Natuurlijk kun je niet tegelijk commissaris zijn van een beursgenoteerd bedrijf en columnist bij de Telegraaf. Die column gaat namelijk over de core business van Ajax, voetbal. Niet interessant of het direct of indirect over de tactiek, strategie of trainer van Ajax gaat. een columnist kan niet beloven dat hij bepaalde 'spelers' zal ontzien want dan is hij ongeloofwaardig. Gaat Cruijff schrijven (en zijn mond voorbij praten) combineren met zijn nieuwe baan, dan is hij ongeloofwaardig als commissaris. Bij de eerste de beste gelegenheid om solidariteit te tonen binnen de...

A 32 year old man executes more than 90 young people on an island in Norway. He says he isn't sorry. It was something he just had to do. After all, these youngsters had socialist sympathies and a heart for immigrants. The world, according to this cool killer, needs a shock. It needs to wake up. Enough tolerance! Enough empathy for the left, Muslims and all the other trash that invades pure Scandinavia and Europe in general. The man is convinced that we need a revolution to stop all the above. He...

Saving Greece has nothing to do with economical discipline within the euro zone, despite what bankers, politicians and analysts pretend. Nor is the consequence of  a gentleman's agreement made years ago to ignore the numbers give by Athens and to just say yes to the strategic importance of Greece as a military and political ally. Yes, we all knew the economical basics were lies. And yet we also knew that whatever it would take, a Europe without Greece is no Europe. Italy also knows: a Europe without Rome is unthinkable. But a...

Rupert Murdoch, you are or were the owner of 200 papers, amongst which the now defunct NOTW; you are the employer of 55.000 people who work for one of your businesses; you have handpicked managers like Mrs. Brooks; you know what your readers want (sensation, gossip, well packed insinuations, scoops) and that made you a rich man. Now you are just saying that you are sorry about what happened to all the victims of the hackers inside your papers? Your excuse is that you couldn't possibly know. Who cares if...

It took three years of patient waiting, but last Sunday we finally sat down at the table of El Bulli. We shook hands with Ferran Adria, the legendary master of new tastes, of decomposition and minimalism, who hugged us unexpectedly in warm gratefulness. We visited the cool and extremely neat kitchen, almost a laboratory, filled with plastic boxes, knives, machines of unknown beauty and above all, cleaner than an operation room. We watched the brigades work like disciplined robots, admired the view on the public beach (where life...

The Summit of the African Union in Malabo showed two clear points of view that must have disturbed diplomats in Europe and the US. One was the way the Western led intervention in Libya and Ivory Coast was analyzed as nothing more or less than neo colonialism under the not so clever leadership of France. The UN troops were accused of being a cover for French policy in Sub Saharan Africa.  And second, the way the International Criminal Court of Justice in The Hague was accused of hunting down...

Was er de laatste jaren iets treurigers op de televisie te zien dan het gezicht van Charlene Wittstock?  Twee uur lang keek ze gedwee maar vooral uitgespeeld om zich heen. Ze had nog geprobeerd te vluchten, maar, net als DSK, werd zij op het laatste moment uit het vliegtuig geplukt. Niet omdat zij Albert II van Monaco tegen diens zin had aangerand (dat lijkt geen enkele optie), maar omdat zij Monaco geen gezichtsverlies mocht bezorgen. Albert is al dik in de veertig en heeft ernstig behoefte aan een...

Belgium proves that most governments are useless anyway. For more than a year the Belgian people have worked, learned, moved and enjoyed life without having an official government. Nothing changed (as usual in Belgium) and there was no panic. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a spokesman who tells the (huge) rest of the world that Belgium has no opinion. There are no Belgianm troops involved in any international operation, so the Ministry of Defense can be as silent as ever. All other Ministries are sleeping and actually doing...

In ten days from now a new state will be born: South Sudan. Instead of preparing for a huge party, troops of southern and northern Sudan are fighting each other along the new border to be. It is not only about Christians against Muslims. It is about power sharing in the near future. Who is going to have influence in the middle of this huge country? Who will control the oil reserves? Because, yes, it is about oil, as usual. But above all, it is about racism: black (Nubians) against brown (Arabs)....

Time Magazine chose to put the portait of Osama bin Laden on its cover of the May20th issue. His face has been crossed. No doubt about it: Time is relieved, like most of us. But is it the right signal? Of course, for the US, capturing the murderer of thousands of innocent people is more than a victory. It is justice at long last. But must an American magazine be radical to the point of rubbing things in? I try to place myself in the head of a moderate...