Newly added links.

The other day I was asked if it would be possible to write the articles in the Villa La Repubblica web log in English. Well, it might be possible. But would it be useful? I don’t think so. Most readers are Dutch. English is usually at best their second language. Of course it would be very chic to write in English, while dreaming about the Villa playing A Role In This World. I leave that kind of dreaming to others.

However I added a few new links with some international flavour (See column on right-hand side of this page). To be courteous to the owners this article is - for once - in English.

In this article I mentioned Erkan Saka’s web log. From Istanbul he scrupulously searches the web for articles about Turkey and the European Union. These days it ‘s very interesting to follow it, as he updates almost on a daily base. As far as he is commenting on Turkish and European affairs, it is not from the usual Turkish point of view - neither pro (moderate) Islamism nor hysterically pro secularism. Sometimes he seems to be a bit melancholy about the situation in Turkey, which also seems to be reflected by his personal situation. But that makes his web log personal, intelligent, sympathetic and highly readable. Now and then some hysteria does enter his web log when he is talking about soccer - particularly about Besiktas - . But we kindly forgive him for that, as that disease seems to be incurable all over Europe.

In this article about the Dutch parliamentary elections I was also writing about the Cretaceous (and why not?). It is a long time since (the Cretaceous? last elections?) and we have a new cabinet now. A strange amalgam of quasi socialism and Christianity, as an answer to the former coalition of hard boiled nationalistic capitalism and (sic!) Christianity (same prime minister). And in both cabinets were/are ministers who find evolution theory at least just another theory next to creationism. The present minority coalition partner Christian Union even finds evolution and Darwinism sheer nonsense. Well (sigh!) at least let’s say it doesn’t make them bad people (as long as they are not deciding about education, science policies, culture and health - which they partly do as members of the cabinet). In the United States however, these kind of people have indeed turned nasty. They make enthusiastic scientists look like bad criminals or nazis. And that idea has already permeated local and federal leadership. All the more interesting to read the always lively web log of American palaeontologist (at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History) Michael J. Ryan. Apart from keeping us up to date about the last scientific theories and current field work, he also writes about natural history in general and about all kinds of dinosauralia.

In this article I wrote about the then examinee Shafiq Soroush. By that time his web site was under construction. But now he has an easily accessible website presenting older and more recent works. I wrote in the article that his works are small as well as monumental. Just see on his web site the difference between his youth drawings and his present work. The intimacy and poetry was already there in the old drawings, but these works - apart from being attractive for their craftsmanship - have little artistic perspective. The danger of repetition is always there. Recent works however have opened the door to unlimited possibilities. Poetry and intimacy have become expression in his last works as I saw for myself last year in the Royal Academy and recently in De Levante gallery in Amsterdam. Keep in touch with his web site for new developments!

Another interesting artist whose work I discovered last year is Dutch draughtsman B.C. Epker. His web site contains a lot of works. There is a clear Dutch couleur local in many of his drawings, but their atmosphere is clearly recognisable to anybody. His scenes seem to be invented by a film director. Imagination sometimes plays nasty games with reality. The way he uses his pens and pencils is appropriately versatile. Both everything and nothing seem to be accidental in his drawings. I mentioned him here.

Photographer Marnix Goossens was mentioned in two recent articles. His pictures have their own individuality, their own mechanisms. Small observations are almost transformed into characters. Take a look at his pictures.

BP