Myrtus

Dutch National Anthem for Moroccans in Arabic...sucks!

Dutch artist Yuri Vermeer claims that it's his reaction to the current nationalistic populist overtone of Dutch politics, but I think it's his lame attempt at fame and I find it tasteless, to say the least.

If anything, what the video does is instigate even more hatred and resentment among people, pushing for the boiling point.

European Muslims' Jewish Friend, Job Cohen - NYTimes.com

I was talking to one of my sisters recently who lives in Amsterdam and I asked her to tell me what she thinks of Amsterdam's former mayor Job Cohen.

Without hesitation she responded: "He's my idea of what a politician should be like.  Not only does he look the part, he actually does what he says he's going to do, unlike most of our politicians.  He has this natural ability to command respect and put you at ease, sort of like a father figure really, and when all hell breaks loose, you know you're in good hands because he'll take care of it and make you feel that everything is going to be alright.  Sadly, we have too many politicians that look or act like they just rolled out of college, too high on ambition and self-gratification, and absolutely no interest in doing what's good for our country and the people."

New York Times Magazine's Russell Shorto sort of paints the same picture of Mr. Cohen, but in a much broader sense, digging deep into Holland's complicated sociopolitical, historical and multicultural fabric, explaining Cohen the man, the politician and his mission to save Holland from the brink of collapse as a member of parliament.

Millatfacebook wants to put Facebook out of business for allowing Mohamed cartoons

A Facebook look-alike was recently launched in Pakistan in response to "The Draw Mohammed Cartoon Day" and out of revenge against the social networking giant Facebook, for allowing offensive images of the prophet Mohamed to be posted on its site.

Several thousand members have already signed up there in the last 3 days and the site's owner(s) are aiming to sway Facebook users to switch over to their copycat site, hoping to cause some serious damage to Facebook.  They say they welcome everyone, regardless if they're not Muslim.

Yikes! I don't think Facebook is going to like this one bit and I don't think this was such a good idea either, but here it is: Millatfacebook.com

via de Volkskrant

WTF is all I can say about this one!

"Allah Made Me Funny" poking fun at Geert Wilders

The American Muslim comedian trio going by the stage name "Allah Made Me Funny" is currently giving away free tickets in Holland to everyone named "Henk and Ingrid" who wants to see their show.

So what's the catch?

No catch really, just poking fun at Geert Wilders who recently hit a home run with one of his typical divisive remarks as an attempt to drive bigotry down the infield.  In his remark, he used the names "Henk & Ingrid" to describe the average Dutchman/woman and "Fatima & Ali" as the average Muslim immigrant, basically saying that he wants to see to it that the native Dutch are taken care of for a change instead of Muslim immigrants all the time.

As outlandish as Mr Wilders often sounds and as much as I'd prefer to dismiss him as Ahmadinejad and Kaddafi morphed into one and nothing but a clownish hater that makes me laugh with some of the insane things he says, he really does bring up sensitive issues at times that do call for further examination and objective scrutiny.  Too bad his populist ideas are mostly ill-intended and always aim to alienate and marginalize specific segments of the population.

DutchDress

Imagine if you had to miss every single world championship soccer game over the years, because your job was to keep an eye on people in the stands at the stadium...wouldn't that bite?

Bavaria says, not anymore, because now there is DutchDress.

Watch this...and do take note of the little green bubble on the screen, which says: Not 16? Not a drop!

"Everybody Draw Geert Wilders Day" contest kicks off in Holland

The contest was launched today by Dutch satirical website "Stemhok", which translates to "voting booth" in English and as you probably guessed, is all about politics and of course the upcoming parliamentary elections in The Netherlands.

Inspired by the success of Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, Dutch satirical website Stemhok.nl launches a new initiative: Everybod Draw Geert Wilders day. Whether you are a fan and want to honour your crusading hero with a portrait, or whether you just want to vent your irritations about Blonde Dolly from Venlo, from today you can place your artwork on our special facebook page. 

You could use oils or water colours, pencil or charcoal, create a collage of newspaper clippings or experiment with goat dung and other animal excrement: anything goes, providing you can digitally upload it to our facebook page. 

Let your imagination run riot! Wilders has lost weight, so why not consider a nude? It could be abstract: think Guernica, but with Geert Wilders. Geert is a big fan of the ‘right to insult’, so feel free to stretch the limits of propriety. However, we do not tolerate threats of any kind, so we will not publish any still lifes.

We offer a fantastic prize for the winner: a one year free subscription to Stemhok! Send your pictures to [email protected] or upload them here.

The designated Facebook page is here if you wish to participate.

Need ideas?

Well, you might find some inspiration in Geert Wilders' hilarious proposal for the Netherlands to start implementing a "headscarf tax" or, as Mr Wilders himself calls it, "raghead tax"...with the intent to eliminate the "pollution" of the Dutch street caused specifically by the "Muslim headscarf". (teeeheehee.....I'm telling you, the dude is funny as hell!)

The Diary of Anne Frank - Free Download in Arabic

Apparently, other than in Morocco and Tunisia, most people in the Arab world have never heard of "The Diary of Anne Frank". 

This is kind of surprising to me, especially when, in most cases, the book is banned for political or ideological reasons.  You would think that's the more reason people would want to get a hold of it and pass it around, even if it's just out of curiosity, no?  Plus the fact that it's one of the most read books in the world!  I guess that's possible, but it looks like that's going to change now.

They say thousands of copies have been downloaded in Arab countries since it's been made available online free of charge by Aladdin Library about a year ago.

"Aladdin is the first multilingual, free online library in the world that offers its subscribers 24/7 access to an online collection of books translated for the first time into Arabic and Persian with the aim of enhancing mutual knowledge among peoples of different cultures and rejecting conflicts of memory, including all forms of Holocaust denial and trivialization. You can read every book cover to cover and – for the first time in an online library – you can download the entire book free of charge. The library allows subscribers to search each and every word of all of the books and articles in the collection.

The library is the result of a partnership that aims to create a network of non-governmental organizations, intergovernmental institutions and private publishers in Europe and in the Muslim world with the objective of providing a multilingual, reliable and free source of knowledge and information easily accessible on the Internet."

Who says building demolitions can't be beautiful?

Watch and marvel!

Arizona's new immigration law now puts spotlight on Virginia doing same 3 years ago

I personally don't understand what all the fuss is about.  To me it's simple, if you're an illegal alien in any country, you're breaking the law to begin with.  I do understand that the main concern is discrimination with racial/ethnic profiling by authorities as a possible result, which I would find very upsetting, but I say let's deal with it if that actually does happen.

Prince William County in Virginia says they did it and it's working just fine, there is no racial profiling.