About me

People hearing that you live in Medellin usually either think you`re insane, very brave, having a death wish or a combination of the three. People who inform themselves a little bit better then usually read stories raving about Medellin´s revival, the city rising from the ashes and now being one of the best places on earth to live, with a perfect climate, hard working people, skyrocketing real estate prices and a generally safe environment. The truth, of course, is somewhere in the middle, and the fight about the image of Medellin towards the outside world is currently being fought with passion.

Like during last week, for example.

The `fight` started with a very long feature in Spain`s respected daily newspaper El Pais. According to the story, despite the death of Pablo Escobar in 1993 and the falling apart of the infamous Medellin cartel, the city still has huge problems with hundreds of drug gangs and more than 5.000 sicarios who are ready to kill for prices as low as 5.000 Pesos (a little more than 2 Euro).

Medellin`s local newspaper El Colombiano was upset by the numbers and the quotes in El Pais and started a `we-are-proud-of-Medellin-and-you foreigners-do-not-know-what you-are-writing-about´ action. With success: within a day, several high-ranking officials stated they did not `recognise` themselves in the story by El Pais. Medellin`s Mayor Gaviría even wrote a letter to the editor of El Pais, complaining about the unclear sources of the article.

Just as the dust seemed to settle down, the next negative feature about Medellin appeared, this time in British daily The Guardian, asking itself whether Medellin is `on the brink of a new drug war`. Again the reactions from official sides were strong.

So who is right? Of course both sides are. Medellin is without doubt a much safer place than twenty years ago, when murder rates reached an all-time high of 381 per 100.000 inhabitants in 1991, making it the murder capital of the world. By 2007, these numbers had dropped by roughly 90% to 34 murders per 100.000 inhabitants. Over the last years though, murder rates have been on the increase again, due to increased fighting between drug gangs.

So can we speak of a revival of Medellin? Yes we can, but it`s an unfinished one.

Funny how media work. Last weekend, more than 30 heads of state from North- and South America gathered in the Colombian city of Cartagena for the Summit of the Americas, to discuss issues such as economic cooperation between the American countries, concretized by agreements between the USA, Colombia and Peru on a Free Trade Agreement (TLC), which will start from the 15th of May.

Another very important topic during the Summit, though officially not on the agenda, was the discussion about legalization of drugs. For most Central and South American countries, it is clear that the current policy of prohibiting the use of drugs just doesn`t work, as can be seen in countries like Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala and El Salvador, where complete drug wars are fought between police, drug traffickers and the army. Although the United States continue to be against any legalization of drug use, the American leaders unanimously decided to set up a new regional anti-crime body. Further, they commissoned a study on drug policy by the Organization of American States (OAS), which can be seen as important result of the Summit, especially if one realises that the drug topic officially was not even on the agenda.

Another remarkable fact was that with the exception of the United States and Canada, all other participating countries stated their objection to exclude Cuba from future Summits. Because the heads of state could not reach a consensus on this issue, they refused to sign a final joint declaration.

Nonetheless, important issues were being discussed in Cartagena. But none of that made it to the newspapers, websites, radiostations and television programmes in Europe. The only thing that interested mainstream media were a few US Secret Service agents who invited prostitutes into their hotel rooms. Very important news, indeed... 

MEDELLIN - New times in Colombia? After having deceptioned the Colombian people time after time during the past decade with unfulfilled promises, this time the relieve was as great as it could be, after the FARC kept its promise this time: it released its ten last `political prisoners`. Some of the four soldiers and six policenmen had been held for more than twelve years in the jungle. Some of them had been chained to eachtother for several years already. Not only did the rebels on rubber boots release these ten prisoners, they recently also announced that in future they will refrain from taking people hostage as a means of finacing their `revolutionary fight`.

The FARC moves come at a moment that the organisation is under fierce fire. Over the last weeks, the Colombian army killed almost seventy rebels during several attacks in different parts of the country. She uncovered FARC camps in Panama, disclosed weapon arsenals and celebrated the death of several mid-level FARC commanders. Although nobody knows the exact figures, specialists estimate that the numbers of FARC rebels decreased by half during the past decade, to roughly 8.000 persons under arms nowadays. Above all this, the FARC lost almost all of its long-time leading commanders from the secretariat, the highest FARC gremium. They were killed by the Colombian army one by one during the past years. By far the biggest part of the Colombian population is fed up by the FARC, which says to by fighting for a socialist state since 1964.

Colombian President Santos called the moves by the FARC ´important steps in the right direction`. He added however that these steps were `not enough`. As soon as the FARC would be sending `clear and serious signals` of a `sincere will to peace`, Santos would be willing to participate in peace negotiations personally. Before Colombia gets that far, however, there are still thousands of Colombians waiting for a sign of life of the several hundreds of civilians held hostage by the FARC. The last –failed- peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC date back to 2002. 

One week to go: on January 31st, I will leave for Medellin, Colombia, together with my family, where we will live for at least two years. I will write regularly from Colombia and surrounding countries, but first we will have to settle down there. In the attached article, you can read more about it (in German).

Gold prices are high, and gold reserves in the Romanian Apuseni mountains are big. No wonder that a Canadian company, worldwide shareholders and the Romamanian government would like to explore these reserves. The only problem: the gold mine would destroy cultural heritage, devastate a beautiful lanscape and frustrate efforts to develop small-scale eco-tourism in the region. Read more about it (on page 9, in German) in the attached article.

Dutch farmers move everywhere. To Poland, for instance, where this Dutch farmer manages hundreds of thousands of chickens....

Eastern Germany offers many opportunities to Dutch farmers: good soils, a lot of space and a well-qualified, relatively cheap labour force. Here`s a story (in Dutch) of some happily migrated Dutch people on the German East Sea-coast, producing sprouts. 

Today you`ll find stories by me about the upcoming elections (on October 9th) and the robust state of the Polish economy in De Groene Amsterdammer, as well as a story about the German Pirate Party, which did well during the local elections in Berlin two weeks ago.

In the Dutch daily newspaper De Pers, today you`ll find a feature on land grabbing in Ethiopia. Here`s a link; take a look at page six.

The weekend magazine of French newspaper Le Monde published three stories produced by www.disputedwaters.com, a journalism project in which I am involved as well.

Here you find a link to the stories I made about the Colorado and the Nile, together whith some photographer colleagues. These are my first publications in French!

Have you ever heard of land grabbing? Well, if not, you can read all about it  in my feature in this week`s German weekly Freitag, which means, you will have to read the text in German. You can find it at page 9.

Last August, I visited Ethiopia, which seems to be the world-wide centre of land grabbing. Mainly Asian companies, for instance from India, South Korea and Saoudi Arabia are buying up huge pieces of land for really small sums, in order to ´develop´ these lands for soy-, rice-, palmoil-, or seed production, usually mainly for export. The local population often has very few benefits of this land grabbing.

In a remote western part of Ethiopia, I talked to the Indian multinational Karuturi PLC from Bangalore, which is developing a huge rice farm over there - but the company has its fair share of problems, because the local cattle herdsmen are against the Indian company. Well, you can read about it yourself....

During the last years, thousands of Roma left Macedonia in search for a better life in North-Western Europe. All of those Roma who applied for political asylum have been sent back, though, by Dutch, German, Belgian and Swedish authorities. The European Commission even threatened to turn back the visa-free status for all Macedonians and Serbians, which is in place since the end of 2009. 

Read more - in German - about the situation of the returned Roma in Macedonia in Freitag, on page 7.

A few weeks ago, extreme right-wing groups terrorised Roma in the Hungarian village of Gyöngyöspáta. The media have left, but the villagers will have to find a way to continue living next to each other.

Read my feature about the pure hatred between Roma and Hungarians in different parts in the country. The text is in German - you`ll find it on page 10 of the attached Freitag.

Thessaloniki/Skopje – So close, and still so far away. Try getting to the Macedonian capital Skopje these days from Thessaloniki,. the capital of Greek Macedonia. I did it, today, and it was a classical travellers´ hassle.

Greece is undergoing a serious crisis these days. Therefore, the Greek railways suspended all international train departures to Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Turkey at the beginning of this year. I read about it, and foolish as I am, I expected there there would be some sort of alternative transport. A bus, for example. But no way. The Greek railways does not offer any other transport. They do not care either. Nor does KTEL, the Greek state bus company.

So if you want to get from Greek Macedonia to Macedonian Macedonia, you´re on yuor own. Good luck! Here`s my travel advice: first take a local bus to Polikastro in Northern Greece. Then take a taxi to the Greek-Macedonian border. Walk across the border. Take a taxi on the Macedonian side to Gevgelija. And then, finally, take a stone-age train to Skopje. All in all, the 260 kilometers will cost something like 40 Euros this way. The trip takes roughly seven hours. Extra bonus: you will immediately have a pretty good impression about the state of unification between the two Macedonias......

Gyöngyöspáta – Hungarians love weird place nanes. They do not love their Roma neighbours, however. `Gypsies are lazy and only want to rely on their social welfare`, Milena Ludanyi told me last week, a pretty woman from the village 80 kilometres east of Budapest. She went even further: `It`s not only the Gypsies who are destryoing our country. The Green Party and the Jews are reposible as well.`

She really said it: the Gypsies, the Greens and the Jews are reponsible for all misery in Hungary. Brainwashed? Seen too many Hollywood movies? No, this is nowadays Hungary, and it seems to become even worse. In the countryside, hatred against the Roma has become the norm.

`Roma should start working and earning their own money`, is the common opinion of many Hungarians. If you ask them, whether they would employ a Roma, the Hungarian answer is: `No, of course not!`

Solving the `Roma issue` will take a lot of time, money and dedication. All of this is lacking in Hungary. Not a good sign for the next years.....

By now we all know it: 25 years ago, a nuclear disaster happened in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Many people thought such a disaster could never take place in a ´highly developed´ capitalist country such as Japan, which is the reason that many people were shocked by the nuclear disaster in Fukushima.

Still, Fukushima is already disappearing from the news headlines.  For pro-nuclear lobbyists, this is the perfect moment to come out of the shade and re-start their lobbying work for nuclerar energy again. A change towards green energy will cost billions and billions, is their message. So far, nobody can really calculate those costs, since politicians did not decide on any major changes yet.

The country the farthest ahead in changing its energy policy is Germany. In a remarkable move, the liberal-conservative government in this country stated that it wants to abandon nuclear energy completely. Eight old nuclear power plants have already been switched off since Fukushima. Before, energy producers were warning that this would be impossible, since it would cause energy shortages in Germany. Well, the lights are still burning.

Still, the lobbyists are re-emerging, such as the Ukrainian energy Minister, who had the nerve to lobby for nuclear energy during the past days while he his country was hosting an international conference focused on raising money for a new sarcphague for the exploded Chernobyl reactor.

Let`s hope German policy will become the European standard and not the Ukrainian policy. Otherwise we should be preparing for another nuclear disaster in the future. Nobody is perfect.    

For more stories about nucclear energy from me: www.vuconnected.nl/tsjernobyl.

Did you know this? Fourty years ago, on the 8th of April 1971, Roma from around the world gathered for the first time during a World Congress in London, where they elected a Roma flag and hymn. Since then, the Roma have come a long way.

Unfortunately, it took a huge political row last summer in the European Union about the expulsion of France of Roma from their territory, to really put the issue on the political agenda. Finally, the European Commission presented an EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies, in order improve the situation of the more than ten million Roma within the EU.

Education, employment, health and housing are usually the key words. Yes, these issues are very important. But of course we should also really fight the stereotypical images that most of us have about Roma. No, Roma are usually not travelling around and no, Roma are no thieves.

Especially in Eastern Europe, Roma still suffer from exclusion. One of the countries where Roma are facing hard times is Hungary, where currently a consevative-right government is in charge. Almost ironically, the current Presidency of the EU is in the hands of Hungary. It is in this country -where during the last years several Roma were brutally murdered for racist reasons- that many Roma leaders today are celebrating their annual Roma day. I wish our fellow Europeans –and my Roma friends!- all the best.

Can you believe it? According to the latest opinion polls, the green party in Germany would receive 28% of the votes, whereas the liberal FDP (let`s say: the Dutch VVD) would only get 3%. The German SPD would even be smaller than the Greens, with 23% of the votes. Green-red would have a clear majority in Parliament.

After all, Fukushima is close......

VUconnected, an association related to the Free University of Amsterdam, invited me to write a daily blog about nuclear energy, starting today, until April 26^th, which is the 25^th ´anniversary´ of the Chernobyl desaster.

I`m looking forward to this challenge and I hope that you will follow my texts. Here`s a direct link to my VUconnected webspecial.

Back in Cairo! In order to get a press accreditation for a field visit with the Ministry of Water during the next days, we went to the Ministry of Information this evening, located in the same building as the (former?) Egyptian state television. The building is located along the Nile, next to the burnt-out former party centre of Mubarak`s NDP.

In front of the building: tanks, soldiers with automatic weapons, barbed wire and an incredible traffic jam. One we have managed to take the unavoidable hurdle of inevitable security men who are busy smoking cigarettes, shouting in telephones and trying to look important, we walk up the stairs of the run-down media station/Ministry.

The atmosphere inside is still revolutionary and hectic, with old papers scattered on the floor, toilets which haven`t been cleaned for ages, smoking men everywhere, people running around, young soldiers hanging around and another soldier with an automatic weapon standing on the balcony, guarding the building. `Since the revolution started on January 25th, we have demonstrations here everyday,´ says Aziz Wael a journalist who just came back two days ago from Bengasi in Libya. `They come here because they want to be sure that the media see their protest.`

It`s understandable that the army is protecting the building: crime is on the rise in Egypt, since the hated police largely left the public domain. Outside, through the open windows, we hear an angry mob of demonstrators yelling their demands. This evening, two groups of demostrators are mixing: personnell of the state television, who want their corrupt chiefs to leave, and policemen who request a salary rise. Why? `That´s logical`, says Wael. `So far, they were used to be corrupt. That doesn`t work anymore in the new situation, they cannot bribe the people anymore, so they want an increase in salary. People hate them now, that`s why you don`t see many police around these days. But the Egyptians will find out again that we need them. Crime is on the rise, Egypt is becoming unsafe. We need a functioning police force for our democracy.`

Sudan, Ethiopia, Ruanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo: not only Egypt wants Nile water. Since the moment that -except for Egypt and Sudan- all other countries mentioned above started the so-called Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) in 2009, politicians in Egypt and Sudan have been in a state of alarm. The other countries announced they want a bigger share of the Nile water for their development, and so Ethiopia for instance started the construction of dams in the Nile headwaters. Sudan and Egypt frantically disagree with the plans of the upstream countries.

Dr. Raouf Darwish, Managing Director of Darwish Consulting Engineers in Cairo, can understand the Egyptian worries, but he does not see any other option than to keep on talking with its international partners further upstream. ‘What other option do we have? I am 63 years old now. I have lived through the wars of 1956, 1967 and 1973, that was enough for me. We have to come to a common level of understanding. All the countries along the Nile are in a sort of marriage with each other, and in a marriage you first have to agree on rules and then you have to make compromises in order to be able to live with each other.’

Another urgently needed action in Egypt is to start saving water. Since roughly 80 percent of the annual 55,5 Billion cubic meters of Nile water that Egypt receives goes to agriculture, the biggest savings in water use can be achieved here. Mr. Darwish: ‘Since 1959, when our government agreed on the division of the water of the Nile, the population of Egypt has increased from 20 million people to more than 80 million. We have to increase our water saving efforts, we have to look for other water resources; we have to recycle water. Trying to renegotiate the shares of water on the international level will not bring us anywhere; it will only distract us from the real issue. We have to keep on talking as international partners. It’s our only option. Could a water war be possible? Anything is possible…’