"Will end in tears. I told you so."

By John K | October 15, 2009 3:28 PM

ROTFL
Yes and let's ban metaphors, sarcasm and satire too!! After all the "TOUGHT POLICE" need work too.

(they really have gone off the deep end)

By EX-PAT | October 15, 2009 3:43 PM

Stamp out cynicism? You've got to be kidding! Without cynicism or sarcasm, we'd never get to enjoy some of the greatest remarks about events and people. Like Pepys complaining in the 17th century that the world was shitting Dutchmen as you burned London harbor and towed away the largest English warship. A classic.

By Walt Haan | October 15, 2009 4:02 PM

A better use of time and money might be to train front line staff some people skills. I have never come across an organisation in which the staff were so unreliable. I have worked in customer facing environments so I understand that they must deal with some difficult people. However, in the two years I have lived in Rotterdam I have met some of the rudest, most unhelpful people -over the phone and face to face. I have also been lied to countless times. Does anyone know the best way to make a complaint about this?

By Nick Young | October 15, 2009 4:10 PM

Seems a rather cynical approach to institute thought control??

By Joost Yff | October 15, 2009 7:27 PM

Why regulate just civil servants' behavior when you have all of Rotterdam's citizenry to work with, you bureaucratic DONKS!

By richard | October 15, 2009 7:39 PM

If serious this will wreak havoc with communications in the academic teaching hospital in R'dam-you-people and any sort of helpfull intellectual humor...

By Susan De Mar | October 15, 2009 8:26 PM

"'It's just another typical example of the need to control,' one official told the NRC."

And is that "one official" of the city's administrative/managerial class? He remains anonymous, for good reason. He sounds a bit cynical to me.

My momma done taught me right: Say what you mean and mean what you say. Oh, wait, this is the work of pols.

By Jay Vos | October 15, 2009 11:09 PM

cynicism is the only thing rotterdam has going going for it. keep up the good work.

By trig | October 16, 2009 8:02 AM

Welcome to Amsterdam. We have a "ping-pong" front office medewerker over here. Go to them for problem / question / query/etc. and they will give you the address of another office, and if you go there, they will advise you contact another office, and you will be running round and round between these offices, all the time, without any solution. The same they do telephonically. Contact them and they will very politely direct you to another organization, and then the other organization will throw you to another one and so on.

By jerry | October 16, 2009 9:59 AM

One doesn't know how ones words can be interpreted by another. We need to act on how some abuse freedoms to hurt others for ones pathetic pleasure. Gay bashing to racist remarks can have serious effects on those one seeks to insult in a juvenile way. Time has come to end the hate that some wish to inflict on others. How about they READ those religious texts that they hold dear and see how they are pandering to racist groups. Diplomacy and acceptance is the cure, but for some, they just enjoy being miserable and inflicting their self hate. Most homophobes are in fact gay, the US researcher Kinsey had it correct. These homophobes are gay and hate themselves for their own feelings. As one who doesn't care about another's sexuality, religion or nationality I can say that haters are just mad at themselves. We are 99.99% identical, haters just focous on the .01% that they use to discriminate against others. It is far past the time to stop the hate and enjoy the difference, otherwise the world would be static and boring.

By Paul Martin | October 16, 2009 3:41 PM