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 Lundoxia Presents (1 of 10): A video about stoicism A 5-minute video about the ancient Greek philosophy of stoicism, which also bears similarities with ancient Chinese taoism. |
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Lundoxia Presents (2 of 10) : Facial recognition and the future of nanotechnology A fascinating 6,5-minute report by The Economist about facial recognition. Eventually, nanotechnology will become so advanced, combined with x-ray camera technology and powerful telescopes in outer space, literally each and every single living person on the planet (even humans living deep in caves) will be identified, on one single database, all 7 billion or more people. People are obsessed with privacy. You can draw a diametrical analogy with the Dutch Calvinist psyche centuries ago that if one had curtains in the window then he or she was obviously trying to hide something. Recently I tried explaining this to some young English women in their 20s. They responded saying: "that sounds suspicious". In their mindsets, you would only NOT have curtains if you were an exhibitionist. But what if the ones looking are Peeping Toms? Aren't the lookers the ones causing someone to be called an exhibitionist? Eventually it is nanotechnology that will erase terrorism. The technology will become so advanced that it will detect such people long before they can commit their misdeeds, similar to the Hollywood film MINORITY REPORT (2002) starring Tom Cruise. But they won't even need psychics, massive amounts of data and x-ray pictures, right down to the nanometer of any object on Earth (including caves and the bottom of an ocean floor) captured from as far away as a telescope in space, will be sufficient evidence. And the state? Even centuries before today's technology, this was a subject of continued debate. Yes it can be a slippery slope to an Orwellian totalitarian nightmare, or a benign one foretold by H.G. Wells in his prophetic satire THE TIME MACHINE (1895) in which humans in future societies are profoundly apathetic, have no opinions nor intellect as everything is done for them by super-advanced technology. Eventually technology will become molecular and indifferentiable from organic life so this prediction is a possible future reality. As the Dutch axiom goes: "wij zijn niet zo ver vandaan" (we are halfway there already.) |
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Lundoxia Presents (3 of 10): Copenhagen is not Amsterdam, and Danish pornography Finally, a good YouTube video that dispels the over-hyped Copenhagen (and Denmark generally); namely: 1. Dutch urban design and bike paths are simply better; Danish bike lanes are often unprotected and not as well marked as Dutch bike lanes. Also, few parking places for bicycles in Copenhagen as compared with Amsterdam 2. No trams but buses only in Copenhagen. Generally, I would argue that the urban Feng shui is more user-friendly in Amsterdam as compared to Copenhagen. When you walk out of Centraal station in Amsterdam, you can walk in any direction and it is lovely and compact. Canals can be symmetrical and people can get lost, but this is partially my point: it doesn't matter because the beauty is evened out. You can't compare Amsterdam with Copenhagen. Copenhagen is hidden. Lots of walls. You need to make a major effort to find "the nice spots", and it does have nice spots, but they are isolated from each other, separated by nondescript, bland areas. Copenhagen is unlike Stockholm, where you simply walk into the old town called Gamla Stan and boom, you are in the thick of the lovely section. 3. Few trees in Copenhagen compared to Amsterdam, and far fewer canals in Copenhagen, unless you live along Nyhavn. And everyone rant and raves about Tivoli, the equivalent of Vondel Park in Amsterdam. But guess what: you actually need to pay a hefty entry fee of about 18 euros, just to get into a park that is only 8 hectares (0.08 square kilometre), compared with Vondel Park's 47 hectares (half of one square kilometre, the same size as Vatican City.) You should not have to pay. Vondel Park has lots of free music concerts, before Covid-19 at least. 4. Copenhagen and Denmark is regularly ranked in the top 10 most expensive cities/countries list. Denmark is way over-priced and you are not necessarily getting a higher standard for the higher pricing than in Holland comparatively. The fact Finland took the euro currency but the two other EU Nordic nations (Denmark & Sweden) retained their national kroner currencies is confusing, annoying and downright childish. It's essentially a sign of a smug mindset. Once Dutch dropped their beloved Dutch Guilder currency it was more or less forgotten within less than a year. I was deep into coin and foreign currency collection (numismatics) and my favorite currency was the Dutch Guilder: beautiful vivid colors and images on the well-sized bank notes with wonderful textures to the touch. Excellent thick coins too, and I especially loved the brown or copper tones. I also like the Swiss Franc but the colors are too dull as compared to the old Dutch Guilder. 5. Going back as far the Dutch Golden Age, Danish monarchs tried to duplicate Dutch mercantilism to increase Denmark's wealth and power, but Denmark's comparative geographical position is so much farther north that it could not compete with the superior convenience of The Netherlands' situation. Amsterdam and The Netherlands is still infinitely more cosmopolitan than Copenhagen (just look at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, the top 5 busiest airport hubs in Europe alongside London, Paris and Frankfurt) and the rest of the Nordic states. I spent the summer of 2007 in Sweden and considered moving there but was struck by how insular it is and ditto for Denmark, where I went up regularly. It is idyllic yet super-Danish with not as many English-speakers as is often falsely claimed. The Netherlands is by far the most English-speaking country on mainland Europe (remember: Malta is an island and Gibraltar is not a country!) Interestingly, Denmark and The Netherlands are almost identical in land area (both about 42 thousand square kilometers), but Denmark's population is only 5 million, whereas The Netherlands has 17 million; the Dutch population sky-rocketed during the Golden Age as a result of the increase in wealth; a rich man will find it easier to reproduce with a beautiful woman (or any woman for that matter), and a beautiful woman would more quickly choose a wealthy (and even ugly) man instead of a less wealthy man. Hence wealth equals beauty theory. And like the tall genetic code, the beauty genetic code wins out (this is basic science; tall + short = tall; beautiful + ugly = beautiful.) Social Darwinism means survival of the fittest. 6. Each nation state has its own collective psyche and mode of being. Unfortunately the Danes bark a lot; lots of angry outbursts, often called "Viking temper" that recalls a similar temperament in Germany, a huge negative or turn-off for outsiders that is a big No-No in The Netherlands; if you yell in Dutch public spaces you are viewed as either psychotic or childish (not being in control.) This is reflected in the Dutch axiom "Zet je teflon jasje aan, we gaan na Duitsland" when the Dutch go to Germany ("Put on your teflon jackets, we are going to Germany".) Example: once after listening to a Dane yap away in Danish, I calmly commented: "Danish sounds like Japanese" (and it does in parts, with lots of ultra-sharp staccato sounds); how did he react? He got angry. Japan is only the cleanest country on Earth. Why did that comparison make him angry? The food is good in Japan too. They have beautiful temples. Japanese are polite. 7. For sauna spa buffs: there is no real public sauna culture in Denmark as compared to The Netherlands. In Denmark they were swim suits in saunas and are usually gender-segregated, which for me disqualifies it. 8. But one thing that is certainly true for both countries: yes the women are beautiful, as in the scientific definition of beauty: symmetry and clear complexion. I call them "svelte", and like Dutch dames, not only blondes but also women with jet black hair, "vixens" or foxy ladies. Do Danish women take to sex more easily than Dutch dames? Interesting question; Denmark was the first country in the world to legalize pornography in 1969, which is certainly indicative. For decades, Copenhagen was the European hub of pornography, as witnessed in such magazines as "Color Climax", which also produced 8mm porno short films. Some were even meant as instructional, but Danish erotica as artistic expression even preceded still photography, as lithographs, going back centuries. Color Climax was for me the apex of pornography: clean, lush, well-lit scenes and poses. I think pornography was best suited to still photography and less for motion picture. I don't think people were meant to become porno stars, I think the whole point of pornography was that those performing it were supposed to be anonymous. It is supposed to be about an image and possibly allowing one perceiving it that he or she would also find an equivalent sexual euphoria. The videos of today are too gynecological or urological or rectal-fixated, too anatomical and less graceful and elegant as compared to the heyday of Color Climax. Sex is simply not part of the Dutch cultural vocabulary; the Dutch are often called asexual. Personally I think the Dutch are stoic enough that they could pioneer graphic sex on prime time television, for example a television series with episodes of a half hour in which the actors had real sex, yet treating and showing the sex as normal. The problem is merely mental. Even at the moment the film crew would be ready to film the sex scene, unless experienced, they would encounter a massive mental block. This is an existential problem humans struggle with, which is the mirror that exposes their animal and mortal selves, a barrier to overcome. Yet many Dutch have an innate ability to neutralize such "white elephants in the room", in Dutch they call it "bespreekbaarheid", a willingness to discuss and even allow difficult realities or subjects, such as prostitution or euthanasia. |
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Lundoxia Presents (4 of 10): All the world's passports (great video for design lovers) Do you love design? Then this YouTube video will intrigue you. Have you ever wondered what all the world's passports look like? For years I did and there was no way to know unless you worked at an airport and had access to such information. Now on the internet you can see all the passport designs. This one lists 199 passports including those of Palestine, Kosovo, Macao, Vatican City, Hong Kong and Taiwan. But those six are not United Nations (UN) member states and not real sovereign states for one reason or another; they are territories or special jurisdictions. Many people still think Switzerland is not a UN member, but in fact it joined in 2002, the straggler of all stragglers. Since then all independent countries are UN members (except for the occasional secession such as Montenegro in 2006 and South Sudan in 2011), the "de facto club" affirming mutual recognition for each other's sovereign nation states. As the Mexican José Ángel Gurría (Secretary-General of the OECD) said: "everybody who's somebody is a member" (speaking about OECD membership, which could also symbolically be applied to UN membership; sovereign states are also called "persons" in legal jargon, hence this anthropomorphism or personification.) Any designer or design aficionado will know a good design must not be too busy-looking. The immediate visual impact must be clear and symmetrical, which is the essence of beauty. Bright and happy, as a writer once said of the ideal appearance of his longhand. The image must communicate the message in the blink of an eye and most passport designs fail miserably at this. Probably, people will think passport design is unimportant, but I think nothing is unimportant. This is Taoism; each thought, deed or written word is important. As long as you're doing anything, do it mindfully, a hard yet noble goal to achieve. The Japanese call it ikigai. Most passport designs are too busy, brash, dull or stiff-looking. Also there are too many identical recurring visual themes such as stars, eagles, lions and other animals (Australia has a kangaroo and ostrich on its passport but when I mention this to Australians, they don't know which is an indication the design has left little or no mental imprint) or overly intricate coats of arms. Many designs are too blurry or faded, especially if the contrast between the logo, lettering and the passport color is poorly thought out. Also, lines cannot all be only squares or rectangles; balance out the angles and shapes, adding in circles or ovals. There are many bad fonts and boring or unoriginal "rubber-stamp" type logos. A logo must be totally unique and stand out at first sight, making it instantly memorable or even iconic, like the Swiss passport. Another negative facet of most passports is: too many words or text. The wording should simply read the name of the country. Ideally, a country should have a name, instead of a definition. For instance, France is a name. "United Kingdom" is not a name but a definition and could easily refer to any number of countries such as Denmark or Norway, which are also united kingdoms. "United States of America" could easily refer to Brazil, which is also a united states in America and Latin Americans outside USA indeed rightly call themselves Americans as America is a singular continent composed of 35 sovereign states, or independent countries (there are 20 more territories in the Americas such as Greenland or Bermuda but they are not sovereign states/independent countries.) Do you have favorites among all these passport designs? Here is my Top 10, not in any order of preference: 1. Morocco: beautiful, clear and crisp contrast of colors (blue and gold.) Nice font too. Not too busy, nice immediate visual impact. 2. Zambia: nice simple design with a human theme, logo-wise. 3. Bahrain: beautiful choice of color tones in the gold and red with a clear logo, not too busy in appearance. 4. Croatia (Hrvatska): Clean and simple. Notice that Croatia became an EU member in 2013 but managed to persuade the EU to retain its dark blue passport color, instead of adopting the mandatory EU burgundy red as all other EU passports. I wonder how this was achieved? 5. Andorra: beautiful rich mahogany brown tone, a most unique color choice and a super clean logo with a super clean font. 6. Monaco: beautiful human theme and coat of arms. Only I wish they would use a vivid red instead of burgundy, bearing excessive resemblance to the European Union (EU) passport color of which Monaco is not a member. 7. Liechtenstein: nice choice of color and font, with what is probably the most gorgeous coat of arms in the world. 8. Ireland: how can you not love that harp? Is this the only country with a musical instrument as its logo? How unique! 9. Switzerland: arguably the most iconic passport ever conceived. Awesome embossed designs in this one, of the cross. Also, even inside the passport (if you've ever inspected a Swiss passport close-up), each page features intricate art work of iconic Swiss landscape and historical persons. A fantastic attention to detail in this work of art, with some of the most advanced security features. 10. Norway: nice color and clean coat of arms. What a "short and sweet" name in Norse for the name Norway: Norge |
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Lundoxia Presents (5 of 10): Great interviews (John Malkovich on Being John Malkovich twenty years later) Being John Malkovich was a film made in 1999, also staring John Malkovich. It remains one of the most unusual films in recent memory for me, containing myriad elements including satire, humor, weirdness, existentialism and the supernatural. I found this intimate interview impressive; at 27 minutes, it gets at the meaning of what it is to be human, the self and celebrity. A deeply thought-provoking interview about a seminal film that echoes in the mind. This interview was conducted in 2019, twenty years after the film itself was released. |
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Lundoxia Presents (6 of 10): Deutsche Welle (DW) report on YouTube about nude sauna culture in Germany Another excellent, super-rare report about nude sauna practice in Germany, by a British woman, for Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany's public international broadcaster. This item is a gem for lovers of all things esoteric and eclectic. When I was a travel writer publishing pieces in mainstream magazines, if my submitted piece contained a passage about the super-exceptional unisex nudity of German, Austrian or Dutch public saunas then the editor would delete it before publishing; either the editor thought I was inventing this plain true fact, or automatically linked up the non-sexual nudity with lewdness, worried about potential complaints from the readership. Hence this "nude fact" remains one of the best-kept secrets on Earth. And yet wearing a swimsuit inside a sauna is severely unhealthy (inhaling its bacteria in the extreme heat of the sauna potentially causing legionnaire's disease), not to mention the foul odor of the wet swimsuit in the sauna. 30 years ago my father filed reports as television journalist for Deutsche Welle (DW), which had a large studio in Cologne (some reports still exist on YouTube as recent uploads*; search under " Neil Lundy / European Journal".) We initially lived in an apartment by the Rhine, a section of Cologne called Rodenkirchen. Nearby there was a local sauna I frequented. I could not believe the diametrical juxtaposition of being in the company and conversation of young nude Germany women as a then 16-year old in 1988, compared to the previous two years at an all-boys school in Toronto wearing a uniform with shirt and tie on a property where girls were forbidden. Night and day. Hallelujah to the German Freikörperkultur, the sign of an enlightened civil society. It was 30 years ago that I drove up to Amsterdam from Cologne in a vintage 1972 silver Mercedes Benz, assisting on reports about the homeless, soft drugs, prostitution, same-sex marriage and euthanasia, the latter three issues not then yet legalized (2000, 2001 and 2002 respectively); what a journey for any lad! *Probably the most popular of which is the 1987 report on Poteen, Irish Moonshine; a segment of which will be aired on Irish television as part of a sitcom in 2019 (!) |
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Lundoxia Presents (7 of 10): A planet Earth without humans Now in the Corona Virus world, this is a topic on people's minds: planet Earth without humans, what would it look like and what would happen? A beautifully animated video from BBC Ideas of 3,5 minutes on YouTube |
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Lundoxia Presents (8 of 10): The emergence of electric cars in 2018 A 6-minute video about the emergence of electric cars in 2018, with some cities such as Paris, Athens, Madrid and Mexico partially only allowing electric cars into their city centers by the year 2025 (The Economist.) The end of fossil fuel cars by the year 2040? |
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Lundoxia Presents (9 of 10): An illustrated instructional video to proper sauna ethos (do it nude!) Updated 19 September 2019 At long last, a 3,5-minute illustrated instructional video to proper sauna ethos (namely, use the sauna nude, not with a swim suit!) This video is by ARTE (French and German language cultural television based in Strasbourg) and this link is on YouTube; the video's audio is in German but has an auto-text translation: left-click on the settings icon (round nut icon beside the CC icon, lower right side INSIDE the video screen), then click on "subtitles", then "auto-translate" and select the language you desire to read from the drop-down menu, even though it will be a word-by-word literal translation from the originating German. Note: this text-translation feature may only appear when logged into YouTube. Question: how many countries in the world sport sauna culture and practice correct sauna ethos in abundant unisex public facilities: namely, fully nude? There is the "black and white" A list and the "wishy washy/unclear" B list. All are located in Europe sadly. The A list is only 3 countries: Germany, The Netherlands and Austria. Are the Dutch losing their sauna ethos? Now Spa Zuiver in Amsterdam has "badkleding dagen" (swimsuit days) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a gross violation of sauna ethos, like pouring a vat of hot chocolate on Italian pasta. Also, there used to be more small-scale saunas in Amsterdam such as Oibibio, Sauna Fenomeen (frequented by Brad Pitt when he spent some months in Amsterdam during his breakthrough moment, Thelma & Louise, 1991) and Sauna de Keizer; they have all closed down. Also, Wellness 1926 in Zeeburg (Amsterdam Oost), formerly Viking Sauna, basically also closed as of July 1st, when it transitioned into a women-only sauna and is now called MOON. Once gender-segregated, like the gay sauna NZ for men-only, those spots strictly speaking are no longer saunas but meeting places for the direct purpose of sex (not that I am against that, just saying.) The closing down of a small-scale sauna is a profound tragedy as it indicates an erosion of sauna practice. Correct sauna practice cleanses and refreshes the human body and mind; Mens sana in corpore sano. Finns are dead against the large commercialization of large sauna establishments. On the other hand, too many bad apples come to small-scale saunas in The Netherlands and disrespect sauna ethos: you're not to supposed to babble in saunas, the temperature is extreme and it is not meant for conversation, especially if there are third parties present who don't want to hear your babble. In Germany it is the contrary (perhaps due to the Prussian preoccupation with order); upon arriving at a small-scale sauna the German owner will admonish you. The Finnish sauna society publishes the bible of correct sauna use and describes the sauna as a formal environment, like a church. Even though you are nude, you make no issue of it, it's a non-sexual environment, quiet, clean and formal, sit upright (you are not meant to lay down and take up needless additional space) and no sighing nor slouching, and coming in and out of the sauna every few minutes. And most importantly: you are supposed to have done your bowel movement before or after the sauna, not during or in between sauna sittings and your anal region is supposed to be cleansed (no anal leakage allowed!) Then there is the issue of staring/looking. As humans (those who are not blind) we are blessed with the sense of sight, so we can see. Once I was at a local sauna in Amsterdam and a USA-American woman exclaimed angrily to her boyfriend: "he looked at me!"; no, I only saw her. The difference between looking and seeing will vary from culture to culture; in some countries one must avoid eye contact. As to body shame or body prudery (two different mental states, the first feels bad about being human while the second seeks to avoid social embarrassment but not necessarily a sufferer of the shame complex), I quote the response of a relative of mine who is a gynecologist/obstetrician: we are all naked underneath our clothing. As humans we are draped bodies (you have to approach it scientifically.) I always say the acid test is seeing your parents naked and not minding, if you do then you have a body complex. On the other hand you have very commercial mega-sauna spas such as Elysium, about 20 km north of Rotterdam. Elysium is overloaded with various sauna cabins, dozens of them in fact. And maybe only one is a proper sauna. The Finnish sauna society describes a sauna as having a minimum temperature of +80 degrees Celsius. At Elysium most of the saunas are below that; personally I prefer 100 or more; some of my most pleasurable sauna experiences were in Finnish savusaunas (authentic Finnish smoke sauna) at 120 degrees! Heat generated by fire instead of electricity is infinitely more pleasant. To be sure, the authentic Finnish savusauna (smoke sauna, that is, heat generated by fire, not electricity) by a lake in Finland is still by far the best sauna experience. Rustic, simple yet magnificent, finished off with some Finnish Vodka or cold beers afterwards, and remember the aromatic birch tree branches, whipped against your body and dunked in a copper vat of water. Most other saunas are electric and can make you sick; heat is not just heat, there are many different forms of heat and the savusauna form is the most organic and thus soul-soothing. The B list is "hit or miss" and includes, but is not limited to the following European countries (Finland, Estonia and Russia - especially Karelia which was formerly Finland prior to World War II - sport sauna cultures but most have access to their own free private saunas so there is little need for paid public facilities, which are gender-segregated there anyway, tragic as up to World War II in Finland there used to be public unisex nude sauna bath houses on every block; these vanished as the per capita income increased and more people built or bought their own private saunas): The other Germanic states or regions of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Luxembourg and some countries of the former Yugoslavia such as Slovenia (a sort of Slavic version of Austria if you will) have some too but it truly is unclear and in no way abundant nor universal as there is not a strong sauna culture base. I have also found and been to decent saunas in Ukraine, Poland, Czechia and Slovakia but again it is like finding a needle in a haystack. Once I was about to go into a sauna in Kiev with a woman, and the male owner calmly asked me in Russian: "are you going to fuck her in the sauna?" so we went away. In Copenhagen in Denmark the saunas are gender-segregated with the exception of Christiania but its use is excluded to Christiania residents only; having said that a naturist group reserves a public spa for unisex nude hours once weekly but then this counts as a club membership activity. People are stunned that there is no real sauna culture in the nordic states except Finland; you have to go to naturist resorts to find them such as the lakeside savusauna (smoke sauna) located in Nora in the middle of Sweden, a place called Gustavsberg. Again, club membership-based or private ownership-based sauna practice is esoteric (secretive, or exclusively known to few), so not exoteric; this is to say universal, unisex nude, instant-access abundant sauna facilities. Yet esoteric can be equally blissful if the participants are sauna-savvy; in Vancouver a group of us rented out an old bath house periodically; in Toronto a professor held sauna parties to a closed group. Similar esoteric groups also exist in New York, San Francisco, Budapest and many other places but you need to be "in the know". Very, very few countries of the world sport authentic Finnish sauna ethos. I have a guidebook from the Finnish sauna society which outlines the basic tenets. One of these tenets is, one is supposed to be respectful and quiet and mentally clean* (and physically clean, meaning all orifices) in the sauna, similar to the behavior in a church. People who try to make the nudity sexual or kinky spoil the ethos; you separate the sex from the nudity, otherwise you are not mentally clean. Boxes don't touch. Seeing without looking, knowing without thinking (Taoism.) It may sound preachy but try to engineer such sauna ethos in other countries where there is no sauna ethos; it is next to impossible. You can't engineer the core of a collective psyche: I know, I banged my head against a brick wall for a decade trying. Either a given society is geared up for it or it is not. Perhaps most of humanity will never manage to accept its own body, which is ironical because the moment no issue is made of it, there is no more issue. It is just mental. "Maak geen punt van" as the Dutch axiom goes. *I term this "The Art of non-Judgment", a hard stoic and Taoist art to master. A simple technique to try is, as you sense your mind about to form a judgment or even comment on someone or anything, pause and abstain from judging or commenting. Then notice the blissful sensation of non-judgment. Humans are fixated on judgment. Kant wrote about the deep mental physics of human judgment in his 1790 book Critique of Judgment (Kritik der Urteilskraft), a book you could spend the rest of your life reading. |
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Lundoxia Presents (10 of 10): Excellent video illustrating how a virus floats through the air By far the best illustrations I have seen so far showing how a virus floats through and on air, by Vox on YouTube, 6 minutes. |
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Lundoxia Presents (Addendum/Elf): Manu Dibango (1933-2020) One of the first celebs to die of Coronavirus The Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango (1933-2020) is one of the first celebs or celebrated musicians to die of Coronavirus. He died in Paris on 24 March 2020, aged 86. His hit song SOUL MAKOSSA was also hugely popular among B-Boys (breakdancers) in the early 1980s. I used to play this song over and over in Lahr Schwarzwald (you'd be surprised the number of cool vinyl record shops even in that tiny town back then!); for me his music is also quintessential to the B-Boy spirit: positive, electric energy, otherwise we would not be able to break dance. Long live the B-Boy spirit and the great, deep, euphoric and amazing musical vibes of Manu Dibango! Linked from YouTube: Soul Makossa (album), 1972 |
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Lundoxia Presents (The Dirty Dozen): The End of Rickshaws in 2020; Het Mag Wel Maar het Mag Niet Linked: 9 April 2020 court ruling at Amsterdam (9 april 2020 uitspraak rechtbank Amsterdam), published on Rechtspraak.nl on 20 April 2020 Summary: The city of Amsterdam banned all rickshaws (fietstaxi, velo, or bike/trike taxi or pedicab in North America) effective 1 April 2020. This ban had been decided by the city in March 2018 and it initially scheduled the termination for 1 April 2019, then postponing it to 1 April 2020. The city gave no scientific reason for its termination other than it found the streets too crowded. An initial court appeal hearing was held on 18 February 2020; its judgment was issued seven weeks later on 8 and 9 April 2020 (linked herewith.) That April judgment approved our appeal and ordered the city to decide anew. The new decision was made 8 weeks later on June 3rd 2020 but was another refusal because by then a new policy had been enacted (beleid in Dutch) so the circumstances had changed. The last court hearing in February 2020 only examined whether our rickshaw licence or permit applications were valid, even though the licence period was set to end two years earlier than the normal licence term ending on 1 April 2022. This enabled us to at long last "get to the meat of the matter" and lodge fresh court appeals against that June 3rd refusal in mid-June 2020. Namely, this future appeal will pivot on whether the legal grounds for making the possession of a permit (vergunning) compulsory are sufficiently sound to be upheld, citing a European Union (EU) directive concerning services. Namely, prior to 2009 no rickshaw permit existed, but only a traffic exemption, called Ontheffing in Dutch (as outlined hereunder.) This had been an earlier legal argument raised during my higher appeal hearing approved at the Raad van State in The Hague in 2018. On that occasion the case concerned an individual permit refusal; now all permits have been terminated. Meanwhile the first plaintiff appeared in court on July 1st 2020 for his "VoVo" hearing in an attempt to suspend the ban pending his appeal's future judgment. He has been in continuous operation as a rickshaw service since 2005. As happens sometimes for the sake of expediency, the judge decided to address the appeal immediately, which defeated the purpose of the VoVo (an instrument in Dutch law that is a motion to suspend pending an appeal's judgment, which ordinarily takes up to half a year or more.) Now a judgment on this appeal is expected by 15 July 2020. There are now only two ways this can go; if we win this fresh court appeal the city will file a higher appeal to the Raad van State (one of the four national Dutch supreme courts) against us, as they stated in court on 1 July 2020. Yet if we lose this appeal we too will file a higher appeal at the Raad van State against the city, where I won in 2018. In both cases, we are destined to return to The Hague. Without the fietstaxi vergunning (rickshaw licence or permit), we risk vehicle confiscation plus a fine of 3.900 euros for waiting in a public space and/or picking up passengers in public, which has happened before even when we had committed no wrong action. The city said rickshaws could continue on a reservations basis only; this paradoxical proviso is like letting persons live yet forbidding them from breathing air. "Het mag wel maar het mag niet" is a Dutch axiom meaning "it's allowed but not allowed" and summarizes part of the Dutch psyche in a sentence; prostitution was only made legal in the year 2000 here yet had been openly practiced as an accepted profession for centuries before. It is sad that our personalized emission-free inner-city transport was not valued by the city after 18 years of good service since it was officially enacted in 2003 (after an initial test year starting in 2002) in the form of a simple ontheffing (traffic exemption stamp for 69 euros, issued on the production of an EU ID card and a registration at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce) rather than a permit (vergunning, much more complex and expensive, enacted in 2009 as compulsory.) Some rickshaw runners have become mailmen or returned to construction or boat gigs, while others have bailed out of Holland and sold their rigs. This link will be kept updated with developments as they happen. - - - - - - - - - - Some background on this termination: Many other licences or permits such as those for beer bikes, horse-drawn carriages, tuk-tuk motorized vehicles and even canal boats are being subjected to new restrictions or total bans, as part of the wider "Stad in Balans" policy to clamp down on tourism all taking effect in 2020. Amsterdam has been grouped together with the other "Crunch Tourism" cities of Barcelona, Venice and Prague with excessive human density (over-crowding) into tiny historic "old town" city centers. This was The Dirty Dozen: 10 June 2008 to 10 June 2020. On 10 June 2008 I carried out my first paid rickshaw ride. Two incredibly heavy and super-obnoxious men. Red Light District to hotel Marriott near Leidseplein. 10 Euros. Lock-down lifting: most of the lock-down was lifted on 1 July 2020. The remainder will be lifted on 1 September 2020 or sooner; see rijksoverheid.nl. |
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