Sinterklaas: Tensions mount in the Netherlands as UN questions ‘Black Pete’ Christmas tradition - Elisa Criado

It emerged last week that a UN working group is investigating the Dutch custom of white people dressing up as ‘Zwarte Piet’ (Black Pete) as part of their traditional Christmas festivities.

The leader of the UN group, the Jamaican academic Verene Shepherd, has spoken out against the practice on Dutch national television, condemning it as ‘a throw-back to slavery’.

The figure of ‘Zwarte Piet’ is an integral part of the Dutch Christmas tradition. In the Netherlands, children receive gifts on the fifth of December from ‘Sinterklaas’, a version of Saint Nicholas, along with his black slave helpers. These were originally portrayed as scary figures that would beat naughty children with a bunch of twigs and take them away in a sack to Saint Nicholas’ fictional home in Spain.

Today they are mainly characterised as the clown, acrobat, joker and entertainer. Although the custom is clearly linked to slavery and colonial times, most children are currently told that Black Pete gets his colour from the soot in the chimneys when he delivers their presents.

A few weeks before the culmination of festivities on the fifth, Sinterklaas and his ‘helpers’ arrive by boat and are greeted by the local children in large-scale events that are staged across the country. The largest event takes place in Amsterdam and is broadcast on national television. Both professional ‘Pieten’ and many volunteers paint their faces black, their lips red and don curly black wigs and gold earrings.

It is also customary for the children watching the event to do the same. They greet the procession of Sinterklaas and the Pieten by singing traditional songs, lyrics of which include: ‘Even though I’m black as soot, I mean well’.

 Note EU-Digest: What an utter waste of time and money  for the UN  to meddle in this traditional Dutch children and family celebration which in no way is meant to degrade or mock black people.Doesn't the UN have better things to do?

Read more Tensions mount in the Netherlands as UN questions ‘Black Pete’ Christmas tradition - World - News - The Independent

The Netherlands: Powerful storm hits Europe -over 100 million euros damage to the Netherlands infrastructure

A storm battering north-western Europe has killed eight people - four of them in southern England.

Two people died when their car was crushed by a falling tree in Gelsenkirchen, in western Germany. Two children in the car were injured.

In Brittany, western France, a woman was swept out to sea. And in the Dutch city of Amsterdam a tree felled by the wind crushed a woman by a canal.

Many trains were cancelled in and around London and in north Germany.

In many cases in the UK fallen trees had to be cleared from railway lines.

At least 50 flights have been cancelled at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands, and the German broadcaster ARD says there are severe delays at Hamburg airport.

In the UK as many as 600,000 homes suffered power cuts, though many were later reconnected.
Power cuts also hit 42,000 homes in northern France, and at Belle-Ile in Brittany a woman was swept into the sea from a cliff.

Estimated damage to the Netherlands infrastructure is likely to go above 100 million euros

EU-Digest

The Netherlands: Rabobank to Pay More Than $1 Billion in Libor Settlement; Chief Resigns - by Chad Bray

The Dutch lender Rabobank admitted on Tuesday to criminal wrongdoing by its employees and agreed to pay more than $1 billion in criminal and civil penalties to settle investigations by United States, British and other authorities into its role in setting global benchmark interest rates.

The bank is the latest lender to settle charges over the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. The settlement with Rabobank is the second-largest agreement after the $1.5 billion penalty imposed on UBS related to the interest-rate scandal.

As part of the settlement, Rabobank entered into a so-called deferred prosecution agreement, in which it will avoid criminal charges as long as it continues to cooperate with investigators and stays out of further trouble.

EU-Digest

The Netherlands-Privacy Rights Violations:US taps 1.8 million Dutch phone numbers-very few taps related to terrorism

DutchNews NL reports that the American National Security Agency tapped 1.8 million Dutch telephones in one month alone as part of its "Boundless Informant Surveillance Program"..

The raw information was first published by Der Spiegel in June but has now been interpreted by Dutch technology website Tweakers following publication in Le Monde.

Between the beginning of December and beginning of January, 1.8 million Dutch phone numbers were tapped into by the NSA, recording information about number and possibly location, Tweakers said.

The numbers were compared against a database of suspect numbers and, Tweakers says, if a number was on the list, calls to and from the number were listened in to.

In Germany, 500 million numbers were picked up by the NSA and in France 70 million. Paris has now summoned the US ambassador to explain events. According to Le Monde, documents show the NSA was allegedly targeting not only terrorist suspects but politicians, business people and others.

The raw information comes from whistleblower Edward Snowden. VVD parliamentarian Klaas Dijkhoff said the news that the US is obtaining telephone information in the Netherlands on such a broad scale is ‘disappointing’.

'If it was the Chinese or the Russians, then no-one would be surprised,’ he is quoted as saying by Tweakers ‘But this is an ally and that makes it extra disappointing.’

The Netherlands is already the most heavily phone-tapped country in the world. The number of phone taps rose 3% to nearly 25,500 last year, according to justice ministry figures. And the number of requests for information about phone calls - such as the location calls were made from - reached almost 57,000, up 10% on 2011.

The above  figures do not include taps by the Dutch security services.

The question the EU Commission and Parliament should pose, and so far have not ; "why would the EU want to negotiate a comprehensive and  far reaching trade agreement with the US when they can't be trusted and as a matter of fact even have been caught bugging offices of the EU in Bruxelles and  the US ?"

The Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) of 2010 agreed on by the EU and US, which supplies bank and credit card transaction information to the U.S. treasury in an apparent effort to trace funding to terrorist groups, should probably also be scrapped now it has became evident the Americans have been abusing the agreement. 

Almere-Digest

Netherlands: Famous WWI Spy Mata Hari's Dutch Birthplace Destroyed by Fire

Mata Hari in Paris

Over the weekend the home in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, in where exotic dancer and WWI spy Mata Hari was born got totally destroyed in a fire.

One person was killed by the fire on Saturday evening as it engulfed several buildings in Leeuwarden, about 140km (87 miles) north of Amsterdam.

Local media said the victim was thought to be a 24-year-old man who had lived in a flat in the buildings.

Mata Hari was born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle in August 1876, to a shopkeeper and a Javanese ( Indonesian) mother.

In the early 1900s she left her husband and travelled to Paris where she found fame as an exotic dancer. Her work brought her into contact with many high society figures.

But she was arrested by France during WWI, accused of being a spy for Germany.

Her defense attorney, veteran international lawyer Edouard Clunet, faced impossible odds; he could not cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses or directly question his own witnesses. Under the circumstances, her conviction was a foregone conclusion. She was executed by firing squad on 15 October 1917, at the age of 41.

German documents unsealed in the 1970s proved that Mata Hari was truly a German agent however. In the autumn of 1915, she entered German service, and on orders of section III B-Chief Walter Nicolai, she was instructed about her duties by Major Roepell during a stay in Cologne. Her reports were to be sent to the Kriegsnachrichtenstelle West (War News Post West) in Düsseldorf under Roepell as well as to the Agent mission in the German embassy in Madrid under Major Arnold Kalle, with her direct handler being Captain Hoffmann, who also gave her the code name H-21.

Several films have been made about Mata Hari's life, most famously in 1931 where she was played by Greta Garbo.

Also read more in: BBC News - Mata Hari's Netherlands birthplace destroyed in fire

The Netherlands: Almere and four other cities selected for nomination as the bicycle city of Holland

Beautiful scenic bike paths  in Holland

Almere, Europe's newest and most modern city has been selected together with the cities of Eindhoven, Enschede, Velsen and Zwolle,  to be nominated in the spring of 2014 as the bicycle city of the Netherlands by the Dutch Bicycle Federation.

These five cites were among nineteen cities that had initially registered to participate in this selection.

There are more bicycles than residents in The Netherlands and in cities like Amsterdam and The Hague up to 70% of all journeys are made by bike. 

To make cycling safer and more inviting the Dutch have built a vast network of cycle paths.

These are clearly marked, have smooth surfaces, separate signs and lights for those on two wheels, and wide enough to allow side-by-side cycling and overtaking.

Even before they can walk, Dutch children are immersed in a world of cycling. As babies and toddlers they travel in special seats on "bakfiets", or cargo bikes. These seats are often equipped with canopies to protect the children from the elements.

Biking in the Netherlands is an integral part of everyday life rather than a specialist's accessory or a symbol of a minority lifestyle. Dutch people in general are not concerned about having the very latest model of bike or hi-tech gadgets. 

Getting on a bike is fun and safe in the Netherlands

Almere-Digest

Turkey v Netherlands - 2-0 Turkey crushed by clinical Holland

Holland celebrated their qualification for the World Cup finals with a 2-0 win to finally end Turkey's tame challenge for a play-off place.

Fatih Terim's men needed to beat the Group D winners, who sealed their place in Brazil last week, while hoping rivals Romania dropped points.

But an early free-kick from Arjen Robben beat Volkan Demirel to put Turkey firmly on the back foot and Wesley Sneijder's goal shortly after the break confirmed a fateful 2-0 win.

It was a ninth win in 10 qualifying games for Holland but Turkey finished a poor fourth behind Romania and Hungary after both nations won their respective games against Estonia and Andorra.

In a game which featured a Holland side fresh from hammering Hungary 8-1 and a Turkey team desperate to secure second place, it was remarkable that the first 20 minutes produced only one shot on goal.

Read more: Turkey v Netherlands - 15th Oct 2013 | Report | World Cup Euro Qual | Sky Sports Football

Sweat Shops:You should care where your T-Shirt was made: The true cost of a T-shirt - by M. MacKinnon and M. Strauss

Your T-Shirt is probably made in this "sweatshop"

At about 8:30 a.m. one morning in April, a generator rumbled to life at Rana Plaza – rattling the building, as it always did when it started.

Work had just begun at the welter of garment factories when the power went out. So a manager on the seventh floor, home to the New Wave Style factory, was quick to stand up as the lights went back on and announce that the building was safe. Everyone should continue doing their jobs.

But this time, Rana Plaza didn’t stop shaking.

“He died on the spot as he was announcing that we should keep working,” Raehana Akhter recalls. Then she fell, too. “It was like stepping into an elevator [shaft]. I felt this feeling in my stomach, and then everything fell.”
When she landed, Ms. Akhter, a 22-year-old mother who worked as a quality control officer for about $2 a day, was in complete darkness, with her left leg trapped under shattered cement.

“The ceiling was just here,” she says, putting her hand about 30 centimetres above her face. “I felt like this would be my little grave.”

The building did become a grave – for 1,129 people. Its collapse was the world’s worst industrial accident in almost three decades. Fatal accidents in the garment-trade belt around Dhaka have become all too regular.

Sweatshop

The Rana Plaza deaths added to a toll of 117 who died in a November, 2012, fire at Tazreen Fashions. And that disaster was echoed by another fire this week, which claimed 10 lives at the Aswad Composite Mills factory.

The collapse of Rana Plaza spotlighted the potentially tragic costs of the cheap T-shirt – now a staple of fast fashion – and sparked debate about just how much responsibility retailers should have for the supply chain that moves product onto their shelves.

Yet as the ties between countries have become stronger, accountability has become a loose thread. The Globe’s investigation shows how companies such as Loblaw place their orders through middlemen, who in turn source work to a network of far-flung factories. The retailer whose shelves are stocked with cheap T-shirts in many cases does not know where in the world it or its materials is going to be produced when an order is placed. Inspecting buildings and working conditions has been beyond the retailer’s scope.

Note EU-Digest: Maybe it is high time that the EU Parliament approves legislation which only allows in products made overseas into the EU that have a 'Trade Mark' which  says: "This product has been produced in a workplace which meets EU approved standards for safety". Just talking about the issue with the Governments in question that allow these sweatshops or corporate entities which import these products has had very little effect. 

In the meantime consumers should check the label of the products they are buying and think twice about buying the product if it is not clearly specified that it was produced in a safe workplace.

 Read more: Spinning tragedy: The true cost of a T-shirt - The Globe and Mail

European Economy: Red Cross study slams Europe's response to the economic crisis over the past five years

Homeless Europeans

A Red Cross study slams Europe's response to the economic crisis over the past five years, saying the continent is in for a long period of unemployment, a widening poverty gap and a growing risk of social unrest. 

Annitta Underlin is the Director for Europe with IFRC (the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies). Her section combines 52 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. In a report called 'Think differently,' published on Thursday (10.10.2013), they warn that Europe's response to the economic crisis will push the continent into social and economic decline.

Read more of the interview: 'The crisis has taken root at every level' | Europe | DW.DE | 10.10.2013

Soccer : Netherlands thrashes Hungary 8-1 in qualifier

Dutch Soccer Team celebrates 8-1 win over Hungary

Robin van Persie scored a hat trick Friday to become the all-time Dutch top scorer as the Netherlands thrashed Hungary 8-1 in a World Cup qualifier.

The Netherlands had already qualified for next year's finals, and Hungary's hopes of consolidating second place in Group D were erased by a vintage Dutch performance.

With Romania beating Andorra 4-0 and Turkey downing Estonia 2-0, second place in the group is still up for grabs with one round to go.

Umut Bulut opened the scoring in the 22nd minute for Turkey in Estonia and Burak Yilmaz made it 2-0 in the 47th to Take Turkey into second in the group, ahead of Romania on goal difference.

Andorra managed to restrict visiting Romania to a Claudiu Keseru goal in the first half, but Bogdan Stancu, Gabriel Torje and Costin Lazar all scored as Romania stamped its class on the Group D minnow after the break.

Turkey and Romania's wins took them ahead of Hungary, level on 16 points.

In next week's final matches, Turkey faces a tough match against the Netherlands in Istanbul, Romania hosts Estonia and Hungary has a home game against Andorra.

Read more: AMSTERDAM: Netherlands thrashes Hungary 8-1 in qualifier - Soccer | Fútbol - MiamiHerald.com

Dutch government averts budget crisis with support of small parties - by Anthony Deutsch

The Dutch government on Friday won the support of several small opposition parties needed to push through a fresh round of austerity cuts, averting a budget crisis.

The centre-right coalition of Liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte concluded several days of negotiations with an agreement to trim away an additional 6 billion euros ($ 8.12 billion)  in government spending in 2014.

Dutch news agency ANP said a deal was reached between the government, which lacks a majority in the Senate, and two small Christian parties - the Christian Union and the conservative SGP - as well as the right-of-centre Democrats 66.

The cuts are needed to bring the Netherlands in line with the European Union's 3 percent budget deficit target.

Dutch finance minister and Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem cancelled a trip to the annual IMF meetings in Washington this week to focus on the negotiations.

Read more: Dutch government averts budget crisis with support of small parties - World | The Star Online

EU Votes to Tighten Rules on Drilling (fracking) Method - by James Kantner

European Union lawmakers voted narrowly on Wednesday to force energy companies to carry out in-depth environmental audits before they deploy a technique known as fracking to recover natural gas from shale rock.

The technique involves shooting a cocktail of water, sand and chemicals under pressure into shale to break it up and release the gas. France has already banned the technique, also known as hydraulic fracturing. And it has produced protests in Britain. 

The rules were narrowly approved by the European Parliament, which is meeting this week in Strasbourg, France, and still must undergo another round of voting in the Parliament once an agreement on final language is reached with European Union governments. Shale gas projects that do not use fracking would not be covered by the rules, which update environmental legislation in Europe. 

Even so, the result is a setback for the shale-gas industry in Europe, where it is far less developed than in the United States and where many citizens are more concerned about the environmental impact of recovering the gas than about finding new sources of hydrocarbons as a way of combating stubbornly high energy prices.

Recently the Dutch Government postponed their plans to explore Gas reserves in the Province of Flevoland by means of fracking in order to carry out more studies as to the safety of such exploration.

Read more: Europe Votes to Tighten Rules on Drilling Method - NYTimes.com

Netherlands: "The Dutch ‘have no idea’ about the scale of the US espionage activities in the Netherlands" says Glenn Greenwald

American journalist Glenn Greenwald, who helped publish reports on the US’s internet-based spying program, says the Dutch ‘have no idea’ about the scale of the US espionage activities in the Netherlands.

In an interview with the Volkskrant, Greenwald says the revelations about the situation in the Netherlands will be published soon.

‘I have a lot of information about the Netherlands but I cannot go into it yet,’ Greenwald said. 'The tone of debate in the Netherlands may well change when the revelations are published.'

Dutch reaction to the revelations has been fairly muted so far, the paper points out. In mid-September the government published its official reaction, stating that the US has now promised the EU to inform it about its spy programmes and welcoming US discussions about improving transparency.

This, the paper states, is in sharp contrast to the justice ministry’s recent report on cyber security which stated digital spying by foreign states poses a serious threat.

Read more in Volskrant

European Quality of Life Survey 2012

Fieldwork for the third European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) took place from the end of September 2011 to early February 2012 in the 27 European Union Member States. The survey was published  in September 2013.

The report of the findings, Quality of life in Europe: Impacts of the crisis, is now online.  It can also be downloaded as a PDF file  .

European Quality of Life Survey 2012

Almere cuts budget by another 7 million euro's

Almere

After cutting Almere's budget by 17 million euro's in the spring, councilman Mark Pol of the Conservative VVD announcing the proposed budget for 2014 said the City budget would be cut by another 7 million euro's.

It was also announced that the Dutch Government  had cut Almere's subsidy from the National City Council Fund by 6 million euro's and that the City would receive euro 900.000 less for school housing purposes.

All these budget cuts for Almere come in addition to budget cuts which now total 48 million since 2010.

Presently Almere has 195,000 inhabitants and 14,500 businesses. . It is also considered one of  Europe's fastest growing cities and is well on the way to become the fifth largest city in the Netherlands over the next twenty years.

These budget cuts are seen as potential dangers to Almere's future development and growth. The city is only 38 years old and is seen by many architects around the world as Europe's most modern and environmentally advanced cities

Almere-Digest

Did The Dutch Start The End Of Social Europe? - by Jose Igancio Torreblanca

The Dutch government’s recent announcement that the welfare state will be substituted by an undefined “participative society” may be the news story of the year — or at least deserves to be. No doubt the headlines oversimplify as usual. But the alarm is sounding: if the Dutch, who are a paradigm of wealth, efficiency, and democracy and are at home in the globalised world, declare the European social model defunct, what can we expect in politically hobbled, closed societies like ours? How not to be depressed if we are told that the havoc wrought by austerity policies will mean the unsustainability of the chief hallmarks of the EU social model, which we see as a natural aspiration for any individual or nation? Does this mean that Europe will no longer progress, that it has hit a ceiling and can now only recede?

Society is based on three contracts. The first is between generations: those of working age sustain the rest, both elder and younger. Though this is sometimes forgotten, pensions are not really paid out of the savings of pensioners, but out of taxes on those who are working. This massive inter-generational income transfer (€121 billion in Spain in 2013, 12 percent of GDP) is accepted without question. The old, as the politicians put it, are “our” elders. A pension system based entirely on the recovery of the private savings made by each individual throughout their working life would amount to a radical change in our political, economic, and social model.

The second contract is between classes. Also underlying our coexistence is the acceptance of income transfers from the wealthier classes to the poorer. Progressive taxation, which we also accept, is the proof of this. Why should those who have more pay more? Shouldn’t we all pay the same percentage? These are questions frequently asked by the American libertarians, partisans of a minimal state limited to guaranteeing private property and the fulfilment of contracts. But in “welfare” Europe no party would go into elections with a programme proposing to suppress progressive taxation, and with it the equal-opportunity (education, healthcare) policies that (at least in theory) ensure that one’s position in society will be determined, not entirely by birth and social origin but, at least to some extent, by merit.

The third contract is between territories. Every state has richer and poorer regions, and cannot accept this divide and its perpetuation merely as a symbol of the natural order of things. Independently of the debate on the causes of these disparities and the ways to moderate them, the consensus is that they have to be corrected by means of income transfers, and that without such “territorial cohesion” it is impossible to maintain the stability and unity of a country.

These three contracts express, as the Americans like to say, the European way of life. In Europe, democracy is the result of a broad pact between capital and labour, substantiated precisely in the general acceptance of an economy based on private initiative in exchange for a social state that is redistributive in each of these three dimensions.

The Dutch government now thinks that some aspects of welfare should again be the business of the individual, while others should devolve upon local rather than national authorities.

Read more: Did The Dutch Start The End Of Social Europe?

The Netherlands ranked below average for foreign investors in Grant Thornton annual Global Dynamism Index (GDI)

The  Grant Thornton annual Global Dynamism Index (GDI) rates 60 of the world's biggest economies according to 22 indicators of "dynamism." These include factors such as corporate tax burdens and GDP growth.

According to the survey, Australia was the world's most attractive country for foreign in investment in 2013 among 60 nations ranked .The Netherlands was ranked 38th.
  
The GDI, however rated the Netherlands high in terms of political stability, Business Operating Environment and foreign trade relations. It also gave the Netherlands  high marks for its usage of Internet services.

Almere-Digest

Euro zone morale reaches two-year high in September but mood in the Netherlands worsened by 0.9 points - by Martin Santa

Optimism in the euro zone's economy brightened for the fifth month running and hit a 2-year high in September, driven by improving confidence across all sectors and confirming that a recovery is underway.

The European Commission said on Friday the 17-nation bloc's morale rose faster than expected to 96.9 from 95.3 in August, the best reading since August 2011.

In the wider European Union, confidence was up by 2.4 points to 100.6 points, taking the indicator above its long-term average for the first time since July 2011.

In the euro zone, the positive trend was particularly strong in three out of the bloc's five largest economies, with Spain and Italy rising by 2.5 points and France up by 1.6 points.

Sentiment in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, was broadly unchanged, while the mood in the Netherlands worsened by 0.9 points in September.

Across the bloc, employment plans were revised upwards in industry, services, retail trade and construction, the European Commission said.

Read more; Euro zone morale reaches two-year high in September | Fox Business