Suddenly the petty concerns of my bike commute in lovely Amsterdam do not seem so bad anymore. Casey Neistat was ticketed for not riding his bike in the bikelane in NYC, but his video clearly shows that sometimes riding the bikelane is actually either impossible or highly dangerous….
(Via Michael Minneboo.)
For some reason this strange little statue has been up at a water treatment plant near the hospital where S. is staying and coming past it by train it always reminds me of Robert Crumb’s women. Must be the arse.
You think what with the monotonous regularity God strikes immoral countries, at least according to Yankee fundamentalist wankers, Holland would’ve long ago been wiped out by a superflood/earthquake/volcanic eruption combination for being the first country to make gay marriage legally the same as “normal” marriages. Yet ten years later, we’re still here, gay people can still marry if they want to and no sign of any wrath of god yet.
One of the few times I’ve genuinely been proud of my country. No nonsense, no hysteria, just a (belated) recognition that yes, there is no reason why gender should matter in who you could marry. The only thing that mars it is that civil servants who have problems with performing gay marriages can refuse to do the work they’re paid to do. Ten years should be enough of that nonsense.
We always make fun of it when it happens in England or America, that a bit of snowfall completely disrupts the country, but pride comes for the fall. Today we got our turn, as more snow fell down in a single day than has been seen in years (more or less). Road traffic ground through a halt all through the west of the country, the trains stopped running and here in Amsterdam all the buses had to be taken off as well because it was just too dangerous for them. At the office this morning all the talk was about how and if people would get home, the various weather and traffic were largely unavailable and in general a mild and somewhat pleasurable sort of panic reigned.
Of course, for those unlucku sods out in the provinces who had come into work normally in the morning, it was a problem getting home, as every other fscker in a car decided to leave early and “beat the rush”, the trains stopped leaving and the public transport in Amsterdam itself slowly wound down as well. But still, for me at least it wasn’t all bad. The trams I needed were all running and yes, there were some delays but I was warm and dry and with an unread book so all the eseentials were there. What’s more, the walk home from the ferry because the buses had been cancelled was quite peaceful, especially with this on the headphones. Yes, I was surprised too.
The above public service broadcast ad annoys me everytime I see it. Produced by Postbus 51, the government’s moralistic propaganda agency, the voiceover explains how the guy in the wheelchair would’ve been helped better if people had prevented the assault on him that put him in there in the first place. I always found it a bit harsh on the people actually in the video; they couldn’t help it, they weren’t there. But it is a symptom of our supposed selfish times that the government feels the need to put up videos warning us to do our civic duty, unless we want to see more train conductors in wheelchairs. But are so selfish, or is our discomfort with contemporary society and its mores based more on a moral panic caused by a few well publicised horrible incidents?
One clue is what happened on my way back on the hospital, when a woman went into epilectic shock a few seats behind me. Before I could do anything, or even think about what to do, it was no longer needed. One American woman, either somebody with a nursing background or just generally competent, was immediately helping her to not hurt herself, another, Dutch woman was calling the emergency number for an ambulance and getting advice on what to do, an Italian (?) tourist was helping to lower the victim to the floor in the position the emergency people recommended, others were offering coats and such for her, and so on. A tram full of people wrapped up in their own affairs in a matter of seconds rallied around to help somebody none of them had ever seen before. Nothing really heroic, nothing you could brag about on tv, but people still did it as a matter of course, because they were concerned and wanted to help.
Fair restores your faith in humanity.