Thru Other Eyes

Nationale Dodenherdenking (Remembrance Day) 2011

Tonight at 8 PM we celebrate Remembrance Day in honor of all our citizens who died in WW-2 and in any armed conflict since then. In Amsterdam, one of the sub-themes of Remembrance Day this year is generating awareness of just how Jewish the city was until almost all her Jewish residents were shipped off to the concentration camps where very few came back from.

A database has been created of all the 21,662 houses in the city where Amsterdam's 62,000 Jews lived who died at the hands of the Nazis. The neighborhood where we live was apparently one of the most Jewish neighborhoods of the city. Three of the four apartments in our building, Rijnstraat 40, were occupied then by Jewish residents, all of whom died in various camps. One of the newspapers published a special segment with all of the city's "Jewish addresses" and a poster to put in the window on Remembrance Day if your apartment was listed. The hope was that from the street it would be visibly clear just what how much the city lost in human terms when it lost her Jews.

Pre-war Amsterdam was heavily influenced

People on Crackberry

I just returned a week ago from Laos and Cambodia which always leads to some difficult and strange feelings of cultural non-adaptation. Or as I sometimes like to call it in somewhat more popular vernacular - 'mind-fuck'. A great girlfriend of mine, who now lives in Cambodia, recently returned to the States for a home-visit and eloquently and succinctly described that strange feeling of cultural non-adaptation that I share with her:

"Traffic Jams. Sprint. Automated Answering Systems. Dressing for Dinner. Refrigerators that Beep. Everything that Beeps. People on Crackberry, no Time to Say Hi. Advertising. Complaining. Schedules. Entitlement. Belligerence. Reservations. Waste. Protocol. Hello to the Things I was not Missing."

 I especially loved 'People on Crackberry.' Last night I was in De Jaren Cafe here in Amsterdam. I was sitting at a table with Malay friends who were all cackling away in Malay so my mind was arbitrarily wandering around. It landed on the memory of her comment 'People on Crackberry' and lo and behold, as I lifted my head all around me I saw people on one or another form of crackberry. Of course, the subconscious observation of so many people on crackberry probably sparked the memory of 'people on crackberry' but that's just another interesting aside. In any case, ten gallon hats off to Lori for her ever insightful and entertaining observations!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo of the Day

Feb 28 2009

Schiphol Airport, Terminal 3 @ 7.45AM

Amie (right) and Hairi (obviously left - Amie's good friend visiting from Malaysia) about to go thru customs on way to 'singles' weekend in London with a group of friends. Don't know if it was the early hour and my eyes weren't yet focused, my age and the hand is not so steady, or just the inconsistency of the mobile fone, but it all seems a little blurry to me. 

I know that no matter where one lives, there are interesting places within an hour's flight, but I have always gotten a kick living in Europe being only one or two hours flying (or 2 - 6 hours train) away from so many different, interesting, old, historically important and culturally diverse capital cities.

You don't see many people in the background either. Can anyone say, "recession?"

Photo of the Day

Prins Bernhardplein, Amsterdam @ 10.30 AM
Looking in one direction, beyond the train tracks entering the Amstel Station is the mist shrouded Rembrandt Tower, the international HQ of Philips. Having seen their stock price tank by 50% in a year and their 2007 $4 billion profit turn into a 2008 $186 million loss, the view from the executive suites is probably figuratively always gray and misty in these days of financial and economic crisis.

Turning in the other direction from the same spot is the neon ticker on the offices of the Financieele Dagblad ('Financial Daily' - the Netherlands' version of the Wall Street Journal). Here we see the near daily bloody slaughter of the once venerable and rock solid ING (and AEGON and other financials) on the Euronext stock exchage.

"How bad will it get?" we ask ourselves every day.

Photo of the day - Feb 26, 2009

Hartog's Boterham (sandwich shop) @ 10.45 AM
Wibaustraat 77; Amsterdam

Newest addition to the famous Hartog's Volkoren bakery. The bakery has been in business since 1896 and continues to bake only whole wheat bread products according to the original recipes from founder Aagje Hartog. They even grind their own wheat right in the bakery. This prize winning bakery has never expanded into a chain and thanks to its original artisan quality and sphere is very successful serving 1400 customers a day! The new sandwich shop is the best value for money in town for a delicious sandwich, coffee or fresh juice.