the city of Kabul (and Afghanistan in general) is still pretty high on my list of places i want to visit. Unfortunately, the closest place to Kabul that i got to so far is Delhi. Fortunately, however, there is the fabulous internet where Safi Airways ‘the international airline of Afghanistan’ is publishing PDF versions of it’s fabulous in-flight magazine. Browsing through the three available issues only reinforces my desire to go and visit the place.

As far as the standards of such publications are concerned the Safi Airways in-flight magazine boasts a number of rather unconventional topics (dog fighting, opium addiction) and a somewhat chaotic layout (a story about ‘man eating lions’ is run right next to an article about Kabul’s christian cemetery). Among the quirky stories and hidden in-between a fair amount of ads for armored cars are some real gems like this one about a olympic-size swimming pool on a hill overlooking Kabul that was never filled with water ‘due to the difficulties of pumping water uphill’:

Some of the parts of the magazine are outright amusing. This is especially true for the section of the publication that serves as a city guide for Kabul. The (apparently expat) copywriters seem to have inherited a certain casualness from their work in Kabul which readily expresses itself in the descriptions given in shopping section that covers everything from shopping malls:

Kabul city center is Afghanistan’s first modern style indoor shopping mall that opened in 205. it is approximately 9 stories tall and is located in downtown Kabul

… to open air bazars offering counterfeit entertainment products …

Chicken street is famed for it’s tourist fare (carpets, carvings knifes etc) and pirated CD/DVD’s

… to sellers of misappropriated goods:

Karimi Supermarket [...] make sure to head upstairs for some great stuff that’s fallen off some PX trucks.

Another area where the copywriters really shine are directions to restaurants and shops that are provided alongside these descriptions: The ‘Red Hot & Sizzling” restaurant can be found after making …

… a left at the next traffic circle. slow down, the first gate to the right used to have a red chili pepper hanging up on a pole. Not easy to find.

And in order to get to the ‘Corner Pizzeria’ you have to …

… head down the barricaded street to almost the end. You’ll see big misspelled banners showing you the way.

Technorati Tags: afghanistan, airtravel, delhi, kabul, modernity, shopping, urban, war

couple of days ago boingboing ran a post about a SF bike messenger who claims to work while tripping on LSD. today i finally read the whole text (as opposed to just the short quote on boingboing which focusses on his cycling while tripping experience). turns out that the his entire rant is rather amusing and that it contains one of the best descriptions of how the bike messenger business works i have ever come across:

In big cities, cars are fucking everywhere. It’s a wonder people still buy them, because they move at approximately the same speed as tortoises with arthritis, are goddamn expensive, and you use up more of your gas tank waiting at stop lights then you do actually driving. And because some people in big cities need packages transported from Point A to Point B in a very short amount of time (faster than the tortoises with arthritis can carry them) these people pay us an exorbitant amount of money to us, bike messengers, to bust our asses to transport said packages from Point A to Point B in a very short amount of time. Then, the company that hires us takes a small finder’s fee (approximately 90% of our wages) and gives us our pittance sum of cash that we get for risking our lives on a daily basis.

Technorati Tags: bicyle, cycling, drugs, traffic, urban, work

usually i do not promote products on this page, but i am so happy with my (relatively) new cyclin jacket that i make an exception here. my new kättermusen einride jacket is more or less perfect for a cycling jacket:

the einride jacket (which is for some strange reason marketing as a mountaineering/trekking garment) has the perfect cut for cycling including a hood that that protects your head against the rain without impairing your field of vision or your ability to move around your head. but the best thing is the fabric: instead of some highly engineered synthetic fabric the jacket is made from super densely woven cotton. Apparently the fabric, called EtaProof was developed during the second world war:

At that time the fabric was developed for British Hurricane pilots who often were forced to bail out with the parachute or make an emergency landing in the ice-cold Atlantic. During the nineties, Stotz & Co. adapted the fabric to the newest standards and turned it into EtaProof. Today this high-tech product made of pure cotton…

the stuff is not exactly rain proof, but it feels super nice and gets you dry through 15 minutes or so of rain. in other words it’ perfectly suited for amsterdam summers…

Technorati Tags: amsterdam, bicyle, cycling, fashion, rain, urban

last week thursday night someone tried to break in to our offices on the fourth floor of a building on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. in order to gain access to the office the wannabe-burglar(s) kicked in the door, pushing one of the wooden door panels into the room. it appears that they then waited to see if there was an alarm system and that they quickly left the building without taking anything from the office when the alarm sounded 20 seconds after the door was kicked in.

so while they had more or less unrestricted access to the office they did not take anything: not one of our apple cinema displays, nor the cash box or even one of the bottles of fine french wine that we keep to entertain our guests. in other words, our system to prevent burglaries worked as intended: someone intended to break into the office but did not do any substantial damage because the alarm system went of and scared the wannabe-burglar(s) away.

now the strange thing is that when you tell this story to others they react completely different: instead of recognizing this story as and example of something working as intended, people tend to see it as something negative (‘oh that’s terrible!’ is the usual reaction). Of course this reaction does not make any sense because this kind of event is exactly why we have an alarm in the first place.

Unfortunately this cognitive is not limited to smal scale burglary. It is very similar to how the public tends to react to failed terrorist plots like the shoe-bomber or the pants-bomber or the assorted idiots that are not even capable of blowing up their own cars (exhibit 1, exhibit 2). In all of these events the system worked as intended: no harm was done because the wanna-be terrorists did not manage to acquire explosives capable of inflicting actual harm or because they were simply too stupid to carry out their plots.

Instead of looking at these events as proof that open societies actually display a good measure of built in resilience, the public tends to interpret these events as proof that the terrorists are alive and well and the ’security’ agencies thankfully exploit this cognitive bias to come up with more (and often absurd) ’security’ measures.

Technorati Tags: airtravel, amsterdam, bomb, security, terrorism

so imagine this scenario: you are on an isolated tropical island that does not have a bookstore, you are out of books, but you happen to have an electronic reading device with you that is wirelessly connected to the internet and that is tied to you credit card account (which is not maxed out). This should constitute one of the most ideal business cases for selling books to this particular individual, but for some reason the publishing industry does not seem to be willing to cater to this scenario.

two months ago while on vacation i found myself in this very scenario (aggravated by the fact that i had left my copy of Salinger’s ‘the Catcher in the Rye‘ with 30 unread pages to go on the ferry boat that took us to the island). Unfortunately for me (and the rights-holders) you cannot buy an electronic copy of ‘the Catcher in the Rye’ from the international kindle store run by amazon. instead you can get about 13 different books that deal with the ‘Catcher in the Rye’ in some form or another (reading helps, studies of the book etc) but the original text is notably absent from the international kindle bookstore. The most likely reason is that some stupid publisher has decided that it is somehow not in his/her interest to to sell the book to people like me¹.

So instead of reading the final chapters of ‘the Catcher in the Rye’ i was forced to read the the New York Times (which is available via the kindle no matter where you are) for 7 days and once we were back on an island with a second hand bookstore i purchased a 2nd hand copy of the ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and finished the book. Of course all of the money i spend on that second hand copy (which was more than the price of the original paperback that i had left on the ferry) is going to the owner of the bookstore and none of it is is ending up in the pockets of the publishers or the author (who is dead so in this case the stupidity of the publishers does not harm the author).

Obviously there real danger to authors is not that people who are unable to obtain ebooks because of rights-issues will turn to second-hand bookstores. Instead it is more likely that they will turn to file-sharing networks and other sources for unauthorized copies instead. Already there are more unauthorized ebook editions than there are books on the international kindle book store and the only reason why this has not yet become a real problem is that only a few people own specialized reading devices. This of course will rapidly change over the next couple of years.

If the publishing industry does not get its act together and makes sure that we can purchase all books on whatever platform we like right after they have been published regardless where we happen to be, it will find itself in exactly the same position as the music industry is finding itself for the last 10 years. Of course they are free to do so should they really want to end up there, but since they have been warned it would be nice if they could refrain from the disgraceful whining that we have had to endure from the music industry for the past decade. The choice is theirs…

1. ok there is an even more likely explanation: the book is probably not available because the rights to do so rest with a bunch of different publishers for different territories and so there is no-one who can make it available an online bookstore that covers multiple territories. as far as i am concerned this still counts as being stupid.

yesterday i raced in the 11th edition of the annual Anniek van Hardeveld memorial race (see my pervious reports here and here). this race is held annually on the 4th of may in remembrance of Annick van Hardeveld, a 21 year old courier for the dutch resistance who was shot dead on the 4th of may 1945, which happened to be the last day of the german occupation. she is probably the last member of the resistance to have been killed by the germans.

turns out that this little tradition of ours slowly gets noticed by those formally in charge of the 4/5 may festivities: The race is featured as an ‘official’ event on the 4/5 may website and Marjan Schwegman, the director of the dutch institute for war documentation (NIOD) describes it as an example of a new remembrance culture her a recent speech (pdf) on the occasion of the presentation of a book documenting the memory of the second world war (sorry for the dutch):

Als ik van het NIOD naar het Centraal Station loop, kom ik op het Hekelveld altijd een klein, onopvallend monument tegen. Het is gewijd aan Annick van Hardeveld, die daar op 21 jarige leeftijd als ‘de laatste koerierster uit het verzet’, zoals de tekst op het monument vermeldt, op 4 mei 1945 werd neergeschoten door de Duitse Bezetter. Omdat ik mezelf nooit de tijd gunde om haar naam goed te noteren aangezien ik altijd een trein moest halen, heeft het tot het uitkomen van de bundel Plaatsen van Herinnering geduurd voordat ik me in de geschiedenis van Annick van Hardeveld en het aan haar gewijde monument heb verdiept.

Wat ontdekte ik? In de eerste plaats een paar fragmentjes uit de levensgeschiedenis van Annick van Hardeveld. Zij was opgeleid als Rode Kruis verpleegster en naast haar werk als medisch analiste in het Wilhelmina Gasthuis koerierster van de BS. In die hoedanigheid vervoerde ze bonkaarten, wapens, valse papieren en begeleidde ze onderduikers. Op de avond van de 4e mei 1945 was ze op weg van Amsterdam Zuid naar Amsterdam Noord. Ze had opdracht de leden van de Verzetsgsroep MAX III te laten weten dat zij naar een geheime wapenopslag plaats moesten komen die zich in het Vossius Gymnasium bevond. Opgetogen door de radio berichten over de naderende Duits capitulatie, had ze zich gehuld in een Nederlandse vlag, die ze over haar Rode Kruis uniform had aangetrokken. Deze opvallende kledij was voor de Grune Polizei aanleiding om haar op het Hekelveld vanuit een overvalwagen neer te schieten. Haar broer Yann, die niet had geweten dat zijn zus actief was in het verzet, was 1 van degenen die het initiatief nam voor het monument dat op 4 mei 1985 werd onthuld.

Ik kwam ook nog iets anders te weten: het monument is sinds 1998 het middelpunt van een intrigerend ritueel: de Annick van Hardeveld Memorial Alleycat. Voor de niet ingewijden onder ons: een Alleycat is een straatrace voor en door fietskoeriers. In dit geval gaat om een race die op 4 mei om 7 uur ‘s avonds begint op het Koerierstersplein en die de koeriers naar verschillende posten bij oorlogsmonumenten voert, waar ze bliksemsnel een bloem moeten ‘ophalen’ die ze heelhuids naar het Hekelveld moeten brengen en op het monument moeten leggen. Degene die daar als eerste in slaagt is winnaar. Vervolgens vormen de fietskoeriers om 8 uur een halve cirkel om het monument en gedenken Annick van Hardeveld met 2 minuten stilte.

Dit ritueel op deze plaats is in mijn ogen een mooie illustratie van datgene wat Madelon de Keizer en Marije Plomp in de inleiding van de bundel schrijven: plaatsen van herinnering zijn niet slechts plaatsen die verwijzen naar het verleden, maar ontlenen hun zeggingskracht aan de betekenis die in het hier en nu aan die plaatsen wordt gegeven. De bundel die wij hier vandaag ten doop houden biedt dus een kijk op de hedendaagse Nederlandse herinneringscultuur van de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Met name sinds de val van de Muur, die, zo schrijven De Keizer en Plomp, de herinnering aan WOII ‘ontdooide’, zijn herinneringsplaatsen onderhevig aan een onophoudelijke herstructurering. Herinneren is een actief proces dat nooit af is, en dat zich aan steeds nieuwe
rituelen hecht. Dat geldt bij uitstek voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog. De herinnering aan die periode is, zo wordt in de bundel gesteld, een open zenuw in de Nederlandse samenleving.

De Annick van Hardeveld Memorial Cat laat ook zien dat herinneringsculturen strijd kunnen uitdrukken. Het ‘ophalen’ van bloemen bij andere monumenten wijst daar bijvoorbeeld op. Dat ‘ophalen’ past goed bij de flitsende, tegendraadse cultuur van de tegenwoordige fietskoeriers, die, anders dan in 1945, bijna allemaal van het mannelijk geslacht zijn. Een van hen merkte na de race op: ‘Bij de begraafplaats waar we de bloem moesten halen, stonden de mensen wel vreemd te kijken: wat komen zij als idioten aangereden?’ Dat het herdenkingsritueel van de koeriers de schijn wekt een rebelse voetnoot te zijn bij de nationale herdenking op de Dam is iets waarvan de koeriers zich bewust zijn, ook al zegt 1 van hen: ‘We doen het niet om ons tegen de massa af te zetten door driehonderd meter van de Dam te gaan staan. Het is gewoon onze manier van herdenken.’

In deze eigentijdse manier van herdenken valt op dat het juist de subversieve elementen zijn die het verleden levend houden. De vereniging van fietskoeriers die de Memorial Cat organiseert verwijst met haar naam Fuccit naar de vrijheid die fietskoeriers essentieel achten voor de uitoefening van hun beroep. De neergeschoten koerierster symboliseert voor hen die vrijheid. In de oproep om mee te doen aan de Annick van Hardeveld Alleycat stellen zij in internet engels: ‘So this is not you ‘normal’ alleycat but a way to show our respect and gratitude to all those who gave their life for our freedom.’ [...]

one of the more notorious/famous places in São Paulo is the boutique department store (Villa) Daslu. According to wikipedia ‘the boutique is known as the ‘fashion designers mecca’ of Brazil as it houses more than 60 labels plus 30 store-in-stores and is the place where Brazilian socialites, ranging from multi-millionaire soccer players to conglomerate bigwigs shop for the latest accessories and clothing’. Leged has it that Daslu is the only department store in the world where you can also buy helicopters (although that seems to be a bit of an exaggeration, in reality you can (could?) buy fractual ownership in helicopters operated by HeliSoultions) though the store.

yesterday Kai and I decided to pay a visit to Villa Daslu to have a look at this icon of Brazilian upper class lifestyle. To our surprise/disappointment/excitement we found relatively little of the expected abundance. Instead large parts of the building stood empty looking as if they had been hastily abandoned and the few shoppers to be seen were easily outnumbered by the staff.

Large sections of the 2nd and the 3rd floor as well as some of the showrooms on the 1st and the 4th floor (including former Chanel, Gucci, Dolce & Gabana outlets) were completely empty, with all merchandise and most of the display-furniture missing. Strangely the management of the store did not even try to hide these empty spaces (one employe told us that they were ‘changing the concept of the store’ but in the absence of any sign of construction this seemed a bit implausible). As a result we were more or less free to stroll though the deserted parts of the building and take pictures of the emptiness (more pictures in this flickr set):

Moving through this half deserted temple of luxury shopping was easily one of the most surreal experiences i have ever had. This was reinforced by the fact that in other parts of the building the staff carried on as if everything was completely normal.

While i would certainly hope that this situation is illustrative of the effects of the economic crisis on the über-posh lifestyle of the Brazilian upper class this is probably not the case (it seems that the herd has simply moved to other pastures on the other side of the river). Instead it appears to be more likely that this situation is the result of the recent legal troubles of Eliana Tranchesi, owner and founder of Daslu who was recently sentenced to 94 years in prison and fined €434 million for tax fraud and smuggling. Apparently the aftermath of this verdict is slowly eating away this once iconic symbol of São Paulo’s immense economic inequality from the inside.

bonus: one other option that i had considered for spending queens-day was to make a quick one day trip to brasilia (inspired by these incredible photos of the construction of brasilia by Marcel Gautherot). guess that will have to wait until next time…

Technorati Tags: abandoned , architecture, brazil, crisis, decay, fashion, sao paulo, shopping

last year i spend a fair amount of energy to get the open video platform openimages.eu off the ground, but so far the videos that have been uploaded there (mainly from the polygoon collection of the institute of sound and vision have utterly failed to impress me.

now after 4 month of operation there is finally a video that i can approve of. it has the perfect combination of techno-optimism, cuttting-edge design and sideburns:

Technorati Tags: design, modernity, technology, video

thursday night when cycling home from the north i spotted this sign on a lamp pole at the beginning of Ferdinad Bol straat close to where i live:

area secured by DNA-SPRAY – the police

i am not even sure how many things are wrong with this sign, but here are a few that went through my head after i had taken this photo:

1. how the fuck to you secure an area with a (DNA) spray? does it randomly spray something on people that are deemed to be a threat to security? or do they mix something into the air that
   makes people behave more securely?
2. who’s DNA is it that is in they use for this spray? isn’t your DNA private? how come the cops have someone’s DNA to spray around with?
3. if this is where the DNA spray area starts, where does it end? so far i have not seen any signs that mark the end of the secured area. what if i am not interested in their security and their DNA how can i cycle around the area then?
4. and most importantly, who the fuck has asked for this? i for one do not want no DNA spray on my daily cycle route to work which as far as i can judge was plenty ’secure’ even before they started messing with this. and why was there no public discussion of some sorts about this?

after a bit of googling it turns out that the signs are a rather blatant lie. apparently the police and the borough have decided to install spray installations in a few stores that can be used to mark robbers with some kind of substance that is encoded with a unique id of the store. apparently this substance is really hard to get of your body and can be made visible with UV light for a long while. Pretending that this scheme somehow secures ‘the area’ is as much bullshit as calling a spray with an embedded ID ‘DNA spray’. Rather pathetic that the cops get away with this kind of bullshit….

Technorati Tags: amsterdam, bicyle, cycling, democracy, netherlands, security, senseless, urban

back in december when walking through damascus i ran into this mountain bike rigged up with small combustion engine:

mountain bike fitted with a combustion engine on Khalid ibn al-Walid street in central Damascus [photo taken from a different perspective here]

if you ask me this is quite a marvel of engineering and although i never spotted a second one during the 3 days that i spend in damascus i am pretty certain that this is not a unique modification but rather one of many that are produced in some back alley workshop. if anyone has seen more of these or has additional information about these please do let me know…

Technorati Tags: bicyle, syria, traffic, urban