Radio Nederland Wereldomroep

groenr.jpgEvery week Robert Greene gave us his personal insight into the issues making the news in Holland and around the world. This Insight column was based on a RN radio programme broadcast every weekend.

The series has now ended with Rob's retirement, but recent editions will remain online here.

 

 

It's time to be alarmed

"For Pete's sake, you've got burglar alarms, fire alarms, smoke alarms, car alarms and wake-up alarms. One more alarm won't hurt; if it won't save your life at least it'll help you keep your sanity. You're in charge."

 

Never trust a politician

"Do not make the mistake of believing what people say merely because they speak properly, wear an expensive suit, live in a house in the country and ride to work in a chauffeured limo."

 

Jan Slagter's big mistake

"Just as there are only two kinds of TV and radio: good and bad, there are only two types of audience: dumbed down or clued up. Age has nothing to do with it at all. I am who I am, with tastes that I have always had."

 

Mother Nature makes her guests suffer

"No matter how big the bombs we build and however mighty the missiles we manufacture, when it comes to dealing mega-death Mother Nature has us all licked."

 

Reaching a certain age

"You may be full of beans and ready to shoulder any burden when you're 64, but the law decides that, from your 65th birthday, you're a burnt-out shell in slippers and incontinence pants."

 

'The most lavish refugee camp in the world'

"Generous compensation means little to those who were already used to a good lifestyle. The scenes of settlers being dragged, kicking and screaming, from their homes show that there are other considerations at play."

 

We don't do mysteries any more

"Piano Man May Always Remain A Mystery" said a headline in my morning paper the other day. Come on guys, how difficult can it be to take a really good picture of this man and send it ... to every TV station, newspaper and police force in the world?

 

Theatre of the absurd

"Why they put a woman in charge of so obviously a male area of expertise I don't know, but they have. Come to think of it: I can't remember the time we last had a Transport Minister who was a man."

 

The seven deadly wins

"Unlike Pete Sampras, who had the decency to go into something of a decline that demonstrated that his era of domination was finally over, Armstrong has denied the cycling world any such comfort."

 

Shock and awe come in different varieties

"I can honestly say that, much as I don't like the idea of being blasted to kingdom come, I cannot and will not value my own life over that of any other human on the planet."

 

"They hate our way of life"

So that's why I may in the near future be reduced to a mess on the pavement: they hate my way of life. They've never in my 64 years hated my way of life enough to blow me to bits, but now I'm told they do. Pull the other one, boys.

 

Poverty is relative

I think we might be mistaken in believing that the poor of the Third World all aspire to western, wasteful levels of affluence. It could well be that the mere freedom from hunger and disease - so easily remedied - would be enough for them.

 

The Chinese are coming

As the Americans pack up their whoppers and sesame buns to go home, their place in our hearts will almost immediately be taken over by the Chinese and a long era of Sino-domination can begin.

 

Sugar, sugar everywhere

A poison it is, but how addicted the world seems to be to it! People put it in absolutely everything, so that even the most fervent sugar hater can't avoid taking it in unless he gives all processed foods a wide berth.

 

The paedophilia paradox

It's ludicrous to present one 13-year old boy as a hapless, vulnerable, virginal victim of sexual molestation -likely to be marked for life by a hideous ordeal- while two blocks away, behind the bike shed, his peers are at it with a vengeance.

 

Keep it clean

Don’t they have toilets at Camp X-Ray? Does military discipline not forbid piddling against walls? What’s going on at Guantanamo Bay?

 

Heading for exciting times

Where the EU goes from here I cannot predict - a few steps back would seem a good idea - but one thing is certain: politics in the Netherlands will never be the same again.

 

A many-headed monster

There's a lot to consider, as we head for the polls on Wednesday and the Constitution is the least of it. We should ask ourselves how we got to where we are, where we're going from here and - most importantly - who we're going with.

 

Only in Japan

Apparently, indecent assault during the rush hour has reached such massive proportions that special carriages are now being reserved for women who do not wish to be groped anymore.

 

A matter of scale

What's wrong with reconciliation in a country where the vast majority of people are, because of their very age, guiltless?

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