english stuff

English articles & essays
(translated or original)

Be a hero, consume!, translation of my column for the newspaper Het Parool, October 9, 2007.

The Pink Ribbon campaign infuriated me after I got breat cancer myself. Pink Ribbon depicts women as little girls doting on pink glitter, and the companies participating use the campaign as a selling point. Fight cancer, consume! What's even more aggravating is that some companies use their involvement with Pink Ribbon as a menas to wahs their public image. Think before you Pink!

Clubs and casinos no cash cows, Metaverse Messenger, March 21, 2006.

The sheer amount of casinos and clubs in Second Life suggest that there is quite some money to be made by owning one. After all, a slot machine typically coughs up less dollars than it swallows, and additionally, popular places get so-called 'presence money' from the Lindens. However, most owners seem to operate at a loss. What's more surprising: not all of them mind. (Written in my capacity of reporter for Second Life's prestiguous newspaper, the Metaverse Messenger, under my SL-name Karin Pankhurst.)

Orkut pirates privacy and copyright, originally published in the Dutch Netkwesties zine, February 20, 2004.

Orkut became quite a craze only weeks after it was released. Did anybody care to check what they actually subscribed to? Orkut's terms of use and privacy policy leave a lot of room for improvement. Orkut actually managed to get away with what Microsoft got slammed for.

From quill to cursor. Freedom of the media in the digital era. OSCE 2003.

The follow-up to the first OSCE article. The book contains the papers presented at the preparatory Vienna workshop, held in November 2003, and serves (amongs others) as an introduction for the OSCE's Amsterdam, June 2003 conference. My lengthy introduction delineates developments in internet censorship. One fundamental change compared with older forms of censorship is that nowadays it is not only states engaging in it, but also companies.">

Freedom of the Internet - Our New Challenge (with Christiane Hardy), OSCE Yearbook 2001-2002 (or get it in .pfd)

The title is a bit daft, then again: the paper has some weight and status. It was written for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the OSCE. One of their tasks is monitoring freedom of the media (they have a mandate to warn and intervene); they haven't really formulated their thoughts about fredom of the media and the internet yet. This is one of their steps in doing so. This article made them decide to organise a conference on the subject.

Grimm 2.0: Scared behind the couch

The translation of my opening lecture for the Kino-Eye / Antwerp Film Festival 2000. The festival dealt with films and violence. I basically explained that I consider horror to be the adult version of fairy tales, with the added bonus that such films are a barometer of a culture's fears and taboos.

Seven court reports on Zenon Panoussis vs Scientology,

the appeal case in Stockholm that served from January 17 until January 26, 2001:
Day 0: Poor guy versus multinational cult, January 17;
Day 1: Mangled material, January 18;
Day 2: McShane compliments Zenon, January 19;
Day 3: Magnusson becomes helpful, January 22;
Day 4: Children's games,, January 23;
Day 5-6: Unacceptable truths, January 24-25;
Day 7-8: Carrying water from the desert to the sea, January 26-27.
Btw, Zenon lost almost everything and appealed to the Swedish Supreme Court.

A list of names is part of free speech, February 29, 1999

Many would claim that a list containing names (and perhaps the address or profession of the listees) is not deserving of the protection that comes with free speech, I claim that a such a list should be regarded as part of free speech. Often, such a list is simply a condensed version of an informative article.

Why repugnant pages need to be defended, February 22, 1999

While I strongly hold that every woman should have an abortion if she needs one, I do not think that other opinions about the subject should be outlawed or fined, no matter how harshly they are put. Yet this is precisely what happened in the case of the Nuremberg Files. On words and censorship. Dutch version.

Additional motivation, February 25, 1999

Why I believe that suing anybody over their opinion is wrong. Freedom of speech cannot protect only some opinions while banning others. Robbing the Nuremberg Files-people of their legal means of protest will make them go underground and make them less visible, not less dangerous.

Being put up by the Flemish state police, September 1998

Article published in the Belgium newspaper de Morgen, and media follow-ups. My lover and I were arrested in Antwerp after having commented upon the way the state police intimidated two Moroccan youths on the international train. Afterwards, my lover was beaten up by a state police officer who I nicknamed GroinGrabber («Klotenknijper»). By now (November 1999), GroinGrabber is suing me for slander. Legal details and the lawsuit itself are available at www.klotenknijper.com.

Gay Games: slogans & soap, XL, August 1998

Although I like the general concept behind the Gay Games (and had swell parties), I don't like the softiness and commercialism that go with it. And: are world games of any kind indeed meant to promote «friendship»? The moment that an organisation starts to promote «friendship», I get annoyed. This article was, by the way, refused for the Gay Games memory book.

Boldly going where man has gone before, August 5, 1998

Women can ejaculate too, although this knowledge (and experience) is not common. An explanation about G-spots and female ejaculation (or squirting, as it is often called). A scientific exposé.

Unbiased columnism, reports on Zenon Panoussis vs. Scientology in court, May 1998:

1: Preparations: preparing for court;
2: Which material?: the alleged violation of Zenon's Temporary Restraining Order;
3: To want to eat a pie and have it: the first day of the main case starts with settlement negotiations;
4: Brochures with a bite: does RTC own the copyrights, and are these «unpublished texts» spread to a limited circle as RTC claims?;
5: You know you're being sued by Scientology when...: lots of witnesses are being heard, amongst them people from RTC and CST;
6: Questioning McShane: Zenon questions RTC president McShane; and
7: Final pleas: the last day. RTC asks for an unprecedented amount in legal costs: circa 1 million US dollar.

Prix Ars Electronica 1997, July 1997

The Prix Ars Electronica is for the electronic arts what the Oscar is for films. The Golden Nica is a highly valued prize. In 1995, a .net prize was begun next to the existing prizes for animation, interfaces and electronic music. There was even more discussion than last year. Again, I was one of the jurors and wrote the jury's statement. This time, the jury report focussed on connectivity and embeddedness. Also, we made a couple of recommendations for prospective competitors.

Prix Ars Electronica 1996, July 1996

To the electronic arts, the Prix Ars Electronica is what Oscars are to films. The categories have since long been animation, interfaces and electronic music. In 1995, a new category was denominated: the Internet. The jury reviewed more than two hundred homepages. I was part of the web jury and wrote the juror's report. The main issue (and misconception) turned out to be: what exactly is art on the net?

Infernal din and serial killers, August 1994, essay

Many people shun death metal; they believe it is dangerous music. I'm quite a fan and in this essay, published in a collection on pop music, I explained why I liked it. About stage-diving, Gorefest, Type O Negative, American Psycho, serial killers, the attraction of horror and the hatred of harmony.

Party coloured laundry, Het Parool, February 5, 1996

When discussing Scientology with its members, there's no end to my amazement. Often one can catch them expressing outright lies, but apparently they believe those lies to be the truth. Is this what is usually referred to as brainwashing?

Religious practices, Het Parool, December 11, 1995

Now that the day of the court session of Scientologyvs.s The Dutch Protest in Holland is nearing, the fire heaths up. In various newsgroups some of the people involved are slandered heavily. Felipe Rodriquez, the director of XS4ALL, is being accused of censoring Scientologists, I am being referred to as KKKSpaink.

My defense (html) or ascii-version

The defense I wrote for the judge, concerning the subpoena I was presented with by Scientology on November 8, 1995. (For the subpoena, see the Scientology-index.) During my research, I did some interesting discoveries: we did not, as plaintiffs stated, "publish complete OT's or large parts from them"; our homepages contained less than eight percent of the OT's; the fragments we used were not stolen; the OT's we published are for the larger part no longer in use. There were more severe errors in the subpoena, and I gladly pointed them out. The defense also contains an overview of Scientology's activities on Internet. The court case - a summary proceedings, a very short procedure in which verdicts are pronounced within two or three weeks - was set for December 14, 1995, but Scientology suddenly dropped the case three days before it would serve. After a month I got a new subpoena.

Net Communities, Lecture Doors of Perception, Novemberber 1995

At Doors of Perception (an international convention on modern technology that was held in Amsterdam) I was asked to lecture about net communities. The net, while having this lure of a bodiless society, yet craves for physicality and very often occasions actual meetings and friendships. Exploring the social dimension of a very busy Dutch newsgroup, it became obvious that such a community could easily become political when necessary. It now has, and it has turned itself against Scientology when they turned against a Dutch provider. Read all about it.

Squeezed, Het Parool, October 9, 1995

An explanation of the then current situation: Scientology wants to sue over the Fishman Affidavit, is afraid of losing such a lawsuit, but cannot permit itself to not sue either. So they are really caught in the Net.

Scientology gets caught in the Net, De Groene Amsterdammer, Octoberber 4, 1995

Explains the story behind the Fishman Affidavit, a document that is being hunted dobybby Scientology. What is it, why is it so very important, who wants it and why. Plus an explanation about the Dutch protest following Scientology's raid on XS4ALL. (De Groene Amsterdammer is a weekly magazine, devoted to political and cultural items, and has a Fishman homepage too.

Technique 88, Het Parool, September 18, 1995

A description of Scientology's beliefs and practices, as applied in real life and on the Internet. Whereas their policy of silencing critics has been rather successful IRL, Internet is quite another thing. For one, people are able to communicate the latest developments. (Het Parool is a major Dutch newspaper, in which I have a three-weekly column.)

Your roots are showing, de Groene Amsterdammer, October 19, 1994

Type O Negative has long been mistrusted: their political views were perceived to be highly incorrect. But lots of their opinions are just a backlash at political correctness. Besides, their music is great. Earlier tours had been disrupted by riots, but this time they took to the stage in the Netherlands. And everybody loved 'em.

Criminal ladies, Opzij, October 1990

Volumes of research and study notwithstanding, no final explanation of the origins of (sexual) violence against women has yet been put forward. Nowadays most people - and not only feminists - accept that these forms of violence have a structural cause, and that the differences in power between men and women are of overriding importance. But what is the value of these theories when it is women themselves who commit such violence? There is battery within lesbian relations as well, and women commit incest and rape too. Read how some feminist myths are shred to bits. (Opzij, a monthly, is the biggest feminist magazine in the Netherlands.)