i ASK FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THE Call for Solidarity with Macedonia’s Protesters Macedonia is currently in the spotlight of media attention. Last weekend (9-10th May) over 20 people, including police officers, were killed in violent clashes in Kumanovo, a city 20 km to the north of the capital Skopje. We, the citizens, activists, and scholars who initiated this call, join the national mourning and express heartfelt condolences for the deceased and injured officers, their families and loved ones, and stand in solidarity with all citizens of...

Ook als je geen Frans leest, beeld spreekt internationale taal. Ook als je niet van botte bijlen houdt, abonneren bewijst je solidariteit. Ook als je alleen een computer gebruikt, de pen blijft scherper dan de AK47. Ook als je niet kunt tekenen heeft het maken van cartoons zin. The Guardian geeft 100.000 pond aan Charlie Hebdo zodat het blad volgende week inderdaad (in een oplage van 1 miljoen) kan verschijnen. Google geeft 3 ton. Wie volgt in Nederland? Het zou De Telegraaf in elk geval veel nieuwe abonnees opleveren. Op de zeven miljard...

Wij zijn Charlie Hebdo. Natuurlijk zijn wij Charlie Hebdo, heel de wereld is Charlie Hebdo. Overal is het stil. Er valt niets te zeggen. Niet dat de aanslag de islam schaadt, niet dat het blad nooit mag opgeven, niet dat wij allemaal vrijwilligers zijn om te tekenen, te schrijven, te verzinnen als Charlie Hebdo maar blijft bestaan. Er valt niets te zeggen over de koelbloedigheid van fundamentalisten, over hun gebrek aan liefde en compassie, over de misvattingen die geloof met zich mee brengt. Er valt niets te zeggen...

If you want to think like Socrates, think about asking the right questions. It will change your mood, your view on the world and probably even your life. Catalan chef Ferran Adrià for instance asked his staff the simple looking question: what is wine? After a few minutes someone suggested, a drink? But Adrià wasn't satisfied. What if I make ice cream out of wine, or a sauce, or a candy bar, what is it then? Is 'multifunctional ingredient' the right answer? We take for granted that we know...

While cities all over the world are growing in a tremendous speed, leaving the countryside emptier than ever before in history, we cannot afford to forget the villages. Some say that only mega cities will survive in the future because medium sized cities like Amsterdam and Stockholm are too expensive to run. It is either huge or nothing. Let the urbanists focus on this problem. I suggest that the rest of us worry about a simple yet fundamental question: how will we, urban dwellers, be fed if the...

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan loves women, but he doesn't consider them equal to men. The main reason is that they get pregnant and that pregnancy is 'an obstacle to equal opportunity in the workplace.' Mr. Erdogan said this during a conference on justice and rights for women in Istanbul, last Monday. I imagine him walking through his brand new presidential palace with its 1000 rooms (yes, 1000!) and dreaming of the harem this place could become. A thousand women, all pregnant, all unequal or at least unable...

Blaise Compaoré is not family of mine, but in Burkina Faso most people who looked at my passport thought so. They believed I was a cousin of the president and that helped me find a seat in an overbooked airplane or get the best table near the window in one of the French restaurants in Burkina's capital Ouagadougou. Those days are gone. Blaise Compaoré had been kicked out of office by angry mobs, was forced into exile and now lives in Ivory Coast. Some general or other is...

We zeggen het met z'n allen steeds weer: de twee 'Turkse' Kamerleden van de PvdA. Ja, Turkse namen, maar hier geboren, dus Nederlanders, Kamerleden van alle Nederlanders. En ja, zij nemen het op voor degenen die zich niet geïntegreerd voelen, of is het wensen? Zij zijn het niet eens met de strategie van hun partij en krijgen als antwoord dat het buigen is of breken. Of zij even een loyaliteitsverklaring willen tekenen. Zo niet, gaan ze eruit. En verdomd het gebeurt: twee trouwe leden van de PvdA fractie...

The Dutch soccer team played against Mexico yesterday. In front of the stadium demonstrators tried to attract attention for the murder of 43 students in Mexico. They had been kidnapped by the police and turned over to gangsters who killed them in cold blood. Striped naked they were found in a mass grave. The responsible politicians will be tried, the gangsters probably will not. Gangsters in Mexico have taken over half of the state. They disrupt the country and are creating enough chaos for a nation to collapse....

When Croatia became a member of the EU, the Croatians living in Bosnia Herzegovina or elsewhere in former Yugoslavia received a passport enabling them to travel freely within the Union. Overnight, they became first class citizens compared to their second class neighbors with whom they had huge differences anyway. Political and religious tensions were aggravated by new economic discrimination. Not only do Bosnians have to wait in line for a visa to visit Dubrovnik, they may be refused entrance to the beach resort they could drive to in...