RE: Rammstein

Rein
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RAUS
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Rein
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RAUS
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Saw them twice now – at the Pinkpop festival, and last sunday at the Gelredome in Arnhem. (For those knowing a bit about Market Garden: yes, our car got stuck in a trafficjam near Elst but we made it on time). Their performance is truely wonderful! Just think of all the most bombastical kitsch you could use to have an over-the-top concert and it’s there! Flamethrowers, fireworks, burning guitarplayers and singers (…ein Mensch brennt…), dildos… All so absolutely tasteless it’s great. Absolutely hilarious, and very liberating to sing along. Too bad i couldn’t take my East German flag to the Arnheim concert, but this way i had a better way to watch the show (the first time i saw Rammstein, i was way too busy waving my flag while drinking and dancing – don’t ask me how i did that)…

Rammstein
Ein Mensch brennt
Rammstein
Fleischgeruch liegt in der Luft
Rammstein
ein Kind stirbt
Rammstein
die Sonne scheint
}>

Regards,

Arthur

RE: Digital camaras

Having done some digital camera work here at my job (covering news stuff for my newspaper’s website is part of it) with a basic 3.3MPix Sony DSC-1P camera, i think i can suggest you NOT to go for a Sony. The sturdiness of the cameras is poor as quite a few of the cameras we had at our disposal started to suffer from malfunctions within 6 months. This would be OK, but the customer support from Sony is not the way you’d like it. You would even have to look really hard to download their support software if you’d need it for some reason (something Canon has absolutely no problem with, for example). Also, the price of Sony’s memorystick is high compared to other systems. A 128MB Memorystick goes for some 150 Euros over here (only a matter of days before the euro passes the dollar – 99.3 dollarcents }>).

In general, i think you can best ignore the digital zoom function such cameras offer, and take much more note of the optical zoom. Unless the weather is very clear, such digital zooms suck away all light at an alarming rate which very quickly ruins your pictures in both colour and resolution. Also, for action shots you’ll need a more expensive camera with a decent lense for abovementioned reasons but also because of the autofocus – a basic camera is already slow in focusing, but the small size makes them almost impossible to hold steady especially when photographing moving objects.

Nevertheless, such cameras are fun to work with. Making MPEGs is great!

Regards,

Arthur

Nope…

When i was checked by the recruiting office, the medic complimented me with an outstanding right eye. Unfortunately, my other eye is lazy which means my brain basically ignores the information it gets from my left eye. Which is one of the reasons i’ve done most of my planespotting with a monoculair…

At the time i didn’t want to serve anyway. I am not the kind of character you want to pump discipline in – actually, in the half hour or so i was at the recruting office i managed to piss of one of the Sgt’s really bad. All the poor guy wanted to do was keep some order…

In the end, i regret not having served. This is because i wasted almost two years in between two studies being a garbageman. I wish i had wasted at least some of this time in far more interesting place wearing the Dutch uniform (i have a few friends who had a great time serving in Yugoslavia. They make it sound like the kind of anarchy i thrive in), but this is not because i am so military-minded. Although i am highly interested in war in a historical, technical (preferably aviation of course), political, sociological, geological, economical and whateverical sense, i consider myself something of a pragmatical pacifist (whatever that means).

And while i do respect servicemen all over the world, i cannot say the same for a whole bunch of military services as organisations. No, i don’t have a very high esteem of the Dutch military.

Regards,

Arthur

ps Ha! My granddad was at the Grebbeberg as well!

RE: your favourite cities

The ones i really liked:

Prague
Moscow
Istanbul
Barcelona
Tanger (loved the atmosphere there, even though i detest the hagglers)
London
Beijing (especially the attempt-to-teach-that-big-blond-guy-some-Mandarin)

Cities i did NOT like include…
Tallinn
Bucharest (no matter how much fun Romanians can be, that city is depressing!)
Belgrade (was there weeks after the Dayton treaty. Felt very uncanny).

There are plenty more i didn’t like, but i don’t this thread should evolve into the bashing of cities and towns like Craiova, Daugavpils, Kosice, Rtishchevo, Heythuysen or Gorlitz.

Regards,

Arthur

Am i all that fine? Oh, thanks guys!

…the only thing i can add to PII’s remark is, that appearantly the explanations of the Bush government on it’s foreign actions are indeed satisfactory to this certain American individual.

What i said, Phantom, is not that we Europeans are NOT hypocritical nor ethically sound when it comes to foreign politics, but we DO try to explain it with a realistic story which is not only satisfactory to your average gullible uninformed all-i-care-about-is-that-my-tax-money-is-spent-on-fighting-on-foreign-soil-in-stead-of-education-and-healthcare voter.

The US has it’s interests abroad, and has the same right to act according to this interests as the Europeans, Israelis, Indians, Chinese, Iranians and North Koreans. But justifying every single act as something done for the good of democracy and the free world when anyone looking further than the White House’s press statement can see it’s only done for economical or geostrategical reasons is bullshit.

Basically, if Qusai Bush tells you that American troops are in Saudi Arabia to defend human rights and democracy, you are being lied to. It’s up to you if you want to accept that, how convenient and simple such a message is if you don’t really want to bother with what’s happening to the world outside your window.

If my country works on trade deals with the PRC or Iran, i am being told it is for economical reasons. For our conscience we do pretend to talk a bit about human rights, but at least we admit we are working in our OWN interest.

And Seahawk – you’re completely right when you say that Europeans in general have a tendency to take the side with what is percieved as the underdog. It’s pretty much historical: for centuries European countries have worked on the international arena according to the balance of power-theory. In this, unless a compromise can be reached, one should side with the weakest party to prevent the stronger party from becoming all-powerful. That’s why France and the Netherlands for example supported American independence in the 1770s.

Although it hasn’t worked since WW1, it has formed the base for Europe’s general tendency to work towards a concensus (yes, appeasement is part of this) and the general European attitude on conflicts (to side with the underdog) as described by Seahawk. As far as i can tell, America has in no way such a tradition as the country was built on being a dominant party.

This will of course all change when i get to be world ruler, of course.

Regards,

Arthur

RE: You’ve mistaken Arthur….

Hmmm… would it be possible to abstract this discussion into a Realpolitik versus Idealpolitik-discussion? If we know which side to pick of course.

Regards,

Arthur

RE: You’ve mistaken Arthur….

In no way i wanted to give the impression that i consider European standards to be in any way superior above American ones, or vice versa. What i failed to explain was that the only thing i consider US foreign policy to fail in is public relations, nothing else. The point is that the explanations the US administration gives to it’s own people is generally not seen as satisfactory by second or third parties. It’s a logical problem though, as superficially the only party of real concern to any US government is it’s own people (e.g. the voters). Yet, with the US’ large role on the international arena, some effort IMHO should be made to explain US actions abroad as well, in a more satisfying manner. Some parties just won’t buy it when Bush starts calling certain countries undemocratic totalitarian states, yet actively supports another country which is at least in non-US perception equally undemocratic and totalitarian.

But if you ask me if US behaviour in international affairs is any worse than European behaviour in international affars – no, IMHO it is not. Countries like France and Britain have a nice tradition of mingling in other country’s affairs, with much less openness as the US. Even less satisfactory in explaining their actions. Yet on the other hand European explanations on foreign politics don’t use simplistic terms like ‘good versus evil’ – it is a concept which just isn’t taken seriously on this side of the Atlantic. Perhaps we are too cynical and -yes- bitter for such explanations.

Yet what you seem to forget is that Europe isn’t as passive in international politics as is often thought. Operation Alba, which ended the bigger part of the anarchy engulfing Albania in 1997 was led by the Italians. Lybian incursions into Chad were fought off by the French in the late 1980s. The Europeans were the strongest advocates of the boycot against South Africa in the Apartheid days – just some examples i can think of right now, there are definately more. It’s not just the US which does such things, but Europe is generally a lot more quiet about it.

I don’t consider the Europeans any better than the Americans – just look at the Belgians in Rwanda or Italians in Somalia. What i do like is that European countries or the EU don’t boast continuously about being the the good guys, fighting off evil and saving democracy.

Regards,

Arthur

RE: exactly…

Human rights don’t go together with a totalitarian regime. Absolutely agree. In that case, do explain US support for the totalitarian regime in Saudi Arabia. And explain why ‘bringing back democracy to Kuwait’ ment nothing else but putting the old totalitarian oligarchs back to the Kuwaiti throne.

I can go on and on like this. In most cases you are completely right if you critisize European foreign politics, no matter if i agree or not. Yet somehow, you seem unable to look at US foreign politics with the same critical view and swallow whatever your government feeds you without hesitation. If you could explain me why (and how!) you can do that…

Regards,

Arthur