Queen's Day Amsterdam 2014

Some pictures of our Queen's Day. Yesterday was Queen's Day - Koninginnedag in Dutch - in Amsterdam, wich means walking, eating, and buying things from people in the streets. Due to weather the city wasn't as crowded as last year, and it showed.

Because Queen's Day is a national event it's kind of custom that you wear something orange. The colour orange is the national colour of the Netherlands.


This picture was taken at the Weteringsschans, and yes we went into the crowd. Normally you would feel like walking in a pinball machine, but this year it was easy to get through.


Music at the Museumplein. The place to be a on Queen's Day. A lot of life music and fast food. In the background you see the Dutch national museum (or Rijksmuseum).


A place to eat.


A photo made by a lady


We liked the auto rickshaw, but when we looked at the photo later we saw someone say ..


Het Stedelijk Museum or the city museum. But it's closed, and it is being renovated and expanded.



I should say happy anniversary queen Beatrix, but April 30th (Queen's Day) was the birthday of her mother. Bea decided not to change it.


If you are a celebrity you probably liked the buffet at the Amstel Hotel.


Amsteldijk. In the white house on the corner I had my Transcendental Meditation course when I was 15. I took the course long time ago when people were financially nice to each other. For the record, the TM organisation has left this building long time ago. The house is on the other side of the Amstel Hotel.


Metro station Wibautstraat


Art in the metro.


Getting out at metro station Ganzenhoef in the Bijlmer. It's a neighbourhood in the district Amsterdam South East, the district where al lot of Surinamese, Antillean and Ghanaian people live. Gentrification, or Urban renewal as they call it here, is dramatically changing the neigboorhood and the communities.


Ground level Ganzenhoef.

Dutch author and Make up Artist Clarck Accord

Dutch author and Make up Artist Clarck Accord (1961) made his debut with the novel 'De Koningin van Paramaribo', ‘The queen of Paramaribo’. A novel about the live of a well-known prostitute in the capital city of Surinam. Based on the novel a theatre play was written. Accord's latest novel 'Bingo' deals with the gambling habits of Surinam people in the Netherlands.

Meet black Italian visual artist Abiola Wabara

Abiola Wabara was already well know as a basketball player for the Italian national team, but now she is also making name for herself as a visual artist.

Intro Abiola
Abiola Wabara was born October 23rd 1981 to Nigerian parents in Parma Italy. As a child she always had a great passion for art, going to school in Italy art classes were always part of the curriculum, and she always demonstrated great fervor, and a natural talent for the subject.

Abiola attended Baylor University on a full basketball scholarship where she received a bachelor's degree in Spanish, Spanish literature and Culture. After graduating, she started her career as a professional basketball player in Israel, where she played for 3 seasons, then moved to Ibiza Spain and currently playing in Milan Italy. While in Israel she attended the art workshop of famous Israeli artist Eilat Tzin, and developed her skills further.

Abiola likes to focus her work on the diverse aspects of Black culture and tries to capture the beauty of her people and her culture in the works of Black art she creates. Abiola’s artwork is exciting, bold and expressive. Not only is she fascinated by the human form, but emotions, body language and especially eye expressions. Her style, sense of color is eye catching and being noticed by many.

Abiola work was noticed in Ibiza where she was featured on the local newspaper, Nigeria, where she was published in local magazine “Goldmine” and also was exposed in one of the most prestigious art galleries in Milan Italy “il Borgo”. She only prints small numbered limited editions, in order to value the collector. Abiola will be soon show casing her art work in new locations, follow her to find out….

See website www.artbyabiola.com

Video: Nigerian-German hip hop/soul singer Nnekka in "NNEKA"

The latest video of the Nigerian-German hip hop/soul singer and songwriter Nnekka, directed by andy amadi okoroafor

The French Afro-Caribbean Arts Awards 2011 in Paris (Sept 12th)

The sixth edition of the "Trophées des Arts Afro-Caribéens (TAAC)" ("Afro-Caribbean Arts Awards") will be held September 12, 2011 at the théâtre du Châtelet in Paris France and will be broadcasted on Sept. 18 on the French public television network France Ô.



The show will be presented by Audrey Chauveau and Sébastien Folin.



Compilation of 2009 and 2010





list of candidates



Category: Artist of the Year

RColonel Reyel, Dominik Coco, Alpha Blondy, Danyel Waro



Category: Clip of the year

Fanny J Feat Black Kent, Colonel Reyel, TLF Feat Corneille, Soprano.



Category: Best Group of the Year.

Sexion d’Assaut, Staff Benda Bilili, Didye Kegrin Ek Soul KAMAYANN, Bamboolaz .



Category: Newcomer of the Year.

Mélissa Nkonda, Patrice Hulman, Tsenga, Colonel Reyel.



You can vote for your favorite artist at the website of France Ô at http://participer.franceo.fr/lestaac/



Two performances in the Awards of 2010



Ben L'Oncle Soul





Lynsha feat Neg'Marrons "Mon idéal"

The Green Party needs to defend ' most people’s living standards'

Pete Kennedy joins the Green Party class and ethnicity debate, kicked off by Caroline Lucas,  and continued by Sean Thompson of Green Left, thanks Pete.

My argument is that the Green Party needs to position itself as the most obvious electoral ally and ultimately, servant to the varied ‘bloc’ of social forces fighting the realities of neoliberalism in the UK. This would go far beyond what

Biased BBC online

BBC Online's coverage of the EU's 50th anniversary has been absolutely extraordinary. They have missed a great opportunity to deal with EU issues seriously and instead have presented the punters with pathetic, whimsical, biased nonsense.

A quick look at BBC online's list of EU stories gives a sense of what they have served up this week:

Guide to the best euromyths

This could have come, and probably did come, straight from a European Commission or FCO press release. What about all the negative stories that were rubbished but turned out to be true (like Campbell saying Andrew Gilligan's story that there was going to be a "European Constitution" was "bollocks").

Celebrating the Environmental Union

At least this overtly written by the Commission. Its complete bull - but will there be a critical piece allowed on in response? Zero chance of that.

Ten things the EU has done for you.

This is just getting silly. It's 10 good things of course. Where are the ten bad things? Dumping on the devoping world, damaging our economy, undermining democracy? No chance of that on the BBC.

How Brussels has changed

For the better, it would seem. Half a dozen people quoted puffing the EU, but no critics, obviously.

The EU at 50: Your reflections

A spurious voxpop of the kind that the BBC's own Wilson review warned against. Three people saying the EU is absolutely great and then one person who says it is good for the countries that are in it but bad for Kosovo.

"For me, the positives definitely outweigh the negatives."
"Generally I think the EU has really helped our lives."
"I think many countries outside Europe envy the success of the Union."
"The EU may be good for those countries inside the club, but for us - on the outside - it's as if they have built a great wall all around the union."

This is balance?

Is EU good for economic health?

It would seem so:

"Looking back, it is tempting to declare euro a resounding success."

Nggggghhhh.... no chance of balance here either.

It seems to me that the higher-up journalists at the beeb have partially learned to at least present both sides of the argument. But they are atop an iceberg of dross - and too many BBC journalists still think that their job is to "balance against the press" (by which they mean the Sun and Mail, casually forgetting the FT, Indie, Guardian and Mirror).

This is pathetic journalism. What is it going to take for BBC online to present the issues fairly?