There are many different stories floating around about the Mining Engineering Association’s polar bear, ‘Fred’. Legend has it that professor Seldenrath once shot him on the Spitsbergen, while others say the professor simply bought the bear skin there.
Seldenrath then gave the bear skin to his colleague, professor Velzeboer, who used the skin as a rug on the floor of his office. This was back in the days when students attended their oral exams wearing jackets and ties. The nervous students would then trip over the skin of the polar bear – to the amusement of the professors.
Hans de Ruiter, an engineer and honorary member of the association, says that there were in fact two polar bear skins. Seldenrath had one, and so did Velzeboer, who was also De Ruiters father-in-law: “One of them was hung over a couch in Velzeboer’s office. Later, I took it and put it in my garage in Benthuizen. But my wife wanted me to get rid of it, because our children used it to scare the other neighborhood kids. So I gave it to Het Noorden.”
De Ruiter is referring to the mining association’s bar, where Fred was hung on the wall. Much money was spent to treat the bear skin to prevent it from rotting, but owing to all the alcohol fumes and cigar smoke the bear skin turned a strange color and began to stink. Consequently, Fred was then lovingly buried in a ceremonial grave in the courtyard of the faculty building on the Mijnbouwstraat.
Three years ago, when the faculty moved, Fred was dug up again by ‘The Elephants’, the association’s cigar smokers’ club. During the ceremony, Fred had a cigar and glass of jenever put in his mouth. And then he disappeared. “Nobody knows where he is”, says Ko Korenromp, the association’s secretary. “Perhaps he’s simply roaming somewhere between heaven and earth.” In which case he is watched over by St. Barbara, the mining association’s guardian angel.
Op Twitter volgt het ene nieuwsbericht op het andere. Zo hebben 120 academici van de universiteit van Teheran ontslag genomen na een politieoverval.
In het hele land worden studentencomplexen bestormd. Er zouden 150 studenten van de noordelijke Universiteit Mazanderan zijn opgepakt. Op andere plaatsen schijnen doden te zijn gevallen.
De BBC heeft beelden online gezet waarin een Iraans studentencomplex zou worden aangevallen. De omroep kan alleen de bron niet bevestigen.
Volgens een Nederlandse student van Iraanse afkomst zijn er een stuk of tien betrouwbare bronnen op Twitter. “Hun nieuws verschijnt vaak een dag later op CNN of andere nieuwszenders. De berichten worden zo snel mogelijk overgenomen door andere twitteraars, niet alleen om het nieuws te verspreiden, maar ook om het de Iraanse politie moeilijk te maken als ze deze mensen willen opsporen.”
In Iran braken protesten uit toen de zittende president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met overmacht de verkiezingen won. De oppositie gelooft niet dat oppositieleider Mir Hossein Mousavi heeft verloren en spreekt van verkiezingsfraude.
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