geert on Thu, 14 Mar 2002 11:57:02 +0100 (CET)


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<nettime> [WE MISLEAD]


From: "Eveline Lubbers" <evel@xs4all.nl

A man in Amsterdam took the most prestigious business building (Philips)
hostage, forcing people to letter the windows with the words WE MISLEAD.

Media coverage claims that the man is frustrated over the impact of
widescreen tv on his film enjoyment - black bars.

http://www.indymedia.nl/2002/03/2610.shtml

CNN has not too many details but still
http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailT
oID=2087089194&pt=Y

This man has probably not read Adbusters,
but he is definitely a product of the developments you sketched. Living in
suburbia he started a guerilla war on his own, disseminating his grieves to
newspapers and consumer organizations. He felt forced to buy a widescreen
televsion and that irritated him to no ends.  He picked the highest
building in Amsterdam, on the 6 months anniversary of Sep 11th, the wrong
tower by mistake, Philips had recently moved to the neighbouring tower.
Police negotiated with him all day and reported he was confused, but
sounded open and clear in the talkings.  He knew what he was doing, but
finally shot himself in the  head, in the men's room...  Fascinating, isn't
it?

gr
eveline

PS details that came out the next day:

The man was described to be 59 years old, had long grey hair, 'the artistic
type' - he talked all time and left his weaponary at the counter most of the
time.

The people that were taken hostage claim not to have been scared, not
really.  They were allowed to get snacks from the buildings restaurant, and
apart from running out of cigarettes their main problem was that they got
so very *bored* after a few hours.


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