sirte by Libyan rebels was reportedly the chief of the Qaddadfa tribe who was part of the negotiations for surrender and safe passage.

Reports that Qaddafi and his group were trying to make a dash through the offensive lines around Sirte make no sense since the convoy left after sun up and in broad daylight, when white flags could clearly be seen by the belligerents, and the Twitter messages out of Sirte indicated that rebels, pro-Qaddafi forces, and neutral observers could all see the white flags. If Qaddafi wanted to make a break for it, he would have done so at night with headlights out.

One of the last things Qaddafi is heard asking his captors is “Do you know right from wrong?”

If the rebels or NATO reneged on a promise of safe passage and ignored the universally-recognized white flag signifying truce and surrender, it would constitute a gross violation of the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, and would, therefore, be a war crime. Under the conventions, the white flag is protected as a sign that an approaching party intends to surrender or negotiate the terms of surrender.

Those displaying a white flag may not fire or be fired upon.

If NATO and the rebels violated the white flag in Sirte, it would represent one of the first major violations of a practice that began with the Eastern Han dynasty in China in the year 25, and was recognized by the Roman Empire, armies during the Middle Ages, and every major and minor nation since. A violation by NATO of the flag of truce would represent a flagrant return to barbarism by the “collective defensive” organization.

Hillary Clinton reacted to news of Qaddafi’s death by chortling like a school girl. Preparing for an interview with CBS News, Clinton, who had just paid a visit to Libya, joked, “We came, we saw, he died.”

Other NATO leaders, including Obama, David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, as well as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who all self-identify themselves as Christians, expressed relief and joy at the news of Qaddafi’s death, a very “un-Christian” trait.

The brutal treatment of Qaddafi and his forces matches the treatment meted out by American forces to detainees in Iraq, including the pornographic abuse of prisoners, including minors, at Abu Ghraib and other prisons.

In the report by U.S. Army General Antonio Taguba, there are instances of U.S. guards forcing male and female prisoners into naked and explicit positions, including human piles, and taking photographs and video shots, forcing male prisoners to wear women’s underwear, forcing male prisoners to masturbate while being photographed and videotaped, and sodomizing detainees with broom sticks and chemical lights. One prisoner murdered by U.S. forces, Manadel al-Jamadi, was kept on ice to prevent decomposition and spirited away from investigators to cover up his suffocation by U.S. prison guards.

The abuse at Abu Ghraib continues to have ramifications and has resulted in a lawsuit in California, Ford v. CAARNG (California Army Reserve National Guard).

The suit charges that “retired Sergeant Frank G. Ford who, in 2003, was assigned to Iraq with the 223 Military Intelligence Unit under the 205 Military Intelligence Brigade as a Counter Intelligence Agent and Medic, was strapped to a gurney against his will and kidnapped. He was then sent from a war zone [Iraq] to Germany… because he reported the torture going on at Abu Ghraib prison as well as the death by torture of a prisoner while in custody.”
The suit also alleges that “Ford cared for and treated, as an onsite medic, numerous victims of torture.”

A video currently circulating of a Libyan rebel sodomizing Qaddafi with what appears to be a rifle barrel brings back the scenes of the U.S. house of horrors at Abu Ghraib. Obama’s decision to become judge, jury, and executioner in the death sentences (“targeted killings”) carried out by a CIA drone flying over Yemen on September 30, on U.S. citizens Anwar al Awalaki (a former Islamic confidante of the Pentagon), and Samir Khan, and an additional October 14 drone strike in Yemen that killed Awlaki’s teenage son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, also a U.S. citizen, reinforces a growing belief that Obama lords over a voodoo-like death cult that has taken over U.S. military and foreign policy.

By word and action, the U.S. military and its NATO underlings have discarded thousands of years of chivalric military tradition, common practices, and law against a backdrop of ghoulish and pornographic behavior.

WAYNE MADSEN

→ source

Origins of the scam

2011-10-20T19:26:00.000+02:00

Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

'In 1949, while I was visiting Ezra Pound who was a political prisoner at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Washington, D.C. (a Federal institution for the insane), Dr. Pound asked me if I had ever heard of the Federal Reserve System. I replied that I had not, as of the age of 25. He then showed me a ten dollar bill marked "Federal Reserve Note" and asked me if I would do some research at the Library of Congress on the Federal Reserve System which had issued this bill.

Pound was unable to go to the Library himself, as he was being held without trial as a political prisoner by the United States government. After he was denied broadcasting time in the U.S., Dr. Pound broadcast from Italy in an effort to persuade people of the United States not to enter World War II. Franklin D. Roosevelt had personally ordered Pound’s indictment, spurred by the demands of his three personal assistants, Harry Dexter White, Lauchlin Currie, and Alger Hiss, all of whom were subsequently identified as being connected with Communist espionage.

I had no interest in money or banking as a subject, because I was working on a novel. Pound offered to supplement my income by ten dollars a week for a few weeks. My initial research revealed evidence of an international banking group which had secretly planned the writing of the Federal Reserve Act and Congress’ enactment of the plan into law. These findings confirmed what Pound had long suspected. He said, "You must work on it as a detective story."

I was fortunate in having my research at the Library of Congress directed by a prominent scholar, George Stimpson, founder of the National Press Club, who was described by The New York Times of September 28, 1952: "Beloved by Washington newspapermen as ‘our walking Library of Congress’, Mr. Stimpson was a highly regarded reference source in the Capitol. Government officials, Congressmen and reporters went to him for information on any subject."
I did research four hours each day at the Library of Congress, and went to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in the afternoon. Pound and I went over the previous day’s notes. I then had dinner with George Stimpson at Scholl’s Cafeteria while he went over my material, and I then went back to my room to type up the corrected notes. Both Stimpson and Pound made many suggestions in guiding me in a field in which I had no previous experience.

When Pound’s resources ran low, I applied to the Guggenheim Foundation, Huntington Hartford Foundation, and other foundations to complete my research on the Federal Reserve. Even though my foundation applications were sponsored by the three leading poets of America, Ezra Pound, E.E. Cummings, and Elizabeth Bishop, all of the foundations refused to sponsor this research.

I then wrote up my findings to date, and in 1950 began efforts to market this manuscript in New York. Eighteen publishers turned it down without comment, but the nineteenth, Devin Garrity, president of Devin Adair Publishing Company, gave me some friendly advice in his office.
"I like your book, but we can’t print it," he told me. "Neither can anybody else in New York. Why don’t you bring in a prospectus for your novel, and I think we can give you an advance. You may as well forget about getting the Federal Reserve book published. I doubt if it could ever be printed."

This was devastating news, coming after two years of intensive work. I reported back to Pound, and we tried to find a publisher in other parts of the country. After two years of fruitless submissions, the book was published in a small edition in 1952 by two of Pound’s disciples, John Kasper and David Horton, using their private funds, under the title Mullins on the Federal Reserve.
In 1954, a second edition, with unauthorized alterations, was published in New Jersey, as The Federal Reserve Conspiracy.In 1955, Guido Roeder brought out a German edition in Oberammergau, Germany. The book was seized and the entire edition of 10,000 copies burned by government agents led by Dr. Otto John.

The burning of the book was upheld April 21, 1961 by judge Israel Katz of the Bavarian Supreme Court. The U.S. Government refused to intervene, because U.S. High Commissioner to Germany, James B. Conant (president of Harvard University 1933 to 1953), had approved the initial book burning order. This is the only book which has been burned in Germany since World War II.

In 1968 a pirated edition of this book appeared in California. Both the FBI and the U.S. Postal inspectors refused to act, despite numerous complaints from me during the next decade. In 1980 a new German edition appeared. Because the U.S. Government apparently no longer dictated the internal affairs of Germany, the identical book which had been burned in 1955 now circulates in Germany without interference.

I had collaborated on several books with Mr. H.L. Hunt and he suggested that I should continue my long-delayed research on the Federal Reserve and bring out a more definitive version of this book. I had just signed a contract to write the authorized biography of Ezra Pound, and the Federal Reserve book had to be postponed. Mr. Hunt passed away before I could get back to my research, and once again I faced the problem of financing research for the book.
My original book had traced and named the shadowy figures in the United States who planned the Federal Reserve Act. I now discovered that the men whom I exposed in 1952 as the shadowy figures behind the operation of the Federal Reserve System were themselves shadows, the American fronts for the unknown figures who became known as the "London Connection".

I found that notwithstanding our successes in the Wars of Independence of 1812 against England, we remained an economic and financial colony of Great Britain. For the first time, we located the original stockholders of the Federal Reserve Banks and traced their parent companies to the London Connection.
This research is substantiated by citations and documentation from hundreds of newspapers, periodicals and books and charts showing blood, marriage, and business relationships. More than a thousand issues of The New York Times on microfilm have been checked not only for original information, but verification of statements from other sources.

It is a truism of the writing profession that a writer has only one book within him. This seems applicable in my case, because I am now in the fifth decade of continuous writing on a single subject, the inside story of the Federal Reserve System. This book was from its inception commissioned and guided by Ezra Pound. Four of his protégés have previously been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, William Butler Yeats for his later poetry, James Joyce for Ulysses, Ernest Hemingway for The Sun Also Rises, and T.S. Elliot for The Waste Land. Pound played a major role in the inspiration and in the editing of these works--which leads us to believe that this present work, also inspired by Pound, represents an ongoing literary tradition.

Although this book in its inception was expected to be a tortuous work on economic and monetary techniques, it soon developed into a story of such universal and dramatic appeal that from the outset, Ezra Pound urged me to write it as a detective story, a genre which was invented by my fellow Virginian, Edgar Allan Poe.
I believe that the continuous circulation of this book during the past forty years has not only exonerated Ezra Pound for his much condemned political and monetary statements, but also that it has been, and will continue to be, the ultimate weapon against the powerful conspirators who compelled him to serve thirteen and a half years without trial, as a political prisoner held in an insane asylum a la KGB.
His earliest vindication came when the government agents who represented the conspirators refused to allow him to testify in his own defense; the second vindication came in 1958 when these same agents dropped all charges against him, and he walked out of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, a free man once more.

His third and final vindication is this work, which documents every aspect of his exposure of the ruthless international financiers to whom Ezra Pound became but one more victim, doomed to serve years as the Man in the Iron Mask, because he had dared to alert his fellow-Americans to their furtive acts of treason against all people of the United States.

In my lectures throughout this nation, and in my appearances on many radio and television programs, I have sounded the toxin that the Federal Reserve System is not Federal; it has no reserves; and it is not a system at all, but rather, a criminal syndicate. From November, 1910, when the conspirators met on Jekyll Island, Georgia, to the present time, the machinations of the Federal Reserve bankers have been shrouded in secrecy.
Today, that secrecy has cost the American people a three trillion dollar debt, with annual interest payments to these bankers amounting to some three hundred billion dollars per year, sums which stagger the imagination, and which in themselves are ultimately unpayable.

Officials of the Federal Reserve System routinely issue remonstrances to the public, much as the Hindu fakir pipes an insistent tune to the dazed cobra which sways its head before him, not to resolve the situation, but to prevent it from striking him. Such was the soothing letter written by Donald J. Winn, Assistant to the Board of Governors in response to an inquiry by a Congressman, the Honorable Norman D. Shumway, on March 10, 1983.

Mr. Winn states that "The Federal Reserve System was established by an act of Congress in 1913 and is not a ‘private corporation’." On the next page, Mr. Winn continues, "The stock of the Federal Reserve Banks is held entirely by commercial banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System." He offers no explanation as to why the government has never owned a single share of stock in any Federal Reserve Bank, or why the Federal Reserve System is not a "private corporation" when all of its stock is owned by "private corporations".

American history in the twentieth century has recorded the amazing achievements of the Federal Reserve bankers. First, the outbreak of World War I, which was made possible by the funds available from the new central bank of the United States. Second, the Agricultural Depression of 1920. Third, the Black Friday Crash on Wall Street of October, 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression. Fourth, World War II.
Fifth, the conversion of the assets of the United States and its citizens from real property to paper assets from 1945 to the present, transforming a victorious America and foremost world power in 1945 to the world’s largest debtor nation in 1990.
Today, this nation lies in economic ruins, devastated and destitute, in much the same dire straits in which Germany and Japan found themselves in 1945.

Will Americans act to rebuild our nation, as Germany and Japan have done when they faced the identical conditions which we now face--or will we continue to be enslaved by the Babylonian debt money system which was set up by the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 to complete our total destruction? This is the only question which we have to answer, and we do not have much time left to answer it.

Because of the depth and the importance of the information which I had developed at the Library of Congress under the tutelage of Ezra Pound, this work became the happy hunting ground for many other would-be historians, who were unable to research this material for themselves. Over the past four decades, I have become accustomed to seeing this material appear in many other books, invariably attributed to other writers, with my name never mentioned.
To add insult to injury, not only my material, but even my title has been appropriated, in a massive, if obtuse, work called Secrets of the Temple--the Federal Reserve. This heavily advertised book received reviews ranging from incredulous to hilarious. Forbes Magazine advised its readers to read their review and save their money, pointing out that "a reader will discover no secrets" and that "This is one of those books whose fanfares far exceed their merit." This was not accidental, as this overblown whitewash of the Federal Reserve bankers was published by the most famous nonbook publisher in the world.

After my initial shock at discovering that the most influential literary personality of the twentieth century, Ezra Pound, was imprisoned in "the Hellhole" in Washington, I immediately wrote for assistance to a Wall Street financier at whose estate I had frequently been a guest. I reminded him that as a patron of the arts, he could not afford to allow Pound to remain in such inhuman captivity. His reply shocked me even more. He wrote back that "your friend can well stay where he is." It was some years before I was able to understand that, for this investment banker and his colleagues, Ezra Pound would always be "the enemy".
Eustace Mullins
Jackson Hole, Wyoming 1991

INTRODUCTION

Here are the simple facts of the great betrayal. Wilson and House knew that they were doing something momentous. One cannot fathom men’s motives and this pair probably believed in what they were up to. What they did not believe in was representative government. They believed in government by an uncontrolled oligarchy whose acts would only become apparent after an interval so long that the electorate would be forever incapable of doing anything efficient to remedy depredations.
EZRA POUND
St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Washington, D.C. 1950

Author's note: Dr. Pound wrote this introduction for the earliest version of this book, published by Kasper and Horton, New York, 1952. Because he was being held as a political prisoner without trial by the Federal Government, he could not afford to allow his name to appear on the book because of additional reprisals against him. Neither could he allow the book to be dedicated to him, although he had commissioned its writing. The author is gratified to be able to remedy these necessary omissions, thirty-three years after the events.

JEFFERSON’S OPINION
ON THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE BANK
February 15, 1791
(The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. by H. E. Bergh, Vol. III, p. 145 ff.)

The bill for establishing a national bank, in 1791, undertakes, among other things,--
1. To form the subscribers into a corporation.
2. To enable them, in their corporate capacities, to receive grants of lands; and, so far, is against the laws of mortmain.
3. To make alien subscribers capable of holding lands; and so far is against the laws of alienage.
4. To transmit these lands, on the death of a proprietor, to a certain line of successors; and so far, changes the course of descents.
5. To put the lands out of the reach of forfeiture, or escheat; and so far, is against the laws of forfeiture and escheat.
6. To transmit personal chattels to successors, in a certain line; and so far, is against the laws of distribution.
7. To give them the sole and exclusive right of banking, under the national authority; and, so far, is against the laws of monopoly.
8. To communicate to them a power to make laws, paramount to the laws of the states; for so they must be construed, to protect the institution from the control of the state legislatures; and so probably they will be construed.

I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground--that all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states, or to the people (12th amend.). To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.

The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill, have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the Constitution.

CHAPTER ONE - Jekyll Island

"The matter of a uniform discount rate was discussed and settled at Jekyll Island."
--Paul M. Warburg

On the night of November 22, 1910, a group of newspaper reporters stood disconsolately in the railway station at Hoboken, New Jersey. They had just watched a delegation of the nation’s leading financiers leave the station on a secret mission. It would be years before they discovered what that mission was, and even then they would not understand that the history of the United States underwent a drastic change after that night in Hoboken.

The delegation had left in a sealed railway car, with blinds drawn, for an undisclosed destination. They were led by Senator Nelson Aldrich, head of the National Monetary Commission. President Theodore Roosevelt had signed into law the bill creating the National Monetary Commission in 1908, after the tragic Panic of 1907 had resulted in a public outcry that the nation’s monetary system be stabilized.
Aldrich had led the members of the Commission on a two-year tour of Europe, spending some three hundred thousand dollars of public money. He had not yet made a report on the results of this trip, nor had he offered any plan for banking reform.

Accompanying Senator Aldrich at the Hoboken station were his private secretary, Shelton; A. Piatt Andrew, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and Special Assistant of the National Monetary Commission; Frank Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank of New York, Henry P. Davison, senior partner of J.P. Morgan Company, and generally regarded as Morgan’s personal emissary; and Charles D. Norton, president of the Morgan-dominated First National Bank of New York.
Joining the group just before the train left the station were Benjamin Strong, also known as a lieutenant of J.P. Morgan; and Paul Warburg, a recent immigrant from Germany who had joined the banking house of Kuhn, Loeb and Company, New York as a partner earning five hundred thousand dollars a year.

Six years later, a financial writer named Bertie Charles Forbes (who later founded Forbes Magazine; the present editor, Malcom Forbes, is his son), wrote:

"Picture a party of the nation’s greatest bankers stealing out of New York on a private railroad car under cover of darkness, stealthily hieing hundred of miles South, embarking on a mysterious launch, sneaking onto an island deserted by all but a few servants, living there a full week under
such rigid secrecy that the names of not one of them was once mentioned lest the servants learn the identity and disclose to the world this strangest, most secret expedition in the history of American finance.
I am not romancing; I am giving to the world, for the first time, the real story of how the famous Aldrich currency report, the foundation of our new currency system, was written… The utmost secrecy was enjoined upon all. The public must not glean a hint of what was to be done.
Senator Aldrich notified each one to go quietly into a private car of which the railroad had received orders to draw up on an unfrequented platform. Off the party set. New York’s ubiquitous reporters had been foiled… Nelson (Aldrich) had confided to Henry, Frank, Paul and Piatt that he was to keep them locked up at Jekyll Island, out of the rest of the world, until they had evolved and compiled a scientific currency system for the United States, the real birth of the present Federal Reserve System, the plan done on Jekyll Island in the conference with Paul, Frank and Henry… Warburg is the link that binds the Aldrich system and the present system together. He more than any one man has made the system possible as a working reality."

The official biography of Senator Nelson Aldrich states: "In the autumn of 1910, six men went out to shoot ducks, Aldrich, his secretary Shelton, Andrews, Davison, Vanderlip and Warburg. Reporters were waiting at the Brunswick (Georgia) station. Mr. Davison went out and talked to them. The reporters dispersed and the secret of the strange journey was not divulged. Mr. Aldrich asked him how he had managed it and he did not volunteer the information."
Davison had an excellent reputation as the person who could conciliate warring factions, a role he had performed for J.P. Morgan during the settling of the Money Panic of 1907.
Another Morgan partner, T.W. Lamont, says: "Henry P. Davison served as arbitrator of the Jekyll Island expedition."

From these references, it is possible to piece together the story. Aldrich’s private car, which had left Hoboken station with its shades drawn, had taken the financiers to Jekyll Island, Georgia. Some years earlier, a very exclusive group of millionaires, led by J.P. Morgan, had purchased the island as a winter retreat. They called themselves the Jekyll Island Hunt Club, and, at first, the island was used only for hunting expeditions, until the millionaires realized that its pleasant climate offered a warm retreat from the rigors of winters in New York, and began to build splendid mansions, which they called "cottages", for their families’ winter vacations.
The club building itself, being quite isolated, was sometimes in demand for stag parties and other pursuits unrelated to hunting. On such occasions, the club members who were not invited to these specific outings were asked not to appear there for a certain number of days. Before Nelson Aldrich’s party had left New York, the club’s members had been notified that the club would be occupied for the next two weeks.

The Jekyll Island Club was chosen as the place to draft the plan for control of the money and credit of the people of the United States, not only because of its isolation, but also because it was the private preserve of the people who were drafting the plan. The New York Times later noted, on May 3, 1931, in commenting on the death of George F. Baker, one of J.P. Morgan’s closest associates, that "Jekyll Island Club has lost one of its most distinguished members. One-sixth of the total wealth of the world was represented by the members of the Jekyll Island Club." Membership was by inheritance only.

The Aldrich group had no interest in hunting. Jekyll Island was chosen for the site of the preparation of the central bank because it offered complete privacy, and because there was not a journalist within fifty miles. Such was the need for secrecy that the members of the party agreed, before arriving at Jekyll Island, that no last names would be used at any time during their two week stay.
The group later referred to themselves as the First Name Club, as the last names of Warburg, Strong, Vanderlip and the others were prohibited during their stay. The customary attendants had been given two week vacations from the club, and new servants brought in from the mainland for this occasion who did not know the names of any of those present. Even if they had been interrogated after the Aldrich party went back to New York, they could not have given the names. This arrangement proved to be so satisfactory that the members, limited to those who had actually been present at Jekyll Island, later had a number of informal get-togethers in New York.

Why all this secrecy? Why this thousand mile trip in a closed railway car to a remote hunting club? Ostensibly, it was to carry out a program of public service, to prepare banking reform which would be a boon to the people of the United States, which had been ordered by the National Monetary Commission. The participants were no strangers to public benefactions. Usually, their names were inscribed on brass plaques, or on the exteriors of buildings which they had donated. This was not the procedure which they followed at Jekyll Island. No brass plaque was ever erected to mark the selfless actions of those who met at their private hunt club in 1910 to improve the lot of every citizen of the United States.

In fact, no benefaction took place at Jekyll Island. The Aldrich group journeyed there in private to write the banking and currency legislation which the National Monetary Commission had been ordered to prepare in public. At stake was the future control of the money and credit of the United States. If any genuine monetary reform had been prepared and presented to Congress, it would have ended the power of the elitist one world money creators. Jekyll Island ensured that a central bank would be established in the United States which would give these bankers everything they had always wanted.

As the most technically proficient of those present, Paul Warburg was charged with doing most of the drafting of the plan. His work would then be discussed and gone over by the rest of the group. Senator Nelson Aldrich was there to see that the completed plan would come out in a form which he could get passed by Congress, and the other bankers were there to include whatever details would be needed to be certain that they got everything they wanted, in a finished draft composed during a onetime stay. After they returned to New York, there could be no second get together to rework their plan. They could not hope to obtain such secrecy for their work on a second journey.

The Jekyll Island group remained at the club for nine days, working furiously to complete their task. Despite the common interests of those present, the work did not proceed without friction. Senator Aldrich, always a domineering person, considered himself the chosen leader of the group, and could not help ordering everyone else about. Aldrich also felt somewhat out of place as the only member who was not a professional banker. He had had substantial banking interests throughout his career, but only as a person who profited from his ownership of bank stock. He knew little about the technical aspects of financial operations.
His opposite number, Paul Warburg, believed that every question raised by the group demanded, not merely an answer, but a lecture. He rarely lost an opportunity to give the members a long discourse designed to impress them with the extent of his knowledge of banking. This was resented by the others, and often drew barbed remarks from Aldrich.

The natural diplomacy of Henry P. Davison proved to be the catalyst which kept them at their work. Warburg’s thick alien accent grated on them, and constantly reminded them that they had to accept his presence if a central bank plan was to be devised which would guarantee them their future profits. Warburg made little effort to smooth over their prejudices, and contested them on every possible occasion on technical banking questions, which he considered his private preserve.

"In all conspiracies there must be great secrecy."

The "monetary reform" plan prepared at Jekyll Island was to be presented to Congress as the completed work of the National Monetary Commission. It was imperative that the real authors of the bill remain hidden. So great was popular resentment against bankers since the Panic of 1907 that no Congressman would dare to vote for a bill bearing the Wall Street taint, no matter who had contributed to his campaign expenses
The Jekyll Island plan was a central bank plan, and in this country there was a long tradition of struggle against inflicting a central bank on the American people. It had begun with Thomas Jefferson’s fight against Alexander Hamilton’s scheme for the First Bank of the United States, backed by James Rothschild. It had continued with President Andrew Jackson’s successful war against Alexander Hamilton’s scheme for the Second Bank of the United States, in which Nicholas Biddle was acting as the agent for James Rothschild of Paris.

The result of that struggle was the creation of the Independent Sub-Treasury System, which supposedly had served to keep the funds of the United States out of the hands of the financiers. A study of the panics of 1873, 1893, and 1907 indicates that these panics were the result of the international bankers’ operations in London. The public was demanding in 1908 that Congress enact legislation to prevent the recurrence of artificially induced money panics. Such monetary reform now seemed inevitable. It was to head off and control such reform that the National Monetary Commission had been set up with Nelson Aldrich at its head, since he was majority leader of the senate.

The main problem, as Paul Warburg informed his colleagues, was to avoid the name "Central Bank". For that reason, he had decided upon the designation of "Federal Reserve System". This would deceive the people into thinking it was not a central bank. However, the Jekyll Island plan would be a central bank plan, fulfilling the main functions of a central bank; it would be owned by private individuals who would profit from ownership of shares. As a bank of issue, it would control the nation’s money and credit.

In the chapter on Jekyll Island in his biography of Aldrich, Stephenson writes of the conference:

"How was the Reserve Bank to be controlled? It must be controlled by Congress. The government was to be represented in the board of directors, it was to have full knowledge of all the Bank’s affairs, but a majority of the directors were to be chosen, directly or indirectly, by the banks of the association."

Thus the proposed Federal Reserve Bank was to be "controlled by Congress" and answerable to the government, but the majority of the directors were to be chosen, "directly or indirectly" by the banks of the association. In the final refinement of Warburg’s plan, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors would be appointed by the President of the United States, but the real work of the Board would be controlled by a Federal Advisory Council, meeting with the Governors. The Council would be chosen by the directors of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, and would remain unknown to the public.

The next consideration was to conceal the fact that the proposed "Federal Reserve System" would be dominated by the masters of the New York money market. The Congressmen from the South and the West could not survive if they voted for a Wall Street plan. Farmers and small businessmen in those areas had suffered most from the money panics. There had been great popular resentment against the Eastern bankers, which during the nineteenth century became a political movement known as "populism". The private papers of Nicholas Biddle, not released until more than a century after his death, show that quite early on the Eastern bankers were fully aware of the widespread public opposition to them.

Paul Warburg advanced at Jekyll Island the primary deception which would prevent the citizens from recognizing that his plan set up a central bank. This was the regional reserve system. He proposed a system of four (later twelve) branch reserve banks located in different sections of the country. Few people outside the banking world would realize that the existing concentration of the nation’s money and credit structure in New York made the proposal of a regional reserve system a delusion.

Another proposal advanced by Paul Warburg at Jekyll Island was the manner of selection of administrators for the proposed regional reserve system. Senator Nelson Aldrich had insisted that the officials should be appointive, not elected, and that Congress should have no role in their selection. His Capitol Hill experience had taught him that congressional opinion would often be inimical to the Wall Street interests, as Congressmen from the West and South might wish to demonstrate to their constituents that they were protecting them against the Eastern bankers.

Warburg responded that the administrators of the proposed central banks should be subject to executive approval by the President. This patent removal of the system from Congressional control meant that the Federal Reserve proposal was unconstitutional from its inception, because the Federal Reserve System was to be a bank of issue. Article 1, Sec.8, Par.5 of the Constitution expressly charges Congress with "the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof".

Warburg’s plan would deprive Congress of its sovereignty, and the systems of checks and balances of power set up by Thomas Jefferson in the Constitution would now be destroyed. Administrators of the proposed system would control the nation’s money and credit, and would themselves be approved by the executive department of the government. The judicial department (the Supreme Court, etc.) was already virtually controlled by the executive department through presidential appointment to the bench.

Paul Warburg later wrote a massive exposition of his plan, The Federal Reserve System, Its Origin and Growth of some 1750 pages, but the name "Jekyll Island" appears nowhere in this text. He does state (Vol. 1, p. 58):

"But then the conference closed, after a week of earnest deliberation, the rough draft of what later became the Aldrich Bill had been agreed upon, and a plan had been outlined which provided for a 'National Reserve Association', meaning a central reserve organization with an elastic note issue based on gold and commercial paper."

On page 60, Warburg writes, "The results of the conference were entirely confidential. Even the fact there had been a meeting was not permitted to become public." He adds in a footnote,

"Though eighteen [sic] years have since gone by, I do not feel free to give a description of this most interesting conference concerning which Senator Aldrich pledged all participants to secrecy."

B.C. Forbes’ revelation of the secret expedition to Jekyll Island, had had surprisingly little impact. It did not appear in print until two years after the Federal Reserve Act had been passed by Congress, hence it was never read during the period when it could have had an effect, that is, during the Congressional debate on the bill. Forbes’ story was also dismissed, by those "in the know," as preposterous, and a mere invention. Stephenson mentions this on page 484 of his book about Aldrich.

"This curious episode of Jekyll Island has been generally regarded as a myth. B.C. Forbes got some information from one of the reporters. It told in vague outline the Jekyll Island story, but made no impression and was generally regarded as a mere yarn."

The cover-up of the Jekyll Island conference proceeded along two lines, both of which were successful. The first, as Stephenson mentions, was to dismiss the entire story as a romantic concoction which never actually took place. Although there were brief references to Jekyll Island in later books concerning the Federal Reserve System, these also attracted little public attention. As we have noted, Warburg’s massive and supposedly definite work on the Federal Reserve System does not mention Jekyll Island at all, although he does admit that a conference took place.
In none of his voluminous speeches or writings do the words "Jekyll Island" appear, with a single notable exception. He agreed to Professor Stephenson’s request that he prepare a brief statement for the Aldrich biography. This appears on page 485 as part of The Warburg Memorandum. In this excerpt, Warburg writes, "The matter of a uniform discount rate was discussed and settled at Jekyll Island."

Another member of the "First Name Club" was less reticent. Frank Vanderlip later published a few brief references to the conference. In the Saturday Evening Post, February 9, 1935, p. 25, Vanderlip wrote:

"Despite my views about the value to society of greater publicity for the affairs of corporations, there was an occasion near the close of 1910, when I was as secretive, indeed, as furtive, as any conspirator… Since it would have been fatal to Senator Aldrich’s plan to have it known that he was calling on anybody from Wall Street to help him in preparing his bill, precautions were taken that would have delighted the heart of James Stillman (a colorful and secretive banker who was President of the National City Bank during the Spanish-American War, and who was thought to have been involved in getting us into that war) … I do not feel it is any exaggeration to speak of our secret expedition to Jekyll Island as the occasion of the actual conception of what eventually became the Federal Reserve System."

In a Travel feature in The Washington Post, March 27, 1983, "Follow The Rich to Jekyll Island", Roy Hoopes writes:

"In 1910, when Aldrich and four financial experts wanted a place to meet in secret to reform the country’s banking system, they faked a hunting trip to Jekyll and for 10 days holed up in the Clubhouse, where they made plans for what eventually would become the Federal Reserve Bank."

Vanderlip later wrote in his autobiography, From Farmboy to Financier:

"Our secret expedition to Jekyll Island was the occasion of the actual conception of what eventually became the Federal Reserve System. The essential points of the Aldrich Plan were all contained in the Federal Reserve Act as it was passed."

Professor E.R.A. Seligman, a member of the international banking family of J. & W. Seligman, and head of the Department of Economics at Columbia University, wrote in an essay published by the Academy of Political Science, Proceedings, v. 4, No. 4, p. 387-90:

"It is known to a very few how great is the indebtedness of the United States to Mr. Warburg. For it may be said without fear of contradiction that in its fundamental features the Federal Reserve Act is the work of Mr. Warburg more than any other man in the country. The existence of a Federal Reserve Board creates, in everything but in name, a real central bank. In the two fundamentals of command of reserves and of a discount policy, the Federal Reserve Act has frankly accepted the principle of the Aldrich Bill, and these principles, as has been stated, were the creation of Mr. Warburg and Mr. Warburg alone. It must not be forgotten that Mr. Warburg had a practical object in view. In formulating his plans and in advancing in them slightly varying suggestions from time to time, it was incumbent on him to remember that the education of the country must be gradual and that a large part of the task was to break down prejudices and remove suspicion.
His plans therefore contained all sorts of elaborate suggestions designed to guard the public against fancied dangers and to persuade the country that the general scheme was at all practicable. It was the hope of Mr. Warburg that with the lapse of time it might be possible to eliminate from the law a few clauses which were inserted largely at his suggestion for educational purposes."

Now that the public debt of the United States has passed a trillion dollars, we may indeed admit "how great is the indebtedness of the United States to Mr. Warburg." At the time he wrote the Federal Reserve Act, the public debt was almost nonexistent.

Professor Seligman points out Warburg’s remarkable prescience that the real task of the members of the Jekyll Island conference was to prepare a banking plan which would gradually "educate the country" and "break down prejudices and remove suspicion". The campaign to enact the plan into law succeeded in doing just that.'
→ cont.
→ Secrets of the Federal Reserve
→ idem

Strandleven

2011-08-17T08:39:00.003+02:00

Staat ons een hete herfst te wachten? Afgaande op het bestuur van stadsdeel A'dam Oost in ieder geval wel. Dat is van zins 9 september a.s. een stadsstrand te doen openen. Gescheiden slechts van vakantiepark De Valreep door het Hof van Eden, zo leert bovenstaand kaartje. Dit alles aan de rand van de voormalige Oostergasfabriek, nu als gebied in ontwikkeling Oosterpoort geheten.

Voor een naam en details is het nog te vroeg van gemeentewege. Geïnteresseerde exploitanten van 't een of 't ander werden op de municipale site verwezen naar een document met eisen, verlangens en een tijdsschema. Zelf heb ik connecties in de superpatat en klikte ik dus direct driftig door. Vervuld van een visioen: 's winters schaatsen op de Jaap Eden, voorafgegaan door een indian summer op Strandpark Hof van Eden - wie zei daar dat Oost niet idyllisch zijn kon?

Het gaat, zo lezen we, om 'verlevendiging van het gebied en om het waarmaken van de pay-off van het gebied: Beleef Oosterpoort'. Onder het kopje 'Merkwaarden' wordt dit geconcretiseerd tot bijvoorbeeld: 'In Oosterpoort wordt je sik op allerlei manieren uitgedaagd…' Pardon, even opnieuw. De toevoeging tussen haakjes is van mij. 'In Oosterpoort wordt je (sic) op allerlei manieren uitgedaagd om je te ontwikkelen en je grenzen te verleggen.'
Zo! Dit vroeg om anticipatie. Ik keek nog eens goed naar m'n eerste artist impression en besloot ootmoedig tot aanpassing qua naamgeving.

Bad Pay-off

We lazen verder. 'Op het terrein is een laag schoon zand aangebracht van ca. 50 cm. Onder deze zgn leeflaag bevindt zich bestrating. De grond onder deze bestrating is vervuild. Het is niet toegestaan de bestrating kapot te maken en in de vervuilde grond te graven.'
Oei! Dat impliceerde wellicht de aanstelling van een extra inspecteur om de zandschepjes van bezoekende kinderen te controleren op lengte. Maar tegelijkertijd drong tot me door hoezeer ik hier met een eigentijds project te maken had. Je moet weten: in de jaren '60 luidde een prominent motto 'Onder het plaveisel het strand'. Wat 'n tijd was dat! Ik weet nog goed hoe… -- Terug naar de onze, stop de flash backs, het devies is nu 'Onder het strand het plaveisel'.
Turend naar m'n lijstje leek Citybeach De Onderste Steen me ineens niet zo'n goed idee meer. Daarmee viel ook de slogan 'Dé hangplek voor stoners!' in het water. Ik noteerde Strandje Zand Erover.

Over water gesproken. M'n blik schuimde het hele ontwerp eens af en op slag raakte ik vertwijfeld. Where was the meat, ik bedoel: waar was het water?
Niks water. Het enige wat er stond vermeld was dat er in de aanpalende Ringvaart niet gezwommen zou mogen worden. Dat waarschijnlijk vanwege de veiligheid, voor als men over nog een jaar het waterskieën zou faciliteren en het oud-Hollandsch haventje voor speedboatjes.
Bovendien, je hoorde 't zo'n bestuurder al lispelen: 'De burger van de 21e eeuw voelt nu eenmaal liever geen nattigheid'.

Eh, doe maar 'Strandpaviljoen De Droogzwemmer'

Ik ontdekte echter ook pluspunten. Zo is het nuttigen van zelf medegebrachte etenswaren toegestaan op het terrein, zoiets scheelt je dan weer een inspecteur. En keten vormt geen probleem. Althans de gemeente voorziet, vaardig & vooruitziend, zelf in enige 'opstallen'. Hebben ze ergens goedkoop op de kop kunnen tikken. Nou, dat ziet er helemaal niet verkeerd uit. Er is gekozen voor zomers ei-geel en fris witte luiken die zowel open als dicht kunnen. De nu zichtbare auto's worden geweerd. Hmm, dat is minder. Je loopt parkeergelden mis en het noopt tot aanschaf van een omroep-installatie: 'Wil de bestuurder van…' etc.

Okay, handtekening eronder, klaar. De inschrijving sluit maandag jl. dus we hebben precies -3 dagen om onze offerte in te zenden. Dat is wat je noemt op de Valreep.

2011-08-10T08:46:00.001+02:00

De Zangeres heeft zich van woninglozen en krakers
het lot altijd héél intens aangetrokken. Wars als ze
maar zijn kon van vooroordelen en bruut gejagerij,
sprak zij ooit: 'Ook zij gaan Zonder veel Naam door
het leven. Niet omdat ze daarvoor zoals wij konden
kiezen, nee, omdat de wet hen ertoe dreef.'

'De onmenselijken die opdrijven en weg willen jagen
hebben zelf wel 'n naam, een hele slechte. Doch geen
gezicht. Ze dragen zonder erg de treurigste maskers.
En zitten tevens zonder hun ziel, waarmee ze - nog
altijd zonder erg - hun maskers hebben afbetaald.'

'Wist U wie die maskers zien, ja de kinders zij weten
en daarom is denk ik JAAG DE KRAKERS NIET WEG
tot op de dag van vandaag zo immens populair. Ofdat
't waar is wat men dikwijls leest en hoort, dat het de
waarachtige mensen langer jong houdt? Gunst, ik zou
het U niet kunnen vertellen. Johnny heeft 't zich wel
meer dan eens laten ontvallen. Mary, lieve Mary, zei
t-ie dan, 't Is voor wie leeft een elixée en nochtans
ook op 2cd.'

2011-05-05T12:39:00.049+02:00

● zo 15.5.11 ☼ 16-20 u. @'t Blijvertje
3e Oosterparkstraat 64, Amsterdam
'Powési & muZiq' met o.a. Sylvia Hubers, Rudie Kagie
Merapi Obermayer, Jez Keighley, Donald Gardner
Kristian K, de Voorleesvrouwe, ♪Fufu feat. Paul ◄

Merapi Obermayer (r)

VOOR DE REST VAN HUN LEVEN

Een reünie voor oud-bewoners van kindertehuis Nieuw V. dreigt totaal uit de hand te lopen. De uitnodiging om na veertig jaar weer eens bij elkaar te komen roept onvoorziene emoties op. In aanloop tot wat een gezellige dag moest worden, komt de intussen bejaarde groepsleiding hevig in aanvaring met de al lang volwassen geworden voogdij-pupillen van toen.
Beide partijen vervallen in oude rolpatronen. De opvoeders slaan weer aan het betuttelen en censureren bijdragen aan het reünieboek. Als reactie plaatsen de oud-pupillen traumatische herinneringen op internet aan kindermishandeling in Nieuw V. Sommigen werden in dit instituut voor de rest van hun leven psychisch beschadigd. Was dat inderdaad de schuld van de directie? De sfeer tijdens de voorbereidingen van de reünie wordt met de dag grimmiger.'
Rudie Kagie (1950) is redacteur van Vrij Nederland, Schuifkaas een autobiografisch relaas.
→ 'Ik geef het een acht'

*♪

GOT MEDICINE
'...from a divine dispensing chemist in the sky'

*♪

CITY OF DELIRIUM

New York City poet and world traveler: Northern India, Amsterdam, Arcidoso (North Italy) where she lives, at least half the year, in a stone tower. Louise Landes Levi published numerous books, chaps and broadsides. She translated Rene Daumal, Henri Michaux and the great 16th century tantric poet Mira Bai.
'Her poems sing in the mind and dance through the heart and throat & arms and legs, with great clarity and bliss. Louise is Saranswati, goddess of poetry' (John Giorno)
The tape City Of Delirium (Sloow Tapes CS 40) collects poems from the late sixties to the present. In addition to writing, Louise is a player of sarangi and flute and in these recordings, the spoken word is set to music drawn from two of her cassettes, Kinnari and Padma, produced by Felix Mensingh in mid & late eighties, recorded in Munich resp. West Hurley, N.Y.
Louise Levi played in the Floating Lotus Magic Opera Company (Daniel Moore, Angus Maclise, Terry Riley) and studied Indian music with Annapurna Devi, Ali Akbar Khan and La Monte Young.

BIG BRIDGE

A webzine 'of poetry and everything else', published by Michael Rothenberg. Issue#15 (Spring 2011) has just arrived, dedicated to the memory of Ira Cohen. Among its features An Unheard Melody: The music of Annapurna Devi, An Authorized Biography by Louise Landes Levi (facsimile from its publication in India in 2005).

If Annapurna’s music is to reclaim the divine heritage of sur, swara & raga
– only those who have heard her personally
& not in the covertly recorded music of the 50s –
fragments of which remain can attest to this –
such isolation, was part of a greater intention.
The music which follows her isolation in Mailar & the first separation fr. her husband – there were several – seals her youth w. an extraordinary sign,
extenuating her loss but also transforming it.
The loss is transmuted, an otherworldly gift manifests.
It is our loss, for the music is inaccessible,
but it is not the loss of a woman whose dignity so touched me
that 35 years later
our lessons might have taken place 35 minutes ago.

Even on Surbahar, the bass sitar,
her technique was astonishing – one can still hear fragments
of this early music in a duet w. her former husband –
only recording of the two of them.
Shankar turns toward the public & what he perceives to be
its needs. Annapurna, a classicist, strictly adheres to her
father’s talim & applies herself to the spiritual discipline
inherent in it.

*♪

Van de buurt en de stad, van huizen en de mensen

2011-05-05T12:35:00.019+02:00

LOGISTIEK

Bovenstaande afbeelding (aan te klikken voor een vergroting) van de Stichting 1940-1945 dateert uit de jaren vijftig vermoedelijk en toont de vervoersstromen zoals die in de Tweede Wereldoorlog ons land beproefden. Men ziet hoe de Duitsers onze voorraden roofden, en ons vee. De hongertochten vanuit het Westen staan erop en Westerbork. Naar de deportaties van Joden blijft het, wat deze kaart aangaat, enigszins gissen.

De Nederlandse Spoorwegen zelf zou je er dat decennium niet over horen en erna evenmin. Meer valt op te maken uit een documentaire die 30.9.08 door ARTE is uitgezonden: Nach Fahrplan in den Tod. Over de soepel verlopen communicatie tussen de Nederlandse, Franse en Tsjechische spoorwegen enerzijds en hun Duitse collega's anderzijds bij de aanpak en uitvoering van de deportaties.

Als grootste werkgever van het land onthielden de Spoorwegen zich van de Februari-staking. De voornaamste zorg gold het 'overeind houden' van het bedrijf. Collaboratie met de bezetter vond al plaats vóór Wilhelmina's aanvankelijke oproep vanuit Londen tot samenwerking met het nieuwe regime. En in 1942, toen Westerbork aan de Duitsers werd overgedragen, negeerden de N.S. een oproep uit Londen om niet te collaboreren. In plaats ervan stelde men de Duitsers 148 treinen ter beschikking.

De plannen der nazi's met de Nederlandse Joden konden een ieder hier ter lande bekend zijn, aldus de makers van de documentaire, aangezien die Kerstavond 1942 in een radio-uitzending met zoveel woorden waren aangekondigd. Daarmee gaan ze voorbij aan het gegeven dat radio vóór de oorlog weliswaar volgroeid was tot een massamedium met navenant bereik, doch bezit van een toestel en bij gevolg luisterpraktijken van meet af aan banden was gelegd door middel van een vergunningenstelsel - compleet met plakzegeltjes.

Zo gezegd, zo gedaan. Vanaf april 1943 vertrokken elke zondagavond volgeladen wagons oostwaarts. Te Amsterdam fungeerde het Muiderpoort-station als opstapplaats. Om normale reizigers niet tot aanstoot te zijn, werden de Joden niet langs de normale route naar het perron gevoerd, maar via een kleine door-sluip zijgang. Daar waar wij nu de fietsenstalling weten. Onder het motto 'Das wird gemacht' weigerde geen enkele voorman deelname aan het gewapende vervoer. Aparte functionarissen reisden mee om het transport, waarvan gemiddeld één-derde de reis niet overleefde, aan de landsgrens over te dragen aan de Duitsers.
Voor dit vervoer van in totaal 107.000 Joden zond de N.S. Duitsland telkens gespecificeerde nota's. Men ziet aan de hand daarvan precies hoeveel voor welke personen werd gerekend, bijvoorbeeld 3.9.44 voor Anne Franks tochtje. De nota's voldeed men ginds uit opbrengsten van de verkoop van geroofde Joodse goederen.

In de documentaire toont een vrouw een foto genomen in het geheim door haar vader, van de drukte op treinstation Vught, nadat dit in 1943 als overslagplaats was aangewezen. Het is de enige foto die ervan bestaat. Met ons vroeg de vrouw zich af wat je in deze tijd zelf zou doen: je bekleedt, laten we zeggen, een functie in het management bij de N.S. en werd nu met een dergelijke taak belast.

De spoorwegen zijn nimmer ter verantwoording geroepen voor hun voorbeeldige medewerking. In Frankrijk deinsde de S.N.C.F. er niet voor terug een glossy kleurenfilm te doen produceren waarin heldhaftig verzet gesuggereerd werd. Monumenten aan het spoor bestaan er niet. Van Nederlandse zijde werden ooit één keertje excuses gemaakt, waarmee de kous af diende te zijn. Vraaggesprekken over het onderwerp zijn sindsdien stelselmatig geweigerd. Als enige hebben de Tsjechische spoorwegen recentelijk een treinstel ingericht als reizende tentoonstelling. Onder de naam Project Wagon poogt die met name jongeren een indruk te geven hoe een en ander in z'n werk ging.

Wie bij ons anno 2011 de officiële activiteiten rond 4 en 5 mei doorneemt, stuit op een expositie die een kleine doorbraak belooft. Tot medio juni is aan het Anton de Komplein in Zuidoost dee foto-expositie Sporen van het verleden te zien - een 'primeur voor Amsterdam. Centraal in deze tentoonstelling staan de Dodenspoorwegen in de Tweede Wereldoorlog'.
Nadere bestudering van de info leert ons vervolgens dat Nederland helaas buiten de boot is gevallen. De bewuste sporen verwijzen namelijk naar de Birma/Siam-spoorweg. 'In de afgelopen decennia is er veel verdwenen of veranderd; wat overgebleven is, zal verdwijnen door de tand des tijds. Net als de mensen die eraan gewerkt hebben. Een stuk "tastbare" geschiedenis verdwijnt langzaam maar zeker. Documentair fotograaf Raoul Kramer heeft de gevonden sporen in het landschap vastgelegd.'
Als fotograaf zou ik uiteraard eveneens de voorkeur geven aan Azië als bestemming voor een werkreis. Niettemin kan men voor volgend jaar gerust eens overwegen - zeg in het kader van de crisis - ietwat dichter bij huis een sporenjacht te organiseren. Nederland weet je, heeft zoveel meer te bieden dan je denkt.
→ Nach Fahrplan in den Tod

Op circa 800 adressen in de Oosterparkbuurt Joodse huishoudens gevestigd, die de oorlog niet overleefden. Wie waren deze bewoners? Frits Slicht, bekend van online-community Het Geheugen van Oost, deed onderzoek en presenteert zijn bevindingen.

● 4.5.11 ☼ 20 u.

@'t Blijvertje, 3e Oosterparkstr. 64, A'dam

→ Mijn speurtocht naar het Joodse verleden van de Transvaalbuurt

ZICHTBAAR

Het Amsterdamse 4&5 mei Comité heeft alle Amsterdammers opgeroepen om hun huis op 4 mei te markeren als daar tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog Joden woonden die gedeporteerd zijn. Het is de bedoeling dat op straat zichtbaar is waar de 61.700 vermoorde Joden uit Amsterdam precies woonden.
'Zo wordt zichtbaar hoe Joods de hoofdstad was en hoe omvangrijk het drama', aldus het comité. 'De grootste aanslag die de stad meemaakte was niet op gebouwen maar op de bevolking gericht, op de Joden. Hadden ze geleefd dan was Amsterdam wellicht een andere stad geweest. Dit project maakt die vernietiging van menselijk leven voor ten minste één dag zichtbaar.'

De namen van de omgebrachte Amsterdamse Joden staan op het online Joods Monument.
Het genoemde comité heeft aan de hand van deze namenlijst en met hulp van het Joods Historisch Museum de adressen van alle Joodse huizen geïnventariseerd. Zo kwam een adressenlijst tot stand, die met toelichtingen en raambiljet eind april mee verspreid werd met Het Parool en op diverse locaties gratis verkrijgbaar is gebleven.
Bedoeling is dat Amsterdammers uitzoeken of zij in een huis wonen waarvandaan Joden zijn afgevoerd en zo ja de poster op 4 mei zichtbaar voor hun raam hangen. Op het online Joods Monument kan men een database raadplegen met informatie over voormalige bewoners.
→ Vrolikstraat
→ Derde Oosterparkstraat
→ Vierenzestig huis

(DON'T) MENTION THE WAR

>Roest & Scheren
>Een vreemd geluk
>In de schaduw van gisteren
>schrijvers, uitgevers en hun collaboratie

>Ajax binnen voetballend Amsterdam tijdens WOII
>handleiding meldingsrapporten
>Gerards WOII blog

>oorlogsaffiches
>Illegale Het Parool Archief
>idem Trouw

*♪

1900

A Man Within (film)

2011-04-20T06:47:00.006+02:00

William Burroughs - A Man Within
film ● 21.4.11 ☼ 21u. @'t Blijvertje
3e Oosterparkstraat 64hs, A'dam
vrij entree

ASSIDUOSLY

'While burnishing the Burroughs mystique, A Man Within assiduously tries to humanize an author whom it is all too easy to view as an avenging nihilist, a black hole of icy misanthropic contempt. It goes into considerable depth about his homosexuality. A product of the pre-gay liberation era, he had a physical passion for Ginsberg that was mostly unrequited, and for most of his life relied largely on hustlers for sex.
His on-and-off heroin addiction and writings about drugs may have made him a hipster saint, nicknamed the pope of dope, but his message about heroin was a warning not to take it. He was obsessed with control, and for many years was controlled by his addiction.

Two family tragedies stalked him. In 1951, while playing a drunken game of William Tell in Mexico, he accidentally put a bullet through the head of his wife, Joan Vollmer, whom his friend, the poet John Giorno, says he loved deeply.
"I'm forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan’s death," Burroughs is remembered as saying. As a commentary, Burroughs is heard quoting from Edwin Arlington Robinson: "There are mistakes too monstrous for remorse."
In 1981 his son, Billy Burroughs, who had tried to emulate his father, died of acute alcoholism. It was the only time, Giorno says, he ever saw Burroughs weep.

Late in life Burroughs softened somewhat, recalls James Grauerholz, his companion and executor of his estate. They moved to Lawrence, Kansas where Burroughs, an avid gun fetishist, took up visual art and produced "shotgun paintings", by shooting a can of spray paint placed in front of a plywood board.'
→ New York Times

2011-04-08T18:08:00.072+02:00

● zo 17.4.11 ☼ 16 uur ◄
't Blijvertje @ 3e Oosterparkstr. 64, A'dam
Ewald Vanvugt over ROOFGOED
+ special appearance by Mel Clay

New York poet,(former Living Theater) actor, and playwright Mel Clay lived for a time in Amsterdam and was among the original Ruigoord squatters. He edited a section on San Francisco, where he's been living since the late 70s, for Eddie Woods' magazine Ins & Outs. Foto; Dick Polak 2003

EUROPEES MUSEUM VAN OVERZEE GEROOFDE SCHATTEN

Het boek en virtuele museum documenteren hoe de landen van de Europese Gemeenschap wel degelijk een gezamenlijke identiteit bezitten. Allen hebben zij het startkapitaal voor hun welvaart met geweld opgehaald uit de andere werelddelen. Zonder overzeese roof geen Europa.
En Nederland heeft z'n partijtje meegeblazen. Zo werd eind 1884 het eiland Lombok op bloedige wijze veroverd, een overwinning met een legendarische oorlogsbuit: 230 kilo goudgeld, 7200 kilo zilveren munten en meer dan duizend kostbare ringen, krissen, kannen, juwelen. In 1897 triomfantelijk uitgestald in het Rijksmuseum en sindsdien opgeslagen c.q. 'verduisterd' in de kelders en depots van de Nederlandsche Bank en diverse musea.

De kunstschatten uit het Europees Museum belichten essentiële ogenblikken in de geschiedenis van Europa's verovering en plundering van die andere werelddelen. Daarnaast bevat het de monumenten in diverse landen voor de dieven - naast portretten van Europeanen die indertijd bezwaar maakten.
Net als tal van andere culturen is Europa gegrondvest op diefstal en dwangarbeid, betoogt de schrijver. Tegelijk is alleen in Europa een traditie van kritiek op het eigen kamp ontstaan. Zoals ook de elite in talrijke samenlevingen zich verrijkte door slaven te houden, maar alleen Europa een anti-slavernijbeweging heeft gekend die ten slotte succesvol zou zijn.

OPIUMKIT

Soms maakt een schrijver geschiedenis, schreef de Volkskrant in 1985 over Wettig Opium. Ewald Vanvugt had toen eigenlijk een ander boek willen publiceren: de historische reisroman De Val van Bali over de Nederlandse verovering van Bali in 1906. Deze zou twee jaar later uitkomen.
In 2006 verscheen een uitgebreide heruitgave, moést een heruitgave verschijnen, omdat zijn documentatie over de slachting van Bali door Nederlandse militairen in de officiële vaderlandse geschiedschrijving, twintig jaar na publicatie van het boek, nog steeds werd afgedaan als een zgn. collectieve zelfmoord der Balinezen.

Ewald Vanvugt was daarmee andermaal een luis in de pels van de beroepshistorici. Andermaal, want hij was dat dus eerder met Wettig Opium. Bij zijn  onderzoek naar de verovering van Bali ontdekte hij namelijk dat deze in direct verband stond met de handel in opium. Terug in Nederland stroopte hij de archieven en bibliotheken af naar dit onderwerp, maar de Nederlandse opiumverkoop in Azië bleek totaal verdwenen uit de twintigste-eeuwse vaderlandse geschiedenis.

Via een voetnoot in de Tweede Kamerverslagen uit 1947 stuitte hij op een Indische opiumkroniek uit 1853 door J.C. Baud. Uit dit boek, dat de periode 1600-1800 van de V.O.C. behandelt, bleek dat het goud van Hollands Gouden Eeuw voor een belangrijk deel afkomstig was uit de overheidshandel in opium. De grote verdienste van Ewald Vanvugt is dat hij niet alleen deze studie aan de vergetelheid ontrukt heeft, maar tevens de kroniek heeft doorgetrokken naar de periode van de pacht (1800-1894) en naar de periode van de regie, van 1894 tot 1942 toen de Japanse bezetting een  abrupt einde maakte aan deze inkomstenbron.

Vanvugt toonde aan dat ook in de anderhalve eeuw na de V.O.C. opium voor de Staat der Nederlanden geen vloek maar een zegen is geweest. Hij beschrijft de eeuwenoude Nederlandse maagd als opium-pusher; aan haar voeten stond de nationale leeuw met het zwaard in de ene en de papaverbol in de andere klauw.
Schuiven moesten de Javanen, en verslaafd raken aan belasting-betaling. Berekend is bijvoorbeeld dat in de periode 1876-1915 de koloniale balanstekorten opliepen tot 295 miljoen gulden, terwijl in hetzelfde tijdvak de opiumbaten 703 miljoen gulden  bedroegen. Met andere woorden: zonder de opiuminkomsten zou het totale tekort tot bijna een miljard gulden zijn opgelopen. De  kolonialen zouden wel naar huis hebben kunnen gaan.

Genoemde bedragen klinken nu nog astronomisch. Omgerekend naar deze tijd zouden ze niet te bevatten zijn. Wie de opium-corruptie van de V.O.C. wil kennen, wie het openbare debat  in de negentiende eeuw wil volgen, wie met de ambtenarij wil komma-neuken of met christenen visionair en tegelijk benepen wil zijn, wie de boekhouders wil nacijferen of de politieke poppenkast in de ethische jas wil volgen, wie de hilarische geschiedenis wil kennen van de  Nederlandse regering als would-be opiumkok op zoek naar het recept van rookopium, en wie nu wil weten waarom de schuivers bij wet verplicht waren de prut uit hun pijpen terug te verkopen aan de Dienst der Opiumregie, hij of zij leze dit boek.

Opiumfabriek in Indië

Ook valt te lezen hoe de overheid nog in 1930 27 miljoen gulden verdiende aan de opiumhandel, terwijl officieel het gebruik bestreden werd voor de somma van 11.000 gulden - de ethische verpakking. In feite was deze ethische jas niets anders dan een vermomming: het beleid werd bepaald door het financiële belang van de staat.
In de Volkenbond, de voorloper van de Verenigde Naties, betoogde Nederland dat het gebruik van opium bestreden moest worden, maar in een fotoboek ter gelegenheid van het regeringsjubileum van koningin Wilhelmina plaatste het vol trots een foto van de opiumfabriek in het toenmalige Batavia, waar aan duizend contractarbeiders werk werd verschaft. Maar ja, het Huis van Oranje heeft dan ook grote schatten verdiend aan het verslaafd maken van de Javanen. In geheel Nederlands-Indië bestonden staatswinkels, waar wettig opium als warm brood over de toonbank ging.
De Nederlandse Handels Maatschappij heeft in de 19de eeuw een grote rol gespeeld bij de wettige opiumhandel in de Indische archipel. De N.H.M. is opgegaan in de Algemene Bank Nederland, dus je zou kunnen zeggen dat de A.B.N. is voortgekomen uit de opiumwinsten.

De grootste drijfveer dit boek te maken was verwondering dat alle Nederlandse publicisten hierover al een eeuw zwegen. Men kan de verdwijning van de opiumgeschiedenis een geslaagde propagandamanoeuvre van de overheid noemen, maar er is niet mee verklaard hoe de geschiedenis van het slaapgom een eeuw kon slapen.
Een eerste exemplaar werd destijds overhandigd aan drs. Jan Pronk, toenmalig adjunct secretaris-generaal van UNCTAD, dat conferenties organiseert waar voorstellen gedaan worden aan de V.N. over internationale handel en ontwikkeling, veelal m.b.t. de positie van arme landen.
Bij deze gelegenheid merkte Pronk op dat de overheidsrol bij de handel in verdovende middelen, zoals die van Nederland in de Indische Archipel, actueel was gebleven. De Verenigde Staten subsidieerden bijvoorbeeld in Columbia een anti-marihuana-campagne om de productie van marihuana in eigen land te beschermen.

Pronk: 'Voor een land als Columbia kun je constateren dat een zeer belangrijk deel van de cocaïne-productie mede plaats vindt via import uit omringende landen als Peru. Zo ontstaat een handelssysteem met verwerkingsprocessen voor de buitenlandse markt. We weten dat Columbia's inkomsten uit de handel in verdovende middelen twintig procent hoger is, dat is ruim een miljard dollar, dan de opbrengst van de koffie-export. De opbrengst blijft voornamelijk in het buitenland en wordt voor een belangrijk deel besteed aan de invoer van  consumptiegoederen via dezelfde handelskanalen waarlangs de verwerkte cocaïne wordt uitgevoerd. Die consumptiegoederen vind je terug in het  normale handelsnet, de groot- en kleinhandel. Dat betekent dat de autoriteiten daar een rol hebben gespeeld waardoor het illegale handelsnetwerk aansluit op het legale handelsnetwerk.'
→ referaat Franc Knipscheer

Ewald Vanvugt (Den Bosch, 16.4.43)verzorgde ook een aantal exposities, zoals in 1994 'Sociale fotografie in Indonesië in de jaren twintig' (Jakarta) en een jaar later 'Nestbevuilers' voor het Letterkundig Museum, over critici van het koloniale bewind in de Oost en de West', met portretten van Jacob Campo Weverman, Willem van Haren, Dirk van Hogendorp, Multatuli alsmede een ongeflatteerd beeld van Jan Pieterszoon Coen.
In de Kunsthal te Rotterdam& 'De schat van Lombok. Honderd jaar Nederlandse oorlogsbuit uit Indonesië' en in 1998 'Botje bij botje -  Menselijke resten uit musea.'
UIt 1993 is Een propagandist van het zuiverste water. H.F.Tillema en de fotografie van tempo doeloe.  Een verloren gewaand foto-archief was door Vanvugt opgediept uit een  museumdepot. In 2002 werkte hij mee aan een documentaire i.o. van het  Nederlands Filmmuseum over deze uitzonderlijke man.
 Ewald Vanvugts eigen fotografie is in 2009 in bewaring genomen door het het Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis.Net als veel andere culturen is de Europese cultuur gebouwd op slavernij en roofgoed. Terwijl Europeanen grote delen van de wereld veroverden en almaar rijker werden, ontwikkelden zij een tegenbeweging die bezwaar maakte en opriep om het uitbuiten te matigen en zelfs om het welzijn van de anderen te bevorderen. Een onderscheid tussen Europeanen en bewoners van andere werelddelen is misschien hun traditie van kritiek.

Een van de grondleggers van de kritische traditie is de bijna vergeten Johannes Wier (Wiër, Wierus of Weyer).  In 1515 of 1516 geboren in Grave aan de Maas was hij al jong een gelovig protestant, maar niet fanatiek want sterk gevormd in de traditie van Erasmus.  Hij groeide op in Grave en ging later naar school in ‘s Hertogenbosch.  Na een studie medicijnen in Parijs had hij een dokterspraktijk in Grave.  In 1550 werd hij hofarts van Willem V, de hertog van Kleef, wiens leraar Conrad von Heresbach een vriend was geweest van Erasmus.

Angst voor beheksing is van alle tijden, maar de heksenjacht groeide in de zestiende eeuw uit tot een massahysterie waaraan de autoriteiten van de universele Kerk en de plaatselijke regeringen volop deelnamen. Johannes Wier wordt hier geëerd als de eerste die in het autoritaire, christelijke Europa onverschrokken zijn stem verhief tegen de heksenjachten. Beschermd en aangemoedigd door zijn adellijke werkgever schreef hij het roemruchte De Praestigiis daemonum et incantationibus ac veneficiis (Over de begoochelingen van de duivel en betoveringen en vergiftigingen) dat in 1563 in Bazel verscheen.
Opgevoed en gevangen in de denkbeelden van zijn tijd aanvaardde Wier het bestaan van duivels, hekserij en de hele platonische geesteswereld, maar naar het voorbeeld van Erasmus stelde hij eigen waarneming en gezond verstand voorop. Sommige mensen bekenden uit zichzelf dat zij bij volle maan in het bos met mannelijke en vrouwelijke duivels hadden gedanst en dat zij op hun blote knieën de hoofdduivel onder zijn staart hadden gekust. Volgens Wier waren dit inbeeldingen die in hen ontstonden door een demon of door een ziekte. Wat zij vertellen is een dwaling, maar die kan van de duivel komen, zo dachten al in de vijftiende eeuw velen.

Het voornaamste geloofspunt van de Kerk was en is dat ieder mens een leven lang de speelbal is van een wedstrijd tussen engelen en duivels, en dat de uitkomst van de strijd op aarde het eeuwige lot na de dood zal bepalen. De complete afschaffing van de duivel is binnen het christendom net zo ondenkbaar als de afschaffing van God: zij zijn elkaars tegenpool, de een kan niet bestaan zonder de ander. De medicus Johannes Wier was de eerste die ter verdediging van `heksen’ uitvoerig over illusies of `begoochelingen’ heeft geschreven; hij is 'de vader van de psychiatrie' genoemd.
De aanwezigheid in de wereld van de duivel stond vast, maar Wier deed veel van zijn macht af door zijn zogenaamde werken te verklaren als inbeeldingen van zwakzinnige of verwarde geesten. Hij benadrukte dat alle schuldbekentenissen van heksen over hun omgang met duivels waren afgelegd tijdens of onder bedreiging van martelingen. Later zei een medestander: `Dat wij nog niet allemaal hebben bekend dat we heksen zijn, komt omdat we nog niet zijn gemarteld.’

Aanvankelijk had Wier (1512-1588) zijn boek alleen aan vrienden toegestuurd. Eén correspondent prees hem in zijn dankbrief als `een profeet van de verlichting’. Zijn beste vrienden riepen hem op het boek te herschrijven of te vernietigen. En zijn vijanden noemden hem een krankzinnige. Zijn oproep de heksen met rust te laten zou hem uiteindelijk zijn bestaan aan het hof van Kleef kosten. In 1577 laaide de collectieve waan weer hevig op. In een vervolg op zijn boek protesteerde hij opnieuw omstandig tegen de martelingen en executies van gepijnigde en verwarde mensen. Volgens Wier verziekten niet de heksen de samenleving, maar de heksenjagers.
Aan het hof van Kleef leefden en werkten onder de verdraagzame hertog Willem protestanten en katholieken, Spaansgezinden en Nederlandsgezinden samen. Geleidelijk kreeg de Spaanse factie de overhand en in 1578 trad Wier terug als hofarts. Het moet hem in 1581 pijn hebben gedaan toen hertog Willem verklaarde dat folter en de waterproef (water boarding) bij heksenprocessen opnieuw waren toegestaan.

(portret uit Opera Omnia, 1660)

*♪

DE DRIE TOPPERS

Hoog aan de gevel van kolos De Bazel aan de Vijzelstraat, het voormalige hoofdkantoor van de Nederlandsche Handelsmaatschappij, treft men naast elkaar en versteend drie beruchte toppers aan uit de repressieve bewindvoering der Nederlanders in kolonies oost en west. Van links naar rechts Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1587-1629), Herman Willem Daendels (1762-1818) en de 'Pacificator van Atjeh' J.B. van Heutsz (1851-1924).

DE BANDA-EILANDEN

'Op de Banda-eilanden probeerde de V.O.C. het monopolie te krijgen op de verkoop van o.a. nootmuskaat. Dit lukte niet al te best. Afgedwongen afspraken werden geschonden en er waren concurrenten zoals de Britten.
Jan Pieterszoon Coen besloot er wat aan te doen. In 1621 verscheen hij voor de kust van het eiland Groot-Banda (Banda Besar), maar zijn aanval werd afgeslagen met behulp van Engelse, tegen nootmuskaat geruilde kanonnen.
Bij een tweede aanval had Coen meer succes. Vervolgens werden 800 gevangenen als slaven afgevoerd naar Batavia. Het wachten was toen op een aanleiding voor verdere maatregelen. Op een nacht, zo wil het verhaal, viel in het Nederlandse kampement een olielamp om. Er ontstond paniek, want "de Bandanezen kwamen in opstand". Toen bewoners van het dichtstbijzijnde dorp na wat martelingen eenmaal hadden "bekend", was dit het teken voor Coen. Er volgde een bloedbad. Op alle Banda-eilanden vonden strafexpedities plaats, waarbij nauwelijks levens werden gespaard; 44 gevangenen werden na een showproces onthoofd en gevierendeeld door Japanse samoerai-huurlingen.

Een Nederlandse officier liet een verslag na: "De mensen stierven zonder ook maar een geluid te laten horen, behalve één die Nederlands sprak en zei: Heeren, heeft dan niemand van U medelijden? Alles wat gebeurde was zo afschuwelijk dat we erdoor verstomd waren. Alleen God weet wie gelijk heeft. Wij allen, als praktizerende Christenen, waren vervuld met afschuw over de manier waarop deze zaak werd afgehandeld en we hadden geen plezier in dergelijke aangelegenheden." (sic)
In 1635 werd gemeld dat vóór de komst van Coen circa 15.000 mensen op de eilanden woonden, waar er op dat moment slechts 1000 van over waren.'
>Jan Pieterszn Coen en de uitroeiing van de bevolking op de Banda eilanden

HANDEL DEN CHRISTEN NIET GEOORLOOFT

'Van 1619 tot 1792 dreef De West-Indische Compagnie handel langs de Atlantische kusten van Amerika en Afrika. Met wisselende kansen werden suiker, zout en slaven verscheept. Slavenhandel was bij de oprichting geen oogmerk geweest, kaapvaart wel: geld en suiker veroveren op Spanje en Portugal, die onder Philips II in 1580 waren verenigd.

Maar de torenhoge winsten der Portugese slavenhandel konden de Heren XIX moeilijk ontgaan. Er kwam een commissie, er volgde rijp beraad. Gelijk kregen zij die zich op bijbelse grond verzetten tegen deze handel en haken en ogen voorzagen.
"Wat den handel in Angola aengaet, te weten van de swarten, is alsnoch bedenckelijck dewijle men geen plaetse noch gelegentheijt heeft om deselve in Brasil of elders te gebruycken, behalven dattet schijnt dat die handel den Christen niet geoorlooft en is, welcke aengaende eenige naerdere onderrichtinge soude dienen gedaen."

Na 1635 trad een kentering in. Koloniale expansie bracht Nederland ertoe actief een eigen, geregelde slavenhandel op te zetten. Slavenschepen kapen van de Portugezen volstond niet langer en alternatieven ontbraken. Godsdienstige bezwaren leken plotseling niet meer te bestaan. Evenals Portugal en Spanje stelde men zich nu op het standpunt dat heidense slaven dank zij hun omgang met christenen bevóórrecht werden door kennis te nemen van het enig ware geloof.

Chirurgijnen keurden de aanvoer door de zwarten in mond en anus te kijken. Willem Bosman, vijftien jaar als slavenhandelaar werkzaam aan de Goudkus, schreef in zijn memoires hoe de aangevoerde slaven "op het allernauwkeurigste werden besigtigt en betast, tot het alderminste lid dat zy aen hun lighaem hebben, en dat Moedernaekt, so wel Vrouwen als Mannen, sonder eenig onderscheid of schyn van de minste schaemte."
De besten werden bijeengedreven en kregen een brandstempel met het monogram van de W.I.C. op de borst gedrukt. Volgens Bosman kon dat "wat wreed en half Barbarisch" lijken "doch echter dragen wy so veel mogelyke sorg, datse niet te hard werden gebrand, voornamentlyk de Vrouwlieden, die toch altoos wat teerder vallen."
De tweede keus, in handelstermen makrons genoemd, vormden ouderen dan vijfendertig jaar "of die aen armen, beenen, handen of voeten zyn verminkt; ook die een tand quyt zyn; die gryse haeren, of vliegen op de oogenhebben; alle die met Venus siekte zyn besmet, en veelerhande qualen meer."

Ondanks alle tegenslagen en ontberingen, een rampzalig klimaat en tropische ziekten waartegen geen medicijn bestand was, wisten Nederlanders zich bijna 300 jaar te handhaven aan de Goudkust (de Ghanese kustlijn tussen Axim en de Volta-rivier). Elmina, naar de Spaanse benaming Sao Jorge da Mina, fungeerde op 5°2' noorderbreedte en 1°12' westerlengte als hoofdzetel der administratie.'

DE KONING VAN BRAZILIE

'De landheer Johan Maurits van vorstendom in wording Nassau-Siegen (1604-1679), was kort na vestiging in Den Haag begonnen met de bouw van het Mauritshuis en in geldnood geraakt, toen de Heren XIX van de W.I.C. langskwamen. Zij waren op zoek naar een bekwame c.q. zuinige Gouverneur. Maurits meende dat de heren een vorst voor een nieuw Overzees Rijk zochten.
In 1637 werd de landheer naar Brazilië uitgezonden, waar de Republiek enkele zogeheten steunpunten bezat, grondbezit dat de eerstvolgende jaren gestaag groeide. Weldra heersten Nederlanders ook over aangrenzende delen van de Atlantische Oceaan en Recife groeide uit tot het Batavia van de W.I.C. Bij de bevolking was Johan Maurits omstreeks 1640 dusdanig populair bij dat men hem tot koning van Brazilië uitriep.
Koning of niet, vier jaar later werd "de Braziliaan" teruggeroepen: de W.I.C. vond het welletjes en had hem uit zijn functie ontheven.'

Brandmerk: M (Maurits)

BATIG SLOT

'Aan de slavenhandel kwam in 1807 een eind. Slavernij werd binnen de Engelse koloniën rond 1833 afgeschaft, Frankrijk volgde in het revolutiejaar 1848. Beide landen beschikten over koloniën grenzend aan Suriname, waar grote onrust ontstond onder de planters en slaven van wie er velen nu konden vluchten.
Nederland ging pas in 1863 tot afschaffing over en ethische overwegingen speelden daarbij nauwelijks een rol. Doorslag gaf de financiële compensatie, het Batig Slot uit Nederlands-Indië.'

Een roofstaat aan de Noordzee...
dat spoorwegen bouwt van gestolen geld en tot
betaling de bestolene bedwelmt met opium,
Evangelie en jenever...
Aan U durf ik met vertrouwen te vragen of het
Uw wil is dat daarginds Uw meer dan dertig
millioenen onderdanen worden mishandeld en
uitgezogen in UWEN naam?
→ Multatuli tot Nederland en Willem III (1860)

EXPOSITIE

Zoals niemand nu nog weet dat Elmina de laatste kolonie van Nederland
Weer sl

ZAAK

Poncke Princen zat niet in het K.N.I.L. maar was in 1947 als dienstplichtig soldaat naar Nederlands Indië gestuurd om de opstand van vrijheidsstrijders te helpen onderdrukken. Princen, verzetstrijder en gevangene van de Duitsers tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog, vond echter dat de strijders voor een goede zaak vochten en liep over naar het Indonesische Republikeinse leger.
'Het Nederlands leger deed er alles aan om deze "verrader" uit de weg te ruimen, maar Princen overleefde de oorlog. Hij werd Indonesiër, ontving de hoogste nationale militaire onderscheiding, maar zette zich vervolgens zijn leven lang geweldloos in voor democratie en mensenrechten in zijn nieuwe vaderland waardoor hij opnieuw in de gevangenis belandde.'
→ Poncke Princen bijvoorbeeld

2011-03-21T12:32:00.012+01:00

● 20.3.11
Powésie & mµZiq met Lily Kiara, Erik Jan Harmens
dj Grrrt e.a.
@'t Blijvertje ☼ 16-20 u.

Kan door een storing niet komen...
Het is mij onmogelijk om woorden in te zetten
helder door de spreekbuis van de tijd
geluid dribbelt overal doorheen
om tussen de oren mee te luisteren

Je kan plat gepraat of omhoog gepraat
een mens van nu zit vol verwijten en
houdt maatloze gezichten voor
vroeger zeiden ze 'je postzegel' tegen
een uitgeveegd mens nu de 'gewone mens'
in zijn camouflage-broek doelloos onderweg is
u kan mij gewoon als een pil doordrukken

leest u mij voor en kijkt u mij na
in een net uitgeknepen valkuil van woorden
Woorden rijden op scooters onheil aanrichtend
Je trekt je schaduw naderbij
voorgoed als een deuk achterblijven
gehavend glimlachen

Als blindganger in een onuitwarbare gedachtenpuist
Leven is een langzame val maken met onbestaanbare valuta
het hele bestaan uitleven op 50 vierkante meter
mens worden bestuderend,

Zeggend..., ik was er niet
maar wordt wie je bent.

Emanuel Lorsch

Powésie & mµZiq

2011-02-15T11:40:00.018+01:00

● zondag 20.2.11 ☼ 16-20 u
met o.a. Eddie Kagie, Pamela Koevoets
Inge van Ulden, Harry Hoogstraten, Jan van Aken
Faustus, Furius & Fabius (dichten & gitaar)
Fufu (Zubi bas, Rodrigo gitaar, Jasper percussie)

Inge van Ulden draagt voor uit haar filosofische essay De terugkeer van Sophia, een 'geïnspireerd onderzoek naar de metafysische achtergrond van de huidige crisis'.

Pamela Koevoets (die al in januari op het programma stond, maar toen door de hevige sneeuwval was verhinderd) vormde ooit de helft van de The Bam-sisters. Daarnaast was ze filmactrice, o.m. in Een dagje naar het strand en drie films van Adriaan Ditvoorst.
Als schrijfster debuteerde ze in 1985 met Ode, drie verhalen die zich in de wereld van het theater afspelen. Dit gold ook haar eerste roman, de zwarte komedie Bazen en slaven uit 1991.
Recentelijk verscheen van haar De Himalaya Roos, een 'queeste naar verlichting waarin ze zich verdiept in de aloude tradities op "het dak van de wereld" en beproeft wat we daar nu mee kunnen.'

Jan van Aken schrijft 'kosmopolitische historische romans met grote diepgang' en is al vergeleken met Umberto Eco. In De dwaas van Palmyra beschrijft hij leven & werk van de enigmatische Apollonius van Tyana uit het begin van onze jaartelling.
Uit 2005 dateert Het fluwelen labyrinth, waarin een jongeman op zoek gaat naar z'n lost love. Een mythologische onderwereld schurkt hier knus aan tegen de grauwe werkelijkheid van het Amsterdam uit de jaren tachtig met z'n methadon, vage kraakpandjes en gesmolten carrière-perspectieven.

Detroit Rising

2011-02-07T09:34:00.052+01:00

Rising from the Ashes(32:30)

'Now capitalism abandoned Detroit years ago, leaving it derelict

and overgrown, communities are being rebuilt through growing

their own food in 1300 urban gardens'

Detroit: Art Explosion (17:48)

'Alongside the food growing an explosion of art, much political'

Live in Detroit (9:21)
John Sinclair & friends

● 17.2.11 @ 't Blijvertje

➢

John and Lenie Sinclair with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, 1972

➢

MOTOR CITY IS NOT MY HOME

'...There is a train that goes from Detroit
to Pontiac to AnnArbor and west, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Michigan City
ends in Chicago / it’s an old train, everyone in the United States
has been on it once, since Lincoln’s body I think
It carries hopeful people out to new jobs and then
back home again / I’ve been on it, unemployed in Michigan
going to Chicago, to look at the leafy street I left behind, Evanston,
city of chocolate brown maple trees / and mourn the life that was
no more / trains converge at Union Station,
but leaving Chicago, all go their separate ways.'

→ Emily XYZ

➢

STROH'S CANS TO THE HEAD

'I suddenly have vivid memories of survival in Flint, Michigan, Motor City Jr., birthplace of GM. I was a stranger here because I rode a bike with books of poetry in my back pocket and some locals could smell this alienness a million miles away.'
→ Bart Plantenga

➢

URBAN ARCHITECTURE

'CITIES is a foundation for re-envisioning future of agriculture, food distribution and consumption in Amsterdam. Its online urban agriculture platform Farmingthecity.net was launched in March 2011.
They have been working on this project for the past year, setting up UA projects, interviewing everyone involved in UA in Amsterdam, organizing events, and mapping UA activities. The platform deals with practical issues and regulations, provide maps, data and information about available and unused lots, and connect different players in the UA field, in order to take urban agriculture in Amsterdam to the next level.
With the Amsterdam Youth Food Movement CITIES has been working with the municipality of Amsterdam to find practical ways to continue food programmes and projects supported by Proeftuin Amsterdam's 4-year food policy.'
→ kunst, design & boerenwijsheid

2011-01-20T13:51:00.007+01:00

● 16.1.11

'Poëzie & muziek' met Eddie Kagie, Yvonne van Osch

Peter van Lieshout, Peter de Rijk(aka Ezra de Haan)
over William Burroughs, Brion Gysin etc.

Koerdisch ensemble Koma Diyar met Diyar (saz),

Rodir (saz) en Murat (gitaar/percussie)

@'t Blijvertje 3e Oosterparkstr. 64, A'dam 16-20 u.

ALLEN GINSBERG MEIKONING
Ik stel me nu Allen Ginsberg voor
zonder kleren aan grinnikend
in het grote bagagedepot van
het Centraal Station te München

Net als in het dure fotoboek
van Richard Avedon en James Baldwin
zou hij daar dan staan
nat en naakt met gespreide tenen
tegen het lijf geplakt hoofd- en
lichaamshaar, de handen beschermend
om het blote Dichterslid gevouwen

Geflankeerd door ruwhouten rekken
volgestapeld met genummerde valiezen
rugzakken en glimmende aluminium koffers
zou hij daar dan wijdbeens staan
met glanzende brilleglazen de Mens wezen
Lijden, er Zijn

Allen Ginsberg, Koning van de Mei
Walpurgisnacht een bezemsteel in Praag
een boodschappentas tomaten opeisend
in het Centraal Station te München

(1967)
Peter H. van Lieshout

2010-12-18T18:28:00.011+01:00

'Poëzie & muziek' met Pamela Koevoets

Erik Bindervoet & Robbert-Jan Henkes

John Sinclair, Varieté Szmulewicz

♪Bad Kitten: Ewan, gitaar & Miss Whips,

zingende zaag

● zo 19.12.10, 16-20u.

@'t Blijvertje, 3e Oosterparkstr. 64, A'dam

verder m.m.v. Fabiola, Peter Posthumus

Peter Klencke ('Indisch kerstverhaal')

Inge van Ulden en Eddie Kagie

'Iedereen kent hem en niemand kent hem...' De zanger van Gruppo Sportivo werd onbekender naarmate hij artistiek groeide. Erik Bindervoet en Robbert-Jan Henkes schreven zijnn ongeautoriseerde biografie, Hans Vandenburg en het geheim van succes. 'Een portret van de muzikant achter de mens. Van zijn eerste bril tot zijn laatste lied. Van zijn wildste haren tot zijn kaalste streken.'

Bindervoet en Henkes zijn vooral bekend geworden dankzij hun vertalingen van o.m. James Joyce, Thomas de Quincey en Tarkowski, alsmede de complete oeuvres van The Beatles en Bob Dylan. Daarnaast publiceerden ze romans en twee toneelbewerkingen, waaronder Karl Kraus' De laatste dagen der mensheid, voor theatergroep 't Barre Land.
Robbert-Jan noemt zich opmaker en vertaler, Erik schilder en dichter. Van zijn hand verscheen onlangs de bundel Het spook van de vrijheid, een titel die refereert aan cineast Bunuel.

Hoe ik dat flatgebouw gewurgd heb, vraag je me?
Nou, gewoon, met een touwtje.
Zo groot als een elastiekje en met
De spankracht van de evenaar.

***

Dichter, activist en radiomaker John Sinclair (1941, Flint Michigan) begon tijdens z'n studie letterkunde de radicale Detroit Artists' Workshop, die uitgroeide tot de White Panther Party. Daarbij gold de Black Panther Party als voorbeeldd.
Sinclair werd in 1967 manager van de MC5, een band uit een arbeiderswijk. In 1969 werd hij, in de val gelokt door een undercover agent, wegens twee joints veroordeeld tot 9 a 10 jaar cel. Na de John Sinclair Freedom Rally, een protestbijeenkomst in 1971 met Allen Ginsberg, Stevie Wonder, John en Yoko e.a. werd hij vrijgelaten en de wet op bezit van cannabis versoepeld.
In 1998 bezocht Sinclair Nederland voor een programma in Rotterdam over de tegencultuur van Detroit. Sindsdien woont hij afwisselend in New Orleans en Amsterdam.

Requiem for Detroit? (film)

2010-12-16T16:40:00.032+01:00

Erg, de neergang van de Motor City. Maar hoe erg precies?
Over o.m. het racisme bij de opbouw der auto-industrie en de gevolgen daarvan voor deze tijd.
'De betekenis van enkele decennia massaproductie voor de geschiedenis kun je ook overschatten.' Aldus de 95-jarige activiste en auteur Grace Lee Boggs. Wat uitgebreider aan het woord komen ook John Sinclair, beeldend kunstenaar Tyree Guyton en Motown-vedette Martha Reeves. Na haar zangcarrière ging ze de stedelijke politiek in en werd ze verkozen in een openbare functie.
REQUIEM FOR DETROIT?, Julien Temple, BBC Films 2010, 70' ● 16.12.10 - 21 u @'t Blijvertje (In aanwezigheid van John Sinclair)

>Wall Street Journal

EEN VREEMDE OBSESSIE?

'We hebben er al eerder op gewezen,' schreef een dagblad in Michigan, 'hoe men in Engeland een vreemde obsessie heeft met de neergang van Detroit. Dit heeft intussen geresulteerd in een documentaire onder de titel Requiem for Detroit?' De vraagteken die de film meekreeg, wordt er door pers en publiek negen van de tien keer vanaf gedacht en heeft iets van een zwaktebod. De makers: 'A roller coaster story of the city’s automotive industry through the testimony of the people who lived through it. With vivid projections of the city’s heyday on it's now abandoned buildings – and the irrepressible music that continues to come out of Detroit, the documentary charts the rise and fall of the Big Three (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler), and the impact the decline of these giants has had on the city.

Detroit was at the forefront of the 20th Century American Dream. The fourth largest city in the US, it was also one of the wealthiest, housing the country’s earliest shopping malls. America’s first major freeway was built in Detroit to facilitate the increasing number of commuters into the city. A new century has seen the Dream, powered by the Big Three, slide into a nightmare for Detroit. Levels of black inner city poverty, hunger and unemployment have reached critical proportions, in grim contrast to the affluent white suburbs which surround the city.'

Regisseur Julien Temple: 'Detroit was the frontier city in the US, powering the American dream. What I find fascinating is the fact that it is still ahead of the game, becoming the first big US city to virtually fall off the map.'
En de producer:'It was a city at the vanguard of the future the world over, and it's post urban post-industrial chaos serves as a warning to the rest of the world. Despite its ruined landscape there is still hope, as those living within the city’s limits continue to fight for its survival, creating their own solutions such as urban farming and a strong network of young activists.'
'The interviews show people living amongst the deserted auto plants, closed schools and failing infrastructure, as well as those who are based in the consumer utopia of the suburbs.'
>more
>source

MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS

'Shot at the Ford factory in Detroit at 15.6.65 and aired on the television show "It’s What’s Happening, Baby" this performance of Nowhere to Run lasts the two minutes and forty-five seconds it took to put together an entire Mustang.
Ford wouldn’t interrupt manufacturing for the shoot, so the assembly lines at the Rouge plant keep moving as Martha Reeves, Rosalind Ashford, and Betty Kelly jump into and out of cars as they’re being built, surrounded by workers, machinery and hanging parts. Attempting to create a radical new sound, drummer Benny Benjamin and producer Lamont Dozier miked up old, used car chains and banged them down on the beat to make a clanking noise, apparently until their hands bled.'
>Hilary Lloyd in Artforum

HENRY FORD

'After Henry Ford bought a newspaper in 1918, The Dearborn Independent, he published a series of scurrilous attacks on the "International Jew". A mythical figure he blamed for financing war. In 1927 he formally retracted his attacks and sold the paper.
He gave old-fashioned dances at which capitalists, European royalty, and company executives were introduced to the polka, the Sir Roger de Coverley, the mazurka, the Virginia reel, and the quadrille; he established small village factories; he built one-room schools in which vocational training was emphasized; he experimented with soybeans for food and durable goods; he sponsored a weekly radio hour on which quaint essays were read to "plain folks"; he constructed Greenfield Village, a restored rural town; and he built what later was named the Henry Ford Museum and filled it with American artifacts and antiques from the era of his youth when American society was almost wholly agrarian.'
>Fords Sociological Department
>Service Department

THE MODERN WORLD

'Ford enjoyed immense commercial and cultural influence in the early '20s. His claim to have invented the modern world could not be entirely dismissed. Zealously standardising production methods, and controlling every minute of the workers' day helped to make the Ford company a powerful force on the international stage. From his headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, Ford spread his business (and increasingly his personal) values through the United States and beyond.'
>Five-Dollar-a-Day

'Fordlandia is an account of the Ford Motor Company’s effort to create a rubber utopia. The complexity of Henry Ford’s attempt to create a secure source of natural latex in the Brazilian Amazon in the 1920s and '30s. It reveals the often contradictory character of Henry Ford himself. During the period in which the Brazilian project took shape, Ford the man and Ford the company appear to have been a single entity. Greg Grandin combines the subjects, presenting them against the backdrop of changing politics and society in the US and Brazil.'
>The rise and fall of Fords forgotten jungle city

UNREAL ESTATE

'This just might be what the new new economy doctors ordered: a prescription for how to use out-of-the-box ideas to change the oh-so-tired narrative of Detroit as city of decline and distress to one of endless opportunity.

A merry band of Dutch and American urban researchers called the Detroit Unreal Estate Agency see the failure of the free market and the current state of emergency as an the opportunity for a new kind of artistic agency. Decline and decay, they say, also equates to creation and growth. Detroit, in many ways the schoolbook example of the residue city, is often framed as a leftover space. They see a new movement of artists, farmers, activists, musicians and others developing and producing new distinct cultures of their own.'

Detroit Unreal Estate Agency's members 'produce, collect and inventory information on the unreal estate of Detroit: that is, on the remarkable, distinct, characteristic or subjectively significant sites of urban culture. The agency is aimed at new types of urban practices (architecturally, artistically, institutionally, everyday life, etc) that came into existence, creating a new value system in Detroit.

The project is an initiative by architects Andrew Herscher and Mireille Roddier, and Partizan Publik's Christian Ernsten and Joost Janmaat; in collaboration with the Dutch Art Institute and the University of Michigan, funded by the Mondriaan Foundation and Fonds BKVB.'
>Partizan Publik
>Museum of Contemporary Art

JUST A LITTLE BANKSY

'It's just a little graffiti, and yet its existence has caused a firestorm of legal wrangling as to who actually owns the work and the building that once housed it. Seems rather odd, until you take a closer look at who is responsible, where it was created and why it exists in the first place.

The location: of all the derelict buildings filling the city of Detroit, one of the most famous is the former Packard automobile plant. As much as one would like to do something about the the 3,500,000-square-foot facility, nobody seems quite sure who owns the dilapidated building... nor is there any consensus on who should foot the bill for the massive clean-up project.

Naturally, the abandoned Packard plant is a haven for vandalism. Nearly every surface that can be reached is covered in graffiti, some of it rather interesting. And valuable. British-born and highly-secretive street artist Banksy recently descended on the decrepit Packard plant, leaving his mark behind in the form of an image of a young boy holding a can of red paint. Beside the boy are the words I remember when all this was trees.
A simple message, but also a somewhat profound statement when viewed from the ravaged surroundings in which it exists. Or rather, once existed. Shortly after the art appeared, it was literally cut out of the building and transferred to a new site by a group known as the 555 Nonprofit Studio & Gallery.

However, some parties want it put back from where it came, while others believe they are entitled to damages related to its relocation. Why? Banksy's handiwork has a rather high value attached to it. In fact, Angelina Jolie is said to have paid half a million dollars for a few pieces of the UK artist's previous paintings, and this latest piece is said to be valued at over $100,000. But in this instance, there are questions as to who, if anyone, owns the work.'
>cont.

DE STIJL

'Het Centraal Museum heeft een speciale gelimiteerde versie van De Stijl van The White Stripes op vinyl verworven. Er zijn van deze unieke langspeelplaat slechts 500 stuks gedrukt en een platenzaak aan de Oudegracht is het enige verkooppunt in de wereld. Volgens de eigenaar van de winkel is de link De Stijl - Rietveld - Utrecht.

Het museum bezat reeds het oorspronkelijke album uit 2000 en vond dat deze speciale release niet mocht ontbreken in de collectie. Directeur Edwin Jacobs: "Het is bijzonder dat een Amerikaanse band de kunststroming De Stijl op deze manier actueel en jong maakt en het Rietveld Schröderhuis als hoogtepunt van deze kunststroming als inspiratiebron voor hun muziek ziet."

De Stripes zijn een duo afkomstig uit Detroit: zanger/gitarist Jack White en drumster Meg White. Na een titelloos debuut vormde De Stijl hun tweede album.'
>bron

THE 'UNDER-CLASS' DEBATES

'Why the transformation of Detroit and other major Northern cities from magnets of opportunity to reservations for the poor? What was it that turned America's former industrial centers into economic backwaters, abandoned by manufacturers? What explains the high rates of joblessness among the urban poor? Why has discrimination by race persisted in both urban neighborhoods and workplaces? What explains the emergence of persistent, concentrated, racialized poverty in Rust Belt cities? Explanations abound for these questions, particularly in the large literature on the urban "under-class," the most influential body of scholarship to emerge on urban problems in twenty-five years.

The "underclass" debate has moved in three sometimes overlapping directions. The first, and most influential, focuses on the behavior and values of the poor, and the role of federal social programs in fostering a culture of joblessness and dependency in inner cities. A variant, going back to the work of Moynihan and Frazier, emphasizes the role of family structure and unwed pregnancy in perpetuating inequality.

A second offers structural explanations for inequality and urban poverty. Proponents of structural explanations tend to divide among those who point to the effects of economic restructuring and those who emphasize the continuing significance of racial discrimination.'

'A third explanation focuses on politics, emphasizing the marginalization of cities in American social policy, particularly in the aftermath of the urban unrest and racial conflict of the 1960s. The "excesses" of Black Power and the rise of affirmative action fueled white suburbanization and justified a newfound white backlash against the urban poor. Implicit in this analysis is a contrast between the booming postwar years and the troubled post-1960s years, urban heyday versus urban crisis.'

'Liberal politicians won loyalty by promising their constituents that the government would actively protect their economic and social security. White and black Americans took the promise of liberalism seriously and mobilized in the 1940s and 1950s to assert their rights as citizens.'

'But the New Deal state was riddled with ambiguities and contradictions that left room for opposing interpretations of what constituted proper government action. Most threatening to the seeming unity of the New Deal order were unresolved questions of racial identity and racial politics, dilemmas that would become inseparable from the mission of liberalism itself.

Part the story of the African American challenge to liberalism is well known: civil rights groups in the 1950s launched a fierce attack on Jim Crow in the South. But at the same time, the combination of deindustrialization and black population growth upended the racial order of Detroit and other northern cities.'

'Assumptions about racial difference were nourished by a newly assertive whiteness, born of the ardent desire of the "not-yet-white ethnics" (many of them Roman Catholic, second- and third-generation southern and eastern European immigrants) to move into the American mainstream. To be fully American was to be white.'

'Workers who benefited from the systematic exclusion of blacks from white jobs often promoted discriminatory policies in the workplace. White working-class and middle-class homeowners played a crucial role in the racial division of the city. Detroit's neighborhoods became a fiercely contested terrain as the city's black population expanded. Through collective organization to resist black mobility, white homeowners redrew the city's racial boundaries and reinforced patterns of racial inequality.'
>The Origins of Urban Crisis (1996)

DESPERATE

'What, then, accounts for blacks’ move to the suburbs in the last decade? Like whites, blacks have long looked for alternatives to Detroit, with its high crime, poor services and scarce job opportunities. But it was not until the economy of the entire metropolitan area slumped, thanks to the faltering auto industry and the foreclosure crisis, that black buyers finally found whites willing — desperate, in fact — to sell their suburban houses, especially in the working-class and lower-middle-class towns bordering the city.

So far, Detroit’s black suburbanization has followed a well-trodden path. Those blacks heading outward from Detroit aren’t moving to all suburbs equally. Rather, they move into places with older houses, rundown shopping districts and declining tax revenues. Such towns also typically have poorer services and fewer job opportunities than wealthier suburbs — where, despite strong anti-discrimination laws, it is still harder for blacks to find housing.

It’s not clear that this new migration is a positive step, even if it allows blacks to escape the city and its troubles. For whites, suburbs have often been a big step up — but as long as most blacks find themselves in secondhand suburbia, the American dream of security, prosperity and opportunity will remain harder to achieve.'

>A Dream Still Deferred (2011)

AUTO MOTIVE

'Along with 5,000 of my esteemed automotive journalist friends, I have just descended on my hometown of Detroit for the North American International Auto show, where one could hear 5,000 lamentations on what a sad place Motown is or has become, as well as 5,000 metaphorical references correlating the frigid winter weather with the chilly state of the automotive business. And I have to say that all of these people are at least partially right. Things are certainly in a downturn moment here, to say the least.'

>How to love...

2010-11-18T12:48:00.007+01:00

● zo 21.11.10, 16-20 uur
'Poëzie & muziek' met Wineke de Boer, Hans Plomp
Louise Levi, Cralan Kelder, Peter Posthumus e.a.
@'t Blijvertje, 3e Oosterparkstraat 64, Amsterdam

AFSPRAAK

'Het was Louis Lehmann die geen onderscheid wilde maken tussen dichters en schrijvers: "Ze schrijven toch allebei."
Vanwaar dan toch dat woord, dat ieder kent: "dichter".
Zit het hem in de zo onthoudbare, compacte vorm? Zeker toch ook in de mythe. Want dichters hebben een afspraak met de eeuwigheid. Is dat het wat vrouwen aantrekt?'
>compacte mythe

ACHTERERF

Tien jaar terug overleed de Surinaamse schrijver Edgar Cairo (52), diep verzonken in de Vrolikstraat. Afgelopen mei werd op zijn geboortedag een gedenksteen onthuld en deze zomer exposeerde het CBK een serie schilderijen uit zijn laatste, getroubleerde levensfase. En 16 november, zijn (vermoedelijke) sterfdag, kwam een film uit van Cindy Kerseborn, gemaakt om de unieke Cairo voor de vergetelheid te behoeden. Ze voert ons mee naar z'n negerwortels, district Para, het achtererf, het idioom. Memorabel tochtje.
>'Ik ga dood om jullie hoofd'

DISDAIN

'Although CARICOM leaders expressed shock that Obama would fail to invite Bouterse to the White House reception last month in New York, the nexus of Obama's work in 1983 for the CIA and his mother's possible ties to Surinam's Javanese community to assist in the coup against Bouterse may lie at the heart of Obama's disdain for the Suriname President. Considering Obama's adoption of Nixon- and Reagan-era coup policies in Latin America, Bouterse should consider himself the next target for an Obama-authorized coup in Latin America. Unlike the coup against Zelaya and the attempt against Correa, a coup attempt against Bouterse could carry with it a family vendetta from President Obama, himself.'
>realpolitik

ROADMAP

'A pharmacologist at Purdue Univ. has been especially valuable, Mr. Llewellyn says. Through his work studying brain receptors, Dr. Nichols has developed a range of psychoactive substances. His papers give a full description of the drugs he's using, including their chemical makeup. This provides Llewellyn and others with a roadmap for making the drugs.
Dr. Nichols says he's well aware of this fan club.
"The drugs we make often end up on the black market, and it's very troubling to me," he says. Particularly worrying is that the drugs are rarely tested in humans before hitting the street. Random people sometimes write to him to ask for help in making certain chemicals, he says. He doesn't reply out of caution.'
>Wall Street Journal
>'The 5 Most Profitable Drugs'

>Stichting OPEN

DOWN & OUT IN THE OBA

'Oh, yeah, one of the security men said, "The disable toilets are only for people in wheelchairs!" What, no blind person is allowed?
I am reminded of "The Seven Commandments" for animals, in George Orwell's Animal Farm. One of the commandments reads, after first being posted, "No animal shall sleep in a bed." Later, in the book, some of
the animals noted that the pigs, who had taken over the farm house, were now sleeping on beds.
When they checked the commandments again, they saw this: "No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets."'
>3D

>Sophie Crumb

SPACE BASE

'Google is planning to build what amounts to its own town on a federal space base to house its employees and their families. When society inevitably collapses, Googleville will be the sole safe haven, but only those with company IDs will be allowed in.
The company will build out the equivalent of more than two TransAmerica Pyramids on the site of a federal space base in Silicon Valley. Though Google’s plans at NASA Ames/Moffett Field have long been simmering, a Freedom of Information Act Request from the San Jose Mercury News shined new light on the company’s plans.'
>Googleville

LEEGSTAND

Alles wat je weten moet over kraken en leegstand & niet dorst vragen, in de hoop dat iemand daar vroeg of laat wel een strak videootje op zou hoesten
>En ja hoor

Lola's English Lessons (film)

2010-11-01T15:47:00.003+01:00

't Blijvertje, Derde Oosterparkstr. 64, Amsterdam

● do 11.11.10
Film Lola's English Lessons
met regisseur Valerie Schepper
21 u.

==='Prachtige kroniek van een bijzondere tijd in de geschiedenis van Amsterdam. In het absurde decor van de gekraakte Patapoebar op de Wallen, bevolkt door lieden van divers pluimage, volgen we begin jaren negentig het leven van Lola. Haar dramatische verwikkelingen zijn niet gespeeld, al dat lijkt dat wel zo.

Hoewel duister werd dit tijdsgewricht gekenmerkt door een enorme vrijheidsdrang en kruisbestuiving. Tot op de dag van vandaag zijn die inspirerend gebleken, reden waarom we niet zonder enige melancholie en ver- & be-wondering naar Lola kunnen kijken.

Een unieke poëtische video-docu van de in Nederland wonende, Letse kunstenaar Valerie Schepper. Hij heeft met z'n camera Lola op de voet gevolgd en nam jaren de tijd om deze tragikomedie tot een waar juweel te editten.' (cit.)===

Lola's English Lessons (2009) duurt 70 min. en heeft Engelse ondertiteling. Valerie Schepper zal in 't Blijvertje aanwezig zijn.

Preambulair

2010-09-26T00:07:00.029+02:00

't BLIJVERTJE (2007- )

17.10.10 Maria van Daalen, Eddie Woods, Arthur Lava
Julius Joker, circushondje en ♪MC Kato
♪sheep in wolf's clothing, letters home from the vietnam war
w/ Cappy Jack (txt), Paul Schaaps (guitar)

Julius Joker

***

21.06.09 Stan van Houcke, Mustafa Stitou
Louise Landes-Levi, Hans Plomp, Eddie Woods
♪Rendier (Reinder v.d. Woude & Maddy Rentenaar)
Fred Hoekstra

17.05.09 Eddie Kagie, Pamela Koevoets
♪Hester Hofman & Toni Smith, D.C. Lama
Yuyutsu Sharma, Merik van der Torren
Gözde Tekdal reads Boris Vian

Toni Smith

***

19.04.09 Anne van Amstel, Luc van Houte
Peter Posthumus, ♫Cyberchurch of Funk

Ludwig Wisch (r) in India 22,02.09

...

26.03.09 John Sinclair met de film Twenty to life:
The life and Times of John Sinclair

15.03.09 Marjet Cliteur, Co Woudsma
dj Peter Slovenly, ♪Christian Beier
Randell, Cinderella

15.02.09 ♪Oisin McLean, <="" alberts="" p="" peter="">
Pieter Derk Koen ten Brummelaar, Fabiola
♫ Het Klusteam o.l.v. Bas Jansen: nw. soundtrack
@Buster Keatons One Week

Oisin McLean

18.01.09 ♪Victoria Varekamp, ♪Marius de Pijper
Sander Ritman & ♫Filippo Castellazzi
Diana Ozon, Herman Kamphuis
Lucienne Kohler, Miriam Al

Aart Clerkx: Rudy Hofman (1952-2009)

21.12.08 Carla Bogaards & ♫Rudy Hofman
Annet de Kruijf, Monique Berendsen, Luc van Houte
Margriet Duifhuis, ♪Koma Diyar, ♪Etienne Boucher
Hans Wap, Tony Scott (Peter van den Bosch)

BELEGGER

krentenkakker cententeller
haalt uw boekhouder de kerstdagen
of gaat hij ten onder met het jaarverslag

muntenpoeper duitendief
zet de crediteur de achtervolging in
op twee wielen door de bocht der dagen
maanden jaren

négociant dérivateur
zijn uw opties waarheid of bedrog
en uw tranen een hard gelag
voor wie gevoel voor humor heeft

ondernemer investeerder
haalt uw geld de volgende voorspelling
vergader vergaar verga
Hans Wap

***

16.11.08 ♪The Yardnics, Rashid Novaire
Erik Bindervoet & Robbert-Jan Henkes in
Karl Kraus' DE LAATSTE DAGEN DER MENSHEID

'De onwaarschijnlijkste daden, waarvan hier melding wordt gemaakt, zijn echt gebeurd; ik heb slechts beschreven wat ze deden. De onwaarschijnlijkste gesprekken die hier worden gevoerd zijn woord voor woord zo uitgesproken; de schrilste verzinsels zijn citaten. De tijdgenoten die hebben geduld dat de hier opgeschreven dingen gebeurden, moeten het recht om te lachen maar laten wijken voor de plicht om te huilen.'

***

19.10.08 ♪Lily Kiara & Felicity Provan

***

15.06.08 ♪Raj Mohan, Mangalesh Dabral
Sylvia Hubers, Gerben Hellinga, F.Starik
Tsead Bruinja, Menno Wigman
Project Wildeman

De tweetalige uitgave Bapauti/Erfenis (In de Knipscheer) is de eerste gedichtenbundel van de Surinaams-Hindoestaanse muzikant Raj Mohan. Raj voegt zich hiermee bij een handjevol illustere dichters - Shrinivasi, Jit Narain en Cándani - die in het Sarnami schrijven, de taal van de Surinaamse Hindoestanen.
De bundel borduurt voort op de cd Kantraki/Contract Labourer waarop in muziek die klonk als het verloren paradijs de voorouders werden bezongen: de duizenden Noord-Indiase dorpelingen die rond 1900 voet aan wal zetten in Suriname. Na uitdienen van hun arbeidscontract besloten vele van deze intussen ontwortelde Hindoestanen in Suriname te blijven. Sarnami, hun dialact, namen latere generaties mee naar Nederland.
'Behalve immigratie en contractarbeid op de suikerrietplantages maken ook met taboes omgeven thema's als incest en de onderdrukking van vrouwen in de Hindoestaanse en Indiase samenleving deel uit van de erfenis die onder woorden wordt gebracht.'
→ site

18.05.08 Jan Kal, Firma Onkruid
(Marco Arbouw en Wouter Meijer)

***

20.04.08 Sieger Baljou, Joke Kaviaar, Scala, Aixia
Gabriel Schmulewitz, Frank Diamand, ♪M-Jo

16.03.08 John Sinclair & ♫Mark Ritsema
Donald Gardner, Diana Ozon, Carla Bogaards
♪Kelvinators, Mike Lorsch, Kristian Kanstadt
Skinned, Jaqueline Verheijen, Kees Borst

Kelvinators

17.02.08 Eddie Kagie, Pom Wolff, Merik van der Torren
Reinder van der Woude & Maddy Rentenaar
Fabiola, Peter Posthumus, Marius de Pijper
→ foto's Maartje Pronk

13.01.08 Baafje Wezelman, Louise Landes-Levi
Cralan Kelder, Aixia, Hans Plomp, Lene (viool)
♪Jerry Spurlock, Eva Ellingsworth, Cor van Kuyk

11.12.07 Hester Hofman en Toni Smith

***

WERELDKAMER

tijd is niet meer dan een hond aan de riem

d.w.z. ga liggen of ga zitten op die plek

en doe verder of je niet bestaat

de eerste dag was grote paniek

niemand zei we gaan leven en doen wat we willen

de eerste mensen stonden waar ze wilden zijn

hij/zij vergat vanaf het eerste uur

dat eerst het verhaal van de mens

wie je bent

hoe hij en zij als deeltjes in de mensen-machinerie

schimmen zijn

hoe leven om te leven een spooktaal werd

in de schots en scheve wereldkamer der 21ste eeuw

met z'n allen zoeken naar dezelfde rode draad

zeggen hoe 't is blijft te hoog gegrepen

tijd is wat hersens in de war

een heilig moeten

als een veel te vast gedraaide schroef

tijd die afspraak om niet te laat te komen

aangenomen woord door iedereen gebruikt om iets af te spreken

met een namaak aardse stem die in geen werkelijkheid wat kan

tijd als binnenband die lucht bewaren moet

met een rubberzaag uit dag en nacht

een uurtje knutselen wil

tijd als barst in een prachtmoment

een langgerekte toon

die levenslang nagenoeg onhoorbaar is

-emanuel lorsch

****

IN DE ETNA (2003-2006)

Peter Lammers

Tsead Bruinja

Toni Smith

Eddie Kagie

***

CAFE YSOS (2000-2002)

***

ONE WORLD POETRY (1977-1985)

William Burroughs, Benn Posset

Harry Hoogstraten, Steef Davidson

Henk Langeveld

2010-03-08T12:12:00.007+01:00

Acht januari 2010 overleed geheel onverwacht Henk Langeveld.
In de zomer en het najaar was hij een aantal maanden wezen rondtrekken door India en Afghanistan. Terug in Amsterdam had hij ons bij wijze van groet rond de feestdagen nog zijn onderstaande impressies van het weerzien met Bamiyan gemaild. 'Voor bij de kachel', heette 't even luchtigjes als praktisch, 'of om 'm mee aan te maken.'
Van Henks eerste bezoek aan het land, in de loop van de jaren negentig, zijn foto's te zien op > zijn site.

***

2009