Issue 34

Tabula RaSaOcTObeR 2012ROOSevelT academy

Issue No. 34 | Roosevelt Academy’s Student Newspaper | October 2012

Also inside:

CAMPUS LIFE

Things to do in Middelburg“Although our minds are prob-ably already occupied by academic texts, numbers, ..., and worries about upcoming deadlines and exams, we should not forget about the ‘third goldfish’: social life”

Now, what can we do?

Unspecific Title

>> Page 2

MIDDELBURG

Interview with Monique van Boort“To the question which sandwich she likes best, she answered without any hesitation: Carpaccio”

What is your favourite sandwich? Ta-bula RASA went to Crostini this time to interview the mastermind behind these delicious sandwiches.

>> Page 5

ROOSEVELT ACADEMY

RA Increases Tuition Fees Again“Educational institutions across the Netherlands have been in financial difficulties for years, but as university colleges (UCs) try to maintain and increase their standards and quality, budget cuts are no longer sufficient.”

Read everything about your pennies!

>> Page 6

ARTS & CULTURE

OPUWO Stories“In the period of July to August 2012, students of the Putuavanga high school in Opuwo, Namibia were in-vited to share a story.”

What can people in Namibia tell or even teach you? Read another few stories in this issue of Tabula RASA right now!

>> Page 9

Middelburg’s Finest Sandwiches

>> Page 5Picture by Inge den Oudsten

Tabula RaSaOcTObeR 2012

ROOSevelT academy

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Campus Life

Daily BoardChair Klaas-Henk BinnendijkSecretary Sabina WeistraTreasurer Charlotte BerendsGBM Matthijs Geuze

Section EditorsEditor in Chief Klaas-Henk BinnendijkArts & Culture Sabina WeistraCampus Life Mara Braslava & Matthias MalthaCurrent AffairsTrevor MaloneyEntertainmentLukas HadtsteinOpinionated Caroline HamakerRA Dorothée GreversScience Tara EleySports Charlotte Berends

Writers &ContributorsMarcella van AmerongenFrancisca Ribeiro BártoloEva HoogstinsGeert JacobseDaphne ten KloosterYvette LantingEmma OvermaatLisa RückwardtRuth VerhoeffPeter WilliamsonEva YoussetZahra Yusifli

DesignersDesign ManagerMatthijs GeuzeDesignersTom-Martijn Seinen

Contact InfoRoosevelt AcademyLange Noordstraat 14331 CB MiddelburgThe Netherlands

[email protected] facebook.com/pages/Tabula-RASA/190309257678552

Disclaimer: Tabula RASA is edited, written, and published entirely by Roosevelt Academy students. It may not reflect or express the official views and opinions of Roosevelt Acad-emy. Any and all mistakes are the responsibility of the Edi-tors. Complaints, comments, and other issues should be e-mailed to the Editorial Team at [email protected], including your full name and link to the university college (ex: student, instructor, etc.). All reasonable e-mails will be dealt with and, so far as space allows, printed.

Colophon

By Lisa RückwardtWriter

THINGS TO DO IN OR AROUND MIDDELBURG

Although our minds are prob-ably already occupied by aca-demic texts, numbers, cal-culations and worries about upcoming deadlines and exams, we should not forget about the ‘third goldfish’: social life. There are plenty of fun activities in and around Middelburg you could do. Some of you, especial-ly international students, will be here at weekends and also dur-ing the fall break, leaving plenty of free time to spend. So, what can you do with your free time?

For all the new students, a free day could be used to explore Middelburg. You might be able to find your way to school and to the supermarket, but there is more! Have you found your fa-vourite café yet? Have you tried a frietjes speciaal or toasties? Some places you might want to consider visiting are Sint John, Honeypie or Frietboetiek B.T. Anders, to mention a few. A great alternative to Bumpers is De Spot, a place for music-lov-ers to enjoy live performances.

In Middelburg, you are even be able to visit a small cinema in the Schuttershof, which shows films from a variety of coun-tries, spoken in their native lan-guages . It costs only €4 for RA students (do not forget your stu-dent card as a proof)!. You could go and watch Les Intouchables in French, while simultaneously learning some Dutch vocabu-lary by reading the Dutch sub-titles. Other frequent languages used in their movies are Ger-man, Dutch, English, Spanish, Italian, Czech and many more.

The cinema CineCity in Vlissin-gen is quite far away for ‘Mid-delburgian’ perspectives, but definitely worth a visit as well.

Thinking of Vlissingen, have you ever bothered to get to know the cities and villages surrounding Middelburg? Zee-land is a very popular touristic region with its many small and picturesque villages. Some of the bigger towns ones are, for instance, Vlissingen and Dom-burg (on Walcheren), Goes (Zuid-Beveland), Terneuzen (Zeeuws Vlaanderen) and Zierikzee and Renesse (Schou-wen-Duiveland). Vlissingen is only a few kilometres away and is thus easily reachable by bike.

For lazy birds, bus connec-tions can take you to most of the cities quite cheaply. The same counts for the train which can take you in the di-rection of Goes and Vlissingen. Yet, it might be a nice idea for you to immerse yourself into

as it gets dark earlier every day unfortunately. If you think your bike looks too boring, you could paint it , or perhaps decorate it a bit with some fake flow-ers. You can get colour spray at HEMA for less than €10!

Since you have chosen to live in a place which is close to the beach, you should consider pay-ing a visit to inhale some fresh sea air. Vlissingen and Dishoek are not the only places where you can find beaches: the ones in Domburg, near De Banjaard and Neeltje Jans are very beau-tiful and not too far away ei-ther. After a long walk alongside the water and/or through some dunes, a cup of coffee in one of the many beach bars can warm you up again. If you are interest-ed in how dykes and floodgates are constructed, the Deltapark

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where you can engage in all kind of indoor sport activities such as swimming and squash.

Feel like going ‘international’ for a day? Not too far from good old Middelburg - you can find a Belgian city famous for the me-dieval Belfry bell tower and its historical centre: Bruges. The easiest way to go there is by go-ing to the port of Vlissingen, where a ferry takes you straight to Breskens. On the other side, you can take the bus directly to Bruges. Before you go make sure to watch In Bruges, a black, humourous comedy drama tak-ing place in Bruges, provid-ing you with a good idea of the city and its main attractions.

If you still find yourself bored out of your mind: there’s more! Why not consider planning a trip to a different city, another region of the Netherlands? There is a va-riety of places you might want to visit, such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Maastricht, Venlo, and Utrecht. You can go there easily by the train. If you do not have an OV-chipcard (yet), you can also get good offers on the website of the Dutch trains (NS) or cheap day-tickets, which are sometimes offered in some shops like HEMA, Blokker, Kruidvat or the Albert Heijn.

Hopefully, these ideas made you a little bit more excited about the weekends and holi-days in Middelburg, Zeeland and the Netherlands in general.

the Dutch lifestyle by making use of the number one means of transportation: the lovely bi-cycle. Arguably, there is more infrastructure for bikes than there is for cars. On these bik-ing lanes, you will find huge maps every now and then indi-cating where you are, and which routes to take. Once you have found a suitable route, you can follow the small white and green signs along the way. To prepare for a bike tour, you should defi-nitely make sure to have your bike checked: you do not want to walk all the way back because of a flat tire or a reluctant bi-cycle chain that decided to come off its gear. Having light on your bicycle also is crucial,

Neeltje Jans is the place to go for information. You can even experience how it works in prac-tice. In addition, you can make a boat trip, visit the show with sea lions, or go to the aquarium.

To clear your mind from all scholarly thoughts and to re-lease some extra energy, sport is a necessity. Again, the beach is one perfect place to go for that purpose: kite-surfing, windsurfing, sailing or water-skiing/wake boarding are all of-fered aan de Zeeuwse Kust. The Schotsman, is located next to the Veerse Meer, is a centre for waterskiing and wake board-ing. On a rainy day, it might be nice to go to Sportpunt Zeeland,

“We should not forget about the ‘third goldfish’: social life. There are plenty of fun activities in and around Middelburg...”

Write for Tabula RASA!Or join the Design Team!

Email us at [email protected]


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Campus Life

By Marcella van AmerongenWriter

Budget Tips for RA Students

As a student, you usually do not have a lot of money to spend. Moreover, considering the way the Dutch government is heading now, we will need to become more and more re-sourceful. Here are some use-ful budget tips from other stu-dents, because sharing is caring!1. Kick-start your day with a breakfast at the HEMA (Lange Delft 31) for only €1. Between 9.00 and 10.00AM you can get a small baguette with bacon and omelette, a croissant with jam and a cup of tea or coffee. For an extra vitamin boost, you can get an extra glass with orange juice or a cup of fresh fruit for an ad-ditional €0.50 or €0.75, respec-tively. Students often go out to get coffee in breaks. So, why not put some money on your chip-knip and get some coffee, tea, or even hot chocolate in Eleanor or Franklin? This will only cost you €0.50 as well! In case you want to save even more money, invest in a thermo cup and bring your own hot drink to the class.2. Every Tuesday, it is student night at Pizza Amore (Vlasmarkt 24). Get your fa-vourite pizza, kapsalon, shoar-ma or fries with a 20% dis-count! They are open until 02.00AM, so you can even take a break from partying and get some food in ‘that stomach’.3. Instead of going to the Albert Heijn, walk a little fur-ther down the street to the Aldi (Achter de Houttuinen 16). Gro-ceries are usually much cheap-er over there and the quality

is nearly the same. There are also two other Aldi stores else-where in town (Euromarkt 8 and Westerscheldestraat 50).4. Every Thursday on the Market Square, it is market day. At this weekly market you can get many different products, varying from fresh vegetables, fruit and fish to clothes and drug-store products such as sham-poo, deodorant and nail polish. 5. Every beginning of the semester,we need to get new books for all our new courses. At the Drvkkery (Markt 51) every RA student gets a 10% discount on school books, but make sure to check out the RA Book Bazaar page on Facebook as well. There, you can borrow or swap books, besides selling or buying them. Many books are also available through Amazon or Bol.com. If you need a book only occasionally, it might be handy to know that you can bor-row them atthe library Zeeuwse Bibliotheek (Kousteensedijk 7).6. In case you need cheap furniture, there is the RA Fur-niture Bazaar page on Face-book on whichyou can find all kinds of different things, rang-ing from Ikea closets and book-shelves to printers and bikes. The second hand store De Aan-winst (Zusterplein 13) also sells everything; ranging from lamps and CDs to cutlery and chairs.Hopefully these tips will inspire you to save some money. Hav-ing to limit your spendings can sometimes be difficult, but that’s what being a student is all about. Later, when we are all CEOs and big shots, having loads of mon-ey to spend, we will think back to our RA life and appreciate how being a student has taught us how to deal with money.

“As far they are concerned, this is just the beginning of many great tournaments to come.”

In line with the large debating events such as the Great Show Debate and the Clash of the Titans organised by SocRAtes over the last two semesters, RA hosted yet another event of considerable proportions: the RA Open. For a brief period of two days (21-22 September), Middelburg opened its doors to welcome the world of debating.The tournament attracted a va-riety of novice and advanced de-baters. The twenty-eight teams were from all over Europe, namely from England, Ireland, France, Germany and the Neth-erlands. Some of the best de-baters in gathered to be a part of the Chief Adjudication (CA) team, whose essential responsi-bility is to come up with the mo-tions. Among them were Lucien de Bruijn, Stephen Bell, Andrew Tuffin and Thomas Beerthuis.

If you have never been to a debating event or tourna-ment, this is how it goes usu-ally. There are several speakers, mostly split up in teams, debat-

or against “abolishing prison sentences for non-violent of-fenders” within only fifteen minutes of preparation time. People were not left to wonder. The four teams which made it to the finals were not just there to be on the stage; they were going for gold. Without mak-ing an issue of the chronology here, the debaters left the audi-ence, if not the judges, to con-sider some key issues regarding the motion. Should non-violent offenders face jail time, while their crimes were not as severe as, for instance, assassination? What is violence? What is the difference in terms of violence between a thief who steals all your money, and a husband who beats up his wife every night? Is it not weird to teach an offender about how to live in society, while he or she is placed outside of society? On the other hand, should they not be placed outside of society to maintain law and order, and to assure victims that they are safe? Is it not the case that the severity of a jail sentence establishes a cer-tain threshold which possible offenders might not want to go beyond? What kind of place of learning is prison anyway? A school for society or rather a

this smoothly”, and more im-portantly they were “going back to the UK telling everyone they really had a great time”. Well organised the event defi-nitely was. Yet, by whom? Who were those students running around Middelburg, making sure the RA Open would be-come something notorious to look back upon? Although there are many more to mention, the ones who arguably carried most of the weight were Bas Tönis-sen, Bionda Merckens and Frits Brouwer, who lead this year’s RA Open Team. As the conve-ner (read: voice and face) of the tournament, Bas told us that he had actually been “in quite a re-laxed mood the entire weekend, because everybody was just do-ing their job,” the tournament was “clearly run by a proper

The RA Open YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET

By Matthias Malthaand Zahra YusifliTabula RASA/Writer

school for crime? Whether it was for the judges, for eternal glory or just plain showcasing of rhetorical skills, once the au-dience started making their way to the toilets after the debate, at least one of these key issues must have stuck with them.

After a good hour of deliberat-ing on who were worthy enough of the ‘virgin’ RA Open debat-ing gold, the judges appointed the very first winners of the RA Open: Benjamin Dory and Si-mon Tunnicliffe from Durham University, England. According to Benjamin and Simon, it had been an “excellent debate”, see-ing that “the other teams had a really strong case”, the level of English of the non-native speak-ers “was scarily good”, “the CA team was well chosen”, they were “well fed”, they honestly “did not know of an institution running their first tournament

team, this being the only way you can pull such a thing off”. With regards to the overall level and the finale, “people said they had nice debates”, although the finale “was not as good as it should have been, which some-times is just the way it goes”. Looking back in retrospect, the next edition “is definitely not going to be worse, as it can only get better from here on-wards”. As for making a name in the debating world, “see-ing that people already liked this, we can definitely say we have put ourselves on the map for international debating”.

Already having hinted towards the improvement of the concept for next year’s edition during the final speeches that evening, the RA debating enthusiasts are keen on making RA part of inter-national debating, if not a force to be reckoned with. It should be. As far they are concerned, this is just the beginning of many great tournaments to come.

ing against each other. Both teams are extremely vigilant in their wording and formulation of words and sentences, and are constantly on the lookout for inconsistencies in the op-ponent’s argumentation. The opponents are, in their turn, adamant about beating you to it, and show their appreciation by returning you the favour. All of the aforementioned takes place within about (in this case) seven minutes per speaker, and in front of a big audience: not something for the faint hearted!

This became very clear during the grand finale at De Spot. Once the motion was announced, the eight debaters were given fif-teen minutes of preparation time for a total of seven minutes speaking. You probably wonder how it is even possible to find adequate, smart and very nifty arguments arguing either for

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ROOSevelT academy

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Campus Life

By Yvette LantingWriter

RA’s Secret Weapon:

And there I stood, on a Sunday evening in Theodore classroom 2, getting to know The Roo-settes. I wondered: is this going to be a weekly routine for me? One week later, it was my turn to show my skills. One by one, the girls at the audition sang their songs, with the experi-enced Roosettes as our atten-tive listeners. That famous line of one of Maria Mena’s songs: “and if I want rejection, I’d au-dition” was printed in my head; you’ll never know how these auditions end. Fortunately I passed the audition, and cur-rently we form a group of fifteen pretty, flowery singing girls! One week after the new ‘for-mation’, we gave our first per-formance: a perfect initiation. For those who are not familiar with The Roosettes: we form a close harmony choir singing retro songs from the thirties,

forties, fifties and sixties. Due to the ever changing voice groups and arrangements, every ver-sion of the song is different from the original, therefore seeing them is an absolute must! Not all members of The Roosettes are RA students; it is a nice in-terplay between Middelburg’s regular residents and its stu-dents. We perform on several occasions in Middelburg and the Roosevelt Academy, including for example the graduation cer-emony. Last summer, the Dean of University College Utrecht, Rob van der Vaart, called The Roosettes ‘RA’s secret weapon’! The next performance of The Roosettes will be on the 27th of October in De Vriendsc-hap, during the Nacht van de Nacht in Middelburg. You may have heard of this event al-ready; it is about switching off the light to raise more aware-ness concerning pollution. You are all welcome to come and listen to our performance in this special dark atmosphere. See you on the 27th!

“On the second floor of Koestraat, there is a music room where everyone can practice...”

Picture by The Roosettes

Want to take a break from study-ing and explore your creative side at the same time? Make music! RASA’s Music Society of-fers some awesome possibilities to all students. You do not have to be a professional or super good, the most important thing is that you have fun doing it!On the second floor of Koes-

Additionally, Music Society of-fers the possibility to follow (or teach) music lessons. It does not matter if you are a beginner or if you want to maintain your level of playing or singing. You can be taught to play any instrument of your liking, such as drums and percussion, panpipes, saxo-phone or violin. There are also lessons in song-writing and mu-sic editing taught by your fellow students. The standard amounts are €5 for thirty minutes and

By Marcella van Amerongenand Ruth Verhoeff

WritersBonjour, oui oui, c’est la vie, je t’aime! Today we are going to make a wonderful French dish: a gâteau de pomme de terre (also known as po-tato pie)! The ingredients for this mind-blowing meal are: - 1 kg of potatoes - Ham - Mozzarella - Parmesan (if you want the real deal, but it can also work without) - Another type of cheese - 2 to 4 eggs- Butter - Salt & pepper

I would like to start off by say-ing that I made this dish my-self a couple of days ago with

Gâteau de Pomme de Terre

some friends and it was AWE-SOME, oui oui! Let’s go about the preparation together. First of all, peel off the pota-toes and then boil them (Dutch people will get this part right) in water with a teaspoon of salt (more or less) and some random quantity of pepper. When the potatoes are ready, add two eggs to make it easier to mash them with a little bit of milk or preferably some Parmesan. Then we go on and just add all the ingredients to the mashed potatoes in a bowl: ham, mozzarella, cheese, boiled eggs (optional). Frankly, you can throw in anything you like at this point! Vegetarians could try adding aubergines and mushrooms, for example. After the mixture has been made homogeneous, put it in a baking dish; with a layer of parmesan and some butter on top : this will make it nice and crunchy. Now, you are ready to put your -metaphorically speaking- baby in the oven. Cooking time: forty minutes in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius and another five minutes of grill to obtain the crunchy top layer. Voilà: your potato pie is ready!This is how your dish is go-ing to look like. Okay, I admit that I took this picture from the internet but I SWEAR mine looked exactly like this! Enjoy your meal et au revoir!

By Sabina WeistraTabula RASA

Get Your Groove on!

traat, there is a music room where everyone can practice. Some instruments, e.g. drums, a keyboard, a microphone and amplifiers, are present.

If you are interested in making use of the music room, please contact Music Society at [email protected]. They will arrange a date and time with you and provide you with the keys to the room.

€7.50 for fourty-five minutes. Would you like to teach (and earn some money) yourself? Then sign up to become a teacher! Get in touch with Mu-sic Society through e-mail or find them on Facebook: Music Society Roosevelt Academy.

Finally, do not forget to sign up for the Music Society newslet-ter to stay updated on all their jam sessions and other events!

MUSIC SOCIETY:

CALL FORMUSICIANS!

Very soon we will be having the

Classical Concert and Jump on Stage. Therefore, we need

your help!

For the Classical Concert

(November 7) we need experi-enced classical

musicians.

For ‘Jump on Stage’ ANYONE can per-form! Whatever genre you like!

INTERESTED?Send a mail to:

[email protected]

THE ROOSETTES

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5

Middelburg

By Lisa Rückwardt and Emma Overmaat

Writers

Portraits of Middelburg

Wouldn’t it be nice to know a little bit more about the people in Middelburg that you encoun-ter every day? You probably al-ready know most of your class-mates, your professors and your housemates, but what about the people working in the back-ground? The people that are part of your RA life without you even noticing they are there?. We would like to draw your atten-tion to them by letting them tell something about themselves; their lives and their thoughts.

For this Tabula RASA issue, we interviewed Monique van

Boort, the owner of Crostini, the place to be when it comes to getting a freshly made sand-wich during lunch break.Monique originates from Amersfoort (though actually from Scherpenzeel, but ac-cording to Monique nobody seems to know that place). She went to school there and started working in a bar to earn some extra pocket money. As she found out early that she was not a person who could sit behind her desk and study the whole day, she decided to go and obtain a beautician diploma in Amsterdam, partly because her father thought it was necessary for her to have a proper degree .

She, on the other hand, en-joyed working in the field of gastronomy and catering bet-ter. Starting off behind the

bar, she later worked in dif-ferent places, slowly climbing up the career ladder, eventu-ally becoming a hostess: what started as a hobby would then soon become her profession.

Five years ago, she decided to open her own business: Crosti-ni. She got the inspiration from a bread shop in Utrecht which she really liked and she knew she wanted to have a similar store herself. A challenge to those frequently visiting Utrecht: Mo-

made dinner for two students who wanted to eat with their families, even offering them to eat in her living room, which is right above her shop. To the question which sandwich she likes best, she answered with-out any hesitation: Carpaccio.

When we asked Monique what she thought about living in Mid-delburg, she started laughing at first and then said: “Leave that out, please”. The answer she then gave was a politically cor-

her hobby. She told us that she likes reading books, but when we asked what types of books she liked, and she said: “Cook-ing books!” it became very clear that cooking is truly her passion.

We discussed movies as well and she was really enthusiastic about a movie that is about - guess what - cooking. She would highly recommend Mostly Mar-tha, a German movie about a very perfectionist chef, whose life drastically changes when she takes care of her niece after her sister dies in a car accident.

As Monique is a Middelburg resident we couldn’t help but ask her opinion on RA students and the commonly voiced com-plaints. Her first response was that, in her opinion, citizens are too quick in pointing their fingers at students as soon in case a problem occurs, for ex-ample when it comes to noise. She lives in the street where Bumpers and several snack bars are located, and in her opinion, the noise does not only come from the students . Addition-ally, she points out students are good for the town in terms of businesses, the economy and popularity: “Students put Mid-delburg on the map”. We were very relieved to hear that she is looking forward to moving into the Common House, seeing it as a challenge, starting afresh in a different place.

In addition to the sandwiches, she will also be offering pasta, soup and day-specials. Plus, if students show enough en-thusiasm, there could also be evening meals maybe once or twice a week. Already, she is starting something new in her current shop. From Oc-tober onwards, she will be serving pasta and soup in ad-dition to the sandwiches.

She left us with the words that she feels proud of her shop ev-ery morning when she comes in, after which she got up to greet one of her customers stopping by to pick up some ordered dishes. It has become clear to us that Monique is pas-sionate about what she does. Hopefully, she will continue providing us with her delicious food for many more years!

Crostini is opened every Mon-day to Friday from 10:00 till 17:30, located on Vlasmarkt 34

“To the question which sandwich she likes best, she asnwered with without any hesitation: Carpaccio...”

nique is always happy to hear that when students eat a sand-wich from that shop in Utrecht, they like her sandwiches better.

Though students are her main customers, she is also very passionate about her catering work.. What is special about her service is that she also prepares meals for a smaller amount of people, starting with five per-sons. She told us about how she

rect one: “The historical town centre is very nice”. She actually likes living in Middelburg, but she just feels that it is very far from her family, still residing in Amersfoort. She does not have that much spare time in order to really enjoy the city of Mid-delburg, because she is mostly occupied with running Cros-tini, as she does it all by herself.

She still considers cooking to be

Interview With:MONIQUE VAN BOORT

Owner of Crostini



Picture by Inge den Oudsten


ROOSevelT academy

6

RA

By Dorothée GreversTabula RASA

Restructuring the RA Council

At the end of last semester, stu-dents were not only voting for the chairs of the RASA, HAC, and AAC, they were simultane-ously voting for the RA Coun-cil student representatives as well. The RA Council, which is one of the highest represen-tational bodies at RA, has un-dergone several changes since last semester. Before, two sepa-rate students were elected to be student representatives in the Council together with the chair of the AAC, but after re-alising that too many channels of communication were neces-sary for the Council to func-tion at its optimal capacity, it was decided that the RA Coun-cil would be composed of the chairs of RASA, HAC, and AAC.

The entire RA Council consists of six individuals: Dr. Gerda Andringa, Dr. David Aiken, and Dr. Alexei Karas representing RA’s faculty & staff, and Gerd Coenen (RASA Chair), Remco

Zwetsloot (AAC Chair), and Nicolas Castellon (HAC Chair) representing us, students. How-ever, even though the students in the Council are chairs of RASA, HAC, and AAC, they are not representing their respective association or council, but are there to represent all students.

The Council meets with the RA Management. In this way, the Council is incredibly powerful as it brings together RA’s most important stakeholders. The recent changes in the Council’s structure have helped to facili-tate the increased efficiency of the Council. Members of both the Council and the Manage-ment have improved insights into- and awareness concern-ing student matters, and closer relationships are built between the Council, the Manage-ment and the Board of Studies. During the last meeting, the Council was presented with a draft of the preamble to the stra-tegic plan and provided com-ments after going through it. As many students and faculty at RA will have experienced, stress is a prevalent issue at RA. The Council has discussed the organ-

isation of workshops to help the RA community deal with stress.

Another topic discussed was the improvement and creation of more summer courses. As RA is a small college, joint courses with other universities would be a way of accessing more resourc-es to create a more diverse and greater offer of summer courses.

Lastly, the institutional fee was yet again discussed. The in-crease, due to major budget cuts made by the Dutch government, is needed to fill in the gaps in RA’s financial plans. Although the decision was primarily made by the Management, the RA Council was involved in the decision making. In order to avoid the chaos that evolved from last year’s rather impru-dent manner of communication, the RA Council organised for RA’s Managing Director, Jor-rit Snijder, to attend the Gen-eral Assembly where students would be introduced to the in-crease of the institutional fee.

Mr. Snijder’s attendance was valuable as he was able to pres-ent how RA has been using the

institutional fee to fund impor-tant components of RA, such as recruitment and sustaining RA’s small-scale classes. This year proved to be a very success-ful year for RA’s recruitment as the class of 2015 has the highest percentage of international stu-dents ever (35%). This is per-haps not only due to the extra effort RA has put into recruit-ment, but also due to the schol-arships RA is now able to offer to international students. In terms of keeping classes limited to only twenty-five students, RA differs from University Col-lege Utrecht where the num-ber of students per class have been raised to thirty students.

A new initiative of the RA Coun-cil has been the ‘Open House’, to be organised before every meet-ing with the RA Management. The main purpose of the Open House is to invite students to ex-press their concerns, ask ques-tions, and to provide students

with better representation and a stronger voice. The Council then collects the student input and delivers it to the Management. In order to become more democratic, the RA Council is considering creating a survey system when very important decisions have to be made that affect all students. In such a case, students would receive a survey that would allow them to clearly outline their opin-ions on important matters.

The RA Council continues to stress that if students want to make full use of student rep-resentation, it is important that students take advantage of the representation the RA Council can offer. It is, af-ter all, “the highest body RA’s students can be involved in,” as mentioned by Patric Es-ters, student representative of the RA Council 2011-2012.

By Dorothée GreversTabula RASA

RA Increases Tuition Fees Again

This summer, it finally hap-pened: the institutional fee was introduced. As of September 2011, EU/EEA students pay 2,271 euros instead of the fixed national tuition fee of 1,771 euros. Shockingly enough, re-cently the RA community was informed about yet another in-crease of 250 euros for the up-coming academic year (2013-2014).

Educational institutions across the Netherlands have been in financial difficulties for years, but as university colleges (UCs) try to maintain and increase their standards and quality, budget cuts are no longer suf-ficient. Instead, money has to be found elsewhere. On the 3rd of November last year, all stu-dents received an e-mail from Dr. Henk Meijer and Manag-ing Director Jorrit Snijder out-lining the reasons why the RA management was consider-ing increasing RA’s tuition fee.

For an institution that aims to make and leave its mark on the academic world and provide students with the best possible

education and facilities, RA de-cided that in order to “safeguard [RA’s] international profile and multicultural variety that are equally important to UCRA’s students”, a tuition fee increase of 500 euros per student was necessary. The institutional fee is meant to contribute to-wards maintaining RA’s ‘Excel-lent’ seal of approval from the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Council (NVAO), fostering RA’s recruiting and selection proce-dures, scholarships to attract more international students, the development of an RA summer program, improving campus facilities, and the re-alisation of several other ideas.

When students were introduced to the prospect of the institu-tional fee last year, there was an outcry among the students. Many were upset, angry, and baffled by the notion that their education would require an additional 500 euros per year. Several students instigated an Open Forum, an event popular-ly dubbed ‘Occupy Eleanor’, to talk about the situation at hand. A night of debate ensued where students were able to voice their opinions, discuss the implica-tions increased fees may have on creating a possibly elitist in-stitution, and whether students

were being given a fair chance to express their concerns.

One point of critique was the seeming lack of student involve-ment in this decision. Much confusion arose as to who had already been informed about the proposed raise in fees as well as who to contact for more information.

During the first General As-sembly this semester, Jorrit Snijder announced another in-crease of the institutional fee up to 750 euros for September 2013, mainly caused by increas-ing budget cuts from the gov-ernment’s side. Yet this time the atmosphere was a striking contrast compared to when the institutional fee was first intro-duced. For one, communica-tion between management and students and the openness of the RA Management have im-proved. Last year’s heated de-bates and confusion convinced Mr. Snijder to attend the GA and speak to the students him-self. It seems that the RA Man-agement has realised that in order to build a stronger rela-tionship with students and to gain their trust, students have to be provided with accurate information and more details.

Other UCs have increased their tuition fees as well (see the dia-gram for a comparison of all institutional fees). When con-tacting the other UC student associations, it appears that RA was the only UC whose stu-dents publically proclaimed their dissatisfaction and fury towards the Management. The reason for this remains unclear, however, after the Open Fo-rum & Occupation had taken place, Mr. Snijder commented that he was impressed and thought it typical for RA stu-dents to be so involved in mat-ters concerning their education and the impact raising tuition fees has on society as a whole.

The insurgence and anger seem to have subsided and it appears

that students have come to terms with the comparatively marginal increase in their tu-ition fees. However, students who experience financial bur-den and are not eligible for scholarships or who are respon-sible for paying at least part of their education out of their own pockets lament the decreased amount of time and opportu-nity they now have available to spend on internships, summer courses, and other activities during their holidays and se-mesters. Nevertheless, the insti-tutional fee is likely to stay: the RA Management and RA Coun-cil seem confident that the ad-ditional money the institutional fee offers will be beneficial to RA and its community, at least in the long run.

Picture by RA Council


7

Sports

By Francisca Ribeiro Bártolo Writer

SNOW, SKIIING and

In January 2013, the annual ski trip will take place! For those in doubt whether to go or not, here are some interviews with some of the students who went last year.

1. First things first, look-ing back on the last ski trip: are you planning to go again this year?

Max Vogels: “Probably yes, it was so much fun. Of course snowboarding itself is a lot fantastic, but going only with students is a whole different experience than with other people.”

Jordy van Aarsen: “Yes, I am definitely going again because last year was the first time that I actually remember, I was only five years old during my previ-ous ski trip. It was quite the adventure, I had a great time with friends and the skiing was awesome.”

Eline Smit: “Yes, because it is a very nice experience to go on such a trip with your friends. When comparing it to other ski trips, it is relatively cheap, so the money should not be a reason not to go!”

2. Did you have any prob-lems with the facilities or something else not well taken care of, i.e. what would you like to see dif-ferent? (think of classes, ski pass, ski slopes etc.)

Max: “Nothing, it was all very well arranged.”

Jordy: “There were some prob-lems with luggage when we arrived, the rooms were open very late and we had to wait very long. This could be better next time.”

Eline: “Everything was fine. The houses were nice and clean and there was enough space for the amount of people in each house.”

3. Did you take any les-sons? Did you enjoy it? If you didn’t take any class-es: how did you arrange skiing, did you go with a group or alone, etc.?

Max: “I did not take any classes. I went with a group of people every day, because a group is always nicer than alone. You can enjoy the view and snowboard or ski together,

the bottom of the hill (so I only did the easy slopes), and there were enough other RA students with little experience in skiing. I was lucky that to find a pretty good skier who was injured on the second day. She could not ski a lot herself anymore, so therefore she had time to teach me how to ski. So I could join the more experienced skiers at the end of the week.”

“Luckily, I found a pretty good skier who was injured.” Eline Smit

have a bit of a contest with who is the fastest, or something else. This way you can look after each other. I was the only snowboarder in my group, but that didn’t really matter (be-cause snowboarding is so much better anyway).”

Jordy: “No I did not. Friends gave me lessons.”

Eline: “I did not take any les-sons, although I never skied be-fore. The first days I stayed at

4. How was it to go on a trip with your fellow RA students?

Max: “It was awesome, we all knew each other, some better than others. Every time dur-ing lunch you would find some people from RA, or come across them somewhere on the slopes. It was also a really nice group, and we took over the local bar there every night.”

Jordy: “Great, a lot of my friends went as well, which made the trip even more fun.”Eline: “Superawesome! You start to know each other a lot better, since you are in dif-ferent surroundings and in a different setting. It is always nice to go on a trip with your friends, and especially when the group is as big as during the ski trip.”

5. What was the best day (or night) of the whole ski trip?

Max: “Every day was good. But the first time on a black slope, which was actually closed due to the huge amount of fresh snow, is a memory I will never forget. As for the nights, that would be the night that we celebrated someone’s birthday party in my chalet.”

Jordy: “I am not sure, but there was a day when we skied from our village through the entire area with a group of five to six people. It was awesome because we saw some mind blowing places. On the way we had some food and drinks and

“Snowboarding is so much better” Max Vogels

“We saw some mind blowing places.”

Jordy van Aarsen

the weather was also perfect:. an epic day.”

Eline: “Thursday, if I remem-ber correctly. Because that was the day I could join the more experienced skiers from my group of friends, and we went all the way to the other side of the ski area!”

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Picture by Muck van Empel

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8

Arts & Culture

By Peter WilliamsonTabula RASA / Writer

An urban soul in a fishtank

Who: Theodore “Teddy” Roos-evelt (October 27, 1858 – Janu-ary 6, 1991) Teddy Roosevelt belonged to the same wealthy family FDR would later be born into as well. Before he became President, he already was engaged in politics on many different levels on be-half of the Republican Party. He pursued a very progressive and social agenda and was known for his ability to garner lots of support due to his belligerent style and persuasive character

which lead to his presidential election. In 1904, he was the youngest person to ever become President of the United States. Asone of the most fascinat-ing figures in American his-tory, Theodore Roosevelt’s actions and style reverber-ated through a whole century, and still shape America today. One of his most enduring lega-cies is the Panama Canal. During his time in office, he strongly campaigned for its construction and saw to it that the Canal was constructed in record time. Furthermore, he is considered by many as the father of the modern American navy. In addition, Roosevelt

possessed remarkable tactical prowess and planning skills. Very interesting to note is that he foresaw that trade’s focus should lie on the emerging mar-kets in China and the far East. To give an example of Theo-dore Roosevelt’s extraordinary activeness and spirit, he once asked: “Is there any law that prevents me declaring Pelican Island a National Bird Sanctu-ary?” not waiting long for an an-swer. “Very well, then,” reach-ing for his pen, “I do declare it.” This style of government was exemplary for Amer-ica’s era of dynamism. Interesting fact: Teddy Roo-sevelt had a very intense and varied personal life, master-ing numerous great challenges. For instance, when his wife and his mother died on the same day, he retreated from public life for two years to his ranch in the Badlands. During those two years, he herded cattle, hunted and caught outlaws.

This poem, written by the Latin author Catullus, was dedicated to Lesbia, the woman he loved with the real name of Clodia. The literary name “Lesbia” is already charged with sexual en-ergy and suggests the type of re-lationship shared by the couple. Lebia is in fact Catullus’ lover but she also enjoys the company of other men. The author is not able to renounce to the alchemy between them but cannot help but suffer from her betrayal.

This short but intense poem (Carmen 85) depicts one of the most complicated amorous di-lemma: the fluctuation between joy and sufferance, love and hate.All times literary masterpiec-es display heroes and hero-ines who are trapped in a fire which warms them up but burns them at the same time. Some of us have experienced the feeling of being trapped in the grip of love and being in-capable of running away. The uncontrollability of our feel-ings is one of the most beautiful aspects of our being humans: most often, we do not know who we are or where we are go-ing and still we are shuffled here and there by the flow of love, in-capable of knowing whether our heart will be warmed or burnt.

Odi et amo.Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.

I hate and I love.Why do I do it, perchance you might ask?

I don't know, but I feel it happening and I'm burning up.

I am an urban soul in a fishtankI try not to complain but all I do is look back On days of concrete,streetlights and garbage

The universal truth of being trapped

I am an urban soul in a fishtank Awake at two in the morning

The night will never endIn my head

I am an urban soul in a fish tankIn the shell of a small town

Call me a snob Eternally unsatisfied

I’ll recognize my face When I see people and lights in the mirror

Follow a stranger through a hole in a circus tent and you’ll get a free smoke.

Roam around and find the dopest place to waste some time.

Midnight is only 6 in my head.No reason for treason

My head is lined with taxi cabs and sirens in the summer heat.The moon becomes a beacon in the middle of a field.

The itch that won’t scratch till I find a bigger place to swim.Consider it adapting back, reverting to the natural form

Of an urban soul

In a fishtank.

Watch me keep myself busy and pretend it’s alright.

I wrote this late one night when I had an empty feeling in my soul, the kind you get when you miss someplace you love. In this case it’s the urban setting in which I was taught to strive. It was a really quiet night here in Middelburg and

PERSON OF THE ISSUETheodore “Teddy”ROOSEVELT

this made me miss the city and the nightlife even more. The big fish in a small pond allusion is pretty blatant. The part about the circus tent is a reference to a guy a met at a music festival this summer.

Context

By Anonymous

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9

A&C and Current Affairs

OPUWO STORIES

In the period of July to August 2012, students of the Putua-vanga high school in Opuwo,

Namibia were invited to share a story. It resulted in a won-derful response and we would now like to share them with you. They vary from light-hearted stories about a regular day on the farm to heartbreak-ing tales of love or HIV/AIDS.

By Jalida Scheuerman& Guido Maschhaupt

Tabula RASA / Writers

Be mentally alert. Make a time-table and make a commitment to study hard and be physically prepared. Exercise, eat enough and get sufficient rest. Start your revision at least a month before the exam.Be careful. Positive stress en-sures that you maintain your competitive edge, while too much stress is counterproduc-tive. You must learn to handle your stress.When revising, build up a framework of keywords and phrases for all the study units and chapters.

Neverlose Kutji Musaso (16)

Preparefor Examination

I am a 17 year old girl in grade 9C. I am schooling at Pu-tuavanga Senior Secondary School. I want to talk about love. Love is something that you cannot touch but that you can do. Like showing love to your family like your grandfa-ther, mother, sisters, father, brothers and uncle or aunty.But now people are saying love is about sex and that is exactly wrong. If a person loves you, they should not want sex from you. Especially teenagers, they really fall in love with their love.

LOVEFoibe Paulus (17)

One day, in a small town called Oshakati in the Oshana region, there was a man who was liv-ing with his wife and four kids. This man was a nurse and the woman a street vendor. When the man got paid, he used to go and drink with one lady who was HIV positive. He didn’t know the lady was infected with HIV. When he was drunk, he used to come home and beat his wife. He said he didn’t want her anymore, because she was finishing his money with her kids and she was ugly and stupid. He was going to find a lovely wife who would give him more love than this one.One year passed. The man was very sick and thin, because he received a disease from the lady with HIV and he was under treatment. That infected wom-an ran away with his money and the man was alone. There was no- one to help him. Then he started thinking too much, until he decided to kill himself. NB: Please people, stop drink-ing alcohol, because you may end up in trouble or you may end up in a dangerous situa-tion; one you weren’t expecting.

Alcohol Abuse

Neverlose Kutji Musaso (16)

One day I was at school inside the class at that time. I was happy running up and down the class. At some point I stood up from my chair and saw blood on my chair. I was so scared I could not even stand up as I was afraid the boys would humiliate me. I was just waiting for school to end. I could not even speak. I was just afraid, unhappy and sad. When you have your period you don’t feel good at all.

My First Period.

I have two sisters and they used to say “I am on the moon” in my language “Mbeya komwezi”. I used to wonder what they were talking about. I told my big sis-ters “Can you please take me along to the moon.” My sisters just say “Yes!” A few days later, in the morning, my blanket was full of blood. I told my sister and she said “That is what we call on the moon” then I say “NO SOMETHING bite me” then they say “No you are just as normal as you used to be but now you are a grown up girl”. “It’s strange!” my god.

Stella DaCosta (15)

Justine Muhenje (15)

Amos T (22)

There are many myths sur-rounding HIV. By now, most of us are educated and know the truth. But still, we hear stories. It is important not to believe stories. If you ever hear some-thing and you are not sure if it is true or false, then it’s better to ask for the right information. Don’t take things your friends say for granted.Reach out for the truth.

My own Stories: Myths

In 2011, the first real student protests since the fascist dic-tatorship started erupting all over Chile. The protests were an outcry of popular discontent, which had been simmering for a long time. The cause for this dates back to the 70's, when the right-wing dictator Pinochet started introducing radical eco-nomic changes under the ide-ology of neo-liberalism. What followed was a massive sell-out of public assets and services, including education. Schools were increasingly privatized, and the cost of higher educa-tion rose significantly in order to conform the system to the market. Because of a strong and repressive police state, pub-lic protests and unionisation were made virtually impossible.

However, today Chile threatens to fall back into its old ways; a reactionary government which tries to conform its popula-tion to the will of only a few.The student protests started roughly a year ago, with the first large demonstrations oc-curring on September 11, in remembrance of the bloody coup that overthrew the demo-cratically elected President Allende in 1973. In his place a brutal military dictatorship was installed under the leader-

ship of Augusto Pinochet. The marches led to violent suppres-sion from the current govern-ment and resulted in clashes between protesters and para-military and riot police units. The simmering conflict had fi-nally erupted to the surface in the form of the Chilean Winter.One of the legitimate bases of the protests is their call for ex-tensive constitutional reforms. The current constitution is still the one introduced by Augusto Pinochet in 1980, which was never democratically accepted. Their demands are free basic and higher education, greater democratic participation of stu-dents and workers, demunici-palization of high schools, and the abolition of the profit fac-tor in the educational system.On August 30, the Chilean gov-ernment passed a law, which states that anybody who orga-nises a protest, covers his face, or occupies a high school can be punished with up to three years in prison. This law was preced-ed by the taking back of three public high schools in the capi-tal by police using brute force.The student federations and unions are still trying to get at-tention for their demands, and the "illegal protests" continue as negotiations between fed-erations and the government have come to a stalemate again.Let's hope that after the upcoming elections, re-forms can be initiated be-fore the situation gets worse.

By Peter WilliamsonWriter

Student Struggles around the World:

Chile

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Perhaps their strives and joys will prove to be recognisable. The stories are part of a se-ries of twenty, of which this is the second serie. The remain-ing stories will be published in coming Tabula RASA issues.




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10

Current Affairs

By Trevor MaloneyWriter

A Modest Doctrine for Modern Warfare

In a recent article in the Los Angeles Times (September 16, 2012) on the American Presi-dent’s foreign policy, Paul Rich-ter mentions that some Republi-cans criticise Barack Obama for having “abandoned America’s commitment” to the world. He cites a very famous quote from another American President, John F. Kennedy. In his inau-gural address in 1961, Kennedy said: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” This went on to succinctly define the Ken-nedy Doctrine of foreign policy.

During that time, regular mili-tary conflicts on the global stage were between two or more na-tion-states, and war was fought under the laws of conventional warfare. Many of these conflicts could be solved diplomatically, but as demonstrated twice in earlier decades, some were also ‘solved’ by great acts of vio-lence. In the days of the First and Second World Wars, not only did people go to war, coun-tries did. As a child of the WWII era and a Navy veteran him-self, John F. Kennedy’s foreign policy was based on that idea. However, the merit of such a premise began to deteriorate late into Kennedy’s first term as president. After his tragic

assassination, and succession by then Vice President Lyndon Johnson, much had changed in the world. The United States had successfully avoided nu-clear conflict in the Bay of Pigs, yet conflict in Vietnam was starting to become grave.

In the case of the Vietnam War, the strategy imposed was in the mould of this old mili-tary dogma of using massive land and ground forces. This American military strategy in Vietnam largely failed. It was here that the tide of warfare would begin to change. The war in Vietnam was largely a guer-rilla war: the Communist bel-ligerents mainly ignored the laws of conventional warfare, and sought to deceive and ter-rorise. It can be argued that the United States and other anti-Communist forces were unpre-pared for these tactics, and were unsuited for the difficult land-scape and terrain; this would serve as huge disadvantages.

This type of warfare, while often classified differently, is what the world faces today. It is a mix of guerrilla and asymmetrical warfare: war between unequal forces, waged against the laws of conventional warfare, and focused on combating terror-ism with counterterrorism and counterinsurgency. Two mod-ern examples of this type of warfare are visible in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan; the longest military conflicts in U.S. history. There are many reasons as to why these wars have lasted this long, and why there has not

been a clear victory. The main reason, however, lies in the fact that the strategies and opera-tions of conventional warfare are not applicable to the con-flict on the ground in either of the countries. The United States are not at war with the nation-states Iraq or Afghanistan; they are at war with terrorist groups and violent extremists har-boured in these countries. As is typical for asymmetric war-fare, these terrorist belligerents are of unequal size and force in comparison to the United States army, the North Atlantic

Treaty Organization – Interna-tional Security Assistance Force (NATO – ISAF), and the Afghan National Security Force. These insurgent groups ambush, use rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), and suicide bombers to fight. The relative disorgan-isation of these forces makes organised combat difficult, and military victory elusive.

More recently, on September 11th 2012, four Americans were killed, including the United States Ambassador to Libya. Former Governor of Massachu-setts, and current Republican Party nominee for President of the United States, Mitt Romney criticised President Obama’s

response as “misguided” and “apologetic”. Governor Rom-ney has often criticised the Obama administration’s for-eign policy as feckless, apolo-getic, and sympathetic to those who would seek to do us harm. Other Republicans, such as the Former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, went beyond Mr Romney’s statements in saying that these attacks were an act of war, and should be treated as such. Romney has yet to give us any specific in-sight into how he would handle

“The United States are not at war with the nation-states Iraq or Afghanistan...”

this situation differently from President Obama, but if he sub-scribes to the hawkish neocon-servative worldview of Newt Gingrich, one can assume that such a response would only en-courage military confrontation.

Most of the violent conflict we are facing today resides in North Africa and the Middle East. The reality of this conflict is that most of the old rules of diplomatic and military engage-ment have changed, rendering them impotent and obsolete. We cannot simply bomb groups of people who commit acts of war against a sovereign nation-state. The tactics of such groups cause for a more nuanced ap-

proach to combat and war.

I agree with the sentiment of the Kennedy Doctrine; the idea that we should, as Paul Richter summed up, “‘pay any price, bear any burden’ to assure the ‘survival and the success of lib-erty.’” However, we must not misuse this doctrine: the meth-ods by which we protect and defend liberty should not be the same that would have been used during Kennedy’s day. We cannot let the words of our past – no matter how eloquent or seemingly appropriate – shape the actions of the present, or our future. Times have changed: the state of modern warfare is vast-ly different and more complex than the conventional warfare of the past. As the Former Unit-ed States Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates said: “In my opin-ion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Mid-dle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.”

While we may not commit the full force and power of any one country’s land and ground forces to combat our enemies, it should not be seen as feckless-ness or a failure to lead. The use of a lean and stealthy mili-tary force to combat enemies of freedom and liberty in places such as North Africa, and the Middle East, should be seen as a smart and efficient approach; one that should guide any doctrine for modern warfare.

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11

Entertainment

By Lukas HadtsteinTabula RASA

Meet the Professor:dr. Elmer Veldkamp

Q.) When did you begin teaching at Roosevelt Academy? What brought you to Middelburg?

A.) I first started to teach at RA in the Fall semester of 2011, so I am relatively new to the RA system. I have another job at Leiden University, where I teach a course on modern Japanese culture and society. My initial reason to come to Middelburg was a practical one – RA had a job opening. The positive result of my job appli-cation, which included a short lecture on virtual pets in Japan in front of a number of staff and faculty members, is what introduced me to the energetic environment and students of RA.

Q.) Where did you study? What was your major?

A.) Graduating from high school somewhere in the early 1990s, I enrolled in Japan Studies at Leiden University. After spending two years of my undergraduate studies in Japan, I was blessed once more after my graduation, with a scholarship by the Japanese government; thus I returned to Japan for my graduate studies. Following my PhD on the com-parative study of change and development in human-animal relationships, and attitudes to-

wards animals in contemporary Korea and Japan, (Cultural An-thropology, University of Tokyo in 2010), we moved back to the Netherlands.Q.) What is your proudest achievement so far, and why?

A.) Seeing my two-and–a-half year old daughter grow up into a little person day-by-day makes it worth all the sleepless nights. Professionally, see-ing students get interested in anthropology and other cul-tures during my classes is very rewarding.

Q.) What is a pastime, or hobby you enjoy?

A.) I enjoy playing the ukulele and doing pinhole photography (and photography in general), both of which I picked up while living in Japan. For stress re-lief, I get on my mountain bike as often as time allows.

Q.) As a professor of An-thropology, what is the place you would like to visit most?

A.) As long as there are local people or acquaintances who are willing to share stories and experiences that show what their daily life is like, the location is not important. Sightseeing is not for me, but I have fond memories of visits to the countryside in Korea and mountainous areas in Japan, and I would like to visit either Southeast Asia, or some very remote islands sometime.

If it’s acceptable for supermar-kets to sell Dutch kruid-noten three months ahead of Sinter-klaas, I have the right to rant about Halloween right about now. The costumes, make-up, ghost stories, and games with a Ouija board are only half the fun. The other half is finding the appropriate music to be your soundtrack for the evening. Here is a short mix of differ-ent genres, ranging from subtle Halloween references to “okay this sounds pretty creepy.”

Arctic Monkeys: “Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But...”Starting easy. Not a particularly spooky song. In my defence, it does contain the word ‘vam-pires’. Plus it’s early Arctic Monkeys, so it’s gold.

The Black Keys: “Howlin’ For You”Werewolves. Yes?

The Kills: “Superstition”Black cats, broken mirrors, minimal guitars, and raw vocals.Joy Division: “Shadowplay”No explanation necessary.

The Cure: “A Forest”Ditto.

The XX: “Blood Red Moon”An early demo that did not make the album despite the dark, ethereal atmosphere.

Dead Man’s Bones: “Lose Your Soul”Ryan Gosling’s obsession with ghosts led him to form this Halloween-themed band. Somewhat bluesy and quite theatrical, the Silverlake Con-servatory Children’s Choir is the finishing touch.

Karen Elson: “The Ghost Who Walks”Tough call between this and her cover of Donovan’s Season of the Witch. The Smiths: “Cemetery Gates”A happy indie break for you.

Radiohead: “Lotus Flower”Hypnotising, especially if you’re watching Thom York dance.

GHOSTS and SKELETONS and VAMPIRES and WEREWOLVES

‘A Halloween Compilation’

By Eva HoogstinsTabula RASA

Ghosting: “Mother Mother”Indie folk, subtle Halloween theme.

Florence + the Machine: “What the Water Gave Me”The combination of the melody, Florence Welch’s voice, and the theme of drowning make this song haunting.

Bat For Lashes: “What’s a Girl to Do”Natasha Khan tells us a story – whispering surrounded by mystical sounds.

The Weeknd: “Initiation”I had no idea R&B could be so dark. Swift rhythm, a lot of bass: a surprise.

Deadmau5: “Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff”We’ve heard it a thousand times. It’s still good.

Twin Shadow: “Tether Beat”If you enjoyed The XX, give this guy a listen.

Metric: “Monster Hospital” (MSTRKRFT remix)MSTRKRFT’s take on this pop song has given it a completely new sound – slower tempo, more bass.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins: “I Put a Spell On You”This must be the creepiest song of this compilation, (or one could argue, the only somewhat creepy song).

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“If it’s acceptable for supermarkets to sell Dutch kruidnoten three months ahead of Sinterklaas...”

No one beats Eva’s style of writing. But you can try and get close! Deadline for articles Issue 3: October 22nd

Write for Tabula RASA! Or join the Design Team!


ROOSevelT academy Entertainment

By Klaas-Henk Binnendijkand Geert JacobseTabula RASA/Writer

TEST PANEL: KNÄCKEBRÖD

Here we are, on our magnifi-cent University College, in the (metaphorically speaking) ‘middle’ of the Low Lands: the country in which (wo)man eats bread. Bread for breakfast, bread for lunch, some random slice of bread as an occasional snack, and when in financial misfortune: bread for din-ner. Here’s a great alternative: crackers / crisp bread / knäcke-bröd. For the international feeling, one does not just eat a slice of bread, one consumes a piece of crisp bread. When preparing for the RA Vikings competition, one devours a brilliant piece of knäckebröd.

HISTORYThis light alternative to bread originates from Scandinavian areas, Sweden, more specifi-cally. Some say knäckebröd was an important part of the Viking diet, as one can preserve it for

a long time, which thus makes it easy to bring along when in battle. Large disks of crisp bread, being made with a hole in the middle to hang on a pole above the fire would take quite some time to make in the 1500s, nowadays the food is made via mass-production.

PRICEIn the Albert Heijn (AH), there are many different kinds of knäckebröd to be found. The task at hand: define which type of knäckebröd is the best. On many different features and characteristics, four types of whole-wheat, flat breads were tested. First, among knäcke-bröd-experts the well-known brand Wasa, a beautiful, dark-coloured knäckebröd, for 0.98 euro one of the more expensive variants. Second, there is the famous AH-brand, a fabulous piece of ordinary crisp bread, for 0.83 euro the slight cheaper version. Third, the infamous, whole-wheat Euroshopper knäckebröd was tested, not unimportantly the cheapest of all flat bread at hand. Fourth and final, the super-expensive, tasty, special ‘biological’ ver-

sion of the AH-brand was eval-uated; for the astonishing price of 1.53 euros, it is all yours.

PACKAGINGApart from the most boring packaging of the Euroshopper Crispbread (B-) and the more ordinary AH and Wasa vari-ants (both B+), it is important to notice the extraordinary packaging of the AH biological

has become simply disgusting in taste, and started to curl up throughout time, even though its structure still looks a bit crunchy. All flat breads in-creased size of about one-and-a-half times the original.

Microwave – During the first three minutes of high-fre-quency heating, our precious knäckebröd fill our kitchen with a nice smell, but after a devastating six minutes in the microwave the lovely smell turned into a nasty odour and

hardly anything happens to the crispbreads: the only noticeable difference is that they are a bit cold. When in need of hid-ing your crackers in a random place? Take it to the freezer. Gravity – the mother of all powers did not have as much influence on the crunchy, yet fragile crackers as we expected. Both AH and Wasa did not show any damage after we threw them to the ground from great altitude (a Bagijnhof balcony). Euroshopper on the other hand could not resist the mighty force and broke into several pieces; the biological cracker missed a few parts after the crash as well.

Pressure – Disappointed by the power of gravity, we decided to apply more pressure to the crackers by stepping on them . After the impact we attempted to lift each crackers with two hands. The AH crispbread was completely shattered after the test and only some crumbs were left. Wasa did somewhat better: one third was still suit-able for consumption, and for the biological AH version this was even two thirds. The real surprise came from Euroshop-per that resisted the forces without much difficulty.

Altogether, we are surprised but happy to advise you to buy Euroshopper crispbread to in-crease your chances of survival in this world. Although the packaging is not as fancy com-pared to the others, the price and ability to resist heat, cold and pressure have convinced us. Just make sure not to drop your Euroshopper crackers on the floor as this brilliant piece of design will shatter to pieces.

“The AH crispbread was completely shattered after the test...”

knäckebröd. This nifty piece of craftwork is packaged in a solid and protecting cardboard box; all fifteen pieces packaged sep-arately per five crisp breads in little magnificent see-through plastic bags. This tasty piece of flat bread may be called ‘bio-logical’, one might pose ques-tions with the environmental-friendliness of its packaging. A mediocre C+ for the packaging of this ‘biological’ piece of art. TESTINGIn times of crisis, one should be prepared for the worst. Virtu-ally anything could happen: in-creasing sea-levels might flood our precious country, nuclear disasters might heat things up a little, climate changes might cause the temperature to drop down to icy circumstances, etcetera, etcetera. To enable you to pick the best type of knäckebröd to add to your “You-never-know” box, your “Just-in-case” survival kit, we exposed all types of crisp bread to the ‘elements’.

Water – the effect of a mere fifteen minutes soaking in a bowl filled with ordinary tap water. After one minute, the AH biological crispbread starts bubbling and each cracker slowly starts absorbing water. Especially the Euroshopper Crispbread has shown to be a champion in absorbing: within minutes it’s completely soaked; whether this is a positive fea-ture is still to be determined. After fifteen minutes, the Wasa cracker doesn’t look too crunchy any more. It’s become tasteless, with a disgusting structure. The AH version still looks quite crunchy, and has managed to keep a more or less rigid structure throughout those ten minutes. Our infa-mous Euroshopper Crispbread has become extremely fluffy, and porridge-like, yet its fla-vour stays very similar. Lastly, the biological queen of crackers

some of the crackers have become somewhat black-co-loured. The Wasa version has become extremely crunchy, but quite disgusting. The AH crisp-bread started to make funny sounds in the microwave, and also has become quite disgust-ing. Besides that, we needed an oven glove to touch it without burning our hands. The Euro-shopper version, however, has stayed very similar in flavour and size. Finally the biological cracker has become hard as a rock, and quite disgusting as well.

Oven – all crackers have be-come extremely black-coloured in the oven. A fifteen minute long exposure to 250 degrees Celsius thus does not seem to be the smartest thing to try on your precious food.

Freezer – after sixty min-utes of continuous exposure to minus 21 degrees Celsius,

ComparisonWasa AH Euroshopper AH biological

Price 0.98B-

0.83B+

0.38A+

1.53C-

Weight 205 gramsB+

260 gramsA+

250 gramsA

225 gramsA-

No. of Crackers

20 piecesB

20 piecesB

29 piecesA+

15 piecesC

Packaging OrdinaryB+

OrdinaryB+

BoringB-

Environ-mentally unfriendlyC+

Average Score

B B+ A- B-

TestingWasa AH Euroshopper AH biological

Water B B A BMicrowave B B A BOven F F F FFreezer A A A AGravity A A C BPressure C+ C- A+ B-Average Score

B- B- B B-Pictures by Geert Jacobse

Documents

Issue 34