Amsterdam: Narrowest House?

Narrowest House in Amsterdam?



 Many places boast skinny houses built in the equivalent of alleys between other buildings. Which is the narrowest in Amsterdam? We recall that this is, but another site shown another: see ://goeurope.about.com/od/amsterdampictures/ss/amsterdam_7.htm; and this next one shows a clock facade:  ://www.amsterdamtourist.nl/en/home/about+amsterdam/Amsterdam+Surprise/article/xp/content_artikel.Surprise+EN+-Narrowest+house+in+the+world/default.aspx /

We give up. Several cities boast this kind of residence, built in the alleyways, as the narrowest in the world. See Scotland's bid at ://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/1634975.stm; and Brazil's at ://freshome.com/2007/11/06/narrowest-house-in-the-world-just-1-meter-wide/

Non-Romanticizing Any Country - Amsterdam, The Death of Theo Van Gogh

Travel is more than seeing what is in the guidebooks off and on. It is also watching the current political, social, religious climate. The murder of Theo Van Gogh, see the book "Murder in Amsterdam, The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance," by Ian Buruma, reviewed by Christopher Caldwell in the New York Times, 9/20/2006 at page 8. Philosophy, tolerance, the place of newcomers, and what if the newcomers are physically aggressive about their cause, the the old-timers use language and political processes.

Familiar, and a concern. Van Gogh had made a film that offended a particular Islamist because of the film's depiction of treatment of women, among other issues. There is now about a million Dutch-born Muslims in the Netherlands - of a total population of about 16 million. There is an active counterculture, and no resolution in sight.

The issue seems to be, deadly earnestness, about oppositions. Hwaet.

Anne Frank's Window View - Barking up the same tree

New York Times, October 2, 2007. There is an old chestnut tree, outside the window, outside Anne Frank's room in the Annex where she hid with her family during World War II in Amsterdam। It is ailing and about to get emergency resuctibarktation measures. It has fungi and rot, like the rest of us, at 150 years old.

Fine, but there are other diarists of World War II, not just Anne Frank. Once in a while I say, move on and now learn from some of the others, like Petr Ginz, in Prague. His diary came to light late, but he was involved and witnessing the everyday deprivations and deportations, before being sent to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. Anne died at Bergen-Belsen-Auschwitz, but until her capture, was quiet and introspective. See Places of Petr Ginz. Meet a different child, one with day-to-day Nazi contact.

Your Meme on Drugs: The Netherlands, Pusher Control, User Help

A meme a "contagious idea." See www.memecentral.com/; and see more books on it.
A meme is an idea that can replicate and evolve; a bit of cultural information that spreads and can be changed and adapted in the new setting; an idea or behavior pattern that is "caught" and spread by imitation. See, for example, //thedailymeme.com/what-is-a-meme/. The term originated in 1976, says the site, and more detail is there, and identification of books.

Meme of the day: A punitive focus against users is ineffective. Companion memes: A medical-educational approach is effective. A punitive approach is effective as to dealers.

The word is spreading, from California to New England. See Hartford Courant today, 10/16/07 at Op-Ed page A9. This is a reprint of a Los Angeles Times piece by Traveliste Rick Steves, "Europe Wages Selective War On Drug Use." Read it at www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-steves1016.artoct16,0,5960624.

The Netherlands. Further meme. Cultural approaches to drug use, drug culture, and use effect management, can be structured for the common good, rather than for the satisfaction of punishment pushers.

Adapt the idea for yourself: Start with an analysis of which countries are already using that approach, with what results, and ask if the US can clamber out of the hole of putting users in jail for it. You may find that The Netherlands and much of Europe see drug use as an illness, not a crime. They send in the cops against dealers. They send in the medical and educators for users and anti-drug ed. It works. Find (if your research corresponds to that of Rick Steves) no significant increase in marijuana use by young people, only a slight increase in the overall population.

It is more fruitful to focus on the hard stuff, not pot. Europe has made a choice, and put their money and minds there. Rick Steves' closing sentences - "European leaders understand that a society has a choice: Tolerate alternative lifestyles or build more prisons. They've made their choice."

Go there. I believe Rick Steves is right.

Amsterdam - Diary of Anne Frank; compare to Prague child-diarist, Petr Ginz

Anne Frank is a familiar diarist, a child writing in hiding during the German occupation in World War II, and finally being sent to her death in Auschwitz. See, one out of many resources, www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/af/htmlsite/. She is introspective, with silence around her every day. Here is where she lived: Netherlands Road Ways, Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum, diarists.

Another child also kept a diary, Petr Ginz in Prague. See Places of Petr Ginz; and Petr Ginz: Lens and Legacy. He was far more objective than Anne in describing his daily life, but then again, he was still in the middle of his life's activities. Anne was already isolated. He lived with his family openly in their home, conducting a daily family and school life as far as the Occupation and devastation would or would not permit. His entries lay out the mechanics of progressive intrusions, deportations, and deprivation. He also was killed at Auschwitz, at age 16.

We know few of the places that Anne Frank loved in Amsterdam. She was locked in. By contrast, Petr's diary is alive with city happenings, and references to events.

Here, for example, is the portal of the Spanish Synagogue in Prague, the "Dusni" Synagogue (it was located on Dusni Street) where Petr watched property being removed by the Nazis. Diary at Page 49. Did they read, shalt not steal.

Anne saw none of the daily violences of Occupation.

Read his full diary in the 2007 book, "The Diary of Petr Ginz 1941-1942", edited by his sister, Chava Pressburger who also includes an introduction and some entries from her own diary. This was translated from the Czech by Elena Lappin, Atlantic Monthly Press 2007. The many sides of experience, and how people cope.