Crossing Border

Just got back from the amazing Crossing Border music festival here in The Hague. Ear drums still humming, but boy did I have a great time dancing and moving to the beat!

It's an annual three day event of arts, culture, music and performances by up-and-coming, and some pretty wellknown, artists around the world. And some friends and I decided today's programme was best, and after the evening was over we weren't disappointed at all.


Kicked off with some moody and touching blues from Bettye LaVette. Her voice and the songs were so chillingly moving, some parts felt like she was speaking to me, talking to me like a mother comforting a child, and moved me to tears. Folllowed by this Norwegian duo called Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, with a voice that was simply heavenly, especially when she sang 'Jolene'. Then, ended with this fusion of 'gangsta rap', folk song, soul, pop, funk and reggae, hip-hop and blues by Arrested Development. Amid the jumping up and down, the wringling of my body to the music, I couldn't but break out in laughter at the presence of an seventy-something year old 'papa' getting 'jigging' with it on stage with the performers.

What a night~

Seeds of intolerance

Just been told about this wonderful contest initiated by the SpreadTolerance campaign. It's short video-documentaries about an issue of intolerance and discrimination, and people can vote online for their favourite, the winner(s) receive a prize and get to support their charity of their choice.

Specifically "We Belong" and "Blood Brothers" have a gay-related theme, and both deal with the horrible kinds of discrimination and attacks

Really worth taking a look, if not to learn about some of the terrible things that fellow human beings go through, then at least to learn how a little change of attitude can go so far.

From the campaign site: Ten ways to "unlearn intolerance"

1. Be an Upstander: Speak up when you see or hear injustice.
2. Check Yourself: Where might you have intolerance? Take a test out of Harvard to see.
3. Put someone else in your own shoes: How might a person see the world differently if they lived life in your shoes.
4. Visit a house of worship other than your own.
5. Celebrate other people’s traditions.
6. Take a walk in a different neighborhood other than your own.
7. See a film with subtitles, listen to music and see art from other cultures.
8. Listen to others: Try to drop your assumption and listen to the person in the moment.
9. Educate yourself, your children or kids in your life about how to accept difference.
10. Travel to and/or learn about different cities, states and countries.

"I wish I could be gay"

I've never met anyone who wished he was gay. Until last night, at 3am, lying next to him on the floor of a girl whose room we were crashing at for the night. Perhaps it was the alcohol talking...

It had been a long night, of studying, football watching at a pub, drinking, pizza-eating at close to 11, pool-playing and more drinking. When we got to our home for the night we were pretty much tipsy, but somehow strangely energetic, and probably not at all worried we had class in the morning.

So the three of us lay down, music in the background, and chatted and chatted, about mundane randomness, lawyery nerdiness and exchanged laughs and chuckles under the clear night sky. One thing led to another, and I somehow brought up the discussion we had about sodomy in class the week earlier. And of course the issue of homosexuality eventually got roped in. The girl mentioned how her country is now measuring the economy in terms of 'pink money' as well. "Pink money", we, the two unsuspecting guys on the floors asked. Yeah, apparently gays spend and contribute significant amounts of money to the economy, because (cliche, cliche) they're more modern, fashion and health conscious, know how to live well and in style...etc etc, so they're really a big group of consumers nowadays.

Then came the comment.

"I wish I could be gay."
"What?" I had my eyes closed, and immediately they opened. Of course I heard him the first time.
"Yeah, I wish I could be gay. It's so cool being gay."
"Well, some say being gay is the trend nowadays," I said suggestively, chuckling.
"Yeah, I know, but I'm just not."
"Hm, how do you know? Have you tried before?"I proded more.
"No, but I'm just not. I just can't get myeslf to be gay."
"Well, maybe it's just a phase, and it'll pass soon," I joked.

The conversation sort of went on from there. I asked whether he had any gay experiences, which he didn't. And I asked why, he just said he liked girls, and just couldn't do it. Tit for tat, back and forth, and at one point I said something along the lines of "Hm, how did you guess I was (gay)?"

All in the spirit of good fun and frolicking. Somehow we ended up making 'bedroom noises', groaning and moaning and pretending to be 'feeling up one another'. The girl lay in her bed and regreted aloud how she ended up with us on the floor.

I went to sleep, albeit for a mere four hours last night, smiling...

Crime of sodomy

It's not everyday you get to discuss sodomy in class, if only in passing.

But today I started a new course in International Criminal Law, and we were discussing issues of extradition (ie State A wants State B to give up a person who committed a serious crime in State A). So say, hypothetically, John murder someone in Australia and then escapes to the US, Australia has the right to demand the US extradite John back to be prosecuted. Nothing funny about this, until...

We come to the Netherlands. Many things are legal here where it is illegal (and therefore a crime) elsewhere... here you can legally abort, you can use soft drugs, you can legally solicit a prostitute, euthanasia is legal...and sodomy too is not a criminal offence.

So say John 'commits' sodomy in Iran, where the sentence may be death, and he now escapes to the Netherlands. To the Dutch authorities, John did nothing wrong, so there's no reason to extradite him back to Iran, where he most likely will face a death warrant.

After class a bunch of my friends were discussing and joking around this, and I nonchalantly asked them what the law on sodomy is in their countries. One response made me laugh out loud:

"Well, in university we didn't really do much sodomy."

I beg to differ.



---
related news: Iran just executed yet another homosexual, and critcised western countries with same-sex marriages as "the weakness of western culture".

meeting with a minister

(lady with the mike...)

I’m not the biggest fan of the minister for integration and immigration, Rita Verdonk. Under her watch, children asylum seekers have been put in jail, people who’ve been living, some even born, in this country (illegally) for years have been forcibly deported, and at one point she was even on the verge of deporting homosexual Iranians back to their country. Her favourite motto seems to be ‘rules are rules’.

But then as the minister for integration, she has somewhat been more vocal on homosexual affairs than the rest of the cabinet ministers of this centre-right coalition government. Her VVD party (Party for Freedom and Democracy) places Article 1 of the Constitution on non-discrimination on whatever grounds above all else, and this includes sexual orientation.

So with the elections in ten days, she was invited by the biggest ho(mo)le(sbian)bi(sexual)-interest group COC for a ‘meeting with the gay voters’ in Amsterdam. Especially since the discussion was centred around ‘Homosexuality and ethnic minorities’. This I just couldn’t miss.

So I ordered a drink and sat around in the gay lounge/bar. The place was crowded with reporters and journalists and other prominent parliamentarians and ‘the common gay voter’. I was pretty nervous actually, as I always am in ‘strange’ places with strangers. Besides, I really rarely go to gay places, and everyone else seemed to be so much older and were all mingling and chatting in groups or couples. Sat around, fidgeted with my drink, read and re-read the brochures and election pamphlets, and tries to look interested, all the while hoping the show would start soon…

Finally after half an hour the minister showed up…fashionably late. She looked pretty much the same as on TV, though being just a metre away from her made it all the more exciting. A bright, long red scarf wrapped around her neck, dark blazer over a white blouse. As she walked toward the podium, she stopped and chatted to people. Most were friendly and shook hands with her, exchanging chit chat. Though one or two were not so impressed.

“Whoever pays a visit brings a gift”, she began. And she started off almost immediately with a pledge of seven hundred thousand Euros to COC and the National Bureau against Racial Discrimination (Landelijk Bureau ter bestrijding van Rassendiscriminatie). A grand gesture, which sent the audience wild and applauding.

Her ‘masterplan’ is to make homosexuality accepted and discussable in society as a whole, and in particular within ethnic minority groups where a lot of intolerance and misunderstanding exists. As Verdonk said, though 90% of Dutch people accept homosexuality, in reality and practice the situation is much more different. Some 30% of Dutch natives still have a problem having a homosexual friend, whereas this within the Turkish and Morrocan communities stands at a staggering 80% (according to a recent survey in Rotterdam).

This man came on stage and told of his torments when a group of ethnic minority teens set his house on fire. Hate crimes are on the rise, but existing legislation don’t specifically refer to homophobia as one of the causes. So this money will try to combat all that. Applause. Applause.

At one moment this old lady went on stage and gave an impassioned speech about the plight of homosexual seniors. About how lonely they are, about how retirement homes don’t cater for their needs, and how they are the lost and forgotten generation because of the taboos in the past.

Much of the pledged funds will target schools, where a lot of young people still have much problems coming out, and recent reports have revealed that even teachers are going back into the closet. In much rehearsed jargons she reiterated the importance of equality and non-discrimination as the key foundation of ‘virtues and values’ of this country, and that there can be no compromise of these principles. Ethnic groups should be engaged and (made to) accept homosexuality as a norm, just as heterosexuality is accepted. Being gay cannot be a “taboo”, everyone should be able to live freely and openly as they choose to. Surprising, Verdonk says, that some 30% of people still don’t dare to come out at th work place. Why should it matter who you sleep with if you do your job well? The crowd cheered and applauded some more.

I felt at times I was at a party convention, and that this 'meeting with gay voters' was no more than part of a election campaign. Deep down I wondered how much of that money will really improve anything. With my usual sense of cynism, I left after the debate finished.