Today is Irene’s birthday and I wish her a very happy and great birthday indeed. We have been together now for over fifteen years and the question she has asked me right from our first time together and keeps on asking me every year is: do you want to come to my birthday party? Well, the answer has always been yes and this year is another “yes”.

Six years ago her birthday was threatened by a historic event in the place we lived. Hong Kong’s handover to China (or return to the motherland as the Chinese would say) took place on June 30, 1997 and Irene’s birthday activities were somewhat overshadowed by the departing British, the bagpipes and the many people that were partying or commemorating the extraordinary events that took place in our then hometown. I always said jokingly that her birthday would never be the same and that it would always be “Handover Day” but that of course is not entirely true, yet, from time to time I go back to that warm and rainy day six years ago. Here's an excerpt from a post of a few months back that evokes a little of the atmosphere that day:

As I grew older I forgot all about the bagpipe, but when I moved to Hong Kong my passion for the instrument was reignited. In Hong Kong with its large Scottish contingent, the bagpipe had made serious inroads, and there were regular performances by the Royal Hong Kong Police as well as the Black Watch regiment, the last British regiment to defend Hong Kong and also the regiment that has been instrumental in capturing Basra over the past few days. The day of Hong Kong’s handover to China was one of rainiest days of that year, very hot and shreds of clouds hung lowly over Hong Kong. When the last Governor, Chris Patten, departed from his residence the wailing sound of the bagpipes added something mystic to the entire scene. “Highland Cathedral” the last tune played magnificently by the Royal Hong Kong Police when the British flag came down brought many, including myself to tears. The force of the bagpipe instilled in me years ago, in a movie theatre watching The Longest Day, came right back. That night when the British had their formal sent off the Black Watch gave one more phenomenal performance and when the Union Flag was lowered in the pitch dark accompanied by torrential rains, a soaked and lonely bagpiper played the last few notes in what was an almost mythical display of pride, nature and deep emotion. It’s hard to convey on paper, but whenever I replay the video of the moment I am deeply moved.

Den Beste discussed legalizing prostitution the other day, and Alisa and Andrea jump in on the topic. As a Dutchman I know a few things about this. Many people will think that prostitution, like drugs, is legal in The Netherlands but to my knowledge drugs have only very recently become legalized, that is, only a limited amount of marihuana for personal use is exempt from prosecution, all other drugs can still land you in jail. And while prostitution is never ever prosecuted it is, to my knowledge still on the books and could, in theory, be prosecuted. The Dutch just allow it. Legalizing prostitution is a topic that raises quite a few emotions, just look at the comments on Andrea’s post. It could be a fairly lengthy discussion, so for now I will let it rest other than by saying that in my mind legalization is the obvious way to go. Decriminalization, safety and health issues are compelling determinants in getting this business out of the strange predicament it is in. Let me address one of the other, related, issues raised by Den Beste.

He mentions that he does not have the guts to visit a brothel. There is are some interesting observations in relation to this that I need to make as I have visited these establishments more than once, being that it never culminated in a transaction with a working girl. I am already a little disgusted with myself for using this Clintonite approach: “I was there, but I didn’t do anything”, but anyway, let me continue. As a young man nights on the town with friends sometimes ended up in brothels where there were essentially two options: lounge around the bar and have a few more drinks or share a drink with one of the girls and fork out a lot of money to go “upstairs”. I never went “upstairs”, for a variety of reasons: I am paranoid about hygiene, I could hardly afford it at the time and yes, honestly, faced a bit of a moral hurdle but the most important reason probably is: you do not have to. Visiting a brothel or sex-club as they call it back home in itself is an experience: a dark nightclub, scantily dressed women, soft music, a somewhat mysterious atmosphere and occasionally an erotic dancer on stage contribute to a very special, sensational and even glamorous ambiance and going “upstairs” would most likely be a complete anti-climax, given the fact that the girl is after your money and does not want to spend any time longer with you than strictly necessary. Her soft and velvety approach usually changes when the job is done. The breathtaking illusion ends right there. Let me summarize it as follows: they are selling something and the package in which it is presented is often so much better than the actual product itself. And a visit upstairs may also bring you back to the reality and underline that a lot of it is not really that glamorous, on the contrary, it can be a pretty demeaning and harsh reality for the women that work there and by going “upstairs” that will become a lot clearer.

The same goes for the world renowned red light district in Amsterdam, a 16th century neighborhood, all paved and pedestrian alleys, pitch dark at night and the only lights you see are red, illuminating the dark alleyways and the women behind windows and doors. A walk around this area, for me and many other men, provides such phenomenal thrill that you do not even have to bother to actually negotiate through one of the windows, go in, pay and have sex. Just the walk, what you see, the feel to it and the atmosphere create something that is absolutely impossible to replicate anywhere, and you might as well take it in, savor it and move on to a bar or a cab and go home. In fact, women find it interesting as well. Irene had never visited the red light area and I once took here there a few years back during a holiday back home and she was quite surprised at what she saw (some alleys cater to special interest groups, you see) but in general she could see why men are so excited about just being there. Den Beste I think realizes this underlying mechanic:

I probably won't ever have the guts to actually patronize one of them, but I think it's pretty cool that they exist.

Yes. Just visit them, see and feel them and do not patronize them, that experience in itself may very well be the ultimate goal for the client, although I doubt that Nevada (sorry guys) at any time could compete with the red lights in dark medieval Amsterdam.

Glenn Reynolds had an interesting piece earlier this month discussing what makes a good blog. I read it, agreed with most of it and filed it away in my memory but over the past few weeks as I wandered around the blogosphere it came back to me and I think a little more can be said about it. To start, it seems to me that blogs are mushrooming; I have come across many new weblogs that were only established recently, some interesting, a few good ones but also quite a few that were pretty crappy. Glenn notes in his column that the most important aspects of a good blog are a personal voice, rapid response time, and the ability to link so that readers can verify the facts behind a blogpost as well as good writing and an original point of view:

In every case, though, what brings success is knowing something other people don't know, and expressing it well.

There I think is the problem with a lot of blogs; they tend to be repeating other blogs and are highly unoriginal. Over the past week I visited many blogs blasting Maureen Dowd for her column on Clarence Thomas and before that I got more than a little bit tired over all the Hillary posts, yes she had a book out, and no, most of us do not really like her, but once I had read Andrew Sullivan’s take on it I was done with it, really. That does not mean that no one else should blog about it, but unless you have an interesting point of view or are able to uncover a very unusual snippet of news relating to that particular subject, it is not very likely you are going to generate a lot of traffic by bashing Hillary’s book. To some extent it was a bit intimidating, when I started out I often wondered whether I should not do more about some of the popular topics (guns, Michael Moore, Hans Blix) but in the end I decided that I was just not adding any value by throwing in my two cents about Hans Blix or Michael Moore, these were subjects that were already very well covered in the blogosphere. Shortly after I launched my blog the Iraqi invasion took place and it was evident within less than a day that I could not keep up with events the way other blogs were, notably the Command Post. So, I continued with my niche content and that got a fairly good response from many readers who thanked me for providing interesting analysis on subjects other than Iraq. Which did not stop me from posting on Iraq, but only selectively. Same with Israel on which I post from time to time, but only once I feel I have something interesting to say or have uncovered a piece of unique and interesting news. That is the essence of good current affairs blogging. If I were following a trend, or trying to copy other weblogs, I just would not feel comfortable about it. I cannot imagine doing it any other way, honestly.

It is like Hollywood when producers of a movie decide to follow the template of a box office hit, “let’s replicate it, that is the least riskiest way”. But as is the case with Hollywood, replica’s tend to be boring and dull and time tested formulas can only be implemented by the real masters of the art (Spielberg, Coppola) while others have to come up something new and refreshing in order to capture the attention of a large audience. Sullivan, Volokh, Drum, Reynolds and Den Beste have captured their market, have proven themselves and will be able to weather a poor performance now and then, all the others will have to come up with something good and original in order to capture a following. And given the nature of blogs they have to do that on a continuous basis.

Glenn does not really highlight continuity in his column. Quality blogs are blogs that are able to provide all of the above on an ongoing basis, without any prolonged interruption and should, ideally, also be getting better over time. This may be one of the more challenging aspects of blogging: to keep it up. I am not sure if I can do this but it is certainly my personal mission to do so. There are a lot of blogs out there that all of a sudden lose steam, become repetitive or are no longer updated regularly and it very often happens that you realize that you are wasting your time visiting these blogs or linking to them. Blogging is a new medium and it will evolve within the next few years so we may not really know where we are going but I will try and keep on top of this topic, unless of course I am repeating others and not providing a unique point of view. If I do, let me know.

From the Singaporean Straits Times, this interesting piece on the growing divide between the authorities and the clergy in Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials are apparently stepping up their efforts to root out radical islam by taking on certain clerics and at the same time they are capturing al-Qaeda members. On the steps against clerics Deputy Minister Abdul-Rahman Al-Matroudi of the Religious Affairs Ministry said:

“… clerics would be instructed to tell worshippers that the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in the United States violated Islamic teachings" Said Mr Matroudi: "If someone is found not fit to be in that job, he will be asked to resign, or be retrained"

There are two obvious problems with this statement. Firstly, what have clerics been saying up to now about September 11? Probably not anything that would condemn these attacks so it may take a while to counter the many ill informed beliefs held by the Saudi population in relation to the events of that dreadful day. The second problem has some long-term ramifications. While it is great that some steps are being taken to take on the islamist threat it makes you wonder where all these radical clerics will go once the authorities have driven them out of the officially endorsed mosques? The great thing about the state and mosque sitting on the same chair is that one can tell the other what it should do. The Saudi government is now using that position for the better, but what if all of a sudden many desert the mosque and set up their own independent religious outfits? The newly spawned mosques will not be lacking for potential followers:

The economy is also one of Saudi Arabia's biggest headaches. Young people who are jobless - and disillusioned with the political system - are ripe for recruitment into radical networks. The demographics are important: Half the country's 14 million people are under 25. And unemployment among this group is estimated to be as high as 30 per cent.

I am not sure where the 14 million number comes from, last time I looked there were 21 million Saudis, but the argument is clear. Economic disarray (oil prices are going south), poverty and an ever growing group of disenchanted youngsters point to the conclusion that arresting militants and regulating the clergy are only the beginning of turning this troubled kingdom around.

Here’s another thought (or rather memory) I had about Deng Xiaoping following my response to Seablogger yesterday. Deng by 1992 had turned into a very old and nearly deaf man and was always accompanied by his daughter, Deng Rong, who acted as his assistant and translator. In this period he paid a historic visit to Shenzhen, China’s special economic zone just across the border from Hong Kong. He wasn’t able to walk unassisted and it was not easy for him to produce any coherent sentences or long speeches, but apparently he mumbled something along the lines of “seize the moment” or “seize the opportunity”. Those words uttered right in the heart of China’s new economic engine, Shenzhen, were to many observers the ultimate validation of China’s economic reforms, the seal of approval for the unfettered money culture that had developed in Shenzhen and the birth of a new China. It also served as a warning to the Maoist remnants in the Chinese Communist Party that there was essentially no way back for the country and that only the capitalist reforms would enable the country to go forward and conquer a place among the world’s modern nations. To me it had always been fascinating that Deng consolidated his power to such an extent that, even in the absence of having a formal government or party function, he was able to have a phenomenal impact on both policy and the public mood in China and beyond. There’s little doubt that Deng by initiating agricultural reforms first, he was able to move the Chinese away from famine to a state of self-sufficiency. Once that was achieved he opened the country’s borders and implemented the reforms that essentially turned China into a free-market economy, “socialism with Chinese characteristics” as the new direction was coined.

If anyone is interested in the background to Deng’s rise and how it intertwines with Mao’s rule there are of course numerous books, but the one that sticks in my mind, and it is to the month exactly ten years ago that I read it, is Harrison Salisbury’s New Emperors, China in the Era of Mao and Deng (although my copy has a different subtitle, Mao and Deng, A Dual Biography). This book makes it very clear how Mao and Deng differed and why Deng was ultimately able to turn things around in China. I know a lot of people are reading up on Iran and Saudi Arabia, but if you have room during the summer months for Salisbury’s take on Deng, I highly recommend it.

Canadians may congratulate themselves on their country’s liberal attitudes as evidenced by the federal government’s decision not to oppose gay marriage, but if events like this warrant police attention and investigation then there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Seablogger has some comments on Peaktalk and they are of a nature that I feel compelled to respond:

Randomly visiting a few weblogs this morning, I glanced at Peaktalk, which has vaulted into the higher reaches of the bloggerverse during its brief existence. Somehow its author keeps getting prime links. Maybe he engages other bloggers in, well, peak talk on their comment boards.

Hardly ever. Only this week I commented on Dilacerator’s return from a brief leave of absence and complimented the Single Southern Guy on his Carnival, but other than that I have hardly ever posted any comments on any weblog.

Certainly he writes well on a wide range of subjects, though his voice seems as chilly and impersonal as the mountain photograph on his index page.

Chilly maybe, hard to judge, it may be that the index page and the blue colors make the reader feel somewhat cold but that was never intended. On the contrary, I have tried to put in as many personal experiences and observations as possible to make the posts on this blog lively and personal right from the start. Where possible I have included the personal proximity I had to some interesting developments. And for good measure I have even thrown in my wife, kids and other family members, I remember one post talking about my 3 year old dissuading me from watching a Bush speech. What more do you want? My visit to the doctor yesterday?

From Peaktalk's lofty vantage it is possible to claim that the late dictator of China, whose name I spell phonetically (Dung), "turned things around." Um, OK. China is a bit less poor, and its present generation of tyrants disguise their tyranny from foreigners a bit more cleverly.

Yes, Deng, indeed pronounced “Dung” turned things around. This subject is worthy of a series of posts but let’s suffice by saying that Deng Xiaoping was purged not less than two times by Mao and his cronies as Deng did not believe in communist purism but in his often quoted slogan “it does not matter if the cat is black or white, as long as he catches the mice”. That does not make him less of a tyrant, and maybe China has indeed not reached the wealthier echelons of this world, but you can not honestly argue that China has not fundamentally changed since the disastrous reign of Mao Zedong. Peaktalk is in no way endorsing or otherwise condoning the way China is governed and I can tell you that during my years in Hong Kong I have very often been disgusted by European and American businessmen sitting in the Aberdeen Marina Club toasting to Deng for clearing up Tiananmen Square in 1989 as that created more stability and thus a better business climate. But now that Seablogger has put it on my radar screen I may indeed write a bit more about China and the changes that have taken place there since Deng "introduced free-market capitalism".

If such viewpoints earn links from Den Beste and Jane Galt, maybe the bloggerverse is less libertarian than I thought.

Maybe. You could interpret the words “turned things around” as a subjective qualification but it wasn’t one that raised the ire of either Steven or Jane, to my knowledge. In any case, I like getting feedback and the opportunity to respond, so thanks Seablogger and keep visiting the site, I have added you to my list of favourites.

Recalling elected officials who are not performing is becoming more popular these days. Here in British Columbia we have had a few instances where provincial legislators faced a recall and now California Governor Gray Davis is threatened by an initiative to relieve him of his duties. His approval ratings are truly abysmal and the effort to recall the governor is well underway. While there is obviously serious frustration and disappointment over the way things have been handled in California, there are some question marks over recall as an electoral tool. First of all the initial step is to gather a certain number of signatures, a process that by its very nature is open to all sorts of abuse and may consequently not be watertight and fair. The other more important reason is that Davis was elected into office less than a year ago and as such is in the middle of a mandate given to him by the voters, whether a significant number of them today like it or not. If a certain portion of the electorate believes that a politician is not performing or delivering that what he or she promised then there are many other ways to voice discontent and there is always another opportunity at the ballot box to express that discontent. Needless to say that very discontent will have already forced Davis to calibrate his policies and plans. To threaten an incumbent on a continuous basis with recall may have an adverse impact on policy and on political stability.

Recall is therefore not a great tool and should be left unused, and if they are anything to go by, all recent recall efforts in British Columbia ended unsuccessfully. Many would love to see Condi or Arnie in Sacramento, but they will have to wait for just a little bit.

Even though I reported that US-Canada relations appeared to be on the mend, the postponed visit by Bush to Canada has now been pushed back even further. President Bush has wisely figured that there is probably little point in meeting with a fairly hostile lame-duck who is going to be gone in February 2004 anyway.

The place to visit today is the Single Southern Guy’s blog as he is hosting this week’s Carnival of the Vanities. He has really raised the Carnival bar by putting a lot of work into it and it really looks excellent. Peaktalk is well behind the curve here as it is not hosting the Carnival until November 19, but that, my dear readers, is entirely my own fault. Anyway, if you like you can mark your diaries accordingly.

One of the things that I have not reported on for quite a while is Canada. I am not entirely sure what the reason is but it could be that I have had a three week break in Europe which may have calmed me down and made me more relaxed about things or even better: convinced me that life in Canada is not so bad after all. It could also be that the emotions over the disgraceful behaviour by the Canadian government leading up to and during Iraqi Freedom have subsided, even Paul Cellucci tells us that US-Canadian relations are back to normal. On the other hand the situation here is pretty quiet and economic prospects are fine: the Bank of Canada may sooner rather than later get back to rate cutting and the Canadian Dollar so far has been pretty robust vis-à-vis the US Dollar, although that may change a little bit depending on the size of the upcoming interest rate cuts. And the good news on the political side is that even the old bastard has been quiet for quite a while now, which is unusual.

So, reasons enough to be relaxed, but when the most suitable candidate to succeed Chretien as Prime Minister tells us that bank mergers are still on hold you know things have not really changed for the better and there continues to be ample reason to get excited. I have learned by now however that if someone says something like that about bank mergers he does not really mean it, he is merely trying to get union support for his leadership challenge or something like that. Bank mergers will be right back on the agenda after the election, that’s how things usually work here. And of course, the fractured conservative opposition is as divided as ever. There have been some dithering attempts in order achieve some measure of a unified right, but do not expect it to materialize before that point in time when it is mostly needed, the next general election. So, things are pretty much the same up north, but funnily enough it is no longer winding me up, at least not to date. Maybe it is because it is summer and we are enjoying an uninterrupted bout of sunshine and warm weather and that makes me feel unusually good, happy and above all relaxed.

The Economist this week juxtaposes China and India as a prelude to the visit of India’s Prime Minister to China. The analysis is not entirely new, back in my Asian days I was involved in a similar comparison when the bank I was working for had to break new grounds in the wake of saturation and collapse in South-East Asian markets, which I happened to discuss yesterday. There were two key countries in Asia on the radar screen for what it seemed were endless opportunities and thus new deals, India and China. Inevitably, there emerged two groups within our team and in the financial community at large: the pro-India group and the pro-China group. The experiences we had up to 1996 already led many to believe that our efforts would yield better results in China. As the Economist correctly points out, bureaucracy, corruption, influential lobbying groups as well as an overly protective economic system have prevented real success, growth and investment in India. Compared to India, China has prospered. This argument points to the fact that democracy in itself is not always a guarantee for economic success and that the authoritarian former communists in China have been able to achieve quite a bit over the past two decades, although we have to take Chinese economic statistics with a grain of salt.

How do you reduce an opponent to complete irrelevance? By tying him down in a place where he can do no harm at all. And if the cost of killing him is higher than the benefit, what do you do? You let the world know that you have him at gunpoint and can kill him whenever you like. Even Saddam was able to do better than Arafat who is not just irrelevant, he’s disposable material.

The Gweilo reports on the state of affairs in Indonesia and mentions that things are not getting any better, on the contrary:

The most corrupt institutions in the country, the judiciary and the military are determined and have the power to stymie any reforms. The legislature is weak and similarly crooked. The largely Chinese business elite are the handmaidens of the corrupt indigenous military and political leaders, allowed special privileges as long as their illicit payments continue. Absent an effective middle class and with no one with the stature, integrity and ability to lead a reform movement visible, the rot and drift appear sure to continue for the foreseeable future.

It is interesting that he refers to the absence of a middle class. I clearly remember the fall of 1994 when I was part of group of international bankers and lawyers who were toasting to Indonesia’ s economic success in Surabaya’s Hyatt Hotel prior to the groundbreaking ceremony of the country’s first major independent power project. Our thinking was to a large extent built on the idea that the economic success in countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines would inevitably create a middle class that would be able to afford all the products offered by the deals that we were financing (power, water, telecoms, construction materials) and who in time would help these countries become healthy democracies with phenomenal economic power. Very often, when our flights were preparing to touch down we would circle metropolises like Jakarta and Bangkok and point to the new suburbs and say, “see, what a success story, these wealthy suburbs keep on growing”.

Many back in the US and Europe would point to the looming dangers and counsel against taking on more underwriting risks, using valid arguments against things like Suharto’ s rule in Indonesia, corruption and excessive US Dollar borrowing. Yet, at the time we on the ground as the experts on the region won the argument very often and the tide seemed to be in favour of investing in South-East Asia. And: no one wanted to run the risk of not participating in the lucrative business activity in South-East Asia so all the major European, American and Japanese banks piled into especially Indonesia and Thailand snapping up and financing deals that later turned out to be questionable indeed. I mean, how much power, how much cement does a country really need?

This often went as far as underwriting hundred million dollar deals by a single bank with the understanding that the funds would be recouped from a stock market offering later on. Banks would have a double whammy here, lending first and then leading a stock offering, fees and commissions galore. The problem was that by the time such deals were ready to be launched, the market for Indonesian deals had evaporated, the country’s currency had crashed and the place was in political disarray following Suharto’ s fall. To this day that situation has not improved and the wealthy middle class that would spend and vote the country up the ranks of the world’s developed nations has yet to materialize.

Welcome to all Asymmetrical visitors. As was the case when Den Beste linked me, it is rewarding to get a link like this and all I can do is honor the link and keep on writing.

Following my post on how anti-Semitism has entered the world of sports I have had some reactions from readers on the fate of the Dutch Jews during the Second World War as together with Poland, The Netherlands is one of the countries that lost the highest percentage of its Jewish population to the Holocaust and many wonder why that is the case.

There are a number of reasons behind this. Off the top of my head the first one that comes to mind is that Dutch society is highly organized, structured and everything is very well documented. It was therefore not too difficult for the Germans to figure out who was Jewish and who wasn’t once they succeeded in getting access to civil records or any other files that meticulously recorded people’s names, backgrounds, religion, addresses etc. This is also one of the key reasons why so many Dutch are vehemently opposed to any form of personal identity cards or databases that store large amounts of personal data. It is interesting that in these days of terrorism and security we are building up enormous databases, being totally oblivious to the potential future abuse of these data particularly in North America where there has been no experience with foreign occupiers that abuse information for discrimination, segregation and, ultimately, genocide.

Documenting by the way is a very important Dutch skill. When, during WW II, my grandfather became part of one of the early resistance movements in the western part of the country, the group immediately resolved to make a list of all the members: better to know who is part of the team and where we can find him or her in case of need. Needless to say, that list somehow fell into the hands of the German occupier and before my grandfather could get into action he was dispatched to Buchenwald, a concentration camp in Germany, which he survived.

Another reason is that The Netherlands is a small and seriously flat country. Refugees, escaped prisoners and resistance fighters had an infinitely better chance of survival in impenetrable mountainous and forested areas elsewhere in Europe. The partisans in Yugoslavia and the maquis in France are good examples of groups who used the rugged territory in their countries as an effective launch pad to attack the German enemy. At the same time these vast and wild areas of land acted as a great shelter for refugees, including Jews. In the case of Eastern Europe the natural surroundings enabled both, as a number of Jewish partisan groups emerged in Poland and the former Soviet Union. So, together with the available databases from the Dutch government and very detailed maps of a flat and developed country it was extremely difficult to hide from a force that went house to house in search of innocents to be transported to a certain death.

The third reason is that Dutch Jews were in comparison to Eastern and Southern European Jews not very well prepared for what was awaiting them. Other European Jews were well accustomed to anti-Semitism, pogroms, hate and random violence and had learned to build up certain natural defenses. Although that was certainly not a guarantee for survival, it gave them a somewhat better chance to stay alive in concentration camps. Holland was a safe haven for persecuted Jews from other parts of Europe where Jews had come to live in safety without the fear of persecution. With that risk disappearing it can be inferred that their natural in-built defenses also weakened a bit, if I were put in a similar situation I would be less prepared than someone from an area where discrimination and violence are a daily occurrence.

The final reason is one about which it is not easy to make an assessment and that is the level of compliance, or even co-operation, offered by the Dutch to their German occupiers. I have grown up being told that all Dutch were heroes and that we bravely resisted the Fuhrer and his henchman but in all likelihood that was not really the case as it applied to only a very small group of people who risked their lives and the lives of their families in doing so. The ones who directly co-operated were probably also limited in terms of numbers, but yes, it was a sizeable group. The biggest portion of Dutchmen and women most likely kept their heads down and practiced their own mode of survival, which essentially meant doing nothing about anything and hoping for a quick end to the war.

If we add these four factors together I think we are able to understand why the chances of survival for a Dutch Jew where significantly lower than that for a French Jew, Czech Jew or Greek Jew. There are however many stories of survival and here is one that I recommend reading. I found it when I did a bit of background research for ‘Soccer in Mokum’. Go read it.

Talking about octogenarians, here’s one that I really like and who always has something interesting to say: Walter Cronkite. Walter in an interview yesterday on “embedded correspondents”:

What we didn't -- my gosh, of all of the important -- important events of our time, when the president orders the American boys and girls into action somewhere, there's no more serious time for us to be shut out of all information. We're not only entitled to know what our boys and girls do in our name, it's our duty to what boys and girls are doing in our name in case of what they are doing in our name is not what we want them to do. We should have a voice in them.

I have always been impressed with elder statesmen who were able to achieve phenomenal things late in life. Ronald Reagan became president at 69 and retired at 77, Deng Xiaoping was in his mid-seventies when he was finally able to consolidate his grip on power in China and turn the country around. Ariel Sharon is 75 and doing whatever he can under the dire circumstances his country is in, but Israel’s Labor Party is becoming seriously desperate to re-appoint, at almost 80, Shimon Peres as its new leader. Octogenarians can achieve great things, but I think it is time that the Israeli opposition party starts to rejuvenate its leadership and pick a leader not shortly before an election but earlier on in order to set the party on a new course, establish leadership credentials and ensure that it remains a credible party. It is somehow surprising that Israel’s two largest parties have not successfully groomed a new generation of leaders and to the extent they have done so, both apparent heirs, Nethanyahu and Barak, have been sidelined for the time being.

Blogrolling is becoming more professional and Jurjen shows how it should be done with a clear analysis describing why each particular blog is on his roll. This is good, as it not only explains why those blogs are on his roll; they also represent an instant review or snapshot of that particular blog. Have a look at what he says about Peaktalk; it makes me wonder whether we have both ended up on the wrong side of the 49th parallel. I think that a good analysis of a blogroll helps, for sometimes I come across blogrolls that leave me mystified as to how they are assembled. I will do a similar review as well one of these days but I have been postponing it, as it will likely mean quite a bit of work as well as adding and deleting a few blogs, I do not believe in endless blogrolls.

As promised a few more reflections on The Netherlands following my trip. The country hit the news big time last year thanks to the assassination of politician Pim Fortuyn who campaigned on the issues of crime, immigration and integration, healthcare, and political elitism and complacency, issues that had been obfuscated by the economic growth years of the 1990s. As I have pointed out earlier on Peaktalk, he left a challenging legacy and it is undeniable that changes have taken place with most political parties taking on some of his ideas in their platform. While it appears we are back to closed doors and ineffective government by coalition administrations, there is a notable mentality change in the country. One thing that I witnessed directly is the “zero-tolerance’’ approach by police in a number of areas. In the village where my parents in law live I witnessed policemen ticketing old ladies who were riding their bikes in pedestrian areas, something that would have been unthinkable a few years ago when the police would have sufficed with a very mild warning. In the southern town of Maastricht, the new mayor has taken on all kinds of questionable situations that were left untouched by his predecessors, resulting in round the clock security for that brave man. It may be my perception but I detected a willingness to take on crime and potential crime pro-actively and that is good news.

What did dominate the news and what is in my opinion a very threatening issue is the draft European Constitution that has recently been tabled and which, following the introduction of the Euro, is another step in the creation of a European super state which will impose a bureaucratic top-down structure over its constituent member states who will eventually cease to exist. As I reported earlier this week, this will also have serious implications for the US which is why there is quite a bit of discussion going on this side of the ocean.

Markets Rule
What struck me is that the despite the ingrained and institutionalized social-democrat attitudes, The Netherlands has become more of a free-market paradise. Lots of government services have been privatized, from garbage collection to energy distribution and private health clinics have mushroomed. There is an almost Anglo-Saxon feel to economic activity, previously unseen, at least in my lifetime. This is not a complete reversal as the nation historically has been a trading nation relying on unfettered economic activity, both domestically and internationally. So the political and institutional changes of the 80s and 90s have reinvigorated the Dutch spirit of entrepreneurship and trade and rolled back some of the destructive socialist policies of the 1960s and 1970s. I say rolled back since a lot of them are still in place in their original or modified forms, so in a way The Netherlands has come to resemble Canada: free-market enterprise within the confines of mild socialist consensus build on a fairly stable regulatory framework.

In my view (and some proud British have ridiculed me for this), the Dutch have historically been closer to the Anglo-Saxon world than any other continental European country. The British Empire came into being at roughly the same time the Dutch established their overseas territories, well after Spain and Portugal did the same in the 15th century but before the French and Germans who did not get around it until the 19th century. The Dutch and British growth went hand in hand although the Dutch foolishly sold their Manhattan based settlement, New Amsterdam, to the Brits in the 17th century. The world’s most successful cross-border mergers have been Anglo-Dutch (Royal Dutch Shell, Unilever) and Dutch firms like Ahold, ING and ABN-AMRO have conquered big chunks of corporate America over the past decades. And, on a more day-to-day level, the Dutch share a unique sense of humor with the British and have absolutely nothing in common with the way other continental Europeans laugh and joke, on the contrary.

The European Threat
The irony is that now that the Anglo-Saxon minded Dutch are moving to the right and are retooling their economy free-market style, they at the same time are giving up that reclaimed sense of free destiny by committing to join a European federal state. The introduction of the Euro has made this process practically irreversible. Yet, the center-right coalition government has to date been fairly reserved about the draft European Constitution and is willing to support a referendum on the issue. The latter was previously unheard of in The Netherlands, but I fear this is nothing more than some positioning to satisfy a few critical voices while at the same time being able to negotiate a bit once the European Constitution is formalized. And referenda have very often limited value, you can influence the outcome by deliberately manipulating the questions asked and if you do not get the outcome you were looking for you can always rerun the referendum. I believe the Danish government did this when the Danes initially rejected the Euro, “hey, we got a “no” outcome, let’s do it again!”.

While there is some resistance to European integration, the average citizen has voluntarily disconnected from this process by focusing on day-to-day worries of healthcare, holidays and the tax-deductibility of interest paid on mortgages. It is quite disappointing to see and hear that very few are willing to step up to the plate and highlight that what is perceived to be benign may very well be one of the most dangerous constructs in the recent history of Europe. Dutch veteran Economics Minister Brinkhorst commented on this in one of the country’s leading opinion magazines. According to him it is the complacency of Dutch citizens that has led to an absence of any future ideals, and thus to a lack of enthusiasm for Europe. He is certainly right about the spoilt and complacent citizen, but I do question his translation of that into a lack of enthusiasm for Europe. Brinkhorst should have said that the complacency reveals a lack of ideals either way. It was Fortuyn who was able to pick up on and express the discontent over Europe yet after his unfortunate departure no one has been able to take his place and been able to engage the population over the issues that are part of the European integration process.

Next Steps
In the absence of a debate and given the rapidly deteriorating economy I hope the Dutch realize the importance of the issues in front of them and do not squander their history and free-market legacy by becoming part of a monolith that believes in top-down regulation and ongoing government intervention in the market place. There is a lot at stake and if it comes to a referendum Dutch opponents of a European super-state should campaign effectively by initiating and rolling-out a debate that will even get the most contented Dutch voter off his chair.

It strikes me that some are a little too eager to start using the word Watergate in connection with that other “W” word, WMD. Tonight former Nixon counsel John Dean pitched in by suggesting that the manipulation of intelligence could be construed as an impeachable act. This is a questionable statement as becomes clearer when you read the rest of the short interview with CNN where Dean admits that:

Do you base your policy on intelligence, or is your intelligence used selectively to support your policy when it's a predetermined decision? We had the impression -- after I lined up all those quotes of Mr. Bush -- that he was very clearly relying on intelligence to take us to war. Now, what I'm saying is we don't know the answers to these questions. We won't get the answers for a while, but we've at least started the process. And I'm telling you if you get to the end of the line and you find manipulation of intelligence, that's when you get into the very troublesome area.

The problem with Dean’s reasoning is that he is making the assumption that Bush could be impeached for selectively using or misusing intelligence gathered by the CIA and FBI. If a President is using information gathered for illegal purposes or asks the intelligence community to perform illegal actions that is the area where the nation’s chief executive could get in trouble. The latter was the case with Richard Nixon, as Dean would know. Bush has, as far as I am aware, not instructed the CIA to compose intelligence based on what Bush believed, nor has he used the intelligence services for any extra-legal activities. He has interpreted, as politicians normally do, information prepared for him by a number of government agencies. If Bush has misinterpreted or misread that information there is only one test he will have to face and that test will determine if he can stay in the White House yes or no. That test is not called impeachment, it is called the ballot box and it will be there in November next year. If Dean thinks there’s a problem with the way Bush has entered the war with Iraq he should cast his vote next year for Bush’s opponent and not use a powerful term like impeachment as lightly as he is doing now. Some media might pick it up, you know.

After an apparent mini cyber disaster, whatever that means, Amitai Etzioni's blog is back up and running.

As with Iran, I have neglected to write more about Indonesia, especially in relation to the attempts by the country’s political and military center to keep the archipelago unified at all cost. The Financial Times (subscribers only) reported last week that the Indonesian military was allowing militias to operate in Aceh, in very much the same way as it did in East-Timor. We know what atrocities took place in East-Timor and how many suffered and died at the hands of these uncontrolled thugs. No wonder the FT is on top of this story as one of their reporters, Sander Thoenes, was murdered by the Indonesian side during the violence in East-Timor back in 1999. Today the Indonesian military announced that it is banning all tourists from the Aceh area as well as restricting access of foreign journalists, most likely in an attempt to step up violent activity in the rebellious province and keep the eyes of the world at bay.

I do not normally link to Andrew two days in a row, but he has got a great initiative:

Here's my proposal. On July 9, as many blogs as possible focus on the struggle for freedom in Iran. It's the anniversary of the pro-democracy protests that have been going on for years. I'll devote the week after July 4 to this issue, culminating in July 9.

Peaktalk has been meaning to focus on Iran, but there just have been too many other developments worth covering. But, to make up for that: more Iran on this site leading up to July 9, and probably after that as well.

This is not really a new story, but during my trip I picked up a copy of Joods Journaal (Jewish Journal) a glossy Dutch magazine focusing on Jewish culture and current affairs in The Netherlands. In it I found a story about Ajax Amsterdam, the Dutch capital’s leading soccer team, its Jewish heritage and the way in which that heritage is increasingly abused and used by both the soccer club’s opponents and supporters.

For my North American audience, soccer is the number one sport in Europe (for Americans: compare it to baseball and for Canadians: think hockey) and Ajax is one of Europe’s and probably one of the world’s most renowned and successful soccer teams. The kind of soccer team that has transcended everything earthly and become a myth, like Manchester United, AC Milan or Real Madrid. It has also produced some of the world’s best soccer players (even non-soccer fans would now about Johan Cruyff), is known for its creative way of playing the game and its phenomenal history and tradition. As anywhere else in Europe, soccer in The Netherlands has been marred by violence and disturbances perpetrated by hardcore hooligans. Most Dutch clubs have in addition to their regular supporters their own group of hardcore fans, most of who are not exactly known for being well behaved or well mannered. Whenever a match takes place a huge police turnout is required to separate the supporters of the opposing sides, a battle between violent supporters of Ajax and Feyenoord (another major Dutch side), left one fan dead and many wounded only a few years ago. Hate has become a part of the clash of supporters and while a lot of it has a mildly condescending undertone (teams from the eastern part of the country are always qualified as “farmers”); Ajax and its supporters are the subject of anti-Semite rants, slogans and banners. I will spare you the details but the chants vented against the players and supporters from Amsterdam center around the Second World War, genocide and the current state of affairs in Israel.

You probably wonder why. The background to Ajax’ Jewishness is probably rooted in the fact that the club is from Amsterdam – called Mokum in Yiddish, meaning “city” or “place” – the home of the majority of Dutch Jews and the center of Jewish culture in The Netherlands. The club has had two high profile Jewish chairmen, Jaap van Praag who led the club to stardom in the 1960s and 1970s and his son Michael van Praag who performed a similar feat in the 1990s by returning the club to its past glory following a period of mediocre results during the 1980s. The name “van Praag” you probably noticed, translates into “From Prague” underlining the fact that Amsterdam was throughout the centuries a sanctuary for persecuted Jews from all over Europe. Anyway, in the days before TV-rights, IPOs and worldwide merchandising revenue, professional soccer clubs were to a large extent reliant on wealthy individuals and Ajax was often helped by Jewish businessmen such as Maup Caransa and Jaap Kroonenberg. And of course, some of its legendary stars were Jewish: Sjaak Swart and Bennie Muller who where part of the famous team in the 1960s and early 1970s to name a few. The perception therefore existed that Ajax was a Jewish club and although the club is not based on race or religion or anything like it, it so happened to be branded as a Jewish entity.

Many attempts have been made over the past few years to deal with the unpleasant phenomenon of anti-Semite expressions during soccer matches, notably by Michael van Praag as well as Dutch public prosecutors using anti-discrimination and anti-hate laws. It is however next to impossible to bring to justice a few thousand supporters in a stadium filled with fifty thousand people over a song about gas and Hamas. To the Van Praags it has always been devastating to enter their team’s stadium in Amsterdam (a city from which over 100,000 Jews were deported never to return home) and hear this vile and mean spirited rhetoric as they lost a significant number of family members during the Second World War. Jaap van Praag, who died in 1987, had to hideout for a number of years and barely survived this dark chapter in the world’s history. What was equally disturbing to them is the response of the hardcore Ajax supporters as they have taken on the Jewishness of the club as their very identity by calling themselves Jews, carrying Israeli flags and, to the ultimate horror of holocaust survivors, tattooing the Magen David on their arms or other body parts. The guys that do this are a small but very fanatical group, yet, they are an integral part of the Ajax culture so it has always been very hard for the club’s management to turn its back on these faithful supporters by excluding them from the club, its matches or other activities.

The net of this is that whenever Ajax plays you will see large Israeli flags and other Jewish symbols making the team incredibly popular in Israel where many appear to believe that the supporters of Ajax are well informed about the state of Israel, Zionism and the history of the Jews. Nothing could be further from the truth; very few of these soccer fans realize what they are doing or indeed have any knowledge about Israel and its history. As Michael van Praag would say, they are as Jewish as I am Chinese. So, a very distasteful part of what is otherwise a great Dutch soccer culture has become an integral part of Ajax’ existence as a soccer club and its image is now intertwined with Israel and Jewish traditions in an unintended way. To Israelis this may be a great thing but to Dutch Jews it is anything but. Here’s what former Ajax player Bennie Muller had to say about it:

"Sometimes when I'm sitting in the stadium and I hear those crazy people shouting 'We are super-Jews' and 'Jews are champions,' it's so bad that I just walk off and go home," he says. About 200 members of Muller's extended family died in the Holocaust and he vividly remembers the day his mother was taken away. "I had two brothers and two sisters. All of us children were crying. The German said, 'Oh, let's leave them,' but the Dutch Nazis said no. My mother had 11 brothers and sisters." His mother survived, but her relatives were killed. "Older people know what happened in the war. But these fans, they don't know. I wish they would stop, but they won't. I talk a lot with Israelis here. They all seem to like it. They laugh about it. But for the Jewish people in Amsterdam it's so disgusting, it's unbelievable," says Muller.

Muller’s sentiments are echoed here, no doubt about it. But in the days of Hamas, al-Qaeda, arm-twisting Sharon into a roadmap and, yes, Gretta Duisenberg I can imagine that many Israelis consider it to be encouraging to see a massive outpour of support for Israel in a Western European city even though it has been taken out of its context by those who express it. As discussed earlier here, the history of the relationship between Jews, Israel and The Netherlands is an interesting one with many great moments, but it is also one filled with instances of shame, sadness and deep regret. The way some Dutch treat the soccer team that hails from Mokum and the way in which some Mokummers respond is now a bizarre concoction of pro-Israel sentiments and anti-Semitism that is of benefit to no one.

Great piece by Andrew on the implications of the draft European Constitution, another building block in creating a centralized European nation state dominated by France and Germany. The article focuses on the way Paris and Berlin are able to dominate this process as well as the longer-term impact on US – Europe relations. All of this is reason for grave concern but in most European countries (the UK of course excluded) there is still is no real debate about ceding sovereignty to a higher entity in Brussels. On the one hand this is a direct result of the complacency of the average European citizen, but it is also closely linked to the arrogance and unwillingness of government leaders to invite citizens into this important process. It is asymmetrical as well, some countries have held referenda on the new currency, the Euro, while others haven’t and some are willing to call a plebiscite about the draft constitution as currently tabled while others aren’t. More on this on Peaktalk going forward as this process is one of historic proportions and will it undoubtedly lead to a revised power balance in the world. At the same time it is reason for apprehension as basic freedoms, democracy and sovereign destiny will slowly disappear. They will be replaced by a centralized, top-down, bureaucracy dominated by the two nations that are now trying to achieve peacefully what eluded them militarily: a European Empire.

Back to business as usual. My trip to The Netherlands has come to an end and I can return to regular blogging. Against all expectations, I feel rejuvenated. Even the flight back was great and it was good to find out that Canadian customs is focusing its attention on whether your children are indeed really yours and not abducted, rather than wasting time over what you have bought overseas.

It was a great trip. Apart from the family and holiday components it is always an interesting experience to spend time in my native country. I am never quite sure how I feel about it, it ranges from: “”what a great place, maybe we should buy something and spent more time here” to, “gee, have I changed, I could never fit into this place again”. Conflicting emotions thus. They do not stop me from drowning myself in Dutch things: food, news, shopping, cycling and relishing the flat countryside, sparkled with lakes and canals. But towards the end of the trip a feeling sets in that tells me: I am done, I need to go back to where I live and resume my life for it is not here anymore, no matter how much I enjoy it. In the next day I will post a few longer pieces on the country dealing with the challenges it faces as well as a curious story about anti-Semitism that has created a very unusual pro-Israel movement.

When I started to read blogs a few years ago I only visited a small number on a regular basis, a number that increased over time. When I launched Peaktalk in February, I all of a sudden started to visit a phenomenal amount of blogs on a daily basis, out of interest and curiosity. Now I am back to a more sizeable intake of bloggage, but I continue to find worthwhile and new writers that deserve some attention. I have not done that for a while so here we go: a new one is the The Yale Diva, as is the Antirealist, both are recommended. Around for a bit longer but new to me is Alisa in Wonderland who kindly linked to me last week, go have a look.

At the same time I need to mention Bjorn Staerk for all the referrals from his excellent blog, he has linked to me on an ongoing basis and I am truly thankful for that. For those of you not familiar with his blog, I really suggest you go and pay him a visit.

Exit polls show that the Czechs, following the Poles last week, are giving a clear approval to European Union (EU) membership. This is not a surprise; it is the final touch of a process that started in 1989 when the Soviet-backed communist regime in Prague collapsed. The Czechs want, like the Slovenes, Hungarians, Slovakians, Lithuanians and Poles who voted yes earlier, to become part of Europe for both political and economic reasons. This is understandable, but what concerns me is that these nations, like their mature Western European counterparts, have given little thought to the longer terms implications of ceding sovereignty to a centralized European bureaucracy. It could be argued that Western Europe has already undertaken a journey that has led them to accepting a merger of sorts with other nations, but the new democracies of Eastern Europe have hardly been able to establish their own renewed identities after shaking off the communist oppressor. They have consequently less wealth and less muscle, so it will be infinitely more difficult for them to ascertain their position and independence in the EU. The British, the Dutch and the Spaniards are able to make their voices heard, but I fear for the Czech leader who has to stand firm against vested French and German interests.

I saw a few interesting pieces on TV leading up to the referendum and was hoping that the Czechs would be a little more critical of the European venture and some experts believed that they would. One commentator compared the process to a wedding, you are led to the altar and a “yes” is almost certain, the referendum is just a formality that the country has to go through. So if this analogy is correct than the question is: what if the marriage fails? What are the terms of divorce? That question is not only relevant for the Czech Republic, it is relevant for all European countries who join this complicated venture, and this is also why the British are so careful: there does not appear to be any flexibility once you’re in, and it is doubtful if there’s a way out. If there is the terms of the divorce will only be defined at that point in the future and not now, just like any other wedding.

Here’s an uncomfortable coincidence. Remember the guy that attacked former Compaq executive Roel Pieper a few weeks back, ranting against “the rich” and seriously injuring Pieper ‘s wife? It turns out he’s a vegan. So was Fortuyn’s killer. I also remember there was a case in New York not too long ago where a vegan couple was sentenced to fairly long prison terms as they killed their baby by subjecting it to a vegan diet. I am not intent on demonizing vegans as there may completely respectable and sane individuals in this group, but it occurs to me that veganism is often practiced by those who have a radical position on the environment and very often tend to value animal life over that of humans. That action-oriented substream of vegans has apparently produced a few truly scary characters, and, a number of innocent victims.

I predicted this would happen, but I am still surprised at the speed at which it occurred. Within a few weeks the plan was accepted by Israel, boosted by Bush, and now it is in tatters and many innocents have died. What has happened underlines the basic facts of the situation: Sharon will not be arm twisted into a deal with people who he knows are out to destroy the nation he represents and Abbas is and remains unwilling to restrain Hamas, al-Aqsa and similar groups. This is not even close to an asymmetrical arrangement, there’s no arrangement at all, there’s war, hate and destruction and what is worse: there is no end in sight. We will have to see how the Bush administration is going to deal with this, but more importantly there are number of short and long term implications of the failed neg