The Netherlands: Dutch change international branding: Holland becomes The Netherlands

The Dutch government is going to stop promoting the country abroad as ‘Holland’ and will instead use The Netherlands’, marketing magazine Adformatie said on Thursday.

The detailed plan will be published later this year, but a group of marketing professionals were briefed on the change earlier this week. The aim, the magazine said, is to be less promotional and more about content.

The Netherlands currently promotes itself as Holland.com, illustrated in marketing literature by an orange tulip.

The new strategy means, the Netherlands will present itself to the rest of the world as ‘co-creating pioneering solutions to global challenges’, Adformatie said.

Read more at: Dutch change international branding: Holland becomes The Netherlands - DutchNews.nl

Voting starts in Europe for Turkish referendum - only a no vote can stop total Turkish dictatorship

Turkish citizens in six European countries have started to vote in a referendum, the campaign for which has caused an international dispute.

Voters are choosing whether to move Turkey from a parliamentary republic to a presidential one, boosting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers.

Some three million people are eligible to vote outside of Turkey, almost half of them living in Germany.

But political rallies have been blocked in several countries.

This has caused a bitter row between Turkey and its European neighbours, with President Erdogan accusing the Dutch and German authorities of acting like Nazis.

In Switzerland, a rally in support of the "no" vote was held in Bern on Sunday, drawing thousands - including Kurdish demonstrators.

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Read m,ore: Voting starts in Europe for Turkish referendum - BBC N

Global GNP: Holland outside the EU would be reduced to the same level of global importance as Florida

Netherlands equal to state of Florida

How does the U.S. economy measure up to the rest of the world? You could find out by poring over a table of GDP figures, or you could get a snap perspective from this map, which renames every U.S. state according to a country with a matching GDP.

One million Rhode Islanders have as much wealth as 15 million Guatemalans. Texas has an economy the size of Australia’s. And New York has met its match, Mexico.

The map from economist Mark J. Perry at the American Enterprise Institute puts America’s $16 trillion GDP in perspective. “The map and these statistics help remind us of the enormity of the economic powerhouse we live in,” Perry writes, at least to the 4% of the world’s population that lives there.

The Netherlands economy (GDP) is approximately the same as that of the state Florida in the USA with a similar number of inhabitants (17 million people) . 

This report underscore the fact that if the EU would break up - as most of the Eurosceptics would like to see happen -  individual EU member-states would not be able to play any significant role on the global scene in relation to international trade, economics, finances, jurisdiction or military matters. 

In other words a united Europe can be a master of its own fate but divided it will fall.

Read more: GDP Map of U.S. States Compared to World | TIME.com