5 dogs and 1 cat

Five dogs and a cat lay at peace in one room. How come? Everybody being tired, helps. But... mutual trust and the understanding that the other one is another one and therefore a different one, works even better. 'Let it be', the Beatles sang. That is just what they do.

The next step is working together. For example, to get food. Asking as a group, all six of them at the same time, is more likely to convince their humans to get up from the chair and give it.

Oh, now you think they eat every day at six o' clock and they are conditioned to get their meals at that time. For these poor animals, this is not the case. Every day is a different day, with a different rhythm.

Instinct drives them. A slight move, a touch of a smile, they know when it is the right time to get what they want and they feel that cooperating enlarges the chance to reach the goal.

Nota 0 house

We just had Henk Seinen over for lunch. A large, sparkly blue-eyed passionate man from the north of Holland. Henk is a builder, or more accurately, a connector of builders, producers, financers, habitants and everybody involved in making a home and living in it. His passion is sustainability. He is eager to leave the world a lot better than he entered it.

Long lasting

His newest passion is the Nota 0 house. A home that produces energy during daytime, has a healthy interior climate and is erected in wood. 'Our buildings in wood last longer than most concrete houses. They are healthier to live in and they don't pass the bill to the next generation. I want to build for everybody and we succeed in keeping the costs extremely low,' he claims.

Storage and exchange

The Nota 0 house has an ingenious system of solar panels on the roof that provides heat (which is stored underneath in a large tank) and electricity, which is delivered to the net. At night, when the sun is asleep, the net provides the power for light and electric devices. The net functions like a kind of battery: one puts the energy on it when there is a surplus and when more is needed than produced, one takes from the net. At the end of the month the electricity company sends a bill which sums up to ZERO. Wonder if they like that.

Empathy is a new word to COA

No matter the costs

The court about nothing but prestige, lasted almost two hours. COA against Afrisinia. The state versus nine young people. Nine acrobats and musicians, who did nothing wrong, except refusing to be separated. They came to the Netherlands to be free.

What they get, is a series of procedures by different organs of the Ministry of Justice.

Capital - Comma - Point

The problem with procedures is not the thing itself. It is the people following it from Capital to comma to point. Procedures are meant to give an equal fair chance to everybody. In the case of refugees in the Netherlands procedures are exploited to make life as difficult as it can be and, finally, to send the refugee out.

No longer relevant

Today's court in 's-Hertogenbosch proved this once over. COA admitted: The issue is long past and no longer relevant. We just want to win this court to prevent other asylum seekers from objecting to transfers and making our jobs more difficult.

Asylum seeker is client

But, dear COA, maybe it is time to change course. Remember, you owe these refugees your jobs. If nobody asks for asylum in the Netherlands, the whole bunch of you will be unemployed. Refugees are your clients. You better take good care of them, instead of transferring people the moment they start to root.

The way COA operates now, damages people who have already been severely hurt. Nobody flees their country just for fun. The people, COA, you are supposed to shelter, need extra care instead of procedures that make your jobs more easy. They are the ones who left everything and everybody behind. You return to your comfortable houses after a days work. And when you go abroad, you go on a holiday. You pick your destination yourselves and you stay at the places of your choice.

Yes m'am

Imagine your boss sends you to another center to work, 41/2 hours drive from your house, would you turn on your back, paws in the air and say: 'Yes m'am, of course I do whatever you ask to make your job easier for you?' Or would you protest...

Empathy is a new word to COA, a concept worth learning for everybody's sake, not in the least for COA employees themselves.

The courts' verdict will be at March 16th.

Tanking through a bed of flowers

COA, the Dutch bureau that is appointed to shelter asylum seekers, is taking the acrobats and musicians of Afrisinia to court for the second time. It is an appeal against the decision of the judge in Breda. She decided that Afrisinia could not be forced to leave the asylum center in Dongen, last August. She decided COA did a bad job...

Separation

Now, January 2010, the youngsters already left Dongen and the place has been broken down. Why did they leave voluntarily? Look at the film on this blog: Afrisinia, the fence project. The other reason: it wasn't Afrisinia's goal to give COA a hard time. They just did not want to be separated (half of the group being sent to Bellingwolde, 41/2 hours travel from the rest)

COA refused any dialogue

Therefore Afrisinia offered an alternative in the form of temporarily shelter in the house of one of the board members of the foundation. A perfect solution: giving COA time to arrange housing for the youngsters in the neighborhood of each other.

COA refused to consider the option. COA refused any dialogue. It just kept rolling like a tank through a bed of flowers.

Extra punishment for not obeying the states institute is that COA stopped paying the € 50,- living money. In contradiction thus of what the judge decided...

Basic human needs

For Afrisinia the Dongen episode is long gone. For COA it is a matter of principles. This shows the difference in interest. COA employees do not have to worry about their own housing or salary. For the young artists it is an existential matter. They need a roof. They need a little bit money to survive. Working is not allowed.

Power play

The crack down of COA in the name of principles, is power play and a luxury only large organizations can afford. It shows the lack of interest in real people, with real feelings. It is absurd and destructive.

Herman Krikhaar

Geen afscheid genomen

Herman Krikhaar is overleden. Achttien jaar geleden zagen we elkaar de laatste keer. Het was geen afscheid. Het is gewoon zo gelopen.

Les absents ont eu tort (wie er niet bij was, had ongelijk) luidde de kop in de Nice Matin, die zomerochtend. Ik lees de krant in het huis van Herman. Hij is aan het schilderen. Ontbloot bovenlijf, comme toujours. Zijn rechte, bijna stramme houding is in contrast met zijn speelse geest. Herman is bijna 35 jaar ouder dan ik en toch... zijn we vrienden en een beetje meer. Het schilderij waar hij mee duelleert, heeft kenmerkende contouren rondom de figuren. Weinig kleur voor zijn doen. En groot. Herman hield van groot.

Hij heeft het me gegeven.

Iemand die je niet ziet, verandert niet, wordt niet ouder, dikker, dunner of grijzer. Iemand die je niet ziet is bevroren in je geheugen. Hij is er voor altijd. Twee dagen voor zijn overlijden, zei een goede vriend dat er 'een tentoonstelling van Krikhaar op stapel staat. Omdat hij tachtig wordt.' 'Tachtig???' 'Ja, en hij schildert nog steeds.' Dat verbaasde me niet. Herman is een schildersbeest. Dat heeft hij gemeen met oude vrienden, zoals Karel Appel.

Vandaag heb ik natuurlijk gegoogled. 'Zoek: Herman Krikhaar'. Ik zie dat hij een foundation heeft, er een prijs naar hem is vernoemd. Ik zie foto's en filmpjes, boeken en tentoonstellingen. Nog steeds Herman met bravoure, niets veranderd. Mijn geheugen heeft gelijk. En ik denk terug, aan Salernes, aan Hoppe, aan de TEFAF, aan een beeld van Camille Claudel dat verstoft in een klein Frans museum staat. Ik denk terug aan Herman: de houding van een tinnen soldaat, de geest van een slangenmens en de drang van een schilder naar een wit doek. Witte doeken zullen er blijven, wachtend op een overwinnaar. En Herman, jij blijft ook, in de paletten van veel levens.

X

Dutch immigration law is a dragon

Young acrobat in court

Today is another court. One of the Afrisinia acrobats is going to Canossa (literally translated from Dutch, meaning: going a long terrible way you rather would not take) At nine in the morning a judge will listen to both the lawyer of the immigration service (who wants to send the boy back) and to the defense (who wants to keep him in the Netherlands) We will sit in court for one hour and listen to sentences we do not understand, as the language is very peculiar, specifically meant for juridical scholars, excluding everybody else.

Freedom

The acrobat we talk about is a seventeen-year-old boy, who lost his father and can't find his mother. She disappeared during an Ethiopia/Eritrea conflict. He wants to learn and to perform shows with his friends. He also wants to play around like every teenager, have girlfriends, chat and play football in his spare time. He wants to escape the horrible things that happened to him in his home country. He wants to be free.

Not safe

All that matters is the procedure. The judge is tied to its rules. It is not up to him or her to grant the youngster asylum. The judge only checks if the procedure is followed according to the rules. So even if the young acrobat wins this court, he will not be safe. The Dutch immigration service will have to do some rework and can easily discard the request for asylum again.

Exclude

Tomorrow at nine we will witness for the thirteenth time the impotence of the judicial power. We've met a lot of judges and asylum lawyers. In private, they all say the same: Dutch immigration law is a dragon. It is not fit to protect people. The law is meant to keep foreigners out.

No wall high enough

Apart from the harm this law inflicts on individual refugees, it is a very shortsighted policy. We need people from abroad to support our aging and graying population. Imagine the mutual gains in a few years: we will be old and rich. Africa (among other developing countries) is young and poor. If we stop being so xenophobic and accept the help of the Africans in exchange for education and shared prosperity, the whole world will be better off. If we don't let other people join, they will force entry themselves. No wall is high enough, no force is strong enough to keep desperate and hungry people out.

Dance of the lawyers

The seventeen-year-old acrobat lays in his bed now. He can't sleep. Tomorrow is a big day. Tomorrow the authorities will decide over his life, he thinks. He can't understand by far that tomorrow the lawyers will dance prescribed steps in front of the judge trying to outsmart each other and that his life story doesn't matter at all.

Blauw op straat

Controle spiraal

Mijn zoon en ik komen thuis van de supermarkt. Weer rijdt er een politieauto langzaam door de straat. Weer, want de afgelopen tijd zien we dagelijks mannen en vrouwen in uniform traag en oneindig (in de tweede versnelling) door het doorgaans slapende centrum van Vught karren. De dienders kijken ons aan. Ik groet. Ze groeten terug en rijden door. 'Voel jij je ook zo onveilig als er politie rondrijdt?' 'Ja, dat gevoel heb ik al van kindsaf.'

Arabisch uiterlijk

'Meer blauw op straat' roepen politici en bestuurders om de haverklap. Grotere budgetten voor veiligheid. Controle en beheersbaarheid, daar houden ze van. Kinderen moeten zich legitimeren als ze naar school fietsen. Een Arabische naam, of uiterlijk, is voldoende om staande gehouden te worden op vliegvelden en door security gevolgd te worden in supermarkten. Wordt het daar veiliger van? Wordt de samenleving daar leuker door? Of kunnen we het ook anders, beter, oplossen?

Betere buurtbiotoop

Richard Florida bedacht al lang geleden indicatoren voor zich goed ontwikkelende en veilige buurten. Een daarvan is diversiteit. Als alleenstaande moeders, homo's, kunstenaars, verschillende nationaliteiten een wijk bevolken, is dat volgens hem een goed teken. Zij maken de grond als het ware rijp voor economische groei. Aart Wijnen, architect in Den Bosch, werkt aan de 'Betere Buurtbiotoop'. Door ondermeer bewoners te betrekken bij de ontwikkeling van de wijk (hij heeft zelfs een 'geluksindex' ontworpen). Een ander criterium is de sociale cohesie. Mensen die elkaar kennen, spreken elkaar aan. De jongeren die rond het winkelcentrum hangen, vormen geen enkele bedreiging. Je weet wie het zijn. Je kent hun namen. Je kent hun moeders...

Groene autoriteit

Controle roept weerstand op. Meer controle maakt het noodzakelijk om nog meer te controleren. Het is een negatieve spiraal. Vertrouwen daarentegen, spoort mensen aan om zich verantwoordelijk te gedragen. Een oprechte autoriteit gedraagt zich dienend, stelt vragen en biedt mensen de mogelijkheid zich vrij te ontwikkelen. Een echte autoriteit is niet blauw maar groen. Gericht op samen werken en samen leven in vrijheid.

Afrisinia movie: We want to break free

No show!

Afrisinia shows blocked

The short film in the previous page is a compilation of Afrisinia shows last summer. Do you see the public? The enthusiasm? Do you feel the energy? Maybe you were there, at Sfinx, Mundial, Gentse Feesten, Bazaar Boxtel, in The Hague, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Tilburg, Vught.... Lucky you!

Since 'Dienst Terugkeer & Vertrek' (Bureau of Return & Departure) is cracking down on the boys and girls (aged 15 to 25), Afrisinia stopped performing.

A big loss, in our view. A loss for the Dutch (multi)cultural scene. A loss for festivals and theatres. A loss for European society. And a loss for 16 youngsters... Breaking down young ambitious talented youth is a crime. Watch the movie and you know what I mean.

Where are the politicians who dare to take a stand?

Coming courts: Thomas vs IND, Den Bosch January 19, 09.00h and COA (Centrale Opvang Asielzoekers) vs Afrisinia on January 25, 09.30h also playing at Den Bosch. There is some show after all....

Afrisinia wants freedom

Ethiopian Youthcircus Afrisinia looking for freedom

Sixteen young acrobats and musicians, all born in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, asked almost 3 years ago for asylum in the Netherlands. Looking to escape a dictatorial regime. 'We want freedom', one of the contortionists explained.

More on Afrisinia: nonfixe

In stead of freedom, they are being chased by the Dutch authorities, who are eager to deport some of the groupmembers back to Ethiopia, where most likely long emprisonment and abuse awaits these youngsters.

Some of them, not the whole group will be deported! Although all young artists told the same story to the Dutch immigration service. Funny there are different outcomes. Even more 'funny' is that judges only check if the procedure (form) is completed in a correct way and are not supposed to look at the story itself.

More on Afrisinia: youtube, channel: frankvanempel

We, at nonfiXe, believe in the freedom of movement and in the power to differ. We are strongly convinced that people, all people, have equal rights to travel, work and live in peace where they want.