Oranje fever grips the nation, as the Dutch national football team reached the semi-finals of Euro 2004. Last week however coach Dick Advocaat’s player substitution was blamed for Holland’s loss to the Czech Republic and what at the time was thought to be Holland’s elimination from the tournament.
The media then savaged Advocaat, labeling the coach a ‘Dommor, bullebak, zielepoot, lafaard’ (blockhead, ogre, wretch, coward). Media pundits also suggested that Advocaat be stoned and lynched. Now, however, with Holland reaching the semi-finals, all is forgiven. But not by Advocaat, who, because of his media treatment, will resign as coach following the tournament. Meanwhile, real life continues in the Dutch Parliament. Annette Nijs resigned as deputy minister for education, after making some impolitic comments in a magazine article about the education minister. Minister Nijs’ abrasive character had won her few friends in politics. A chauffeur who had driven Ms Nijs said it was “like having a pit bull in the back seat”. Dutch Defense Minister Henk Kamp wants all NATO countries to pay as much as they can afford towards NATO’s foreign missions. He also wants member states that do not contribute enough troops to be reprimanded. Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Laurens Jan Brinkhorst has called for more working hours for Dutch workers. He says the Netherlands is falling behind in productivity because the average Dutch employee works only 1,340 hours per year, compared to 1,615 in the rest of Europe and 1,815 in the United States. However, the U.S.business model, long admired in Holland, is coming under attack. A new book entitled ‘Independence for Europe’ by Donald Kalff, a former executive at Shell and KLM, criticizes the American economic model for its lower productivity, hidden debts, job depletion, megalomania, self-enrichment and aggressive management style. Kalff says a European business model should have “a more feminine business culture”. Controversial Minister of Immigration Rita Verdonk, who wants to expel 26,000 illegal immigrants from the Netherlands, reportedly told two Armenian boys who were born and raised in this country but are now being forced to leave that, “It’s better if you go to your parents’ country, and the fact that you don’t speak Armenian can be a delightful challenge. I know quite a few Dutch children who go abroad with their parents, ambassadors and people with Shell, for example.” One newspaper likened the minister’s comparison of refugee children with the children of wealthy diplomats and corporate ex-pats to a comment once made by Marie Antoinette, the French queen who told the peasants to eat cake if they didn’t have bread. Armed sky marshals will fly incognito aboard KLM’s high-riskinternational flights. The sky marshals are authorized to shoot during a hijacking. The marshals will carry Glock 26 guns, which fire bullets that don’t leave the body of the person who is hit. The city of Rotterdam will pass a new law on the size and shape of mosques, as the construction of Rotterdam’s controversial Moroccan Essalam mosque nears completion. The Essalam mosque will be Europe’s largest Muslim house of worship. The new law places restrictions on the height of minarets and states that all new mosques must blend in with the style and size of existing local architecture. Abortion rates in Holland fell for the first time in ten years. Last year 33,159 pregnancies were terminated, three percent less than the previous year. Holland once had the lowest abortion rate in the world, but apparently that changed due to an increase in immigration, because, as the Volkskrant reported, “immigrants often use contraception less effectively”. The newspaper reported that the percentage of immigrant women terminating pregnancies is 60 percent, while for Dutch women the figure is 3.6 percent. The fall in abortion rates coincides with a reduction in the rate of immigration.New research by American scientist John Komlos revealed that the Dutch are now the world’s tallest people. The Dutch have outgrown the Americans, who were the world’s tallest people in 1945. Komlos believes Dutch height is due to the country’s good public health care and small income differences. “Healthy societies engender tall people,” Komlos said. And finally, Otto Adang, a Dutch police expert on soccer violence has been busy in Portugal, where the so-called ‘Netherlands Model’ of crowd control is being used by the Portuguese at Euro 2004. One feature of the Dutch model is permitting fans to smoke marijuana. “A joint can contribute to a good atmosphere,” Adang said. It’s hardly surprising that Adang acquired his international expertise of how soccer riots escalate by studying apes.
David McMullin
Oranje fever grips the nation, as the Dutch national football team reached the semi-finals of Euro 2004. Last week however coach Dick Advocaat’s player substitution was blamed for Holland’s loss to the Czech Republic and what at the time was thought to be Holland’s elimination from the tournament. The media then savaged Advocaat, labeling the coach a ‘Dommor, bullebak, zielepoot, lafaard’ (blockhead, ogre, wretch, coward). Media pundits also suggested that Advocaat be stoned and lynched. Now, however, with Holland reaching the semi-finals, all is forgiven. But not by Advocaat, who, because of his media treatment, will resign as coach following the tournament. Meanwhile, real life continues in the Dutch Parliament. Annette Nijs resigned as deputy minister for education, after making some impolitic comments in a magazine article about the education minister. Minister Nijs’ abrasive character had won her few friends in politics. A chauffeur who had driven Ms Nijs said it was “like having a pit bull in the back seat”. Dutch Defense Minister Henk Kamp wants all NATO countries to pay as much as they can afford towards NATO’s foreign missions. He also wants member states that do not contribute enough troops to be reprimanded. Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Laurens Jan Brinkhorst has called for more working hours for Dutch workers. He says the Netherlands is falling behind in productivity because the average Dutch employee works only 1,340 hours per year, compared to 1,615 in the rest of Europe and 1,815 in the United States. However, the U.S.business model, long admired in Holland, is coming under attack. A new book entitled ‘Independence for Europe’ by Donald Kalff, a former executive at Shell and KLM, criticizes the American economic model for its lower productivity, hidden debts, job depletion, megalomania, self-enrichment and aggressive management style. Kalff says a European business model should have “a more feminine business culture”. Controversial Minister of Immigration Rita Verdonk, who wants to expel 26,000 illegal immigrants from the Netherlands, reportedly told two Armenian boys who were born and raised in this country but are now being forced to leave that, “It’s better if you go to your parents’ country, and the fact that you don’t speak Armenian can be a delightful challenge. I know quite a few Dutch children who go abroad with their parents, ambassadors and people with Shell, for example.” One newspaper likened the minister’s comparison of refugee children with the children of wealthy diplomats and corporate ex-pats to a comment once made by Marie Antoinette, the French queen who told the peasants to eat cake if they didn’t have bread. Armed sky marshals will fly incognito aboard KLM’s high-riskinternational flights. The sky marshals are authorized to shoot during a hijacking. The marshals will carry Glock 26 guns, which fire bullets that don’t leave the body of the person who is hit. The city of Rotterdam will pass a new law on the size and shape of mosques, as the construction of Rotterdam’s controversial Moroccan Essalam mosque nears completion. The Essalam mosque will be Europe’s largest Muslim house of worship. The new law places restrictions on the height of minarets and states that all new mosques must blend in with the style and size of existing local architecture. Abortion rates in Holland fell for the first time in ten years. Last year 33,159 pregnancies were terminated, three percent less than the previous year. Holland once had the lowest abortion rate in the world, but apparently that changed due to an increase in immigration, because, as the Volkskrant reported, “immigrants often use contraception less effectively”. The newspaper reported that the percentage of immigrant women terminating pregnancies is 60 percent, while for Dutch women the figure is 3.6 percent. The fall in abortion rates coincides with a reduction in the rate of immigration.New research by American scientist John Komlos revealed that the Dutch are now the world’s tallest people. The Dutch have outgrown the Americans, who were the world’s tallest people in 1945. Komlos believes Dutch height is due to the country’s good public health care and small income differences. “Healthy societies engender tall people,” Komlos said. And finally, Otto Adang, a Dutch police expert on soccer violence has been busy in Portugal, where the so-called ‘Netherlands Model’ of crowd control is being used by the Portuguese at Euro 2004. One feature of the Dutch model is permitting fans to smoke marijuana. “A joint can contribute to a good atmosphere,” Adang said. It’s hardly surprising that Adang acquired his international expertise of how soccer riots escalate by studying apes.
David McMullin
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