The recent snowfall that caused traffic chaos on Holland’s roads and rails was derided by the nation’s media, with front-page photographs showing rush-hour traffic at a standstill in the second longest traffic jam in Dutch history.
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The Telegraaf newspaper wrote, ‘Three centimeters of snow and Dutch Rail comes to a standstill, a spectacle that makes you blush with shame.’ One expert said the only solution to Holland’s traffic problem is tele-working from home. Amsterdam commuters stuck in the snow could at least rejoice at the news that Amsterdam was ranked number ten in a recent survey of world cities offering the highest quality of life. Switzerland’s Zurich and Geneva were ranked first and second, respectively.
New government proposals aim to limit ‘marriage migration’ or the ‘import of brides’ by immigrants living here. This practice of importing brides, chiefly from Morocco and Turkey, is viewed as a serious obstacle to integration, particularly as one-third of these imported brides have only an elementary school education. A case brought against a Dutch marine who shot dead a young Iraqi looter has led the Dutch Parliament to demand a full explanation from the government regarding what Dutch peacekeepers in Iraq can and cannot do. The looter died when the marine’s warning shot ricocheted off the ground. Elsewhere, a court in Arnhem gave two Dutch marines who fell asleep while on guard duty in Iraq suspended sentences of two months military detention.
Sensational headline of the month came courtesy of the Telegraaf newspaper: ‘The Netherlands Uninhabitable In Three Years’ Time’. The paper cited a report predicting that over the next three years violent storms will breach Holland’s seawalls, making large parts of the country uninhabitable. It was also reported that Dutch tax officials regularly refrain from collecting taxes from groups of violent people, such as the Yugoslav mafia, Hell’s Angels, and gangs of drug dealers and car thieves living in trailer parks. Apparently, the tax collectors fear for their lives. The tax office has therefore requested its own police force, called ‘fiscal intervention teams’, to forcefully collect taxes and confiscate property. In a related story, news that Koos Plooy, one of Holland’s best public prosecutors for Dutch and Yugoslav mafia-related crimes, has been transferred to another job after receiving death threats led one media pundit to ask: ‘Is the district attorney’s office giving in to organized crime?’
A recent medical report revealed some alarming figures: Approximately 800,000 Netherlanders (or 6% of the adult population) have been the victims of medical errors. The chief reason for this is that computerized medical information isn’t being exchanged between specialists and family doctors. One newspaper claimed, ‘every year 170,000 patients needlessly suffer and several thousand are even declared fully disabled because of being given the wrong medicine, the wrong operation or no treatment at all. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of alternative healing was big news in the wake of an inquiry into the death of popular television presenter, Sylvia Millecam, who died from what many say was a curable form of cancer after consulting Holland’s most famous faith-healer, Jomanda. Apparently, Ms. Millecam avoided any doctor who mentioned cancer and instead consulted 28 different alternative healers, as well a magnetic field therapist, an electro-acupunturalist and various clairvoyants.
The Middle East conflict came to Holland, as Israeli and Palestinian protestors converged on Den Haag, where the International Court of Justice began hearing a case brought against Israel by the UN General Assembly. The court must determine if the security barrier Israel is buildingon the West Bank is a violation of international law. Israeli and Palestinian demonstrators confronted each other in front of the Peace Palace. The Israeli’s brought along the twisted wreckage of a bus recently blown up in Jerusalem by a Palestinian suicide-bomber. Elsewhere, mobile phone cases prominently displaying the face of Osama Bin Laden and the numbers 9-11 were being sold on a market in Rotterdam. In Amsterdam, the digital revolution in the movie world began with the first Dutch experiments with D-Cinema, a digital system for projecting films from a computer hard-drive. And finally, it was revealed that the UWV, a public body responsible for unemployment and disability insurance, spent millions on the interior design of its executive offices. This included marble floors, luxury toilets and designer office furniture for the executive suite, including a conference table and chairs costing $50,000. There were calls for the UWV director to resign, but as the Volkskrant newspaper pointed out, ‘should the director be forced to resign, he could claim up to two million euros in compensation. With a golden handshake like that, he could buy a lot of luxury toilet bowls.’
compiled by David McMullin
The recent snowfall that caused traffic chaos on Holland’s roads and rails was derided by the nation’s media, with front-page photographs showing rush-hour traffic at a standstill in the second longest traffic jam in Dutch history. The Telegraaf newspaper wrote, ‘Three centimeters of snow and Dutch Rail comes to a standstill, a spectacle that makes you blush with shame.’ One expert said the only solution to Holland’s traffic problem is tele-working from home. Amsterdam commuters stuck in the snow could at least rejoice at the news that Amsterdam was ranked number ten in a recent survey of world cities offering the highest quality of life. Switzerland’s Zurich and Geneva were ranked first and second, respectively.
New government proposals aim to limit ‘marriage migration’ or the ‘import of brides’ by immigrants living here. This practice of importing brides, chiefly from Morocco and Turkey, is viewed as a serious obstacle to integration, particularly as one-third of these imported brides have only an elementary school education. A case brought against a Dutch marine who shot dead a young Iraqi looter has led the Dutch Parliament to demand a full explanation from the government regarding what Dutch peacekeepers in Iraq can and cannot do. The looter died when the marine’s warning shot ricocheted off the ground. Elsewhere, a court in Arnhem gave two Dutch marines who fell asleep while on guard duty in Iraq suspended sentences of two months military detention.
Sensational headline of the month came courtesy of the Telegraaf newspaper: ‘The Netherlands Uninhabitable In Three Years’ Time’. The paper cited a report predicting that over the next three years violent storms will breach Holland’s seawalls, making large parts of the country uninhabitable. It was also reported that Dutch tax officials regularly refrain from collecting taxes from groups of violent people, such as the Yugoslav mafia, Hell’s Angels, and gangs of drug dealers and car thieves living in trailer parks. Apparently, the tax collectors fear for their lives. The tax office has therefore requested its own police force, called ‘fiscal intervention teams’, to forcefully collect taxes and confiscate property. In a related story, news that Koos Plooy, one of Holland’s best public prosecutors for Dutch and Yugoslav mafia-related crimes, has been transferred to another job after receiving death threats led one media pundit to ask: ‘Is the district attorney’s office giving in to organized crime?’
A recent medical report revealed some alarming figures: Approximately 800,000 Netherlanders (or 6% of the adult population) have been the victims of medical errors. The chief reason for this is that computerized medical information isn’t being exchanged between specialists and family doctors. One newspaper claimed, ‘every year 170,000 patients needlessly suffer and several thousand are even declared fully disabled because of being given the wrong medicine, the wrong operation or no treatment at all. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of alternative healing was big news in the wake of an inquiry into the death of popular television presenter, Sylvia Millecam, who died from what many say was a curable form of cancer after consulting Holland’s most famous faith-healer, Jomanda. Apparently, Ms. Millecam avoided any doctor who mentioned cancer and instead consulted 28 different alternative healers, as well a magnetic field therapist, an electro-acupunturalist and various clairvoyants.
The Middle East conflict came to Holland, as Israeli and Palestinian protestors converged on Den Haag, where the International Court of Justice began hearing a case brought against Israel by the UN General Assembly. The court must determine if the security barrier Israel is buildingon the West Bank is a violation of international law. Israeli and Palestinian demonstrators confronted each other in front of the Peace Palace. The Israeli’s brought along the twisted wreckage of a bus recently blown up in Jerusalem by a Palestinian suicide-bomber. Elsewhere, mobile phone cases prominently displaying the face of Osama Bin Laden and the numbers 9-11 were being sold on a market in Rotterdam. In Amsterdam, the digital revolution in the movie world began with the first Dutch experiments with D-Cinema, a digital system for projecting films from a computer hard-drive. And finally, it was revealed that the UWV, a public body responsible for unemployment and disability insurance, spent millions on the interior design of its executive offices. This included marble floors, luxury toilets and designer office furniture for the executive suite, including a conference table and chairs costing $50,000. There were calls for the UWV director to resign, but as the Volkskrant newspaper pointed out, ‘should the director be forced to resign, he could claim up to two million euros in compensation. With a golden handshake like that, he could buy a lot of luxury toilet bowls.’
compiled by David McMullin
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