You can be succesfull

The Netherlands is a secular state, where, in contrary with Turkey, the constitution is not built upon prohibitions. The Dutch government considers religion as an individual right in which it cannot interfere. But regarding the burqa; for the sake of good communication and interaction its not allowed to wear it in schools, universities and as public servant - when you wear the burqa it already tells you that you are not allowed to do anything in fact...

Again; the Dutch government can not interfere in individual religious affairs. But now, for security reasons, most parties wants to ban the face-covering clothing in public transportation - which means also that men can not wear a 'bivak muts', see picture above, against the cold. The Dutch government gave today the Dutch public transportation companies advice not to allow these kind of dress code anymore. Lets see what will happen.

Since we don't have a problem with the headscarf etc. by this the Time of this week, available February 11. Five success stories of European Muslims in Europe. One of them is Famile Arslan, of Turkish descent, raised and educated in the Netherlands. Who graduated several years ago as a laywer, and just opened her own office: Arslan & Associates in La Hague, the Netherlands.

"People keep telling me how successful I am," says Arslan. "But I'm not all that successful. Had I not been a migrant woman in a hijab, I could have gone much further." Still, when younger Muslims ask Arslan how to climb the professional ladder, she's optimistic. "If you think strategically, this is a great time to be a European Muslim," she argues. "Everyone's focused on us, so it's an opportunity — if you take it." - TIME

Building this blog

Slowly this blog gets its face as I had in mind, but still some features have to be added.
I am really fond of pallet colors not the primary colors used by most of the contemporary painters of the CoBrA group, through which the Dutch painters, Karel Appel and Corneille became world famous.
Pallet colors are for me the colors of Tuscany, Italy.
Anyway, hope that in the next week everything is up and running.

Winner World Press Photo 2007

The international jury of the 51st annual World Press Photo Contest selected a color image of the UK photographer Tim Hetherington as World Press Photo of the Year 2007. The picture was taken 16 September 2007 and shows a US soldier resting at "Restrepo" bunker, named after a soldier from his platoon who was recently killed by insurgents.
"This image shows the exhaustion of a man - and the exhaustion of a nation," says jury chairman Gary Knight, and adds "We're all connected to this. It's a picture of a man at the end of a line."
Tim Hetherington, the author of the World Press Photo of the Year 2007, will receive his award during an awards ceremony in Amsterdam on Sunday 27 April 2008.
The award also carries a cash prize of 10,000 euro. In addition, Canon will donate Hetherington a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III camera.
The awards ceremony is preceded by a three-day program of lectures, discussions and screenings of photography. The exhibition of prizewinners will be shown at the Oude Kerk from 29 April to 22 June and will subsequently visit over 100 locations around the world.

World Press Photo is run as an independent, non-profit organization with its office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where World Press Photo was founded in 1955.
The organization is controlled both by an independent executive board and a supervisory board, and employs around 25 permanent staff. The Amsterdam office acts as the hub for a network of professional contacts worldwide - it is this network that makes organizing the contest, exhibitions and other activities on such a large scale possible.

Day Opening - February 8

Design of the Dutch architect Remco Koolhaas.

Two buildings of the Bank of China, Sjanghai, are 'growing' towards each other.