eurovisie a publication of the study association for european studies
AVANT-GARDE WITCHCRAFT | growing humans | welcome to the ses | leerssen the dutch welfare neglect | arresting extinction rebellion thatcherism and the new labour
the big data economy
November 2019 / www.ses-uva.nl /eurovisie@ses-uva.nl
IN THIS EDITION...
eurovisie Volume 15 Issue 1 Nov 2019
3 - AVANT-GARDE WITCHCRAFT HANNA BLOM 6 - A WARM WELCOME TO OUR ASSOCIATION RUBEN WILTGEN GEORGI 9 - CLIMATE SUCCESSION CARA RÄKER 13 - THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE ARIANNE ZAJAC 16 - RECREATIONAL FRIGHT JOEP LEERSSEN 18 - THE BIG DATA ECONOMY GEORGE BANDY 21 - GROWING HUMANS JYNY PASANEN 25 - WHEN THE DUTCH WELFARE STATE IS GHOSTING ITS POPULATION FREDERIQUE DE RIDDER
Imprint Editorial office: Kloveniersburgwal 48, room E2.04/2.05, 1012 CX Amsterdam Editor-in-chief: Hanna Blom Editors: George Bandy, Jyry Pasanen, Cara Räker, Arianne Zajac, Sterre Schrijver , Frederique de Ridder, Ruben Wiltgen Georgi Design: Julius Sieburgh With contributions by: Joep Leerssen
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Editorial Hanna Blom
A
hushed whisper in the Oudemanhuispoort hallways may have already set you off, but I am here to tell you that the myth of a European Studies magazine can be confirmed. This brightly coloured bundle functions as an oracle, providing answers, asked for or not, about the state of Europe. We hear you question: what is Europe, why is Europe, what will happen to us? Five times a year we crawl out of our corners of this city to reply, but this time we do not whisper; we screech. You see, we have gazed into our crystal ball and found that the chill that you experience when poring over a newspaper is not accidental. A black cat has unnoticeably crossed your path and now, dear reader, mystery and magic is upon you. Our writers, old and new, have sought out what was hidden for good reason and brought it out in the open, and we give you an issue filled with ghosts, clowns, and witches. While this seems unnerving, the darkness can be your friend, if you let it. We hope that you do not let the passing of Halloween lessen your appetite for something sinister and, more importantly, something spooky.
AVANT-GARDE WITCHCRAFT JENNY HVAL: A NORDIC WITCH’S REVIVAL OF FEMALE SOLIDARITY HANNA BLOM
O
ut of the depths of the Norwegian woods, a siren-like ethereal sound emerges over soft synth and transcendental instrumental tones. On a bed of dried leaves, dried figs, and dried period blood, we find our enchantress, Jenny Hval, the Norwegian artist, softly singing us anti-capitalist lullabies. A philosophising nymph with a white-bleached geometrical bob, her experimental folk leading us on journeys through dark worlds, her voice guiding us as it pierces through inky fog and her poetry, like the mantra of a witches’ circle, confirming the supernatural and questioning our convictions. When it comes to album themes, she reigns the territory of satanic offerings, making art out of menstruation, rituals for the dead and criticising societal structures. Meshes of Love invites you to become the third member of an Artemisian cult together with fellow Norwegian artist Susanna, a sisterhood of fairies found on the bottom of a lake, producing unearthly harmonies. Apocalypse, Girl mocks
the notion that all the questions have been answered, that all the battles have been fought, and that we live in post-revolution times. Blood Bitch is an ode to gory horror classics, with a sharp focus on the blood that is shed naturally. Jenny Hval has used her music to blend eerie experimental synth sounds with gloomy poetry which tackles both earthly and celestial existential questions, ones that are not usually found in pop music. But with her new album, The Practice of Love, Hval for once goes where many have gone before. She touches on an almost mundane topic, considering the body of work that exists trying to explain, relate to, and emulate love. However, it is not romance between two starstruck lovers that entices Hval, but rather the abilities of love and the multitudes of intimacy that we experience, namely in platonic friendships and solidarity among women.
“Jenny Hval uses her music to blend eerie expermimental synth sounds with gloomy poetry...” The titular song of the album contains a conversation between Jenny Hval and Australian musician Laura Jean. Hval and Jean discuss the roles that they thought to come to play in life, and how to cope with not fulfilling procreative duties, thus being left a supporting character in a performance they assumed to be headlining. It is not the absence of a child that matters here, but rather the childless woman. Hval talks coming to terms with not being the exceptional being she had been told she would be, but Jean takes it further with this topic. Not being
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a mother at the age of 30 can be quite the exception, but if you are “not spreading the virus” of humankind, for whatever reason this has become your faith, you are left out of the major narrative. You can be a whimsical side character, at best. The choice to not express these revelations in her usual poem format, but to use a recording of a warm and trustful dialogue between two women, seems to be a testament to what it means to love, what true intimacy allows us to do and become. The Practice of Love does not necessarily have to be read as Hval completely breaking with her witch ways, when the album is placed aside of the newly published Witches, Witch-Hunting and Women by Silvia Federici, the Italian Marxist scholar. In this collection of essays, Federici builds on her earlier well known work Caliban and the Witch, to link the rise of capitalism in Europe with accusations of witchcraft, and the history of demonising feminine knowledge and community building. As she traces gender oppression in its functioning and reproduction, she observes the words which are often used to define and degrade women. She arrives at ‘gossip’. Though the term would at first be used to indicate close female friendships, it was redefined in the Middle Ages to label this companionship as something vindictive, sowing discord rather than solidarity.
The tight-knit communities that women in lower classes formed, provided a source of strength in a way that they could lean on each other instead of being dependent on the men in their lives. Within these communities, women would cooperate with each other in every aspect of their life. Federici traces the shift in connotation of ‘gossip’, from meaning female friendship to a woman engaging in idle talk. This development occurred simultaneously with the increase of attacks on women, together with witchcraft accusations in the sixteenth century. There is no specific reason to believe that Hval too preaches to the church of Federici, but when taking Hval’s inclination to witch ways into consideration, her new project of building and celebrating companionable relationships, mainly among women, seems to fit right in with her former otherworldly content. The Practice of Love is a testament to the rituals and occupations of loving and being intimate with others. It is not simply the act of being close to others that is described, Hval is both intimate with the many other artists who have collaborated on this album, but also she herself is intimate with the listener, confiding in them in a very honest way. When read to the backdrop of Federici’s historical analysis, a defiant act is identified in this album. The witches have come back to create the communi-
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ties that were originally broken up. The solidarity from which strength and love could flow is being built back up. Hval’s work is extremely referential, and she seems to almost make it a point to be inspired by female artists. To this album alone, links are made to Kathy Acker, bell hooks, Georgia O’Keeffe, Joni Mitchell and Jenny Holzer, to name a few. Importantly, she also references the women she works with, like filmmaker Zia Anger and musician Vivian Wang, making them both collaborators and muses to her work. Silvia Federici provides us with the historical context, Jenny Hval takes this and puts it to practice, so what about us? How can we too be apart of building on a formerly suppressed lineage of potion-brewing and collective functioning magical sisterhood? Well, for one, bringing a hint of the occult into our close relationships. A séance can be as simple or fancy as you want it to be, with a group of three friends, candles, objects representing the four elements, an amulet, and a designated person through whom any spirit can communicate with the rest. As long as you assure the spirit that a loving and supportive community is awaiting them, you should be well on your way.
“When read to the backdrop of Federici’s historical analysis, a defiant act is identified in this album.”
A WARM WELCOME TO OUR ASSOCIATION
T
he Study Association for European Studies (SES) was founded in 1987 and since then it has become one of the largest at the Faculty of Humanities of the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) with over 300 members. In the name of the “Eisenboard” I wanted to say: Welcome to the 35th anniversary of the Study Association for European Studies! The first exams and ADE have passed by now, the studiezolder was taken over by new students, the first pints were downed and the winter is slowly but steadily coming. Before I introduce the board and myself, let’s recap the past weeks. As usual, the last week of August marked the unofficial start of the academic year,
where the new students got shown around Amsterdam by their Intreeweek parents. They got to know the cultural side of our beautiful city by going to the Comedy Night or discovering some beautiful Mondriaan paintings in Stedelijk during the Museumplein morning. The new students had the chance to enjoy some nice fresh beer during the beautiful Plankgas! in the Westerpark and at the Pub Crawl through Leidseplein, before finishing an intense but hopefully memorable Intreeweek with yet another amazing closing party in Paradiso. After surviving their hangovers and recovering during the last weekend of vacation, the new European Studies students had the chance to enjoy their first lecture on a sunny
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Monday afternoon. But, not just for the first-year students but also for our second, third, fourth, and fifth-year veterans another eventful academic year started. Bread with hummus, spaghetti with pesto, Stach sandwiches and oven pizzas got reintroduced into our daily nutrition plan and Bushuis and the Singel Library are about to become our second homes yet again. After nine weeks of the new academic year, we have fallen back into our old habits of checking our bank accounts if one more beer can be afforded or not, listening to our lecturers and biking through the streets of windy and rainy Amsterdam. The introduction period for our study association has come to
an end now and the lustrum year has begun. The SES year started with the two first borrels at our new and cosy Borrel location Onder de Ooievaar, before we were sailing down the canals of Amsterdam during our boat tour. The week afterwards, the firstyears were invited to show their amazing singing talents during the Karaoke Night. At the end of September, the new SES members were invited to yet another amazing Introduction Weekend in the beloved small Dutch town of Dwingeloo. After a nice weekend playing Danish beer bowling, flunky ball and having a competition to determine who is the best at completing the bucket list, we invited everyone to our annual Introduction Party. Together with Kleio, Helios and Kanvas, we hit Akhnaton. For one night, we wanted to forget all our readings and upcoming
exams and to enjoy one or more drinks. The goal was to have a memorable night with our newfound friends, before finally being able to officially begin the 35th year of SES. At this point, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Ruben Wiltgen Georgi and I am the treasurer of SES for this year and a member of the Eurovisie team. I am very pleased to be able to introduce you to our association. As every study association, SES has the goal to be complementary to the studies’ courses. SES tries to give its members different sorts of events, for example, the Career Dinner. The Career Dinner is normally in January and enables the participants to discuss with experts from different fields contemporary topics and
get career advice over a three course meal. Furthermore, we also have our social events. Last but not least, there are also educational events like the Study Trip, where we travel to different cities for over ten days and explore new cultures and visit political institutions. Furthermore, we publish this magazine and arrange book discounts for you at the Athenaeum Bookstore. All these over 40 events would not be possible without having our thirteen committees who organize the different activities. Most committees are already formed. On that note congratulations to all who made it! But you still have the chance to join the Introduction Committee or the Hitchhike Committee in January, and do not forget that you can always hand in an article for Eurovisie as well! Joining
Board of 19/20. From left ro right: Viktoria Simon, Leonard Kersting, Sofie Eisenberger, Ruben Wiltgen Georgi and Alexandra Kovalcikova..
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a committee does not just mean helping to organise an event, but also to gain several skills, which you could not directly earn through just studying. For instance, you could learn how to arrange funds for such an association or how to approach professionals, which you would like to invite to your talks. It is also worth noting that through such a committee experience you will meet new people, so it will always be a big opportunity to develop your social skills. Furthermore, every association has a board, which has the task to supervise the functioning of the association and to present it to external parties. This year’s SES board is composed of five people, who are Sophie Eisenberger (Chairwoman), Leonard Kersting (Secretary), Alexandra Kovalcikova (Internal Affairs), Viktoria Simon (External Affairs) and myself (Treasurer). As already mentioned before it is the 35th year of SES, which means that this year is a Lustrum year. A Lustrum year is celebrated every 5 years by an association, which means there are extra events and trips planned for members but also alumni. Looking back at the first 35 years, we can say that a lot has changed. As the study programme which has begun as a solely Dutch program, the study association was also primarily a Dutch association until five years ago, when the UvA introduced an English track, which also meant that SES got more
and more international. The internationalisation means that also boards are becoming more and more international, with having our first international board members in 2016-2017. In every one of these 35 years SES has slowly but steadily changed, new events were created or other events abolished, new people came in and other people departed (Congratulations to all our new alumni and good luck for your future). These 35 years of SES will be celebrated this year, with a lot of different events, which will be announced soon by our Lustrum Committee, which is working hard to present you the best possible Lustrum year! While SES became a bigger platform for the students of European Studies every year, the new board wants to continue this tradition by investing everything we can to offer you the best possibilities to meet new people, build your network and develop your skills. Furthermore, it is one of our main goals to become a greener association by trying to reduce our waste as far as possible and by working together with the UvA Green Office. I hope I have given you the best possible overview. Is it worth it to become part of SES? I would say yes because university life is not just about reading textbooks and listening to your lecturers, but also about developing your skills and expanding
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your network to make the most out of it. Enjoy your student life to the fullest since you just live it once! I am looking forward to spending an amazing year with all of you and to meet you as soon as possible if I haven’t yet! Make the best of the year for yourself, be it by going for some drinks to CafÊ Engelbewaarder or helping to organize the SES Hitchhike Weekend and never forget: Life is a game, play it; Life is a challenge, Meet it; Life is an opportunity, Capture it.
TALKING ARRESTS, CLIMATE EMERGENCY AND SEA LEVELS WITH EXTINCTION REBELLION ACTIVIST LENNART TILLER
S
pooky. It is October in Amsterdam and autumn has arrived. AH starts selling orange-coated kruidnoten, there is a number of Halloween parties to choose from and watching Netflix all day becomes more socially acceptable. It is a lovely time. But what does it matter if we are all doomed anyway? Climate change is back. It is weird to say that of course, but Greta
has pulled that old box from underneath a pile of equally dusty Brexit, refugee and Trumpian discussions into the light of day, just to spill the contents onto the streets of London, Berlin and New York. All of a sudden the end seems nearer than ever before. The ice caps are melting, the Amazon is burning, andinsurance companies discuss at what point they should stop en-
CARA RĂ„KER
suring ground-floor apartments in cities like London, which would be the first to be flooded due to rising sea-levels. As the theme of this Eurovisie is spooky, let me brighten up your day with a couple of climate change facts. The World Meteorological Organisation, for instance, warns that sea levels now rise on average 5 mm per year as observed between 2016
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and 2019 as opposed to only 3.2 mm in 2013. On the same note, the organisation has observed a drastic increase in naturalcatastrophes such as storms, droughts and floods. 3,496 disasters were reported between 2001 to 2010 as opposed to a mere 743 recorded disasters between 1971 to 1980. I am a student of the Humanities but even I manage to calculate that this number has more than quadrupled in a mere 40 years. Spooky
“Time is running out, action is needed now.” Understandably, people are angry, especially young people.
The Fridays for Future initiative has seen students skip school for weeks in a row to force governments to make environmental policies a top-priority. The message is clear: what do we need education for when the end of the world is closer than ever? From the accelerated pace the climate movement has taken on in the past year one voice has emerged especially strong: The group Extinction Rebellion (XR) which, created in 2018, managed to attract thousands of followers all over the world in a matter of months. Their logo, which I didn’t realise until a BBC article pointed it out to me, represents an hour-glass within a circle. Time is running out, action is needed now. I am meeting Lennart Tiller, 22, in Café de Jaren. Lennart, who
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has just finished his Politics Bachelor is devoting an entire year to the work of XR, without being paid that is. Before I get into the why of things, I want to know more about the what. What is Extinction Rebellion? Lennart explains that it is in essence an apolitical movement which is based on a framework of three demands and ten principles. The three demands, which are directed towards national governments, are as follows: declare a climate emergency, reach carbon neutrality in 2025, and create a citizens assembly. Extinction Rebellion tries to achieve these goals through mass action and mass participation, all of which are non-violent acts of civil disobedience. Protests, artistic events, road blockades and media presence
form one and the same package. There is no centralised power or small group of people that pulls the strings. The movement was able to grow so quickly because people everywhere could simply take the XR framework and start forming groups themselves. That makes it easy for people of all social groups to join in. Inclusivity is a core value of XR’s working, Lennart says. I point out that one of the main criticisms XR faces is the fact that participation in their actions is a matter of privilege. The XRs disruptive protests, most notably the road blockades, upset many commuters who cannot go to work. Surely, a student is much more likely to chain himself to a car in the middle of Amsterdam for several hours than a single mom who needs to get to work to support her children. Lennart simply agrees with me. It is an issue we work on, he says. In the meantime, it is especially important for those who are in a position of privilege to take action. I am not yet ready to let it go. What about the arrests? One of the main ways XR has managed to attract the media’s attention is a number of arrests, which are officially being encouraged by the organization. Most notably, during the April protests in London over a 1,000 people were jailed. Is that not a matter of privilege too, I ask. Voluntarily entering a prison cell? It comes down to sacrifice, Lennart argues. After all, we are facing a
climate emergency. “An emergency requires sacrifice from people. How can you show it is an emergency if you, as an activist, don’t act accordingly? We have to pay this risk of paying a fine, not getting a job, sitting in jail, exposing us to uncertainty of legal trials.” As part of another mass rebellion on the 7th of October launched by XR, the road blockade on the Stadhouderskade in Amsterdam saw 1,000 of people coming out to protest. Many of which were willing to risk arrest but, as Lennart drily notes, the police had different plans. “They put us into busses and transported us outside of the city. We know now. For the next time, there are ways to mitigate this. Glue is a quite effective tool,” he says and grins. I ask for a follow-up on these plans but Lennart shrugs them off as not yet clearly defined.
“... it is especially important for those wo are in a position of priviledge to take aciton.”
I am not one to debate climate change or the fact that in a way most of us can probably do a lot more. Extinction Rebellion is just one of many groups which try to make a change, raise awareness and take action. The movement is still young and there are many questions to be answered but they have found a way to raise awareness. Climate Change is back. Undoubtedly, for most, much of the information presented in this article wasn’t news. We know these things and we’ve known them for a while. To finish with a quote by the UN general-secretary António Guterres: “Scientists have been telling us for decades. Over and over again. And far too many leaders have refused to listen. [...] The world’s richest nations are the most responsible for the climate crisis, yet the effects are being felt first and worst by the poorest nations. [...] As the ferocity of this summer’s wildfires and heatwaves shows, the world is changing before our eyes. We are careering towards the abyss.” If that is not spooky, I don’t know what is.
I think, that in the end it boils down to the following: The effects of climate change will sooner or later affect us all. And if it’s not us, it will be our children or grand-children.
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a city without bones Waking up seeing the leaves turn yellow Reminds us of death The eternal cycle of life A question bugs the mind Where are all the bones? The remains of time passing? This city has no cemeteries! A dead city, without bones Corpses walking, there’s no rest Work ethic, endless time! Linear production, linear lives Against nature, the cycle of time Leaves keep falling, year by year But there’s no bones here, reminding us That life is death and death is life There’s a city somewhere made from bones a city of the dead, made for the living Underground catacombs, bones and bones But that’s not here Here’s no bones! A city of the living, made for the dead You’re free to love here in squats and streets But full of cops and angry signs Fascist aesthetics, red and black Don’t litter tourist! But never go back A postcard city, not made for life We fall through the cracks like underground bones This boneless city hides its bones Inside prisons of flesh who walk the streets Inside people who live here, You and me.
jeremi pasanen
THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE HOW THATCHERISM CHANGED BRITISH POLITICS FOR GOOD
ARIANNE ZAJAC
B
ritish politics is going through a period of turbulence. It is becoming increasingly fragmented and has seen a resurgence of the left-wing. The forces which shape the politics of today extend much further than the past 20 years. In fact, it is Britain’s most controversial prime-minister, whose influence has a great impact on today. Margret Thatcher first became Prime Minister on the 4th of May 1979 and remained in office until the 28th of November 1990. In this period she was able to develop her own form of Conservatism, which was to have a significant impact on British Politics. Thatcherism is a blend of neoliberalism and neoconservatism which hinges on the concept of the free market as a necessary safeguard to individual freedom. It attempts to promote minimal
state regulation and intervention, free markets through control of the money supply, low inflation, privatisation, and constraint on the power of the labour movement through the removal of trade unions rights and powers. Nigel Lawson, Thatcher’s Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1983 to 1989, described Thatcherite ideals as “free markets, financial discipline, firm control over public expenditure, tax cuts, nationalism, ‘Victorian values’ (of the Samuel Smiles self-help variety), privatisation and a dash of populism.
“[a] form of Conservatism, which was to have a significant
impact on British Politics.” The impact on the Conservative Party in undoubtedly huge, however, the most interesting legacy of Thatcherism can be seen in the Labour party. The election of Thatcher in 1979 marked the beginning of the Labour Party’s 18 years as the opposition party. During the Thatcher years, the Labour party was struggling electorally. After being defeated in 1979, the party became divided, which resulted in an internal political struggle between the left and right wings of the party. The outcome of this struggle was the election of Michael Foot as leader and his leftist policies. Most notable policies include unilateral nuclear disarmament,
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leaving the European Economic Community, as well as NATO, which were presented in the party’s 1983 election manifesto, which severely missed the political climate at the time, and became dubbed the “longest suicide note in history.” Thatcherism had significantly changed British society, for example the Right-to-Buy programme turned the majority of the working class into homeowners, as it allowed people for the first time to buy their council house. Michael Heseltine, the Secretary of state at the time, noted that “no single piece of legislation has enabled the transfer of so much capital wealth from the state to the people” Thatcherism also significantly reduced the power of trade unions and changed the nature of the British economy, in which the majority of all industries (including those traditionally under state control, such as utilities and communications) were privatised. It was clear from Labour’s time in opposition it would not be possible for the Labour party to be re-elected while standing firm against these changes in British society. So, how can Thatcherism be said to have allowed for the resurgence and electoral success of the Labour party in 1997?
trust with the electorate by moving away from its traditional socialist values. This was first done through the reform of Clause IV; a part of the Labour Party’s constitution which committed the party to its socialist ideology. In 1995, the Clause was amended and instead committed the party to a “dynamic economy,” which can be seen as an abandonment of its socialist goals. Tony Blair, himself, confirmed the strength of Thatcherism when he claimed that “the presumption should be that economic activity is best left to the private sector.” Blair was able to remodel the Labour Party in such a way due to the fact that trade unions had been emasculated and the traditional working class reduced. Blair needed to win back the skilled working class and the aspirational middle, which had been won over to Thatcherism with the Right-to-Buy scheme. This could be done through accepting the basic tenets of Thatcherism, such as private ownership by the general population, as well as in the economic sector. Most significantly the Labour Party’s most successful years were during the time of New Labour and Blair’s embracement of Thatcherism and neoliberal economics.
From the mid-90s, the Labour party began to reinvent itself under the leadership of Tony Blair. It attempted to rebuild
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“This could be done through accepting the basic tenets of Thatcherism, such as private ownership by the general population, as well as in the economic sector.” What does this mean for Labour today? Corbyn was elected leader of the Party in 2015 with nearly 60% of the vote. His leadership has seen a rise in leftist rhetoric, talk of nationalisation, and a firm stance against privatisation. The Labour party is still dealing with deep divisions surrounding Corbyn’s policies, and he isn’t necessarily popular with the wider public either. All of which demonstrates that Blair’s centrist politics and Thatcher’s legacy play an influential role within the British politics, which seem to stand in the way in the full approval of Corbyn and his policies today.
Joep Leersen Recreational Fright H
alloween, a few years ago. My son, the age of the average EuroVisie reader, hit the town in a scary suit. Not your average Dracula, Gollum or Harry Potter stuff, oh no. He dressed up with sunglasses, a towel around his head, a body warmer made to look like a suicide bomb vest, with wires coming out that led to an old TV remote control, which in that combination looked uncannily like a detonator. Allahu Akbar, he said as he went out the door, into the night. An edgy sense of humour. Needless to say we as parents were scared witless. This could just conceivably end in tragedy. We put it to him, in meekly pained voices, that maybe that was a little… how should we put it… “inappropriate”? PC snowflakes that we were. At the same time I admired the way he took the oo-hooh faux-scariness of Halloween by the scruff of the neck and reminded people what fright really was. Not your spooky house on the fun fair, or A Nightmare on Elm Street DVD with a bunch of friends and a few sixpacks, but raw, unsettling danger.
Halloween is recreational fright, invoking symbols (cobwebs, bats, gravestones, zombie makeup) of things that long ago were actually frightening but which now have become “appropriate” conventional ornaments. Halloween relates to the real thing as a game of Monopoly does to a dodgy business investment: an anodyne simulacrum. Huizing’s notion of Homo Ludens – humans as Game-playing Apes – becomes Homo Quasi-Metuens. The things that *really* scare us (Alzheimer, terrorism, loneliness, an accusation of plagiarism or #MeToo misbehaviour) are, yes indeed, inappropriate, and have no place in the sanitized Halloween fun. They show up how phony-scary our taste for the so-called Dark and the oo-hooh Gothic really is. Oo, oo-hooh, we like things Dark. The latest Batman and Marvel movies are, you, know, quite Dark. The new Paddington, Winnie-the-Pooh and Pitch Perfect sequels are, I predict, going to be Dark. Heck, this EuroVisie issue was, I have been told, going to be a Dark one. And so we party in the escape room. Halloween is as phony as Marilyn Manson, a Tim Burton
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movie, or a spam e-mail message. So why do we fall for these things? Personally, I blame BPI: Belated Postmodern Irony, the blight of the early 21st century. We do things unseriously, in air quotes, with that escape clause called “only joking, of course”. We dogwhistle things that are plausibly deniable. We sentimentalize without putting our real emotions on the line, we melodramatize without being really passionate, and we play at being frightened while reaching for the popcorn. Mine is the generation that teared up as we soulfully held Candles In The Wind at Princess Diana’s funeral. Our culture is a celebration of the inauthentic; and that (I would, darkly, suggest) means we do not see what lurks beyond. The irony-covered vacuum of the inauthentic provokes a space, in the “inappropriate” outer darkness, for pitch black emotions, political ones. Noxious as they are, they have the huge advantage of being unfeigned, real, raw; non-snowflake. Somewhere where Anders Breivik meets Boko Haram. The darkness that my son cynically, and painfully to-the-point, channelled as he left the house.
THE BIG DATA ECONOMY GEORGE BANDY
T
he saying goes, if you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product. There is a general trend now towards being more conscious over how our own personal data is used and especially the type of impact it can have when you enter the realms of big data with hundred of millions of data points. One of the most worrisome examples was the scandal surrounding the use of targeted political advertising during the 2016 US election campaign. The scheme for the advertising had been orchestrated by a British-American company that specialised in big data analysis. The company gained attention as the effectiveness of the campaign started to show. It worked, and not only mildly, but really worked well, and this is why it has causes some worry. The company, Cambridge Analytica, now quite a familiar name, was not shy to boast of its big data capacities. At one moment it stated it had approximately five thousand data points on every US voter. With all this data you can psycho-analyse a whole nation. The scandal broke when it was revealed how they had amassed this data behemoth. The primary source was from a personality test app on
Facebook which scrapped the profiles of 87 million individuals. This process was not wholly consensual, and the individuals that did press “I agree” would not likely have a clear idea of how their data would be used. The use of this type of data definitely feels to exist in a morally grey area, and many questions are now being raised over these practices: Can it be just to influence the decisions of whole populations? Should my data be a commercial commodity? What prevents these companies from misusing personal data?
“...the world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.” There’s a new term for this sort of business model - Surveillance capitalism. Coined by Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff, she describes the model’s fundamental characteristics as ‘aggregating vast amounts of data on people, using it to infer incredibly detailed profiles on their lives and behaviour, and monetising it by selling these predictions to others such as
advertisers.’ Commenting on Cambridge Analytica, she noted ‘[they] simply deployed the same basic model to target voters rather than consumers.’ It is not a surprise then considering the effectiveness of this form of targeting when it is said the world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data. Following the scandal Cambridge Analytica lost its patronage and filed for bankruptcy in May 2018 (…though it does exist in an afterlife under the auspices of another company - Emerdata - which acquired the company after bankruptcy.) Facebook, who had allowed this practice to slip under its radar, was fined $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission for its negligence towards privacy. The lack of consent from the individuals involved was what made this data mining illicit and why the authority was able to issue a fine. However, there are many instances when consent is given for data usage. We’ve all clicked “agree” after only the slightest glance at a terms & conditions at some stage. It’s not only that they take too long to read (… iTunes for example would take a little under four hours), it’s often that since the sites are so big that its hard not
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to use it them to some degree, so maybe we click yes and then try not to think about it too much. It is particularly difficult to avoid when these are social media sites for which there are no actual alternatives. Here the issue is not then whether consent has been given, but whether the company should be able to ask for it. This last question strikes a particular bell. Big data, as well as many other aspects of the new digital markets, has been an incredibly quickly developing field to which the law has not kept up. Slowly different areas of law are closing in on the new data practices, but big firms aren’t letting up easy. In February this year the German Competition Authority (Bundeskartellamt) brought a case against Facebook. Their claim was that Facebook had abused its dominant position on the market by the way it was collecting and sharing data among the different organs of its social media empire. We’re talking Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, among others. In the terms and conditions, Facebook requires users to allow for the collection of personal data outside of Facebook from other websites and apps, including other Facebook-owned services, and to allow for this data to be processed in with the data from your Facebook account to create a combined data set on each user. In short, it means the reasonable fragmented trail you
leave over the web can to some extent be followed and that the trail can be lead back to your social media presence. The Bundeslartellamt considered this exploitative of its users. In other words, the “price” was too high. The ruling required Facebook to remove this as a condition to use the platform, but added the company could continue the practice if it sort additional consent from users, though didn’t mention why users might give this extra consent.
“...their decision is ultimately free, uninfluenced and autonomous.” The case was the first of its kind to connect data collecting practices and the concept of exploitative abuse of a dominant undertaking. It did not stand for long though. Facebook successfully appealed the case before the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf in August. Where the Competition Authority had fell short was that it had not fully developed a Theory of Harm which, in competition terms means, how Facebook’s behaviour causes actual or potential harm to consumers and competitors. Rather, the Court noted that the services are not indispensable and users sign up volun-
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tarily. Additionally they said the Bundeskartellamt had not considered the counterfactual, i.e what benefits are brought about the alternative situation of a paid-for service without the same data collection, and would consumers go for it. Finally, the Court states that exploitative practices are about the company’s behaviour, and not the mind-set of the users. Quoting the judgement - “there is no evidence that Facebook obtains the consent of users through coercion, pressure, exploitation of lack of willpower or otherwise unfair means […] whether the users act out of indifference or because they do not want to spend the necessary time and effort [to read the conditions] […] does not matter [as] their decision is ultimately free, uninfluenced and autonomous”. Besides the consideration that competition policy is maybe not the most appropriate field for these cases, it leaves us with the discussion on whether personal data should be more protected in legislation or should be left to the users to “spend it” how they please. In light of big data and the scandals that have emerged so far, perhaps legislators should be more wary of what can happen when companies can accumulate so much so easily.
GROWING HUMANS JYRY PASANEN
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he witch-hunts, roughly between the years 1450 and 1750, resulted in the murders of hundreds of thousands of women in Europe and the Americas. It is rather surprising, as Silvia Federici writes in Caliban and the Witch, that this mass violence is rarely given any importance in world history. The witch-hunts, for Federici, are a foundational series of events for modernity, as they violently forced women into a new, more subservient role in the family and society at large. Friendships among women and especially lower-class women were stigmatised and outright criminalised in some instances. Large gatherings of women were portrayed as witches covens, where children were eaten and men were magically castrated. Women who were unable or unwilling to have children were targeted and accused of the most heinous crimes. All this was happening at a time when the leading intellectuals, (read: wealthy men) started to theorise that the wealth of society came from labour, and labour came from humans. Therefore, more humans would mean more wealth. Taking this logic to the
extreme meant that women who, for whatever reason, did not have children, were enemies of this new society where wealth did not come from God, spirit or emperor, but labour (in both senses of the term). Those who refused this labour were brutally persecuted either as vagabonds or as witches. In popular culture, the witchhunt is often portrayed as the last gasp of the medieval brutality of the Church. This is incorrect: the witch-hunt is a modern phenomenon, enacted by modern men. Indeed, most of the trials were organised by secular authorities, not the Church. Paragons of Western rational thought and science were among the high-profile witch-hunters. Francis “the Father of the Scientific Method� Bacon, the political philosopher Thomas Hobbes, and famous French jurist Jean Bodin are some of the most recognisable in this group. It did not matter for Thomas Hobbes whether witchcraft itself was real, he thought the persecution of lower-class women was useful either way as a form of social control. These women, Hobbes
thought, had to be taught a lesson. A lesson on authority and obedience. A lesson of fire and blood encouraged and often enacted by the same people we today laud as the progenitors of the Enlightenment. Many among these so-called empiricists and proto-scientists practised magic themselves. Not the kind of magic the rural healers would use, as this was seen either as devilish witchcraft or as idyllic idiocy. Rather, these men believed in- and practised alchemy, the aurific art. Francis Bacon, and so many of his peers, really did think that base-metal could be made into gold and that little humans, homunculi, could be grown in little glass jars. How these people reconciled their murderous hatred of witches with their own magical practices I do not know. But there is a clear difference between the alchemical practices of these rich men and the natural magic of the lower-class women who were massacred as witches. Some witches did exist.
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Of course, many (if not most) of the accused had nothing to do with witchcraft; they might have just pissed off the wrong man in the village. The “real” witches were healers and herbalists and they were held in high regard in village communities, as they could help in childbirth, provide contraceptive potions, and perform abortions. Herbal medicine could, of course, be of help for treating illnesses too, especially at a time when European “medicine” for wealthier people consisted of things like arsenic baths and reusable balls of mercury. The magic of alchemy was fundamentally different: instead of a consensual relationship with nature, alchemy sought to dominate it. Instead of helping humans give birth, alchemists wanted to grow their own. As human mastery (or domination) over the natural world was increasing in intensity, it was only natural that myths relating to this mastery proliferated as well. However, the intellectual roots of the concept of synthetic birth dig deeper into human history. Arguably the most influential in this is Aristotle. Insightful as ever, Aristotle thought that natural births were a result of a process where active, perfect, sperm interacts with passive and imperfect menstrual blood. The sperm, obviously, does all the heavy lifting, giving form to menstrual matter. Aristotle did not think that humans could reproduce asexually, but such an idea is not too far removed from the great philosopher’s line
of thinking. If sperm is the real source of life, and menstrual blood a mere vessel, could the vessel not be replaced with something else? And so it was. The literature of recipes for growing humans in different vessels is vast and disgusting. For some reason, the dead body of a cow was a popular option. Another version uses a mandrake. The results vary: some recipes produce “normal” humans, preferably male of course, others create magical little humanoids that can be used to perform miracles. In any case, the purpose of this alchemical practice was to go beyond nature, above the base needs of sexuality, and most of all, to avoid women. Women, for these esteemed thinkers, are nature: irrational, passive, aggressive, and overly sexual. How could such an imperfect being be capable of producing perfect offspring? William N. Newman, in his book Promethean Ambitions, makes the case that alchemy, from antiquity to the dawn of the modern age, served as an arena for discussing the relationship between technology and nature. The witch-hunt can be seen from this light. For the early modern period was a time of great struggle. Labour shortages, no doubt mainly caused by the Great Plague, allowed peasants to sell their labour for higher wages. The landlords simply could not accept this for too long. Some attempts at re-establishing slavery here, banning toilers from
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wearing fancy clothes there, and significantly, expelling and expropriating peasants everywhere. A new, less labour intensive mode of production emerged in the countryside as a result. A landlord in, say, 15th century Mercia, instead of having to pay dozens of peasants to cultivate food on his lands, expels most and converts his lands to pasture. A fraction of the workforce is needed for the production of wool. The rest flood the cities and go work in textile factories. This caused significant resentment and ultimately, resistance among the (ex)peasantry: someone used to seasonal work, irregular hours and many, many days off was scarcely a good fit for industrial labour. This is where the persecution of witches and vagabonds comes in. The witch-hunt, for Federici, was essentially a pedagogical event. Women were disciplined to conform to the new society, first as factory workers, then as mothers and wives to factory workers. For the factory owners it was a great deal: the new family structure allowed them to overwork the men (12h shifts et cetera) and as a hidden bonus, they benefited from the unpaid domestic and reproductive labour of women, who made sure their exhausted husbands were in shape to return to work the next day. Those who did not fit the mould were publicly humiliated and tortured, then executed by hanging or by burning on the stake.
“The literature of recipes for growing humans in different vessels is vast and disgusting.�
Women had to become totally subservient to a society and a mode of thinking that reduced their value to a reproductive machine. Their value as healers and as guardians of an inter-generational knowledge of nature had to be eradicated, or at the very least suppressed. The alchemical paradigm, held up by the most respected intellectuals of the time, was imposed on society. True, reproduction without women remained impossible, but by violently severing women from their social ties, the forces of domination terrorised women to accept their roles as mere vessels, to be used to grow new humans. With the repression of women and the development of industry, seemingly total domination over nature was achieved. The transformation, through violence, of women into labour-power and of land into real-estate was necessarily coupled with the disappearance of a magical world-view. If the value of humans is only found in their labour (again, in both senses of the term), and the value of land is only in its potential as a space for labour (or for its reproduction, through domestic labour, sleep etc.), the magical value of love, affection, and solidarity towards humans and non-humans alike is obscured. The value still exists, as anyone who has been in love, helped a stranger, or taken a walk in the forest can testify, but the dominant forces of society have difficulty in taking this value into account. The difficulty comes from the
fact that these things resist bookmakers, statisticians and, broadly speaking, rationality as domination. The question of the relationship between humans and nature is a fundamental dimension of Western philosophical and political thought. Usually, “civilisation” is contrasted with “savagery” and “human” with “nature”. Thinkers from Aristotle to Marx have thought that human prosperity is attained through the domination of nature. A slightly more recent thinker, William Leiss, has written extensively on the subject, concluding that total domination over nature is, in fact, impossible. Worse than that, efforts to dominate nature, just as efforts to dominate humans (who are, of course, an inseparable part of nature), leads to revolt. For Leiss, non-human nature is just as capable of resistance as humankind is. Such a position has interesting consequences: above all, it means that non-human nature should be understood as an agent, and not as mere object. While this might be a revolutionary turn in Western philosophy, it is not a new idea. In indigenous cultures a concept of non-human agency has existed for a long time, and I would claim that the witch-hunt aimed at suppressing such a world-view in Europe and among the indigenous population of the Americas.
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To understand nature, as some medieval Europeans did, as being inhabited by spirits, gods and other magical beings, is to understand that nature has agency. In many occasions, attempts at opening mines in early modern Europe were met with fierce resistance. The locals were outraged and scared, as they thought digging the earth in certain places was a great disrespect to the spirits. Today we might read these stories and chuckle: “What silly people! Don’t they realise they are sitting on a massive source of wealth?” Perhaps the locals, in their ignorance, were right. Perhaps the spirits are taking their revenge on us right now in the form of climate change, top-soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and generalised political and existential crisis. It is certainly possible, maybe even necessary for us to understand nature as an agent. Facing the climate crisis, it might be a useful position to take. However, we must be careful: assigning agency to nature is dangerously close to anthropomorphising it, and seeing such a philosophy as merely “useful” reeks of the kind instrumentalisation we should try to avoid. Nevertheless, there is much to learn: for too long Western academia (myself included) has ignored indigenous thinkers and philosophies; it is high time for us to adopt a position of humility regarding nature, knowledge, and our role as a species on this magical planet.
WHEN THE DUTCH WELFARE STATE IS GHOSTING ITS POPULATION FREDERIQUE DE RIDDER
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hange has to be made. In the Netherlands, this currently counts for climate activists, farmers and construction workers. More than ever, this action seems to be inevitably accompanied by sensation. The government subsequently shifts the attention to the irrelevances of these debates and closes the eyes to essences. This ongoing process is going at the expense of time, truth and our democratic values. One fundamental rule rules universally for all news articles, which is that lies are not allowed to be spread. A fundamental rule that unfortunately doesn’t necessarily support the ultimate universal journalists’ belief: “If it bleeds, it feeds”. What is a climate activist left to do, when it has become an inevitable phenomenon that climate protests are being portrayed as an aggressive initiative, in order to create stagnation rather than progress? This might sound like a tiring development, yet it is unfortunately real. Even though the emphasis of climate activists is supposed to be put on creating awareness in a peaceful, creative, and safe way, journalists still manage to grasp dramatic inappropriate incidentals. Within the media, these incidentals
are used to invert the activists’ initial intentions, to subsequently profile the climate activists in an untrue, and therefore, in an unjust way. This is how people, who actually stand up for the prevention of the planet’s destruction, are portrayed as desperate, ignorant and begrudging. Journalists often consider emotional engagement as useful material, even though it does not represent initial intentions. In other words, it does not represent reality. In the meantime, the proliferation of both camps causes the friction to strengthen between them and paves the way for polarisation.
“Progress remains far ahead when consensus is kept deliberately avoided.” particular manner, to publish “the truth”. To avoid the blame of bias, even quality newspapers such as New York Times and The Guardian limited the stage for climate scientists, and
subsequently leave disproportionally more space open for the ‘contrarians’ to take their part within the climate debate. However, this hopeless aftermath in which the essence of the climate debate remains uncovered, is not only apparent in the media, but in national politics as well. It is not the first time in history that uncertainty amongst the population, channeled and therefore shaped by the media, is considered beneficial by politicians. The confusion amongst the population, namely maintains the political indecision. Progress remains far ahead when consensus is kept deliberately avoided. Especially when politicians keep upholding the idea that climate change does not require action at all. After all, what is scarier than an approaching tipping point? The answer is: politicians and authorities condemning or denying the existence of that approaching tipping point. The extension of the climate debate causes the focus to divert from the central concern, the central concern about what action has to be taken, instead of whether action should be taken at all. To what extend should we seek comfort in closing our eyes to scary things?
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It is dangerously unfruitful to turn your back against the essential debate. As a consequence, solutions for the reduction of nitrogen precipitation and Co2 emissions in the Netherlands are kept out of reach. Authorities don’t take the responsibility during a stage in which the population need them to take the responsibility the most. “No hands on deck” is unfortunately the strategy which the Dutch government is currently opting. The government in the Netherlands is ghosting its population. That is something that should be considered as scary. A phenomenon that belongs to upholding a selective reality within the media, is the idealisation of the ‘hero’. While the portrayal of climate activists as desperate or even aggressive remains unavoidable within the media, a new trend became apparent amongst the contrarians. This trend implies the deceptive praise for the Dutch farmers. Tensions are increasing , so is the fear. For example, the fear that the Netherlands will lose its “traditional farmers”. The possibility is upheld that, future measures within the frame of air pollution reduction, will restrict the Dutch farming industry to the extent that Dutch bio-industry farms would maybe disappear. Especially amongst the
contrarians, it is a popular belief to consider the Dutch farmers to be the people who provide the Dutch population with its food. If modern restrictions for climate change, would subsequently mean that farmers would lose their jobs, then who is going to provide the Dutch population with food? Since the bio-industry is the main contributor to the nitrogen precipitation in the Netherlands, does that mean that the Netherlands will be deprived of its traditional cheese?! As a matter of fact, there is not much traditionality left for Dutch farmers since the Dutch bio-industry is not focused on feeding its domestic population at all, but on international export instead, due to economic purposes. Europe is undergoing a nitrogen crisis which means that the Netherlands needs to lower its emissions. A high nitrogen content namely causes plants to go extinct and habitats of birds and insects to disappear. Especially habitats such as the heathlands, raised bog and the dunes are vulnerable to erosion. A shortage of meatballs or cheese is a fear that is unfounded. The loss of Dutch landscapes on the other hand is a legit threat. Politicians not only tend to turn their backs against the essential debate of climate change, they also tend to feel comfortable
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with shifting their responsibility to people who are initially not responsible. The mayor of the Hague and the police share the task of maintaining the peace within the city. This means that intervention to a certain extent is necessary, in order to maintain the control. At the same time, nobody wants to abandon the freedom of the city in in which justice is being pursued. For this reason, there is liberty to protest on the “Malieveld”. However it is becoming slightly troublesome that people anticipate the fact that sensation is a gateway to gain publicity, and subsequently popularity. When protest and sensation are increasingly intertwining, people who take the liberty to make use of this platform to protest, increasingly go on the verge of abusing it, under the veil of standing up for democratic rights. It is up to the mayor of the Hague and the police whether to let events escalate or decide to intervene. It is definitely up to the police to decide what measures should be taken to control aggressive and destructive protests. However, intervening within the civic sphere, increasingly implies risking the threat of civic fury. In other words, evil dilemmas have to be faced by people who are initially not responsible for avoiding a civic fury.
“Heroes” and their actions can be very inspiring. This time in a more regulated way, the construction workers of the Netherlands manoeuvred themselves on the 30th of October onto the “Malieveld” in the Hague. It is clear that quest for sensation is a phenomenon that is being anticipated. Frankly, it was quite impressive to see hundreds of cranes, concrete mixers and excavators positioned on the field. They arrived there, before 6.00 AM because the police wanted traffic jams to be avoided this time, with a similar motivation as the farmers who stood there the 1st of October. Namely, that the governments’ “words should be turned into deeds”. The official part of the day is introduced by the deafening sound of the klaxons of all vehicles to express their discontent. However, Stientje van Veldhoven speaks soothing words “This country is not going on lock”. It has been a long day for the protestors on the field, which is understandable, if the rule applied that they had to be present on the field before 6.00 am. The builders claimed to experience discomfort standing there, but it was necessary for the sake of justice. However, the joke hits and the manifestation on the field laughs out of disbelief, when Stientje continues “There
won’t be put a halt on building as long as the nitrogen precipitation is zero”. Shortly after this incident in which the demonstrators expressed their scepticism towards the national politics, Geert Wilders arrives and is welcomed as a problem solver.
“The extension of the climate debate causes the focus to divert from the central concern, (...) about what action has to be taken,...” Wilders consequently takes the opportunity to “clown” himself over the fields of demonstrations for justice in the Hague, taking invitations to make selfies with the protestors. For the sake of political professionality, Instagram accounts of politicians should not be legal. Notwithstanding that belief, preeminently Wilders, who is willing to feed sensation to the
fullest, who closes his eyes to rational and safe measures for this society the most, is creepily widely embraced. At the end of the day it turns out that it is obviously impossible for the majority of Dutch civic society to maintain a proper perception of what is actually scary. Feeding an audience with bloody sensations doesn’t sound safe at all. Yet journalists tend not to attend to this possible danger, to the extent to which truth becomes a secondary issue. In fact, the publication of sensational articles and reports, hinders the progress of reaching actual solutions to real existing threats. Even politicians play their part in feeding the public with sensations, to subsequently profit from the polarisation that is established within the society. The only thing that is being fed at this moment, is a vicious cycle. A vicious cycle will not protect us from drowning in the North sea. This attitude is silently but certainly drowning us.
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SES Calendar Debate on the EU-Mercosur Trade Deal: 21st November Join the Debate Committee for its first debate, centred around the EU – Mercosur Free-Trade Deal. Together with two guest speakers, we will discuss possible pros and cons of this trade deal and debate whether it is putting economic gain over the environment SES x Kleio x IDFA - 25th November Watch the documentary ‘The Danube Exodus’ together with the Educational Committee as part of a student project from the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam. After the film, the SES and Kleio will host an in-depth discussion and academic talks with amongst others the Hungarian director himself! Rule of Law in Europe - 27th November Interested in the current developments and crises of European Law? Join our lecture and workshop with Amnesty International and European Horizons! Free coffee and snacks included. Maastricht Day - 6th December As een cadeautje van Sinterklaas, the Educational Committee will be taking us to the beautiful city in the South of the Netherlands: Maastricht! We will spend the day discovering the city and finding out more about new perspectives on Europe through events offered by the annual Maastricht Europe Days. Finishing off the day, you’ll have the chance visit the picturesque Christmas market and enjoy a mulled wine! We will provide you with more information in the upcoming weeks. Until then, keep an eye open for our further information on all our social media accounts! Alpha Christmas Gala - 20th December Looking forward to having some nice vacation and New Year’s Eve festivities, but you do not want to leave Amsterdam without a final bang, then join SES on the 20th of December for the yearly Alpha Christmas Gala.
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