What I wonder...

There is a store close to our house that sells organic things. Fruit and vegetables, cleaning supplies, tea and coffee, bread, cheese, etc. They also sell meat. Between the entrance and the cashier they have a large banner with their guiding principles, or whatever you want to call it. Third or fourth on the list is the statement that they believe in selling only products that have been produced 'with respect for humans, animals, and the environment'.

Yet, may I repeat, they sell meat.

How exactly is it respectful for an animal to raise it in order to kill it? I wonder.

A phonecall from hell

My friend Iman, afraid that I might start missing (an idealized version of) Lebanon too much, forwarded me the following joke: Queen Elizabeth, Bill Clinton and the Lebanese president died and all went to hell. After spending a few weeks in de house of the devil, Queen Elizabeth says: “I miss England. I would like to call my country and see how everybody is doing there.” The devil hands her the phone. She calls and talks for about 5 minutes, hangs up and asks: “well, devil, how much do I owe you?” The devil answers: “5 million dollars.” “5 Million dollars?” She writes him a check and sits down on her chair.

Then Bill Clinton, a little jealous, gets up from the couch and says he, too wants to call his country and see how everybody is doing. He takes the phone and talks to the United States for about 2 minutes. Afterwards he asks: “well, devil, how much do I owe you?” To which the devil answers: “10 million dollars.” “10 million dollars?” He writes him a check and sits back down on the couch.

The Lebanese president gets extremely jealous; he wants to call his country too! “I want to see how everybody is doing!” he says, “I want to talk to the prime minister, to the deputies, I want to talk to Lebanon!” The devil hands him the phone and the Lebanese president talks and talks and talks, he is on the phone for almost 20 hours. When he hangs up, he asks: “well, devil, how much do I owe you?” To which the devil answers: “2 dollars.”

Queen Elizabeth and Bill Clinton jump up and scream “only 2 dollars?!?!”

“Well,” says the devil, “from hell to hell, it’s local!”

Definitely landed

- Every time I look out of the window, I see gray clouds- I already know exactly when, where and at what time I will have tea with my friend… 3 weeks from now - When I see a Hummer on the street I no longer expect it to have a Saudi or Qatari number-plate - When we walk into a restaurant at 8 pm on a Saturday night, most of the guests are already having dessert - I considered it entirely normal that the woman in the Municipal Office told me I brought too many copies and forms and stamps, rather than sending me away because there was still some previously-unknown yet required paper missing - I’m no longer expecting the electricity to cut at any moment because it hasn’t cut yet today… - When I sit in a café and pick up a random newspaper, chances are I can actually read it - I’m no longer the tallest, nor the blondest one everywhere I go.

So yeah, it seems like I’m really, really back in the Netherlands.

The country in which things make sense

Now that we moved to The Netherlands, we plan on doing as the Dutchies do, and let our cats roam around outside. Since we have already spotted several ‘Missing: Cute Cat’ posters, we will not let them go out just like that: they will have to wear a collar. One with a small thingy attached with our name and phone number in it, so that should they get really lost and eventually very hungry, the nice person who fills their bellies can check who they belong to (and send us a cheque for the food). But these collars don't come with a cat-saving device only. They also come with a little bell attached. A little bell that tinkles every time the cat jumps, runs, or even licks its back feet to enthousiastically. It drives us insane, and it drives the cats insane, so Walid figured he’d remove the little bells.

Not so quick, dear man! That little bell is there for a reason! Dutch people really, really like cats, and cats really, really like catching birds… and a drastic decline in the bird population led to the idea of bells on cats.

Oh, true, Walid sighed. In this country EVERYTHING happens for a reason.

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

Last year on the 15th of October, bloggers all over the world united to write about poverty. This year, the topic of Blog Action Day is Climate Change.I think we all know what to do:

Car less – bike more Plastic less – paper more AC less – fan more Meat less – vegetable more Fly less – walk more Artificial less – organic more Heater less – sweater more Garbage less – recycle more

Or, in short: Consume less – live more