If you thought election times were hectic in the Netherlands, you are either involved in the process or your doctor makes you take pills every morning. The style of political campaigning in the Netherlands is best described as "Ninja". By the time I have the red pencil in my hand, campaigning must have had some effect on my choice, but I have no idea what. Consciously, I watched some debates and made a decision based on that, or I've filled out an online questionnaire and disregarded the results entirely. Usually, the questionnaire says I have to vote for some christian party; I refuse to based on my beliefs. But what of all the money the political parties spent on campaigning? It must have had some effect. Somewhere. Somehow. But these are just my impressions. I don't go outside much, that could have something to do with it.
So maybe it's just that I'm outside more often, but political campaigning here is anything but "Ninja". Where the dutch ninjas whisper in you're ears whom to vote for, the nuclear missiles of the Philippines are blasting you're senses until you're deaf to the opposition. During campaigning time, the streets are littered with posters with a face, a name and a party affiliation. As elections grow nearer, more politicians and politicians' advocacy groups take to the streets to ride around in vans performing pop songs cleverly working their name into the lyrics.
The only thing missing from this veritable overload of information are the issues. It seems as though saying what you stand for only confuses voters into not voting for you, so it's best to stick to popularity-contest style politics.
Sadly, politicians do realize that the results of popularity contests are fickle if not outright random. That means the only way to reliably win an election is to either buy the votes you need, or kill the opposition. It's not all fun and games and karaoke.
vrijdag 24 mei 2013
maandag 6 mei 2013
Heroes
First of all I'd like to pat myself on the back for how quickly after the previous post this one is going up. It's especially impressive considering I have to type this with one hand (the other one is still patting me on the back, it's incredibly uncomfortable). The reason this one is going out so soon is because this one is a spontaneous post! Instead of thinking of the best way to talk about this for days, I'm just going to type it all out and put it online. You know, like a blog, or YouTube-comment.
So let's get down to it. I went to the movies on Friday and I saw Iron Man 3. Iron Man 3 is obviously an amazing film, because there are two others, so they could learn from the mistakes they made in the other two movies (mainly the second one, the first one was almost flawless) and rectify them in the third. That's how it works with movie franchises; the third one is ALWAYS the best.
But the most amazing part was going to a Filipino movie theater. You get an oldskool american-style movie ticket that looks amazing, and then at the theater entrance they take the entire thing away from you. No ticket stub, nothing. Have you ever gone out somewhere without some object you always have on you (a phone, a bag, glasses)? It feels weirdly naked, like you forgot something.
Of course there is no seating arrangement, so everyone sits wherever they want to sit. Seat selection isn't done in the same way you would do it back home, where you would like to sit about halfway through the theater, somewhere in the middle. In the Philippines that's obviously where you would LIKE to sit, but this is made impossible by the fact that they only clean the theaters once a day. I suspect these seats are inaccessible around lunchtime.
So you find yourself a seat, dust it off, sit down, and watch a really long clip in Tagalog about turning your phone off and staying quiet during the movie. It takes at least 5 minutes. After this, they show you all the trailers they have available, until the movie starts at exactly the time it says on the ticket. The transition between trailer and movie is seamless. Jean-Mineur Mediavision has not yet dug his claws into these theaters, and I have to say that watching a movie without seeing a seemingly hour-long Grolsch commercial is a real eye-opener. Why is president Obama in New York in that commercial anyway? I can't think of any reason why he would be driving through there without sniper-support. Dumb commercial.
So the movie has started, and you think you've taken the brunt of culture-shock, so you can now relax and watch the movie without being amazed by something else, right? WRONG!
Do you remember watching a movie as a kid, and you could not keep your noise-level down while something amazing happened on screen? They still do that! It hasn't been beaten out of them by years of school teachers, other children and their parents telling us that we're weird enough already when we're just acting normally. So when Iron Man lands spectacularly on the ground, you can hear adult Filipino men and women going "Wow!". How amazing is that? Pretty amazing. It turns watching a movie into a shared, interactive experience.
I think it's time for revolution. And revolution is just around the corner, with elections coming up next week.
-- Okay, so I waited a few days uploading this. I didn't change anything.
So let's get down to it. I went to the movies on Friday and I saw Iron Man 3. Iron Man 3 is obviously an amazing film, because there are two others, so they could learn from the mistakes they made in the other two movies (mainly the second one, the first one was almost flawless) and rectify them in the third. That's how it works with movie franchises; the third one is ALWAYS the best.
But the most amazing part was going to a Filipino movie theater. You get an oldskool american-style movie ticket that looks amazing, and then at the theater entrance they take the entire thing away from you. No ticket stub, nothing. Have you ever gone out somewhere without some object you always have on you (a phone, a bag, glasses)? It feels weirdly naked, like you forgot something.
Of course there is no seating arrangement, so everyone sits wherever they want to sit. Seat selection isn't done in the same way you would do it back home, where you would like to sit about halfway through the theater, somewhere in the middle. In the Philippines that's obviously where you would LIKE to sit, but this is made impossible by the fact that they only clean the theaters once a day. I suspect these seats are inaccessible around lunchtime.
So you find yourself a seat, dust it off, sit down, and watch a really long clip in Tagalog about turning your phone off and staying quiet during the movie. It takes at least 5 minutes. After this, they show you all the trailers they have available, until the movie starts at exactly the time it says on the ticket. The transition between trailer and movie is seamless. Jean-Mineur Mediavision has not yet dug his claws into these theaters, and I have to say that watching a movie without seeing a seemingly hour-long Grolsch commercial is a real eye-opener. Why is president Obama in New York in that commercial anyway? I can't think of any reason why he would be driving through there without sniper-support. Dumb commercial.
So the movie has started, and you think you've taken the brunt of culture-shock, so you can now relax and watch the movie without being amazed by something else, right? WRONG!
Do you remember watching a movie as a kid, and you could not keep your noise-level down while something amazing happened on screen? They still do that! It hasn't been beaten out of them by years of school teachers, other children and their parents telling us that we're weird enough already when we're just acting normally. So when Iron Man lands spectacularly on the ground, you can hear adult Filipino men and women going "Wow!". How amazing is that? Pretty amazing. It turns watching a movie into a shared, interactive experience.
I think it's time for revolution. And revolution is just around the corner, with elections coming up next week.
-- Okay, so I waited a few days uploading this. I didn't change anything.
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