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11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort

8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

7/2 GroenLinks on districts: Be a man

6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

1/2 Rotterdam to tinker with district councils as well

31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

 

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Bomb cars at the Leidseplein

3 June 2007 - “The white of the paintwork has been changed for the black of eternity”. Thus described writer Abdelkader Benali the wrecks of two bomb cars, that were put on display this afternoon at the Leidseplein.

Beforehand, the initiators had told each other that even BNN, the network that faked a kidney donor television show, would not do such a thing. However, this apparently was not a stunt; at least, the wrecks were there alright this afternoon. Only they were not black, but rust-coloured.

Femke Halsema, party leader of GroenLinks, described the bomb car as the weapon of the weak. For a few hundred dollars you make world headlines: misery, blood and screaming people create powerful images.

Even if there is little we can do about them, the Netherlands share in the responsibility for the victims of the car bombs and we should not close our eyes to that, Halsema said. Among the onlookers, signatures were collected for an investigation into the Dutch involvement in the Iraq war.

The cars had been shipped to Amsterdam in order to break through the apathy concerning what happens in Iraq. A wasted effort, thought artist Jonas Staal. Real empathy is not possible, according to Staal: the wrecks only fulfil our own moral and aesthetic needs.

Meanwhile, everybody took another photograph of the little boy playing with one of the wrecks.

See also: Baghdad car bomb wreck delayed

 

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