A Dutch sailing website, Zeilen, discusses the consequences of her trip in an article dedicated to the issue [nl].

Het is in Nederland uniek dat een kind van deze leeftijd alleen de wereld intrekt. Dat komt door onze Leerplichtwet. Van vijf tot zestien jaar moet iedereen naar school. Van zestien tot achttien jaar mag je alleen van school mits je een diploma hebt. Laura is dertien en dus leerplichtig.

Laura's parents have applied for permission to have Laura take lessons via a distance learning programme for Dutch-speaking children who live abroad with their parents called Wereldschool ('World school'). However, permission has not been granted, since Laura would have to teach herself, and the lesson plans of the school are intended to be taught by the parents.

Meanwhile, the Child Welfare Council has taken legal action for Laura to be made a ward of court, to prevent her parents for allowing her to go on the trip and thus violating the compulsory education law.

In a comment on the Zeilen website article, reader Johan de Vries, supports Laura:

… Ik moet denken aan Laura Dekker, dat dertienjarig leeftijdgenootje dat rond de wereld wil zeilen maar de kans loopt tegengehouden te worden door de instanties, onderwerp is van gesprek en discussie, en van de media alle aandacht krijgt … Laura Dekker die al meer van de wereld gezien heeft dan menigeen … Laura Dekker die al heeft laten zien dat zij zeilen kan als de beste … Laura Dekker die al meer voor elkaar heeft gekregen dan vele van haar leeftijdgenootjes … Laura, mijn zegen heb je, maak je dromen waar en leef ze uit! En ik blijf je volgen, en als je straks weer aankomt zeil ik je misschien wel tegemoet voor een warm onthaal …

Another commenter, Luuk Jansen, says Laura is not just any 13-year-old:

Ik denk niet dat je Laura met een ‘doorsnee' kind van 13 kunt vergelijken. Als ik in de Zeilen haar artikel lees over haar eerste oversteek naar Engeland krijg ik het idee dat ze goed weet waar ze mee bezig is.

Diane, another reader, thinks Laura should be stopped:

Ik ben blij dat de rechter en kinderbescherming zich hiermee bemoeit. Het is naar mijn mening echt totaal onverantwoord om een 13 jarig kind twee jaar lang alleen de zee op te sturen. Ze zal vast fantastisch kunnen zeilen. Maar wat gaat dit voor invloed hebben op haar sociale en geestelijke ontwikkeling? […]
Ik kan er niet bij dat haar ouders hier toestemming voor geven.. Wat mij betreft is haar laten gaan inderdaad een vorm van kindermishandeling en ik vind het niet vreemd dat de kinderbescherming zich daarmee bemoeit. Het hele leerplicht gedoe.. daar gaat het natuurlijk eigenlijk niet om, het is een manier om haar rechterlijk tegen te houden en te behoeden voor de echte gevaren.

Peter Peters thinks Laura is being blinded by the record she would set as the youngest person to sail around the world:

Wat mij betreft is haar vader in een soort tunnelvisie terechtgekomen. Laura ook, maar dat kun je een kind van 13 niet kwalijk nemen. Heel deze commotie ontstaat omdat ze PERSE NU deze reis wil maken. Maar ik denk dat de wereld er over 5 jaar ook nog wel is en dan kan ze deze reis ook maken. Dan heeft ze 1. haar diploma, 2. meer levenswijsheid, 3. alle vrijheden die ze maar wil. De reden dat alles nu moet is het mediaspectakel dat een record heet, maar als het Laura's passie en droom is, dan moet zo'n record er naar mijn idee niet toe doen. Dus ik zeg, verwezenlijk je droom! Maar doe het over 5 jaar…

Bloggers in the Netherlands are commenting on the case as well. aanbevolen [nl] writes:

Merkwaardig vind ik het dat haar ouders haar plan goedkeuren. Volgens hen kan Laura zo goed zeilen dat ze zeker in staat is haar tocht te voltooien. Op Laura's website staat dat ze bijvoorbeeld al naar Engeland (!) is gevaren. Dat is een hele prestatie, maar of je dan ook al meteen de hele wereld over kunt zeilen…

Maxim, an 18-year-old student blogger on Scholieren.com, has written a post entitled “Let Laura go!” [nl]:

Ik hoop en neem aan dat Laura en haar ouders zelf het beste weten wat goed voor haar is, gewoon omdat zij het beste weten wie Laura is. We kunnen beter een voorbeeld nemen aan haar moed en ambitie om haar droom te verwezenlijken. En tja, wie weet komt ze na een paar maanden alweer terug omdat het haar niet is gelukt. Ook daar zal ze van leren. In ieder geval, laat Laura maar gaan! We zullen hoe dan ook nog van haar horen…

Some people find it more difficult to make up their mind about the issue.

Ed commented on an article on Zeilersblog [nl]:

Bij gebrek aan krant en TV vernam ik ‘pas’ Maandag Laura’s voorgenomen avontuur. ’s avonds heb ik gelijk via haar site gemaild en en verteld dat ik de onderneming niet zag zitten. Vijf dagen later, na veel lezen en googelen over de reis de route en het meisje moet ik mijn mening herzien.
Gisteren heb ik haar andermaal gemaild en mijn bewondering uitgesproken. Ook mijn excuses gemaakt voor de eerder verzonden mail. De Nederlandse hokjesgeest is er voor de gemiddelde mens. De mens die zelf niet durft en angstvallig houvast zoekt aan de opgelegde regeltjes. Ik hoor daar ook bij, vandaar dat ik eerder ernstig negatief gestemd was. Laura en haar familie passen niet in een hokje. Sommige mensen zijn u eenmaal te groot om daar in te passen. […]
Laura, volg je hart, en laat je niet beïnvloeden door ons, het klootjesvolk!

Laura's case has attracted the attention of the international media as well: the BBC, the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company), German magazine Der Spiegel [de] and Spanish newspaper Publico [es], have all published articles about her.

Photo and thumbnail from Laura's website

Maxime Verhagen

During the recent Afghanistan summit in The Hague, Dutch readers could read updates and direct responses to questions about the summit on Twitter. The updates were posted by Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch Mininster of Foreign Affairs, who hosted the summit. Mr Verhagen is an avid Twitter user.

The day before the summit, Mr Verhagen posted updates about participants to the summit arriving at the airport. He also included a couple of pictures:

4:49 PM Mar 30th: Op weg naar het vliegveld van Rotterdam om gasten voor de conferentie te verwelkomen.

5:28 PM Mar 30th: President Karzai geland, klaar bij de rode loper http://twitpic.com/2luvf

8:52 PM Mar 31th: Secretary of State Clinton begroeten http://twitpic.com/2mr64

He also took the time to respond to questions. @jellekaat asked:

5:36 PM Mar 30th: @MaximeVerhagen gaat u elke gast persoonlijk ontvangen op het vliegveld?

7:14 PM Mar 30th: @jellekaat Nee dat zou ondoenlijk zijn, alleen de hoofdgasten president Karzai en dadelijk secretaris-generaal van de VN Ban Ki-Moon.

@paulhottinga was worried about the inconveniences for the general public caused by the security measures surrounding the summit:

1:52 PM Mar 30th: @MaximeVerhagen hoe gaat het met de voorbereidingen? Was er geen mogelijkheid de delegaties in te vliegen ipv verkeersinfarct die dreigt?

7:40 PM Mar 30th: @paulhottinga We doen ons best om de overlast binnen de perken te houden en de gasten toch veilig te kunnen ontvangen.

@Bartdejong86 wondered why president Obama wasn't attending the summit:

1:34 PM Mar 30th: @MaximeVerhagen ik was benieuwd waarom Obama niet bij de top aanwezig is. afgelopen week was hij veel in het nieuws m.b.t. Afghanistan

7:43 PM Mar 30th: @Bartdejong86 Het is een conferentie voor ministers van BZ, daarom komt secretary of state Clinton.

On the next day, the day of the summit, Mr Verhagen still managed to find the time to post updates:

12:07 PM Mar 31st: Conferentie toegesproken: naar een nieuw contract tussen de internationale gemeenschap en Afghanistan http://tinyurl.com/cadky6

12:14 PM Mar 31st: Goede toespraken en bijdragen van collega's, er is nieuwe energie voelbaar in de zaal over Afghanistan.

1:50 PM Mar 31st: Ochtendsessie afgesloten http://twitpic.com/2mwp5 Nu lunchen, onderussen gaan we door met de discussie.

3:12 PM Mar 31st: Beginnen aan een hele serie 1 op 1 gesprekken, eerst met mijn Pakistaanse, meteen daarna met mijn Russische collega.

5:51 PM Mar 31st: Conferentie afgesloten, deelnemers bedankt, deze voor het familieplakboek http://twitpic.com/2n4o3 Nu de persconferentie.

9:35 PM Mar 31st: Vandaag helaas geen tijd gehad om te reageren op vragen, heel veel dank voor alle twittersteun.

According to his latest Twitter updates, Mr Verhagen is now in Strasbourg for the 60th anniversary NATO summit:

Apr 3rd: Op weg naar Straatsburg voor de NAVO top van vanavond en morgen.

Apr 4th: NAVO top ter gelegenheid van 60 jarig bestaan. - http://mobypicture.com/?tk7qgi

Photo of Dominican slugger David Ortiz taken by James W Carras and used with permission. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsnlaud/

The tournament also features countries with less tradition playing this sport, such as the Netherlands. Tapping into other territories like Aruba, Netherlands Antilles and Curaçao, the squad featured only one current Major Leaguer, several others who are no longer playing, and other younger players with little experience.

It had all the makings of a lopsided mismatch. However, the Dutch team pulled off a 3-2 upset in their first meeting. In a game that was crucial for the Dominican team to remain alive in the tournament, the Dutch team squeaked out a come-from-behind victory to eliminate the Dominican team from the tournament and leaving their fans stunned in the process. Twitter user Trompeta sums up the mood across the country:

Me imagino que toa la bandera dominicana tan a medio palo hoy…

Joan Guerrero of Duarte 101 [es] reported on the scene on the street during the highly anticipated game:

Perdimos. No somos dignos de decir comentarios sobre este Clásico Mundial que, desde el principio, se encontraron todas las debilidades del mundo para que nuestro equipo pasara al menos, su tercer y último juego, en una derrota que le está doliendo a más de 10 millones de dominicanos en estos momentos. Sin embargo, los colmadones —sin importar la crisis— estuvieron repletos de fanáticos a la espera de que el equipo dominicano hiciera su mejor esfuerzo.

However, the result was the least expected by the Dominican fans and they are left to wait for the next edition of the World Baseball Classic or even try another sport altogether.

Como decía una amistad, durante la noche de hoy: «mejor nos pongamos a jugar fútbol, de ahora en adelante. A ver si les ganamos a los holandeses»

Some bloggers and baseball fans also analyzed why their team lost in this fashion. Luis Corcino of Dominicana en el Mundo [es] sees a big difference in the motivation of the two sides:

Para un jugador dominicano, jugar en este encuentro no les aporta nada en terminos económicos, excepto el amor a la patria, encima de eso se consideraron superiores; los holandeses por su lado, querian demostrar que podian con un rival como el domincano, se armaron de valor y ahi esta el resultado.

Los holandeses estaban mas motivados!!

The next round of the World Baseball Classic continues with 8 teams that have qualified from their group.

Perwin analyzed Wilders documentary Fitna,:

Personally, I thought his movie was a one-sided, biased look at Islam, that could be easily refuted, and shown for how out of context it really is, by anyone who understands Islam properly. His documentary is filled with half truths.

For example:

When he quoted Surah 8 Verse 60
“Prepare for them whatever force and cavalry ye are able of gathering to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies, of Allah and your enemies.”

He didn't continue to the very next verse, Verse 61, of the same Surah
“But if they incline to peace, you (also) incline to it, and put your trust in Gof. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower”

Perwin gave more examples of how Wilders took the verses out of context and went on to refute his argument:

On the flip side, just like there are all the verses that Wilders used, there are others that talk about, things like, freedom of religion, talking (and not fighting) as method of persuasion, patience, and acceptance of others to name a few supposedly “humanitarian” ideals (as Wilders likes to call it).

For example:
Surah 109
“Say: O ye that reject Faith! I worship not the which ye worship, Nor will ye worship that which I worship. And I will not worship that which ye have been wont to worship. Nor will ye worship that which I worship, To you be your Way, and to be mine.”

She also found him guilty of what he was denouncing:

While he is shocked from the decision and deems it a black day for “freedom of expression” in his country, I think he should pause and look at himself. He is doing exactly what he's denouncing. Other than the fact that he's acting just like all the fundamentalists he's against (albeit with a fancy suit, and hair color), he too is not allowing others to be free and live as they choose. He basically wants to remove Islam, and everything about it from Europe, just because it doesn't meet with his outlook on life. I re-watched his BBC interview after reading the news update. The guy is a thinly veiled bigot and supremacist. He is also a politician who needs to be controversial to thrive in the public eye. He does not believe in Islam therefore it shouldn't exist in his country.

He also says “We should learn to be intolerant with the intolerant.” He believes in giving conditional tolerance, meaning he'll tolerate you only if he likes you and agrees with you, if you don't agree then he won't tolerate you. Well that's not really tolerance, that, at best, is hypocrisy and double standards.

Standing on the fence, Perwin traces the roots of such prejudice:

One of his mistakes, I think, is confusing between the religion of Islam and the misguided fanatics who abuse Islam. Both Wilders and the zealots he's against, seem to forget that Islam is based on dealing with others, otherwise known in Arabic as “al moamala”. What Mr. Wilders doesn't know, or didn't research thoroughly, and the extremists hiding behind Islam have lost sight of, is that The Quran (that Wilders, and the like, seem to blame) is broken down (by Islamic fokaha or learned men) into 13 parts: 1 for the dos and don'ts, and the other 12 are for how to deal with other human beings.

The movie clearly showed that Wilders does not understand the core of Islam, and merely has a beef with the vocal fundamentalists.

Perwin Ali asks:

Some might wonder why we don't see more grand gestures of good from Muslims like we see from their scary counterparts.

Her reply was:

Well, as habit, terrorists (regardless of their affiliations or religion) are grandstanders. They need an audience, otherwise their objective of terrorizing isn't met. On the other hand, genuine do-gooders don't need an audience, they only need God to know. Whoever believes in God would agree with me when I say that whatever you do, God sees it, hence there's no need for an audience. Try to read what I'm writing with an unbiased eye, you'll see what I mean… You might even be able to accept it without having to agree with it -which is another key trait of Islam and well-balanced muslims.

Taking her post to a personal level, she talks about herself as a Muslim:

Now, I'm not one of the learned in Islam. But… I'm a Muslim. I'm a female. I'm not veiled. I'm free to express my opinions and my choices. I'm free to live my life. I love my religion. I haven't been forced or brainwashed into loving my religion. I believe in it. I respect it. I believe that my religion has more to do with love than with hate. I believe that my religion is forgiving. I also believe that the problems lie with the misguided people not with the religion. Just as it lies with the misguided people of the other religions.

I am the exact opposite of what he makes Islam and muslims to be. There are many others like me.

Personally, I believe he deserves to go on trial. There's a significant difference between freedom of expression and disrespectful misinformation.

It's time the whole world finally learned how to truly exercise the concept of freedom.

An Egyptian does not agree with Perwin as he posted a note titled “Geert Wilders needs your urgent support!“:

The Freedom Party (PVV) and Geert Wilders are faced with an all-out assault. Exploding legal expenses might cripple the continuation of the battle for our liberties. The survival of the
Freedom Party and Geert Wilders’ struggle for the defense of the West are now in jeopardy. Therefore, we need your financial support urgently.

Then he posted several ways to donate money.

JY: Tell us about yourself.

SBG: I started blogging in French, then, after few years, I decided to blog in Arabic and cover interesting stories that deal with digital activism and the use of new information technologies for social and political change. I speak 4.5 languages. The half is what remained from the Farsi that I've learned during the one and a half year that I've spent in Iran.

I studied law at the University of Tunis but I didn't complete my studies. I always hated Law and preferred to study Sociology. But in Tunisia, at that time, it does not matter what you choose to study, the government educational body is there to choose it for you!

I work as a part-time Advocacy director for Global Voices and I'm also trying, together with my colleagues from nawaat.org, to evolve some of the Tunisian citizen media projects and digital activism initiatives to something more professional and sustainable.

JY: You published the first Tunisian e-book (in French) about your exile from Tunisia - can you share a bit of that story with us?

SBG: Well, when I arrived to The Netherlands after one year of travel following my flee from Tunisia, the first thing I did was write down the story of that trip, which was a very rich and intense experience.

“Journey in a Hostile World” is the subtitle of the e-book. And I think that it gives an idea about how it is to travel the world with an Arab or African passport in a region where all kind of frontiers and mountains of obstacles are built to prevent a wide portion of this specific group from traveling and exercising their freedom of movement in a so called “global village”. In this travel, I realized how difficult, and even impossible, it is to travel from one North African or Arab country to another and how often you can get arrested and investigated only because you are a young Arab and thus have the “bad” passport. I was arrested twice, once in Libya where I spent five days in the security offices because my attempts to travel through the Sahara desert in the direction of Niger was deemed suspicious. The second time was in Damascus (Syria) where, after two days of investigation, I was asked to leave the country. The book tries to also analyze the political situation in the countries that I've visited (Tunisia, Libya, Niger, Chad, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran and the Netherlands) and follows the personages of the story through the use of fiction, theological analysis, political debate, prose and poetry. All the stories are linked by the wire of the journey that leads the personages through countries, cities, events and memories, that trace their relationship with the end of a century (XX) and the beginning of another (XXI).

JY: How did you get involved with GVA? What inspired you to work on the project?

SBG: After the article by Sameer Padania, GV former Video Hub editor, about the Tunisian Prison Map mashup, Haitham Sabbah, former GV Middle East Editor asked me to cover Tunisia for GV, which I did for a few months, before starting GV Advocacy.

I personally was impressed by the role of GV after the support that our citizen online demonstration, Yezzi Fock Ben Ali, has gained, thanks to the coverage that has been given to it on GV. It was interesting to see that the Anglophone blogsphere was much more supportive toward our action than the francophone one, which we excepted to be much closer to us than the Anglophone one. The same trend has been observed after my Tunisian Prison Map. Those two cases were my very first impression of GV and they have demonstrated to me the place and the very particular identity that this amazing website is shaping within the media sphere.

JY: Do you feel you're achieving more for freedom of expression living outside of Tunisia than inside?

Since I only started advocating when I lived in the Netherlands and not in Tunisia, I didn't experience the problems I could have had in a similar situation in Tunisia.

I must say that I didn't really experience freedom of expression inside Tunisia and I think that after the short political openness during the eighties, Tunisians have lost a huge part of their freedom of expression and free access to information. Living and blogging from outside Tunisia has certainly helped me express myself freely, but the fact that my personal blog is blocked, as are all the other collective blogs that I'm co-running, always remind me of the harsh situation in which freedom of expression has declined year-by-year in my country.

JY: You recently reported on the status of freedom of expression in Tunisia. What is your take on the matter?

SBG: The Tunisian government has realized that censorship is not working the way it wanted it to. The flow of dissident information into Tunisia is a fact and censorship is simply not succeeding in stopping it. It's true that only a small percentage of Tunisian Netizens have the technical skill and the will to figure out workarounds for the censorship, however, the rest of Tunisian Netizens still can access the same information on Facebook or via their RSS subscriptions and mailing-lists. The government is aware of this breach and it seems that it is updating its policy from a simple blocking of dissents websites and blogs to a much aggressive one that include hacking and deleting of websites and filtering of emails.

By getting rid of outspoken websites and blogs (those who, thanks to the service of RSS, social networking websites and newsletters, are providing their readership in Tunisia with independent information) and by filtering emails (it seems that the Tunisian Internet police has recently implemented what seems to be a Deep Packet Inspection (DPI to filter targeted email addresses and content) the regime hopes to destabilize the two hubs that are providing Tunisia with political information and that the censorship couldn't stop.

The other new development is the response of the Tunisian Netizens in general, including bloggers and digital activists, to censorship. The recent ban on Facebook in Tunisia that lasted for two weeks has generated a very strong mobilization to protest the ban of Facebook itself, on the blogs and websites and as a result, access was restored after two weeks by a “personal intervention” from President Ben Ali, who ordered the lifting of the ban.

Now, and for the first time in Tunisia, a Tunisian journalist and blogger, Zied El Heni, who is also a member of the executive board of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists, has taken legal action against the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) over the ban on Facebook and the first hearing has been scheduled for November 4th.

JY: We know you love technology - what new developments are you really passionate about?

SBG: I'm very impressed by the new North African blogs aggregator, Berberus.com. It's one of the most efficient tools that helps you follow, explore, and understand the North-African blogospheres and have a sense of the kind of conversations that are taking place in that region of the world. With graphs, tags, hot topics and a very advanced search into the content and comments of the Maghrebian (North African) blogspheres, Berberus.com offers a range of new functionalities that make the navigation of the aggregated blogs and authors a very interesting experience.

JY: You recently attended your second Global Voices Summit. What did you learn from this year's gathering? What new developments do you hope to see for GVO and GVA?

SBG: During the Budapest Citizen Media Summit we have dedicated one day to debate the online free speech topic, from a variety of perspectives (technical, legal, social, political, etc.) by bringing together on-the-ground activists and bloggers, NGOs representatives, tools developers, free speech advocates and researchers. What I personally took from that meeting is that the battle against online censorship/filtering and the defense of free access to the tools that are giving the platforms for people to express themselves (like blogging services, photo and video-sharing websites, and social networking websites) is a global battle that needs to be fought globally by joining efforts of all actors in the online free speech movement. The building of a coordinated global anti-censorship network is one of the ideas that has strongly emerged from the Budapest debate.

* Photo Credit: Georgia Popplewell