89 posts
De Nederlanders “ontdekken” de “schokkende” waarheid over de immigratie naar Nederland
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De Nederlanders hebben nu "ontdekt" de waarheid over wie is migreren naar hun land. De "schokkende cijfers" Er wordt gezegd dat een "explosie" van ... nee ... WACHT ... .. niet de moslims ... maar Oost-Europeanen zijn. Yep, dat klopt - de waarheid ov...
The Dutch “discover” the “shocking” truth about immigration to the Netherlands
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The Dutch have now “discovered” the truth about who is migrating to their country. The “shocking numbers” are said to be an “explosion” of…nope…WAIT…..not Muslims…but East Europeans. Yep, that’s right – the truth about who is...
Working out the Netherlands' 'unemployment puzzle' | Roel Janssen
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Flexible labour laws and government measures mean there are fewer Dutch people out of work than expected. But can it last?It's called the "unemployment puzzle". Even for the experts at the economic forecasting agency of the Dutch government, the Cent...
Dutch bouquet of flowers rebuffed
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Flowers are the traditional way to say “I love you”. But in European Union etiquette, they can just as well be the side-product of a political spat. Romanian authorities this week-end blocked six trucks filled with flowers from the Netherlands, &...
‘Bacteria’ is consuming Schengen
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Romania has blocked imports of Dutch flowers and bulbs. Oficially the national phytosanitary agency is checking them on suspicions they may contain a mysterious bacteria… Well, not so mysterious, in fact. Bucharest obviously tries to send a mes...
9-11 and the fear of it in the Netherlands
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The real job of the Dutch General Intelligence Service and Security (AIVD) is to effect social control of Muslims by labeling politically active Muslims that want social change as "radicalized" and therefore "a threat to the Netherlands." At the same...
9-11 en de angst van het in Nederland
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De echte taak van de Nederlandse Algemene Inlichtingen-en Veiligheidsdienst Dienst (AIVD) is de sociale controle van de moslims effect door middel van etikettering politiek actieve moslims die maatschappelijke verandering wil als 'geradicaliseerde' e...
Free Speech in the Netherlands – PVV style!
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The "free speech" champion, Geert Wilders, acquitted by an Amsterdam court, is also the gold medal world champion in hypocrisy. It seems that over the past year Wilders' PVV "political party" has been busy squashing and undermining the free speech of...
Angela, David and Nicolas agree: multiculturalism has failed
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European leaders don't seem to be able to agree on much these days, but it seems one idea they can all get behind is that 'multiculturalism' has failed in European societies.Over the past few months there's been a torrent of speeches from Europe's mo...
Told ya so! Dutch foreign policy going Islamophobic!
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As I predicted in a past post on Chasing Dirt, Dutch foreign and security policy will go toward the crackpot Islamophobic notions of Fortuyn-Wilders. My predictions are now coming true, as creeping crackpot myths about Muslims and Islam are now, as i...
Blumen zum Geburtstag der Euregio Maas-Rhein (EMR) Eine Blume mit dem Namen „Euregio Maas-Rhein“ und das genau zum 35. Jubiläum!
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Dank den „Orchideenfreunde Aachen-Dreiländereck e.V.“ darf die Euregio Maas-Rhein sich an einer Orchideen-Hybride Paphiopedilum namens „Euregio Maas-Rhein“ erfreuen. Laut Herrn Dieter Heyde aus Alsdorf, Vorsitzender des Vereins, wird hiermit...
‘Outwit Wilders – for democracy’s sake’
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Green parties have good reasons to fight right-wing populism: it addresses people’s concerns in a way that goes directly against diversity and border-crossing solidarity. But they have also reasons to watch the way populists play the masses and the...
The Shape of Dutch EU Policy
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This article has been rattling around my head for a while - since before the official formation of the Dutch government - but I never got around to writing it. At the very end of September, I attended a lecture by Wepke Kingma, Chief Director for Eur...
Rutte I and the Old Boys Network
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Source More than 4 months after the Dutch general elections in June, the new Dutch...
Leiden, stad van mijn hart...
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The major anniversary in Europe on the 3rd of October may have been the Tag der deutschen Einheit ("Day of German Unity"), but the small city of Leiden marked the anniversary of Leidens Ontzet in a big way this weekend.Leidens Ontzet.Leidens Ontzet,...
Socialist call for Roma Ethnic registration
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It is not just in France that there are serious concerns about recent migratory patterns amongst formerly eastern European Roma. Now of course he says it is so that the best care can be provided for them,Dutch local authority areas where Roma familie...
Going Dutch or going bust
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Last week, three associations of Dutch pension funds' issued a quite startling warning to the Dutch Parliament: "If interest rates remain so low" they said "the the entire pensions system will be undermined”, adding that insurers could take a seri...
AEL on appeal convicted in (in)famous Dutch Holocaust cartoon case
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This guestblog is written by our colleague Hannes Cannie* The Arnhem criminal court (the Netherlands) has overruled the judgment of the criminal tribunal of Utrecht (22 April 2010) in the (in)famous Dutch Holocaust cartoon case, in which the Dutch br...
’Affluent unhappiness’: the case of parenting stress
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In the Netherlands, new research this week demonstrated once again a crisis in modern childrearing. Highlighted was the so-called phenomenon of hyperparenting: parents being overanxious and insecure about how to raise their children. In the survey, 8...
Christian-democrats prefer islamophobic populists
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In the Netherlands, like in Belgium, the formation of a new cabinet is underway. In these small, but ultracomplex coalition countries, it takes weeks and weeks to form governments. Cabinet formation is a giant Sudoku puzzle. In the Netherlands, t...
Governance Dutch Central Bank To Be Changed
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This week The Netherlands' Minister of Finance announced changes to the governance of De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB, the Dutch central bank and prudential supervisor of the financial sector). The Minister will send Parliament proposals to change the cen...
More Than Dutch Courage in Afghanistan
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As the old C-130 Hercules transport plane took off from Tarin Kowt airfield in Uruzgan, I glimpsed a last view of the province that back in 2001 had witnessed the first Pashtun rebellion against the Taliban. This rugged airstrip was an unlikely place...
Two Sets of Dominoes
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My colleague Niels Annen has given us the benefit of his own extensive experience in Afghanistan to offer a very useful perspective on the Dutch withdrawal. Niels’ concerns about whether the withdrawal signals the unraveling of the coalition in...
Do the Netherlands have the most right wing government in Europe?
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Do the Netherlands have the most right wing government in Europe? It all depends how we define “right wing”. A new minority government has just been formed between the right wing Liberals VVD and the Christian Democratic CDA, with the ext...
We are headed for Quarter Finals!
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Netherland’s Arjen Robben (L) celebrates his goal as Slovakia’s Vladimir Weiss reacts with dejection during their 2010 World Cup second round soccer match at Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban June 28, 2010. REUTERS/Paul Hanna The second rou...
Dutch tolerance – A distant past?
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The Netherlands, a country once praised for its tolerance and open mindedness, held its national elections on Wednesday. During these elections, the so-called Freedom Party (PVV) won 24 out of the 150 available seats. The most concerning thing howeve...
the future's bright, the future's orange?
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The winning party in the Dutch elections, the VVD, has some interesting things to say about the EU on its website. Its leader, Mark Rutte (pictured right) is favourite to become the country's new PM and may prove to be an interesting ally for EU refo...
Europe wants austerity? (Netherlands Elections)
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Yesterday, the Netherlands elected a new parliament. These were snap elections, after PvdA (Labour) blew...
And the winner is …
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Election night in the Netherlands was quite ‘hot’; at some point the NOS television program ‘election night’ announced that Twitter was overloaded and inaccessible due to the vast interest of the people in the probable results. The Dutch...
Dutch Parliamentary Elections Updates
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First impressions. PVV (Geert Wilders‘ Party) is the big winner. JP Balkenende is now definitely out. His CDA got a fair beating. As did the Socialist Party. D66 (from 3 to 12) makes a nice comeback, GreenLeft could be a factor of some importan...
Dutch Parliamentary Elections Updates
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First impressions. PVV (Geert Wilders‘ Party) is the big winner. JP Balkenende is now definitely out. His CDA took a fair beating. As did the Socialist Party. D66 (from 3 to 10) makes a nice comeback, GreenLeft could be a factor of some importa...
EU: Stability programme and elections in the Netherlands
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On 9 June 2010 the Dutch are going to elect a new House of Representatives after the fall of the government led by Jan Peter Balkenende. Even such a “virtuous” country as the Netherlands was severely hit by the financial and economic crisis, so t...
First Ever Digital Election Debate
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In the run up to the 9th June parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, the first ever election debates took place through Hyves and Twitter – on the same day. Hyves for breakfast and Twitter for dinner. The 30 minute debate on the Dutch soc...
Netherlands still the largest exporter of fresh vegetables
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Onions are the most exported vegetable (2.4 billion kilos), followed by tomatoes (0.9 billion), bell peppers (0.4 billion) and cucumbers (0.4 billion). The Netherlands also exported 2.4 billion kilos of fruit, 2% down from 2008.
Dogs, sex and playgrounds
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The BJ reporters spotted this interesting blog post by Daniel Hamermesch in the Freakonomics section of the New York Times, in which he pointed out that “My friends tell me that in the Vondelpark, a delightful reserve in central Amsterdam, it...
Dutch Disease
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Have you ever heard of a condition called infobesitas? It is an addiction to information due to the many drugs out there: internet, mobile phones, television and radio. According to youth trend watching/communications company YoungWorks in the Nethe...
Article on FMG, the Netherlands and the ECHR
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My Utrecht colleague from the institute of criminal law, Renée Kool, has just published 'The Dutch approach to female genital mutilation in view of the ECHR. The time for change has come' in the latest issue of the Utrecht Law Review (Vol. 6, No. 1,...
Geert Wilders: The first truly European politician?
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I don’t like Geert Wilders, because, whereas I do agree with some of his conclusions, I’m loath to pigeonhole any group of people because of their religion. Muslims are no more all anti-democrats than Irish Catholics are all pedophiles. Y...
The Dutch role in Iraq
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After chipping away for nearly a year, the committee Davids presented this morning in The...
Launch of National Plan for HRE in the Netherlands
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On Human Rights Day, 10 December 2009, a National Plan for Human Rights Education was adopted by the Dutch government and civil society organisations. The Stimuleringsplan voor de integratie van mensenrechteneducatie in het funderend onderwijs outlin...
Dutch intelligence services clash with Dutch press
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A new and yet typical story revealing the tricky links between the press and intelligence services has sparked a passionate debate in the Netherlands on the freedom of the press and state-secret information. Two people linked to the Dutch Intellig...
Dutch Government Considers Safeguard Clause for Bulgaria and Romania
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Dutch Minister of European Affairs Frans Timermans has asked the Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot to consider the possible activation of the safeguard clause for the judiciary together with the forthcoming publication of the CVM report on Romania...
European Elections 2009: A walk in the park [Mats SIFFELS]
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Campaigning season in the Netherlands is almost over; tomorrow, according to the polls between 40% and 67% of the potential voters will let its voice be known. What is going to be the outcome? I honestly have no clue and neither does anybody else sin...
Promoting elections in the Netherlands [Anita KALMANE]
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Only in the last few days I have started to notice some promotional activities going on here in the Netherlands. I was trying hard to see any official European Parliament posters on the streets in Amsterdam, but haven’t managed so far no matter...
Libertas Netherlands on Torture - part two [simonvanwoerden]
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Normally, it would be against my blogging instinct to refrain from using images, audio or video. But here, I do not wish to distract or to entertain. Here, it’s just words. Convincing, inspiring and much-read words I hope. The video-spoof I posted...
European Parliament elections 2009 (93): Why running for the EP? - An interview with Wim van de Camp (Dutch EP candidate)
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An interesting interview by New Europe TV with the head of the Dutch Christian Democratic list for the EP elections 2009, Wim van de Camp, at the EPP Congress in Warsaw.Mr van de Camp explains what he thinks should be to role of the European Union co...
The Netherlands- from Europhile to Euro-ignorant? [Mats SIFFELS]
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Marketing-research company Synovate has published a report on the involvement of Dutch citizens in the EP elections. And guess what, do Dutch people Think About It? Well… no. Nothing new, but sad nonetheless. 23% are aware of the fact that ther...
“I think dismissing the EU as unimportant is utterly ridiculous”- Well happy birthday Judith! [Mats SIFFELS]
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A couple of days ago I presented to you the Dutch liberal politician Hans van Baalen. Judith Sargentini, the next politician to answer my questions is from the complete opposite side of the political spectrum, the left-wing/environmentalist party Gro...
The Dutch obsession with national parliaments
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Adriaan Schout and Jeroen van Dijken wrote a column last week in Dutch daily de Volkskrant entitled EU kan goed zonder Europees Parlement - essentially that the EU could do OK without the European Parliament. I picked up on the story via euro...
Dutch EU project fund remains controversial
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Dutch European Affairs Minister Frans Timmermans this week formally turned down a request to financially support an innovative webTV news project called BrusselVandaag.nl, saying he does not believe such a project can contribute properly to the debat...
Policy dialogue about Dutch development cooperation
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span style="font-style:italic;"Source: a href="http://www.mdf.nl/index.php/page/228" target="_blank"MDF Newsletter, July 2008/a/spanbr /br /div style="float: right; margin-bottom: 10px;" a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/euforic/2121878145/" title...
Netherlands: Lisbon Treaty ratification 21
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The Second Chamber of the Netherlands Parliament or the Dutch House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal) had approved the EU Treaty of Lisbon 5 June 2008 by an overwhelming majority, 111 against 39. From there the ratification bill w...
