Potkaars Podcast - Interviews en reportages

vandaag (3 juli) is het de 52e verjaardag van Julian Assange, zijn vijfde in de zwaarbeveiligde gevangenis van Belmarsh zonder veroordeling. Ik zag David Rovics zijn lied 'Behind these Prison Walls' zingen op het parlementsplein in Londen, en probeerde het te zelf zingen met een video ter illustratie.

op potkaars: https://potkaars.nl/blog/2023/6/25/anything-to-say-potkaars-en-kees-van-der-pijl-over-assange-ghandi-en-de-wagner-groep

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Na een kort bezoek aan de Belmarsh gevangenis waar WikiLeaks oprichter Julian Assange al meer dan vier jaar zonder veroordeling wordt vastgehouden, filmde Potkaars op 24 juni de “Anything to Say” demonstratie voor Assange op Parliament square in Londen. 

Tijdens het bliksembezoek, berichtte de media dat er ondertussen een coup dreigde in Rusland: de Wagner-groep, betaald door Prigozhin, zou op weg zijn naar Moskou om hardere maatregelen tegen de Oekraïne en de NAVO van Putin te eisen, “of anders…”. 

Kees van der Pijl, Djamila le Pair en Rico Brouwer bespraken de laatste ontwikkelingen rond deze onderwerpen, die, waar het Putin en de Wagner-groep aangaat, bij publicatie misschien alweer door nieuwe berichten zijn ingehaald.

Op Potkaars https://potkaars.nl/blog/2023/6/25/anything-to-say-potkaars-en-kees-van-der-pijl-over-assange-ghandi-en-de-wagner-groep 

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On June 21, 2022, the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam the Netherlands summarily dismissed their scientist Rogier Louwen. Shortly thereafter, we recorded this interview, agreeing to publish it only after the trial would be over. The story Louwen tells is that of a whistleblower who conducted an EU-funded investigation into pandemics. Both internally and externally, he pointed at the potential dangers and risks of the public health strategies chosen at the time, based on sound scientific research, after which he was fired.

In his backyard, Louwen candidly tells his first-hand story about the investigation he led, the run-up to the dismissal and what that did to him and his team.

On Potkaars: https://potkaars.nl/blog/2023/6/21/i-stood-up-for-the-public-interest-and-risked-everything-for-an-open-scientific-discussion

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Clyde belde me op; ‘waarom maak je zo weinig potkaars, Rico?’ Ik zocht hem in 2021 op, midden in de lockdown waar hij een gevangene was in de zorginstelling waar hij woont. Ik zocht Clyde opnieuw op. Wat volgde is dit openhartig gesprek over leven met COPD, over activisme en censuur. Over hoop, wanhoop, politiek en Potkaars.

Het lockdown interview: https://potkaars.nl/blog/2021/2/20/mijn-vrijheid-word-afgenomen-ze-sluiten-iedereen-op-clyde-van-eer

De Potkaars Awards: https://potkaars.nl/award

op Potkaars: https://potkaars.nl/blog/2023/6/12/de-waarheid-is-sterker-dan-leugen-clyde-van-eer

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Op 22 mei 2023 vroeg Laurens Buijs de kort geding rechter in Amsterdam om de Universiteit van Amsterdam: “de in de interne klokkenluidersregeling van de UvA genoemde rechtsbescherming te bieden en de benadelingshandelingen (gebiedsverbod, op nonactiefstelling, mediaverbod, contactverbod) te staken en ongedaan te maken door Buijs weer toe te laten tot zijn werkomgeving en hem in staat te stellen de bedongen (promotie)werkzaamheden te verrichten en de UvA te veroordelen zorg te dragen voor een passende rehabilitatie van Buijs waarbij de UvA alsnog zorgdraagt voor een veilige meldomgeving waarbinnen Buijs weer kan functioneren en participeren.” (dagvaarding)

Potkaars was er bij en filmde de zitting. De zitting is integraal opgenomen, echter ik kreeg géén toestemming de niet-formele deelnemers namens de UvA in beeld of geluid op te nemen. Dat betekent dat het slotwoord van de UvA niet in deze reportage te zien is. Uitspraak op 5 juni.

Op Potkaars: https://potkaars.nl/blog/2023/5/24/kort-geding-klokkenluider-bescherming-laurens-buijs-universiteit-van-amsterdam

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In a series of interview recorded early 2023 by Rico Brouwer for Potkaars, Dutch data and pattern analyst Wouter Aukema makes concerning observations with regards to the functioning of the European medicine adverse events registration system Eudravigilance. 

hundreds of thousands of reports retroactively got modified (age group changed to unspecified)

filed individual case safety reports about reported deaths are being removed from public view

a significant uptick in adverse medicine effects has been happening in recent months 

These and other observations were derived from a year long of weekly download of records from EMA, followed by a months long investigation into all Eudravigilance adverse effects database records such as they are available to the public. Upon completion of the series of interviews mr. Aukema requested publication be postponed. The open data that was collected from EMA in the mean time was made accessible through https://docs.openema.org/ as was first discussed July 10 2023 with Dutch programmer Milo van der Linden; https://potkaars.nl/blog/2023/7/18/openema-milo-van-der-linden .

On Potkaars: https://potkaars.nl/blog/2023/4/14/eudravigilance-wouter-aukema

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"What we are dealing here with is is a very serious problem. It is radicalization and extremism institutionalizing in our academic institutions that are paid by the taxpayer, that are meant for general education and research
that are now being hijacked by radicalized groups".   

In this follow up interview with social scientist at the University of Amsterdam, Laurens Buijs, we talk about what has happened to him after blowing the whistle, late 2022.

He's been cancelled, threatened, and defamed now also in Dutch state media. Buijs: " it's completely unacceptable we have to speak out as openly as we can about what is happening. That the university is complicit that the administration is complicit, that staff who is not speaking out is complicit. It is such a  grave problem that the only thing that I can do as a whistleblower is bring it into the light".

This Follow the Science interview by Rico Brouwer was recorded late March 2023 where Laurens and Rico were paying a visit to Michaéla to see how she was doing.

- On Follow the Science: https://followthescience.nl/interviews/university-of-amsterdam-whistleblower-laurens-buijs
- Whistleblower protection at UvA https://www.uva.nl/over-de-uva/beleid-en-regelingen/bedrijfsvoering-algemeen/klokkenluidersregeling-uva-hva.html
- January 25th interview https://followthescience.nl/interviews/woke-culture-threatens-academic-freedom-laurens-buijs
- March 13 Forbidden Event on Free Speech in Dutch Higher Education - Laurens Buijs https://followthescience.nl/interviews/forbidden-event-on-free-speech-in-dutch-higher-education-laurens-buijs

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'Alle Kiezers tellen mee!' Geinspireerd op een oproep van Dennis Spaanstra van Police for Freedom! ging Patricia Schwartz na het uitbrengen van haar stem bij de 2023 provinciale staten verkiezingen in Utrecht het tellen van de stemmen controleren; zowel op verkiezingsavond 15 maart als op donderdag 16 maart. Dit is haar verslag van hoe ze werd ontvangen en van onregelmatigheden die ze aantrof.

Dit interview wordt gevolgd door een gesprek met Dennis Spaanstra (hier: https://youtu.be/SB0WREKQXlA ), één van de organisatoren, over het belang van door burgers controleerbare verkiezingen.

artikel / links: https://potkaars.nl/blog/2023/3/19/meekijken-bij-het-tellen-van-de-stemmen-bij-de-provinciale-staten-verkiezingen-dennis-spaanstra 

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It's Easter 2023 when we publish this story. It appears this time we're all trying to find out who we can still trust and at risk of loosing our faith. But how can you tell the difference between who's genuine and who's a 'False Prophet'? Michaéla shares the story of the Piped Piper of Hamelin to explain what we can do.

PS No cats were harmed during the recording of this interview.

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On 3/3/23, the Great Citizens Institute co-organized a “forbidden” event in Amsterdam about free speech and free thought in higher education. In general, there has been grave concerns about the erosion of these freedoms in the last three years (e.g., https://potkaars.nl/blog/2022/10/14/michala-schippers-over-academische-vrijheid-en-societal-decline-waarschijnlijk-waargebeurd)

The filmed event arose from the consternation around Laurens Buijs, a gender studies scholar at the University of Amsterdam who got into a full confrontation with students and staff after critiquing the non-binary gender movement. He decided to use the whistleblower legislation of the university to formally object to the rise of woke and cancel culture at his university. Despite this, he is currently in a situation where he is fighting for his position.

The free speech event was meant to show that his case does not stand by itself, but that we are confronting a fundamental challenge in higher education. Over 40 students, teachers, concerned citizens and others involved in higher education visited the event to discuss how the rising totalitarian zeitgeist is threatening freedom of speech and thought in colleges and universities. The event was supposed to take place at the UvA, but the central board decided to prohibit the meeting less than 24 hours in advance. Luckily, a community of free thinkers opened their space for us so that this unique “forbidden event” could take place.

On March 10th Rico Brouwer and Laurens Buijs look back on the event and discuss the issues that were raised by some of the speakers.
 
this item was first posted on https://followthescience.nl/index.html

on Follow the Science: https://followthescience.nl/interviews/forbidden-event-on-free-speech-in-dutch-higher-education-laurens-buijs

great citizens institute https://www.greatcitizensmovement.org/great-citizens-institute/

research paper "Is Society caught up in a Death Spiral? Modelling Societal Demise and its Reversal" https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4352765

research paper "Shaping ideal futures: Writing a letter to the future" https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4372540

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