Coffee of the day for me too

Yesterday, I walked downtown to get a haircut at my favorite hairdresser. Machine cut as usual; quick, cheap and easy. Later I went to a coffee shop nearby (not the Amsterdam-type of coffee shop, but a place that just sells coffee).

The girl in front of me in the line ordered the coffee of the day, a blend of Ethiopian and Kenyan beans. “One for me too”, I said.

I picked up a newspaper from the shelf by the counter. It was the Saturday issue of what used to be the paper of the Marxist-Leninist party. It's still quite, and still quite good. However, they have given up the idea of armed revolution. Very good; I dislike everything armed.

I sat down by a small table and started to read. I read about a drunk 39-year old female politician. She fucked an even more drunk 17 year old boy in a farm field at a wedding party. Voluntary sex, no victim, no problem. I read about a male left-party politician accused of sexual harassment of women. “We always believe the victims”, says the party. “No need to hear the man's version, no need to investigate anything. He's guilty, no doubt.”

I had chosen a bad table, by the door between the outer and inner room of the shop. It was annoying when people passed through the narrow door. I happened to touch the big butt of a chubby woman. She had a nice ass, but it wasn’t my fault. She rubbed her chunky ass against my hand, probably not on purpose. I hope this will not be a #metoo, because anyone who claims to be a victim is always right. That’s the new law of the land.

(Picture taken yesterday while walking down to town)

Two elderly people yelling at each other

I've been following the US election with interest, as usual. The American political fauna is somewhat weird. It's like a zoo with only tigers and lions. In practice there's only right wing and ultra-right wing candidates.

The ultra right GOP has now become more like populist right, similar to the Front National in France, UKIP in Great Britain ad Forza Italia.

There's no socialist party, no social democrats (except Bernie Sanders), and no left-wing radicals. Maybe they exist, but they are very marginalized (like Gary Johnson and Jill Stein).

This year the election is very discouraging. Two elderly people yelling at each other. I hope the younger American generations will come up with something better in the future.

It's scary that Donald Trump may actually become the President of USA. He appears to be totally incompetent for the job. He hasn't even admitted to respect the election result, unless he wins. I hope it was a joke. But this reminds me of certain leaders from the history books, the kind of leaders we wouldn't like to come back.

Just imagine a world ruled by Trump and Putin. Sounds surreal, like a crazy joke, but holy shit, it may become true.

Hillary Clinton is maybe not the best candidate either (Bernie was my favorite). There's too much shady business going on, in the Clinton Foundation and with her Wall Street buddies.  It reminds me of the quote by Otto von Bismarck: "No one should see how politics and sausages are made".

Hilary Clinton is at least competent for the job, very competent. Maybe she doesn't know much about mail servers, but she knows how to deal with the political systems around the world. That's more important for a president.

(Cartoon from the internet, made by Rob Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette )

Who would Jesus vote for?

I'm following the American presidential election with great interest, as always. Recently I read about a guy named Glenn Beck who claims that God wants Ted Cruz to win.

I wonder if this was before or after we got to know about the five mistresses. Probably it doesn't matter. The omniscient and almighty God of course knew about the mistresses all the time.

So we may conclude that God is happy with this. It's fine with me too; most important is that the president is able to run the government.

I wonder who Jesus would vote for. Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio or Ben Carson?

I'm an Atheist, but I still remember many stories that we read about Jesus in Christianity class in elementary school. My picture of Jesus is a man who cared for the poor and the sick, and dishonored the rich and greedy. Remember the story about the poor guy Lazarus who died and was brought back to life. And then there is the parable about the rich man who stored all his wealth in a big barn for his private consumption (Luke 12:16-21):

"So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God"

I bet Jesus would vote for Bernie Sanders >:)

(I didn't have a picture of Jesus on my computer, but I found this one on Wikipedia: Sermon on the mount by Carl Bloch)

Charlie is back

Last week, we were shocked by the acts of terror in Paris. This week, Charlie Hebdo is back with a new issue. That’s great.  The artists and cartoonists are brave.  

I think duck liver is a hype, but I always liked the French cheese, and the French attitude to freedom of speech. Charlie Hebdo’s satire offends the Muslims. That’s fine. They just have to learn to live with it, like the Christians, Jews and Satanists have learnt.

What’s holy for you is not holy for me.  Mocking the gods and prophets can be fun, for sure. But blasphemy is more than entertainment. Blasphemy is an important part of the freedom of speech. Religion mixed with a political agenda is a bad combo, because it makes the agenda indisputable. Who are you to challenge God?

• Imagine Obama coming to The House proposing a new law received from God, and the Republicans could do nothing to stop it. 
• Imagine the Labor party coming to the Parliament with a political program given by God, and Cameron had to approve it right away. 

The French and the Americans (I think) were the first to develop a secular constitution. This is very important, splitting governing, legislative and religious power. Turkey is Muslim-secular, but develops in the wrong direction. Many Muslim countries are stuck in their political-religious swamp. The list of ridiculous laws and rules coming out of religion is endless:

• Women are not allowed to watch football games (Iran)
• Women are not allowed to drive cars (Saudi)
• Death penalty for blasphemy (Pakistan)
• Separate ski lifts for men and women (Iran)
• One-hour marriage with prostitutes (which makes prostitution compliant with the Quran; Bahrain).
• Men can’t sit next to women on airplanes (orthodox Jews)
• Women can’t become priests (Catholics)
• Priests must live in celibate (Catholics)
• Ban on condoms (Catholics)

None of these rules come from God. They were invented by powerful people as tools to control people. When rules can't be justified by rational arguments, the easiest solution is God. No wonder religious authorities  who make up such laws and rules (and their Prophets and Gods) become subject to satire and blasphemy.

The French author Michel Houellebecq once said that “among all ridiculous religions, Islam is the most stupid”. He was taken to court in Paris for this statement, but was acquitted based on freedom of speech. They are all about equally bad; I dislike religion in general. 

I have plenty of religous books in my shelf; the Bible, the Quran and the Book of Mormon, and I have read a fair part of them (but far from everything). Sharia is mostly useless as legislation for the modern world. But taking the worst of the Bible, it would make a pretty bizarre law too.

Some of the religious texts can be quite entertaining. Once we had fun drinking beer and reading load from the Quran in a pub up north. I think the pub was a safe place for our blasphemy. It's an unlikely place to meet jihadists and inquisition.

In Satan we trust >:)

(Cover page of this week's issue of Charlie Hebdo; link to WIkipedia. The text above Muhammsd's head says "Everything is forgiven".)

Democracy is un-Islamic

Skiing season is over, and my handyman season has started.  Living in a 100 year old house, there’s always plenty to do.

Yes, I can.  Now I’m refurbishing the attic, insulating the floor and ceiling and stuff like that.

I always listen to the radio while I’m working. It’s a very old radio. I bought it when I was in highschool. 

I can’t stand the chit-chat-and-pop-music stations, so my radio is tuned into the national broadcasting’s news station.  Most of the time they just switch in the BBC World Service, which is very good.  You get to learn a lot, not only about Europe and America, but the entire world (or at least the Commonwealth).

This weekend there was two main happenings: The resign of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson after 26 years in charge, and the election in Pakistan.

I found the latter to be the most interesting.  And so did BBC World.

There was in-depth presentation of Pakistan’s political system. Reports from the big cities, and from rural areas, where politics, bribes and loyalty to local landowners are intertwined.

The campaign was very violent, with frequent bombings taking place. The Taliban did their best to undermine the election, claiming that “democracy is un-Islamic”.  Still voter turnout was 60%, including many women (provided their family allowed them to vote).  

It’s encouraging if Muslim countries start to move away from religious fundamentalism.

The election was won by the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was kicked out of office and exiled in the military coup in 1999.

The runner up was the former cricket star Imran Khan. His slogan was obvious:  “Yes we Khan”.

(I've never been to Pakistan. In fact, I've been to a Muslim country only once, at the World Petroleum Congress in Doha, Qatar, a couple of years ago. The picture above was taken inside the congress center, by the women's prayer room. Maybe I should build one in my attic?)

Swallowing a camel

This week I’m at this big conference in Doha. It was even bigger than expected, more than 5000 people from all over the world. It’s very different to the conferences I usually attend; less science and more politics.

Yesterday was the opening ceremony; speeches by highnesses and excellences, music by the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, and then a nice dinner. I was impressed by the kitchen crew. It’s not easy to cook for 5000 people (unless you know how to do the 5-bread-and-2-fish trick, which has been demonstrated only once, as far as I know).

Lots of hot shots are here; secretaries of state, CEOs of major oil companies, highnesses and excellences. Today I was listening to a talk with the Energy commissioner of the European Union; lots of political bla bla bla. I didn’t get anything out of it that I didn’t know already.

This is not the pond I’m used to swim in. Here, I’m a very small fish in a big pond.

My talk was today, this afternoon, in one of the technical sessions. I had a slow and easy morning, and arrived at the conference center right before noon. First, I went to my company’s stand, and begged them to give me a tie (and I got one). Luckily, the color goes quite well with my black shirt.

I started to look for the speaker’s room, to upload my presentation to the computer system, and to prepare for my talk.

The conference center is HUGE, and I couldn’t find my way, so I asked one of the 800 students who work as volunteers at this conference. She was a female student from the university in Doha, dressed in a niqab, covering everything but her eyes.

She was helpful and polite, but I must admit it felt kind of strange to talk to a person showing nothing but her eyes. It’s the first time I’ve been talking to a muslim woman dressed like this. I have no idea if she was smiling or grumpy or annoyed.

I gave my talk in the main theatre. Even with 100 in the audience, it looks almost empty. I wasn’t quite sure how to start. Normally, I start with “Ladies and Gentlemen. Good afternoon”. But what if there were highnesses or excellences in the audience? I didn’t want an insulted and pissed excellency running after me. So, I started with the class-neutral “Good afternoon to all of you”. The rest was straight forward; I’ve done it many times before.

Tonight there was an “Arabian Nights” party, down on the beach of Doha. There were lots interesting dishes to taste (but no beer), and of course I had to swallow a camel. Well, I didn’t eat the whole camel, just a small piece of it, fried on the grill.

The camel tasted very much like pork, but don’t tell the muslims because then they don’t want to eat it anymore.

(I took the picture above in the conference center today. The huge spider is a very nice piece of art, made from bronze. The young lady in the lower right corner happened to pass by when I shot the picture. I can tell you that she had very pretty eyes. That’s all I know about her.)