The Netherlands: Hollywood in the Netherlands - by Manja van Kesteren

With its iconic canals and canal houses, windmills and fields of tulips, Dutch scenery can make for a pretty picture.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that Hollywood has stopped by a couple of times over the years.

Here are some Hollywood blockbusters that have been (partially) filmed in the Netherlands:

Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)
Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Dunkirk (2017)
The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017)

To promote film production in the Netherlands, and to attract big Hollywood productions to the country, the Netherlands Film Production Incentive was introduced in 2014. To qualify for a 35 percent cash rebate, feature films must incur at least 75 percent of their production costs within the Netherlands, and they are required to spend 100.000 euros on local production costs as well.

Since its introductio the incentive has contributed to over 200 projects, including 98 film productions from abroad. Thanks to the program, Dunkirk received a sum of 1,2 million USD, and the Hitman’s Bodyguard took home 960.000 USD.

Read more and see the film clips:The Netherlands: Hollywood in the Netherlands - by Manja van Kesteren 

EU: Going Dutch? What Americans can learn from how children are raised in the Netherlands - by Amy Perrette

Dutch grammar school

 When Rina Mae Acosta, originally from California, fell in love with a Dutch man, they got married and moved to the Netherlands. At first she wasn’t sure what to make of the new culture. But as soon as she became a parent, she was struck by the richness of Dutch family life — by how independent, resilient and happy Dutch children seemed.

Data backs up Acosta's impression. In the latest UNICEF study ranking 29 of the world's richest industrialized countries according to child well-being, Dutch children come out on top. America ranks 26th, just above Lithuania and Latvia.

Acosta and her British friend, Michele Hutchison (also an expat married to a Dutch man), decided to document the differences they saw between their own pressurized childhoods and the Dutch parenting style, and explain what it is about the Dutch approach that is producing such contented kids. The result is their book, "The Happiest Kids in the World: How Dutch Parents Help Their Kids (and Themselves) by Doing Less."

“Scrap the idea of ‘quality time,’ as American and British parents know it,” says Hutchison. “That is too stressful and puts too much pressure on planning and finances.”

Instead, Dutch parents enjoy spending lots of relaxed time together at family meals, or having the children play nearby while the parent is attending to his or her own interests and projects.

Part of why Dutch parents are able to have that low-key family time is because they allow their children a high degree of independence, even allowing them to climb trees unsupervised and bike alone at a young age.

“It isn’t that the Dutch aren’t aware of risk,” Acosta says. “They just keep the risk in perspective.”

Dutch kids are not taught to read and write until about age 7 and don’t get regular homework until their early teenage years, yet they score at the top of educational achievement and participation in the same UNICEF study.

Catherine Tamis-LeMonda, professor of applied psychology at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, says that low-stress start to schooling makes good sense.

“A huge number of studies show that children's motivation to do things — to be engaged, to learn about their world — goes up when they make choices about what to do,” she says.

Stressing less and relaxing more as the recipe for happy children? It might be time we all “go Dutch.”

Read more: Going Dutch? What Americans can learn from how children are raised in the Netherlands - TODAY.com

The Netherlands - culture: How China Conquered the Dutch - by NINA SIEGAL

In 1558, a single Portuguese trading ship returning from Asia carried 1,000 pieces of Chinese porcelain. A Dutch ship making the same journey 50 years later brought 60,000 pieces. And by 1638, about 900,000 pieces of Chinese porcelain were transported via Dutch trading vessels.

In the span of one century, the fine, thin, white ceramics made from a clay called kaolin and fired in blazing hot kilns went from being a unique treasure for a handful of wealthy European connoisseurs to a common household item, especially in the Netherlands.

Today, this porcelain is known in everyday English usage as china, and as early as the 17th century it was already being copied throughout Europe.

How did china and other Asian commodities, such as Japanese lacquer chests, Ceylonese ivory cabinets and Indian silks, first come to the Western world, and what impact did the European appreciation for them have on the kinds of products that were produced? These are the questions raised in “Asia in Amsterdam,” an exhibition that opened at the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum on Oct. 17 and runs until Jan. 17, when it will move to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass.

 Read more: How China Conquered the Dutch - The New York Times

Russia: President Vladimir Putin deserves kudos for 2014 Sochi Olympics - a job well done

President Vladimir Putin

Even though most of us in the Western Press had initially used every possible occasion to be critical about a variety of issues surrounding  the Sochi Olympics project, the Olympics not only got off to a brilliant start, but also throughout the games showed to be a smooth and perfectly managed operation.

This was recognized by just about everyone afterwards.

Olympic Committee officials went to great lengths to praise these much-maligned Games in their closing news conference.

"They've done a phenomenal job," said USOC chairman Larry Probst, mentioning everything from smooth transportation to Vladimir Putin's presence throughout the previous 15 days. "(Putin) has really owned these Games," he said.

Like it or not, President Vladimir Putin deserves to receive Kudos, not only for these Olympic games, but also for doing everything in his power to turn Sochi into a household word and exposing a cultural, warm and friendly face of  Russia to the rest of world.

Indeed, Mr. Putin might not be everyone's friend - which great leader ever is- but he will certainly be viewed by historians later as the Russian leader who picked up Russia by the bootstraps, after it was down and nearly out when the Soviet Union fell apart, and turning it into the modern society it is today.   

According to Russian public opinion polls, Mr Putin not only remains popular - his popularity is even rising.  In the latest poll, taken in December 2013, by the independent research organization, the Levada Centre, 68 per cent of respondents said that if new presidential elections were held this they would vote for Putin. This was up by 10 per cent from December 2012.

Why is Mr. Putin so popular at home? The simple answer is that the Russian population of 144 million is much better off today than it has ever been. Real incomes have risen substantially over the past decade, and the share of the population living below the poverty line has fallen.

The range of available consumer goods is worlds apart from when the Soviet Union fell apart little more than two decades ago.  Many of the middle class Russian families are now taking vacations outside their country and in the summer you will now find Russians vacationers just about everywhere in the world with a large contingent  in Turkey and Thailand..

During his two terms as president, Putin signed into law a series of liberal economic reforms, such as the flat income tax of 13 percent, a reduced profits tax, a new Land Code and a new edition (2006) of the Civil Code. Within this period, poverty in Russia was cut by more than half and real GDP has grown rapidly.

Some of the main features of Putin's regime so far have been: development of a corporatist system by pursuing close ties with business organizations, social stability and co-optation of opposition parties.

In 2005, Putin launched National Priority Projects in the fields of health care, education, housing and agriculture. In his May 2006 annual speech, Putin proposed increasing maternity benefits and prenatal care for women. Putin was strident about the need to reform the judiciary considering the present federal judiciary "Sovietesque", wherein many of the judges hand down the same verdicts as they would under the old Soviet judiciary structure, and preferring instead a judiciary that interpreted and implemented the code to the current situation.

In 2005, responsibility for federal prisons was transferred from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Ministry of Justice.

The most high-profile change within the national priority project frameworks was probably the 2006 across-the-board increase in wages in healthcare and education, as well as the decision to modernize equipment in both sectors in 2006 and 2007.

So far during Putin's government, poverty was cut more than half and real GDP has grown rapidly.

In a rare sign of emotion and patriotism, he once said in an interview with Time magazine: "Russia is an ancient country with historical, profound traditions and a very powerful moral foundation. And this foundation is a love for the Motherland and patriotism. Patriotism in the best sense of that word. Incidentally, I think that to a certain extent, to a significant extent, this is also attributable to the American people."

Kudos Mr. Putin, Sochi was a job well done.

EU-Digest

Almere: Poprondo Musical Caravan Visits City October 5 - Mark your calender

Almere will be shaking on its foundations once again on Saturday October 5, when the  Musical Caravan stops in the City for the fourth year in a row. The caravan also visits 31 other Dutch cities including, Nijmegen, Zwolle, Oss and Haarlem.

In Almere the artists will perform at sixteen different locations downtown, among those locations De Meester, Kinki Kappers, Bagel and Beans, and even at the Editorial Office of the Almere Vandaag newspaper.

There will be something for every music lover. A total of 26 groups will be performing throughout the day. From pop to rock, soul to folk. Among the performing bands: When We Are Wild, Wolf in Loveland, Herrek, Adam and the Relevants and Hompfdinga.

So mark your calender for October 5 and come to Almere, Europe's most modern and swinging city.

Almere-Digest