Windmills have storied history in NY, captured by city's seal

30 September 2008 Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s vision of a city powered by air is nothing new in New York. For a sneak peek at the mayor’s spinning skyline of tomorrow, one need look no further than the almost-400-year-old city seal. There it is, smack in the middle, between a pilgrim type in breeches and a strapping Indian with a longbow: a windmill.
“We came here on the sailing ships, and the wind brought us to New Amsterdam 400 years ago,” Gajus Scheltema, the consul general of the Netherlands, said from his New York office. “We were proud to be at the very root of New York, and the windmill, for me, is the symbol of the energy that drives New York. The wheels are spinning around, and it shows we are going back to energy resources we were using 400 years ago.”
There were no fewer than four windmills in place in 1638, when New York was still New Amsterdam and owned by the Dutch, according to the authoritative tome “Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898,” by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace. Granted, they were in various states of disrepair even then: “Only one gristmill and one sawmill remained in operation,” the book states.
Read the entire article here (New York Times)

More about Dutch New York in the archives:
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

Fortis fails; Receives EU11.2 billion rescue from Benelux governments

28 September 2008 Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg invested 11.2 billion euros ($16.3 billion) in Fortis, Belgium's biggest financial-services firm, partially nationalizing the bank in a move to restore investor confidence. Brussels and Amsterdam-based Fortis will also sell its stake in ABN Amro Holding NV's banking unit, Belgium's Prime Minister Yves Leterme said a press conference today.
Bloomberg

Huge European bank fails
The Belgian prime minister says the troubled Dutch-Belgian banking and insurance giant Fortis NV will be partially nationalized. Prime Minister Yves Leterme says the deal was reached during talks Sunday between EU and national banking officials and ministers from the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments. (...) Fortis will also be forced to sell off its stake in Dutch bank ABN Amro, which it partially took over last year. All three nations hope to prevent Fortis from falling victim to the credit crisis and to reassure investors and account holders that their money is not at risk.
CNN

Dutchman busted for smoking tobacco in cannabis coffee house

26 September 2008 In the first coffee shop bust since the Dutch imposed a ban on tobacco smoking in public places earlier this year, an unnamed 27-year-old Amsterdam man has been issued a fine for smoking a marijuana joint laced with tobacco, the Netherlands Information Service reported. If he fails to pay the fine, his case will automatically advance to the courts, where it would be the first case to punish someone for illegally smoking a legal product in a legal business selling an illegal product. (Marijuana remains illegal under Dutch law, although the Dutch pragmatically regulate its sale.)
Although Dutch police are not charged with enforcing the smoking ban -- it is the domain of the Food and Non-Food Authority (VWA) -- the man was issued a citation by a police officer. "If a police officer signals an infringement, he does not close his eyes to it," according to a police spokesman.
More at Drug War Chronicle

Emmy for Dutch reporters' Natalee Holloway broadcast

23 September 2008 Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries has received an Emmy Award, the most prestigious US television prize, for his film about the disappearance of US teenager Natalee Holloway. The 18-year-old student from Alabama disappeared without trace after a night on the town while on vacation in Aruba. In the film, a man who had befriended the main suspect Joran van der Sloot, talked at length with him in a Land Rover equipped with hidden cameras. During the conversations the suspect gave a detailed account of how Natalee Holloway lost consciousness and possibly died on the beach, and how he disposed of the body.

Mr De Vries accepted the award in New York together with Natalee's mother Beth. They dedicated the award to Natalee's memory. Mr De Vries' film was watched by seven million viewers in the Netherlands, nearly half the population. US television network ABC bought the rights to the film and added its own interviews as part of a special broadcast on prime time television: 'The Final Hours of Natalee Holloway'.

The film gave new impulse to the stalled investigation into Natalee's disappearance, but did not lead to his renewed incarceration. Mr Van der Sloot's lawyer says the court refused permission because his client stated that his statements to Mr Van der Eem, the driver of the bugged Landrover, were verifiably false. The Public Prosecutor's Office said that the court took into account Mr Van der Sloot's personality disorder, i.e. his being a pathological liar. However, the Aruban Public Prosecutor's Office says that Joran van der Sloot is still under investigation. The authorities will decide at the end of this year whether there is sufficient evidence to bring him to trial.
More at Radio Netherlands

More in the archives:
Dutch reporter claims to crack Holloway case
Update: New clues in Holloway mystery
Joran van der Sloot will not be rearrested

Only In Holland.com Was Here

20 September 2008 Some of the places where OnlyinHolland.com spent time this past week. Get your beers and tosti's and other goodies there. Plus, where to eat and drink if you find yourself in Hoorn for a couple of hours.


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Major setback for Amsterdam subway project

14 September 2008 An accident that damaged the foundations of centuries-old downtown buildings shut down work Thursday on Amsterdam's troubled new subway line. Mayor Job Cohen ordered a freeze on the project — once touted as a showcase for Dutch engineering expertise — after a breach in a retaining wall led to the evacuation of six buildings.
"We'll have to do everything to get our credibility back," he told reporters at a news conference in his ceremonial mansion, only several hundred meters from the scene of the accident, which buckled the floors of buildings and sent plaster crashing from walls and ceilings.
The North-South line is being tunneled through the soggy ground of Amsterdam's historic center, where 16th-century houses rest on foundations stabilized by wooden poles. In the accident Wednesday night, water gushed from under the houses into a construction pit beneath them, causing foundations to sink by up to 9 inches in two hours. Around 20 residents spent the night with friends or in hotels. Tjeerd Herrema, the alderman who is overseeing the project, said Thursday it would take major reconstruction to repair the buildings.
"I have bad news for those people: they are going to have to count on living somewhere else for many months," he said.
More at Associated Press

Dutch state not liable for Srebrenica deaths: court

10 September 2008 A Dutch court Wednesday dismissed a bid by Bosnian Muslim survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre to hold the Netherlands liable for its troops' failure to protect the so-called safe haven.
"The claim is denied," presiding judge Hans Hofhuis said in the district court in The Hague. Two groups of plaintiffs had claimed that the UN Dutch troops protecting the enclave had handed Muslim refugees over to Bosnian Serb forces, who killed some 8,000 of them. But the court found that the soldiers had acted under the flag of the UN and the Dutch state could therefore not be held accountable, saying the "actions must be attributed exclusively to the United Nations."
The judgment, at the conclusion of a six-year court case, said: "This means that the State cannot be held responsible for any breach of contract or wrongful act committed by Dutchbat. Neither is the State liable for wrongful action taken by those in charge of the armed forces or members of the National Government."
AFP

Dutch help the 'Big Easy' face the future

05 September 2008 From Radio Netherlands:

Hurricane Gustav has passed and New Orleans is turning back into a city again as its inhabitants return home. Given the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina three years ago, you can understand why most locals weren't taking any chances, and over 90 percent of them fled the city. Since the floods of 2005, which killed 1500 people and caused 80 billion US dollars' worth of damage, New Orleans has been working to rebuild its communities and its defences, and Dutch expertise has been part of that.

Dr Mathijs van Ledden didn't hesitate for a single moment when he was asked, in 2007, to travel to New Orleans from Holland, to see if he could help the US Army Corps of Engineers out of a problem. "It's now or never", he thought - and so he and his family packed their bags and left for New Orleans. Life is sweet in the 'Big Easy', as the city is also called. The food is superb, thanks to the historic links with Spain and France, as is the music and most of the other arts.
The downside is that "Nouvelle Orleans" - founded in 1717 - was built on a bend in the Mississippi river. Beautiful position, but against the advice of engineers at the time, who predicted flooding ahead. And they were right. The US Army Corps had been called by the administration in Washington DC to bring order to the chaos after Hurricane Katrina had struck and devastated the area, leaving almost 2000 dead and many more injured or fleeing the region.

The corps knew that Holland had a great tradition and experience in building levees and water-resisting dykes, being not only below sea level itself but also devastated several times by sea water since the beginning of the 11th century. This happened most recently in 1953 when 2000 Dutch citizens lost their lives in the province of Zeeland. So, members of the corps decided to visit the Netherlands and establish contacts at government level. Through the Netherlands' embassy in Washington DC and the US embassy in The Hague they managed to touch base with a number of Dutch companies. There are three companies from Holland now operating in and around New Orleans.

Read the entire article here.

Dutch to boost flood protection measures

03 September 2008 The Netherlands must spend nearly 2 billion euros ($2.9 billion) annually in the coming decades to protect low-lying areas from coastal flooding, the Dutch government said on Wednesday. With sea levels projected to climb as much as 1.3 meters (4 ft 3 in) this century and another 2 to 4 meters in the next, current flood and sea defenses will not be enough to protect the country of 16 million people from surging tides, said the commission, led by former agriculture minister, Cees Veerman.

The Delta Commission, which shares its name with the Delta project that fortified water defenses after a deadly flood in 1953, put forward 12 recommendations, including building dikes, creating river water basins and adding land to the coastline. A quarter of the Netherlands lies below sea level, and a 100-plus crowd of journalists, politicians, corporate officials and organizations gathered in the Hague for the commission's report, underscoring the Dutch obsession with water management.
Among the group's recommendations, which will cost over 100 billion euros this century or about 0.5 percent of the nation's total income, is a proposal to add land to the 350 km Dutch coast in a way that promotes the build up of sand. The Netherlands - literally the Low Countries - has a long history of pioneering technology to help it claw back land from the sea and fight recurrent flooding.

Balkenende said he would introduce a funding bill next year, including a "Delta fund" created with money from natural gas income and long-term state bonds. "Financing of the fund should be independent from political short-term priorities or the economic cycle," the group said. Dutch firms have led a number of major coastal projects around the world, and U.S. officials sought Dutch advice on water management after floods devastated New Orleans in 2005.

Reuters

Oranje After Euro 2008: A New Era?

03 September 2008 From Goal.com:

The Dutch FA has appointed former Feyenoord manager Bert van Marwijk as Marco Van Basten’s successor. San Marco was Holland’s boss for the past four years, but failed to achieve his goal of winning Euro 2008. Will Van Marwijk make any major changes, or will he follow the path Van Basten created?

After his appointment as Holland manager, Van Basten promised the Dutch attacking and dominating football. Despite these promising words, Oranje largely struggled under the Van Basten regime. Nevertheless, The Netherlands never had any problems qualifying for the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008, despite some horrible displays.
The 2006 WC in Germany was something to forget about as quickly as possible for The Netherlands. (...) Euro 2008, however, was a tournament to be proud of for the Dutch. Once again drawn in a 'group of death', Holland thrashed Italy 3-0, France 4-1 and Romania 2-0 to set up a meeting with Russia in the quarter-finals. Expectations were high, as the world had touted Oranje as the champions elect. Nevertheless, things didn't go according to plan or predictions. Guus Hiddink’s men outclassed their opponents and defeated The Netherlands 3-1.
Despite the lack of finals and trophies, the Van Basten era can’t be considered a waste of time. The young manager decided to opt for a 4-2-3-1 formation, instead of the traditional 4-3-3, and this choice turned out to be a good one. Their lack of world-class defenders makes it necessary for Holland to use an attacking style of play and Holland have some classy attacking midfielders and forwards who perfectly fit into the system.

The appointment of Bert van Marwijk as new Holland boss wasn’t a big surprise. He was in charge of Feyenoord in 2002 when they won the UEFA cup and is widely regarded as a manager who knows what he’s doing. His knowledge of the Eredivisie in combination with his experience abroad as Borussia Dortmund manager made him the perfect candidate. The majority of the Holland internationals reacted to his appointment in a positive manner.
The Holland vs. Russia friendly on 20 August gave a first sneak preview to Van Marwijk’s plans for the Oranje side. As expected, he opted to play with a 4-2-3-1 formation, with important roles for his two holding midfielders. Bayern Munich skipper Mark van Bommel returned to Oranje, alongside all the usual suspects. (...) Thus, it appears that Van Marwijk isn’t planning any major changes. The biggest difference is the fact that Van Marwijk refused to make any empty promises about dominating and attacking football, but opted to make a positive result his primary objective and regard a beautiful match as a nice side effect.

Read the entire article here