News below sealevel

Bos says the elderly should help pay for their own pensions. Many Labor politicians however warn that Bos’ plans are political suicide: most elderly people will now vote against the PvdA at the next election. Bos also called for greater equality in Dutch society and said people shouldn’t be able to retire from work before age 60. Meanwhile, the leader of the D66, a minority party in the ruling government coalition, attacked the government. Lousewies van der Laan, chairperson of the center-left D66 party, attacked her coalition partner, the Christian Democrats (CDA). She sharply criticized the CDA’s moralist positions on cultural and ethical issues and said she hoped the CDA wouldn’t be part of the next government. The D66 supports a liberal drugs policy, amnesty for rejected asylum-seekers and pro-environmental policies. D66, however, which currently has seven seats in Parliament, is only expected to win two seats at the next election. Meanwhile, as part of the government’s reforms aimed at reducing bureaucracy, the Dutch will soon be able to fish without a license. Many other such license and permit requirements will also be revoked. The Dutch for instance will no longer need permits to add sun decks or car garages to their homes.

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot recently toured the Afghanistan province of Uruzgan, where the Dutch military mission is part the US-led ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’. Bot met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and told the president: “We need your help.” Bot wants greater Afghan police protection for the Dutch troops who are facing Taliban resistance in the region. Meanwhile, on Remembrance Day, May 4th, the Netherlands honored its World War II war dead with a 2-minute silence at 8 p.m.: trains and most cars, radio and TV broadcasting stopped to observe two minutes of silence. The NRC however ran a provocative article claiming that “it’s bordering on hysteria to keep rubbing students’ noses in May 4th. Why should we? It wasn’t their war.” A reader’s poll in De Telegraaf however found that 90 percent of those polled said it was important to continue observing Remembrance Day.

Depression among Dutch ’thirty-somethings’ is on the rise, according to research by a Dutch developmental psychology professor. There is now something known as a ‘quarter-life’ crisis, to add to the mid-life crisis. Reporting on this finding, the AD wrote that although many thirty-somethings are well-educated and professionally successful, many question “the meaning of life”. Amsterdam’s Ajax FC won the Dutch National Cup, defeating PSV Eindhoven, 2 to 1. Despite the victory, Ajax had a poor season and the club’s trainer, Danny Blind, has since resigned. A De Volkskrant article claimed that football has never been more popular in Holland: stadium attendance is at record levels and the Dutch are among the world’s highest per capita football match attendees. Meanwhile, in Schoonhoven, a small town near Rotterdam, last Saturday was ‘Anti-Diet Day’. The event’s organizers, calling themselves the ‘Nooitmeeropdiet’ (Never Diet Again) group, said that if you want to lose weight, you shouldn’t diet, because diets don’t work or work only temporarily. Inevitably, the lost weight is regained. Instead, they said weight loss is mental: it’s a question of what they called “stomach hunger vs. head hunger”. World-famous Dutch artist Karel Appel died at age 85. Prime Minister Balkenende called Appel “an icon in post-war Dutch painting”. However, Appel himself once said that a child could have made the same paintings as his. De Volkskrant reported that trains are encountering problems at stations because of human excrement on the tracks. Apparently, too many train travelers ignore instructions about not using the toilet when trains are in the station. Recently, four trains crashed into buffers at Leeuwarden train station: the reason is thought to be excrement on the tracks. Conductors are now locking toilets until the trains depart the station. A Dutch television crime investigator claims to have solved the mystery of ‘Who shot JFK?’ . US president John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. De Vries broadcast a two-hour TV special in which he alleged that the assassins were three Mafia hit men. These findings stem from ten years of private investigation work by Dutch millionaire, Wim Dankbaar. Dutch schools are slow in following the global trend of teaching Chinese. The Netherlands is far behind Germany, France and Britain, where many schools now offer Chinese language classes: “Chinese still isn’t recognized as an official school subject in Holland,” Trouw reported, adding that Frisian, Russian and Turkish are. And finally, for Mother’s Day, foundations in the Netherlands launched a public awareness campaign called, ‘Safe Mother’s Day’. Apparently, Mother’s Day can be dangerous. Small children cook breakfast-in-bed for their mothers and often spill the tray loaded with eggs and hot coffee on themselves when climbing the stairs. There are 35 percent more incidents of burns reported during Mother’s Day week than during the rest of the year. (DM)

This week’s round-up of some of stories making news in the Netherlands begins with the leader of the Dutch Labor Party (PvdA) Wouter Bos, who is feeling the heat from Labor backbenchers after having unveiled his plans for reforming Holland’s Old Age Pension law. Bos says the elderly should help pay for their own pensions. Many Labor politicians however warn that Bos’ plans are political suicide: most elderly people will now vote against the PvdA at the next election. Bos also called for greater equality in Dutch society and said people shouldn’t be able to retire from work before age 60. Meanwhile, the leader of the D66, a minority party in the ruling government coalition, attacked the government. Lousewies van der Laan, chairperson of the center-left D66 party, attacked her coalition partner, the Christian Democrats (CDA). She sharply criticized the CDA’s moralist positions on cultural and ethical issues and said she hoped the CDA wouldn’t be part of the next government. The D66 supports a liberal drugs policy, amnesty for rejected asylum-seekers and pro-environmental policies. D66, however, which currently has seven seats in Parliament, is only expected to win two seats at the next election. Meanwhile, as part of the government’s reforms aimed at reducing bureaucracy, the Dutch will soon be able to fish without a license. Many other such license and permit requirements will also be revoked. The Dutch for instance will no longer need permits to add sun decks or car garages to their homes.

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot recently toured the Afghanistan province of Uruzgan, where the Dutch military mission is part the US-led ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’. Bot met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and told the president: “We need your help.” Bot wants greater Afghan police protection for the Dutch troops who are facing Taliban resistance in the region. Meanwhile, on Remembrance Day, May 4th, the Netherlands honored its World War II war dead with a 2-minute silence at 8 p.m.: trains and most cars, radio and TV broadcasting stopped to observe two minutes of silence. The NRC however ran a provocative article claiming that “it’s bordering on hysteria to keep rubbing students’ noses in May 4th. Why should we? It wasn’t their war.” A reader’s poll in De Telegraaf however found that 90 percent of those polled said it was important to continue observing Remembrance Day.

Depression among Dutch ’thirty-somethings’ is on the rise, according to research by a Dutch developmental psychology professor. There is now something known as a ‘quarter-life’ crisis, to add to the mid-life crisis. Reporting on this finding, the AD wrote that although many thirty-somethings are well-educated and professionally successful, many question “the meaning of life”. Amsterdam’s Ajax FC won the Dutch National Cup, defeating PSV Eindhoven, 2 to 1. Despite the victory, Ajax had a poor season and the club’s trainer, Danny Blind, has since resigned. A De Volkskrant article claimed that football has never been more popular in Holland: stadium attendance is at record levels and the Dutch are among the world’s highest per capita football match attendees. Meanwhile, in Schoonhoven, a small town near Rotterdam, last Saturday was ‘Anti-Diet Day’. The event’s organizers, calling themselves the ‘Nooitmeeropdiet’ (Never Diet Again) group, said that if you want to lose weight, you shouldn’t diet, because diets don’t work or work only temporarily. Inevitably, the lost weight is regained. Instead, they said weight loss is mental: it’s a question of what they called “stomach hunger vs. head hunger”. World-famous Dutch artist Karel Appel died at age 85. Prime Minister Balkenende called Appel “an icon in post-war Dutch painting”. However, Appel himself once said that a child could have made the same paintings as his. De Volkskrant reported that trains are encountering problems at stations because of human excrement on the tracks. Apparently, too many train travelers ignore instructions about not using the toilet when trains are in the station. Recently, four trains crashed into buffers at Leeuwarden train station: the reason is thought to be excrement on the tracks. Conductors are now locking toilets until the trains depart the station. A Dutch television crime investigator claims to have solved the mystery of ‘Who shot JFK?’ . US president John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. De Vries broadcast a two-hour TV special in which he alleged that the assassins were three Mafia hit men. These findings stem from ten years of private investigation work by Dutch millionaire, Wim Dankbaar. Dutch schools are slow in following the global trend of teaching Chinese. The Netherlands is far behind Germany, France and Britain, where many schools now offer Chinese language classes: “Chinese still isn’t recognized as an official school subject in Holland,” Trouw reported, adding that Frisian, Russian and Turkish are. And finally, for Mother’s Day, foundations in the Netherlands launched a public awareness campaign called, ‘Safe Mother’s Day’. Apparently, Mother’s Day can be dangerous. Small children cook breakfast-in-bed for their mothers and often spill the tray loaded with eggs and hot coffee on themselves when climbing the stairs. There are 35 percent more incidents of burns reported during Mother’s Day week than during the rest of the year. (DM)