In my last blog I wrote about the question whether our societies still enjoy the right balance between security and privacy: how much state intruding do we need to be secure? Or, in other words: should we accept the growing interference in our private lives via modern technology? Are we supposed to live being spied on, day and night? The state uses our real and latent angst to control all our moves and monitor all our habits. In order to protect us from evil or diseases, from...

Volgens Freedom House, een mensenrechtenorganisatie in Washington, is de wereld stteds 'vrijer' aan het worden. Vrij in de zin van vrije meningsuiting, vrije beweging, vrije verkiezingen enz. Was in 1989 nog maar 41% van de wereld zo 'vrij', in 2012 is dat volgens een recent onderzoek 60%. Van de wereldbevolking van zo'n 7 miljard mensen leven er 3 miljard in vrijheid (43% vergeleken met 25% vijfentwintig jaar geleden). Terwijl onderdrukte samenlevingen zich steeds vaker weten los te worstelen, zouden wij in het Westen juist steeds bevreesder moeten zijn...

Dat was toch echt fenomenaal: Rowan Atkinson in het orkest bij de opening van de Spelen. Dat is nou Britse humor op z'n best. Totaal lak hebben aan conventies en een niesende, treiterende Mr. Bean de ruimte geven voor zelfspot en jongensdromen (wat liep hij mooi voorop op dat filmstrand!). Ook uniek was de James Bond act met de Queen, de wentelende hondjes, de helikopter, het parachute springen. Elisabeth II lacht zelden, maar ze heeft zeer zeker humor, net als haar man Philip trouwens. Stel wij krijgen in...

With a dull title and sometimes an over esoteric content, the British magazine is one of the few printed media to be in good health, especially in the United States. In 2010 The Economist sold 1,42 million copies each week, out of which 820.000 in the US alone. According to The New York Times, it is all about marketing: the elegance of the sober logo, good and daring (and funny) covers, an Oxbridge tone of voice (appealing to American snobs) and a fairly high price contribute to the...

When ancient generations in Alpine villages had to find names for the mountains surrounding them, they either used geomorphical characteristics (rivers, rock formations, strange forms, lakes etc.) or more romantic features (sun, moon, flowers, stars, paradise, heaven etc.). Newly created ski resorts like Les Arcs, Tignes (France) or Beaver Creek (Colorado) use more modern names to underline how young they are. But what to think of names like Diavolezza (devil's mountain, near Pontresina, Switserland), Mont Pourri (Haute Savoie) or Mont Maudit (near the Mont Blanc, French side)? Did...

You can cycle or you can use a mountain bike. These are two different worlds. Cycling on a road or cycling on a path with rocks, holes, roots, prickly bushes and twigs hitting your face. When you just cycle, chances are that you come home in the same state you left it. But after a tour on a mountainous track you are guaranteed to have bruises, cuts and at least one sore wrist. I have just spent some time on French tracks between Tignes, Les Arcs and Bourg...

Het kon niet uitblijven: er is een boek* verschenen over het intieme leven van de heer en mevrouw Strauss-Kahn. Het verslag van het leven van een glamour paar, dat jarenlang de voorpagina's van roddelbladen haalde en dat de jaloezie van menig socialistische politicus wist op te wekken. Een duo met veel geld, veel vrienden en veel vijanden. De eerste socialisten die zich niet schaamden om Renoirs aan de muur te hangen, huizen in Zuid Frankrijk en Marrakech te bezitten en eerste klas te vliegen naar suites in New...

Imagine: a big carpet, attached to the ground by four ropes. A kind of flagship, where designers and producers share thoughts and dreams. (we see a big carpet attached in the sand)The place where new ideas are combined to create new products, unexpected alliances and surprising generosity (we see a carpet, attached, full of busy people) The place where different worlds can exchange knowledge. An international co-creation. There is no direct hierarchy, no boss, no single owner, it is about we and us…(we see strangers hugging)...

All those young Israeli who serve in the army must have been irritated for a long time: their orthodox friends had the privilege not to wear a uniform. While the regular Israeli have to endure years of training, running, sweating and shooting, the privileged ones were able to stay home and pray for their country instead of guarding the boarders. Now a new law forces them to take off their orthodox clothes and spend time under the arms. I cannot imagine one of them becoming a member of...

The Geneva conference on Syria has finished in a compromise that is unacceptable. It leaves it to the Syrians to solve their internal problems. What? It asks the parties -the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition- to negotiate about a new government. Not excluding Mr. Assad himself, thanks to the insistence of Russia. What do the creative politicians gathered in Geneva had in mind? A little party with murderers and torturers on one side of the floor and the freedom fighters on the other waiting to be invited...