This is a summary of Robert A. Dahl’s book ‘On Democracy’ (1998). It is written in English, due to possible translation issues. 23 pages long.
Follow this link to opend the .doc (office 2003 compatible)
Apr 202013
Apr 082013
I noticed these pictures on my facebook-feed, made an Imgur-album of them and they are currently featuring on the frontpage of Reddit, just below the news of Thatcher’s death. All credit on these pictures are to Steven for making them, and bringing them to my attention – and subsequently to the attention of the world.
Mar 052013
Our good friend, the great leader of the magnificent people of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, has passed away. A day of mourning for all of us, but if you’re one of those pesky American pigs, you’ll probably be out in the street celebrating, unshackled of the fear brought upon you by the defiance that was symbolized in this great person, who will be remembered eternally. Continue reading »
Dec 302012
I once wrote a post about the misbehaving of the media, and it’s role as a real power, next to executive, legislative and judiciary. I concluded that the media works for these powers to mold people’s minds into what the original trias politica wanted the people to believe. This recent video of Amber Lyons, CNN-journalist, tells almost the exact same story. She explains how the Bahraini-government pays CNN to paint a favourable picture of themselves, and also how CNN is trying to create a favourable opinion towards a war against Iran.
Dec 132012
A few weeks ago, the new high-speed train connection between Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport, Rotterdam and Breda (and a possibility to take you to Antwerpen and Brussel) called ‘FYRA’ made its first commercial ride. Five years later than expected, it is supposed to take you from Amsterdam to Breda in 67 minutes, 35 minutes less than taking a normal intercity train. It is owned by the ‘High Speed Alliance’, a consortium of NS (90%) and KLM (10%). It is operated by NS Hi-speed, a NS subsidiary. They opted for trains by an Italian company called AnsaldoBreda to construct the trains, because it was the cheapest they could find.
If you know the Dutch railways like I do, this should set off some alarms already. HSA offered to pay 166,5 million euro annually to the Dutch government for the rights to operate the trains. Because not enough people took FYRA as an alternative to their regular train, the project almost went bankrupt. Luckily for them, the Dutch government thought it be a good idea to decrease the worth of the contract (which runs until 2024) by 60 million. That’s a tax write-off worth 780 million euro.