Paulien Bakker

06/09/2024

This is an important but not necessarily sexy topic, yet brought in a great way. Well, and I loved the ending of course.

Allan Lichtman’s method for predicting election winners has an impressive track record.

30/08/2024

Hard worker

28/08/2024

Summer in the city 💃🥂

11/08/2024

Skûtsjesilen in Friesland - and what a beautiful weather!

07/08/2024

Some stories need few words 🌻😉

28/07/2024

Crash course on understanding the people of Nice. ‘The conservative people feel their way of living is under threat if progressive people will get their way.’
‘How do you mean threatened?’
‘They see it as an attack on their world.’
‘Now I’m confused. I thought people on the right want as little government as possible; that people should just take care of themselves. Than what do they care about what people do with their lives?’
‘Paulien, that’s old fashion right. Extreme right is not about that. It’s about protecting Christian values.’

28/07/2024

‘Gay rights, women rights – the conservative people feel threatened by that. You do know that right?’

We were looking at an exhibition on women photographed by a woman (Bettina Rheims; https://www.institut-photo.com/event/bettina-rheims/).

‘What do you mean, threatened? It’s just that person’s decision.’
‘But the conservative people feel their way of living is under threat if progressive people will get their way.’
‘How do you mean threatened?’
‘They see it as an attack on their world.’
‘Now I’m confused. I thought people on the right want as little government as possible; that people should just take care of themselves. Than what do they care about what people do with their lives?’
‘Paulien, that’s old fashion right. Extreme right is not about that. It’s about protecting Christian values.’
‘Ah, you mean it’s like conservative Islam but without the religion?’

So I learned that many people in Nice actually vote the extreme right (‘Why? They have everything and they don’t want to share?’ ‘No, they feel their old ways of living are under threat.’) That there is actually no need for a discussion, because I’m a journalist so I’m part of the system/the government anyway. And, well basically, I learned that I had totally misunderstood the concept of extreme right, which, I guess, in a way proves that I’m a journalist.

There was just one thing we disagreed on. I opted that the extreme right in the Netherlands isn’t fueled so much by religion but by nostalgia. My discussion partners (all 3 of them) insist it is religion – as it is all over the world.

24/07/2024

19/07/2024

Ah it’s time to relax…

13/07/2024

Cat? What cat?

07/07/2024

Nice and it’s definitely summer here 😊🌻

04/07/2024

Just the sheer fun of creating 🥳 - if anything makes me feel alive and full of energy, it’s looking at unpredictable and impressive art.

02/07/2024

William Kentridge in Luma, Arles, juist makes you want to play 🥳

30/06/2024

Mission accomplished les

29/06/2024

Het nieuwe boek van Bregje Bleeker is uit, en neemt je mee in de wereld van de criminaliteit. Maar dan van de jongens die we “stout” noemen. Hoe wordt je als advocaat het criminele circuit ingezogen? En als altijd met de boeken van Bregje is het weer smullen, haar humor, haar luchtige vertelstem en natuurlijk dit prachtige verhaal.

27/05/2024

Ben je een fotograaf en werk je aan eigen projecten? Kom dan naar mijn workshop en ga aan de slag met je eigen Artist Statement. Tijdens mijn workshop, op 7&21 juni bij DuPho, ga je je eigen Artist Statement schrijven. Je wordt daarbij geholpen met gerichte vragen. Zo krijg je scherp welke thema’s en invalshoeken bij jou passen. Je krijgt ook een aantal schrijfstrategieën mee, zodat je nooit meer naar een blanco pagina hoeft te staren.

23/05/2024

'“You will learn to respect me and reject the Taliban,” Raziq said after the killings, which took place in the winter of 2010, according to the witnesses and relatives of both men. “Because I will come back and do this again and again, and no one is going to stop me.”

(...)

The Times obtained hundreds of pages of documents written by the former American-backed government, more than a decade’s worth of hidden ledgers bearing clues to his campaign of abuse. He transformed the police into a fearsome combat force without constraints, and his officers abducted hundreds, if not thousands, of people to be killed or tortured in secret jails, The Times found. Most were never seen again.'

Impressive work by the NYT is this: an investigative story from Afghanistan.

How the United States backed kidnapping, torture and murder in Afghanistan.

18/05/2024

Ah wat heerlijk, de tijd van asperges en aardbeien…

05/04/2024

Mijn nieuwe blog staat nu online, en omdat die je leven kan veranderen, wil ik niet dat je hem mist:

De schrijver David Foster Wallace zou gezegd hebben: ‘You need to write from the place that loves, instead of the place that wants to be loved’. Dat inspireert me. Ik maakte er mijn eigen levensmotto van: je moet niet alleen om te schrijven of te maken, maar léven vanuit de plek waar de liefde ...

23/02/2024

Mijn nieuwste blog staat nu online. Over hoe je je Writer's Block kunt herkennen en over hoe lang de weg naar Rome wel niet is. Je vindt hem hier:

Werk je aan een mooi project en zou je graag met een story doctor willen sparren over wat nu het emotionele hart van je verhaal is? Stuur me een berichtje.

29/01/2024

Spring is coming! Or so it felt today at least 😉

25/10/2023

Hot tub weather…

13/10/2023

In een boekje voor therapeuten zie ik ineens een bekende boog. De boog van Zinker heet hij en het gaat over hoe we omgaan met prikkels zoals emoties. Het is precies een narratieve spanningsboog. Dat zal ook geen toeval zijn 😉.

24/09/2023

“Are you taking a picture of that? Only tourists are doing that.”
“Well, maybe they’re right.”
- Amsterdam on a Saturday night

17/09/2023

Yes yes, happy to see you too

12/09/2023

Schrijfweek in De Beukenhof, in Biezenmortel waar het prachtig is. Half september en buiten is het al dagen rond de 30 graden. 😍🌻 Precies zoals een schrijfweek hoort te zijn.

28/08/2023

Amsterdam on a sunny rainy day

01/08/2023

I guess this is what you would call a “Dutch summer”

20/07/2023

Bye Macon! Oh and yes, I climbed both those rocks.

18/07/2023

Macon - wine country. And they take it very seriously. (Egg baked in red wine-salad? Mustard-with-honey-and-chardonnay?)