Until recent the red-light backrooms were the only reason erotica shops in Amsterdam were lawfully allowed to extend their opening hours past the curfew for regular shops. New legislation, which now prevents shops from staying open until the early morning, has changed the erotica scene in Amsterdam. Eddy, one of the many clerks working in the Red light district, tells us how the change has influenced the business.
By Levi Blokdijk, Sjoerd Sloetjes & Rufus Baas
Dear Silvio,
Allow me to introduce myself: I’m a European and I’m a bit angry with you.
The thing is: I have never been to a bunga bunga party. That thought hit me Friday when you announced you’d step down as the prime minister of Italy. That is when I realized that my time to go to such a party on a remote island near Sicily would be very limited now. I’m not even going to start about the fact that you never took me to a AC Milan game.
On Friday, September 23rd at about 6pm central European time, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is going to hold his speech in front of the general assembly of the United Nations (UN). Afterwards, he will hand in the Palestinian’s official proposal for full membership to the UN. This would mean, at least on paper, that the Palestinians get closer to a recognized state.
By: Martina Powell
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After almost three weeks of protests the Egyptian people have reached their goal. Last Friday Hosni Mubarak stepped down as president of Egypt. The news was greeted with an outburst of joy and celebration on Cairo’s Tahrir Square – the heart of the demonstrations.
As the riot in Egypt is starting to get more out of control, most people are trying to continue their every day lives. A 30-year-old architect living in Cairo is not only witnessing a great revolution in the Arab world, she is also expecting a child.
By Britt Kerstens
The citizens of Ireland often are misled by the media coverage about the current debt crisis in their country. Roos Demol, a Flemish woman who has been living in Ireland since 1998, is a blogger for the Flemish newspaper De Standaard and says the Irish press seems to respond more and more in a subjective way. “It’s hard for the media to cover stories in an objective, sober way because the whole country is furious for the moment.”
“The regular news stories usually are objective, but newspapers are now full of journalistic opinion pieces about the crisis. They stand up for their opinion and influence the readers through this. The Irish newspaper The Independent tried to stay positive about the crisis because they openly support the political party Fianna Fail, that is part of the current government. But they gave up that positive spirit. The Irish believe the media but they don’t believe the politicians anymore. There’s an overall feeling that the government continues to lie. Some say Ireland would practice some kind of censorship, like in Russia.”
Roos Demol clarifies that the Irish have to watch the British press to know the correct details. “For the moment the British newspapers give us more useful information than the Irish newspapers. For example, the British reporters already talked about a bailout, while the press in Ireland was still denying that.” The blogger also gives other examples showing that the Irish press doesn’t tell the whole truth. “According to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, the debt of Ireland is much higher than 86 billion Euros. That figure is presented to us by the Irish newspapers and government. British media now say we are being told lies.”
Roos Demol has also noticed that the Irish press puts the responsibility with the European Union. “Some Irish newspapers, like The Sunday Independent, blame the EU for the bad situation in Ireland. They portray the Irish as victims with sentences like ‘What did we do to deserve this?’ The fact is that we owe this crisis mainly to ourselves.” Roos Demol believes the general elections will have a surprise in store for Ireland. “I hope radical parties like Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the terror organization IRA, will not benefit from the situation. During a small by-election in Donegal they already won by far. Let’s hope Ireland doesn’t have to deal with another political crisis next year.”
When passing the Big Ben in front of the British Parliament square in London, a row of camps appear with stands and posters. Some of the people living in these tents are on hunger strikes to raise awareness and protest against the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those camps consist of different organizations with different activities but share the same goal. They want to make us aware of the truth.
