Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: Society

  • Trolls ‘R Us

    A very sobering story about the amplifier that is the Internet: when trolls run wild. When I read John Brunner’s fiction many years ago (The Sheep Look Up, Stand On Zanzibar, The Shockwave Rider), I felt a frisson of horror; aghast that anyone could think that society could ever be like this.
     
    Hello, welcome to the real world of 2008. It’s going to get much worse. There are over 6.6 billion of us and we have the technology to make it so. 

  • Amsterdam Canal Parade 2008

    Last Saturday, I travelled to Amsterdam to watch the annual Canal Parade. This year was the biggest-ever event, with over 80 boats taking part. It’s reckoned that there were over 400,000 onlookers, including yours truly.

    I was fortunate enough to get a good spot on the balcony of Cafe Werck, thanks to Nancy and Piet-Jan of Shell’s Pink Pearl LGBT network. From here, sandwiched between the Anne Frank House and the Westerkerk, I got rather carried away and took (as I later totted up) 2,149 photos of the event. After a few days, I’ve now whittled these down to a mere 496 photos of the parade itself, 26 photos of the Shell boat, and 76 photos of onlookers, passersby and sundry characters.

    This was a good parade. First because there were more boats than ever before, but also because of the message sent by politicians such as the Mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, and the Minister of Education and Culture, Ronald Plasterk, by their participation in the parade.

    The Mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen:

    20080802-1354-36(1) 

    The Minister of Education and Culture, Ronald Plasterk:

     20080802-1357-18(1) 

    The full set of photos of the parade that I took can be found here; the photos of Shell’s Pink Pearl boat can be found here, and a variety of photos of onlookers, passersby, and characters hanging around the parade can be found here. Lastly, I draw your attention to the HIVOS boat, with its sombre message that not everybody is free to celebrate. Never a truer word was spoken.

    20080802-1554-22

  • Bottomless Pit

    I’m sure that it’s bagels all the way down…

  • Hitman Misses

    I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Perhaps I’ll just shake my head at the stupidity of humans.

  • Two Talks From Ted

    There’s an interesting juxtaposition in two talks that have just gone up on the TED web site. The first is Louise Leakey talking about her work as an archeologist, and pointing out how we as a species are connected with the other great apes, and with other ancestral hominid species. The second is by the author Chris Abani who talks about how we are connected with each other in our shared humanity. Both are worth watching. Abani’s in particular, for using anecdote to show both the best and the worst of ourselves.

  • The Right to be Listened To

    Gia Milinovich has a thought-provoking post about the fact that "everyone thinks that they have a right to be listened to". In her view, not everyone has that right. I think she’s correct, and her arguments are persuasive. Well, they’ve persuaded me, at any rate.

  • Losing Hope

    "I fear the winter and hope for nothing". That was the core of a most eloquent letter from a UK citizen in yesterday’s Guardian. He was bearing witness to the poverty trap that is growing in UK society and likely to catch many more in its jaws. As someone writes in today’s Guardian: that letter should be pinned to every single sinew connected to the Labour party. It has deserted these people and it is an absolute disgrace.
     
    Update: And here you can read the uncomprehending responses from lifeforms that inhabit the "Atari community". Sigh. There, but for the grace of whatever, go I…  

  • A Hit, A Palpable Hit

    So there I was, meandering around the blogs today as is my wont, and I come across Charles Darwin raising a well-deserved eyebrow at the news that the UK government has embarked on a solicitation exercise to empower society to have its say about science. I know, I know, it freezes the braincells even to imagine the trainwreck that will inevitably ensue. However, be that as it may, I was most taken by the comment from Henry Gee on this news. To my mind, he has gone straight to the heart of the matter. And as a result, I have now discovered Mr. Gee’s most excellent blog, which I shall endeavour to read forthwith.

  • Mistempered Weapons

    Rachel has a brilliant entry on her blog where she writes about the appeal of knives and the predictable results when it’s mixed with human emotions, particularly those of a teenager "awash with hormones and insecurities, dreamy and silly and hyper-sensitive to the pettiest slight". Go and read it, and then come back here. Go on, I’ll wait.
     
    Good piece, wasn’t it? Now, while you’re digesting it, I’ll tell you something. Last Monday evening, we were out working in the garden. We heard the sound of a moped passing the end of the drive. To our astonishment, we also heard the sound of its teenage rider yelling "Homo! Homo!" as he passed by. I was instantly seized by an adrenaline rush and became extremely angry. For a moment there, if I had been in a position to do so, I am sure I would have dragged the young oik off his bike and given him a good thrashing. So it is not just teenagers who can be hyper-sensitive. Still, I would like to look that boy in the face and ask him why he was being such a wanker.

  • Happy Families

    An extraordinary interview with the writer Paul Abbott in today’s Guardian. The term dysfunctional doesn’t even come close to describing his family background. At least he managed to escape.

  • The Chill of Costume

    David Thompson, over at, er, David Thompson, has a nice piece on the work of Steve Schofield and his photographs of British Science Fiction fans who like to dress up in the costumes of their favourite characters. There’s a bittersweet technicolor Diane Arbus quality about them, though, like Thompson, I’m not convinced about the spin Schofield puts on them. Frankly, I don’t care if they do dress up as American cultural SF icons. It’s also quite clear that some Americans simply don’t understand our own home-grown ones. And they never will, ha ha ha.

  • Head-Wall-Head-Wall II

    A discussion between John Lennox and Richard Dawkins. My take? I wish that I had the patience of Job that Dawkins exhibits. Were I there, I would be slapping Lennox with a fish within ten minutes. What an absolute wanker. If this is the best "evidence" that a Christian can offer, then why in god’s name does anyone believe this tripe?
     
    It’s interesting that others are saying that Dawkins should not have taken the tactic of letting Lennox simply hang himself (as he clearly does), because believers will simply delude themselves that Lennox has "won" the "debate". I also think that this is probably true. Dawkins also concedes the possiblility, but points to the one who will follow him. Apparently, Christopher Hitchens will debate Lennox next month. Dawkins and I both look forward to that conversation.  

  • Finger On The Pulse

    Well, you know me – I have no time for religion. Away with all that mind-numbing idiocy. Having said that, I do want to say that I thought that Rowan Williams got it spot-on when he said during the General Synod’s debate that:
    "I am deeply unhappy with any scheme or any solution to this which ends up, as it were, structurally humiliating women who might be nominated to the episcopate."
    Amen to that. What staggers me is that there are clearly people – some of them women – who believe the exact opposite. It almost beggars belief – but then I realise, yup, it’s simply religion, wending its merry way through the human psyche. Just keep out of my head, thank you very much.

  • Just Desserts

    I see that Stephen Green is claiming that he is facing bankruptcy following his failed bid to bring blasphemy charges against the BBC for daring to show Jerry Springer – The Opera. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving case. Mind you, he’s set up an online petition to beg that the BBC waive the costs that were awarded against him by the High Court. Look Stephen, it’s clearly God’s will that you lost, so just pay up. 
     
    I also note that a counter-petition has been set up to suggest that he abide by the law. I’ve signed that petition instead. Let him reap the whirlwind.

  • RIP Charles

    Charles Wheeler has died. Journalism takes another punch to the vitals.

  • Waterboarding Hitchens

    Earlier this year, Christopher Hitchens agreed to undergo waterboarding in order to answer for himself the question of whether the process constitutes torture or not. His answer, in this month’s Vanity Fair is non-equivocal: Believe me, it’s torture.
     
    Even more harrowing was watching the video of him getting waterboarded, despite the strains of Enigma playing in the background. What astounded me was seeing for myself how little time is required before the victim believes himself or herself to be simultaneously smothered and drowning. Tellingly, Hitchens says that since the experience, he’s had nightmares about it.

  • Head-Wall-Head-Wall

    It’s not often that I feel sympathy for Inayat Bunglawala, but I do in this exchange he has had with Harun Yahya. The latter is a typically depressing denialist of the fact of evolution. It’s enough to make the brain cells shrivel reading his utter bollocks.

  • A Little Problem

    So I read Anne Atkin’s apologia about Gafcon, and, I’m sorry, but I think it is perverse. Yes, I’m sure that she thinks she is right, but, sorry, I think she is deluded.
    "I find this utterly thrilling stuff, which is why I was there. It has changed my life, shaped my choices, gloriously enriched my relationships, and most important of all, will get me through the biggest challenge I will ever face: my death and what lies beyond."  
    Erm, reality to Anne, there ain’t nothing beyond your death. Do good in your life, it’s all you have – and on this evidence, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Your Gafcon crowd are simply causing misery. That I consider immoral.

  • Too Late…

    For my vicarious pleasure, I often peruse the Not Always Right web site, where the more depressing side of humanity is often on display during a customer/vendor transaction. While most of them make me despair for the future of humanity, some (thankfully) make me realise that we are all simply susceptible to human foibles. Long may it continue. 

  • Would You Like Mayo With That?

    And just to illustrate how little UK society seems to have moved on since Section 28, here comes the news that a Heinz advert has been pulled because it features two men sharing a peck on the cheek. I don’t know who is the more stupid – the arses who complained or Heinz for having less spine than an E-coli bacterium.
     
    Update: it appears as though the American Family Association  are the men behind the curtain. Personally, I wish that Toto would chew their bollocks off. They deserve nothing less. And, as has already been said by others: shame on Heinz.