Well, every TV channel is showing the situation in Libya now, which is understandable considering all the problems there. Gaddafi is a complete and utter lunatic and very dangerous. I can only support the people standing up against this crazy dictator while risking their lives. How he has been reacting with attacks against his own people is sick and worrying. I think he is the only person who actually believes the rebels were fuelled by Al Qaida!

I am happy that the international community are standing up against this, although I have my doubts about the means used for this. I support the no-fly zone and maintaining it, but the west should not attack themselves as it’s still a national matter. Boycott Gaddafi, maintain the no-fly zone, support the rebels, provide them with arms, all fine, but the west shouldn’t attack. Also, in my opinion the west is far too selective. Libya gets attacked, but loads of other countries are at least as bad. It’s still up to the people to trigger a regime change.

I can only hope the people of Libya will be free soon.

I just can’t stop watching the news about Japan, it is unbelievable. First the extreme earthquake which caused a lot of devastation. That got followed by a tsunami of which the effects were even far worse, what was left over after the earthquake got effectively washed away. The Japanese were well prepared for earthquakes and tsunamis but this was too extreme, no-one can prepare for this. Strangely as it may sound with all this devastation and all these deaths, but it could have been far worse had the Japanese not been prepared. I’m sure the effects would have been far, far, worse had it happened in another country in east Asia.

Sadly though, it doesn’t end with this. The nuclear plant in Fukushima is anouther reason to worry. The crisis is escalating there even further. Radiation levels are high already and it’s only getting worse. Unbelievable actually they had nuclear power plants there in the first place. Nuclear is already not safe, but in an area prone to earthquakes it is really highly dangerous. I can only hope this opens up the international debate about nuclear power. It is simply not needed! There are enough other ways which are simply better to the environment, cheaper and (most important) far safer!

But at this point my main worry is about the Japanese people. I keep thinking of them. I hope the amount of victims doesn’t get that much higher (although it sadly probably will) and I wish them everything good in their attempts to rebuild their country.

Posted from Nottingham, England, United Kingdom.

Well, since my last post end October I haven’t blogged at all. I kept thinking “I have to re-start blogging” but I never did it. Now I did though and first some updates about my life in Derbyshire. I have been living here for 5 months now and I’m really enjoying life here! The area is beautiful, the cities are nice and the people are in general friendly. There is more of a future for me in this area as the north-east is sadly getting worse in terms of employment etc. But this is an area where I can see myself living for quite some time to come and I’m simply happy here. Also the house is still something I’m really happy about. Yes, next to the M1 and railway, but I don’t notice that much of it and also this house is a pace where I can see myself staying for a while, I don’t feel like another move for at least a while!

Also work is going well, I have got some nice colleagues and get on well with quite a few people. People seem to be satisfied about my work, so that is a good thing I suppose, lol. I’m fully back in my studies again as well, did 2 exams last week. One of them went really well, the other was harder. But I’m well on course of finishing the studies hopefully by the end of this year.

Well, that was it for now, I will be back soon with thoughts about many things going on in the world of today.

Posted from Nottingham, England, United Kingdom.

Well, again I haven’t posted for a while, but I have got a stressful time behind me. I got a new job and moved down from Darlington to Derbyshire! For quite a while I have been stressed with finding the job, then the stress of moving came around, while things like study etc. just stayed.

Now, I live Sawley, a village in Derbyshire but with a Nottingham postcode. The village is right between Derby and Nottingham and next to Long Eaton train station, which provides good connections to many places, including London and Birmingham. For connections we are quite central here anyway as there are loads of trains/coaches to virtually anywhere in England and Wales from either Derby or Nottingham. However, I can’t wait to buy car, which will make traveling a lot easier, specially to my work just north of Nottingham, in Calverton. Sawley is a lovely village, quiet but central and close to Long Eaton town centre with basically all shops I need. Nottingham is a great place and I look forward to exploring it more closely.

Now the stress is over, I can finally enjoy live here, so looking forward to it!

I haven’t blogged for far too long, but I’ll make it up now. The football season is back, about which I’m really happy. The first AFC Wimbledon match I went to was against Arsenal. AFC Wimbledon won 2-1! Okay, Arsenal didn’t play their strongest side, but their reserves. However, they had a more then decent team out there and beating them was a brilliant result! But more important, it was great to see all my mates again!

One week later was the first league game and the first of 2 seaside trips for me. The journey went to Southport. To get there I first had to take train to Manchester and take a local train from there. On the train and in Southport I met various friends and we went for a drink at the seaside. The game went quite well, except for the penalty miss by Jon Main late in the first half. But the penalty was a big error by the referee so I suppose this was somehow justice. A second half goal by Jolley resulted in a winning start for us and a happy journey home for us!

This weekend was just great! Last Friday I went to London where I was celebrating my 30th birthday in Wimbledon. It was not very busy, but the atmosphere was great and I had a fantastic night! On Saturday another seaside trip followed, this time to Eastbourne. This is the furthest journey from Darlington this season. Just like in Southport we were lucky with the weather. After a nice walk down the pier we went to the pub and then to the game. The game looked like an easy victory when we were deserved 2-0 up. However, we looked like throwing it all away when Eastbourne scored 2. A last minute winner by Danny Kedwell sent us home happy in the end, specially because Luton lost and we are now top of the conference for the first time in our history! Now I’m on my way back home after a great weekend!

YEAH! The new football season is about to start, it has taken far too long! Okay, we had the world cup, but nothing beats going to matches and enjoy the time with my friends. My first match I will be visiting is Newcastle v PSV this Saturday, which should be cool. It will be nice to see a Dutch team here in the north-east.

But the only club where I really care about, AFC Wimbledon, is in the middle of the pre-season. It’s going quite well so far and I’m positive about the new season for the Wombles. Saturday 7 August I’m going down to London again for a pre-season match against an Arsenal XI. I wonder what team Arsenal will play! One week later I’ll be heading down to Southport for the first league fixture of the season. It’s hard to say what I expect for the new season, we are full-time now and expectations will be a bit higher. I just hope we can push for a play-off spot now.

Roll on the new season!

Posted from Darlington, England, United Kingdom.

Well, it’s no 6 weeks after the Dutch elections and the leaders of VVD, PvdA, D’66 and GroenLinks gave up their talks about a new cabinet, so everything will start over again. What could be expected when they started happened, they did not find a solution on finances. So it’s back to the drawing board.

The next option is VVD, PvdA, CDA, the Dutch Tories, Dutch Labour and Christian Democrats together. These 3 are traditionally the 3 main parties in the country and it would be unique if they all work together. But again, it could be a very tough combination because of the differences of the parties. But please, please, find a solution without using PVV, the Dutch version of the BNP with racist leader Geert Wilders. These idiots in the cabinet will kill the country. If that happens I have to be really happy that I’m not living there anymore.

Please, let the main parties come together and step over their differences in the interest of the country. The last thing The Netherlands need is an extremist racist party in the government!

Posted from Darlington, England, United Kingdom.

Okay, okay, I’m sorry, I really should’ve blogged more! But now I’m back! The disappointment from the World Cup final is slowly making place for pride of getting further then I ever dared to expect. I still really don’t like Howard Webb as he clearly favored Spain, but that’s over with now.

Anyway, club football is back again, what’s a lot better then international football in my opinion. AFC Wimbledon has won the first 2 pre-season friendlies, against Charlton Athletic and Maidenhead. This is our first season as a full-time club and I’m really excited for what I can expect. I have booked my first 2 journeys to games: a friendly v Arsenal (reserves probably) and the first league match away against Southport. In the meanwhile I’m planning to go to some other matches as well, starting with Darlington v Sunderland this Saturday and Newcastle v PSV 2 weeks later.

In the Dutch politics not a lot has happened since the last time I blogged, negotiations are still going on about a VVD-PvdA-D’66-GroenLinks cabinet but it doesn’t really look like a lot is happening. I hope there will be a cabinet soon, without PVV obviously. The UK had a coalition government only 1 week after the elections. The Dutch elections were 5 weeks ago and these negotiations could still go on for many, many weeks. To be continued…

Posted from Darlington, England, United Kingdom.

Well, today was the 2nd rest day of the World Cup, a good time to look back on the first two stages.

First of all, the sportive side of it. We have seen a few nice, surprising results. Examples of this are the early exits of France and Italy, but also Switzerland beating Spain for example was quite a shock. Maybe it’s better if I don’t talk about the England matches as they were terrible, except for the game against Slovenia. Goal line technology or not, England deserved their exit. The Dutch team has been doing a lot better, 4 matches played and 4 wins. Okay, it’s not the most attractive Dutch team ever, far from it, but the results are coming in so far. The next match against Brazil will be very tough, but there will be chances. Brazil are not the Brazil they used to be anymore and the Dutch team are growing in the tournament, specially now Robben is fit again. Brazil will still be the favorites for this match, but I am hoping for an upset, which should be possible!

Like often in football refereeing is a major issue being discussed. Many big mistakes have been made, the Gerrard-goal, Argentina scoring from a clear offside position, the ridiculous sending off for Klose and many more. Obviously, if referees deliver a bad performance it’s only right they are getting criticised. Although often the criticism is unfair for the referee as well. Many incidents are hard to see with the current speed of the game and not to forget the amount of times players deliberately try to fool the referee. In the modern game, modern technology is sometimes needed to come to a fair decision. FIFA are really conservative on this, claiming the game would be slowed down. But does it really need to be slowed down that much? I think the solution is quite simple: let an extra official watch the match on a TV-screen, as soon as he sees the referee makes a mistake, he will overrule by talking through an earpiece. If the referee doesn’t make a mistake, play can simply go on. This would make higher level football a lot fairer. This is not the only solution though. As previously mentioned the cheating is a serious problem as well. Nowadays every match gets analyzed, also by officials. Let some experts watch every game  and ban every player who cheats for 1 match per attempt, regardless whether the attempt was successful or not. That should stop cheating! That players like Ronaldo and Drogba could basically end their careers if they don’t change immediately is a logical consequence, but then it would be their own fault. All of this can make the game a lot fairer and better to watch. FIFA, please read this post!

Tomorrow I’ll leave work early for Netherlands v Brazil, I’m nervous already…

Posted from Darlington, England, United Kingdom.

Well, last time I’ve told about how disgusted I was about the Dutch elections, with the far-right racist bunch of Geert Wilders winning. I was hoping for a coalition government without them. For the British people reading this it will be weird, it was quite remarkable that it took until almost a week after the elections until we had a new prime minister. In The Netherlands, nobody knows yet in what direction the new government might be heading and it’s 2 weeks after the election, it could easily take another 2 months!

The first coalition that got looked at was VVD-PVV-CDA, the right liberals (comparable to the Tories), racists (worse then the BNP) and “Christian” democrats. Thankfully CDA didn’t want to talk, so this looks like being ruled out, which rules out any potential talk with PVV as no other party looks willing to talk with them. I just hope CDA won’t change their mind!

The next option where was looked at was VVD-PvdA (like Labour)-D’66 (like LibDem) and GreenLeft (you’ll guess it, like the Greens). VVD didn’t really want this as they would have to jump in a coalition with 2 left parties. The next option now is VVD-PvdA-CDA, a “middle” coalition. Still it will be hard to get the Dutch Tories and Labour together. If VVD fails to form one of these possible coalitions they’ll lose the initiative which they have earnt by being the biggest party. Then PvdA will get the initiative, they will then go for the only remaining majority cabinet: PvdA-CDA-GreenLeft-SP (Socialistic Party). That is also my preferred coalition, a left-wing coalition that can clean up the mess caused by capitalism!

What if PvdA fails as well? Then there is a big problem, because no realistic majority coalition can be formed it will have to be a minority coalition, which will be very unstable. If even that doesn’t work then a non-political coalition has to be formed of people who are not connected to political parties. That won’t be strong either, as for every single plan they would have to find a majority. The last “option” would be new elections, but that would be the worst possible outcome! In that case the parties that failed to reach an agreement would be punished by the voters, probably resulting in an even bigger victory of the racists…

Posted from Darlington, England, United Kingdom.