Dear Mom....

I haven't been as good with updating my blog as of late. It seems that one entry per week is not good enough according to my mother who was one of the first to take notice. "I keep going back to the blog and all I see is that 'Bing, Bang, Boom' one! I've already read it!" Well, yes, sorry Mom, you're right, it's time for a new entry.

Let's start with things that my Mom might be less than impressed with. Audi and I have decided to 'walk the beat' through the "mean" streets of Rotterdam every Thursday night. We're doing this because we've decided to take a closer and harder look at security measures throughout particular areas of Rotterdam, for example, the occurrence of preventative searches in Oude Westen. As I have mentioned before, preventative searches are unprovoked searches conducted by the police, typically on non-native Dutch people, for the purpose of confiscating illegal or dangerous objects. Although Audi and I have JUST begun (last week was our first time) we are going out again next week because we believe that there are things which need to be (better) acknowledged.

One of these things happens to be the seemingly double standard of those who are chosen to be preventatively searched. If you are a white female or sometimes even a white male, there is typically less of a chance that you will be searched. For those non-Dutch speakers, the woman in this cartoon is saying: "Hey Mr. Policeman, must we also be searched?" What is important to highlight here, I think, is the implicit understanding that these women will never asked to be searched by the police in such a way. They are (economically) consuming females who look quite glamorous and affluent in addition to being, I assume, native Dutch citizens. These are of course only my interpretations, feel free to impart your own. **Thanks to Audi for finding this cartoon.**

For some, these searches can be transgressions into their privacy while in public life; for others, (from what little we've experienced at this point) these searches may have become a normative part of one's public life. So how as anthropologists should we approach this situation? (well, okay fine. An anthropologist and a political scientist...but I swear she's an anthropologist on the inside!) It is not just these searches that we're trying to understand more about, but why it is that certain groups may or may not be targeted and what has led to such an approach by the police and the government. As I say, this project is only in its infancy but I will keep you updated on our Thursday night jaunts.

Moving on to things my mother might be more comfortable with, I'm off to my Aunt and Uncles anniversary celebration tonight. It will be great to see family who lives here again. After my trip home to Canada I got used to seeing a lot of family all the time so it will be nice to do a little bit of it again. The only trick, finding a flower shop open on Sunday...I'm crossing my fingers for a place open in the centre of town!

So thanks to my Mom for the words of encouragement, it was definitely time to send some post.