30 May 2009
From
WalletPop:
Oh, to be Dutch. In the Netherlands, prostitution and marijuana are legal, Heineken is the local brew, and Amsterdam is a bike-able international city with a huge selection of fine cheeses. And now comes the news from the Dutch justice ministry that the crime rate is so low that it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs. There are too few prisoners for its prison cells -- 12,000 detainees in a prison system that has capacity for 14,000.
Layoffs should be prevented in the closing of prisons in the Netherlands, and some reprieve may come from a deal with neighboring Belgium to unload some of its overpopulated prisons. About 500 Belgian prisoners could be transferred to the Tilburg prison by 2010. The deal would give the Netherlands 30 million euros, and allow the closing of the prisons in Rotterdam and Veenhuizen to be postponed until 2012. Theories abound on why crime is so low in the Netherlands. The murder rate, for example, has been declining since the 1990s, when there were an average of 250 murders per year. The rate hit a record low in 2007 with 147. One idea is that decriminalizing drugs leads to less violent crimes, and that a passive approach works best.
Read the entire article
here.
28 May 2009
From
AFP:
As the credit crunch keeps away sight-seers and business travellers, the owners of Amsterdam's brothels, escort agencies and sex shops all grumble that those visitors who still do indulge in the pleasures of the flesh are increasingly tight-fisted. (...) "Things are bad," lamented salesman Dave Doeve. He owns Casa Rosso sex shop in the middle of Amsterdam's brazen red-light district where neon-lit prostitutes' windows normally draw hoards of tourists.
According to Andre van Dorst, director of the Netherlands' VER sex industry association, turnover had dropped 30 to 40 percent over the last year. The more exclusive the club, the bigger the impact as clients seek cheaper options. "Eating and drinking are the very last things people save on, followed by sex - both are basic needs. In these difficult economic times, people frequent restaurants less and supermarkets more, just as they opt for less glamorous sex clubs," said van Dorst. Metje Blaak, spokeswoman for De Rode Draad (The Red Thread) sex workers' representative group, said clients were "paying less and demanding more". "And the girls often have no choice but to discount their prices. They have to pay the rent."
Though prostitution has long been tolerated in the famously liberal Dutch capital city, the Netherlands only legalised the world's oldest profession in 2000. Last December, Amsterdam's city officials announced plans to halve the total 482 prostitutes' windows in the centre in a multi-million revamp that would also involve shuttering many cannabis-vending coffee shops -- another tourist drawcard. Officials claim the two vices, in themselves not illegal, attract elements of organised crime - but observers have pointed to a growing Dutch conservatism.
Read the entire article
here.
26 May 2009
From
Earth Times:
Hail, rain and strong winds battered the Netherlands Tuesday, felling trees, creating localised flooding and causing major road and rail disruption. The Dutch meteorological institute KNMI said wind speeds of more than 105 km/h caused trees to fall on roads and rail tracks, resulting in long delays throughout the country for commuters. In the southwest of the country, hailstones of more than 5 cm were recorded. There were more than 300 km of traffic jams on the Dutch roads, with the A20 near Rotterdam entirely closed off in both directions due to flooding and fallen trees. Lightning brought down the railway network's electrical systems at Leiden, neer The Hague, and several other towns.
Read the entire article
here.
26 May 2009
From the
Associated Press:
The U.S.' chief environmental official said Tuesday that America can learn much from the way the Dutch manage water — focusing more on living with it than on trying to control it at every turn. "As climate changes and we start seeing more and more rain we have to stop fighting it," said Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said. "There's not enough energy in the world to fight it." Jackson is accompanied on the weeklong visit to the Netherlands by a delegation from Louisiana — a low-lying area, like the Netherlands. Louisiana officials turned to the Netherlands for inspiration in redesigning the state's water defenses after Hurricane Katrina caused levies to fail, flooding New Orleans.
Recently, policy makers here have adopted a philosophy they term "living with water" — which means working with nature whenever possible and accepting that simply building dikes higher and hire will lead to disaster. New techniques include pumping sand into strategic offshore locations where currents in the North Sea sweep them into place, bulking up dunes; re-establishing minor waterways and removing pavement to allow the country to absorb sudden influxes of water; and designating zones for intentional flooding in an emergency. Last year the Netherlands announced more than euro 100 billion (US$140 billion) in new spending through the year 2100 to prepare for the effects of global warming. Jackson said she was most impressed by "the idea that when it rains, the rush is not to pump out, but to be able to hold an amount of water."
Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, was visiting the Netherlands for the third time since Katrina struck. She said her focus this time is on the organizational side, learning how Dutch water districts raise money and work with other governmental bodies and the citizenry to reach consensus on what should be done. "The Dutch approach ... is a more integrated approach. Our approach is very stove-piped in a sense," she said.
Read the entire article
here.
24 May 2009
From
Canada.com:
Erik Kessels takes in his surroundings: linoleum floor, cracked paint, circa-early-1980s TV with cigarette burns on the chassis. This room on the ground floor of a budget hotel in Toronto -- a hotel that prefers to remain nameless for this story -- may not be pretty, but it looks relatively clean. (...) At the
Hans Brinker Budget Hotel in the centre of Kessels' hometown of Amsterdam, there are only pictures of chairs on the walls, a jokey attempt to earn the establishment even one star from the Dutch tourist board. That the ploy didn't work is a good thing; earning a star might have interfered with the Hans Brinker's long-standing claim to mediocrity. Its promises of no amenities, rude fellow guests, terrible food and even the possibility of dog mess in the lobby have all been documented in a new, colourful book, The Worst Hotel in the World.
One of the first ads appeared on the side of a tram; Kessels cleverly only bought the ad for a streetcar line that passed by Amsterdam's main tourist information office, and only on the side of the tram that faced the building.
The ad bragged about how exclusive the Hans Brinker was -- it excluded a lot of things: bellhops, saunas, bidets, a swimming pool, tennis courts, mini bars... Over the years, the campaign has worked through several themes, all with the same central, no-frills message. One series of ads showed before and after pictures of guests, with the after pictures looking haggard and unslept.
In case it isn't obvious by now, Kessels doesn't actually believe the Hans Brinker is the worst hotel in the world. "That's marketing. We say, 'Improve your immune system' with a picture of bed bugs. It doesn't say there are bed bugs." And the food in the canteen, he says, is actually pretty good. The ads work because they're full of irony, Kessels believes. "It's just a language that the backpackers really like." The ads also appeal to the backpacker's sense of bravado: What 21-year-old wouldn't want to tell the folks back home that they'd stayed at the worst hotel in the world? The Hans Brinker even sells souvenir posters to commemorate the event.
Read the entire article
here.
21 May 2009
From
Mid Hudson News.com:
The Dutch East India Company ship that explorer Henry Hudson steered around the world 400 years ago may be long gone, but a replica of that vessel is now sailing up the very river that he explored so many centuries ago. The Half Moon docked at Waryas Park in the City of Poughkeepsie Wednesday. The ship is a traveling museum that conducts historical programs about the Dutch colony, New Netherland (now New York).
A ribbon cutting ceremony commemorating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage was held dockside by representatives of the City of Poughkeepsie, The Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce, and Dutchess County Tourism. The ship and Waryas Park will host a variety of activities this Memorial Day weekend. “This ship was like the Internet of yesterday since it brought goods from around the world here to the Dutch colony,” said Chip Reynolds, captain of the Half Moon. He added that the ship and many of its components were almost identical to Henry Hudson’s 1609 vessel.
Read the entire article
here.
More on the celebrations surrounding New York and the Hudson regions 400th anniversary in
archives.
19 May 2009
From
Reuters:
One in five jobs will be lost at Schiphol after unions signed up to the Amsterdam airport operator's staff reduction plan in exchange for a guarantee of no forced redundancies. State-owned Schiphol Group, which runs the fifth-largest passenger airport in Europe, said in January it would cut between 10 and 25 percent of its 2,200-person workforce following a strong decline in traffic and increased international competition. It said on Tuesday it reached a deal with three unions to shed 450 jobs - or about 20 percent of the total - by the end of 2010. In exchange for no forced layoffs, the unions also settled for a 1.75 percent wage rise.
Schiphol's passenger numbers have stagnated since a travellers tax was introduced last July. New anti-terrorism security costs and regulatory pressure to cut airport charges have also hurt profits. The Dutch government, which owns the group together with local authorities, agreed in principle last month to scrap the flight tax on July 1 in exchange for Schiphol looking for ways to cut its own fees as soon as passenger numbers increased. A spokeswoman for the Dutch Finance Ministry said the agreement is expected to be formalised in a letter to parliament next week, while a Schiphol spokeswoman said the airport had reduced its fees by more than 10 percent in April and would not raise them in November.
Read the entire article
here.
18 May 2009
From the
Wall Street Journal:
Dutch state-owned lenders ABN Amro and Fortis Bank Netherlands will inform their staff Tuesday of the plan to integrate the banks, a spokesman for ABN Amro said. The spokesman also confirmed that unions have already been informed because of the social consequences of the move. He didn't divulge details. Both banks were bought in October 2008 by the Dutch state as part of the split up and financial rescue plan for the various parts of Fortis NV. ABN Amro and Fortis Bank Netherlands currently operate under their own names on the Dutch market. The integration plan has been prepared in the past months by a transition team headed by ABN Amro Chairman Gerrit Zalm and Fortis Bank Netherlands Chairman Jan van Rutte. The integration plans for ABN Amro and Fortis Bank Netherlands have to be approved by the Dutch Central Bank and the European Commission.
More
here.
16 May 2009
From
Radio Netherlands:
The prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, has welcomed the outcome of the referendum held on Curacao backing plans for greater autonomy. Friday's referendum saw 52 percent vote in favour, with 48 percent against plans to make the island an autonomous territory within the Netherlands. Mr Balkenende said the plans now can go ahead. He has congratulated his Antillean counterpart, Emily de Jongh-Elhage, on the result. The deputy minister for kingdom relations, Ank Bijleveld, voiced both relief over the outcome and concern at the narrow margin, and urged Curacao's parties to overcome their differences. She stressed that the Final accord between the Netherlands and Curacao is definitive and no longer open to debate.
The administrative restructuring of the five-island archipelago of the Dutch Antilles is planned for next year. The Dutch government wants Sint Maarten also to become an autonomous territory of the Netherlands. Aruba became autonomous in 1986. The less-populated islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba are to become municipalities within the Netherlands.
Read the entire article
here.
13 May 2009
From the
San Diego Union Tribune:
Eight Dutch cities near the German and Belgian borders will introduce a membership card for soft drugs users in an attempt to fight drugs tourism, they said on Tuesday. "Coffee shops have to refocus on their original policy: small-scale sale of grass for the own population," said a spokesman for the southern city of Maastricht, which is one of the cities participating in the project. The card, dubbed the "grasspass", allows people to buy a maximum amount of three grams of soft drugs. People will have to register for the pass and the cities hope that drug daytrippers will be discouraged by the extra bureaucracy. The Dutch cities of Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal, located near the Belgian border, have already said they will close all their shops within two years to combat drug tourism and crime.
Coffee shop owners support the grasspass initiative, but some are cautious. "We agree with being tough on crime and underground movement, but we will never participate in discriminating foreigners," said Marc Josemans, chairman of the association for official coffee shops in Maastricht.
Read the entire article
here.
13 May 2009
From
AFP:
A Dutch appeals court ruled Tuesday that small bars with no staff except their owners are exempt from a national smoking ban introduced for the hospitality industry last July. The appeals court of Den Bosch, in the southern Netherlands, found two owners of the Victoria cafe in Breda, near the Belgian border, not guilty of having contravened the ban. "The court finds that the (ban) is partly non-binding, as it lacks legal grounding" regarding establishments with no staff, said a court statement. The ban on smoking in the hotel, restaurant and catering industry had sought to protect staff from the dangers of second-hand smoke inhalation.
Court spokesman JJ van der Kaaden told AFP that Tuesday's ruling would apply to all small cafes and bars that employed no staff. But its application was frozen by an announcement by prosecutors that they intended appealing the verdict in the Supreme Court. This could last 18 months. "Today's decision will not be formal until confirmed by the Supreme Court," said Kaaden. "But one can imagine that courts asked to consider similar cases in the interim, would be unwilling to make any findings until the outcome of that appeal is known."
Several thousand small bars and cafes in the Netherlands united late last year to flaunt the smoking ban and create a joint legal defence fund, arguing they lacked the floor space and money to erect separate smoking-only areas.
A recent Dutch health ministry study found that 62 percent of Dutch cafes saw a drop in business in October and November 2008, compared with a year earlier, on account of the smoking ban. In February, the owners of a cafe with no employees in the northern Dutch town of Groningen was fined 1,200 euros in the first-ever trial involving a breach of the Dutch smoking ban. An appeal in that case is pending. The House of Representatives in the Dutch parliament asked Tuesday for a new debate on the smoking ban.
Read the entire article
here.
11 May 2009
From the
New York Times:
A lot has changed in the century since New York celebrated the tricentennial of Henry Hudson’s pioneering 1609 voyage up the river that bears his name. A half-million visitors came to New York in 1909 to watch a spectacular naval parade that included a model of Hudson’s boat, de Halve Maen (the Half Moon), along with a flotilla of floats portraying an encyclopedic array of Americana, from the Statue of Liberty to Rip Van Winkle, from precolonial Indian ceremonies to the Dutch purchase of Manhattan for a reported 60 guilders. With the quadricentennial upon us, though, the planned festivities are far more modest. Who today, after all, recalls much about Hudson, apart from his river, which now seems just a part of New York geography?
But we must take our celebrations as they come, and a new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York — “Amsterdam/New Amsterdam: The Worlds of Henry Hudson” — may not offer the sensations of earlier commemorations, but it is so rich in texts and rare objects from the Netherlands and local museums, and so ambitious in its explanatory material, that it restores Henry Hudson’s place in the American hall of origins.
The exhibition makes the case that Dutch rule, which ended in 1674 as the British solidified their hold, was far more important than we generally acknowledge. The show’s main section is a finely detailed examination of New Netherland’s culture (including objects linked to Indian relations and slavery in the colony), cataloging its customs and conflicts (even noting objections to a practice known as “pulling the goose,” in which “a live goose was hung upside down, while riders on horseback tried to pull off its greased head”). And it ends with an account of the 1909 revels and the lasting influence of Dutch rule.
In recent decades the primary foundational experiences of the United States have tended to be identified with Plymouth Rock and Jamestown, where religious freedom and pioneering enterprise have been highlighted, one growing out of English dissent, the other out of English opportunity. Also emerging into fuller view have been American Indians and enslaved Africans, whose experiences required a modification of traditional idealizations. But this exhibition demonstrates that the Dutch heritage needs to be dealt with in constructing the pantheon of our past. That heritage neither promised inalienable rights nor threatened their complete elimination. Instead of high ideals, it held out another powerful possibility: the diverse pursuit of commerce and contentment.
Read the entire article
here.
10 May 2009
From
AFP:
About 150 people smoking pot and wearing T-shirts with a cannabis leaf print gathered in Amsterdam Saturday as part of a world-wide action in favour of the legalisation of marijuana. The peaceful protesters gathered on a square in the Dutch capital, listening to pro-legalisation speaches from a small podium as a strong smell of marijuana hung in the air and music pumped from several speakers. "Prohibiting something that people will always want causes illegality and the emergence of criminal gangs," Daan Rosenberg Polak, a publisher of pro-legalisation books, told AFP at the gathering.
"In the Netherlands, we've had a good system since the 1970s, but recent governments have been trying to take us back to a more conservative system," he said, arguing that the moderate use of soft drugs held no danger. Saturday's protesters criticised Dutch law on the topic as hypocritical for allowing the consumption and possession of up to five grammes of cannabis, but prohibiting its cultivation and mass retail. Some 700 so-called coffee shops country-wide have special licences to sell marijuana but are allowed to keep no more than 500 grammes on site. Several Dutch municipalities have recently announced plans to close all or part of the coffee shops within their borders, partly to discourage crime and what they describe as the nuisance of drug tourism.
On Friday, Dutch organisers said protesters in more than 250 cities in the world, including Paris, Berlin and Madrid, would take part in Saturday's global marches, or had already done so last weekend, as part of the 10th annual Global Marijuana March.
Read the entire article
here.
08 May 2009
From
AFP:
Dutch queen Beatrix attended a memorial service Friday for the victims of last week's failed attack on the royal family that killed six bystanders and the perpetrator. The queen met survivors of the attack and next of kin before the ceremony at a theatre in the central city of Apeldoorn. The closed ceremony, broadcast live on television, was followed on a big screen by hundreds of people gathered on a public square nearby. Last Thursday, Beatrix and members of her family watched in horror as a man ploughed into Queen's Day festivalgoers in Apeldoorn, narrowly missing an open top bus transporting the royals before ramming his car into the foot of a monument.
The Apeldoorn municipality announced on Friday that one of the injured, a girl celebrating her ninth birthday, had been discharged from hospital. Five people remain in hospital, including a 14-year-old girl. Broadcaster NOS said security was tight around Friday's ceremony, as commentators speculated whether the attack would change royal security and accessibility in a country averse to pomp. Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Maxima, who had also been on the bus, were among those attending the memorial service alongside Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and other cabinet members in the Orpheus Theatre.
Read the entire article
here.
06 May 2009
From
Monsters&Critics.com:
The United States has agreed to take the Netherlands off its list of so-called 'tax havens,' the Dutch Finance Ministry announced Tuesday. 'The White House has informed the Dutch embassy in Washington the Netherlands does not belong on the list of international tax havens, nor does it belong in the category of countries with particularly low taxes,' Finance Ministry spokesman Marcel Homan said.
The announcement follows intensive talks between Dutch diplomats and the White House late Monday after the US government published a list of international tax havens used by multinational companies such as Goldman Sachs, Pfizer and Procter & Gamble to evade US taxes. The list included the Netherlands, placing it in the same category as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Ireland. Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos and his deputy Jan Kees de Jager, the latter responsible for the Netherlands' tax authority, responded with surprise. 'Presenting the Netherlands as a tax paradise creates a faulty image. I am not happy about this,' Bos said in Brussels, adding he feared for the good reputation of his country.
The US' criticism comes at a particularly bad moment for the Dutch who are are traditionally among the strongest European lobbyists against bank secrecy in countries like Switzerland, Belgium and Lichtenstein. The lobby claims bank secrecy has resulted in many Dutch nationals avoiding the 1.2 per cent tax on Dutch bank account balances by depositing their money in offshore accounts. In the wake of the global financial crisis, the Dutch have stepped up their campaign to force locals to declare accounts held in countries that have bank secrecy - or, if caught, receive enormous fines and face criminal charges.
Read the entire article
here.
04 May 2009
From the
Earth Times:
Members of the Dutch public applauded the country's monarch, Queen Beatrix, on Monday as she arrived at a World War II memorial service, days after an attacker had ploughed into a royal event in his car killing six. Queen Beatrix arrived with Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Princess Maxima at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, ahead of a national WWII ceremony which commemorates the country's war dead. Officials said that security measures had been stepped up at the site, and that snipers were in position on rooftops overlooking Dam Square, where the ceremony was to take place.
On Thursday, a 38-year-old male drove his car into onlookers at the Queen's Day parade in the town of Apeldoorn, killing six and injuring 12. The Queen and other royal family members were not injured. The man, who had reportedly intended to hit the royal vehicle at the event, died of his injuries on Friday.
Dutch police were empowered to conduct body searches on all civilians near the memorial site. Earlier on Monday the city of Amsterdam confirmed it has also stepped up security measures ahead of Liberation Day events on Tuesday. Queen Beatrix is due to attend a Liberation Day open-air concern near the Amstel river. Beatrix's youngest son, Prince Constantijn, said that despite Thursday's attack, he supports the "open and informal character" of Queen's Day, on which the royals traditionally mingle with the public.
03 May 2009
From
Reuters:
Dutch Queen Beatrix will attend World War Two Remembrance Day events next week but security is expected to be tightened after a man killed himself and six others in an attempted attack on the royals. Extra snipers will be deployed for an event at the national war memorial in Amsterdam Monday, the AD newspaper said, quoting sources at the royal and diplomatic security service DKDB, and the number of plainclothes officers will be increased.
The committee that organises the May 4 and 5 Remembrance Day and Liberation Day activities said Queen Beatrix and her heir Prince Willem-Alexander will attend Monday's commemoration. A spokesman for the Amsterdam city council said the Apeldoorn attack was "a reason to go through the security again." He declined to comment further. The Queen will also attend the traditional closing concert on Liberation Day on the Amstel river in Amsterdam although the program has been amended.
De Telegraaf newspaper, citing sources close to the royal family, said Queen's Day would go ahead as usual next year, and Queen Beatrix and other members of the royal family will continue to make appearances in public. Following Thursday's attack the Dutch have questioned whether the Queen's Day holiday, where crowds gather to eat and drink in city streets, would ever be the same.
Read the entire article
here.
01 May 2009
From
Radio Netherlands:
A seventh person has died as a result of the car attack during the Queen's Day celebrations in Apeldoorn. A 55-year-old military policeman, who was working as a driver, died of his injuries in hospital on Friday afternoon. Another woman is said to be in a critical condition. The conditions of the other eight people still in hospital is reportedly stable. Among them are three children.
On Friday morning it was announced that the man who deliberately drove his car at speed through the crowd of spectators had died in hospital during the night. He was named as Karst Tates, an unemployed security guard from Huissen, a village near Arnhem in the east of the Netherlands. His neighbours say he was made redundant a few months ago. They describe him as a quiet, withdrawn person. His motive for carrying out the attack remains a mystery. On Thursday the public prosecutor said the man told police that his attack was aimed at the royal family.
Most Queen's Day celebrations across the country were cancelled. In the capital Amsterdam, where some 600,000 people were partying, and a few other towns, festivities went ahead but were toned down. Flags were lowered to half-mast at the palace and all government buildings.
Read the entire article
here.
01 May 2009
From
Times Online:
A man who ploughed his car into a crowd of well-wishers in an abortive attack on Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has died of his injuries, prosecutors said today. Five people were killed and 12 others injured in yesterday's attack after the man, identified by local media as Karst Tates, 38, rammed through two police barricades and sped towards an open top bus carrying members of the royal party. Beatrix, 71, and other royals either cowered or watched in horror as the black Suzuki car drove through spectators at the Queen's Day parade in Appeldoorn, 60 miles east of Amsterdam, before crashing into a monument. Pulled from his smashed-up car by police, Tates was arrested and taken to hospital, where he died overnight in an intensive care ward.
In a rare television address Queen Beatrix offered her condolences. “We are speechless that something so terrible could have happened,” she said, looking shaken. “My family and I think everybody in the country sympathises with the victims, their families and friends. What began as a great day has ended in a terrible tragedy.”
Officials said that the driver had a map of the Queen’s parade route. He apparently tried to collide with the bus carrying the Royal Family. People were thrown in the air as his car ripped through the crowds before hitting a monument and coming to a halt. Dutch television showed Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife, Princess Maxima, watching in astonishment. No one in the royal entourage was hurt.
More
here.
Previous Archive -
Next Archive
