30 January 2009
From the
New York Times, by Ian Buruma:
If it were not for his hatred of Islam, Geert Wilders would have remained a provincial Dutch parliamentarian of little note. He is now world-famous, mainly for wanting the Koran to be banned in his country, “like Mein Kampf is banned,” and for making a crude short film that depicted Islam as a terrorist faith — or, as he puts it, “that sick ideology of Allah and Muhammad.” Last year the Dutch government decided that such views, though coarse, were an acceptable contribution to political debate. Yet last week an Amsterdam court decided that Mr. Wilders should be prosecuted for “insulting” and “spreading hatred” against Muslims. Dutch criminal law can be invoked against anyone who “deliberately insults people on the grounds of their race, religion, beliefs or sexual orientation.”
Whether Mr. Wilders has deliberately insulted Muslim people is for the judges to decide. But for a man who calls for a ban on the Koran to act as the champion of free speech is a bit rich. When the British Parliament refused to screen Mr. Wilders’s film at Westminster this week, he cited this as “yet more proof that Europe is losing its freedom.” His defenders, by no means all right-wingers, also claim to be standing up for freedom. A Dutch law professor said he found it “strange” that a man should be prosecuted for “criticizing a book.” This seems a trifle obtuse. Comparing a book that billions hold sacred to Hitler’s murderous tract is more than an exercise in literary criticism; it suggests that those who believe in the Koran are like Nazis, and an all-out war against them would be justified. This kind of thinking, presumably, is what the Dutch law court is seeking to check.
The lawsuit against Mr. Wilders has been hailed in the Netherlands as a good thing for democracy. I am not so sure. It makes him look more important than he should be. In fact, the response of Dutch Muslims to his film last year was exemplary: most said nothing at all. And when a small Dutch Muslim TV station offered to broadcast the film, after all other stations had refused, the grand champion of free speech resolutely turned the offer down.
Read the entire article
here
29 January 2009
Four hundred years after Henry Hudson sailed a Dutch ship up the river that now bears his name and discovered what would become New York City, the New York and Dutch governments are planning a massive celebration of the city’s history and waterfront. Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg Wednesday in announcing plans for a year of events, exhibits and performances, culminating in Harbor Day Sept. 13. The first annual Harbor Day will include free ferry rides and free bike rentals in Manhattan and Brooklyn and on Governors Island.
One permanent feature of the celebration will be a 5,000-square-foot New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion erected at the Battery by the end of the year, a gift from the Dutch government designed by Dutch architect Ben van Berkel. Bloomberg unveiled a model of the pavilion at a press conference Wednesday, which Warrie Price, president of the Battery Conservancy, also attended.
Cohen, the Amsterdam mayor, said New York and his city have much in common, including the significance of maritime and creative industries. “The Netherlands and New York City have a unique connection that links the two not only in terms of history, but also current priorities and future legacy,” Cohen said in a statement.
Read the entire article at
Downtown Express
28 January 2009
The Dutch, who brought us Heineken and other spirits, love a good revelry. A high-level government delegation from the Netherlands visited Albany Tuesday to make sure that they don't miss a chance to party like it's 1609. "It's the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson sailing here and the Dutch want to be part of it. We're the ones who sent him here, after all," said Frans Timmermans, Minister for European Affairs. He was joined by the Dutch Consul-General, Gaius Scheltera, and Martin Berendse, director of the National Archives in The Hague. They had meetings scheduled with Mayor Jerry Jennings and Gov. David Paterson in advance of a major announcement in New York City today. "This is an unprecedented contingent from the Netherlands," said Charles Gehring, director of the New Netherland Project, who hosted the Dutch visitors.
They discussed ideas for this year's Hudson-Champlain-Fulton Quadricentennial celebrations in Albany and Amsterdam. Similar to the situation here, planning has been a bit sluggish in the Netherlands and the average Dutch citizen has been slow to get excited about marking the historic milestone, Timmermans said. "It's a very important year on both sides of the Atlantic and we want to hear what the governor and mayor are planning," said Timmermans, who directs his country's cultural exchanges. "Part of my mission is to make sure the Dutch are very much aware of this quadricentennial anniversary," he said.
More at
Times Union.com
OnlyinHolland.com is ready for the celebrations with a variety of
1609 t-shirts at Cafepress.com!
25 January 2009
From
The New York Times:
What F. Scott Fitzgerald called the “fresh, green breast of the New World” that greeted Henry Hudson 400 years ago has been reimagined by a senior ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society. Drawing on 18th-century British military maps, the ecologist, Eric W. Sanderson, has painstakingly recreated Manhattan’s rolling landscape — Mannahatta in an American Indian dialect meant “island of many hills,” many of which were all but leveled when the street grid was imposed in the 19th century — that Hudson encountered.
A composite image splits Manhattan into two visions; how it looked in 1609, left; its more vertical profile today, right.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is to join Mayor Job Cohen of Amsterdam and other Dutch officials this week in heralding the quadricentennial of Hudson’s voyage of discovery up his eponymous river.
On Jan. 8, 1609, the Dutch merchants enlisted Hudson, an English navigator, to find a western sea route to the Far East. Had Hudson sailed on behalf of England, the nation and New York might look very different today. Unlike other Europeans who were fleeing religious persecution or were intent on imposing — through violence when necessary — their own beliefs, the Dutch came to America to make money. Those who enlisted in that endeavor and did not disturb the peace of New Amsterdam, the name the Dutch gave their colony, were welcome. Whether the motivation was tolerance or indifference, it largely worked, which is why New York developed so differently from most of the other American colonies.
Read the entire article at
The New York Times.
More about the 400h anniversary in the
archives.
22 January 2009
Celebrating
one year of Onlyinholland.com in its current form!
20 January 2009
Queen Beatrix and Prime Minister Balkenende have congratulated the new president of the United States, Barack Obama, on his inauguration. The queen sent a telegraph wishing him every success and, in a letter, Mr Balkenende talked of the long-standing friendship between the Netherlands and the US. He described President Obama's inaugural address as inspiring, and said he was looking forward to working with the new leader, who he was pleased could now get to work.
More at
Radio Netherlands
18 January 2009
From
Time Out New York:
Four hundred years ago, Henry Hudson, an Englishman sponsored by the Dutch East India Company, sailed out of Amsterdam and landed on our fair shores. He fell for what is now Manhattan and as a result, the Dutch founded “New Netherland” a decade before the Mayflower reached American soil. Columbia professor and commercial translator Wijnie E. de Groot says natives of the Netherlands are famous for their willingness to assimilate, but the boroughs still boast enough treats to pack your staycation itinerary. Let’s go Dutch!
De Groot suggests newcomers head first to Zabar’s (2245 Broadway at 80th St, 212-787-2000), which stocks classic Netherlandian eats like stroopwafels, sandwich cookies filled with sweet syrup, and crispy, double-baked beschuits, sometimes covered in sprinkles and served to celebrate a birth.
Peter Stuyvesant, the last governor-general of the colony of New Amsterdam, is memorialized in bronze in Stuyvesant Square (between Livingston and Rutherford Pls and 15th to 17th Sts), built on farmland that one of his descendants sold to the city for $5 in 1836. But this isn’t just any likeness—Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s statue, unveiled in 1941, actually depicts the Stuy guy’s wooden leg. Can’t get enough Pete? Visit his grave at contemporary arts hub St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery (131 E 10th St at Second Ave, 212-674-6377).
“If you truly want to feel like you are in the Netherlands,” advises Susan De Vries, director of the Dutch colonial Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, “you need to be near water and surrounded by bicycles—and perhaps in danger of being hit.” Indeed, the Netherlands is the only European nation with more bicycles than people (1.11 bikes per person). Tear up Central Park on two wheels and you’re halfway to Amsterdam.
Much more at
Time Out NY
15 January 2009
Barack Obama's wax doppelganger took office in several European capitals Thursday — five days before the real-life Obama takes over in Washington. In Amsterdam, Obama's predecessor George W. Bush was booted to the sidewalk, complete with baggage.
A (...) beaming Obama figure was on display in the window of Madame Tussauds' in Amsterdam, while Bush had been bundled out the door, surrounded by suitcases. "We're not taking him back here," said museum spokeswoman Annemick Dolfin of the Bush figure. "He's going in the archive." The departing Bush remained on the sidewalk outside the museum on Dam Square for about 90 minutes.
More at
Associated Press
12 January 2009
From
BusinessWeek.com:
As U.S. social network growth slows, sites including
Facebook and rival
MySpace have shifted their attention overseas. But while these leading Western sites have seen steady adoption in key countries, they've been met with indifference in markets like the Netherlands, where comparable domestic sites are entrenched. International expansion is key to growth for sites that have struggled to make money from users who would rather socialize than click on ads or make purchases from a profile page. (...) Language is one barrier. Facebook and MySpace both introduced many of their foreign-language versions only in the past year, and many translations are still imperfect. But in many cases, the local sites cater to the sensibilities of local cultures in ways that are difficult for the U.S.-headquartered sites to match.
Hyves (its name being a play on the English word "beehives") says it has signed up 7 million Dutch residents, or almost half of the country's population of 16 million, since launching in 2004. On the site, users post photos and videos, customize their personal profiles, and connect with neighbors in nearby provinces. One of the most popular users is Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who boasts about 150,000 friends and sometimes invites people he meets on the site for a visit to his presidential office.
"The local tone of voice of our Web site is very important," says Hyves co-founder Raymond Spanjar. "Both MySpace and Facebook have been translated into Dutch, but as is usually the case, the translation is rather clinical and doesn't really compare." For example, Facebook's "Wall" feature, a personal guestbook where friends can leave comments, in Dutch is called a "prikboard," the literal translation for bulletin board. By contrast, Hyves created an original name, the "krabbel," for its comparable feature. "It is now a very popular word, and might even be added to the Dutch dictionary," Spanjar says.
U.S. sites have made little headway in the Netherlands. According to data obtained from comScore, Hyves had 5.7 million unique visitors in November, compared with Facebook's 585,000 and MySpace's 566,000. And in October, nine months after MySpace announced a renewed focus on the Netherlands, the Beverly Hills (Calif.)-based site shut its Amsterdam office. MySpace found the landscape competitive and entered the country late, Derek Fehmers, who led MySpace's operations in the region, told a Dutch news outlet.
Read the entire article
here.
11 January 2009
From
Reuters:
The Dutch strapped on skates and flocked to icy canals this weekend as freezing temperatures afforded an increasingly rare chance to skate across their flat country. After more than a week of cold, an estimated 2.3 million skaters, out of a population of 16 million, have taken to frozen canals and lakes, according to a poll released ahead of the weekend. That number is expected to double if Queen Beatrix decides to don her skates as well.
Warmer global temperatures have led to less natural ice forming in the low-lying Netherlands, where the topography of interconnected waterways makes it an ideal winter skating playground. Speed skating is the national sport. Anticipation is growing for the "Elfstedentocht" or "11 Cities Tour," a national event where speed skaters race along a 200-km (120-mile) course beginning and ending in the northern city of Leeuwarden. This year marks the 100th year since the race began and if held, the tour would be the first in over a decade. Because of the thousands of skaters -- both professional and amateur -- participating in the marathon, nearly all of the ice along the route must be at least 15-cm (6-inches) thick. Dutch newspapers track the thickness of ice daily and feature detailed maps pointing people to long stretches where ice skating is allowed.
Several canals in the capital Amsterdam have frozen over but the ice is not yet thick enough to deliver the rare treat of skating across the city's frozen waterways. Hospitals have reinforced staff to deal with an influx of skaters with wrist and hip injuries and at least one man died after falling through thin ice.
08 January 2009
From
Earth Times:
As temperatures plunge across Europe, many are cursing the cold. But not in the Netherlands. There, many are hoping for further frigid conditions. It's been more than 10 years since the last
Elfstedentocht, an ice-skating race across 11 cities in Friesland in northwestern Netherlands. According to Harry Geurts of the Dutch Meteorological Institute KNMI, temperatures need to be at least minus 10 degrees Celsius at night "for several weeks" before the entire 200-kilometre-track will be sufficiently frozen to hold the race's 16,000 skaters. Early on Tuesday the temperature dropped to minus 18 degrees Celsius in some parts of the Netherlands, marking the second week of extreme frost in the country.
The tour has only been held 15 times in the tour's 100-year-long existence. But, since this is the 100th year since the first tour and since temperatures are so low these days, hopes are high that Dutch skaters might get a chance to participate in the Elfstedentocht. Dutch meteorologists, ice skaters and sports fans alike are holding their breath anxiously. As the frost persists, the tour's ice experts routinely check ice levels to see if the 200 kilometres of the track's path are thickening adequately. Originally established as a local ice-skating match between the eleven towns of this northwestern rural province, the tour has become one of the Netherlands' most sought-after winter sports events.
Undoubtedly, much of the tour's fame springs from the long spells between races. The snow and strong, freezing northeast winds in which the race is conducted only adds to the thrill. A lottery determines which 16,000 of the 30,000 members of the tour association get to participate in the race. The remaining 14,000 members must wait until a new winter comes, bringing a new opportunity to win the tour lottery and participate in the famous skating event.
Read the entire article
here.
More on the Elfstedentocht:
Wikipedia
links from the official Elfstedentocht website
From the archives:
Global warming cools hopes for Dutch skating race
Low country highlights: Friesland
06 January 2009
From
The Associated Press:
A Moroccan immigrant was installed Monday as mayor of Rotterdam, the Netherlands' second largest city, in a move hailed as a significant step for the integration of minorities in the European Union nation. Ahmed Aboutaleb, who has dual Dutch-Moroccan citizenship, is the first Moroccan-born immigrant to be appointed a Dutch mayor. Some have compared his achievement to that of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama.
"Obama on the Maas ... is maybe going a bit far," said Jan Franssen, the Dutch queen's representative for South Holland province, referring to the river that runs through Rotterdam. "But the significance is great. This proves that there is no glass ceiling for immigrants in the Netherlands."
Accepting his new position, Aboutaleb immediately signaled he would work to tackle tensions between the city's historically white Christian population and its growing Islamic immigrant community.
Aboutaleb, a 47-year-old former journalist, resigned as deputy minister for social affairs in Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's government to take over in Rotterdam, which with 585,000 people has the largest proportion of immigrants of any major Dutch city.
It also was the power base of firebrand politician Pim Fortuyn, who rose to prominence on the back of his fierce criticism of Islam and was murdered in 2002 on the eve of national elections.
Before joining the national government in 2007, Aboutaleb was an alderman in Amsterdam, where he made his mark in the tumultuous aftermath of another murder — the brutal 2004 slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamist extremist.
More at
The Associated Press
04 January 2009
Images from the
LIFE Magazine photo archives. Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.
02 January 2009
The new year brings big anniversary celebrations to New York state, which is planning a yearlong series of events to commemorate 400 years of history on the Hudson River, New York Harbor and Lake Champlain. The Empire State's plans to mark the anniversaries of the 1609 explorations by Henry Hudson and Samuel de Champlain include the Knickerbocker Ice Festival at Rockland Lake State Park, a panel discussion at the Museum of Natural History in New York City, and a relay flotilla of boats tracing Hudson's path to Albany.
Another major event this year will be "River Day" on June 6, which will become an annual event to be held on the first Saturday in June. (...) In this year's event, a flotilla of boats will travel up the river following Henry Hudson's path from New York Harbor to Albany. Flagships will include the Onrust, a reproduction of a historic Dutch yacht; the Sloop Clearwater, a sailboat modeled on Dutch schooners that hosts environmental programs; and the Half Moon, a reproduction of Henry Hudson's ship.
Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands plans to visit New York during the events.
Read the entire article at
Newsday.
More about the 400th anniversary of New York in the
archives. Our
shop offers original Nieuw Amsterdam 1609 tshirts in honor of the occasion!
02 January 2009
From
The New York Times:
Geographically and historically, New York City begins in the small space below Wall Street. And when disaster strikes the area, as it has often done, it can seem as if the city will end there too. But if the nearly four centuries of history there tell anything, it’s a story of survival. As it grew from the tiny Dutch outpost of New Amsterdam to today’s forest of skyscrapers, lowest Manhattan outlived military occupation, enormous fires, terrorist massacres and a long string of stock-market crises.
Bowling Green, the small park at the foot of Broadway’s roaring canyon, is where the seed of today’s metropolis was planted in the 1620s when the Dutch West India Company dropped off a few dozen families to establish a trading post.
A few blocks north, at what was then the edge of the city, the Dutch built a defensive wall across the island in 1653. Like Fort Amsterdam, it proved of no use when the British seized New Amsterdam in 1664 and renamed it New York.
“It was essentially an earthwork with a wooden palisade on top,” explained Steve Laise, the National Parks Service’s chief of cultural resources for Federal Hall National Memorial, a Greek Revival landmark on Wall Street. Today’s Wall Street follows the dirt lane that was just inside this defense. “When you walk on Wall Street, you’re literally walking in the footsteps of the burghers of New Amsterdam,” Mr. Laise said.
Read the entire article
here.
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Shop Only in Holland
» Google shamed by Low Countries search
As Google and Yahoo! play Privacy Theatre, at least one search engine has realized your personal data is not a toy. Today - aka Data Privacy Day 2009 - Netherlands-based search engine Ixquick told the world it will no longer log user IPs. In the past, the privacy-obsessed outfit stored IP addresses for only 48 hours, but it has now shunned the practice entirely. "We're the only major search engine in the Internet that can make that promise," reads a canned statement from Ixquick CEO Robert Beens. "We've always been a privacy-friendly company, but now we're seriously upping the ante. We feel people have a fundamental right to privacy and we're delivering on our promise to provide it."
Read the entire article at
The Register
» Imperioli's 'Ghosts' opens Rotterdam Film Festival
Gotham comes to the 38th Rotterdam Film Festival today when "The Sopranos" thesp Michael Imperioli is due to open the Dutch event with "The Hungry Ghosts," his helming debut. The pic recounts the crossed destinies of a group of isolated New Yorkers, all in search of happiness. Imperioli is expected to be joined for the film's world bow by cast members Steve Schirripa, Sharon Angela and Nick Sandow. "The Hungry Ghosts" is one of 14 first and second features competing for the VPRO Tiger Awards. The three winners of the fest's top honor will be announced Jan. 30.
The nine sections of 2008 have been merged into three, each mixing features, shorts, art installations and live performances. Bright Future presents new works by novice filmmakers, Spectrum covers more seasoned artists, while Signals presents thematic programs and retrospectives. Forty-three features will make their world bow, and there are 35 international debuts and 34 European preems. On the industry side, co-production market CineMart presents 36 projects in search of coin, with 800 delegates booked to discuss possible deals. Rotterdam Lab, a school for new production talent, features a new program on do-it-yourself distribution and cross-media platform storytelling, with workshops from Stateside filmmakers Lance Weiler and Brian Chirls.
More at
Variety
» Dutch politician faces charges over anti-Islam film
Dutch authorities will file charges against a lawmaker for inciting religious hatred in speeches and a film he made about Islam last year, an Amsterdam district prosecutor said Wednesday. Prosecutors had originally decided not to press charges against Geert Wilders, 43, a member of parliament for the right-wing Party for Freedom. "We thought a conviction would not be possible," said prosecutor Otto Van Der Bijl. But nine people filed complaints with the Court of Appeal, he said. The court found there was a "reasonable suspicion that Mr. Wilders is guilty of the charges and the prosecution should in fact proceed." Wilders blasted the court decision as "an all-out assault on freedom of speech," in a statement posted on his party's Web site. "Apparently this is the Netherlands today. If you speak out you might be prosecuted. To participate in public debate has become a dangerous activity," he said in the statement, which also called for donations to the party to help him fight the charges in court. The charges stem partly from a 15-minute film Wilders released online last March, "Fitna," which features disturbing images of terrorist acts superimposed over verses from the Quran to paint Islam as a threat to Western society.
More at
CNN International
» Dutch government study: net effect of P2P use is positive
The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs commissioned a study by research company TNO about how much Dutch Internet users download music, movies, and games, and what the social and economic effects of this downloading are. This resulted in a nearly 150-page report (Dutch) with many tables of percentages in it. The report differentiates between paid and unpaid downloads and talks about file sharing, eschewing the word "illegal." In the Netherlands, only uploading copyrighted music and movies is against the law. "Unpaid downloads" include officially licensed promotional content.
The study concludes that the effects are strongly positive because consumers get to enjoy desirable content and also get to keep their cash to buy other things. Because the consumers save much more money than the producers lose, the net economic effects are positive. The report also reinforces the truth that unpaid downloads do not translate into lost sales in anything close to a one-to-one ratio. The report makes a number of recommendations that file sharers will be able to live with, such as supporting the development of new economic models for rights holders, not criminalizing file sharing for personal use, and so on.
Much more at
Ars Technica
» Drinking in the glories of Dutch beer
The sweet smell of barley mash fills the brewing hall. Water and foam spritz down on visitors' heads as they watch a film about fermentation, as seen from the perspective of beer. Next up: the tasting. No wonder they call this the "Heineken Experience." One of Amsterdam's most popular attractions among young adults, the Experience has reopened after a year of renovations. Long gone are the days when the tour, located on the site of Heineken's former brewery in Amsterdam, was mostly a way to drink unlimited amounts of booze. The remodeled version lives up to its name, a cross between corporate museum and a chance to achieve rapture with one of the world's most-recognized beer brands.
hough for cynics the Experience may feel like one long advertisement, for those who love the beer, it's "a pilgrimage," says Bob Rogers, a branding expert who advised Heineken on the Dutch museum's renovations. "We wanted to bring back the connection with beer-making, and the history of Heineken, to help people see it, touch it, taste it," he says.
Read the entire article in the travel section of the
Seattle Times
» Dutch watchdog AFM extends ban on short selling
The Dutch stock market regulator AFM said on Wednesday it had extended a ban on the short-selling of shares in banks and insurers until Feb. 28, due to the exceptional market circumstances. The AFM originally imposed a ban on naked short-selling in September before expanding the measure to include covered short selling on Oct. 5. The ban, which was extended on Oct. 30 had initially been due to end this week and included a ban on the short-selling of shares in companies such as ING and Aegon. (...) The AFM said extending the ban without amendment could help European regulators working on a uniform policy. Naked short-selling entails selling a stock short without first borrowing the shares or ensuring that the shares can be borrowed.
More at
Reuters
» Dalai Lama to visit the Netherlands
he Dalai Lama will visit the Netherlands for two days at the beginning of June. In view of Chinese sensitivities, it is not known if he will meet with Dutch politicians. Beijing considers the Dalai Lama an advocate of an independent Tibet. However, in December Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said the Dalai Lama was welcome to visit the Netherlands. The Tibetan spiritual leader won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. He has been living in exile since 1959.
From
Radio Netherlands
» Dutch royal couple to visit Antarctica
To underscore the commitment of the Netherlands to the management of the Antarctic region, Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Máxima will spend three days next month in Antarctica. Since there is no Dutch research station in Antarctica, the Dutch visitors will be the guests of the British at the Rothera Research Station on the island of Adelaide. It has about 100 residents, and is located about 1,600 km south of Punta Arenas in Chile. Dutch interest in Antarctica is to do, amongst other things, with concern about the dangers of the melting ice near the South Pole, and the consequent rise in sea level. The management of Antarctica is in the hands of 28 countries which have a so-called consultative status under the South Pole Treaty.
The visit will take place from 6-9 February as part of the International Polar Year (IPY). The IPY is intended to stimulate internationally coordinated scientific research and cultural projects. The guests will get a picture of Dutch scientific research in Antarctica. The press will not be permitted to accompany the royal couple on this occasion. Instead, the plan is that the Crown Prince will report on the visit himself via a weblog.
More at
Radio Netherlands
» Dutch company GasTerra to deliver extra gas to Germany and Italy
Dutch gas company GasTerra said Monday it is prepared to increase its gas deliveries by 10 per cent to alleviate the ongoing gas crisis in Europe. (...) GasTerra provides gas to several European countries, but the current extra gas would be delivered to Germany and Italy, together responsible for more than half of GasTerra's yearly export quotas. European ministers of economic affairs and several European gas companies are meeting in Brussels on Monday to discuss the EU's request to Norway and the Netherlands to increase their respective gas production temporarily.
The Netherlands boasts western Europe's largest natural gas field, measuring some 900 square kilometres, located in the north-east province of Groningen. The gas field was discovered in 1959. With 60 per cent of the field's resources already consumed and only an estimated 2.8 billion cubic metres of gas remaining, the Dutch have rationed their daily gas production for several years. Last Wednesday, Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Maria van der Hoeven had said the Dutch would not increase their gas production to alleviate the ongoing gas shortage in Europe. But on Friday, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said that if requested so by the EU, the Dutch were able and willing to provide limited quota of 10 per cent extra gas on a temporary basis.
More at
Monster & Critics.com
» Report: Dutch may stay in Afghanistan past 2010
The Netherlands foreign minister is quoted as saying that he cannot rule out Dutch troops remaining active in Afghanistan past the end of their current NATO mission in 2010. Maxime Verhagen is quoted in the Sunday edition of De Telegraaf newspaper saying no decision has yet been made. The Dutch have had missions in Afghanistan in various forms since 2002, and around 1,650 troops are currently in the southern province of Uruzgan. A majority of Dutch voters opposed government decisions to participate in the NATO International Security Assistance Force and to extend the mission in 2007.
From
International Herald Tribune
» Dutch museums to root out Nazi-looted art
The Netherlands Museums Association (Museumvereniging) has announced it will take on a final effort to root out artwork in its collections that was confiscated from Jews by the Nazis. The association, which acts as the representative organ of more than 400 institutions, has asked Dutch art museums to look at works that came into their possession between 1933 and the present.
Individual museums will conduct the research themselves in the government-funded project that will end in 2013, the Museumvereniging announced at their New Year’s meeting on Monday night. This is the second such undertaking in the Netherlands. Ten years ago, they conducted a similar search for works that came into museum possession between 1940 and 1948. The Dutch museums will work with the German Museums Association (Deutscher Museumsbund), which has conducted substantial research in recent years.
More at
The Local
» Amsterdam airport sees drop in traffic in 2009
Amsterdam airport operator Schiphol Group expects a sharp decline in passenger and cargo traffic in 2009 mainly as a result of the global financial crisis, it said on Monday. In 2008 47.4 million passengers travelled through the airport, 0.8 percent fewer than the previous year. Air transport movements dropped 1.8 percent to 428,350 and cargo traffic also declined by 1.4 percent to a total of 1.59 million tonnes. Amsterdam's Schiphol is Europe's fifth-largest airport by passenger numbers and third-largest by freight volume.
More at
Reuters
» Dutch flower market wilts amid world economic downturn
Dutch flower auction house FloraHolland, the world's largest, said Friday that its 2008 annual turnover growth had dropped from a projected 2.7 percent to 0.25 percent amid the world economic crisis. "2008 was no fantastic year," said a FloraHolland statement, even as director Timo Huges expressed optimism that the effects had been "limited". The company reported a turnover of just over four billion euros (5.6 billion dollars) for the year in sales of flowers and plants. The number of traded plants and flowers grew by 1.3 percent to 12.4 billion. "Even in economically difficult times, consumers in Europe seem to be brightening their homes with a colourful flower or a plant," said the statement. FloraHolland said it expected 1.0 percent growth in turnover for 2009. The Netherlands is the world's biggest flower exporter, with a billion Dutch tulip bulbs sold abroad every year.
More at
AFP
