The Sentinel Amsterdam vol. 5 #7 by Consultancy Market Media

vol. 5 #7 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 13 March 2012

The Sentinel Amsterdam

Integrity, heart, humour

FEATURE

on equal terms perspectives

The Matrix Effect lifestyles Opinion REVIEW Technology FILM TRENDS Sport Classifieds

Contents

CONTENTS

In this issue FEATURE

p. 04 perspectives P. 10 technology

On Equal Terms

The matrix effect

Cloud Central II

‘In the Netherlands, au pairs are a popular form of childcare’

‘All you see are individuals looking at or texting using their phones’

‘Cloud Computing has been around for some time’

trends

p.26 sport

Bubbles

p. 20

p. 30 more:

The Gold Room

Café/Bar Review Cafe Restaurant Edel

p. 14

SPOTTED p. 24 Where is this in Amsterdam?

‘This underwater world leads to amazingly ‘fairytalesque’ designs’

FILM REVIEW Room 2C

p. 25

BOOK REVIEW A book at lunchtime

p. 25

CLASSIFIEDS

ColoPHon The Sentinel Amsterdam e-mail: sentinelpost@gmail.com website: www.thesentinel.eu The Sentinel Amsterdam does not intentionally include unaccredited photos/illustrations that are subject to copyright. If you consider your copyright to have been infringed, please contact us at sentinelpost@gmail.com.

Editors – Gary Rudland & Denson Pierre Design, realisation and form – Andrei Barburas & No-Office.nl Webmaster – www.sio-bytes.tumblr.com Webhost – Amsterjammin.com

Contributors: Allison Cohen, Valeria Scimia, Simon Owusu, David King, Monica Lopes and Dirkje Bakker-Pierre

fEATURe

‘Thousands of girls (and some boys) leave home and travel to a foreign country to work as an au pair’

On equal t

feature

‘Dutch families do not consider non-EU candidates because of the extra expense and hassle’

terms By Allison Cohen

Every year, thousands of girls (and some boys) leave home and travel to a foreign country to work as an au pair. For many, it is their first time leaving home and experiencing life in another country. The au pair arrangement ideally allows a young girl, typically aged between eighteen and twenty-four, an opportunity for cultural enrichment and life experience within the safety blanket of a host family, who provide room, board, pocket money and often a language course in exchange for flexible, inexpensive childcare and household assistance. While au pair host-family arrangements may indeed provide a balanced, symbiotic relationship for some, there are infinite problems that can arise between theory and practice.

In the Netherlands, au pairs are a popular form of childcare, especially in large, international cities such as Den Haag and Amsterdam. If you compare the costs and flexibility of au pair childcare to other forms of childcare, such as crèche (day care), it’s easy to see why au pairs are so common. The Dutch immigration office (Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst, or IND) mandates that au pairs may not earn more than j 340 per month or less than j 300 in pocket money for a thirty-hour work week, while crèches (daycares) that operate from 08:00 to 18:00 hours typically cost j 650-750 per month. There may be additional costs, such as visa fees for non-EU au pairs (j 600), as well as language course fees (j 270-500), although language courses are not required by the IND and most of getting a visa. The j 340 per month salary cap for au pairs is designed to drive off foreign workers wanting to make decent income. Dutch families do not consider non-EU candidates because of the extra expense and hassle involved in acquiring a visa. Unfortunately though, the comparatively low cost lures families into the programme for strictly monetary reasons.

‘Many au pairs complain ‘While au pair host-family arrangements may indeed that they work far more provide a balanced, symbiotic hours than agreed upon’ an au pair who has worked for three different families relationship for some, there As and met many other au pairs in the Netherlands, I have seen and personally experienced the best- and worst-case are infinite problems that scenarios. Overall, there’s no denying that the laws designed to protect au pairs are poorly enforced, allowing a can arise between theory significant portion of host families to exploit the system. and practice’ Many au pairs complain that they work far more hours

fEATURe

than agreed upon. Officially, an au pair may work no more than thirty hours a week, and eight hours a day. However, many au pairs end up working forty to fifty hours some weeks, and some days for stretches of nine to twelve hours. Often, as time passes, host parents quickly adjust to the added luxury of an au pair and slowly request more and more hours. At first, the additional requests may seem small but often, over time, these increasing demands can add up.

‘Their idea of ‘helping out’ was for me to do all of the laundry, ironing, dishes, cleaning, tidying, sheet changing, washing and taking out the garbage for a family of five’ Another significant source of exploitation is housework, which is often not factored into the number of hours worked. Although the main responsibility of an au pair should be childcare, the unfortunate, vague inclusion of ‘light housework’ in an au pair’s job description has caused many host families to dump the bulk of their daily household chores on the au pair. When I was an au pair in Den Haag, for example, my host family initially said that I would be expected to help out with some of the household duties. Apparently, their idea of ‘helping out’ was for me to do all of the laundry, ironing, dishes, cleaning, tidying, sheet changing, washing and taking out the garbage for a family of five. When I confronted them about the obvious imbalance, they said that all seven of their previous au pairs had done it without complaint and that I had a bad attitude and wasn’t managing my time correctly. I left after one month. If the long hours and housework weren’t enough to weaken an au pair’s resolve, consider the fact that most cohabitate with their families. They say that familiarity breeds contempt, so imagine the amount of resentment that can build up from both living and working with the same people. Many au pairs I’ve met simply endure an uncomfortable environment in the place that’s supposed to

be home. They report feeling judged or criticised for their personal choices, such as food, diet, clothing, personal style, cultural and religious beliefs or lifestyle choices. The common problem seems to be that many host families decide to have an au pair to save money and regard their au pairs as employees, rather than individuals who enter the au pair agreement under the assumption of mutual work, respect and benefits. Many host families are ignorant and unsympathetic to the fact that there is a natural learning curve involved in living in a foreign country and adapting to another family’s lifestyle. Likewise, families often do not seem to realise that a cultural exchange is two-sided, so they must also make significant adjustments.

‘Au pair agencies are businesses and value quick matching, turnover and profit’ While no conflict is strictly one-sided, the reality is that the host families hold most of the cards in this situation. Many girls simply tolerate their work situation and live for the weekend, fearing that by speaking up, the emotional blackmail and repercussions will take their living/working situation from bad to intolerable. Although the IND has decided to restrict au pair visas to those entering the Netherlands through au pair agencies, problems will persist due to the comparative low cost of the programme. After all, au pair agencies are businesses and value quick matching, turnover and profit. For the au pair programme to be successful, host families need to realise it is a cultural exchange. After all, au pair means ‘on equal terms’. For the programme to be successful, therefore, families must also show interest and engage with the au pair’s culture; the adaptation should be mutual. The host families should also respect an au pair’s right to have a life outside the family. After all, this freedom and experience is the main motivation for participation. In turn, girls should be more assertive in getting references for their prospective host families, hammering out detailed work agreements, standing up for themselves and insisting upon their rights.

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perspectives

t h e matrix effect 10

‘You can get the latest smartphones just by having a subscription, which is not as expensive’

‘It’s like a virus, common communication has changed’

perspectives

‘People try to escape the silence of reality by creating a fake silence and stillness around themselves’ By Valeria Scimia

Since the introduction of mobile internet, a new era has begun and recent changes it has brought to communication and society are very visible. Holland has always had great telephone deals, where you can get the latest smartphones just by having a subscription, which is not as expensive, when compared to other countries. This makes it easier for everyone to have a phone with internet always available, everywhere. Although this provides entertainment for users on the train or at the bus stop, filling those empty moments, it also creates an anti-social atmosphere. I remember the time when you went to a café and people could be found reading newspapers and socialising with each other, and when you chatted about the weather with other people waiting at the bus stop. Those days are gone. Nowadays, upon entering a café, all you see are individuals looking at or texting using their phones. It’s like a virus, common communication has changed. There’s no more of that awkward feeling of being alone drinking a coffee, or doing whatever else, because you’re probably texting with a friend or playing and sharing on social media applications. Some people even look at their phones when walking along or crossing the street; my Mum used to say “Always look where you put your feet!” Oh, how mums must go crazy these days! Think of the potential consequences of this inattentive behaviour, as people try to escape the silence of reality by creating a fake silence and stillness around themselves.

one at the same time. When a friend meets you, it’s useless to chat about how you enjoyed your latest photography class: the pictures loaded on to your favourite social media application already provide that information for you, and you no longer need to relate your experience according to how you lived it. People can easily assume you had fun just by looking at you smiling, and it would be very difficult to convince them that you were just doing it for the picture’s sake and actually hated that particular class. It only takes a tag on a photo for everyone to know where you are/were and who you are/were with and, apparently, everyone really enjoys letting everyone else know about the places they go and the company they keep. So, by using these technologies, not only do you isolate yourself from your immediate surroundings, from the moment and its details, but you also allow everyone to know what you’re doing all the time. We all complain about Big Brother, yet we are the first to record and share all our experiences with the world. Why care about someone watching over us if our main intent is, apparently, to be watched by people we don’t even know personally? Internet life and its devices should be taken more lightly. New technologies are great tools, but tools are meant to be used and controlled by users. They should not take control over us. It’s not that different from the Matrix concept, except we’re making it real without even thinking about it, because it’s fun, entertaining and most of all free and far from immediate reality.

Free communication with the entire world and easy access to private information. These are achievements that were considered Sci-Fi when I was a child. But as machines make the illusion of being everywhere with everybody seem Concerts and public performances are also victims of this real, one should not forget the present time and place. We mobile era, as most people record and share parts of the should not forget to make the best of those moments. Too show instead of genuinely enjoying it. Why watch a conmany times we find ourselves in places where not a single cert through a small screen when you’re sitting in the first person ever takes their eyes off the telephone, hiding berow? Don’t you think you miss living the real moment by hind that little screen, making it difficult for casual meetdoing so? It must be like being everywhere and nowhere at ings to occur. Meeting people in real life takes the effort to the same time. Personally, I miss the old days when people be aware of the environment and used to be so much fun. talked to each other and had just one phone, at home. If I wonder when it became redundant. As a single lady, I am people called, you were either there or not. The fact that perplexed by this behaviour: who am I supposed to wink we’re now ‘over-reachable’ is creating a nonsense-omnipor smile at, if everyone is looking down, all busy playing otence effect. People are so reachable to everyone and noAngry Birds or chatting with a friend who’s not there?!

‘We all complain about Big Brother, yet we are the first to record and share all our experiences with the world’

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Café/Bar Review Café Restaurant Edel

cafe/bar review

‘A lot going for it and the potential to become one of the finest multi-entertainment, bar-based venues in the city’ By Denson Pierre

This is the second time that this venue has been mentioned in The Sentinel. I did not choose for a winter review based on the restaurant aspect of this huge, yet comfy and warm place, however, since Johannes van Damme has already bestowed a rating of 9 on its dining offer. What interests me is what a typical night during winter feels like at Edel, which has a lot going for it and the potential to become one of the finest multi-entertainment, bar-based venues in the city. Ambiance

This is one of those buildings that exude the latent, positive energy of the many thousands of souls who have worked, studied and socialised in it over the past eightyeight years, throughout all of its various uses. It is one of the solidly built buildings in West Amsterdam with thick, insulating walls making you feel wrapped-up safely. The bar area lighting is pleasant and has the sexiest wallpaper you will come across in the city, but you need to look at it close-up to see why. Even the toilet area is a pleasure, as the social history of the architecture means loads of room which, in turn, means the air is easily conditioned and large mirrors stare back at the many beautiful women who seem to frequent the café. Edel is huge, so you need a fair sprinkling of dinner clients to stay on for at least an hour after their meal to help the vibe morph fully into that of chic venue. Rating 5

Staff/Regulars

Coping with what is a pretty large restaurant area, staff members are generally geared-up for that service and tend to take some time to switch modes after the dinnertime peak. This is understandable, as they are always busy. When they do wind down they have a pretty easy job within the spaciousness to be pleasant and friendly. The idea of ‘regulars’ is tricky, seeing as the bar and lounging always have to wait for the dining to be completed. In this regard, Edel shares a common problem with other

establishments of this kind, which try to pull off a smooth transition from eating to schmoozing and posing. Rating 4

Televised sport

While they are still one of the hypes of the city, this is not pertinent. With a continuing recession seeing NLers holding on to their cents, hospitality establishments have to do everything to make sure their offer is as all-encompassing as possible, however. With the Dutch national team already tipped to do well in the European Football Championships in the summer, I expect they will not miss the chance to erect some sort of large screen system to help capture extra euros from enthusiastic local fans. Rating 1

Prices

Residents and punters in this part of the West have zero reason to venture out to face silly prices in most other central districts. A vaasje of Grolsch at j2.20, an alcoholfree beer at j2.00 or a fine hat-trick of Grimbergen (blond, dubbel or tripel), all at j3.80 is really very affordable and honest. Rating 5

Music

A DJ installation is present, as well as a fine high-fidelity house system. Staff play cool dining music and DJs gradually lift the tempo and volume as the night matures. There are monthly club nights, as well as thematic acoustic sessions on a regular basis. Rating 5

Smoking area provision

It is obvious upon entering that it is not somewhere in which smoking would take place. You can choose your spot outside, along Kostverloren-aan-Gracht, as there is also no attached covering to blemish the profile of this listed, architectural monument. Rating 3

Total rating: 23/30

(Ratings from 1-5, where 1= Very poor and 5= Excellent)

cafe/bar review

‘Large mirrors stare back at the many beautiful women who seem to frequent the café’

cafe/bar review

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Punters in this part of the West have zero reason to venture out to face silly prices in most other central districtsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

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technology

‘E-mail is one of the most-used and productive forms of communication’

CLOUD central II TechBit: Sio-Bytes By Simon Owusu

In the previous issue, I introduced the Cloud Computing revolution and promised to delve more deeply into Personal Cloud Computing. The latter concerns how we are already benefiting from Cloud Computing innovation with more benefits to come in the future, as we move closer towards a cloud-centric existence. To recap, Cloud Computing is basically the delivery of a service or application, over the internet, from central servers in a remote location. The cloud refers to the servers on which services or applications are hosted or run and where our information is stored. Cloud Computing has been around for some time and many of us have been utilising this innovation without even realising it, through web-based e-mail services like Hotmail and Gmail. Such services are just the cusp of what Cloud Computing can offer and the Personal Cloud Computing revolution is more about how we use cloud-based applications and services in our day-to-day lives. Carrying on from last issue, traditional e-mail applications have evolved into the cloud with people using these services based on cloud-computing technology. Since e-mail is one of the most- used and productive forms of communication, it makes sense that this should be the pioneering

service in Personal Cloud Computing. Even people who don’t own personal computers or have internet access in their homes can still have an e-mail address and pop into an internet café or a local library to check their e-mail. Not having the software or equipment to install the software is no longer a barrier to the use of an application. Since these services can be accessed almost anywhere – anywhere that provides internet access, on any computer or operating system platform with a web browser, even down to smartphones and tablets – we can create a utopia in which we have full, unlimited access to our e-mail messages, allowing us to stay in touch and informed at all times. It doesn’t end there, however. We are seeing more and more services and applications that are accessible anywhere and at any time. Services like Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365 allow us to create documents and spreadsheets without installing the software on our computers. Word processing, calculating expenses in spreadsheets and storing information in databases can now be done through a web browser. This benefit is astonishing; tasks that once required us to purchase and install software applications are being replaced with Cloud Computing services, for which you only need a web browser and internet access.

technology

‘Tasks that once required us to purchase and install software applications are being replaced with Cloud Computing services’ We are now creating our own personal versions of ‘the cloud’, where we are storing more and more of our personal lives on servers in remote locations, instead of on the hard drives in our personal computers. These, too, are being transferred into the cloud, creating our own, personal versions of the cloud. The information is easily accessible, wherever you are and whenever you want it. Coupled with mobiles devices, like internet-connected smartphones and tablets, you can keep your life in your pocket and with you at all times. All the media we consume can be stored in our personal cloud, placing all our photos, music and even movies at our disposal. The previous year was filled with companies offering such services, which are making traditional media formats and distribution outlets redundant. Amazon cloud services enable us to access purchased digital books through our smartphones, tablets and computers, because they are all hosted in the cloud. Apple’s iTunes Match stores all your

digital music, so you can access it from the cloud when you want to listen to something from your music collection but are away from your desktop computer. Companies like Netflix allow you to store and access movies in your personal cloud, allowing you to get rid of stacks of CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs. We have reached the stage at which, if we wanted, we could also use services like Carbonite or BackBlaze to back-up our entire hard drives, in case a disaster befalls our personal computers. All in all, we are moving towards a time at which the majority of what we consume, in terms of books, music, movies, documents, information and data, is all available in digital format and will eventually make it into the cloud. All our applications and services will eventually migrate, as well, until we are fully cloud-centric and everything we do revolves around Cloud Computing.

‘Books, music, movies, documents, information and data, is all available in digital format and will eventually make it into the cloud’

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SPOTTED

Where is this in Amsterdam? Answer to: sentinelpost@gmail.com

Film review

Room 2c film By David King

Deliverance (1972) Four urban businessmen leave their comfort zone and golf clubs at home and set out to canoe the Cahulawassee River before it is lost forever. Unfortunately, the local rednecks don’t take too kindly to them and a battle of wits and, ultimately, survival ensues. Beautiful scenery combats for space with man’s ugliness in this taut film with many shocking moments. A squealing pig anyone?

A book at lunchtime By Monica Lopes

Girlfriend in a Coma Douglas Coupland, 1998

Douglas Coupland is the Canadian author of Generation X, his best-known novel but not necessarily his best. If you enjoy mysticism and post-apocalyptic scenarios, this one will surely entertain you. Yes, the title is from the song from by English band The Smiths, and it fits the story completely. Not only that, but at the time he wrote this novel, Douglas Coupland was himself much in the same depressed and mentally fatigued state portrayed by the British band of the 1980s. The full name of the comatose girl in the story, Karen Ann McNeil, is very similar to that of Karen Ann Quinlan who, in 1975, fell into coma for many months and whose parents won the famous court case for the right to disconnect her from artificial life support. She lived on in a vegetative state for ten years after being disconnected and died of pneumonia in 1985. The whole coma subject was the inspiration for Coupland to write this novel. Don’t expect a car crash, meteors hitting the Earth or a zombie outbreak. Both Karen McNeil’s coma and the apocalypse in this story don’t come as an accident or a sudden catastrophe; they happen mysteriously and the seven survivors at the end of the world are not courageous heroes. A comatose girl, a depressed boyfriend, a doctor, a traveller, a supermodel, an eccentric heroin addict and a rebellious teenager with thoughts of death will be your companions on this adventure. Besides which, one of your narrators is a ghost.

trends

Bubbles

‘The biggest and most important trend for this spring/summer is underwater/aquatic inspired fashion’

By Dirkje Bakker-Pierre

It is February and the spring collections are slowly but surely arriving in the shops. Winter never really arrived and, yes, strangely enough, flowers have begun to bloom. Okay, the climate, or should I say the world, is totally screwed. Luckily, it’s 2012 and it doesn’t matter so much because the world as we know it is coming to an end this year, anyway. This doesn’t have any impact on fashion. Winter or no winter (like in the Netherlands), summer or no summer (like in the Netherlands), winter collections follow autumn collections, which follow summer collections, which come after spring collections. This is the way the world of fashion turns and has turned throughout time immemorial. It lives by its own rules, keeps its own time schedule and especially lives in its own bubble. The world of fashion really can best be compared to The Truman Show, a world completely cut off from real life and totally unaware of it, or completely uninterested in it. Even if the life they live might be fake, it is fabulous at the same time, and that is more than can be said about the good old ‘real’ world.

This is why I think that the biggest and most important trend for this spring/summer is underwater/aquatic inspired fashion. In the SS2012 shows, we saw McQueen mermaids, Versace starfish, Armani water-inspired women and Chanel won the prize with its complete underwater world. Like a mirror image, reflecting a dream world and wrapping it inside the dream world that is fashion. A perfect marriage and reflection of self awareness. More importantly, this underwater world leads to amazingly ‘fairytalesque’ designs; a mesmerizing, underwater, white, Chanel, Disney-dream-orgasm of prettiness and clothes that can take you away on a diving expedition without ever getting wet. Personally, as a diving enthusiast, a lover of fairytales and of alternative realities, I think this is a great trend. Especially as it offers us suffering minions of the economic crisis some lovely escapism, as is the job of fashion in difficult times. Whereas before champagne was the creator of bubbles in the world of fashion, this season it is bubbles all around, blub, blub… Enjoy!

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sport

The Gold Room Player of the Season 2011-2012 By Denson Pierre

The argument for or against granting an award based on subjective views on particular individual players can be never-ending. Today, I run through the previously compiled shortlist, in ascending order to end with the player I judge to be the Fantasy Football Gold – Champions League (FFG-CL) Player of the Season. All player scores and how their presence affects managers/teams can be seen here: http://thesentinel.eu/ffg/Latest-FFG.htm

Ramires (Chelsea) – The hard running ability of a 1500-metre specialist, combined with superb technical footballing skills, mean that Chelsea may well end the season stronger than we might have expected.

Michel Vorm (Swansea City) – To be placed any higher than this as a goalkeeper, his team would have needed to play many more extra games (in European competitions, etc.).

Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) – Rivals anyone playing in the whole of Europe on overall and all-round skill and effectiveness, both in front of and around the goal. Would have challenged for this title if Roberto Mancini had the tactical nous to release him more effectively and regularly.

Clint Dempsey (Fulham) – Can do little more, playing under Martin Jol, but again the lack of top-level European competitive matches means he cannot challenge for this title. David Silva (Manchester City) – Too much of the hype and outstanding performances were off the back of the muscle and hard running work of midfield colleagues. Also faded in the winter, plus City were roundly outclassed in the Champions League group stage while he was trying to direct the play. Luka Modric (Tottenham Hotspur) – Appeared to become stronger as the season went on but his team’s default in the Europa League means he cannot be placed higher, even if he is undoubtedly the best two-sided, creative midfielder in the Premier League.

Yaya Toure (Manchester City) – Certainly the most imposing of the midfielders in the league, who is able to glue together the force that is Manchester City as well as regularly distinguishing himself with Man of the Match performances. City’s lack of overall class in the Champions League, however, has left him and team mates one step behind in this assessment.

Juan Mata (Chelsea) – Superb individual effort in a team which has, at times, looked cumbersome. A fair share of goals, assists and regularly exciting interplay make Mata a worthy challenger for the PotS title. On to the winner, and it is a measure of his maturity and amazing footballing skills that this player walks away with the title this season. Many in the know understood that all he needed was to have a good run of fitness to challenge all sorts of scoring records and entertain us with the sublimely unique way he addresses a football. Having to captain a team containing so many misfiring parts this season, Robin van Persie has truly and almost singlehandedly forced Arsenal to be taken seriously in the Champions League and may have scored the goal of the past many seasons on his way to rounding off a sensational year.

sport

Robin Van Persie - Arsenal

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CZECH REPUBLIC STUNNINGLY DIFFERENT !