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Thursday, September 29, 2005
Compulsory reading |
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It's an old one, but this is by far one of the best articles dealing with European hypocrisy towards America.
'Hertsgaard illustrates Americans’ ignorance of world geography by telling us about a Spaniard who was asked at a wedding in Tennessee if Spain was in Mexico. I once told such stories as well (in fact, I began my professional writing career with a fretful op-ed about the lack of general knowledge that I, then a doctoral candidate in English, found among my undergraduate students); then I moved to Europe and met people like the sixtyish Norwegian author and psychologist who, at the annual dinner of a Norwegian authors’ society, told me she’d been to San Francisco but never to California.'
Just the other day, a well-educated acquintance of mine complained of an American who didn't know that The Hague, our political 'capital', wasn't the real capital of the Netherlands. Of course, she fell mute when I asked her about the capitals of Rhode Island, New York and Florida. (Providence, Albany and Tallahassee.)
Point in case: the average citizen of any country is probably not that well versed in geography. I've done fairly well in school, but when I bought my first car for 500 euros a few years back, I then spent 1300 euros on a navigation system because I usually can't find my own bedroom without a map. (I live in a 40 square metres apartment, so it's not the size that matters, in this case, at least.) And using such clichés only serves to estrange two proud continents (no offense, Canada) that would be better off working together.
My sincere apologies to Dr. Phil for that last sentence.
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14:26 |
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Amsterdam city council discriminates against the poor |
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Yes, the headline is somewhat sensationalist, but it is true. The Amsterdam city council has decided it's a good idea to further limit the number of cars in the city. People should drop off their cars in big parking garages near the ring road and then spend about half an hour getting to their homes. If they can get into those parking garages, because the ring road is usually jammed. I predict a lot of agression and a lot more stalled traffic, wasting a lot more gas whilst working to create an er... 'cleaner' atmosphere.
Now here's the discriminatory part. They also want to limit the distribution of parking permits. 'Dirty' cars won't get one anymore. Now, this won't affect people like me with a relatively new and clean vehicle (I drive 22-24 kilometres to the litre at 100 km/h highways, depending on wind conditions). Hell, even if it does, I've got the resources to trade it in for a cleaner one. Wat it will do, however, is further decrease the mobility of those with lower incomes, thus also decreasing their ability to get better paid jobs which often require the possession of a car, especially for those with limited education.
Of course, they'll try to rally support for their plans by making this about Big Bad SUV's (I hate those too, although their owners do already pay an obscene amount of BPM and road tax) and Those Nasty Filthy Rich Spoiling The World For Our Children - but anyone driving a 1988 Volkswagen without the money for a decent set of soot filters (the danger of so-called 'fine dust' is still highly dubious at best, despite vehement claims of environmental organizations to the contrary) can pretty much look forward to a daily tram transit to a huge garage 5 clicks from his house.
If you, like me, think this is a ludicrous and discriminatory idea, send your concerns to:
Dienst Milieu en Bouwtoezicht,
t.a.v. Harry van Bergen
Weesperplein 4
Postbus 922
1000 AX Amsterdam
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8:45 |
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