Where is Joanna? Caught in the Internet's Crossfire

I woke up this morning and checked on this, my blog, as i not-so-often do, and was greeted by what would turn out to be a strange phenomenon. My blog has received some visits in the past few days!

Excited, like a kid running down the stairs on Christmas day, I rushed to the "statistics" page. "Sweet!", I thought to myself,  "Over 130 views in a single day!". Insatiably curious, I checked the origin of that newly found traffic: mostly two websites (here and here) talking about a young Dutch female activist, Joanna.

Joanna has been a friend of mine for some time now. I met her during the rise of the occupy movements here in the Netherlands about eighteen months ago, and now (and have in the past) actually collaborate on a variety of projects. As a student of Political Sciences and International Relations at Utrech University, she is well known in activist circles of a wide variety of issues (from student rights to support for the Palestinian cause) for her honesty, positive attitude, and her incredible dedication to the causes she serves (not to mention her radiant smile!).

A few days ago, on February 2nd, following the Dutch Queen Beatrix's 75th birthday celebration, while silently and peacefully holding up a sign that read "Down with the Monarchy. It is 2013" in front of the theatre where the Queen was supposed to exist moments later, she was promptly forcefully removed from the public premises and briefly detained.

Following a media storm that would cause the hosts of the two most watched prime-time talk shows in the country to have to "fight" over who to have Joanna as a guest, she appeared on the Pauw & Witteman program and engaged the host in a conversation about her actions and beliefs towards the Dutch royal family. (For those who speak Dutch you can find her intervention here).

As Queen Beatrix has just abdicated the throne and established her son Willem-Alexander to ascend to the throne on April 30th, the discourse on the relevance of the Monarchy has consequentially flared up in the Netherlands.

Well, what does this all have to do with my blog? Well, cool your heels! I'm getting there.

After further inspection and translation of the articles that had re-directed so much traffic to my pages, I discovered that instead of supporting the brave person who took a courageous stand to express her opinions (regardless of whether you agree with them or not) and was wrongly punished for it, they called her a "spy", or an "secret agent"... some sort of false flag operation. Obviously those who make these assumptions have done it by using anecdotal or circumstantial evidence, half-truths, and sometimes outright lies. Some claim she has met Kofi Annan (which she never has), and that her demeanour on TV clearly indicated that she was already very familiar with the hosts (obviously these people are qualified body-language experts... are they?) Even through this deception, their portrayal of Joanna as a government agent is still rather weak (you can read the articles linked above and tell for yourself).

One of the most flagrant "facts" about Joanna mentioned in these articles, however, is that:

 "Joanna also likes to express her ideas on the open internet. For this she uses the website http://alternativepoliticalnews.blogspot.nl/"

Now, how did that ever get there? Have I suddenly and transcendentally changed identities? Is my name Joanna now? Oh Christ, am I a "secret agent". Now I'm confused...

Well, not really actually. It is quite natural that the people in power would use any means necessary to preserve their dominance. It's the nature of power after all. Following this reasoning, and a little idea implanted into our reality by none other than George Orwell, it is not far fetched to think that they would have "gatekeepers", and footholds in the "alternative" media, in order to further confuse, misinform, divide, and rule. To me, it seems quite obvious that these articles are just that - an attempt by the powerful to get and incredibly dedicated (not to mention, now, famous) activist discredited, and while they are at it to allow that to come from supposedly "alternative" or "independent" media sources.

But, you know... "Maybe Ruben R. Colorni is a government agent too, in charge of covering up the story we have unearthed" might say the authors. If that is really what you believe, I dare you or anyone else to prove it. That is the problem when trying to discredit activists such as Joanna - their dedication has already established their reputation amongst activist circles, as every single person they have met in our life can vouch for their dedication! All you are going to pander to is the paranoid and ignorant... But then the thought hit me! Since I'm getting the traffic anyways, why not put it to good use?

Hence, this article.

Joanna, we support you. Het Is 2013. Weg met de Monarchie!

From February 11th, you can find more info on the anti-monarchy movement in the NL here: http://hetis2013.nl/

UPDATE:

Three hours ago I posted a comment on one of the articles pointing out their mistake citing my Blog as Joanna's website.

However, it seems that the editors don't want that particular comment published - 10 comments written after mine have been allowed to be posted while mine is still "awaiting moderation" (pic below). Suspicious much?