June 22, 2011
On Monday, 20 June, Jan Leugs, who worked at the local supermarket in Ten Boer, Groningen, died at age 100. Even at his age he worked two mornings a week and could still drive a car, which is why this made the news. They say he was a very cheerful man, but got suddenly ill and passed away. RIP.
(Link: telegraaf.nl. Photo of elderly man by Frank Mayne, some rights reserved.)
Tags: centenarians, Groningen
June 21, 2011
According to business facilitator Iamsterdam, the high level of English proficiency in the Netherlands is only surpassed by that of Norway’s. All the Norwegians I have ever met speak English, even foreign national Norwegians.
The Netherlands ranks second in a proficiency index carried out, reflecting the fact that almost the entire Dutch population speaks English, especially in the greater Amsterdam area, a fact attributed to all the foreigners living there.
Some 80% of the workforce speaks English, making Amsterdam the largest anglophone city in continental Europe. Some 90% percent of the workforce speaks two or more languages.
To all the blind policy makers that keep saying you need Dutch to get a job in the Netherlands: it’s not true: thousands of expats, foreign nationals and immigrants live and work for years without learning proper Dutch and do just fine, whether you like that or not.
(Link: iamsterdam, Photo taken from Dunglish, a site with Dutch-English mistakes)
June 16, 2011
On Saturday, June 25, Global Smurf Day and birthday of Peyo (Pierre Culliford) (1928-1992), the Belgian creator of the Smurfs comics, 12 countries, including the Netherlands, are going to see people paint their bodies visibly blue to try and beat the world record “Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Smurfs within a 24-hour period in Multiple Venues”. For smurf fans living in the Netherlands, you are to get your painted, disguised self down to Scheveningen, South Holland at beach pavilion 53. You can’t miss it, there’ll be a big smurf sand sculpture and people looking like smurfs. The current world record dates back from 2009 in Wales, with a mere 2510 people posing as smurfs.
To my adult friends who own smurfs — you know who you are — I dare you to free up June 25 and get to Scheveningen dressed like smurfs and send in pics.
Find out more at globalsmurfsday.com
(Links: waarmaarraar, independent)
Tags: Scheveningen, smurfs
June 14, 2011
The ESA (European Space Agency) is looking for people to come up with a name for Dutch astronaut André Kuipers’ second space mission. He’s going up to the ISS (International Space Station) for six months this time to do scientific experiments and educational activities with schoolchildren throughout Europe. Oh, and fix things.
His first mission was called DELTA, which stood for Dutch Expedition for Life Science, Technology and Atmospheric Research and also echoed the Delta works in the North Sea. This mission is a European one with the environment, climate and biodiversity as a focus.
Send in your suggestions before 6 pm Dutch time, 30 June 2011 at kuipersmissionname@esa.int. Be sure to read the ESA rules, as only people of ESA Member States can send something in. The winning name will be the official mission name and the winner will get a framed mission logo signed by European astronauts.
(Link: blikopnieuws.nl)
Tags: André Kuipers, International Space Station, space, space travel
June 13, 2011
A while back we reported about a mistake the Dutch unemployement insurer UWV made in which 3,000 formerly unemployed entrepreneurs had—often accidentally—committed fraud during a UWV led worker reintegration program after having been given some incorrect advice. It was the UWV who then made sure these misinformed people were fined, and in some cases, criminally prosecuted.
After a scorching indictment by the Dutch ombudsman in 2010, a parliamentary committee led by Ruud Vreeman collected 2,000 complaints, approximately half of which were by people who had been misled by UWV and who should get their money back. UWV will pay out about 5.2 million euro to its victims, Volkskrant reports.
UWV has instated its own appeal committee for the remaining thousand complainants led by law professor Irene Asscher-Vonk, who has already concluded that “a significant number” of the appellants have also been unjustly accused. Apparently the Vreeman committee never looked at all the complaints in detail, something Asscher-Vonk wants to rectify:
Asscher-Vonk does not just want to do justice to the unjustly suspected entrepreneurs, she also thinks it is important that UWV not be portrayed as a bunch of crooks. It must answer to suspicions of benefits misuse. “Mistakes have been made, but mistakes are made everywhere. UWV is an important and indispensable institution, and the reparation of trust is important.”
Interestingly, UWV pays on average 5,000 euro back per victim, but originally fined them 15,000 euro on average. That means either UWV will not pay back everything, or the real fraud in that pool of 3,000 entrepreneurs has been taking the insurer for much more than fifteen grand a pop.
(Photo of Atelier van Lieshout’s “Food Cart” by me—part of the Art Zuid set)
Tags: benefits, crime, criminals, fraud, Ruud Vreeman, unemployment, unemployment benefits, UWV, work
June 9, 2011
The life-size bronze statue of Rigardus Rijnhout, also known as ‘The Giant of Rotterdam’, was unveiled in Oude Westen, Rotterdam on June 6. The statue made by artist Herman Lamers also symbolises the growth of Rotterdam. We don’t have a pic (yet) and ironic that first you are made fun of, then get a statue to represent your city.
Born in Rotterdam in 1922 Rigardus Rijnhout died age 36 years in Leiden. The giant suffered both from acromegaly (a chronic metabolic disorder in which there is too much growth hormone) and pituitary tumor. He was 2,37 meters tall, weighed 230 kilos and his shoe size 62 (European size).
During his life time, Rigardus Rijnhout received a lot of attention and was often bullied because of his size. In this video you see him age 15, eating many sandwiches and the narrator saying that if Rijnhout raised his hand, he could reach the rooftop drain.
(Link: iamexpat.nl, thetallestman)
June 3, 2011
It all started when some cromagnon policeman in Toronto, Canada was quoted this year as saying “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized”, which was picked up and understood as women who dress provocatively, like sluts, are asking to be raped. Nope, he was just an ordinary Canadian who since regrets what he said if I can believe the Canadian press and who still has major issues if you ask me.
Since emancipation is still in the stone age, cities around the world have started holding Slutwalks, and on 4 June, they’ll be one in Amsterdam, which I will attend along with my roller derby team from the Amsterdam Derby Dames uniform and wheels and all.
“We are tired of being oppressed by slut-shaming; of being judged by our sexuality and feeling unsafe as a result. Being in charge of our sexual lives should not mean that we are opening ourselves to an expectation of violence, regardless if we participate in sex for pleasure or work.”
SlutWalk Amsterdam
Saturday 4 June 2011
4 pm at the Homo Monument
Tags: roller derby, Slutwalk
May 31, 2011
Bavaria beer ads on Dutch television currently feature two commercials with Mickey Rourke (see one below) playing upon his reputation as a major drinker. Besides the usual reasons for putting Americans in Dutch commercials, including sexing up your product, appealing to the youth and trying to be more international, Bavaria does sell 65% of its beer abroad, so it has good reasons for using heavy hitters. Although not a huge brand in the Netherlands, Bavaria is apparently sold in more than 120 countries and was caught up in controversy during the World Cup in South Africa 2010 with its Dutch dresses. The dresses were seen as advertising another beer brand than the main sponsor and some good looking blondes wearing the dresses got arrested, a fantastic marketing moment in retrospect.
I guess I like the Rourke ones better for the simple reason that the Dutch don’t censor English swear words no matter what time the ads come on television.
Here’s a funny Dutch ad with Snoop Dogg and Dutch singer Marco Borsato (a family man Neil Diamond, schmaltzy but much more ‘modern’) that anyone outside the Netherlands couldn’t have seen. It’s about having some choice when choosing a mobile phone, from a few years back.
(Link: reclamewereld.blog.nl)
Tags: advertising, Bavaria, beer, Playboy, television
May 28, 2011
Laura Dekker, the 15-year-old who is busy circumnavigating the globe by herself on her trusty ketch Guppy, has reached the island of Hiva Oa, half-way the Pacific.
I visited the Atuona village where I was welcomed by the mayor right upon arrival and I have since already collected three flower necklaces… The people here are really very friendly, and they find it sad that they could not organize a big party for my arrival because they did not know the time of my arrival. Actually, this is exactly the reason why I did not want them to know in advance. This way my trip becomes a lot more fun and spontaneous.
Earlier this month Dekker got a nasty cut on her foot when a big wave threw her into her cabin: “If I avoid standing on my foot, the pain is bearable, and I am now quite busy practising the flamingo stance.”
Today Dekker hiked up the volcano (“once you are in the clouds, it gets colder and there are fir trees growing everywhere, which really doesn’t make me think that I am now in the middle of the Pacific Ocean”), so I am guessing the foot is coming along fine. If the New Zealand born Dutch girl manages to reach her point of departure five days before her 17th birthday, she will be the youngest person to have solo sailed around the world, an honour currently held by Jessica Watson of Australia.
Hiva Oa has a population of just under 2,000 people and is the place where both Paul Gauguin and Jacques Brel spent their autumn days.
See also:
Tags: Laura Dekker, records, sailing
May 25, 2011
Former parliamentarian James Sharpe of the right-wing extremist Freedom Party (PVV) won an injunction against free newspaper Spits last week.
Spits is no longer allowed to call James Sharpe a ‘porn baron’. The epithet is ‘biased and unnecessarily hurtful’, internet lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet alleges.
One imagines the porn industry will be elated to see itself officially disassociated from Sharpe by a court of law.
Sharpe, son of a black immigrant and married to a Romanian woman, won a seat in parliament on a platform of hatred against immigrants, but resigned his seat when it became clear that he had lied about his Hungarian porn empire having a run-in with the law. This was during a time when Freedom Party front man (and single member) Geert Wilders still tried to get rid of representatives with a shady past—until he realised that this way he would soon be running out of viable candidates.
(Image: the Freedom Party logo. Any association with the logo of the Dutch Nazi party is, I am sure, as coincidental as flying the Dutch Nazi party flag.)
Tags: Dutch Antilles, Hungary, newspapers, parliament, porn, PVV, Romania, Spits
