1. Post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

I've got tagged several times. I hereby change the rules. I will just post 8 links to blog posts, each with plenty of random facts / habits about me.

1. 8 random things about me
2. 80 questions (and answers)
3. personality test
4. 31 questions (once again, with answers)
5. 5 things
6. if i had to do it all over again
7. 49 things about me
8. weltschmerz

It's all about steam
It's all about stamp
It's all about style
It's all about style
I love the razzle-dazzle
To make a splash out in the street
It's all about steam
It's all about stamp and style *

Welcome to your new magazine about Style !

When lifestyle became popular a generation ago, a number of critics objected to it as voguish and superficial, perhaps because it appeared to elevate habits of consumption, dress, and recreation to categories in a system of social classification. Nonetheless, the word has proved durable and useful, if only because such categories do in fact figure importantly in the schemes that Americans commonly invoke when explaining social values and behavior. (source)

Patterns of social relations, consumption, entertainment, dress, ...

but also reflections on attitudes, values, worldview, ...

Culture, subculture, counterculture ...

and lots of yumminess for the necessary schwung !

Since we all pretty much support 'our' OldFogey, and he makes use of Newsvine for his campaign, I thought I'd make him a seal in cool Newsvine green. Helped by the official seal generator, hosted at ImageShack, he could e.g. use that as the logo for the Wiki James suggested he should start.

Of course, someone could create him something more nifty, but this is as good a start as any, don't you agree?

Constructed in the ninth century and lavishly extolled in ancient Hindu religious literature, the Venkateshwara temple of Tirumala is nestled 125 miles inland from Chennai, deep in the postcard beauty of South India's Seshachalam mountains. It attracts more than twenty million pilgrims a year. Balaji is a form of Lord Vishnu who is also frequently referred to as Venkateshwara, Govinda, Srinivasa and Narayana. In this temple, and many others, e.g. after the birth of a long-awaited son or the recovery of an ill spouse, Hindu women often shave their long locks as a gesture of thanks. They pay to have their hair cut. The tariff at Kalyanakatta (see below) is 2.00 rupees, at cottages it's 10.00 rupees.

The objective behind tonsuring (shaving one's head for the Lord) is to demonstrate that he/she completely surrenders his/her ego at the feet of the Lord. Pilgrims can have their heads tonsured at the Kalyanakatta (opposite the Annanadanam Complex). There are seventeen sub-centers for tonsuring. Pilgrims can also request to be tonsured at the cottages where they are staying (source). Although traditionally the barbers were male, since May 2005, about 100 female barbers offer their services as well, even though conservatives don't like it, some saying women are impure. Pilgrims usually offer the hair on their head to the Lord as a devotional offering. Persons in need of the assistance of the Lord usually take a vow and when they visit the temple offer their hair at the Kalyanakatta erected for this purpose. A bath in the Pushkarini follows the tonsure ceremony, after which the pilgrims enter the temple and worship the Lord (source).The tank of Swami Pushkarini is believed to be a pleasure tank of Lord Vishnu. It is said that a bath in the Swami Pushkarini cleanses all sins and bestows prosperity (source). Another reason for their generosity: according to Hindu belief, Lord Vishnu borrowed money to celebrate his marriage and promised to pay interest on the debt. "Basically, the people are donating so he can pay off his interest," says Ajeya Kallam, executive officer of the foundation that runs the temple (source).

Few suspect that their sacrificed hair may end up on the head of a European or American woman, possibly even a Hollywood actress. Carla Bruni, Monica Belluci, Jennifer Lopez, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, ... they're all happy to spend thousands of dollars for their hair extensions. Human hair has become big business.

The majority of hair used for extensions is collected after brushing, and this is sometimes described as Fallen hair. Believe it or not, but millions of ladies throughout Asia do this on a daily basis (source). Human hair collected directly from a hair donor is called Remy Hair. It is sometimes referred to as Cuticle Hair, Virgin Hair and Cut Hair (source).

David Gold (what's in a name?) has made a fortune selling hair extensions. He's the founder of Great Lengths, based near Rome, Italy. He gets his hair from Mayoor Balsara (OnAsia stock photos), who is a goatee-sporting, British-educated resident of Bangalore, who owns a company, SDTC Exports Pvt. Ltd. (weirdly enough listed selling battery products, even though it's in the 'hair' directory). Mayoor Balsara collects hair from several temples, smaller ones as well as the above mentioned Venkateshwara temple. The temple hair is pulled through the long metal teeth of a hackle. Workers sort the hair into piles by the length of each strand, a strand having about 200 individual pieces of hair. Once the strands are sorted, cleaned and fumigated, they're sent to Italy.

Mister Gold pays about 30 cents a strand, and after the hair is dyed and a patented keratin tip is attached to each strand, the strands are shipped to distributors who pay about $1.50 a strand. Hair is available in 40 natural shades, as well as in fashion colours. They even sell strands with Swarovski crystals in different sizes and varying from Amethyst to White Opal, or anything in-between. The hair that isn't dyed properly, is being sent back to India, where women spend entire days removing individual pieces of hair, in silence, except for the sound of their bracelets clinking. I wonder how much they get paid.

While salons are making more money than he does, David Gold makes a neat $70 million a year. Those in command of the temples, like Govindaraj who's in command of the Manjunath Swamy Temple at Dharamsthala in Karnataka, or those in charge of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), a mammoth organisation that employs over twelve thousand people and oversees the business and management of not only the Balaji temple in Tirumala but eleven other temples in the surrounding area (source), make a more than decent living as well, I'm sure. Last year, the temple says it took in $5.6 million through hair auctions -- twice as much as the year before (source). In addition to that, pilgrims donate about $40 million in cash, jewelry and other items to the temple each year, and the annual budget is $120 million. Makes me wonder how much is spent on social services. Mentioned is a yearly budget of two million dollars for social services. Some things are provided for free to the pilgrims, like food and housing (although they also rent accomodations).

While already it is sad that those offering their hair actually have to pay to have their hair shaved, without being aware of the huge amounts of money made from their offerings, because of the vanity of Western customers, it gets worse. The Western desire for 'temple hair' extensions has led unscrupulous dealers to prey on the young and induce them to shave their heads. Village women across India are being increasingly targeted for their sought after waist-length tresses, mainly by unscrupulous agents hired by small-time exporters who, in an attempt to bypass the Hindu temples' monopoly in the market, are offering husbands less than $10 a time for their wives' hair and, in more extreme circumstances, forcing women to shave their heads. Across India amateur 'hair-pickers' whose sources are anything from pavement barbers and domestic dustbins to slum children who readily swap their hair for small toys and sweets, operate in their thousands (source).

Some customers have the audacity to claim: "But, if you're a spiritual person like me, you feel an energy from the chi of the woman who donated it. I don't think the Indian women are exploited. They see the ceremony as an honor." (source) They might see the ceremony as an honour, but they also might think otherwise if they knew of the market . There are growing concerns over the Indian hair trade. There are no specific restrictions on the import and export of human hair and can be done freely. This is obviously an environment that breeds illegality, says the Minister of State for Textiles and Commerce in Tamil Nadu (source).

Meanwhile, "anybody who has ever spent any time socialising with the Chassidic shgatzim in mixed company will know that when the schmooze turns to sheitels (wigs) it is time to head home. Not before mentioning the Rabbanim have discovered that the human hair that all wigmakers use comes from a Hindu temple in India where the people offer up their hair to an idol. This makes the hair Takroives Avoide zore (an offering to an idol) and it is forbidden to derive any use from it", which worried many Jewish women (source, also read the comments, as well as the comments on this post).

Inspired by "La route du cheveu", a French documentary by Jérémie Drieu and Edouard Perrin (France2)

Composed using writely, cross posted to my blog.

Zoomclouds is a service that lets you generate a tagcloud from an RSS feed:

Tag clouds are cool, informative, appealing representations about what's happening in your blog, or anywhere else.

With ZoomClouds you can put in a matter of minutes a tag cloud in your site, based on whichever RSS feed you like.

You can define height, width, colours ... the entire look and feel of the tagcloud.

When you're done, you get the code which you then can post on your blog, or website.

As an example I've created three clouds, spanning a 7 day period. One for my column, one for the main page of Newsvine, but just the Wire part, and one for the main page of Newsvine, the Vine part. You can see the result at your right.

When you click a tag, you get taken to a page with the most recent articles / seeds mentioning that specific word.

If you want to have a look for yourself, without immediately signing up, you can do so at the sample page for Newsvine - Irma.

Continued from part 1, part 2 and part 3.

In World War I, the Netherlands remained a neutral country, but the army mobilised when war broke out in August 1914. The German invasion of Belgium that same year led to a large flow of refugees from that country (about 1 million). The country being surrounded by states at war, and with the North Sea unsafe for civilian ships to sail on, food became scarce; food was now distributed using coupons. An error in food distribution caused the so-called Aardappeloproer (Potato-rebellion) in Amsterdam in 1917, when civilians plundered a food transport intended for soldiers. In November 1918 the leader of the Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiders Partij (SDAP, Social-Democratic Labour Party, founded in 1894), Jelles Troelstra, called for a socialist revolution among the workers, but his plan failed.

At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Netherlands declared their neutrality again. However, on May 10, 1940, Germany launched an attack on the Netherlands and Belgium. The Germans overran most of the country quickly, fighting against a poorly-equipped Dutch army. On May 14, a small number of battlefields was left, among others at Rotterdam. The Germans invited the Dutch to surrender the city, to which no reply came in time. The result was a massive bombardment of Rotterdam, killing about 800 people and destroying large parts of the city, leaving 78,000 homeless. Following the bombardment the Dutch capitulated to the Germans. The royal family had already fled to England. The German civil administration of the Netherlands was headed by Arthur Seyss-Inquart.

Persecution of the Jews, of which about 140,000 lived in the Netherlands at the start of the war, including some 20,000 refugees, started immediately after the invasion. In 1942, a transport camp was erected near Westerbork. Concentration camps were built near Vught and Amersfoort. At the end of the war, only about 20,000 of the 140,000 Dutch Jews remained alive. Among those who died was Anne Frank, who later gained world-wide fame when her diary, written while hiding from the Germans, was found and published.

After the Allies landed in Normandy in June 1944, they proceeded quickly towards the Dutch border. In September of the same year a daring operation, Operation Market Garden, was staged to make a quick incursion into the southern Netherlands and capture bridges across the three main rivers. The bridge at Arnhem, across the Rhine, could however not be captured. Most of the Dutch, who thought the liberation had already started - the day the operation started is known as Dolle Dinsdag (Mad Tuesday) - would have to wait until 1945, although the part south of the rivers was liberated at that time.

The winter 1944 - 1945 was very harsh, and many Dutch starved, giving the winter the name Hongerwinter (Hunger winter). On May 5, 1945, following Allied victories in Germany, Germany finally surrendered, signing the surrender to the Dutch at Wageningen. This day is still remembered and there is an official committee, see National 4 and 5 May Committee. On January 11, 1942, the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies had started. The Dutch surrendered on March 1, when Japanese troops landed on Java. Dutch citizens were captured and put to work in labour camps. The Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945, after the Americans had dropped two atomic bombs on Japan.

Next: recent history of the Netherlands

Continued from part 1 and part 2.

French Rule

At the end of the 18th century, unrest was growing in the Netherlands. Fights were starting between the Orangists, wanting stadtholder William V of Orange to obtain more power, and the patriots, who under influence of the American and French Revolutions wanted a more democratic government. Holland was the first country to salute the American flag, and Britain declared war before the country could join a group of neutral countries sworn to mutual assistance. This Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780 - 1784) proved a disaster for the Netherlands, particularly economically. In 1785 there was a democratic ('patriotic') revolt, but the House of Orange called upon their Prussian relatives to put it down. Many patriots fled the country to France.

After the French Revolution, French republican armies invaded the Netherlands and settled the internal strife in favour of the Patriots, who created the short-lived Batavian Republic. French influence was strong, and Napoleon turned the Netherlands (including a small part of Germany) into the Kingdom of Holland, with his brother Louis Napoleon as king. This also did not last very long, because when Napoleon noticed that his brother put the Dutch interests before the French, he made the Netherlands part of the French empire.

The House of Orange in the meantime signed a treaty with Britain in which they gave to that country the Dutch colonies in 'safekeeping' and ordered the colonial governors to surrender to the English. This put an end to most of the Dutch colonial empire. Guyana and Ceylon never returned to Dutch rule. The Cape colony was briefly returned to the Batavian Republic but became definitively British after 1806. Other colonies, including Indonesia, were returned following the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 (there was also an Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824).

Dutch monarchy

After the Napoleonic era the Netherlands were put back on the map of Europe. The country had always been part of the precarious balance of power that had kept France in check. Particularly the Russian tsar wanted the Netherlands to resume this role and wanted the colonies to be returned. A compromise was struck with Britain at the Congress of Vienna, whereby only Indonesia was returned, but the North and South of the Netherlands reunited. The country became a monarchy, with the son of the last stadtholder William V, the prince of Orange as king William I. His United Kingdom of the Netherlands originally consisted of what is now the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, but the Belgians soon began feeling like second-class citizens. The primary factors that contributed to this feeling were religious (the predominantly Catholic South versus the mostly Protestant North), economic (the South was industrialising, the North had always been a merchants' nation) and linguistic (the French-speaking South was not just Wallony, but also extended to the French-speaking bourgeoisie in the Flemish cities).

In 1830 the situation exploded, the Belgians revolted and declared independence from the North. After a war of only a few days, King William had to give in, though he refused to recognise Belgium until 1839. In 1848, unrest broke out all over Europe. In the Netherlands, little unrest happened, but the effects were large. The liberal Johan Rudolf Thorbecke was asked by the king to create a new constitution, which basically turned the Netherlands into a democracy. A constitution was written that called for the legislative duties of government to be placed in the hands of an elected body, the States General. The monarch would act as the head of the state. This type of government is called a constitutional monarchy.

Next: 20th century

When I seed an article, I always take the original title, at the most stripping away things like 'the June 21st Edition' or 'page 1 from 2'. I usually post the first couple of paragraphs, also 'as found'.

Today I got some criticism on this approach by Dennis M. Wright who thinks I should be condemned for

the failure to import the appropriate balance into the article summary, creating a misleadingly one-sided impression for readers who rely on it (rather than referring back to the article seeded).

regarding an article about a "Western Galilee kibbutz [that] closes its pool to Israeli Arab swimmers", as you can read for yourself over here.

To my defense I replied that I never claimed it was a summary. Readers who are too lazy to click that big green 'Read article' button and read the original article, in my opinion, don't have to be accomodated. It would be different if the original source wasn't linked to, or mentioned. I don't see any obligation to chew a seeded article into bit sized pieces. It's just what it is, a seed, and not an original article.

Dennis however doesn't consider this to be good citizen journalism. Personally, if it gets people thinking, I do think it's good citizen journalism. I have always learned that one should never blindly put one's faith in what one reads. One should be aware of the bias of e.g. the newspaper or site one is consulting. One shouldn't rely on a quote when forming one's opinion either.

At the same time, while stumbling upon another article I seeded, several people were troubled by either the title of that particular seed, which is Feminist says child rearing not worthy of time and talents of intelligent humans, or the content of this article. Some weren't aware of the POV of the site from which the article stemmed.

merrydeath stated:

I think it's fine to post a headline 'as is' with the modifications you stated. It is definitely the reader's responsibility to discern the validity or bias of the source. However, I think that there is a general feeling (possibly unwarrented) that a seeder is supportive of the seeds she/he posts. I do try to write a summary that states my position or thoughts/questions on the article when I seed it. This let's me either show support or distance myself from something that might be questionable but interesting. (link)

My answer:

If people wish to think I am supportive of everything I seed, so be it. Personally I like to be a smartass at times, and post things that are controversial and might trigger a discussion. I can't repeat it enough, I think people should be active newsreaders. I don't swallow everything that's put in front of me, and I think that's a positive attitude, that might be beneficial for others to obtain. I'm not saying everyone should read news the way I do, but I happen to think it's an at times highly enlightening way.

Perhaps I should state my personal opinion with every article I seed but:
1) I lack the time
2) my personal opinion isn't what should be getting the attention
3) my skills in English aren't those of a native speaker, and it takes me more time to communicate my opinion because of it
4) I'm not Claus *grin*

Jason Coleman's approach:

Irma, I personally try to take your approach where ever possible. I do admit to changing some titles, simply because they make no sense or give no context. Typically, I leave titles alone and quote a few snips to get someone interested. I leave editorial content of my own for a comment. I even wrote more on this in my bio, just to hold myself to it. I think a part of citizen journalism should be making at least a passing attempt at removing one's self from the article. (link)

Now what about you, my fellow Viners? What is the way to seed an article?

First read part 1, if you haven't done so already ...

Struggle for Independence and the Golden Age

At the end of the 15th century, following the marriage of Charles the Bold's daughter and heir, Mary of Burgundy, to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, the Burgundian possessions became part of the Austrian Habsburg reign.

Eventually it became under Spanish control, ruled by Charles V.

In the first decades of the 1500s, a German priest and theologian named Martin Luther began to criticize the Roman Catholic Church. His teachings led to a split in Christianity and the growth of Protestantism. Lutheranism and Calvinism became the two main branches of Protestantism. Calvinism attracted many believers in the northern part of the Low Countries, where the Netherlands is located.

At first, when Charles V ruled over the Netherlands as well as a vast empire of European countries, although the Dutch came under Spanish rule, his wisdom and moderation eased religious tensions between Catholics and Protestants.

In 1555, Charles V however abdicated and his son Philips II became ruler of the kingdom. Philips II, a devout catholic, tried to stop the foothold the Protestant Reformation had made in the Low Countries. Philips resorted to intimidation and violence to limit religious freedom. He installed a military force, led by the Duke of Alba in the Low Countries, ordered Protestants to be put to death, and stripped away the rights of those who would not agree with him.

Philips's attempts to enforce religious persecution of the Protestants and his endeavours to centralise government, justice and taxes led to a revolt in 1586, starting when the seven Dutch provinces united in the Union of Utrecht in 1579 and formed the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (also known as the "United Provinces"). The predominantly catholic southern provinces formed the Union of Arras and declared their loyalty to Philips II.

William of Orange (also known as Willem the Silent), a nobleman, took the lead in what is called the Eighty Years' War (1568 - 1648). Willem of Orange was assassinated in Delft in 1584 by Balthasar Gerards. Willem is remembered in the Netherlands as "the father of the fatherland". His name was given to a promotional song that was later to become the Dutch national anthem, the Wilhelmus.

On May 15, 1648, the Peace of Westphalia confirmed the independence of the United Provinces from Spain. During the Eighty Years' War the Dutch also started large-scale overseas trade - they hunted whales near Svalbard, traded spices with India and Indonesia, started colonies. The wealth accumulated from all this trade led to the 17th century being called the Golden Age (de Gouden Eeuw) of the Netherlands. As the Netherlands were a republic they were governed by regents, an aristocracy of city-merchants, rather than by a king or by nobility. In principle every city and province had its own government and laws. There was much independence of the various cities and districts, although some of the lands belonging to the republic had provincial official status. In 1602, the Dutch government chartered the East India Trade Company (VOC), a powerful trading enterprise and one of the world's first joint-stock companies. Henry Hudson, an Englishman, was hired by the VOC in 1609. His mission was to find a northern route to the Orient. As a result of bad weather, he turned southward and explored the American coast landing in Albany, New York. The Dutch claimed what are today the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut and named it New Netherland. They built a town named New Amsterdam on what today is the island of Manhattan. It was later renamed New York.

The Golden Age produced a profusion of great painters, including Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals, Jan Steen and many others. It was also a time of great scientific and philosophical achievements in the Netherlands.

In 1650, the stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange died, leaving the nation without a powerful ruler. The following year, England imposed the 1651 Navigation Act, which severely hurt Dutch trade interests. A fight over the Act resulted in the First Anglo-Dutch War, which lasted from 1652 to 1654, ending in the Peace of Westminster, by which the Navigation Act remained in effect.

The Second Anglo-Dutch War began in 1665 when the English declared war - they had already attacked Dutch settlements in the New Netherlands. While the Dutch were also troubled by French invasions in the Spanish Netherlands - present-day Belgium - the English and Dutch signed a peace treaty: the 1667 Peace of Breda, after Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter destroyed a large part of the English fleet on the Thames. It was agreed that the English would keep the Dutch possesions in North America (the area around current New York City), while they give control of Suriname to the Dutch. Also, the Navigation Act was loosened.

1672 is known in the Netherlands as the Rampjaar (disaster year). England declared war on the Republic, (the Third Anglo-Dutch War), followed by France, Münster and Cologne, which had all signed alliances against the Republic. France, Cologne and Münster invaded the Republic, while an English attempt to land could only just be prevented. In the meantime, a new stadtholder, William III, was appointed. Later, two important politicians during the stadtholderless era, Johan and Cornelis de Witt were brutally murdered in The Hague. With the aid of other German nations, the Dutch succeed in fighting back, leading to a peace with Cologne and Münster in 1674, after England also agreed to peace, in the Second Peace of Westminster.

In 1678, peace was made with France, though the Spanish and German allies felt betrayed by the treaty signed in Nijmegen. When the English king James II of England was dethroned, William III was asked to become king of England in 1688.

Next: French Rule

We're all news addicts. That's why we are here, right? Newsvine is where we gather to satisfy our needs, to 'get our fix', reading interesting seeded articles, or original content, on every possible subject, and later on, getting into a heated debate, seeking confirmation or just venting our opinion or reading other Viners' opinions.

As at this moment I am suffering from a balance disorder, reading isn't always an option for me, as it's hard to finish an article when all letters are like floating around, making it hard to make sense of them.

These days I've come to value my ears a lot. My ears allow me to listen to news at times when my eyes need a rest. Enter audio files.

Now of course you don't have to suffer from anything in particular in order to appreciate audio files. Some people are more aurally oriented, others more visually. Sometimes an audio file of about 5 minutes can communicate a lot more information than one could possibly read in the same time span. When listening to an interview with someone, intonation, pauses etc. can be very revealing, something a written transcript of that interview perhaps wouldn't show.

And for those of you that would qualify as 'super-addict', you could always read an article while listening to an audio file, even on two entirely different subjects if you please :-)

Anyway, let me introduce two new tags: listen-to-news and audio-file. To be used when seeding a newsworthy article with news in audio format. Or not of course, it's up to you.

For 18,000 years, human beings inhabited the land that is now called the Netherlands. Archeologists have discovered crude stone weapons and tools as proof. These early people did not settle in one place however, but continually moved around in search of food and shelter. Evidence of the first settled tribes can still be seen along the eastern border with Germany, where these people heaped up huge piles of large rocks as memorials to the dead. These memorials, known as "Hunnebedden", date back 4,000 years. The English term for these memorials is Dolmen.

Other remnants of the past, that date back 2,500 years, can be seen in the province of Friesland. There, tremendous mounds of earth and clay, called "terpen" stand out in the Frisian landscape.

The Frisians built these islands in an attempt to deal with the North Sea. Other tribes, including Celtic people from central Europe and Germanic tribes from northern Europe, settled in the Netherlands. The Frisian, Celtic, and Germanic tribes each had their own appearance, customs, dialects, and way of life.

In the 1st century BC, the Romans, whose empire was expanding throughout Europe and the Mediterranean region, overpowered the Netherlands. The people of the Low Countries were no match for the massive, well-organized army of Julius Caesar. Around 50 BC the Romans conquered the areas that consist today of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The conquest was a mixed blessing for the Dutch. Although the people no longer had their independence, the Roman invaders taught them how to build highways, towns, and more effective dikes. For the majority of the Roman occupation, the boundary of the Roman Empire lay along the Rhine. Romans built the first cities in the Netherlands, most importantly Utrecht, Nijmegen, and Maastricht.

All was not peaceful under Roman rule, however, and the Dutch revolted from time to time. These uprisings were unsuccessful until the Roman Empire began to crumble. A Germanic people called the Franks drove out the Romans in the early 5th century AD and overcame their neighbours, the Saxons, and laid claim to a kingdom that included the present-day countries of the Netherlands, Belgium, France and part of Germany, during the reign of Charlemagne (Charles the Great). The Frankish empire divided and re-united several times, in the end giving rise to two major powers, France and the Holy Roman Empire in Germany. The Netherlands formed part of the latter.

The Dutch faced tremendous difficulties at that point - not only had they lost their independence, but they continued to struggle against the sea. To make matters worse, they faced a new threat: the Vikings. Vikings were Scandinavian seafarers who plundered and terrorized the coasts of northern and western Europe. For 200 years, the Dutch were subject to vicious, unpredictable raids by these fierce Norwegians and Danes.

During the 10th century, a number of feudal semi-autonomous vassal states, owing allegiance to the Holy Roman Empire, emerged as the rulers of the Low Countries. Local vassals made their countships and duchies into private kingdoms and felt not much obliged to the emperor, who over large parts of the nation governed only in name. Large parts of what now comprise the Netherlands were governed by the count of Holland, the duke of Gelre, the duke of Brabant and the bishop of Utrecht, but Friesland and Groningen in the north kept their independence, being governed by the lower nobility. Most of what is now the Netherlands and Belgium was united by the duke of Burgundy. This period was known as the Burgundian Dynasty.

Next: Struggle for Independence and the Golden Age

Born on June 18th 1969 as the first child in an average normal family, except for the illiterate, abusive father, and the dutiful mother, sacrificing her own life for her children, including that lousy excuse for a husband, all because she made the mistake of marrying him, and because she strongly believes in living with the consequences of one's actions, Irma spent the first 17 years of her life in the small town of Bergen op Zoom in the Netherlands.

Being able to read at age 3, she later on became an avid reader, and having read just about everything the local library had to offer at age 10, she started nagging her mother to bring her to the main library at the other side of town every few days.

She never liked being a girl, and could even be seen praying at night for God to turn her into a boy overnight, always being disappointed if such obviously wasn't the case the next morning. She drove the Catholic nuns at kindergarten crazy by refusing to play with dolls, and by disappearing from the school yard, driving off on a go-cart, of course only to be noticed a couple of blocks down the road by thoughtful adults, bringing her back to that same school yard, where the nuns made sure she knew she was a naughty child. Nevertheless she must have liked going there, because when she was suffering from Pfeiffer's disease, she was told she wouldn't be allowed to go to school the next day, if she didn't sleep in the afternoon, and this for almost an entire year.

Pfeiffer's disease plagued her once more, in secondary school, even though one is supposed to only be able to get it once, where she almost had to retake her 4th year, having missed a couple of months. She studied Latin and Greek, took the obligatory field trip to Italy, smoked marijuana in the pupil's basement, tried to fit in but failed miserably, called just about every teacher by first name, except for the few remaining priests and elderly teachers, played the recorder, even though she would have largely preferred the piano, tried ballet, gymnastics, football, karate, tennis and a couple of other sports, but not ice hockey because that really wasn't considered a sport for girls, played theatre, felt awkward about her blossoming femininity, underwent a breast reduction because her G-cup sized bosom caused a constant backache, lived through a rather dramatic divorce (her parents' divorce that is) of which she insisted to spare you the details, and took off abroad, a whole 40 kilometres from home mind you, to enter university.

Because it surely would be dangerous, a young girl alone in a big bad city, she spent the first year in Antwerp with yet other nuns, who rented rooms to lady students. Because it was such a hassle asking for a key every time she would return to the nunnery after 8 p.m., she duplicated the key, which never was discovered, even though the nuns came close at more than one occasion, one of those being that night when the police rang the bell at about 1 a.m., waking up the entire building, because they wanted to confirm it was her who had called about the smell of gas, and a smell of gas there was by the way, even though the Jewish man her friend and she asked for confirmation, looked as if he was about to strangle them, while all they did was save him and all the other inhabitants of that street from a possible explosion.

She studied economics, as a second choice, as her heart went out to literature, but some thought a girl doesn't need an education anyway, being an inferior creature, and others were afraid an education in literature would only prepare her for a life on the dole. After a couple of years however, she decided she really wouldn't like to pursue a career in the economic field, and quit, exchanging economics for journalism, information and communication, graduating cum laude and getting her first Bachelor's degree, specialising in intercultural communication. After that she considered her knowledge of sociology and anthropology to be inferior, went back to university, and got a Master's degree, graduating cum laude again, after having written a thesis on female genital mutilation, or, using a term with less negative connotations, female circumcision.

All this time she had been working at the same time, starting out as a babysitter for two cute but spoilt Japanese kids, whose father worked in the diamond trade, first as an employee, but later on starting his own company, in which she then did administrative work as well as sorting diamonds, and this for several years. After various temp jobs, she worked at the tourist office of the city of Antwerp for about a year, during Antoon Van Dijck's Year in 1999 (Anthony van Dyck, the painter). One of the temp jobs she did afterwards brought her to a company that developed software, where she was active in helpdesk support, consulting and services support and marketing support. Unfortunately there was a worldwide reorganisation and she found herself, like so many others, unemployed. She was fired the American way, being told one afternoon, after lunch, seeing her e-mail and network access closed down immediately, and being told she didn't have to come back the next day. Good thing she lived at walking distance from the office, and she didn't have a company car, or she would have had to arrange for a taxi in order to get home. Not the fact she was fired but the way in which she was, came as quite a shock, all the more because just one week before that particular day, she had a job evaluation conversation, where she was promised a raise and an interesting career plan, with more emphasis on tech aspects of her work.

As she was unable to find a satisfactory job, and didn't like living on unemployment benefits, she took an intensive course in network administration and basic web development and scripting during 10 months, only to find out, she still wasn't able to find a job, having to compete with young guys straight out of college or university, or system administrators with years and years of experience, even though she was invited for job interviews many a time, and didn't limit herself to finding a job in ICT. The excuses she heard varied from being too old for the labour market, not fitting the all male team, being overqualified, not having enough work experience in that particular field, surely not being able to speak French, being Dutch and all, and being too much of a generalist.

After more temporary and various jobs, participating in an exam for communications expert for a position at the city of Antwerp, she made it through several rounds but got a phone call one morning she didn't make it through the final round. That same afternoon however she got another phone call, asking her whether she would be interested in working for the city of Antwerp in another position, at the special unit Sham Marriages and Forced Marriages, where she now most of the time is interviewing couples wanting to get married, while at least one of them is not having the Belgian nationality or a permanent resident permit, in order to find out whether they want to get married for other reasons than to obtain such a permit. She is also trying to help victims of sham marriages, as well as victims of forced marriages, or people being afraid of being forced to marry.

In her spare time, she likes of course being online, being a member of numerous communities and luring people into following her to those communities, loving anything beta, defining herself as an e-schizophrenic, being an expert in dilly-dallying, being addicted to silly quizzes that are like psychology for the lazy, as well as information and news, being a master in starting new blogs that afterwards don't get enough of her attention, using the nom de plume Morgaine LeFaye, and occasionally publishing poetry and short stories. Offline she still likes reading, writing, going to the theatre, the opera, and a concert once in a while, buying shoes, having long conversations, either over the phone or face to face, and, since she moved from an apartment to a house, gardening, or so she thinks, as due to various reasons, she didn't have the occasion to spend hours gardening just yet.

She lives together with a redheaded Dutchman, who online goes by the unpronounceable name wchulseiee, and whom she met online, about 7 years ago. He was crazy enough to relocate to Antwerp, and is admirable for putting up with her complex and difficult personality. She defines herself as bisexual and polyamorous, with an interest in various fetishes and kinks, emphasising this doesn't mean she is a nymphomaniac, on the contrary, she has known several periods of being asexual.

She spends a lot of time thinking about relationships in general and hers in particular (with family, especially her mother, friends, partner and potential other partners/lovers, ...), the concept of polyamory and the consequences, living together or living alone, bdsm, fetishes, new encounters, the impression you made on her, work, a career change, poetry, the short stories she should write down, handwritten letters, the smell of memories, identity, which camera to buy, her qualities and character flaws, insomnia, how she ever is going to keep her mind quiet once in a while, her immediate future, synchronicity, which language to learn next, both her online and offline friends, her need to relate to people, her being distant and very not physical when feeling troubled and unhappy, the whimsicalities of life, how to break out of vicious circles, catch-22 situations, inconsistencies, how she is an aunt since the beginning of September, children, why there are days she craves attention, how Google is becoming the new Microsoft, and anything that catches her attention as she is rather curious by nature.

She still has a lot to learn in life, for instance how to sleep, how to find inner balance, how to accept herself for who she is, whomever that may be, as she still is trying to figure that out, how to worry less and enjoy more, how to be more optimistic and self secure, how to be more confident writing in English, as she still is feeling inferior for not having an expert knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, which prevents her from expressing nuances, even though she is being assured by several people there's nothing wrong with her English language skills and there aren't that many people that are polyglot.

Her latest addiction is Newsvine, which she loves and adores, all the while still hoping one day it will be less US (of A) centred, and more importantly, multilingual so she can be a proud ambassadress of Newsvine for the Dutch speaking population on earth.

Phew. Could you read that in one single breath?

(also try my 'Bio')

War, famine, murder, (sexual) abuse, scandals, corruption, indifference ...

I am a news addict. I devour my news watching television, listening to the radio, reading newspapers and magazines, and spending too much time over here at Newsvine. Most of what I see, hear, read doesn't put me in a cheerful mood, and that's a euphemism. Since I'm the worrying type, and my brain doesn't know an 'off' switch, I often find myself thinking about some news item or another late at night, in bed. And while Insomnia is my best friend, even I need a break from myself once in a while.

I'm sure you all know the saying 'no news is good news' and this is never more appropriate as when consuming news, via whatever medium. When I look at the front page of Newsvine at this particular moment, what do I see?

• France fined for deporting Jews
• Annan: The world is losing battle against HIV/AIDS
• Death Toll in Angola Cholera Exceeds 1,500
• Rising Gas Prices Drag on Deliveries
• Brin Says Google Compromised Principles

What have I been seeding lately?

• UK 'colluded in terror flights'
• CIA Hid Nazis' Locations, Eichmann, Other War Criminals Were Shielded Due To Cold War Security Concerns
• Suicide attack at Chinese wedding
• Teen 'hatched blueprint for murder in prison'
• Gender Base Violence Alarming, Government Partners Hunt $10 Million For Campaign

Do you ever get an overdose of head lines like these? Does the news make your head hurt once in a while? Do you feel overwhelmed, helpless, depressed?

I've got a remedy.

It's a tiny little tag called positive news. You can add it to your watchlist. This is your friend in dark and desperate hours. News that warms your heart.

It's a tine little sprig in the Newsvine vineyard. It will probably never grow that fast. But I will take good care of it. And you're most welcome to help. Happy seeding !

Ps. personally I don't consider " conservative x wins over liberal y (or vice versa) ", or more generally speaking " pro [insert something here] or anti [insert opposite] wins over [vice versa] " to be good news, even when I'm happy with the outcome of the dispute / discussion / law proposal / ... But your mileage may vary :-)

THOUSANDS DOWNLOAD AN INTERNET NOVEL HIGHLIGHTING THE PLIGHT OF THE €1,000-A-MONTH WORKERS

A novel published free on the Internet has become a surprise hit in Italy, downloaded by thousands of young people who identify with the main character struggling to survive on a monthly salary of 1,000 euros.

You're young, you speak several languages, you have one or more degrees and you want to get ahead in life. Not just in France, but especially in Spain and Italy, this gets more difficult by the day. Hardworking highly educated people in their twenties and thirties, generation 'Low Cost', can't afford a house, a family and fun things to do. They get stranded in low paid and temporary jobs. They feel like disposable commodities.

Claudio doesn't buy newspapers because he can't afford the €30- a month. Rita can't buy a bed. Carolina doesn't eat something decent today, as her food budget is gone. These young Italians and Spanish are nevertheless not people fresh out of university, or students on a budget. Claudio is 27 years old, has a degree in economics and works for an international company. Rita is 37 and a teacher. Carolina is 27, has a university degree and works for an advertising agency.

There also is Elodie, a French woman of 24, graduated from the highly recommended Science-Po in Paris, who searched for a job for 1.5 years but could only get her hands on a few lousy paid internships.

In the South of Europe there are more and more people like Claudio, Rita and Elodie. More North in Europe, the situation is slightly less urgent, but even there the situation is getting worse. They belong to the generation between 18 and 35, the generation everyone expected would do better than the previous. The generation that had the most opportunities to get a good education.

They realise they're better off than those without education. The future they imagined for themselves and for which they worked hard, isn't fulfilling its promises. They are not without hope or nihilistic, but they want to be heard.

In France students protest against the 'Contract Première Embauche', according to which employers can fire people in the first two years without having to give a reason. These protests are a signal of something that's been itching under the surface for much longer. The French call themselves 'Génération Précarité' or 'Génération Stagiaire'. They are kept hostage in jobs that are temporary, underpaid, McJobs, ... They consider it to be unacceptable that companies thrive on underpaid employees that are being replaced all the time, like disposable commodities.

Studies show that more and more French young people have a degree, but those graduated have more and more trouble finding a job. They have less means and less autonomy compared to previous generations. Now it takes 3 years before 70% of those graduating at any given moment find a job. In 1977 the difference in income between a 30 year old and a 50 year old was 17%. Right now it's 40%.

And even though the protests are loudest in France, the situation in Italy and Spain is much more dramatic. Only 40% of Spanish between 18 and 35 with a higher education have a job their level, and unemployment in the ranks of those between 24 - 34 years with at least one degree, is 11.5 %, while the overall unemployment rate is 8%. Those that do have jobs are stuck in temporary underpaid jobs. Half of the Spanish young people have contracts that make them less than €1,000- a month.

In Italy there's 'Generazione 1000 euro'. There are over 2 million employees younger than 40 earning less than €900- a month. The number of employees with jobs earning less than €1,000- went from 10% in 1991 to 18% in 2002. People tend to laugh about those Italians living with 'la mama' forever, but fact is they can't get a place of their own. In a period of 10 years time, the number of people over 30, still living with their parents, went from 15% to 40%. Over 17% of those over 35 still live at home. They do have jobs but are unable to afford a place of their own.

Antonio Incorvaia (top picture) and Alessandro Rimassa (bottom picture) wrote 'Generazione 1000 euro', a book based on their lives and that of their friends and acquaintances.

They knew many in Italy found themselves in the same situation but they were a little surprised they also got a lot of reactions from e.g. Austria and Spain. Some people feel relief, as previously they had the impression they were the only ones struggling to get by. It's frustrating not being able to buy a house, to get a loan, to save money, to treat your girlfriend. It's hard to make any plans, holidays are out of the question. You're 35 and discover you have to live like a student.

Nevertheless this is not a pessimistic generation. They still hope for a better future. They want to enjoy life. They are trying to find creative ways of enjoying life. That's why they're also called 'Generation Low Cost'. There still are many things 'low cost' in our societies. Thanks to shops like H&M and Zara they can still buy trendy cloths, low budget air lines give them the opportunity to travel once in a (long) while. It becomes a challenge. On the forum attached to the website, people are giving each other tips. Claudio and the rest of his generation have learned that smart budgeting and conscientious economic decisions does not mean you have to forgo your favorite restaurant or a mp3 player.

Generatione 1000 Euro (Italian)
Young Italians find a hero (English)
Generazione 1000 Euro (English)
Chirac to sign controversial youth jobs law (English)