So sorry folks, wherever you are, but the way the Dutch are celebrating their tour in the World Soccer Cup is just one big scandal. I am not saying you can't celebrate when you finish second of the world. Quite an accomplishment for a country of 16 million inhabitants. What I am saying is that the Orange team destroyed a carefully built up image of intelligent and technical soccer play within half an hour or so, during the final in Jo' burg. What a destructive way of playing! Was that...

Washington DC is in  many ways a copy of ancient Rome: the power buildings, the impressive boulevards, the money, the symbolism. Yes, this is the global centre of the mighty. This is where Big Ideas and Big Wars are being planned. You can almost smell the adrenaline when you walk on Capitol Hill. Funny, but in front of the White House this smell disappears. A friendly, rather small complex, with lawns and rose gardens and a black president who smiles his way through time. Nothing threatening from there. Back...

The world fair in Shanghai will force all of us to admire China's ability to plan and organize huge events at absurd costs. After the Olympic Games, this is what it wants to prove again: China can do everything better, faster and smarter. Don't doubt: what is still Made in China today, will be From China With Love tomorrow. And Love stands for "you depend on us, we own your economies, we dictate the rules, we set the pace...

I know, you probably don’t know Nuuk and I promise I am not here out of my free will! Nuuk is the capital of Greenland (a little further towards the Arctic than Iceland, where all the ash comes from), a little hole with maybe 15.000 citizens whose only ambition is to go fishing on a boat during the weekends. I am supposed to fly to Kangalussuaq, another Inuit name, where a former American air base can handle the only Airbus Greenland Air owns. This plane flies once a...

Prinses Maxima mocht vorige week het startsein geven voor de campagne “Zonder cash ben je nergens”, die jongeren moet aanzetten bewuster om te gaan met geld. Het mannetje Cash moet hen wijze raad geven. Hij zegt niet dat je op je geld moet gaan zitten, maar wel dat je moet leren uitkomen met het geld dat je hebt en dat je meer uit je euro haalt als je er slimmer mee om gaat. Wat een mooi initiatief! Ik ben het helemaal eens met het standpunt dat je niet...

A few weeks ago I was wondering why more than 2,5 billion inhabitants of our global village still had to cope without anything resembling a toilet. Approximately 10 billion pees and poos going into bushes, street corners, garbage heaps and rivers every day. No wonder our earth is a smelly and fly ridden place. I wondered why no one could invent a cheap and hygienic toilet for the poor masses from China to Africa. A Swedish entrepreneur, Anders Wilhelmson, obviously heard my cry and recently presented his Peepoo, a biodegradable plastic...

Malabo? Malabo! The capital of  Equatorial Guinea...

My friend Emma wants to become a medical doctor but she has other hobbys: changing the world for one. Making it a better place for next generations is actually an obsession for Emma. She is focussing on the drops, not the ocean, which means she is not focussing on the obstacles but on the solutions. The fresh wind we need in a cynical and passive (Western) society when it comes to personal contribution to a cleaner world for example. Why should I fly less if nobody else does? Why...

How often don't we hear that people don't care? We live in a material world, watching our own belly, living for the clan and the short term, not in the least interested in the sorrow of others. Nonsense! The world has reacted as one solidary team when Haiti fell to pieces. And only yesterday I attended a lecture about the history (and future) of Iran where 500 guests hardly found a seat. Not interested? On the contrary, the suffering of others does inspire  many of us to react. It is...

A fragile state is a country that has no reliable structures (law or at least human rights protection, official political parties, controlling organisms, decent accountancy) and therefore could collapse at any moment. Fragile and arbitrary are close allies as we can see in Somalia or Afghanistan. There are about forty such states, where the so called leaders seem to live from day to day by rule of fear. The lack of structure facilitates the work of reckless rulers who are only interested in their own prosperity and future....