Don’t think Eurotrash like me is once again peeing on the great US of A, we’ve got our own problems to deal with here. Financially it’s Greece, nationally it’s everything failing and Greece. That’s next to our current “press whore”, “here I come to save the day~” Minister de Jager. I’ll just look on the bright side: at least these difficult times have not unleashed the kind of insanity I’ve just read IN FULL FORCE (just yet). I say “just yet” because you know us idiots over here are about 2 steps away from the same insanity. I’ve seen my country “go to hell”: from a care-state where everyone could get health care at an affordable price to “I can’t even cover my dentist”. Everything I read about politics over in the US, is making me fear what our governments (EU) and my government (NL) are going to think of next. I’ve gotta admit though, it will never match the kind of showmanship it requires to make a worldwide arse of yourself like the USA does it (wwa.us.gov). We have much to learn, but certainly I can point you to a couple of politicians ready to be students.

Recession time = fuck the minorities, fuck the little people, all hail discrimination, and once you’ve got nothing more to leech…. with some luck, recession is over. You know, there is going to be one of those times a big fat mouth is not going to get the result you want. It’s something they have to understand over here as well. You US citizens certainly have your challenge with these outpatient psychiatric care patients before we do. That’s for certain. Let’s flip a coin and see how many days it takes before we can make the same funneh movies.

HOW BOUT THE MISERY TO HAVE BOTH?

I’m not even surprised at the comment from where I’m standing.

My friend found this! The unfortunate addition to it is this. Hmm, nothing like cats ears to put on the shy and ugly to improve their ‘communication skills’. I cannot believe I just heard that. Dear small children with “sociability problems you don’t have”, you have one of them on each hand: use them.

I just discovered an IT news article which discusses the influence of cloud computing on the industry. It said: “ICT professional becomes strategical weapon”. I told you girls it’s like serving in the military. lol.

Mweh…  *noms on carrot*…  How’s ya gonna do that if you can’t get em out of “implosion modus”, doc? Better yet, let’s strap this suicide vest on you before you go into the next meeting. There you go:) Don’t get lost in the cloud nao.

ONE CURRENCY, ONE GOVERNMENT.

Think about it, would we be in this shit if we did it properly? Well, if you forget “corporate greed” and don’t blend that into the discussion. But really, that’s what caused it anyways. I always knew that one currency without one government is a bad idea. Oh brother… Belgium didn’t fall apart after 485 days without a government. Then I think somewhere last week I heard the prime minister of the UK on the radio: “If your neighbour’s house is on fire, you help them put out the fire before it reaches your roofs”.

Wonder what’s going to happen next? Greece files complete bankrupcy and then what? Italy, Spain (and so on) topple as well? Back to the middle ages? I say we need a good revolution. This scraping the fingernails, cat in the curtain type thing is boring. Bla bla bla. Today the stock prices go up, someone farts, the stock prices go down.

*This is a peaceful march*

Apparently CNN has been pretty quiet in the beginning? So are the media here really. Haven’t heard anything.

“No one is in charge, and that’s the way they like it”.

A lot of “critique” they’re not “organizing” I hear. Well if you’re fighting corporate greed about the last thing you should do is ehh, select one person and then let that one go greedy on you. One more psychopath going “look at my minions”.

I don’t know, I thought “corporate greed sucks” is enough of a message for a protest. Surely you can protest without a list of demands? They make it sound like a contract negotiation. “Here’s some scraps, now get off my lawn”.

This is funny. This should spread. Like the common cold. Quite frankly I can’t count the number of times I woke up smiling having dreamt of “the hard and rapid fall of society”. Because that’s the requirement, you know. If we’re gonna do it, it has to be “Hollywood-style”. I’m not such a fan of two-decade plans. It has to cave in on itself in a blaze of glory.

More on the topic:
Michael Moore
ABC News

As for the French who are fond of “strikes” and “protests”, guess arch enemy England finally showed “who’s boss” at public disturbance now, huh? Beat that, mon chérie. Greece, down the drain. Italy, bordering last I heard. Spain, shakey. Turkey… oh my gawds. Ireland: always hopeless. English: setting their own country on fire. Germans: EHEC EHEC! Scheisse, warum passiert nichts interessantes hier? And Norway? Random people with their fuse lit shooting people. Eastern Europe? When were they ever part of Europe anyways? They have their own dictators.

And Holland? Pretty much sitting there doing nothing until it gets that bad, one of the big boys decides they needs our resources and monies. Who’s up for a WWIII bunch of landlubbers? I’m telling you, if this gets any worse, it’s a real possibility here. I’m sure if we promise the USA our heads on a platter served with oolong tea they’ll be more than greatful to help us out (once again). By now really, I think it’s smarter if we’re going gold. Chinese bought “the land of the free” anyways;)

Oh My God, I guess it’s true what they say. If you thought your life was insane, look around you. It’s all fucked up. Maniacs left and right.

Of ALL DAYS, the RIVM picked TODAY to have a total blackout on the radiation measurements on their website (except for one). Coincidence?

^o^ I’ll check back frequently to see when it’s operational again.

Edit: operational 11:00 hours.

While I did my internship, on April 1st 2003 there was an explosion that killed two workers. I was not more than 200 meters away from the exact spot. Now, while the old man (a chemist) sharing my office didn’t even look up and continued to munch his sandwiches I was standing on the desk. Just this year there was an odd “red cloud” to be seen in the South, Nitrogen Oxide (oops..). ^o^… Yeah, guess a gasmask in the house wouldn’t be a bad idea XD. Let’s not forget that old piece-o-shite nuke plant just over the border: Tihange, around 100 kilometers away. Maybe we should ask “Bipolar” Merkel of the neighbours to do some lobbying for us;)

Japan Probe publishes this article, which, to me describes exactly the relationship between France and Britain. I told you this would happen. lol. Anyone that understands anything of Europe knows that the EU didn’t change anything, for the British absolutely nothing, but the mainland keeps-a-working on it. Right now, the British are Tsatziki ♥ and Guinness ♥ happy they didn’t jump into the boat of the sinking EUR. France is of course, used to being scolded as ‘cowards’. I point out the US response to France when it didn’t join the coalition of the willing for Iraq. I wonder how many bottles of perfectly good Bordeaux were spilled on US streets? Sacriledge! It is the blood of France you’re spilling. You know it’s serious when people start pouring booze down the drain. I always wondered why at that time nobody attacked the statue of liberty, but then again, most Americans probably don’t know. Sarkozy has absolutely no problem to stand anywhere like the buttheaded mule he is and say “I ain’t doin’ that and I don’t care what you think“. I never felt comfortable when I visited France, they should be a perfect match for the Japanese if they weren’t so incredibly rude and arrogant. Specifically Parisians, that is. You should see how Parisians park their cars. They use the same courtesy. It’s called French Parking. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed that hard walking down the street goin “Look at this one!”. So look at it this way: who can blame the French to flee that hard when they’re expecting they might be French Parked in Japan? Fancy rotating parking buildings in Tokyo? Mon dieu, what if there’s a power outage? Think ahead, they do.

It also seems the term for “pale face I wakarimasen” in Japan has changed from “gaijin” to “flyjin“. In our defense, the lack of public lynching during press conferences is enough to creep us out. Why is nobody whacking government officials? Yukio Edano should have problems breathing on the first day, the second and third day he’d probably be limping up to the microphone stand. “Too polite and too much faith”, it doesn’t matter whether an official handles it perfectly. In some countries self preservation is a virtue, specifically when there’s no parking laws. B’sides, we wouldn’t be lying if we’re saying we never have a clue what Japanese think. Anyone that hasn’t lived there for a decade, can’t possibly get it and you’re kidding yourself. That’s the difference between a culture that only makes sounds like a fish *blup blup* and one going seagul on your ass. See how confused and frustrated these birds get trying to peck at the french frie? “Ah, wakarimasen, let’s flyjin!” Maybe Kazuko Hachiya should make a cartoon about that.

The reporter who was in Koriyama a short while ago is now in Tokyo or about to leave Tokyo. She didn’t shy away again to tell the news caster “they don’t like talking to me”. Well, even if nothing happened and she’d be reporting on a business conference and would start to ask people on the street random things I think she’d still feel the same. It’s one of those things that will continue to weird you out as a foreigner. The only thing I can say is: it’s absolutely normal to feel ignored or avoided, even when nothing happened. You always have to remind yourself “it’s not you”, but it’s always a few days of culture shock – even on holiday. Sometimes it actually is you, particularly when they know up front they’ll have to speak English. Besides, Dutch people take any chance they get to start bitching about everything they can possibly think of when a microphone is shoved under their nose. Notoriously even. That alone makes it difficult for Dutch to understand Japanese people really. “Come on, here’s your chance! Spill it! Repeat yourself if need be”.

I still think it’s a pretty good idea to “calmly” get the hell out of there. No matter what anyone said or what the radiation levels supposedly are, I’d probably have left. Why take the risk?

Reporters from all around the world are fleeing now. They say “the great exodus from Tokyo” has begun. That’s right, when the French run, you better speed it up and run faster.

Edit:

The site also helpfully notes that 100 CPM is about 1 microsievert per hour.

For a bit of context:
As I stated above, one hundred counts per minute in a Geiger counter like this is equivalent to 1 microseivert per hour.
It takes about a full seivert (equal one million microseiverts) to have a risk of death from acute radiation poisoning.
At lower levels of exposure, around 100 milliseiverts, one can suffer some permanent injury (like infertility).
A dose of 1 milliseivert per year is considered a ‘safe’ annual dose of radiation.

So… according to my calculations you would need to stay in Tokyo at radation level say, 16,5 for an entire month to reach over 100 microseiverts. Oh! Milliseiverts… I HATED MATH. Waits! 0.000165 milliseiverts per hour * 24 * 365 = 1,4454 a year. But…. ? The readings in these geigercounters are entirely different… wtf. Look at this one, it says around 30 cpm now, instead of that live video one. That’d be 2.68 a year. Milliseiverts I mean. Anyone that actually CAN count, may correct me here. I’m bettin’ on the graph instead of the video.

Edit #2: Japan reverses the decision, asks EU for help. Dutch have figured out some time ago what they could do for Japan, when the first reactor blew up: “we can builds a dam”. The reporter said it was “not in any way for the near future, but hey”. I thought it was the most hilarious and stupid thing I heard, but then I heard a few days ago a dam had indeed bursted. Not so crazy after all? There’s a team ready with K9′s as far as I hear… though there was talk about them even going.

On the Dutch news just now there was a guy, part of a rescue team, 120 kilometers under the Fukushima plant 2 and he was just advised to go back into his hotel room and close all doors and windows as the plant was ready to start releasing some radioactive steam again. He was kind of shocked about that. As far as I know the stuff is flying North so far. Weird.

It’s probably the first time in my life I’m glad the country is more than 9000 km away. Oh, plus 4 meters. As long as there’s that many nuclear reactors on the island, I don’t mind flying a few extra when the geigercounters return to normal. XD. You know you’re Dutch when the immediate response to this paragraph is: “Are they gonna tax me extra for 4 meters?”. Don’t deny it. You thought it.

It’s been quiet for over an hour now… let’s hope it’s a sign the aftershocks are getting less and less and this whole nightmare is over.