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 In order to save our planet we must put our faith in the youth, because older generations don’t seem to understand just how threatening climate change is. Source: Het Parool |
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 More and more people have their office at home, and more and more people shop online. Home workers are affected by the huge amount of home-delivery packages they have to take in for their online shopping neighbours. Source: Het Parool |
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 To reduce poverty it is essential that people who have huge debts keep a sense of autonomy on their own lives. Source: Het Parool |
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 Now that you can even take sharp photos with your smartphone, you don't ever have to think twice about taking your digital snapshot. This means you don't have to be selective. Even during travels you can take as many pictures as you like. What happens to all those thousands of holiday photos? Source: Het Parool |
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 Growing trend: Companies offer services that make the lives easier of people with full time jobs. Source: Het Parool |
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 It is funny how researchers note the negative effects of screens (tablets, smartphones, laptops, television) on your sleeping pattern and yet technology answers with tons of mobile apps, all developed to get you into sleep. Source: Het Parool |
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 You don't have to be a talented singer or actor anymore in order to gain fame. Influencers and fitgirls dominate today's social media. Source: Het Parool |
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 Financial administration and tax returns cause stress and headaches in lots of households. Source: Het Parool |
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 Metropoles such as London and Amsterdam are successful; people want to live there, tourists want to visit and there are endless amounts of well running crowded places and events. The downside of this success is that these cities are almost too popular, which forces the middle class to move to other towns. Source: Het Parool |
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 In the Netherlands, as well as in many other countries, racism is on the rise. A while ago during a Dutch soccer match supporters threw bananas at a dark skinned player and made monkey sounds. And this is the country that has been calling itself 'tolerant' for decades. Source: Het Parool |
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 Kids should be conscious of the concept of money at an early stage in their lives. They need to learn how to deal with possessing money and they need to learn how to be resistant to the temptation of 'easy money'. Source: Het Parool |
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 Nour (32 years old, still living in Daer Elzoor, Syria – a place run by ISIS) is Muslim, but when ISIS told women to wear burkas, she refused. Her husband, whom she loves, begged her to wear one out of fear she would be punished, but she kept refusing. On a certain point ISIS caught the couple and threw them in jail. Her husband was forced to beat her with a stick as a punishment for her refusal to wear a burka. But instead, to spare her, he chose to divorce her, which, in a different way, also managed to break her down completely. ––––– #Womenofsyria tells the stories of real Syrian women. Not refugees, but the ones that stayed behind. The project uses illustrations instead of photos mainly because the women are afraid of being exposed to the regime of Assad. Source: Women of Syria, Syrian Women's Network |
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 Falak used to suffer from the literal meaning of her Arabic name: it means 'space'. Falak was the seventh daughter in a row, her parents were so disappointed that they even lacked inspiration to come up with a proper name for her. Now she has grown older, she is constantly demonstrating in Syria. During one of the first demonstrations in 2011 Falak ran into a handsome young man, who told her that Falak and her name are an excellent way of different. Loud shouting they walked the streets of their village; screaming against the system, but also screaming for hope for better times. From that day on Falak looked eagerly forward to each demonstration. One day he passed her again and whispered: "You are my revolution. I reach for the sky to pick a bouquet of stars and sprinkle it over the people on the street. The next demonstration will come soon and then I sprinkle my star on you. You are my astronaut forever." Source: Women of Syria, Syrian Women's Network |
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 Sawsan (38) works in Syria for an organization that defends oppressed and abused women. During campaigns against domestic violence, she tries to raise awareness among women of their rights. Simultaneously she painfully suffers from domestic violence herself. Source: Women of Syria, Syrian Women's Network |
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 Laya (34) lived in Raqqa when IS took over the city. She faced consequences of this invasion firsthand. She hardly ever left her house. She didn't wear a headscarf before but was now wearing completely covering burqas out of fear of ISIS. Fear because of the rumors about women who got arrested, fear caused by the increasing violence, by the time the soldiers of ISIS tell her off for speaking to male former clients of her, and fear caused by the hacked off heads that IS hangs on squares and forces people to watch. Eventually she managed to escape her hometown and she currently lives in a safer place. ––––– #Womenofsyria tells the stories of real Syrian women. Not refugees, but the ones that stayed behind. The project uses illustrations instead of photos mainly because the women are afraid of being exposed to the regime of Assad. Source: Women of Syria, Syrian Women's Network |
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 Samer (45 years old, living in Idlib, Syria) lives in a safe house on the countryside of Syria. There are many families living there in shelter, amongst them Samers children, her husband and his second wife. Men and women have seperate homes, which forces Samer to live in a small room together with her 'sister wife', whom she does not even like. The bathroom is the only place for couples to secretly meet up with each other, as it's the only place that is private. A couple of months ago her sister wife and their husband started meeting each other there, while Samer had to stand guard. Yes, it makes her sad, but what else should she do? It is her husband and he has his rights and needs, she says. It has become a sad part of Samers daily life in refuge. ––––– #Womenofsyria tells the stories of real Syrian women. Not refugees, but the ones that stayed behind. The project uses illustrations instead of photos mainly because the women are afraid of being exposed to the regime of Assad. Source: Women of Syria (www.womenofsyria.com) |
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 Amal (30, still living in the countryside of Syria) is a former teacher, feminist and freedom fighter in Syria. She tries to fill her life with positive energy while fighting for her ideals: gender equality, room for alternative thoughts and self-development. Even though she covered her face, she recently got recognized during a demonstration and betrayed. She was fired. ––––– #Womenofsyria tells the stories of real Syrian women. Not refugees, but the ones that stayed behind. The project uses illustrations instead of photos mainly because the women are afraid of being exposed to the regime of Assad. Source: Women of Syria, Syrian Women's Network |
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 Ola (30 years old, still living in Damascus, Syria) heard of a Syrian rumor: soldiers of the Assad regime abuse the innocence of children to find out the political preferences of their parents. Ola taught her son to lie, and tell the officers that he and his family support Assad. ––––– #Womenofsyria tells the stories of real Syrian women. Not refugees, but the ones that stayed behind. The project uses illustrations instead of photos mainly because the women are afraid of being exposed to the regime of Assad. Source: Women of Syria, Syrian Women's Network |
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 Ramziyah (42 years old, still living in the north of Syria) only went to school for six years, but fell in love with poetry after finding poems while cleaning her brothers room. She got married at the age of 16 and forgot about her passion, until four years ago the demonstrations started: she started hoping for a better life, and started writing poems again. When she walks through the streets of her hometown Aleppo, she imagines she writes poems on the tiles. ––––– #Womenofsyria tells the stories of real Syrian women. Not refugees, but the ones that stayed behind. The project uses illustrations instead of photos mainly because the women are afraid of being exposed to the regime of Assad. Source: Women of Syria, Syrian Women's Network |
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 This is Mira, she's 50 years old and lives in Damascus, Syria. She is the only one of her family and friends that still lives in the war zone. Mira's got all of her friends keys and even though they have all left to seek refuge elsewhere, she keeps visiting their homes. To water the plants and, as the loneliness is starting to drive her mad, even to talk to the plants. ––––– Source: Women of Syria, Syrian Women's Network |
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 The things high school students secretly do beneath their desks. Source: Fons Vitae Lyceum / http://www.tedstruwer.nl/overig-in-opdracht |
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 People who ignore travel warnings: celebrate your holidays in a country that is considered dangerous by the government. Source: Het Parool |
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 Teachers know how to prepare kids for the labour market but do now always know how to teach good citizenship education. How do you teach someone what it means to be a citizen in a constitutional state? How do you deal with racism? How do you discuss taboo subjects? How do you teach someone to stand up for his views but also to be able to question this own opinion? Research shows that young people are not always aware enough of human rights and democratic principles such as freedom of speech or freedom of religion. Source: Het Parool |
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 Nowadays, you need at least two years of experience to qualify for a job. Therefore, highly educated can't find jobs after graduating, so they continue to gain experience by doing internships for a pittance. In order to pay their rent, they do a job on the weekend (which in turn causes lower educated to lose their jobs). It is a misshapen knowledge economy when half of the cashiers and waitresses have a Doctorate Title. Source: Het Parool |
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 In search of the most efficient way to control your busy schedules, think about what would happen if you put the entire control over your household in the hands of a personal assistant. Is this a good way of time management (it gives you extra time for other things) or would you rather decide for yourself what you're going to eat at night? Source: Het Parool |
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 Social events are often spoiled by people who talk about the TV series they are addicted to. Since when is it cool to brag about how you spent your entire evening on the couch watching television? Source: Het Parool |
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 People fear application letters are getting less important and old fashioned. A possible substitute is applying with a homemade video. Source: Het Parool |
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 Reorganizations are a burden to civil servants. As a result, plans can hardly be carried out. Source: Het Parool |
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 In a divorce, young children should be supervised by an independent child expert, says the Dutch children's ombudsman. Dutch kids older than twelve can get a court hearing, whereas younger children have to abide by the wishes of their parents. Source: Het Parool |
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 Theatres program shows that have little to do with classical theatre or musical. Nowadays there are names of athletes, scientists and writers on advertising posters as well. Anything to get the theatre halls full again. Source: Het Parool |
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 'Man (89) seeks help (m/w)' – On BeterThuis, a Dutch online platform for elderly care. Source: Het Parool |
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 An Amsterdam school group is in trouble: absenteeism is high, three board members have been in prison for fraud and the sacking of the president led to a hard fight in the courtroom. Source: Het Parool |
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 Children from a fancy Amsterdam neighborhood have been victims of robbery. The kids are deprived of their gadgets and pocket money by a gang of teenage delinquents, who come from a multicultural and less wealthy neighborhood. (For newspaper Het Parool) Source: Het Parool |
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 When a public space gets a renovation the art pieces in that public space are often temporarily removed. Eventually one forgets to replace the art and after years the civil servants can't remember what the sculptures are and they throw the art away. (For newspaper Het Parool) Source: Het Parool |
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 Illustration for an article on stalking. Source: Het Parool |
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 Drawing from the project 'Waiting for sweetness' ("Wachten op het zoet"). I followed and portrayed three victims of the economic crisis. With three graphic stories I tried to give the crisis a more human face - in the media there's already more than enough attention numbers and statistics. Source: www.wachtenophetzoet.nl |
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