Painting politician, political painter
Abrahamic Religions
In the catalog I made for the first exhibition of my oil paintings, I wrote that the first painting I made this century was a quick ‘Van Gogh self-portrait‘ (see below) in gouache.It wasn’t until after that exhibition that I realized that wasn’t quite right. I made the painting ‘Monerva‘ of which you see a… Continue reading Mona Lisa + Minerva = Monerva
Under the leadership of minister Arie Slob, member of an explicitly christian party, the Dutch cabinet launched a frontal attack on homeschooling. A closer look at the lines along which this attack is taking place is also very instructive for other dossiers. The most concrete part of the bill, which provides for “additional regulations to… Continue reading Using the United Nations to fight homeschooling in your country
For decades now, Islam is growing stronger in Turkey. ‘European’ judicial activism contributed to this. Necmettin Erbakan (1926–2011), founder of Millî Görüş [1], former prime minister and mentor to Erdowahn, was one of the main forces behind the re-Islamization of Turkey. In 2006 a group of judges from the European Court of Human Rights –… Continue reading Elephants in courtrooms–IV; The case Erbakan vs Turkey
How coincidental do you want it?In October 1927, Kemal Mustapha gave a speech that lasted six days. Yes, Fidel Castro certainly fell short of that with his six or eight hour speeches. When I was preparing my book “IS, the Kurds and the Caliphate. Turkey: from sick occupant to paranoid neighbor” (E-book available via the… Continue reading The very little known ‘Atatürk’
Visiting Malta to get inspiration for my faction novel, this was the first photo I took of the capital, Valletta. Work was underway on the impossibly thick wall surrounding the new capital, which the Maltese started to build immediately after the Ottoman invasion of the island was repelled in 1565.So a restaurant was built IN… Continue reading Inspiration
Reading the long text can easily take a quarter of an hour. You can watch the video first. Here is the link to the Long Text itself.
