2009 Review before 2010 wishes

Dear readers,

I have been a very bad blogger in 2009, inflicting only a couple of blog posts on you. I am very ashamed of this, so I decided to finish this year with something useful. So for all of you living in Rotterdam, Dutchies of Alochtones, here is a couple of tips from my 2009 experience to use in 2010 (and some shameful publicity for some friends of mine).

* Restaurant (classic): Met de Franse Slag. This classic French restaurant and café, on Schilderstraat 20, has a good chef and an excellent service for a very reasonable price (count 50 euros pp including wine for a three courses meal). The decor is also quite interesting, mixing jazzy and kitsch.
* Restaurant (exotic): Fugu is an excellent Japanese restaurant. Although not truely Japanese (there is no true Japanese restaurant in Rotterdam), it is the nearest to traditional Japanese cooking. The service is perfect and the location really nice, in the Wester Handelsterrein.

* Gaming store (geeky): Gamers of the West is your international friendly card, board and miniature game shop, in the Jonker Fransstraat. Led by the energetic and welcoming West Givner (from Cleveland, Ohio), you will find there everything to play from Magic to Warhammer 40K, but also some rarer stuff, such as Infinity miniatures or my personal favourite: Legends of the Five Rings. The shop is big and West invites eveyone to play inside, so it is a very good atmosphere.
* Strip shop (general): Yendor. In the Korte Hoogstraat, it has cartoon novels, strips, mangas and some merchandising objects too. The staff is always helpful and has some old or rare stuff, on demand. Great service and great choice, although mostly (but not only) in Dutch.
* Computer shop: MyCom has good service, great advice and a very good content. On the Mariniersweg, it proposes pretty much everything, PC only, at excellent prices. Ordering online is possible, as well as home delivery.

Rotterdam gets a new (Muslim) mayor

Dear readers,

Rotterdam got this week-end a new mayor. Ivo Opstelten, the former VVD (conservative) mayor was leaving, and the gemeenteraad (city council, in Dutch) chose for a man from its main party ranks, the PvdA (Labour). Usually, debates on this type of choice turn around the fact that there is no popular vote for mayors under the Dutch grondwet (constitution). But this time, it's a whole other sort of criticism that erupted. You see, the new mayor is Morrocan born and double nationality holder Ahmed Aboutaleb, Amsterdamer, Muslim and former State Secretary for Social Affairs.

And that was a bit too much for the second Rotterdam's party: Leefbar Rotterdam, an ultra-conservative and anti-immigrant group, heir to the late maverick character, Pim Fortuyn. It was clearly his shadow that was hovering above the town hall this week-end, if you believe his angry supporters. Right wing Marco Pastors and Ron Sorensen both were angrily reacting to the nomination (and very likely confirmation by Queen Beatrix) of the new mayor. To say that they have difficulty to swallow such a choice is an understatement. In terms carefully chosen to avoid any accusation of racism, they both denounced the nomination.

For both of them, the convenient excuse is that Aboutaleb would probably never have been chosen as mayor, should the choice be made by popular vote. And they do have a point there. The choice of mayors in the Dutch system never was very democratic (despite recent attempts) and is more a soup of tit for tat agreements between the ruling coalition parties. Aboutaleb choice is that too (he hadn't got the Ministry he was looking for during the current government negotiations). But it is clearly also a lot more. Beyond the obvious symbol and the controversial message sent to the (massive) immigrant population in the Netherlands that they are welcome indeed, there is also the choice for a very strong, popular and skilled character.

Aboutaleb might be the Muslim son of a Moroccan imam, he is also very articulate and well educated, a long time journalist and civil servant, later becoming a politician. He is certainly not new to politics, having fenced on the seats of the Twede Kamer (the Dutch Lower House) against PvVer (extreme right wing) Gert Wilders or VVDer "Iron" Rita Verdonk. He was also already famous for having publicly and strongly declared that young immigrants (regardless of their culture of origin) should accept Dutch culture, ways and mentality or "pack and go home". A declaration, made after the gruesome assassination of right wing film maker Theo van Gogh by a Moroccan terrorist, that hadn't win him much slack with most Muslim fundamentalists but had won him the respect of most Dutch people.

I don't know Aboutaleb personally, but I certainly know his reputation and his ideas. While I might not agree with him on everything (he remains a socialist and a Muslim, after all), I certainly appreciate the choice of a skillful and courageous politician as new mayor. It is clearly also a very good choice for a city which has alledgedly a majority of its population coming from abroad (me included). So, Ahmed Aboutaleb, welcome to Rotterdam and go for it!

Lieke Snellen expo

Dear readers,

I visited yesterday the art expo of a friend, Lieke Snellen, at the Tent (Witte de Withstraat, Rotterdam). Lieke is a Master graduate of the Piek Zwart Art School. She was showing her work for the public in this space reserved for young contemporary artists. I took the liberty to take some pictures to show her work. They are available on my Flickr gallery (the link is in the right hand menu).

I think Lieke has done a great job, both in using every day's life objects and transforming them into sculptures, but also in the video montages she has put on display. I particularly liked what she did with the chairs, but also a very nice piece of work including bricks of two colors. It is, all in all, very promising and I wish her a lot of success in the future. She has some talent!

Shop story

Dear readers,

This is just a little story I heard recently. But quite revealing of the times we are living in...

It's this little cute black girl in a shop in Rotterdam Zuid. She bables with the sales woman and explains her how happy she is. The sales woman asks her about her parents. The girl is beaming with pride: "My dad is a musician. He is really good..." The sales woman: "Really. That's nice." The girl replies: "He is such a good musician that he even received a prize..." The sales woman obviously asks which prize her dad got. And the little girl answers, dead serious: "Hij heeft een general pardon gewonnen!" (he received imunity from prosecution for being an illegal immigrant in the Netherlands, effectively granting him residency permit).

No comment...

New pictures uploaded

IMG_2927, 1ère mise en ligne par Alphast.

Dear readers,

I decided to use a bit of my precious time to upload new pictures on Flickr. Especially recent Rotterdam ones, but also old ones from the ports I had visited in the last years. So you can enjoy these here.

Have a good day!

Movies on the fly

Dear readers,

I had the chance to go to both the Life Earth concerts in Amsterdam and the jazz live performance in Oud Charlois for Jazz Festival Rotterdam. Let's say that I was not too impressed by Life Earth (7th July). The public was scarce, as well as far from enthusiastic. Worse, the bands invited were minor ones. If I can give credit to the first two (female singers unknown outside the Netherlands but with voices pretty enough and certain musical qualities), I have to admit that Ali B was right when he blurted: "Hamburg got Shakira, London has Genesis, but you guys got Ali B, sorry..."

And true enough, despite the attempts of some local "cabaretier" to make the atmosphere a bit nicer, it didn't get any cooler. Maybe that was partially due to the bright sun (I got bad sunburns). It was not very constant, but seriously hot. But I believe that this disaster of an event lacked any serious band to listen to. On the contrary, Jazz in Charlois (8th July) was very nice, cozy and nearly intimate, but with quality musicians and an enthusiastic public. OK, it was also a bit of an older one, but who cares. Even the kids in the crowed enjoyed it. It was far less pretentious but far more efficient than the world wide show of the day before.



Just as an extra note, and also because I am in the mood, I would like to mention to you, dear readers, that the European Union has published a hilarious video on YouTube, featuring 45 seconds of pretty hot love scenes for various MEDIA subsidised movies. The film extract has provoked quite a stir amongst some European politicians, stiffening (if I may use this crude joke) at the idea of multi nationally sponsored sex. So, enjoy!