Ecunomist, Year 20, Issue 1

Official Magazine of study association ECU’92

The Ecunomist Year 20, Edition 1

what’s new?

Committees

photosof StoneAgeParty

introweek(end)

topic

religion.

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content 4 6 7 8 10 12 13 14 16 18

From the editor From the board The Impact of Religion in Economic Development The crisis of the catholic church Freshmen committee Student participation Prom committee To be or not to be, a christian Photos wailing Wall

20 Interview with Kavita Agrawal 22 Have a merry buying time

24 Hilariouscope 26 Brenner. Reflections of a Rebbachisaurus 28 Final Say 30 Ora et labora

Five times a year The Ecunomist is published in a circulation of 1500 for the members, patrons, Ecunomen and external contacts of ECU’92

John R. Tindel | Julie Ann Goodfellow | Joey Cairo | Christina Schenten | Milda Jasaite Alexander Visser | Leila Maria Scott | Miles Hilton | Sara Zapata Esteban | Jessica Krom Study Association ECU’92 | Janskerkhof 12 | 3512 BL Utrecht | 030-253 9680 info@ecu92.nl | www.ecu92.nl | Printed by Drukkerij Hakker van Rooijen Special thanks to ECU’92 Board and Y.S.Brenner 3

from the

A

new year, a new beginning. For some of you, this is the beginning of a completely new era of your life, as you leave home for the first time to begin your university career. You’ve made new friends, live in a new city (or country), and you’re learning a new way of studying. For others of you, it’s a time to start anew; resolving to work harder, get organized, drink less, be more sociable, get in shape, etc.

editor-in-chief burg is being taken more seriously than ever. In an era when most people do not hold strong religious beliefs, it’s interesting to see just how influential religion still is today. Although the Catholic Church is no longer the monolithic power centre of Europe, people still give a damn when the pope goes to England. Although the days of the expansive Islamic Caliphate are long gone, people in America and Europe still fall victim to the fear-mongers who would have you believe that Islam wants to dominate the world. In other parts of the world, people still kill each other over arguments about whose god is better on a scale that sometimes rivals the Protestant/Catholic conflicts of reformation-age Europe. In short, although the world (especially Europe) has tended toward secularism over the past century, it is quite clear that religion still has a very major influence on the way we live our lives.

Growing up in the south of the United

Well, it’s a new year for your beloved study association as well, and we’re turning over a new leaf too. Our new board is focused on making ECU’92 more professional while at the same time promoting social cohesion among the students. We at the Ecunomist plan to help the board by stepping up the quality of our articles and by making you, the reader, more involved in the process of producing this magazine. For instance, we’re introducing a new spin on the old Wailing Wall: you write it now! If you Even in the most seemingly secular have any complaints/ gripes about studying, places like Holland, religion is still a Utrecht, the weather very central issue governing culture, or just life in general, write them down and behaviour, economics and politics. send them to us. We’ll select the best ones to be published in States, religion was always a very central the next issue. We’ve also incorporated part of my life; my family’s social group was interviews with professors and fellow stubased around our church and my brother is dents, aimed at helping you become better currently training to become a church youth acquainted with the people you work and minister. My hometown, Tyler, has a church study with. on almost every street, and people are very open in expressing their faith, be it through As this first edition goes to print, religion “Jesus Saves” t-shirts, fish-shaped car deis all over the news. The Catholic Church cals or Bible verses written on everything is embroiled in another abuse scandal; a from business cards to restaurant menus. new wave of Islamophobia is sweeping the The city even has a long-standing ban on alUS, and the populist anti-Muslim rhetoric cohol, which was of course passed with the of everyone’s favourite clown from Limsupport of the biggest church in town.

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Where I come from, religion has an understandably strong influence on culture.

Abortion is a big no-no, gay people can’t get married (in fact it was still illegal to be gay in Texas until about 10 years ago), and there is a very heated debate going on about whether or not we should teach evolution or Biblical creationism in public schools. Some jobs applications still ask questions like, “Where do you attend church?” or,- “How would you describe your personal relationship with Jesus Christ?”.

The Netherlands is, of course, quite different. With its red-light districts, legalized drugs, gay marriages and abortion boats, it seems like it would be hard to find a less Christian place on earth. Yet even here, religion has a much stronger influence on behaviour than most people think.

There are, of course, the obvious remnants of a strong Christian tradition in this country. Despite what most foreigners think, the Dutch are generally socially conservative; they just have a very healthy respect for other people’s private business that manifests itself as the famous Dutch tolerance. Then there are the little Dutch habits borne from the Calvinist tradition: leaving the curtains

open all the time, avoiding dressing/acting too out of the ordinary (Doe maar gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg), saving money instead of spending lavishly, and the irritating fact that absolutely nothing is open on a Sunday, despite the fact that almost nobody goes to church.

Then there’s the anti-Islamic sentiment.

Although Wilders is a very extreme example of a politician using religion to drive a wedge in the electorate, Islam has been an issue in Dutch politics for a long time now. Even before Pim Fortuyn (for you non-Dutch people, think Geert Wilders, but less crazy and with much better hair), politicians have been using the Dutch identity as a Christian country to cast the struggle in an “us vs. them” light.

Even in the most seemingly secular places like Holland, religion is still a very central issue governing culture, behaviour, economics and politics. Holland is no Texas, but the fingerprints of religion are all over the place if you just look around.

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from the board

The

new ECU’92 Board of 2010-2011 is up and running. Literally running, because we are very busy in the start-up phase of our board year.

Currently, we are have been in charge of ECU’92 for two months, and we’re working very hard to get everything on track. A lot of ECU’92 members often ask me what the board is actually busy with five days a week. Well, we can assure you it is a lot! For example: interview 120 potential committee members, visit companies for sponsor budgets, talk with USE about collaborations, have meetings, organise the book sale, get the member administration up to date, answer all the emails, bills and invoices, organise the general meeting, organise ECU’92 activities, keep in contact with our active members, visit receptions and parties from other study associations, and a lot more.

Of course we really enjoy doing all these activities. We, as the ECU’92 Board, want to put a lot of our time and effort into ECU’92. But we are not the only ones who are quite active for our study association. With around twenty committees and approximately 130 active members, a lot of people devote time and effort to ECU’92, and we appreciate that a lot.

Without their help, ECU’92 would not exist. However, our study association has more than 1700 members in total, and of course we want everybody to feel connected to ECU’92.

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Some members within ECU’92 are the so-called “book members” who do not show up at our activities. It may be the case they feel a barrier, and look at ECU’92 as some kind of sect (to stick to the theme). On Wikipedia, the term “sect” is occasionally used in a malicious and negative way. A sect is a group with distinctive religious, political or philosophical beliefs. In the past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, but nowadays it can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and principles.

I do not think ECU’92 falls under the definition of this term. We are not a religious group, and do not have different political or philosophical beliefs with different rules and principles. We are just a study association who organizes great content-related, careeroriented and fun activities! So if you do not like our association yet, please join us at one of our activities. Hopefully you will then see, just like the others, how much fun it is, and all the negative feelings will disappear!

Keep faith,

Loura Vlam

The Impact of Religion in Economic Development

by Jules Goodfellow

"Religion"

is a term which has proven resistant to definition.

People meet at church, form friendships and business partnerships under the umbrella of trust and mutual concern that religions often foster. This provides a strong positive influence on economic development by bringing people together to create opportunity and synergy under the protective embrace of mutual interest. People in third world countries have simpler lifestyles where religion is a central factor in government and economics.

As education and intelligence, as measured today, increase, critical thinking begins to expose the limits, the hypocrisy and the logical fallacies of the teachings of many religions. Those religions that exploit the power they wield over the lives of their followers begin to show their dark sides and we see religious observation top off and decline as people get more educated and form other methods to obtain the community and synergy demanded for sophisticated lay societies to flourish. A system of laws and justice replace edicts of supreme beings or gods. People start to question the truth of religious claims and venture beyond religious doctrine.

Eventually, the elite thinkers in a society tend to reject religion as an adequate means for explaining the state of the universe and how it functions. You see religious observance drop to lower and lower levels. It's important to also note that many people feign religious observance, or appear to observe it, so as to not alienate those who feel it is still essential to good character.

So, I would say that religion is an important influence on economic development in a country as it moves from the hunter gatherer, agrarian, simple lifestyle mode, to a more sophisticated model. It is a powerful tool to affect human behavior in times of confusion and fear and doubt. As people become more sophisticated, and move to an intelligence-based economy, religion has less of an impact on everything, including economic development.

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The Crisis

From an ex-devoted Catholic’s perspective

by Jules Goodfellow

It

has not been a year since I decided to quit going to church every Sunday. I was born and brought up in the Philippines, where the population is ballooning.

We can ask the church about this basic moral question: ‘Which is more evil: having an abortion for an unwanted pregnancy or preventing an unwanted pregnancy through artificial means when natural methods fail?’ If the population growth is not regulated, this will inflict serious problems that should be a cause of concern for the Philippines survival as a nation.

The Church owns a vast track of land and is not paying taxes in the Philippines.

They’ve not been asked by the Philippine government or congress how much money they have remitted out of the country to the Vatican to sustain their global operations and existence, which others cannot do without Philippine Central Bank intervention.

Of course, abortion is seen as a crime, it’s a first degree murder no doubt, which can be punishable under Philippine existing laws but birth control cannot even be considered a crime.

Are they that untouchable that they cannot be questioned and be transparent to their activities and operations? Have they heard that the government or the Filipino people themselves are complaining? Not at all. The purpose of their very existence as a spiritual institution turns out to be a political one and has done a great disservice to the faith.

In this issue, the Catholic Bishops do not even consider the families with their children; they never experienced what it means to raise a family because of celibacy. How should they know? One has to experience something first hand before one can credibly comment on it.

The Catholic Church as a moral institution should take more care of its own morals rather than interfering with the affairs of the state; the pedophilia issue which has rocked the church foundation globally has not yet been resolved.

Money donations and contributions from questionable sources like gambling, which they themselves admitted receiving, seems to be alright. Do they realize that these are immoral? Has the Church run out of morally upright and legitimate charitable contributors?

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And again, clear manifestation of the nostalgic past of what the Philippines went through during those dark Spanish friar days of Jose P. Rizal’s (our national hero) time, where politically the Catholic Church was the mightily powerful and not the people.

In this present time such a scenario is quite disturbing, indeed. Is it correct that the Catholic Church, which is supposed to be the defender of moral control, would encourage the public to civil disobedience just because the government policy on reproductive health is not in accordance to what the bishops or the church wanted?

It is now time that the Catholic Church stop interfering with Philippine state affairs and focus instead on spiritual affairs which are the essence of their very existence.

of the Catholic Church From a Non-Catholic perspective

by Christina Schenten

The

Catholic Church is an institution that without a doubt has had a major impact on the course of history. It has never been infallible, but despite all controversies, it has never lost its millions of followers; giving them guidance, shelter and hope.

However, times are getting tough for the Catholic Church these days, maybe more tough than they have ever been before.

From my perspective as a non-Catholic, it seems that people are finally opening their eyes to the lapses happening within this mighty institution. Reading the newspaper, taking a glimpse behind the scenes and discussing this topic, my Philippine co-writer made me wonder what else the Catholic Church truly is about but the conservation of power, wealth and privileges.

All over the world, there are numerous scandalous shortcomings to be observed.

The implicit confidence with which the Catholic Church excludes itself from tax payments in the Philippines is brazen. It seems the local priests have no scruples to practically take the shirt off of the poorest’ backs, claiming the sacrifice would make them better people, while living at the community’s expense themselves.

This directly concerns people living in poor regions in the first place. However, the backwardness of clerical policy, such as the attitude towards contraception, homosexuality and the negation of the progress of the world in general, also leads to controversy in more developed countries. While my Philippine co-writer is probably an exception to the rule when turning her back to the Catholic Church, in many European countries this has become more common than the Catholic Church can ignore.

This year, the amount of people leaving the Church has increased tremendously.

In numbers: In the diocese of Bamberg, located in the traditionally religious South of Germany, exits increased from 200 to 300 per month to 1400. The reason is obvious: The news were full of shocking revelations of priests abusing minors under their custody, and it became more and more obvious that the Catholic Church tolerated, and even protected the offenders. Instead of being punished by mundane law, the Catholic Church took the right to take care of these crimes itself in an intolerably disregardful way.

This imposes the question, what kind of an institution it is, that puts more effort into defending its reputation with purely self-protectionist motives, than in subordinating itself to the values it enjoins on its followers.

Pope Benedict said in May 2010: “The greatest distress of the Church does not come from its external enemies. It is the sin within the Church”. This essentially points at the major challenge the Catholic Church must face these days. It must modernize its structures, “exorcise” out-dated practices and unsustainable rules, and reconsider its goals. The only way to maintain its members is to regain its credibility and to start caring about what truly moves people in the 21st century.

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The freshmen committee 2010/2011!

3 guys, 4 girls, all new, talented, upcoming economists. Sounds like the perfect recipe for a sparkling new Freshmen Committee!

Let me introduce all the members: Sander Bouw, our well-known chairman. The guy who has got everything organized when others fail to do so.

Eline Groen, our secretary. She helps us to remind what the previous meeting was about. Not having to discuss everything twice makes the meetings a lot more fruitful.

Bodo Verberkt, our treasurer. He makes sure we do not spend too much, which would be bound to happen without him.

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Our promotion is done by Tsjalling Sijtsma. We have confidence that he will convince all the freshmen to come to our first workshop and all the activities to follow!

Marjon Dirksen, she will take care of the good spirit and has already proven herself to be the girl with useful connections.

Sanne Groefsema, if you feel bothered by any educational matters during the first Bachelor year, you should contact her.

Elize Hogendoorn, well, that is me. I will keep us in contact with the rest of the world.

But, how did this committee come together? That is the work of some of the ECU’92 board members, especially Pauline. Everyone had an interview in which we had a chance to introduce ourselves and, fortunately, we were the ones that were chosen for this committee.

Organizing the first activity The first meeting was at Janskerkhof 15. Pauline introduced us to the concept of participating in a committee, and we tried to brainstorm a little about the upcoming activity. Unfortunately, this did not really work out as everybody was quite nervous.

The next meeting was a lot more productive, as we came to decide what we are going to do with the upcoming activity: A cocktail workshop!

We are all very excited about this, and we hope we can persuade a lot of freshmen to come to this activity. The idea is to have a real barman teach us how to make 3 different cocktails, which you can consume afterwards, of course. Sounds fun, right?!

Our ambitions After this workshop we will continue organizing other activities; there will be four in total, so freshmen: be sure to attend them all, you will not regret it! Later this year, there will be karaoke, which guarantees a lot of fun and laughter. Also, we will try to attend a TV-show, hoping a lot of freshmen will join us.

So, to conclude, the central idea of this committee is fun, for the freshmen attending the activities, but also for ourselves, by being a part of this committee. Our ambition for this year is to organize successful activities in which the freshmen will meet other people from their studies, and at the same time have an amazing day.

O, and for the record: we are the ones wearing the applegreen shirts!

Well, we’ll hope to have seen all freshmen at the cocktail workshop, and we are really excited about this year and the upcoming activities!

With love, The Freshmen Committee 2010/2011 11

Student participation

by Pauline Visscher (Coordinator Educational Affairs 2010-2011)

Having

a say in your education, improving the quality of education, and knowing what is going on at the Utrecht University School of Economics (USE)? This is the task description of students joining in the different participation organs at USE. Their main role is taking care of the students within our beautiful Bachelor’s programme; not by doing their dishes, laundry or ironing, but by sticking up for them in the several educational issues that are dealt with during the year.

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For all students, not completely familiar with how student participation is arranged for us Economics students, here is a short introduction. Within USE there is an undergraduate and graduate board discussing issues relating to the Bachelor and Master education and students respectively. All these teachers and other personnel should of course be kept in line – or at least on the right track for students. Luckily, we have a lot of students actively keeping these boards in line and make them remember the interests of the students.

Our Bachelor student representatives are Matthijs Zijlmans, Daniella Vellinga and Sven Vonk. Each of these students enthusiastically, passionately and wholeheartedly represents the interests of the first-, second-, and third-year Bachelor students.

The Board of the entire department of Economics, and the Board of the faculty of REBO – Law, Economics, and Governance - has to deal with a group of highly motivated, well-opinionated students that will not put their opinion aside, not even in the presence of a group of slightly wiser and older academics.

Of course our Master students are not forgotten within ECU’92 and USE; they are represented by Lysanne van der Vliet, Erik Zonneveld, and Danique van Koppenhagen. These three musketeers are already actively concerned with the educational well being of the approximately 120 master students at USE. They only met each other two weeks ago, and are already working hard to make sure the Master Programmes, which are already excellent, will only get better and better.

It is a beautiful slogan, I know, but for now unfortunately this process is still to be finished. As soon as this has been decided on, we, as the student representatives, will make sure you know about this and you know where to go.

If you are slightly lost after all this information, I wouldn’t blame you. With all the differing options there and trying to have their say, it might be slightly confusing. This year, a representation of all these different organs has started to talk about setting up one very transparent, open, committee where all students can tell their story, no matter what the complaint, remark, or comment. One organization, one email address, and hopefully a lot of voices!

For now, if you have any questions, complaints, or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us at either BachelorOC.use@uu.nl, MasterOC.use@ uu.nl or education@ecu92.nl.

The Prom committee Providing

the guests with an amazing evening, which entirely will be in the style of kings and queens, princes and princesses. At least that is the aim of the Prom committee. Perhaps you guessed it already, but the theme of the annual prom this year i¬s ‘Royal Ball’.

Organizing such a prom demands lots of preparation. For this reason, each of the nine members of the Prom committee were busy with their own tasks, although there was much cooperation between the members to get as many good ideas as possible. Of course our chairman, also a board member of sv Perikles, keeps the group organized and provides a clear agenda. Having the prom financially managed, our treasurer used her economic knowledge to do so. Then there’s the secretary, who looked after the minutes, in case we forgot what we discussed already. The other tasks, which are also very important, were given to the other committee members. Finding a suitable location, getting attention by doing promotion, getting into the theme by decoration and entertainment and getting it all financed by sponsors are the main tasks. The location must relate to the theme, of course. For this reason, the location coordinator searched for suitable locations and finally picked one. I think she certainly succeeded in her task.

A nice location is not spectacular without nice decoration (economically speaking,: decoration is actually a complementary good of location in this case), so that is fixed by the decoration coordinator. After having a nice decorated location, there’s still the entertainment to arrange. Will there be a DJ, a nice band, or maybe both? Just come and see!

Of course, it’s very important that everyone must be informed about this amazing prom. For this reason, the promotion coordinator and the other members worked hard to promote the

prom. Guess you noticed the posters already; if not, you will. Last but not least, the whole event has to be financed.

Although a considerable amount of money was available, sponsorship is always welcome. That is why the sponsorship coordinator has contacted several businesses to get some more financial resources.

In conclusion, together we accomplished a lot in limited time, considering that there was only 3,5 month to plan everything. The weekly planned meetings took place at the boardroom of one of the study associations. Fortunately, the meetings are not as dull as is generally thought. There is always someone who ensures a nice snack together with a cup of tea or coffee. Besides, although most time is spent on serious discussion, there are also less serious moments.

At the time of writing, the exact location and time have not been publicized yet; keep an eye on the posters and flyers that will be hung in and around the faculties.

However, you can guess that the location will meet the royal theme. Although the Prom committee has put a great deal of effort into making it a great royal prom, it’s up to you to provide that extra royal sphere. So just take care that you look royal and make sure to be present at this amazing prom!!!

See you around,

Malvin Bernard

Promotion coordinator Prom committee

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To be or not to be, a Christian.

by Miles Hilton

I

would like you to meet Johan, born and raised in the Netherlands, but became a man in the jungles of India, the debris of Haiti, and in the houses of God.

He is a man with clear visions. He is a freshman at USE, a 29 year-old Protestant with a rich history of academic, religious and developmental experiences. This week, I sat down with him to have a ‘hard talk’.

Voodoo, he told me, is practiced in Haiti and it is believed by many Haitians that the use of this demonic spirituality was not the root cause of the earthquake disaster- it was God, who was running out of ideas to warn the people of their wrongdoings.

Johan was on site to give both medical and spiritual support, regardless of voodoo or God being the creator of the disaster. He was out there, in the houses of prayer, to wake up the lost souls of destroyed families to another path, brought back on track by the love of God. Johan grew up a very Protestant family, which gave him a choice: To be or not be, a Christian. He knew that if he chose to commit himself to God, he would have to live with Him every day. He then chose to study theology in Utrecht and also in India. He then saw the world and it made him a relatively charming chap.

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He spent six years travelling through India, the USA, Africa and other parts of Asia with a Christian organization called ‘House of Prayer’. His life in

the Netherlands is now packed with challenges but also a lot of fun. If I say religious, I mean Religious. As he sat in front of me with a big grin, he almost started to rub his hands in anticipation, as if he had done this kind of interview a thousand times.

Today, we observe the rapid decline of church members. I always thought that it was just society becoming more aware of things that make the probability of a god less likely, such as evolution and space exploration. This indeed plays a role, but it is also the churches’ fault, Johan believes. Many priests and other Christian leaders no longer convey the vision that makes the Christian faith function. What is being said in most churches is therefore irrelevant if it is not lived out in daily life. The problem is that people need to have a relationship with God and not just go to church every Sunday and listen to somebody say: “God is great and God loves us all, amen.”

Some church services are slowly turning into delusional ‘self help’ groups, while others are selling the wisdom of God in the form of merchandise, and keep all profits to themselves. Organizations build houses of prayer or temples that are a pure waste of money. Why is this happening? Do religions still need to impress people with architectures of

control and superiority? The money should be flowing into accounts that actually create something, such as developmental help or missionary services in these times of religious depression.

The typical ‘fallacy’ of believers turning away due to unreasoned punishment, is a result of having a wrong vision. We don’t understand God perfectly, but God is definitely the highest authority and could still be the master behind such catastrophes even though the innocent followers are struck by death.

The vision can only function if it is based on trust that God is good and aims for our best interests. He is there to teach us, like a father who loves us, but would sometimes want us to learn a lesson or two.

There are two important things to differentiate within Christian organizations: Firstly, at the core we find a certain vision. Secondly, there is always a system of behavioral rules, formal or informal. Nowadays however, Johan believes that many religious organizations are prone to make the system or structure the actual religious motive after some time: ‘The system should not become the vision, but support it’.

People, who are afraid of doing something against this system, have a somewhat distorted idea of Christianity.

Most likely it has to do with the way that beliefs are communicated and are understood and a lack of basic education. Because the ultimate goal is far from fear – it is love. The most

import and basic guidelines of them all, the 10 commandments, are there to be followed, because of love not because of a fear of God. The main challenge is very simple:

‘In the end, what counts is not a system of rights and wrongs, do’s and don’ts, but the challenge of preserving the vision of having a relationship with God’.

Johan is back in town, and I am both baffled and amazed by his words. It takes time to figure out a rich personality with all kinds of experiences. He is delighted to be here and looks forward to a career as an economist. His main goal however is to give. He promises that a nice amount of income will go into supporting development and missionaries around the globe. And I can assure you, if God thinks he’s a good boy, he may very well be right about that.

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p h o t o s 16

s t o n e a g e

i n t r o w e e k e n d 17

Welcome to the new and improved

Wailing Wall!

From now on, you

can send in your

wailings and we will post them right here for

everyone to read. You can drop off your comments in the wailing box in the UCU break or

in the ECU 92’ room. All the complaints you see here are anonymously contributed by fellow students. So get your wail on people!

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I would like to wail about the fact that some teachers cross the line betwee n students and teachers.

So much free space in Utre cht - So many students looking for hous ing - Such ridiculously expe nsive renting pr ices - So, why does nobo dy build some ne w student houses?!

Dutch music, it says a lot about the country when its music is worse than German Schlagermusik.

it. NO If you are fat, dress like hirts short skirts or tight t-s please!

The most annoying textbooks are those that don't get to the point and keep on bla bla-ing and repeating the same co ntent over and over again.

My complaint is the Dutch weather, just look outside‌

As a foreigner, Dutch bikers are the most frightening and aggressive people I have ever met‌

e y explain m Can somebod is yelling at V T e th y h w mmercials.? co g in r u d e m

I hate people being cruel to animals.

House-hunting in Utrecht is horrible: It's utterly time wasting, frustrating and slightly humiliating.

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Interview with

By Sara Zapata and Leila Maria Scott is a new addition to the teaching team of the Utrecht School of Economics. With a Kavita Agrawal Masters degree in Economics from Delhi University in India, Agrawal has been living in the Netherlands for four years and teaching at UU for two months.

How would you describe a successful student?

Someone who has understood the idea of how to adhere to timelines, that is, knows how to manage his time.

Tell us about your own university experience University is a nice experience to cherish. I was more studious and had little time to involve in other distractions in life. I enjoyed my student life; Delhi University is a very big university. It has 100,000 students, we used to have cultural programs and events and it was a nice and lovely experience.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges teachers face?

The biggest challenge a teacher faces is to enable the students to learn how to follow their time deadlines, because I think that time is the most scarce factor. If one takes care of time, everybody can do what is expected from them.

Do you follow any religious traditions or rituals?

I am a Hindu, I follow Hindu ideology. It’s a philosophy and it’s considered as an eternal religion because no root so far has been traced historically, that’s why you are born a Hindu, you can never convert to become a Hindu. I love my religion because my religion teaches me the principles of living together; live and let others live. I love it because of its aspect of being so flexible, it doesn’t teach me or guide me to do this or to not do this, but again it teaches me the whole idea of being human and kind and helping to others.

How important is religion to you?

I don’t pray. I’m not an orthodox Hindu; I don’t pray much. But I believe in the philosophy.

Do you think religion and science conflict? If yes, how so.

No, not with my religion. For the rest, no comment.

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a teacher In your opinion, why do people find comfort in religion?

Because when you feel dejected, you are upset and things are not working the way you are wanting them to, then you feel that there is some power who is sitting up there and you try to seek some solace. It gives you some time to think about the situation and maybe strength and renewed energy. It helps.

What do you like about your students?

Nowadays, the students are really informed because of the nice exposure they’re getting from life, they’re connected, their networking is nice. They are confident individuals; I like this aspect of the students. They’re free of any inhibitions so that is a very progressive trait. In general, the students all over the world are very informed, they have nice networking and they are confident people.

Do you follow a more practical or a more theoretical teaching methodology?

Of course practical teaching methodology is better, but it depends upon the course; certain subjects have to be practical, the methodology has to be practical and certain subjects are more theoretically based.

How does the Indian education system differ from that of the Netherlands?

Here, the education system is more problem-based, it’s more flexible. There, the educational system is process-based, we follow a process and it’s more or less a little more conservative. They have not adapted very well, because of the shortage of resources, to the new ideas, new technologies, in the system of education. But, my perspective is 20 years old.

How do student-teacher relationships in India differ from those in the Netherlands?

I taught for sometime in India and we really used to have a very nice, healthy student-teacher relationship based on mutual confidence and faith. There, the students really respect and they really consider teachers very highly in the social strata.

So teachers are very respected, discipline is a most important matter in the class, decorum. Maybe it’s due to the cultural differences, in India one is not allowed to talk loudly or interact when the teacher is presenting or to eat. Here, this is not so.

In India the student-teacher relationship is more formal, here it is informal.

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by Alexander Visser & Leila Scott

In

1931 Coca-Cola started a Christmas magazine advertising campaign featuring St. Nick as a large, kind and jolly man in a red and white suit. Without knowing it, Coca-Cola kick-started the commercialization of Christmas with the picture you see in this article. Since then, there has been an unstoppable force descending upon consumers every mid-December; with movies, music, adverts and discount sales that are all in the theme of a big fat man and his little helpers. In this article we show how important Christmas has become for companies and the economy.

It is fairly easy to see how big an impact Christmas can have on the sales of different kinds of products; in better economic times a Christmas sale can mean the difference between having a loss and a profit for some industries. When we look at data we gathered from sales figures in December, it reinforces the idea, that for some industries, the Christmas season is vital. In figure two, we can see that for videogames, sports equipment, books, drawing material, audio-visual equipment and clothes, over 30% of total annual sales were made in the last quarter. And this is not only true for the UK; in many countries

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all over the world, Christmas is a time to spend and then spend some more. Recent figures suggest that even though last year’s economy was hit by a recession, Christmas spending was still a large part of people’s budgets in the winter months.

However, all this spending has its limitations, especially with the widespread increased use of credit cards. As a result, many families are still paying for the Christmas consumer splurge during spring and summer months. This fact, coupled with the knowledge that people spend more on goods which they later value to

Figure: UK Sales (2002)

be worth less than they initially paid and perceive the goods they get for Christmas to be worth less than the price of the gifts, means that there is a large deadweight loss for the consumers. This effect was estimated in the paper “The deadweight loss of Christmas” by J. Waldfogel, that the total Christmas spending in 1992 in the USA was close to $38 billion with 10% to 30% of that being a deadweight loss; a value between $4 and $13 billion.

All in all, it should not come as a surprise that people spend excessive, great heaps or even oodles of money during the Christmas time and that certain industries count on this extra

boost in revenue. An example of this is the videogame industry, with many companies adjusting their release date schedule to the Christmas spending sprees. Whether you should consume as much as the average Joe is another matter entirely, especially when we take the deadweight loss into account. Some good advice may be: do not spend more than your budget allows, plan your spending (set a budget or price range), do not be afraid to ask for the receipt when a present’s perceived value is lower than the actual price. Nothing says, “Merry Christmas!” more than throwing a gift back in the face of the person who bought in for you!

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Hilariouscope Money is the root of all evil..

Aries

are financially unstable and may have loads of money one moment and absolutely none at all the next. They are every banker’s nightmare and are automatically disqualified from getting a loan.

Eventually, they reach a point where they are forced to make a living from what they do best – making terribly stupid, death-defying (at least occasionally) reality-TV videos.

Taurus Gemini

are very stingy and don’t spend much on anything (apart from airplane tickets). Many live almost exclusively on a diet of white rice, except for some toast and jam at Christmas. Don’t give a Taurus any money on his birthday – he’ll probably never use it.

spend most of their money on the sort of beauty products that cost a couple of weeks’ wages. Still, they know how to make what little they have left go a long way. Gemini are the sort of people who scour the jumble sales looking for second-hand GameBoy cartridges whenever they have to buy a gift. They also think duct tape and string are a cheap, but viable alternative to AA breakdown cover.

Luckily for them, they have not been proven wrong.

Cancer

are obsessed with money, but are far from financially wise.

They are always falling for get-rich-quick schemes that are obvious rip-offs to everyone else. Cancers distrust credit cards and so they usually carry considerable amounts of cash, making them ideal targets for muggers. Astrologers are fond of the saying, “A Cancer and his money are soon parted.”

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Leos’

knack for making money out of nothing is what distinguishes them from most other entrepreneurs. They are also great at embracing new technology, such as the Internet, and making the best of it in their business ventures. You will therefore find many Leos selling burnt toast on eBay. Buyers should beware of the numerous imitations that are now flooding the market, and that may soon force Leos to search for new, innovative products (such as used teabags, mismatched socks or bottled highland mountain air).

Virgos Libra their shoe

star tales

are money magnets of a kind. They have a weird tendency to find money in the most unlikely places, such as wedged behind the cistern in public toilets or stuck to the bottom of with chewing gum after a jog in the park.

Money is of little importance to a Libra. This is because you cannot buy any love with money – not true love anyway. Libras tend to use up most of their money purchasing little bits of rainforest to give as presents. This practice becomes very irritating after a couple of birthdays, and probably even beats disloyalty as the main reason why Libras have very few friends.

Scorpios Sagittarians

Money is a high priority for Scorpios, but not quite essential since they can use their charm to obtain almost anything they want. Scorpios don’t usually shop online because current technology is not able to transmit charm in digital form.

are not too worried about money, either because they make a good deal of it, or because they are happy with what they get from the dole. They are obsessed with punctuality, however. So always pay a Sagittarian promptly. Don’t you even think of telling him that his cheque is in the mail. You’ll never hear the end of it!

Capricorns

love money – as long as they don’t have to work for it. The second best thing you can give a Capricorn for his birthday is money. The best thing would be a fully reclining massage armchair with telepathic control and a built-in automatically restocking bar. A liposuction clinic gift voucher every now and then would not be a bad idea either.

Aquarians

Money is another weird Aquarian invention. Who in their right mind would risk their life hunting wild oxen in return for a coup le of shiny pebbles? The idea has since been taken a few more steps down the winding path of weirdness, and most people today would actually do anything for a few worn out bits of paper. Aquarians are not at all embarrassed to have brought about this ridiculous situation. They would do anything for some of those bits of paper too.

Pisceans

are well known for their generosity. If you ever need to borrow a fiver, ask a Piscean and you won’t be disappointed. Try putting on a pitiful face and you might even end up with ten pounds that you don’t have to give back. Pisceans (or rather their money) attract people in the very same way a sticky old sweet attracts an army of ants – and for pretty much the same reasons.

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The

editor told me that the topic of the October issue of The Ecunomist is religion. For a moment I thought that he meant ethics, and I was tempted to suggest to him to reprint Bernard de Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees: Or Private Vices, Public Benefits. Mandeville was born in Rotterdam in 1670 and died in Hackney, England, in 1733. He already said all there is to be said about business ethics, and did so much better than I can hope to be able to say. But later it occurred to me that it might not have been morals what the editor wanted me to write about but beliefs, which is of course something quite different.

Religion, my dictionary tells me, is “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods, or a particular system of faith and worship”. Fine! I have no problem with people believing whatever they wish to believe as long as they do not oblige me to believe the same. The difficulty I have is not with what people believe in, but with the individuals who arrogate the power to control worshippers. My problem is with autocratic rulers and with priests of all denominations. They think that they are the monopolists of truth, and as such they are as jealous as any other monopolists in their efforts to eliminate all competition.

Consequently their oppression and dogmatism is not an accident but a fatality.

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What puzzles me is how by the end of the Middle Ages in a small part of Europe people managed to escape the dreadful regiments of the monopolists of truth, and managed to create the social and economic miracle which was to bring us closer to a society with less poverty than ever before. Moreover, that they were able to initiate a society striving for economic and cognitive growth, for an egalitarian or fraternal society incorporating everyone in a shared moral citizenship and high culture, and with less oppression and arbitrariness than other known societies.

Not that such dreams were entirely new, but like culture they were always thwarted as soon as the champions of a ‘true

Rebbachisaurus faith’ became powerful. One can, for example, think of Arab culture in the ninth and part of the tenth century, (the third and fourth Islamic century) when Arab scholars discovered and translated the Greek classics into Arabic, and brought to Baghdad important works (mainly from Persia) on geometry, algebra, trigonometry astronomy, geography, mineralogy, chemistry, optics, botany and medicine, as well as history, biography, philology, philosophy, and music. But the sixth caliph (996 - 1021) abandoned religious toleration and the period of scientific and cultural progress came to an end.

One can also not say that the road from Renaissance to Enlightenment in Christian Europe was without obstacles. When early in the sixteenth century Copernicus dared to suggest that the sun, not the earth, is at the centre of the solar system, his hypothesis was suppressed for thirty years and published only a year after his death. When Galileo made Copernicus’s heliocentric theory plausible, he was banned by the Church authorities, made to recant, and placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.

In other words, whether Jews, Christians or Moslems are the custodians of religion, they are always inclined to ban any thoughts which undermine their authority. The same is of course true of other monopolists of ‘truth’. In Nazi-ruled Germany, to say that Germany would lose the war, which was already obvious to most observers, was still punished by death. In Stalin’s Soviet Russia, to say that the Capitalist system has certain advantages was as dangerous, and perhaps even more so, than printing a caricature today that depicts

Bilthoven: October 2010

the prophet Mohamed with a bomb under his turban. In short, it is not a belief or religion which is the problem but the intolerance of the establishments, religious or otherwise, which abhor human rationality.

The space allowed me for this Dinosaur is not sufficient to answer here the question how western civilization succeeded in escaping the dreadful rule of kings and priests. But I discussed this in several books and particularly in Looking into the Seeds of Time, which was first published in Assen in 1979 and reprinted (revised) in New Jersey and London in 1997. Next to my book, or instead of it, I suggest to any student interested in this problem to read M. Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1930); K. Marx’s Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859); and R.H. Tawney’s excellent book Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926).

To Weber, the geographical coincidence of the regions where Protestantism was first spreading with the regions which first underwent the transformation toward Capitalism suggested that Protestantism provided the mental conditions for the rise of the new system. For Marx, the events leading to the rise of Capitalism (and Protestantism) were obviously economic. Tawney evaded giving a clear answer and provided an excellent historical description of the process of transformation, but without settling the question of causality.

I’m writing this on the eve of Geert Wilders’s trial. He seems to have confused religion with intolerance. But then, the real question remains whether one can combat intolerance without intolerance.

Y.S. Brenner 27

final say

If

Homo Economicus was a church-going man, where would he attend services?

After all, a purely economic person would choose their religion by examining the profit-maximizing potential of all faiths, putting things like family tradition, personal preferences, and the relevance of the religious teachings aside. When you get down to it, which faith will make you rich?

This is a question that was taken on by Lisa Keister at Ohio State University several years ago. In an extensive study (focused on the USA), she found that Jews had the highest average incomes, followed by Catholics and mainline Protestants (Methodist, Lutheran, Anglican) in the middle place, with conservative/evangelical Protestants (Baptist, Jehova’s Witnesses, Pentecostal) occupying the bottom tier.

It’s no secret that religion affects economic behaviour.

Islam forbids its followers from collecting riba, or interest, in lending transactions, which has led to a unique form of Islamic banking and lending based on profit-sharing instead of interest.

Buddhism’s focus on abandoning all worldly desire has an obvious effect on the average Buddhist’s propensity to consume. In the New Testament, Jesus tells Christians that, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”, which probably goes a long way in explaining why conservative Christians were found at the bottom of the religious earnings chart.

Keister’s study dug deeper by examining the saving and investment behaviour of the different groups. The study found that

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35% of Jews bought a house early in life and later invested in stocks and bonds; only 3% of conservative Protestants did the same.

About 1/3 of Jews invested early in high-risk assets, while no conservative Protestants and about 7% of Catholics did the same.

In a similar study by Rachel McCleary of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, education is brought forward as a possible cause of the divergent outcomes. She suggests that Jews, during their long history of persecution, were forbidden from owning property in several periods. As a result, they tended to invest in human capital by becoming well-educated. This, combined with religious traditions that require children to read sacred texts in a foreign language at a young age, has led to a strong tradition of education among both males and females.

The higher female education has led to lower fertility rates, and thus smaller family sizes.

Which brings up the issue of family size.

There’s little question that religion affects family size. The Catholic Church’s ban on contraception has led to higher birth rates and larger family size, which has arguably caused a Malthusian trap in some countries. Mormons, on the other hand, also encourage large families, however they have generally above-average incomes in the US. It was suggested that the dichotomy of saving and investment behaviour could be explained by the fact that conservative protestants place a very strong emphasis on the idea of an afterlife. As such, they prefer to devote their time on earth to pursuits

other than wealth-accumulation. Judaism places less emphasis on an afterlife, thus worldly wealth is more acceptable.

Of course, this correlation between belief and wealth does not necessarily imply a causation. The relation could actually work backward; poorer people might be more drawn to a religious community that places less focus on wealth, such as Buddhism or conservative Protestantism. A conservative protestant who becomes wealthy might be drawn to a more mainline Protestant or Catholic church, where the social community is more accepting of his/her lifestyle. This could explain, for instance, why conservative protestant missionaries tend to be more successful in poorer places, like Sub-Saharan Africa, than in wealthy places, like Western Europe.

countries tend to have political and social environments that encourage free thought and speech, leading to a diversity of religious belief. Richer countries tend to have higher education levels and emphasize the centrality of science in answering questions and providing solutions to problems. In addition, religious leaders and church authorities are much more influential when there is a lack of functional, developed government institutions.

Paradoxically, the Hoover Institution study found that although less-religious countries have higher levels of education, educated people were more likely to hold some sort of religious belief (this article’s author falls under this category). The author suggests that this is because educated people are more able to think abstractly and use speculative reasoning, which makes religion attractive, at least as a philosophical pursuit. A possible reason for the statistical disconnect is that religiosity is usually quantified by levels of church attendance, however many people who hold religious beliefs do not attend church services. The survey found that, among believers, higher education is correlated with low church attendance, but not necessarily with low levels of belief.

When you get down to it, which faith will make you rich?

If Homo Economicus decides to consider the macro-perspective, he will probably choose to abandon religion altogether and become an atheist or agnostic. Examining countries from richest to poorest, he will notice that higher income levels tend to correlate with lower rates of religious belief (with the obvious exception of the United States). Warren Buffett and Bill Gates both fall into this category, along with many other famous rich people, like George Sorros, Mark Zuckerberg and Sir Richard Branson.

Economists suggest that this could be true for several reasons. Higher-income

So, where should our old friend, Homo Economicus, attend church? Well, there’s no real consensus on which faith will lead to riches, which makes sense. After all, if any church made its followers obviously richer, I’m pretty sure people would flock there by the millions.

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Ora et labora

By Peter Kloszewski

Suppose

that after your studies you get a good job. Slowly, you advance until you become the CEO governing several hundred people with a villa and a private jumbo-jet.

In brief, you become rich and successful. Then all of a sudden somebody makes a mistake that causes your face to appear on the front page of the newspapers with some scandalous nonsense. What do you do then? You enter into a monastery.

The first Christian monastery was established in 528 by Benedict of Nursia. While at it, he also wrote Regula Benedicti (The Benedict’s Rule), a book on how a monk should live and how a monastery should be run. The famous motto of the Benedictine Confederation pretty much sums it up: pax (peace) and ora et labora (pray and work). On entering, future monks take the vows of obedience, poverty and chastity. Regula Benedicti has given origin to hundreds of orders, that have adopted different lifestyles with different degrees of discipline, ownership and contact with the outside world.

For centuries monasteries have guarded the Christian religion in Europe as well as provided many other things, like food, medicine or education. From time to time they also served as a shelter for refugees or even an inn. During the Middle Ages they preserved knowledge and could have kept books burned elsewhere. Many monasteries provided such a good education that they eventually got “spin-offs” that later became universities Since the decision to devote your whole life to God is a big one and it is assumed that you won’t leave, the initiation time is long and tough. First you are a postulant, that is you stay voluntarily, without making any commitment, at the monastery, for about half a year. Once you have completed it you become a novice for two years and are allowed to wear the habit (monk cloak).

Historically the novice time was really harsh. The young monks proved their obedience by fasting, waking up at night to sing in a choir or being silent for a time. A typical punishment for doing something wrong included self-flagellation or lying in the doorstep, with others treading on you. On top of that many novices had an educational or a health-care job.

Fortunately the capital punishments have been definitively abandoned since the Second Vatican Concille in 1965.

Nowadays it is also possible to stay several days in a monastery as a guest (without having to prove your eagerness to enter). For about €25/day you get (simple) meals and a bed.

You have the opportunity to participate in the daily life, including prayers and the mass. Often you also get to talk to monks or nuns and use other facilities like libraries and gardens.

Some monasteries even organize special programs for groups. Of course when being there you will mostly spend your time praying and reading holy texts. In the Netherlands there are over 40 monasteries that receive guests (http://www.knr.nl/organisatie/gastenverblijven.asp). In case you give it a go don’t forget the vow of poverty and keep secret those career plans!

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Jouw studievereniging werkt nauw samen met studystore.

En dat heeft zo z’n voordelen.

Doordat we snugger te werk gaan, kunnen we jouw complete boekenpakket snel aanbieden tegen een scherpe prijs.

Jouw Jouw studievereniging studievereniging werkt werkt nauw nauw samen samen metmet studystore. studystore En dat En dat heeft heeft zo z’n zo voordelen. z’n voordelen Doordat Doordat we snugger we snugger te werk te werk gaan, gaan, kunnen kunnen we jouw we jouw complete complete boekenpakket boekenpakket snelsnel aanbieden aanbieden tegen tegen eeneen scherpe scherpe prijs. prijs.

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