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Monthly Archives: January 2014
drugging the Dutch mind
We Dutch are good at keeping appearances. Our image as dope heads is really unjustified although our coffeeshops are good for tourism (what else would you visit for?). At least they used to be, not so sure what the current … Continue reading
singing the revolution has changed its beat
A recent article at ahram online triggered this post, a piece starting with this sentence: Ramy Essam’s new song, ‘We Don’t Belong to Them,’ gives voice to those caught in the middle of Egypt’s Islamist-military tug of war. That caught my eye, because … Continue reading
Posted in society
Tagged Cairokee, Egypt, Microphone, political analysis, Ramy Essam
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the art of making powerful comparisons, another example
About a year ago I posted a great example of the art of making powerful comparisons. Just came across another good example of bringing stats to life: an Oxfam Briefing paper on political capture and economic inequality contains this amazing statistic. Point … Continue reading
a young lad living an ancient ethic
Like any sport ultra running has its heroes. Everyone who follows the discipline knows of Yiannis Kouros. Not that much is known about him. He doesn’t blog, although still running, the days of his mind-blowing records are over, he’s not involved … Continue reading
explosm Cairo
The car bomb and possibly the suicide bomber, have finally reached the capital. As was to be expected Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis claimed the spectacle, but if they are actually behind it, what the purpose of it would be, if there is any … Continue reading
Posted in society
Tagged Cuby and the Blizzards, Egypt, explosm, political analysis, Sarah Rifky
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rhetoric and thinking
Big title for a short reflection on assessing arguments. Triggered by a couple of recent short reads, each pointing toward a particular stance when hearing or reading an argument about a hot potato issue. Just a couple, as the start … Continue reading
Egypt is more than trouble
Every place has many faces of which one or two tend to dominate its media image. Unfair, and thus in need of some correction. Some sounds that make Egypt make me happy:
moving to Shanghai
It’s still half a year into the future but the move is now confirmed. My blog started off – very first post – with announcing a future move to Egypt. I actually moved to Cairo, and that’s what I should … Continue reading
Egyptian retail corruption as a sign of the times?
Our pattern-seeking species is very good at confusing correlation with causality. Brian Clegg‘s Dice World That I just read on my travel from Cairo to Nijmegen says some memorable things about that. We actually go way beyond correlation as a basis … Continue reading
Posted in psychology, society
Tagged Brian Clegg, confirmation bias, corruption, Dr. John, Jonny Winter, pattern seeking
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revolution on ice re-blogged and mindmapped
The piece below by Elliott Colla appeared on Jadalliya. Although that site is on my resources list I had missed it but Foreign Policy‘s Democracy lab channel pointed me to it. This long and winding article is probably too much for most … Continue reading
pyramids and the Egyptian revolution
I’ve just read my first Terry Pratchett novel and absolutely loved it. Reading it in the Sinai definitely added a dimension to it. It’s about religion and belief, has a camel as one of its main characters that also happens … Continue reading
Posted in psychology, society
Tagged Allman Brothers, Egypt, Frank Zappa, originality, political analysis, Terry Pratchett
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the good, the bad and the ugly
Christmas holidays brought all the kids to Egypt and we spent most of that time in the Sinai. A couple of days in Dahab to explore under water, walk, run, climb and relax, and then a four-day camel trek in … Continue reading
Posted in personal, society
Tagged Bedouins, Dahab, Egypt, Maarten Teerlinck, propaganda, Sinai
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roger henke's fancies 