21 November 2008
Graffiti and disorderly behavior can encourage people to trash the neighborhood by littering, trespassing or stealing because they feel rules have broken down, a Dutch study found. Litter, abandoned shopping carts and impromptu fireworks may all prompt petty crime and feed further social disarray. The mere presence of graffiti more than doubled the number of people littering and stealing, the study found. The findings support such efforts as New York City's "quality of life'' campaign in the 1990s under then-mayor Rudy Giuliani, which scrubbed graffiti, swept the streets and erased signs of vandalism, said the authors of the study. That initiative was based on the 1982 Broken Windows Theory that suggested signs of social disorder induce misbehavior and crime.
"Observing that others violated certain social norms or legitimate rules makes it likely that people also violate other norms or rules, which causes disorder to spread,'' said Kees Keizer from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, an author of the study in today's online issue of the journal Science. Keizer conducted six experiments in public spaces in Groningen. He deliberately created situations that flouted a common rule such as a no-littering law, making sure the tests were next to a sign prohibiting that activity. An experiment showed that people would trespass in areas where other rules were already broken. Noise violations such as fireworks in the weeks before New Year's Eve, which are prohibited and subject to fine in the Netherlands, also fostered unruliness and made people litter with abandon.
More at
Bloomberg.com
20 November 2008
Authorities in Aruba say they're looking into new evidence that could lead to an arrest 3½ years after Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway disappeared on a senior class trip to the island. Aruban police are investigating two new tips they hope will provide the corroborating evidence they need to make an arrest, lead prosecutor Hans Mos told CNN.
He would not discuss details but said police again consider Dutch student Joran van der Sloot to be the prime suspect in Holloway's disappearance. A new witness has emerged, authorities say, who can place van der Sloot and his father, Paulus van der Sloot, near a pond on the island at 4 a.m. on the day Holloway vanished. The witness told authorities he saw a young man, wet from the chest down and wearing only one shoe, running along a road from the pond to a fast-food restaurant. The witness said he saw the young man and an older man driving slowly down the road in a red Jeep about 10 minutes later. The pond was not among those searched in the early stages of the investigation, Mos said.
A second witness, a former girlfriend of Joran van der Sloot, also told police he made suspicious-sounding comments while they were on the beach. The witness, publicly known only as Celes, told police van der Sloot said: "Who knows? You may now be on the beach with someone who is able to get rid of a corpse." In addition, Mos said, two other witnesses have come forward. He declined to discuss those witnesses, other than to say he is hopeful the case can be solved.
More at
CNN International
20 November 2008
Bars and cafes in the Netherlands are seeing revenues slump after the government introduced a smoking ban in July, shortly before the credit crisis took hold. The double whammy is costing bars as much as 30 percent of their business, said Joris Prinssen of Royal Horeca Netherlands, a lobbying group representing 20,000 bar and restaurant owners. Other countries, too, have been hit by the coinciding smoking bans and economic malaise.
(...)
In August, the Dutch brewer Heineken reported its sales in Western Europe fell 1.3 percent in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2007, assigning partial blame to the smoking bans. Some Dutch cafe owners have taken to putting the ash trays back on tables just to survive, said Prinssen, citing reports from members. Amid such open barroom rebellion, Health Minister Ab Klink wrote to Parliament this week to say the government would begin cracking down harder on establishments flouting the ban. "Let there be no misunderstanding," he wrote. "In this country, laws have to be respected and that applies to everybody."
Prinssen said 1,500-3,000 mainly small family-run cafes could go out of business if they refuse to let customers smoke. Bars and pubs elsewhere in Europe have adapted by providing sealed smoking rooms and heated outdoor terraces.
Read the entire article at
The Baltimore Sun.
19 November 2008
For the patrons of Internet Freeworld, a typical coffeeshop in the heart of Amsterdam, there is little to indicate the city played as advanced a role in delivering computer bytes as it did decriminalising soft drugs. Just a few miles from the tapping keyboards and pungent smell of marijuana, lies an unprepossessing science park where 20 years ago the Netherlands became the first country outside the US to gain a non-military link to what became the internet.
It led to Amsterdam’s growth as a major hub for global internet traffic and, like much internet history, only happened because of the enthusiasm of a handful of technicians. Piet Beertema, a now retired systems manager who spent most of his career at the Mathematical Centre in the science park, played a major role in campaigning to join Arpanet, the predecessor of the global internet.
The problem with Arpanet was that it had been conceived by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) (an outfit that itself was founded at the height of the Cold War as a reaction to the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite. European computer centres could already interact with US computers but they did so using a basic “store-and-forward” system for sharing electronic newsletters and email over the Usenet network.
Read the entire article at
The Financial Times
16 November 2008
From the Royal Netherlands Embassy
website:
"On November 16th, Dutch-American Heritage Day, 8 million Americans of Dutch descent celebrate their heritage and the contributions they and their ancestors have made to the economic, social, political, and cultural life of the United States.
The Dutch began their relations with America in 1609, when Captain Henry Hudson of the Dutch East India Company sailed up the present-day Hudson River looking for a shorter route to Asia. Although Hudson did not find his route, Dutch traders began to exploit the riches of this wild country and in 1614 established Fort Nassau (near Albany), the second European settlement in America. A few years later, the Dutch Governor Peter Minuit bought Manhattan Island for 60 guilders, the famous $24 bargain.
A large portion of the eastern U.S., stretching from New Jersey and Delaware through New York and from Connecticut and Long Island to central eastern Pennsylvania, was settled by the Dutch in the early-1600s. The area was once known as New Netherland, and many places--Schuylkill, Catskill, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Harlem, Wall Street, Coney Island, to name but a few---trace their names from this Dutch period. Over the next two centuries, several waves of Dutch emigrants settled in the United States and, today, most Dutch-Americans are concentrated in ten states: New York, Michigan, California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Washington, Texas, Ohio and Illinois. (...)
In November 1991 the U.S. Congress and President Bush proclaimed November 16 as Dutch-American Heritage Day (hereafter DAHD). November 16th was selected because on that day in 1776 Dutch forces on the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius returned the salute of the American brig-of-war "Andrew Doria," thereby making the Netherlands the first country to officially salute the flag of the newly-independent United States. From the "first salute" in 1776 to the participation of the Netherlands alongside the U.S. in the recent Gulf War, the United States and the Netherlands have worked together for peace, freedom and commerce. The Netherlands-American partnership endures because of the close and natural ties between these two nations and these two peoples. On Dutch-American Heritage Day we celebrate those ties and pay tribute to the mutual respect and friendship that animates the Dutch-American relationship."
Also check out these previous entries:
Windmills have storied history in NY, captured by city's seal
1609-2009: 400th anniversary of Hudsons landing in NY
Historic New York: From Dutch colony to world capital
New York’s birth date: Don’t go by city’s seal
Harlem: Then, now and forever
Manhattan letter returns to New York
14 November 2008
A hobbyist with a metal detector struck both gold and silver when he uncovered an important cache of ancient Celtic coins in a cornfield in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht. "It's exciting, like a little boy's dream," Paul Curfs, 47, said Thursday after the spectacular find was made public. Archaeologists say the trove of 39 gold and 70 silver coins was minted in the middle of the first century B.C. as the future Roman ruler Julius Caesar led a campaign against Celtic tribes in the area.
Nico Roymans, the archaeologist who led the academic investigation of the find, believes the gold coins in the cache were minted by a tribe called the Eburones that Caesar claimed to have wiped out in 53 B.C. after they conspired with other groups in an attack that killed 6,000 Roman soldiers.
More at the
International Herald Tribune
11 November 2008
The famous Amsterdam magic mushroom will no longer be on sale in the city. The hallucinogenic mushrooms, imported mainly from Hawaii, Mexico and Ecuador, have for years been freely available, at modest prices, in shops around the city. Neatly packed and labelled in display cases beside regular goods like vegetables and milk, and often packed in souvenir gift wrapping, the mushrooms have been popular among mainly German, French and British tourists. Shop owners have claimed the ban will result in hundreds of jobs being lost and are planning protest marches.
While the dried variety, which provides even stronger hallucinations, is already illegal, the decision to ban fresh magic - or psilocybin - mushrooms was taken after a 17-year-old French girl jumped to her death from one of Amsterdam's canal bridges in March after taking them. Amsterdam city council supports the government's ban, hoping it will change the general perception of the city as a mecca for drug user and the sex industry.
More at
The Telegraph
09 November 2008
It ought to be a proud milestone in the Dutch seafaring heritage — the construction of a new ship its owner claims will be the world's largest. But there's one problem: its name. Edwin Heerema, founder of the company that has commissioned the $1.7 billion vessel, wants to name it the Pieter Schelte after his late father, Pieter Schelte Heerema, who was renowned as a maritime engineer but was condemned for his service in the murderous Nazi Waffen SS. The choice of name has provoked outcry and has revived painful questions about Dutch collaboration with the country's World War II occupiers.
Edwin Heerema's company, Swiss-based Allseas Group SA, rejected criticism. "Pieter Schelte Heerema was widely appreciated in the industry during his life and the companies that came from his heritage have an excellent name in the offshore industry," spokesman Jeroen Hagelstein e-mailed in response to questions.
It's an awkward matter for the government. It gave Allseas' Netherlands subsidiary a $1 million tax break for its part in designing the ship, and now acknowledges it didn't notice the name until a Dutch journalist, Ton Biesemaat, raised the issue. Hagelstein said Heerema joined the Nazis out of opposition to communism rather than enthusiasm for national socialism. He said he then switched sides and joined the resistance in 1943 "as he could no longer associate himself with the ideas of the Nazis." He noted that Heerema was tried and released shortly after the war, which shows he "cannot have been seriously delinquent." The respected Netherlands Institute for War Documentation said that's technically accurate. Heerema was sentenced by a Dutch court to three years in prison but quickly released, the courts having recognized his unspecified but "very important" services to the resistance between August 1943 and March 1944.
Read the entire article at
Associated Press
06 November 2008
(AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
While businesses all around the world are struggling in these difficult times, it's boom time for one type of establishment in Amsterdam. The coffee shops, for which the city has become famous, are full and doing brisk trade in carry-out cannabis and, for the more indulgent, "smoke-in" spliffs. (...)
"Business is good. The tougher the economical situation is, the more we're selling, because more people need to relax from stressful situations," said Co, a manager at Amsterdam's Abraxas coffee shop, who did not want his full name revealed. There is only one major restraint for the passing puffer: The joint has to be pure. The Netherlands passed a tobacco-smoking ban July 1, putting it in line with many other European countries.
"People are much more bothered by the nonsmoking ban, which was forced on us last summer, than they are by the financial crisis, which has hit Holland, too," Co said. "After the smoking ban was imposed we've seen a drop in sales of drinks and beverages, because the socializing factor is gone. More and more customers buy the drugs and take them home rather than staying at the coffee shop and have a smoke over a drink. I believe people will save on big things, like a new car or a new TV set, but they won't save on soft drugs." According to Co, "In times of crisis, you treat yourself to small luxuries."
Read the entire article at
ABC News
04 November 2008
Luxembourg's prime minister and the German and Dutch finance ministers backed Democrat Barack Obama to win the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday.
Germany's Peer Steinbrueck shouted "Obama" and Wouter Bos of the Netherlands laughed as he mouthed "Obama" to reporters who asked them which candidate they preferred before a meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels. (...) European Union foreign ministers meeting in the French city of Marseille on Monday did not say who they would prefer to deal with next in Washington. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the EU had prepared a letter for the next U.S. president, seeking more involvement for the 27-nation bloc in resolving world problems.
More at
Reuters
03 November 2008
From
Radio Netherlands:
A controversial anti-blasphemy law is being scrapped by the Dutch government. The move is remarkable as two of the current three members of the ruling coalition are Christian parties and they had originally wanted to maintain the ban. In scrapping the law the cabinet is meeting the demand of parliament where a majority of parties argued that offering religious groups an extra layer of legal protection is outdated. As an alternative the cabinet is now seeking to strengthen anti-discrimination laws against groups whatever their background, thus taking the religious component out of the equation.
Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin, says the law will now offer the same protection to all.
There has been much discussion about the balance between freedom of speech and the right not to be discriminated against in the past few years in the Netherlands, particularly around the role of Islam in society. (...) The Dutch anti-blasphemy law was much talked about - against the backdrop of the continual criticism of Fitna and of its maker Geert Wilders - as a possible means of redress for those who felt offended. Stand-up comedians and cartoonists who sought to satirise extremist Islam have also found themselves being threatened with possible prosecution under the anti-blasphemy law in the past few years. The discussion about the use of the law, which dates back to the 1930s, made a lot of people worried that the right to freedom of speech was being eroded and that the rights of the religious not to be offended was being given the upper hand.
Read more
here.
02 November 2008
AP Photo/Van Gogh Museum
Two portraits whose authenticity was in doubt have been verified as real Van Goghs, the museum named for the Dutch master confirmed Friday. One portrait is the face and torso of a woman in a hat. In the second, a lady sits with gloved hands folded in her lap. Because the themes were so common in the 19th century and the paintings had little similarity to the rest of the work by Vincent van Gogh, their authorship was in doubt, said spokeswoman Natalie Bos of the Van Gogh Museum. However, a review of physical and historical evidence showed Van Gogh painted them, probably in the spring of 1886 while he was studying under the painter Fernand Cormon in Paris. Chemical analysis showed the paint was identical to other works definitely attributed to Van Gogh in that period. On the back of one of the portraits was the stamp of a paint merchant near where Van Gogh lived with his brother Theo at that time, the museum said in a statement. The picture frames also were by the same manufacturer as other confirmed Van Goghs of that period, Bos said.
More at
Associated Press
30 October 2008
Changes to the cockpit of a new fighter jet could offer hope to would-be pilots who are turned down for the Dutch air force because their legs are too long, an official said. "We had a list of operational requirements, and one of these was that Dutch pilots should fit in the cockpits," air force spokeswoman Sascha Louwhoff told AFP referring to the new aircraft currently under development.
"It may be funny, but it's true... Our pilots are obviously taller than Italian or Turkish pilots. Over the years, the Dutch people have grown taller, and we've had to keep up with that."
To this end, producer Lockheed Martin has agreed to make changes to the cockpit of the Joint Strike Fighter which is being jointly developed by nine nations including the Netherlands, said Louwhoff.
Currently, the Dutch air force is compelled to turn down aspirant pilots who are too tall in spite of their other qualifications, added Louwhoff. "There is a limit if you simply don't fit into the cockpit. Obviously this is not something we want to do, and we want to be able to choose from a bigger group," she said.
More at
AFP
27 October 2008
Global warming is taking a heavier toll than previously thought on a grueling 120-mile speedskating marathon over frozen rivers and canals linking 11 towns in Friesland. A study published Friday by the respected Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said the race is likely to be held only once every 18 years because of higher winter temperatures. Three years ago, it estimated the likelihood at once every 10 years.
Organizers insist on a minimum thickness of 6 inches of ice along virtually the entire route in the northern province of Friesland to ensure it is safe enough to carry thousands of skaters. The rule means that races have always been rare. Known locally as the Elfstedentocht, it has only been held 15 times since the first official event in 1909.
Despite the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, there were four races in the 1940s — three of them during the war.
There were two in the 1950s and then in 1963, which was recognized as the toughest ever because of a strength-sapping combination of icy temperatures, strong winds and snow. A gap followed of 22 years until back-to-back races in 1985 and 1986. Since then, the only race was in 1997, won by brussels sprouts farmer Henk Angenent in 6 hours and 49 minutes — less than half the original winner's time.
More at
Associated Press
24 October 2008
Vermeer. © Van Gogh Museum
Vermeer, Rembrandt, Matisse and Picasso: 125 works by some of the world's most celebrated artists have been assembled in Amsterdam for a unique homage to the Netherlands' oldest art patron. Entitled "125 Favourites", the exhibition at the
Van Gogh Museum boasts paintings, sculptures and other masterpieces from more than 30 Dutch museums, under one roof for the first time. Among the pieces on display: an array of portraits by 17th century Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn, French artist Henri Matisse's "The Parakeet and the Siren" from 1952, and Spaniard Pablo Picasso's "Femme en Vert" (Woman in Green) from 1909.
"For the first and only time 125 of the most important and significant acquisitions are currently being exhibited, from a large Chinese Bodhisattva (Buddhist deity) dating back to the 12th century to the famous Love Letter by (Dutch painter Johannes) Vermeer, purchased for the Rijksmuseum in 1892," said organisers.
More at
AFP
21 October 2008
A prepublication of the soon to be published 3rd and updated edition of our book!
2500 international students will gather on November 8th in The Hague for the Day of the International Student. Marc Resch analyzes for them the ways their Dutch hosts have been perceived. 'Napoleon Bonaparte dismissed Holland as “a smoke-room full of obese cheese-mongers and devious bank cashiers.”' A new edition of his riveting Only in Holland, Only the Dutch will be released shortly. Read his prepublication on ScienceGuide.
19 October 2008
Clandestine cannabis growers in the Netherlands net two billion euros (2.7 billion dollars) a year - worth almost half the country's horticultural sector - a Dutch newspaper reported on Saturday. By comparison, according to NRC Handelsblad, country's horticultural sector generates about 5.5 billion euros in annual income. "There is major demand from England, Belgium, Germany, France, the Scandinavian countries and at the moment the Baltic countries," Max Daniel, the senior police officer who heads the Dutch agency charged with combatting cannabis-growing, told the newspaper. Police investigations suggested that about 500 tonnes of Dutch cannabis were exported each year.
In July, the Dutch government set up a committee to examine and coordinate the fight against cannabis production, an activity in constant growth and increasingly professionalised.
More at
AFP
19 October 2008
Dutch financial group ING is in talks with the Dutch government about a state-backed cash injection estimated to be worth up to 9 billion euros ($12.12 billion), the Sunday Times reported. The Netherlands' biggest listed bank, which said on Friday that it was about to announce its first-ever quarterly loss, is expected to announce a deal in the next 24 hours, the paper reported.
Dutch public broadcaster NOS also reported that ING was working on a plan over the weekend to boost its capital position and that details could emerge on Sunday. ING declined to comment on the reports on Sunday. A spokesman for the firm said on Saturday that ING was considering several options to shore up its capital position, including taking government money. The Dutch Finance Ministry and Dutch central bank declined to comment.
More at
Reuters
17 October 2008
The image of Germans in the Netherlands is showing a glimmer of hope after the atrocities of the Nazis: In the tiny village of Goirle, a civil initiative has decided to erect a memorial to the German World War II soldier Karl-Heinz Rosch. He gave his life to save two children.
The steel helmet is unmistakable: the Wehrmacht, the notorious armed forces of Nazi Germany. Most Dutch people recognize it immediately. Now the artist Riet van der Louw has created a statue of a soldier with the hated helmet. And despite objections, Dutch citizens have collected thousands of euros so that the controversial memorial can be cast in bronze and put on display. “We will not be honouring the Wehrmacht, but rather the humanity of a young German soldier,” said the leader of the memorial initiative, Herman van Rouwendaal.
The young German’s name was Karl-Heinz Rosch. Three days after he turned 18, on October 6, 1944, he did something on a farm in the southern Netherlands community of Goirle that would make him a hero in the eyes of many: Under fire from Allied forces, the German snatched up two defenseless children and brought them to safety. When he then ran after his retreating comrades, a bullet hit him under his arm — exactly where he had just been carrying the children.
Read the entire article at
Welt Online
14 October 2008
From
Readers Digest:
55% of respondents in the Netherlands would be interested in moving to America if economic and political barriers were non-existent. 8% of respondents in the Netherlands support McCain while 92% support Obama. 13% of respondents in the Netherlands said they are pro-American government while 66% reported being neutral and 21% said they are anti-American government.
For more and the full article
How the world sees the 2008 election click
here
Shop Only in Holland
» 2010 Tour de France to start in Rotterdam
The 2010 Tour de France will start from the Dutch port city of Rotterdam - race organizers organisers ASO confirmed on Thursday. The Tour's 97th edition will start on July 3 and the route for the stage will be unveiled in Rotterdam on December 11. Rotterdam won the nod ahead of fellow-Dutch city Utrecht while German city Dusseldorf had also expressed an interest. The Tour has previously started from the Netherlands on four occasions. Amsterdam, which in 1954 became the first non-French starting point, Scheveningen (1973), Leiden (1978) and 's-Hertogenbosch (1996).
CNN International
» Dutch insurer may tap fund
Aegon, the Dutch owner of the American insurer Transamerica, said Tuesday it had signed up with the United States’ financial rescue program but added it did not yet plan to ask for aid. If it does ask for emergency financing from the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program, Transamerica could request a minimum of $1 billion (794 million euros) based on the size of the company. Aegon has already received a 3 billion euro ($3.7 billion) lifeline from the Dutch government.
More at
The New York Times
» Dutch arrest dozens at Greenpeace chain protest
Dutch police on Saturday arrested more than 80 Greenpeace activists, many of whom had chained themselves to structures and machinery at the site of a new coal-fired power station in Rotterdam. The environmental group said its action, part of a Europe-wide protest against German power giant EON, was to protest an "unfolding climate disaster". Police spokeswoman Mignon van der Laan told AFP the 82 people arrested had been taken to three police stations in Rotterdam for trespassing on the Maasvlakte building site. "They will all be freed by the end of the evening," she said.
The group had set up camp on the perimeters of the site on Friday night. "This morning, in spite of an agreement with the police, they entered the site and were therefore trespassing," said Van der Laan. Thirty-two among the group chained themselves to machinery, buildings and cranes, and had to be freed by police. "We had to arrest all of them. Fifty have been fined for being on forbidden territory, but the 32 who chained themselves will be given a warning to appear in a Dutch court within days to answer to charges." Three journalists were also fined.
Read the entire article at
AFP
» New report finds Dutch healthcare system best in EU
Portugal, Malta and Cyprus are among several member states which ‘struggle to deliver adequate levels of care’, according to a new EU-wide report. The report puts the Netherlands at the top of a healthcare ‘league table’, saying US president-elect Barrack Obama would do well to use the Dutch system as a source of inspiration for his own country. Also highlighted is Estonia, described as a ‘beacon of potential’ for demonstrating “how to deliver quality performance with relatively low levels of expenditure.”
Johan Hjertqvist, president of the Brussels-based Health Consumer Powerhouse (HCP), the organisation which carried out the study, said, “In the past four years, the Netherlands have been in the top three among European healthcare systems in all our general healthcare indexes. “It is no exaggeration to say that the Dutch have the best healthcare system in Europe. When the Obama healthcare policy team looks at Europe for inspiration it seems to be the right system to study.”
More at
The Parliament.com
» Report: Natalee Holloway suspect involved in Thai sex trafficking
A suspect in the 2005 disappearance of an Alabama teen in Aruba is involved in selling Thai women into prostitution, a Dutch TV reporter claims. Reporter Peter De Vries has made a second hidden-camera expose on Dutch student Joran Van der Sloot, who was believed to be with Natalee Holloway when she vanished while on a senior trip to Aruba. De Vries won an Emmy this year for another report on Van Der Sloot, 21, in which the student admits to dumping Holloway’s body after she suddenly began shaking and died as they were kissing.
De Vries’ latest report, which was shown Sunday night on Dutch television, shows Van der Sloot telling someone posing as a sex-industry boss that he can get passports for Thai women and girls who think they are going to the Netherlands to work as dancers. Van der Sloot makes about $13,000 for every woman sold into prostitution in the Netherlands, De Vries claims.
More at
Fox News and Peter R. de Vries'
website (in Dutch)
» Dutch women settle for part-time work
Whether they have children or not, Dutch women don't want to work full time. This is the conclusion of a report published by the Social and Cultural Planning Office today. Only seven percent of women who work part time would prefer to work a 35-hour week if they could. In the Netherlands it seems that part-time work for women has become an obvious lifestyle choice. While the majority of men feel they inevitably have to work for a living, only a third of women have the same feeling. So in Dutch families, the traditional model is still dominant. Men work full time and develop their career, while women bring in extra money with a part-time job, and don't see their career as a priority. (...) Although the percentage of women who work in the Netherlands is comfortably above the European average, as this report shows, this doesn't mean they are going all-out for careers in full-time jobs. More women work part time here than in any other European country. It seems to have become a self-evident part of Dutch culture for women to work only part time. This is true not only in the family - at home women still do much more of the housework than men do - but also in the workplace. The Social and Cultural Planning Office puts the situation down to government policy in the 1980s. In an attempt to encourage women to enter the labour market, the government stimulated part-time work. As a result, part-time workers enjoy better pay and conditions here than they do for example in Britain, Germany or France.
Read the entire article
Radio Netherlands
» Dutch reactions to the election of Barack Obama
A round up of Dutch reactions to the historic election of Barack Obama at the
Moderate Voice.
» Is the Netherlands waterproof?
Preparing for a potential 'Katrina-like' scenario, a major five-day flood disaster exercise involving about 10,000 civil servants and rescue workers throughout the Netherlands kicked off on Monday. This disaster drill has been given the name ‘Waterproef' which, although it sounds like the English ‘waterproof', actually means water-test or trial by water. Its aim is to establish whether councils, provincial administrations and government agencies would be able to pull together well enough in the face of the worst imaginable flood disaster. (...)
People in just a few areas are going to be directly affected by disaster simulations. In the central Dutch town of Leerdam, 200 people will take part in an evacuation exercise, and a rescue demonstration is being held near Nijkerk to the northeast of Utrecht. Emergency sandbags will be laid at two weak spots in the sea-defence dunes near Katwijk on the coast north of The Hague.
Read the entire article at
Radio Netherlands
» Rock The Bells hits Amsterdam in November
The annual Rock The Bells Festival will be making its way to Amsterdam on 1st November 2008 as part of its international festival series. It is a chance to see some of the world's pre-eminent and veteran hip-hop stars performing on stage. This year's festival will launch in Prague on October 31st, before making its way to Amsterdam's Heineken Music Hall. Artists will perform in a string of other European cities, including Paris and London, before the concluding performance at Manchester's Apollo Theatre on November 12th. The line-up will include Mos Def, De La Soul and Nas, who has expressed his excitement at having the chance to perform in Europe's first Rock The Bells event.
More at
Hostelbookers.com
» Two-day power cut causes 'baby boom' in Dutch community
A small Dutch community has recorded a 44 percent rise in baby births nine months after a power cut plunged its 23,000 inhabitants into darkness for two days. In December last year, the blades of an Apache helicopter accidentally severed the high voltage cables providing electricity to the nine villages that make up the municipality of Maasdriel in the east of the country.
During the ensuing 50 hours of darkness, many inhabitants sought mid-winter hospitality in other towns, "but some found heat among themselves," town spokeswoman Annelies van Eijkeren told AFP. There were 26 babies born in Maasdriel in September - a 44 percent rise on last year's 18, she added.
More at
AFP
» Heineken Experience reopens 3 November 2008
The Heineken Experience, one of Amsterdam's most popular tourist attractions will reopen on 3 November 2008 after undergoing extensive remodelling and expansion. The new Heineken Experience has been designed to bring the values of the Heineken brand to life in an entertaining and contemporary way. Amongst many new elements, guests will experience an interactive journey through the brewing process and will have the opportunity to create and take home their own personalised bottle of Heineken. The working stables and iconic Heineken shire horses will also be accessible via a newly constructed "stable walk". Once the tour is over, guests will be able to relax with a refreshing glass of Heineken.
To announce the reopening, an online media campaign is also being launched today. Central to the campaign is a short film, apparently shot by two visitors who have sneaked into the new Heineken Experience to get an 'unofficial' preview. At
heinekenexperience.com, consumers can keep track of these 'intruders'.
More at
Marketwatch.com
» Dutch say unlocked bike not enticement to steal
The Dutch Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a bicycle thief who stole a decoy bike planted by police. Lawyers for the convicted thief — a repeat offender who was sentenced to 22 days in jail — had argued that leaving the bike unlocked amounted to entrapment. But the five-judge court has rejected that, saying the man wasn't personally targeted.
More at
AP
» Dutch towns close coffee-shops to ward off 'drug tourists'
Two Dutch towns said Thursday they planned to close their cannabis smoking coffee-shops after admitting that an influx of up to 25,000 French and Belgian "drug tourists" each week had become too much. Local authorities in southwestern Roosendaal and Bergen-op-Doom announced they could no longer cope with the "drug tourists" whose presence they blamed for traffic congestion, crime and unlicensed dealing. All eight coffee-shops in the two towns will shut, with closures beginning in February 2009.
Liberal drugs laws in the Netherlands allow people to carry five grammes of marijuana on their person without being prosecuted. Another border town, Terneuzen, announced Wednesday it would toughen its local by-laws on the sale of cannabis from May next year. Opening hours would be restricted and the amount each customer could buy would also be reduced.
AFP
» Dutch youths convicted of virtual theft
A Dutch court has convicted two youths of theft for stealing virtual items in a computer game and sentenced them to community service. Only a handful of such cases have been heard in the world, and they have reached varying conclusions about the legal status of "virtual goods." The Leeuwarden District Court says the culprits, 15 and 14 years old, coerced a 13-year-old boy into transferring a "virtual amulet and a virtual mask" from the online adventure game RuneScape to their game accounts. "These virtual goods are goods (under Dutch law), so this is theft," the court said Tuesday in a summary of its ruling.
More at
Associated Press
» Dutch flower exports wilt amid world economic downturn
The Netherlands, the world's biggest flower exporter, has seen its bloom trade wilt as luxury items get passed over for essentials amid the global economic downturn. Flower exports to Britain, a major Dutch market, fell by almost a fifth in September, losing 19 percent from the same month in 2007, according to figures published this week by industry body HBAG.
What started as an obsession with the humble tulip, imported from Turkey in the 16th century, saw the Netherlands blossom into a world leader in flower cultivation and trade. The Dutch tulip mania of the early 1600s is often said to have been the world's first recorded speculative economic bubble.
Four-hundred years after the devastating burst of the tulip bubble - at the height of which single bulbs were worth several times people's annual incomes and were being traded for land, livestock and houses - Dutch flower exports now fetch billions of euros a year.
AFP
» Imperial Rome!
Exhibition in the
Kunsthal Rotterdam (11 October 2008 to 8 March 2009): The influence of the Roman Empire stretches up to the present. Western script, the weight system and the names of the months: all Roman inventions that still determine our daily lives. Kunsthal Rotterdam shows the wealth of emperial Rome and presents, with a collection of 450 objects, one of the largest exhibitions ever on classical culture. Numerous marble sculptures, refined jewelry, authentic terracotta, cameo, glasswork and coins give a clear impression of religious perception, external care, housing, trade and politics at the time of the Roman Empire (27 B.C.-395A.D.). Attention is also focused on the Netherlands, through which the northern frontier of the Empire ran in those days.
Roman Culture is brought to life through splendid mirrors, hair combs and dangling earrings that at the same time give a vivid impression of the way Romans were involved with outward appearance. Busts, coins and cameo show the rulers of the city, from August and Nero up to Constantine. Altarpieces, urns and ritual objects show religious perception and the belief in different gods amongst whom Hermes, the herald and messenger, and Bacchus, god of wine. Roman private life becomes visible through architectural models of an urban domus and a rural villa. Public life is also highlighted with gladiator fights, popular games and Roman bathing culture in the well-known Thermae.
» Bonaire police: "Missing Dutch girl's body found"
Police sources on the Netherlands Antilles island of Bonaire say the body of missing Dutch girl Marlies van der Kouwe has been found. In the last 24 hours, police sealed off a stretch of land on the island in connection with their investigation into her disappearance and specialists from the Netherlands Forensic Institute were called in to search the area. The 24-year-old pharmacist's assistant vanished last month after leaving a beach party to travel home on her scooter.
Radio Netherlands
» Fortis shareholders to sue company bosses in Dutch court
Shareholders of former Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis, now dismantled and part-nationalised, are to sue three former company bosses in a Netherlands court for fraud, their lawyer told AFP Thursday. The shareholders have appointed a firm of advocates in Amsterdam to represent their claim against former Fortis chairman Maurice Lippens, chief executive Jean-Paul Votron and chief financial officer Gilbert Mittler, said Hendrik Jan Bos.
"We want damages of 10 euros per share for the period January to June this year when they misled shareholders by stating that all was well," he told AFP.
More at
AFP
