BLUE SKIES & COMMON GROUND

Kuyper in the US

2009-08-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

Currently, I'm traveling through the US for two months working on a project for the Dutch newspaper Trouw and the Free University of Amsterdam. I'm making the same trip that the Dutch politician, journalist and theologian Abraham Kuyper made in 1898 looking for Kuyperian influences on my way. On the road I will be writing articles, taking pictures and making videos. My first stop was New York city. To read the article click here.

You can follow the entire trip (and watch video's etc.) on this website.

On October 14, I will also give a presentation about my trip during the AmericaXperience at the Free University of Amsterdam. For more information click here.

Barbershop in Birmingham

2008-11-06T06:43:00.000-08:00

Check out the video I made for RNW/De Wereldomroep about Eugene Jones, a civil rights activist who marched with Martin Luther King. Today, Eugene is the owner of a barbershop in Birmingham, Alabama where people could register to vote. In the video Jones reflects on the civil rights history in Birmingham and talks about the meaning of Barack Obama for black America.

You can find more videos on the Trouw website, such as this video I made about Sarah Palin at a McCain-Palin rally in Pennsylvania and this video on young voters with two students from Harvard.

The Dreamer and the Dream

2008-11-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

During the 60's, pastor Gwen C.Webb was one of the 'foot soldiers' that marched with Martin Luther King in Birmingham, Alabama. Today, Webb sees president-elect Obama as the fulfilment of King's dream and works as a volunteer for the Obama team in Birmingham: "It reminded me of the movement again".

November 4, 2008

2008-11-04T21:47:00.000-08:00

posters on a wall @ Central Square, Cambridge, MA

Jay & Bob Talkin' Politics in Mexican Hat, Utah

2008-10-18T08:19:00.000-07:00

On the night of the last presidential debate we passed through Utah on our way from Monument Valley to Colorado. Hoping to find a place to watch the debate with some Americans we stopped in the small town of Mexican Hat, Utah. But, most people we asked about the debate either didn't know there was one in the first place or weren't going to watch it. So, we ended up eating dinner at the Mexican Hat Lodge - the famous home of the 'swingin steak' - and had a nice chat with these guys:

Road Trip Comin' up: Starting on October 12 in Albuquerque, New Mexico

2008-10-09T12:46:00.001-07:00

While America is getting ready for the presidential elections, my brother and I will be driving through the American South for a couple of weeks.

Starting in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Tuesday, October 14 we'll drive all the way to the center of American politics in Washington, DC. After my brother flies back to Holland on the 28th, I'll stay a couple of weeks longer and will be around during the elections as well as the week after. I'll try to keep you posted right here on some of the stories we run into while on the road.

PS: Is Dorothea Lange actually wearing Converse All Stars while driving through the Great Depression here?

Wiki says: In his late 30s, Marquis M. Converse, who was previously a respected manager at a footwear manufacturing firm, opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Company (also known as the Boston Rubber Shoe Company) in Malden, Massachusetts in 1908. The company was a rubber shoe manufacturer, providing winterized rubber soled footwear for men, women, and children. By 1910, Converse was producing 4,000 shoes daily, but it wasn't until 1915 that the company began manufacturing athletic shoes for tennis. The company's main turning point came in 1917 when the Converse All-Star basketball shoe was introduced. Then in 1921, a basketball player named Charles H. or "Chuck" Taylor walked into Converse complaining of sore feet. Converse gave him a job. He worked as a salesman and ambassador, promoting the shoes around the United States, and in 1923 his signature was added to the All Star patch.

Dang, I really think she is...

Shouldn't forget to pack mine...

Small Town Iran: Kharanaq

2008-06-06T02:41:00.000-07:00

After a beautiful ride from Yazd through the snowy Iranian desert we were welcomed in the small town of Kharanaq by these old little men and the woman with the wheelbarrow. They invited us to warm up around their fire and did not let us go until we had eaten almost half a wheelbarrow of sandy yellow carrots, which they had just taken out of the frozen ground. Actually, the carrots tasted surprisingly good: fresh and juicy in a way. The woman insisted on being in a picture with her wheelbarrow. I love these people...

A selection of my photos from Iran are currently being exhibited at the Univeristy of Leiden (Lipsius Building, Room 127 as well as in the hallway leading to the multimedia-lab).

Joris Luyendijk: 5 New Ways for Journalism

2008-06-02T02:50:00.000-07:00

About two years ago Joris Luyendijk wrote "Het Zijn Net Mensen" (People like us. Images from the Middle East), a very insightful, critical as well as self-reflexive view on the problems concerning the practice of journalism in the Middle-East. In the book Luyendijk gives the reader a look behind the scenes of foreign news and broadly states that news is always filtered, distorted and/or manipulated in one way or another, and that traditional western style journalism does not work in countries in which press freedom is restricted. In the Netherlands his book has been read by more than 200.000 people and ignited a public debate about the way in which journalists and the media work, especially abroad.

The downside was that many people in the Netherlands completely lost their trust in any foreign news reports whatsoever believing that it is completely impossible to practice journalism in the Middle East. As Luyendijk has stated over and over again, this was not what he was trying to say. He did believe, though, that journalists needed to be plunged into a same kind of crisis as Edward Said once plunged anthropologists in. Not to destroy journalism, but to change it, to improve it in ways it could not without dealing with this crisis. During a lecture at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Luyendijk shared how his own thinking has developed since he wrote his bestseller. Most importantly, he came up with five "new ways for journalism" to deal with the challenges described in his book. What follows is a summary of his statements accompanied with (kinda blurry) video clips of Luyendijk describing every solution one by one:

1. We need new genres that will illuminate what remains hidden in a police state, namely that it is a police state. The strength of a dictatorship is how it manages to hide its true nature. So, break down the facade: show what a police state really is and what the absence of the rule of law really means.

2. Introduce to the public the concept of "structural ambiguity." This is an ambiguity that cannot be overcome by extra efforts in reporting because it is inherent in the system, in this case a police state. You cannot extrapolate one person's views to the wider population in a way you can in a democratic context, because there are no opinion polls, ratings, free parliamentary debates, etc. For example, we cannot know the general opinion of ordinary Egyptians about the cartoon crises. We cannot know what is representative. And this ambiguity should find a place in coverage.

3. In conflicts media organizations should find ways to increase transparency about their choices and their criteria for selection. Rather than hiding behind promises of objectivity journalists should embrace their subjectivity and explain why they cover this and not that, to highlight why they took this angle and not that angle, why they use these terms and not other ones. This requires a rethinking of the journalist's role: a journalist is not a 'fly on the wall', but part of the world he or she covers. We should accept these human influences and analyze how they influence reporting.

4. The need for journalists to situate themselves in the field they represent. "Where does reality stop and representation begin?" Luyendijk wonders. Often things happen so that, or because camera's are there. We need new/more conceptual tools to analyze and new journalistic tools to represnet the interplay between image and reality, between coverage and its influence on the world it covers.

5. The objectification of the opponent in a conflict paves the way for violence. Luyendijk called this "perhaps the most important and urgent challenge" and believes the media should not help to pave this road. Journalists should also familiarize the news consumer with the points of view of the opponent and his/her reasons. In every situation and every conflict there exist different narratives about the events being covered. We need to find a way to put these multiple narratives into one meta-narrative, for example by also showing what Al-Jazeera or other news stations have to say about the situation being covered.

Is Hillary Carving Out a Place for Herself?

2008-04-26T15:49:00.000-07:00

This marble sculpture by Adeleide Johnson (1846-1955) was designed as a tribute to the passage of the 19th Amendment to the American Constitution. In 1920 this amendment gave American women the constitutional right to vote. The sculpture portrays three American pioneers of women suffrage: Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. In 1922 it was added to the American Capitol collection as a gift from the National Women's Party. Today, this piece is located in the rotunda of the Capitol building and stands in the company of the busts of many American presidents.

Now, despite the fact that women in America had the constitutional right to stand for election since 1788 already, all presidents so far have been men, thus all busts of American presidents in the rotunda portray men. Anticipating the election of the first female president of the United States, Adeleide Johnson added a rough-hewn marble at the top of her sculpture. It is being said that it should one day portray the bust of the first woman elected for president of the United States.

When I took this picture about two years ago people were speculating whether Hillary Clinton might maybe take a shot at the presidency, and whether maybe one day her face would be carved out of the rough marble. As a Senator, Clinton is a regular guest of the Capitol Building which makes me wonder what goes through her head whenever she passes this piece of marble.

Today a female president in the White House seems to be closer than ever and Hillary is fighting hard to carve out a place for herself amidst the presidential busts. She has proved to be a fighter and has shown she's still in the game by winning the Pennsylvania primaries. Even so, the tools she uses to win the elections have been far from pretty.

A couple of days ago she gave the following answer to a question about what she'd do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons: "I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran," Clinton said. "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them." Excuse me? "TOTALLY OBLITERATE THEM"? This tough talk is not only imprudent, but goes straight against any hint of just war theory, and it sure doesn't testify to a high regard for humanity either. No human being should want to consider to obliterate any country entirely, if you'd ask me. Why is the world outraged when Achmedinejad says something like this about Israel, but when Hillary Clinton says a similar thing about Iran she rises 3% in the polls?

In an attempt to give all of them some kind of fair chance to explain who they are in their own words I've started reading the autobiographies of the three main presidential candidates. The idea is to write a piece creating some kind of dialogue between the three books and to get a better idea of the person behind the politician. So far I read Barack Obama's "Dreams From my Father" and John McCain's "Faith of My Fathers," and currently I'm reading Hillary Clinton's autobiography "Living History".

To me, Hillary Clinton too often seems to have made an impression as a cold and calculating politician hungry for power. Reading her autobiography helped a bit to show the human side behind the politician, offering some kind of window into her heart showing the impact living history has made on her. At the same time it did not diminish my suspicion, although she does seem to have at least a bit more conviction than I thought she had. It has definitely helped me to get more sympathy for her as a person. Even so, throughout the book I keep having trust issues. Somehow she has always raised a feeling of suspicion in me, and I'm not really sure how to get rid of it. Her false remarks about her visit to Bosnia sure didn't help. And, as an editorial in the New York Times (a newspaper that tends to lean towards the Democrats) titled "The Low Road to Victory" recently pointed out, her campaign has been mean and dirty, at times even in line with the tactics of the Republican campaign consultant Karl Rove.

Talking about a 1980 campaign in which Bill Clinton tried to keep his position as Governor of Arkansas (but lost) Hillary writes the following in her autobiography: "That 1980 campaign, where truth was turned on its head, convinced me of the piercing power of negative ads to convert voters through distortion." At least she's honest about it. Maybe it's not completely fair to quote her here like this. Even so, I think it might do her good if she'd look at these words as a mirror in which she could reflect on herself today. For, isn't she doing the same thing at the moment? And not just against the Republican Party, but even to her very own fellow party member Barack Obama?

Personally, I've always found Hillary Clinton come off a bit cold and hard in the political arena. In that sense marble might actually suit her very well...

My Very First Video: DJ Ishtar

2008-03-13T13:40:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to present to you my very first "mini-documentary video"...

It's all about the Dutch-Iranian DJ Ishtar. Inspired by her travels as well as her own rich background she celebrates the beauty of life in all its diversity and uses music as a medium to bring people together. The video explores DJ Ishtar's work as a musical ambassador of a globalized world as well as her mission to put contemporary electronic world music on the musical menu in "the West".

I made this video last fall for my TV documentary course. It was basically the first time I made anything like this (or held a professional camera), and - looking back - I see a LOT of elements that could be improved. Even so, I really enjoyed filming and editing the whole thing and hope you'll have at least as much fun watching it.

I dedicate this video to my friend Tala Tavakoli who introduced me to DJ Ishtar and without whom this video would not exist today.

To listen to and/or download DJ Ishtar's latest global fusion mix tape click here. To listen to DJ Isthar on Dutch Radio click here.

Please also check out the websites of DJ Ishtar:
www.djishtar.com
www.myspace.com/djishtar

Van Gogh & Persepolis: Movies in Iran

2008-03-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

While in Iran I got reminded time and again of the fact that basically everything seems to be available in this country. That includes movies. I was most surprised, though, when I ran into a Theo van Gogh film while skipping through a friend's DVD collection. My friend told me how much he loved Van Gogh movies, which resulted in a slightly odd conversation in which I had to explain why Theo van Gogh was not making movies anymore...

It was not a Theo van Gogh movie that we watched that night, though. We watched Persepolis; an animation film about a young girl coming of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. At first, this revolution, which ended the rule of the Shah in 1979, seems to be a cause for celebration. But, the hope that it bred quickly fades away as the new Islamic regime starts to show its true face and imposes its strict fundamentalist views on society more and more, severely harassing anyone that refuses to obey. The film is based on the author’s own life story which provides a wonderful lens into recent Iranian history, bringing it alive with a human twist.

Ironically, this was the very night Persepolis was also shown at the Rotterdam Film Festival in the Netherlands. But while my fellow Dutchies could follow the story in their mother tongue I was struggling through the French with Farsi subtitles. Quite a challenge I can assure you. I watched the movie with three Iranian friends and was very curious about their views on the film and how it resonated with their own experiences. They seemed to recognize and remember many things, like a boy that fell off a roof while being chased by the police after they had found out about an illegal party he had been attending, or the sirens and the bombs during the war between Iran and Iraq that followed soon after the revolution. One of them told me the following:

“The film is really realistic about what has happened to my country, especially near the late 70s. It particularly shows the change in the Iranian life style and habits after the revolution. From the time that I remember, everything was exactly as my own experience, especially the underground parties, making alcoholic drinks in the basement, and buying music cassettes in special shady parts of the city. You could easily find out that people before the revolution were happier than afterwards. The movie also represented very well how people were happy at first right after the revolution (most of the people, about 90%, after the king's departure) but finally (after two years) they found out that things had actually changed from bad to worse. I think there should have been more emphasis on torture by the government and other crimes against oppositions in the film.” Even so, he added: “I think whoever is interested in Iran's recent history should see this movie.”

Personally, I think there are at least two important reasons why people need to go see this movie. First of all, it offers a historical perspective that many people of my generation seem to lack. Many of my friends grew up after the revolution and often aren't very familiar with Iranian history at all. During the last couple of days I talked with some Dutchies who had seen the movie and weren’t really familiar with Iran. What seemed to impress them the most was the fact that in the movie Iran seemed to be a very modern and even “Western” country before the revolution, and that the people were actually very much like themselves. The latter brings me to my second point, namely the human face this movie gives to the Iranian people, which was also one of the main motivations of Marjane Satrapi to make it in the first place. All in all, the historical context combined with the human side of the story offers some very much needed perspective next to all the one-dimensional thoroughly politicized stuff we get slapped in the face with by a grand part of our Western media.

Interestingly, one of my friends also recommended me to see another movie to get a better understanding of life in Iran today, namely “Das Leben Der Anderen” (The Lives of Others), which portrays life in East Germany during the days of the Stasi. I find this an interesting comparison – maybe also because “Das Leben Der Anderen” supposedly starts in 1984 which brings me back to my dystopia-theory about Iran and the Netherlands, which holds that Iran seems to have developed more into the direction of George Orwell’s “1984” while the Netherlands rather seems to follow the plot of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” Both have their problems. But I guess that’s stuff for a whole new story…

"Snowboarding in Iran?! Is that Possible?!"

2008-03-03T14:55:00.000-08:00

Together with “What?! Are you out of your mind?!” accompanied by shaking heads and rolling eyes, the above mentioned quote was one of the most common reactions I got when I told people I was going snowboarding in Iran. I must admit that when I first saw the snowy slopes of the mountains rising up above Tehran last Spring, I could barely believe it myself. But I can assure you now: snowboarding in Iran is definitely possible!! More than that: I'd most strongly recommend it!

Or maybe I shouldn’t. I might just spoil it all. Right now, the beautiful slopes of the Alborz mountains might very well be one of the best kept secrets of Iran, and if I’m very honest with you, it feels a bit like finding a treasure that a part of me very much wants to keep to myself.

On Saturday morning (Ashura) we said our goodbyes to Mr. Mussafi, got our snowboard gear and boarded the little bus that would take us out of the gray polluted city of Tehran to the clear blue skies and fresh powder of Dizin, about 90 minutes north of Iran’s capitol. It was a great ride with wonderful scenery as we passed small towns, a beautiful lake as well as some dashtes (mourning parades) while climbing higher and higher into the Iranian mountains.

In Dizin we had lunch and some tea before we checked out our new residence: a beautiful chalet, which we embraced as our new crib right away. It was a really cool place with a huge fireplace as well as a little pond with a fountain (!) in the middle of the living room, a kitchen, and multiple bedrooms of which one had a so-called “corsi,” a kind of low wooden table with a built in heating system you can put your feet/legs under surrounded by mattresses covered with large quilts and blankets. I’m not sure whether this makes any sense at all but I can assure you that it is very warm and cozy. Outside a little stream of fresh sparkling water ran down through the mountains flowing right behind our chalet and two kind dogs either hung around or kept watch in front of our main entrance.

It was a couple of hours later when we found out that it was actually freezing cold -- the heating system was frozen -- that the water in the shower was cold too and that the “European toilet” did not work. But those are pretty insignificant details. Fortunately our landlord sent a guy to fix the heating system right away. This guy really did his best running around with our water cooker but wasn’t really able to overcome the frosty forces of nature until one of our last days. Luckily, the corsi never disappointed us – except for that one night that all electricity fell out and we slept (or tried to sleep) cozily around the fireplace.

In the morning we took a taxi or hitchhiked (every car basically serves as a taxi in Iran) to the piste some minutes away where we boarded the old, but fine lifts that took us halfway up the mountain where there was some kind of fast food restaurant and lots of Iranians enjoying the sunny outdoors.

The snowboarding was great, especially in the virgin powder off-piste, which most Iranians seemed to leave untouched. For European standards it was not busy at all on the slopes and lines for the lifts weren’t bad either. Inside the lifts our Iranian companions typically shared their collection of video clips on some of the hippest cell-phones I’ve ever seen while some of DJ Tiesto’s tunes blasted out of the boxes of some kind of mp3 player. I’ve also come to the conclusion that one of the best ways to learn Farsi (and to make friends) is to lock yourself into one of the egg-lifts with someone who speaks only Farsi and to start a conversation that forces you to keep talking until you get out. This is also how I came to see why it’s actually very useful to keep up your Pictionary skills.

At night we hung out in the chalet chilling with some tea, a water pipe and a footbath in front of the fireplace, chatted with our Iranian friends, ate our home cooked meals, went to some kind of underground party or visited our super cool neighbor and landlord Fahrid who happens to be a great snowboarder (and snowboard instructor). During the winter months he can generally be found in the Iranian powder while he leaves the country during the summer to chill and meditate in India.

For many Iranians the mountains offer a breather. For those trying to escape the polluted haze of air that seems to linger permanently over Tehran, the mountains offer fresh oxygen, while skiing/snowboarding also offers a break from the sometimes suffocating rules of the Islamic regime. Girls can exchange their head scarves for hats, and despite the fact that there exist separate lines for boys and girls waiting for the lifts, they end up in the same lifts after all, after which they can ride the slopes and rip the powder together with no trouble. All in all, the whole atmosphere tends to be much more relaxed in the mountains, for, as someone also told the Dutch journalist Eefje Blankevoort in her book "Stiekum kan hier alles": “Ayatollah's can't ski.” If true, they definitely miss out on an awesome experience…

For the Dutchies amoung you, check out this article about my friend Amir who often goes snowboarding in Dizin (with video partly in English).

Muharram in Tehran

2008-02-24T12:27:00.001-08:00

On Thursday night we arrived without any trouble at the Imam Khomeini Airport. A pretty white layer of snow still covered the landscape and we were welcomed by the refreshingly frosty night air and temperatures far below zero. A road bordered by brightly colored neon lights led us via the shrine of Khomeini into the heart of Iran's capitol where we were warmly welcomed by Mr. Mussafi, the kind owner of the Firouzeh hotel, where we enjoyed a short night of sleep before we hit the streets of Tehran.

We happened to arrive during Muharram, which is the first month of the Islamic calendar during which Shiites mourn the death of the greatest martyr of their history, Imam Hoessein, the grandson of Mohammed. This period of national mourning takes forty days and we were in Tehran during the two most important days of Muharram: the ninth and tenth (Ta'sua and Ashura). Ashura supposedly marks the day on which Imam Hoessein died during the battle of Karbala. Both are national holidays in Iran and as a result the slopes were closed for snowboarding and we wandered through the Persian capitol checking out the dashtes; parades of men moving rhythmically through the streets of Tehran accompanied by black and green colored flags, some beating the drums, others themselves on their chests and backs either with their hands or iron chains while singing "Ya Hoessein". Most of the men I saw didn't seem to be too passionate about the whole mourning thing. Many were laughing or seemed to be performing some empty ritual society expected them to do. There just didn't seem to be much soul in it, although I've heard this is very different in some other towns in Iran. Meanwhile people handed out tea, food and candy on the streets of which we got a good share (to the point that it was almost embarrassing) and we met lots of warm, kind and hospitable people who showed a genuine interest in who we were and where we came from, while some also shared their own stories, dreams and opinions with us.

Like last year we also met many friendly soldiers some of whom asked to be in a picture with us. Men in Iran have to serve in the military for two years in order to get a passport. So, without military service they can't travel outside Iran nor do many other things. Last year we met multiple soldiers that told us they had to serve, but like many other people we met they distantiated themselves immediately from the regime telling us they – like so many young Iranians - wanted to get out of the country and follow their dreams elsewhere. Since so many young people decide to follow their dreams elsewhere, Iran suffers from a huge brain drain as many of the most talented young people leave the country. The sad thing is that these tend to be exactly the people that are dissatisfied with the status quo and could be the driving force for change in this country. Even so, I can't blame them. I'd probably try to get out myself. And, it's not that these young people don't love their country. They do. Often very much so, and they hope it will change, but change has a high price that not every one is willing to pay. The currency tends to be either blood or one's future. If you get caught in a student protest you're in deep trouble. If you're lucky you'll "only" be kicked out of college, but in a society that suffers from joblessness while most people are well educated and where the government controls about 80% of the economy a job will probably be hard to get. According to some people I spoke with, many Iranians want their country to change, but at the same time most people aren't really directly helped by large changes in the status quo either. In many ways people have become depended on the regime whose tentacles have found their way throughout Iranian society keeping it in an iron grasp making that attempts for reform often crash in the walls of a self-conserving system.

During the afternoon we enjoyed tea and a waterpipe at a teahouse in one of the beautiful parks of Tehran which was now covered in snow while a huge TV was showing a passion play about the death of Hoessein. After we had warmed up a bit we took cabs to the Azadi Tower which is one of the main symbols of Tehran marking the entrance to the city. The tower was built in 1971 to commemorate the 2500th anniversary of the Persian empire and was originally called the Shahyad Tower ("Rememberance of the Shahs"). Many of the demonstrations before the Iranian revolution took place around the tower, which after the revolution was dubbed the Azadi Tower, meaning "Freedom Tower."

At night we had dinner with some Iranians at the Ferdowsi Hotel and I was reunited with some of my very best Iranian friends whom I got to know last year. In my experience they are the best ambassadors of their country I've ever met, and to me seeing them again was the greatest blessing of the day.

After dinner all of us (about twelve people) were invited to the home of one of the Iranians we had just met at the hotel – a photographer who just got back from a trip to Afghanistan where he had taken some pretty amazing pictures. We accepted the invitation and got home late with another sweet experience of Iranian hospitality.
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There and Back Again...

2008-02-17T16:24:00.001-08:00

I'm back, although my mind and heart still wander around somewhere in Persia. I can look back upon an amazing trip. Actually, I kinda feel as if I have been on three trips that are distinct but related: first snowboarding in the Alborz mountains with an awesome group of people, then traveling through Yazd, Esfahan and Qom on my own visiting friends after saying goodbye to the Persian Powder gang, and then there was Tehran which feels like a journey on itself. All have a different feel about them, left distinct footprints on my heart and memory and are dear to me for different reasons. All were awesome.

I'm sorry for the delay, but will try to post some of the stories and introduce you to some of the people I've met in the days to come. Also, during the very last day my camera got stolen in a cramped women's compartment of a Tehran metro, which was a pretty interesting experience. The downside of the matter is, though, that I now miss most of my pictures of my last week in Tehran.

Meanwhile, the three guys that are pretty much responsible for igniting my Persian passion by taking me to Iran about a year ago will be reporting for the Dutch current affairs program EEN VANDAAG during the weeks leading up to the parliamentary elections starting TODAY. You can check out their weblog here.

Here follows a message from the guys themselves:

Dear all:

Me and my buddies Tom and Ludo will be travelling through Iran
starting from today Feb. 17th - early march. We hope to find out more
about the nature and functioning of Iran's self-proclaimed "Islamic
democracy". Looking at the Parliament elections, coming March 14th,
we ask those we meet underway how they look at their society. What are
their political and non-political dream, hopes, illusions? What role
do the elections play in the daily life of Iranians in all classes of
society? Etcetera.

We will be blogging daily about our journey @ http://iran.eenvandaag.nl .
For this journey we need your expertise and curiosity to guide us in
our work as journalists in Iran.
To make following AND contributing to our journey a bit easier, we use
social network-sites.

You can subscribe to the following groups:

http://groups.myspace.com/iraanseverkiezingen
http://iraanseverkiezingen.hyves.nl/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10434281982

Unfortunately the Blog is "Dutch only" but maybe the video reports we´ll be
making are of interest to you internationals as well.

If you feel it is important for us Westerners to learn more about the
Iranian/Eastern perspective on life - please spread the word about it!

Thanks and a good day to all,

Tom / Karel / Ludo

Persian Powder Snow Trip

2008-01-13T12:23:00.001-08:00

During my first visit to Iran, in the Spring of 2007, my heart has been captured by this magical paradoxical country and its inhabitants. One thing that has left a huge impression on me was how many (young) Iranians suffer in very direct ways from the way in which they are being represented in our media and the negative pictures these images paint in our minds. Now, I’m not saying the images we see in the media have no truth in them. What I am saying is that they tend to be selective and stigmatizing and don’t do justice to the whole of what Iran has to offer. Instead they take hostage the very people that already suffer from the realities these pictures represent, and I strongly believe that for the sake of peace and understanding a more holistic approach is very much needed. I too walked around with these images in my head. A lot of reading adjusted my image a bit, but eventually it took a trip to Iran to cleanse my mind from the one-sidedness of images that lived there and the fear and distrust they had fostered.

On the 17th of January I will leave for Iran to go snowboarding with a group of young people from Iran and the Netherlands. Together we hope to explore each other’s cultures and build new friendships that break through walls of misunderstanding and misrepresentation. If you're interested in this trip, keep checking this website and I'll try to keep you posted...

For more info check the Persian Powder website

Check out this video (by Jelmer ten Hoeve) about our 2008 Persian Powder snowboard trip:

PS: there used to be sound to this video, but I guess it wasn't authorized, so the youtube people took it out...

Barack Obama

2007-12-12T11:51:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama has finally been discovered by the Dutch media. And that was about time too. When I followed this young presidential hopeful in 2006 for the Dutch Embassy in Washington, DC I sent a signed photograph of him to a friend of mine in the Netherlands who happened to be an Amerian Studies graduate. Her reaction: "I just received a signed photograph of a young black man with terrible handwriting standing in front of the Capitol Building. Who is he, and what am I supposed to do with it?" I told her to keep it safe, for one day this young man would be the president of the United States.

Some months ago Obama's books were translated into Dutch and I was asked by the TV show "Goedemorgen Nederland" to comment on this young stranger who had announced to be running for the Demorcratic nomination. The books, "Dreams from my Father" and "The Audacity of Hope" are both extremely well written and testify to a heart for people and a vision that seeks to break through boundaries by clinging to that which binds us instead of dwelling on the things that drive us apart. No wonder Oprah Winfrey chose to endorse him....

Now, I just went to one of those websites that lets users select issue positions that are important to them to see who they should vote on...the result basically told me that whatever I do I should NOT vote for Barack Obama...Even so, my heart - which tends to be more liberal than my mind - still seems to go out to him. I must admit its a comforting thought that I don't have to vote, or better yet...am not allowed to vote for these elections anyway...

To watch my appearance in "Goedemorgen Nederland" on September 20, 2007 click here

Control Room & Mission Al-Jazeera

2007-09-03T02:30:00.001-07:00

A couple of years ago I watched a documentary called “Control Room” (2004) as part of a class at Boston College on the media in times of war, peace and terrorism. The documentary dealt with the media coverage of the war in Iraq with a focus on the role of the US military and the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera. I found the documentary rather enlightening, especially since it formed my first real introduction to Al Jazeera, a news station that in the West is too often scornfully referred to as “Osama Bin Laden’s mouthpiece.” Even so, it is probably the most powerful as well as controversial news station in the world today and we'd better recognize it as such.

While visiting the American University bookstore in Cairo a couple of weeks ago, I found a freshly released book by Josh Rushing (an American military officer who featured as one of the main characters in Control Room) called “Mission Al Jazeera: Build a Bridge, Seek the Truth, Change the World.” Turns out Rushing left the military and joined Al-Jazeera English. The book recounts his journey from the Marines to Al-Jazeera. Quite a story if you ask me. Along the way it provides loads of valuable analysis and insights about the way in which both the military and the media work in times of war. It also is a must read for anyone who genuinely desires to gain a better understanding of Al-Jazeera and the Arab side of the story.

With his background as a Marine officer combined with his personal experience at Al-Jazeera, Rushing is able to provide a very interesting look behind the scenes of both worlds. He has become some kind of ambassador between two worlds that seem to be colliding, trying to reach out and bridge the gap that has been created through an increasing sense of distrust and misunderstanding. For starters, he puts military-media interaction surrounding the war in Iraq in a historical perspective, showing how the Bush administration has been hostile towards Al-Jazeera from the beginning and refused to interact with this media giant that has a huge influence on the way in which Arabs perceive the United States. As a result, they neglect to engage and reach out to the Arab world by silencing their own voice, and by doing so they undermine their own influence in the Arab world. Rushing also shows how the CENTCOM military affairs office came under the control of political forces that lead them from its traditional military job of informing on and about the war to the political job of “selling the war.”

As Rushing points out, in the global war on terror, “the media have become a battlefield.” This fact offers both a challenge as well as hope. Hope is found in ways through which the US could engage the Arab people and governments and increase mutual understanding. Rushing’s background allows him to provide a look into the Arab mind offering a perspective of the US that many Americans are not familiar with, showing, among other things, how many Arabs perceive US actions abroad. Rushing admits that this perception is often flawed but argues that it will continue to be so until the US decides to engage the Arab media, including Al-Jazeera, instead of marginalizing them.

Also, he introduces Al-Jazeera as a balanced and trustworthy TV network that seeks to give everyone a voice, a place at the table. In doing so, it is not afraid to be critical of any person or government, including many Arab countries and the United States, thus turning many (especially totalitarian) governments against them. The Bush administration also keeps demonizing the network, mostly because the channel allows airtime to perspectives that are not deemed politically correct according to mainstream American standards. Maybe the US could learn something from Isreal in this respect, for Israel takes Al-Jazeera very seriously, and is one of the few countries in the Middle East that has not banned its reporters, mainly because it historically values the right to free speech and free press. Israeli officials often appear on the news channel to argue their case and share their side of the story with the Arab world. This does not make Al-Jazeera popular among many Arabs who, on their turn, accuse Al-Jazeera of partaking in a Zionist conspiracy. Even so, it does testify to Al-Jazeera’s motto “opinion and the other opinion” (which, by the way, sounds better in Arabic than in English ;)). Rushing believes Al-Jazeera has the potential to function as a much needed bridge between the Middle East and the West through which we can learn to know and understand each other. Indeed, it also offers great potential for America to engage the Arab world. As Rushing put it: “the US government would be wise to recognize the value of Al-Jazeera’s reach in the Middle East, as its viewers regard the network as ‘the most trusted name in news.”

Although I had seen Control Room some years ago, I had never really watched Al-Jazeera myself until I was in Cairo this summer. All in all, I must admit that I’ve been kind of impressed by Al-Jazeera’s professionalism and their attempt to provide a balanced media coverage that tries to offer an image that is as complete and inclusive as possible, going beyond mere entertainment, providing relevant news to those who deem it worthy to watch while keeping in mind, as Josh Rushing pointed out, that “war is never a good-news story.”

Watch Control Room here:

Rageh Inside Iran

2007-08-14T05:06:00.000-07:00

“What do we really know about the Islamic Republic of Iran – aside from a cold war rhetoric of politicians from both sides each accusing the other of evil?” Regeh Omaar asks at the beginning of this film. “I know,” he proceeds, “it has to be more complex than this. It has taking a whole year of bureaucratic wrangling to film inside Iran, but I’ve finally been given a chance to see Tehran with my own eyes and to choose my own path.” The result is one of the best and most needed documentaries I’ve seen in a LONG time.

Rageh Omaar is a quite interesting journalist. While working as a world correspondent for the BBC Omaar turned into a celebrity while covering the American invasion of Iraq from Baghdad. Many of his BBC broadcasts were also syndicated in the US where he became known as the “Skud Stud.” Despite his great popularity Omaar, who works for Al-Jazeera English now, expressed his regret about the way in which he covered the invasion of Iraq. As he himself put it:

“I reported from inside Iraq for several years before the invasion and I regret enormously that while I did endless stories about Saddam, his regime, weapons inspectors and suchlike I spoke very little about ordinary Iraqis; what role religious and sectarian beliefs played in their identity, what they made of the exiled politicians groomed by Washington as their leaders in waiting.”

This documentary flows forth from Rageh’s desire not to make the same mistake again. There have been many times over the past year or so where the accelerating crisis over Iran reminded him of the relentless build-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2002. According to Rageh, “the similarities are chilling; accusations of the development of WMDs, allegations of sponsoring terrorism, and military reinforcements being sent to the region while leading Bush administration officials consistently speak of the need for the world to be prepared for preemptive action.”

Rageh Inside Iran is about the people of Iran, their day-to-day struggles and their hope for the future. Among other things, Rageh goes shopping in Tehran, survives crossing a steet (one of the most dangerous things to do in Iran, if you ask me), is invited to his taxi driver’s home, gets caught up in a demonstration, and takes a look into the world of Iranian pop music and print media. It’s funny to see how, in the process, Omaar gets his share of taruf which makes him feel pretty uncomfortable. At some point he also attends the opening of a new tunnel where he gets into a pretty awkward situation as he is pulled up front by security guards to pray with president Achmedinejad. Omaar exaplains how many Iranians have lost faith in the print media and turned to the internet and satellite TV instead, and provides the viewers with a very practical example of the hassle of getting anything published in Iran and the way in which censorship really works by writing a feature for a popular Iranian youth magazine himself. The article profiles three prominent young women: Nazila Noe-bashari (who runs a transportation company employing many men), Newsha Tavakolian (a renowned photojournalist he met in Iraq, who also happens to be the wife of Dutch NRC correspondent Thomas Erdbrink) and Ghazal Chegini (a passionate young woman who’s making a difference by working in Iran’s huge nongovernmental organizations network for a charity caring for children with cancer). All of them also feature in the documentary. When Omaar’s article finally gets published not only the text has been adapted, but also the pictures got their share of paintshopping as Nazila’s forearms and “too much” of Ghazal’s hair was visible in the original pictures.

Although these three individuals are great examples of women who take up a prominent role in Iranian society, I fear they’re not representative for the majority and many problems still remain in Iran. There’s a reason why many young Iranians leave their country, trying to follow their dreams elsewhere. But there’s hope too, and courage. I think all these things and the tension between them are in a way captured in the poignant words of Ghazal at the end of the documentary: “Most of my friends left Iran," she says, "and if we all leave the country then who will change this place? We have to stay here, we have to struggle, we have to prove that all the things they’re saying about us are not true, and I’m so glad that I’m here and I know that something will get better.” I can’t blame those who leave. If I were Iranian I might already have left myself - if I got the chance to do so in the first place. I have a very very deep respect, though, for all those, like Ghazal, who do not give up hope and courageously fight the daily battles of life in Iran, trying to bring better days to Persia.

All in all, I think this documentary provides a pretty fair image of an often little understood, but much talked about country. Omaar is honest about the complexity of his subject explaining to the public that Iranian society is like a labyrinth; an enigma within a puzzle, hard to penetrate for foreigners. He admits that his documentary was probably only able to scratch the surface. Even so, it was a surface that too many left unscratched up to now. In addition, this documentary once more proves the advise Omaar gave to students intending to embark on a career in journalism, showing that “journalism isn’t always about getting the big interview, it’s also about telling the story of the man on the street.”

Rageh Inside Iran was aired on BBC4 on February 15, 2007. If you missed it, please check it out online; it’s totally worth it!

With Love from Egypt...

2007-08-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Impressions from Iran

2007-08-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to make some sense out of the chaos in my mind and to process all my thoughts and experiences after I returned from Iran last May, I jotted down the following words. It's not really a piece of art (at all!), just a way of trying to cope with the overflow of thoughts and impressions raging through my head and the feelings that captured my heart right after I got back from this magical country:

Impressions from Iran

Trying to recollect my thoughts
Images at the speed of light
A word, a thought, a face
Occupy my mind

Chaos like the cars in Tehran
Seeking hopelessly to express
The hole I feel inside so well
Where feelings bleed and mem'ries dwell

Your smile, your pride, your beauty;
Your stories and your tears
All come together as if one
As I reflect on what I left back in Iran

Courage of the voiceless, hope of the faithless
A man of art, a woman strong
A heart yearning for freedom
A mind inclined to song

They pierce my heart
Then scatter through my mind
A helping hand, a loving touch, a friendly voice
merge with thoughts of a darker kind

A revolutionary leader, a painting on the wall
Through busy streets and buildings tall
The shadow of a mosque looms gloomy in the night
And yet the Happy Moon of Esfahan shines bright

Where dreamers dream both grand and small
And blood does flow through veins still young
Through stories sad of those who know
What happened to the friend that fought the status quo (?)

Towers of silence in the desert last
Where the sun burns as if fire on a glorious past
The legacy of an ancient prophet calling
For good thoughts, good words and good deeds in Yazd

While an old merchant of the bazar enjoys his trade
Water rushes through the mountains where youths on carpets lay
People meet where boundaries fade
Women laugh and children play

They say you conquered the conquerors
From Eskandar to Genghis Khan
With open arms and loving eyes
You also stole my heart, Iran

MISADVENTURE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: TRAVELS AS TRAMP, ARTIST AND SPY

2007-07-16T11:31:00.001-07:00

These books chronicle the fantastic journey of two (and at times four) young British artists making a road trip through the Middle East. "Off Screen" provides mainly visuals while "Misadventures" tells the story behind them. As Henry Hemming explains in "Misadventures" these young artists "were not just going off painting in the Middle East - no, they were embarking on an artistic expedition to the heart of the Islamic world in order to alter Western stereotypes about the region. They planned to get under the skin of this area, to find the parts that didn't appear in the news. They would try to plug the gap that existed between the two visual caricatures of the region: on the one hand the hotbed of modern-day suicidal terror, and on the other a more Orientalist, antique and sexually louche land of Ali Baba flying-carpet fantasy." What follows is an awesome journey; in general, but also in a more personal and artistic sense. "Misadventures" is at times hilarious, but also dead serious as they embark on a reallife adventure that leads them and their car "Yasmine" from the Czech-Slovak border through Turkey to Iran. From Iran into Kurdish Iraq and back into Iran, illigally. From Iran to Oman to Jordon, via Saudi Arabia, as the Second Gulf War gets underway. Then, from Amman via Damascus and Aleppo to Beirut and again from Amman to Baghdad, Jerusalem and back home. On the way, many misunderstandings, stereotypes and prejudices about the Middle East are confronted and crash when faced with true experience. This story reveals a fraction of the human heart of the region that our media often tend to neglect. By doing so it also shows that deep down we are not that different but share a common sense of humanity, which the Iranian boy in the following excerpt, written by Henry Hemming, also tries to make clear. I like this, because this was one of the things that also struck me while I was in Iran and wherever ele I've been. We share the same kinds of dreams, hopes and fears; we all know pain, and in one way or another we all long to be loved and understood. The following scene takes place as Hemming and his friends leave the Art University of Esfahan in Iran after being accused of being spies responsible for organizing a student protest:

"One boy stopped me. Al and Stephen kept on walking.
"Are you coming back?" he asked.
"Er, no, we can't. We're not allowed back in. We're banned."
"OK. Then it is good to meet you." He shook my hand.
"So when do you graduate?" I asked.
"This is my final year. Then I am soldier." He laughed.
"Look at me." His frame was hopelessly thin. "for you I am look like soldier?"
"You'll make a great soldier." I made to leave and said goodbye. "Khoda Hafez." This was the same conversation I had had at least ten times yesterday. As I turned to go the boy stopped me, the back of his hand firm on the inside of my elbow.
"We are the same, you and me."
"What?"
"We are the same. When you are home, when you are in England, remember this. We are the same, you and me. That's all."
He smiled sweetly and left.
I drifted out of the university. Already I missed it. Around me the streets of Esfahan looked stained and windswept."

I REALLY recommend these books. First read "Misadventures in the Middle East," then check out the artistic masterpiece that provides the visual side of story: "Off Screen: Four Young Artists in the Middle East." As the title already suggests, this composition of artistic expressions also reveals a side of the Middle East that often remains outside the view of our news media; subjective, but human and authentic, and DEFINITELY worthwhile!

Ice Cream in Tehran

2007-07-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

This girl just makes me smile. She’d been waiting in line for a long time in the burning sun on a hot Friday afternoon in Northern Tehran. The way her eyes lit up when she was finally given this enormous tower of ice cream was just amazing. Joy, character and expectation are words that pop up when I see this cool little girl with twinkling eyes. Meanwhile, my mind keeps wondering who she will be when she grows up; what Iran will look like once she has reached the age of the young women waiting in line with her...