Column: State of Indulgence by Patrick van der Hijden, opening debate Burger King & Citizenship
In the debate Burger King & Citizenship give Patrick van der Hijden, David van Reybrouck, Chris Keulemans and Samuel Vriezen Their views on the state of the citizen. Public may, but need not, participate. Below is the column State of Indulgence, recited by Patrick van der Hijden - as a kick-off to the debate.
"Our life was invented in the 18th century.
Members of the upper classes - the elite - had their own homes, often with gardens. They sent their children to school, which then started further education. They had free time and generally arrived at their appointments on time, due to the watches they wore and the train barges that left on time (they complained when delayed). Citizens who lived outside the city commuted - by carriage, that is. They drank coffee to stay awake. They visited restaurants with menus. They were vaccinated against smallpox and had pets. A great source on that life is the diary of Otto van Eck, who started it at the age of 10 under pressure from his Enlightenment-obsessed parents, in 1791. I borrow the above examples from that.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, this life is not lived by a small minority, but by a large part of the Dutch population. These do have to do without staff. That, in fact, has been replaced by technology.
Writers Unlimited showcases a new generation of African authors #wu12
There is something special about Africa. The new generation of writers from Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa walking around Writers Unlimited is different from their parents in the world. Or, indeed, the fact that they interact with it in a completely different way, with those ancestors, defines them as something completely new. They present themselves as confident, modern global citizens.
Hearing sober prophet of doom John Gray speak is always a relief #WU12
In the late 1980s, John N. Gray (South Shields, 1948) adviser to Margaret Thatcher - Gray: "I was just a small mote of dust in her administration" - now he is a fierce critic of all things neoconservative. On Writers Unlimited, publicist Bas Heijne felt him out.
In How to be a dictator in Africa, writers Helon Habila and Dinaw Mengestu are remarkably positive about the future of their continent, despite the reservations of David van Reybrouck and moderator Andrew Makkinga.
Dinaw Mengestu shares his surname with the first name of one of Ethiopia's former dictators. "For now, I am a writer, but aspire to a career as a dictator," he says. Dictators do not arise in a vacuum, Mengestu argues. "We as citizens create our leaders," he says. In his recited story, citizens hand over all their dreams. They shift all their responsibility towards those in power. And.
Dutch pot for world writers
Sweet and quite tasty, although some of the guests said they were less enamoured with the hutspot with gravy that the Haagse Hapjes had prepared for them. Most guests would have preferred a bit more spice with their welcome meal. Tonight, Africa is on the menu. The local pepper farmer must be having a party because of increased sales, we suspect.
Big plus for the writer who can also narrate #wu12
His voice is low, and when he talks, he does so calmly and thoughtfully. He regards his humour - very British - as a side effect that is more accidental than intended. This makes Helon Habila a perfect guest for the opening night of Writers Unlimited, the Hague literature festival better known as 'Winternachten'. The Nigerian can tell stories, but...
Henk Pröpper: 'Writers Unlimited has always opposed panting and short-term ambition.'
He is now a publisher, and the man who was director of the Dutch Foundation for Literature until last year will be quite happy with that. As director of the Bezige Bij, one of the country's largest publishing houses, he will surely never again have to submissively toast the sarcastic State Secretary for Culture Halbe Zijlstra. At least the relief was audible in Pröpper's...
PEN Award for Iranian founder 'Stop Stoning Forever' campaign #wu12
She now lives in Norway, after she had to leave her homeland Iran for her own opinion. She was detained for five days, and in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, that is an eternity. Now Asieh Amini is free in a foreign land, and Oxfam-Novib is presenting her with the PEN Award. A great opening for the Writers Unlimited Winternachten Festival, which, with this presentation,...
Zijlstra's dangerous sentence
"The cultural sector employs many part-timers. It is conceivable that they
There-it is: the final legislative amendment deciding the future of 16,500 FTEs and thousands of self-employed people
We do not have much to comment on Halbe Zijlstra's explanation. Other than that the state secretary of formerly culture breathes an almost legible sigh of relief now that he can almost close the 'arts' headache file. His "masterpiece", the amendment to the Specific Cultural Policy Act, is before the chamber and if it is approved (hammer piece), the state secretary does not really need to do anything more.
Woldhek receives Inktspot Prize 2011 for state portrait Henk Bleker
"A beautifully drawn portrait, sublimely expressing a mixture of cunning, intransigence and power-seeking, Implicit and without text." So says the Inktspot Prize jury about the drawing Sigfried Woldhek made for the NRC of 30 March 2011. Pictured is Henk Bleker, former CDA party leader candidate and state secretary for former nature. Woldhek, who has been...
The Broadway visitor: lily-white, female, loyal and well above the Balkenende norm
These are data that somehow do not make the press here, because they are about America, which is not in the Netherlands. Still, it is interesting to take a closer look at the composition of the audience on Broadway. After all, that is where, in the wet dreams of VVD/PVV celebrities like Bart @deliefde and @halbezijlstra, the future of...
Not two, but only one cultural major in 2010, and none in 2011
That was a bit of a shock for culture lovers in Utrecht and beyond. the dear youth theatre house Het Lab turned out to have an artistic director with an annual salary of 214,975 euros. A salary that made him equal to the dozens of air traffic controllers, medical specialists and broadcasting staff who all earn much more than the Balkenende norm (193,000 euros a year, including pension). But no. The ever amiable...
Huge growth of Chinese art market raises fears of loss of quality (follow-up)
We reported last week on China's huge art market, which is growing so fast that insiders say it is a bursting bubble. But, before the market collapses because rich investors come up with another hobby, it could collapse even faster as the art loses quality. This is particularly likely to happen to the works of the...
Miraculous play on age-old techniques mirrors Stravinky's music in 50,000 litres of water and 50 minutes
Thai and Vietnamese puppetry. Acrobats, Chinese shadow play and Japanese costumes. A Chinese conductor for a Dutch orchestra, a Canadian directing team and, as the main work, a scant 50-minute opera by a Russian composer, based on a fairy tale by a Danish writer who took his inspiration from China. Loosely.
Chinese growth is changing the art market faster and more radically than we realise
They made the better Bordeaux wines unaffordable, and in Southeast Asia, record amounts are being paid down daily for Western modern and antique art. Chinese collectors and speculators now determine what counts and what does not in the art world. Latest development: they are discovering their own artists. Meanwhile, for a painting like 'Eagle Standing on a Pine Tree' from 1946 by self-taught artist Qi Bashi, more...
WWIK transitional regime until 1 July 2012: The grinding of De Kroms teeth echoes to the smallest municipality
The art sector's victory over government policy will last until 1 July 2012. Until then, a transitional scheme applies to artists who were eligible for WWIK benefits until 1 January 2012. This is because this highly successful scheme, which gives artists a chance to build a profitable professional practice at an amount of 70% of the welfare level, had been abolished by...
We will follow the world's writers into their hotel rooms
Writers Unlimited The Dodo is coming back to life. On 19 January already. That's when we plunge into The Hague writer's life. The four-day festival Writers Unlimited, formerly known as Winternachten, but thus changed its name because of the weather (not, but nice joke) will have a real dodo, but then again differently. We will LIVE BLOG. That means we will be there....
This Cherry Garden by theatre group Keesen&Co is even much better than it looks anyway
The good man himself lived to be barely 44. But on his deathbed, he thus wrote a play for which you have to be at least well over 50 and have experienced a lot if you want to do it justice as a director. So we are talking about Anton Chekhov and The Cherry Garden. And about Willlibrord Keesen, who in his now third...
Thunder or a minor storm in the Gouda Glasses? You may say
We received a letter on legs from Wim de Groot a while ago. Now we often get letters in paws, but here something seemed to be going on. Trouble of course because sorting it out takes time and money and that wasn't there for a while. (Look out for the donor campaign we are about to launch) But still. What's wrong with it? Wim de...
Theatre photography in the limelight at small Amsterdam gallery
Theatre photographs are a profession in their own right. From an already staged subject, the professional photographer chooses the catchiest image. There are those who look down on them for that reason, there are those who admire the theatre photographer for that very reason. We are naturally more inclined towards the latter. But the profession is under pressure. From smartphones, from buyers who have no space and no money...
There is no Facebooking about taste. Harvard: only classical music and jazz preferences are transferable in social networks
For some, social media seemed to be the solution for how companies could market their wares. You sell something to one person, and that person passes on their good experiences to their social network. That way, you could influence a lot of people with relatively little effort. Not so. Friend networks on facebook are hardly interested in each other's tastes....
'Theatres get their marketing wrong': Groningen PhD research tries to reinvent wheel
A wheel cannot be invented often enough. After all, someday something truly new will emerge. In marketing land, this is pretty much the constitution. That is why it is so moving to see how
Austerity year review 2011. Or how the PVV cry 'Arts subsidies we abolish' was widely heard
While 2010 was still the year of PVV positions on culture that were suddenly shared by other parties ("we are abolishing art subsidies"), the year 2011 fell under their implementation. What was striking was the ease with which regional and local administrators also wielded this same machete, as PVV spokesperson Bosma did not fail to testify. For instance, in the municipality of Almelo, 30 % went àff from...
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