02 November 2006

Getting colder...


Finally it's the kind of weather in which whenever you breathe out little clouds of white appear.
It's my favourite kind of weather...something about the dry air makes it all the more refreshing.

After two days of stormy weather, the streets are full of colourful fallen leaves and broken twigs. And today it's what we call here 'wisselvallig' [variable, everchanging] weather. It looks sunny, but look further there are dense grey clouds looming. The sky may be blue one moment, the next it'll be completely clouded over. Rain comes and goes like a random flow of people at the station. And it leaves me sitting in the big empty library shivering.

There are moments of utter stillness, to be interupted suddenly by bombardments of hard drops of rain and hail. The fact that a large part of the roof of law faculty is made out of transparent glass makes it especially enjoyable to look at. Little streams of water, droplets of dew, splashes of rain are a nice are a relaxing change from hard realities of international law on the use of force.

Almost one week has gone by after the mid-term break. The usual routine of classes and studying started again. I had a confidence boost today when I heard that I actually got a 9 (out of 10) for my mid-term exam. Really wasn't expecting it, since when I wrote that exam I really felt I had to 'bluff' my way through. I sort of wrote about anything and everything I know about a given topic, and far exceeded the recommended 100 word we should have used to answer each question. Well, I'm happy.

Besides that, I'm still volunteering one day a week at the moot court organising office. That's really getting busier now, since we're trying to get universities to enter into the competition. And that's just half the work...there's also the problem of trying to get sponsors, finding locations for dinners and a party, finding a caterer, booking hotel rooms for around 200 people. Good that we've got four people sharing the burden. Once the teams have been finalised, and as we get closer to the big event in April, it'll get easier busier...

On the whole, I'm not sure what I'm feeling at the moment... but life has sort of entered into this routine of study and work, work and study and the weeks seem to be passing by so quickly, while at the same time.... so emptily as well. I guess I'm feeling a little lonely again, you know, after a few weeks of the initial excitement of making new friends and socialising, you realise there's only so much you can talk about and only so deep you can go with people.

And when the weather gets colder, you want to get closer.

31 October 2006

Increasing intolerance


Hm… worrying trend of increasing intolerance in the Netherlands toward homosexuals reported in the paper today.

In recent weeks there have been repeated incidents of assaults targeted at homosexuals in the country. In one province, a couple of years ago there were only a dozen incidents of homophobia related crimes, now there are a hundred. Especially in and around the big cities, ironically, there have been increasing instances of verbal abuse, and at other times spitting, to the extent that couples don’t dare to walk hand in hand on the streets. Activists say the problem is related to ‘sham tolerance’: “In principle people have no problem with homosexuality, as long as they don’t see anything of it.” At schools, there’s been a noticeable increase in the use of ‘gay’ as a swear word. Teachers report having to tell gay pupils and colleagues to hide their identities for personal protection.

Now that elections are coming up (Nov 22), some parties have taken put in extra effort to raise awareness about homosexual emancipation. The ho-le-bi (homosexual, lesbian and bisexual) organisation COC produced Gayvotea website which informs voters which party does more for the gay population in general.

As predictable, the Christian parties, despite their claims to uphold virtues and values and championing social decency and unity, do not offer much. Let’s not forget the incumbent prime minister (proudly) admitted that he voted against the act legalising homosexual marriage.

The Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid) seems to be more active in this area, and wants to introduce harsher punishments for homopobia- related crimes, and wants to work toward the recognition of registered partnership through the European Union. Also GroenLinks (GreenLeft), which has done a lot in the past for the emancipation of homosexuals, started a campaign entitled “Hands off our gays” [Poten af van onze homo’s”.] The party actually has an English language site worth looking at, and a summary of its activities in the past year (also in English). Did you know:

“The word cruising originates from the Dutch language (‘cruisen’), was exported into American/ English, and re-imported into Dutch.”

The GreenLeft party also produced this revolutionary proposal to abolish the male/female demarcation [in the public sphere]:

“Gender registration is considered to be a proper way to recognise a person. […]The systematic gender registration that we have in our societies only shows that gender is still a basis for discrimination.”

Another gay-interest webpage produced a list of all gays/lesbians who are candidates in the parliamentarian election.

Clingendael


Some nice pictures of Clingendael~
Just love the beautiful mixture of colours that autumn brings...
Click on the links below to access my travelog! : ) Enjoy!