Bad News from the Netherlands

Minister of Agriculture Gerda Verburg (Christian Democrat) has come under heavy criticism from most parties in Parliament for distributing a glossy magazine with her own picture on the cover, describing the activities of her ministry. Eight hundred thirty thousand copies of the magazine have been distributed at the cost of...

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Ad van Luyn, chairman of the Dutch Bishops Conference, said on television that the sexual abuse in the Dutch Roman Catholic Church should be investigated independently, and not by the Church itself. In slightly over a week, the Catholic organization which deals with cases of sexual abuse, has received more...

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Journalist Alberto Stegeman has shown in the past how easy it is to illegally enter parts of Amsterdam Schiphol airport. Recently he demonstrated on television how terrorists can buy liquids in the duty free shop, leave the area, then refill the bottle with other materials, return and get on a...

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Father Gé Jansens, on behalf of the Redemptorists – a Catholic order – has apologized on a television program for sexual abuse by members of his order. During the same program a man claimed that, as a child in the 1960s he was raped five times by a priest at...

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In a doctoral thesis titled “Bernhard: A Hidden History,” Annejet van der Zijl concludes that the pre-war sympathy of the Queen Beatrix’s late father Prince Bernhard for German national socialist organizations was much greater than he ever admitted. During her research Van der Zijl found a membership card for the...

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Both the Labor and the Liberal Parties have requested an independent investigation of the many alleged cases of sexual abuse in Roman Catholic institutions over the last decades. The parties are of the opinion that a self-investigation by the Church is not sufficient. Liberal Parliamentarian Fred Teeven proposed that Minister...

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Shortly before the soccer game between Ajax and FC Utrecht took place, the police expelled all 700 Utrecht fans from Amsterdam. When the train came into the station next to the stadium, a large number of them shouted anti-Semitic slogans. They also destroyed some of the windows in the train...

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A poll by the daily Trouw shows that 30% of municipal counselors have been threatened at least once. Antoon Claassen, the leader of the Green Left Party in Wassenaar, complained to the police the first time he was threatened. He was told that those who make the most serious threats...

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Albert van den Bosch, Mayor of Zaltbommel (Liberal Party), has said that a group of Moroccan youngsters is terrorizing his town. He said that there is intimidation and violence. He added that it is much more serious than just youngsters calling out to women “You are a whore!” He says...

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Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (Christian Democrat), former secretary-general of NATO and former Dutch foreign minister, has said that The Netherlands has damaged the image of NATO. He was referring to the upcoming departure of Dutch troops from Afghanistan, despite the request of the current Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to maintain...

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Former Liberal Minister Rita Verdonk, who has established her own party, said that Labor Party Leader Wouter Bos is a liar. Bos, who recently resigned as deputy prime minister, said that he didn’t know that NATO would request that the Dutch military stay in Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen (Christian...

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Former Minister of the Interior Guusje ter Horst (Labor), who has recently resigned, says that Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen (Christian Democrats) threatened to resign if the Dutch troops would leave Afghanistan as planned. Prime Minister Balkenende’s denial of Verhagen’s threats is a lie.www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/6129597/__Ter_Horst__Premier_liegt__.html?p=3,2 ...

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Liberal Parliamentarian Stef Blok said that Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende (Christian Democrat) is a liar. Blok mentioned that Balkenende claimed, at a meeting of the Christian Democrats in Nijmegen that Labor and the Liberals are blocking the discussion of the crisis law in the senate. Blok remarked that this...

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Joke Padmos, spokesperson for the Amsterdam’s Slotervaart neighborhood council, says that there has been a major increase in cases of Moroccans stealing from other Moroccans, for instance dowries. The neighborhood council chairman, Ahmed Marcouch has received letters from other parts of The Netherlands regarding similar problems. As a...

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Former Army Commander Dick Berlijn has heavily criticized the Labor Party for insisting that all Dutch military should leave Afghanistan. (This has led to the fall of the government.) Berlijn said that the Labor Party doesn’t care about Afghanistan, but is mainly concerned about its own interests and its success...

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On Thursday, in anticipation of the soccer match between the Italian Juventus and Ajax from Amsterdam, more than 600 hoodlums were expelled from Amsterdam by the police. Not only fans of the two clubs were involved, but also violent supporters of other Dutch teams and even some from the Polish...

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Former EU Commissioner and former leader of the Liberal Party Frits Bolkestein has said that Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende (Christian Democrats) should resign, in view of the conclusions of the Davids Inquiry on the Iraq war. Bolkestein said that the government should have known in 2002 that there was...

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Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende (Christian Democrats) has said that Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen (Labor) should behave normally. There is an agreement among the government parties that coffee shops which sell soft drugs should not be located within 250 meters of schools and the mayor should enforce it. Cohen says...

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The Central Bureau of Statistics has announced that in 2009 the Dutch economy shrank by 4%. This is the greatest decline ever in a one-year period. The CBS also announced that the number of people employed was 150,000 in the last quarter of 2009, compared to that of 2008.www.telegraaf.nl/dft/nieuws_dft/6017847/__Economische_krimp_vorig_jaar_4_procent__.html...

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The parliamentarian Fred Teeven (Liberal Party) says that hospital employees are so intimidated by violence by Moroccans that they are afraid to even complain. He was reacting to a recent incident at the hospital in Harderwijk in which family members of someone who had died there attacked the hospital personnel...

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The Bits of Freedom digital civil rights organization has given the Big Brother Award to Minister of Interior Guusje ter Horst (Labor). This “prize” is awarded to those institutions and people which promote breaches of privacy. According to the jury Ter Horst demonstrates “a dangerous lack of nuance” in the...

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The animal protection organization Bont voor Dieren (Fur for Animals) has carried out an internet poll to choose the stupidest fur wearer in the country. Queen Beatrix received 41% of the 15,000 votes. The organizations’ director Claudia Linssen said that the queen wears furs regularly and sets the wrong example...

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Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb has announced that the Chief of Rotterdam Police Aad Meijboom has resigned. Meijboom had been heavily criticized after the police failed to deal properly with riots at a beach festival in August. The police knew that hooligans planned actions, but they did not take proper precautions....

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Caretakers in large institutions have incurred the largest percentage of security incidents at work, in comparison to other employees at major institutions. About 22% of doctors, nurses, receptionists and cleaning personnel in care institutions are suffering from insecure situations. In schools, the percentage is 14.1%. More caretakers than other professions...

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Recent data from the Central Bureau of Statistics show that 20.5% of non-western youngsters were unemployed in 2009. The year before the percentage was 16.8. Whereas unemployment among all autochtonous Dutch was 4%, among non-westerners it was 11%. The unemployment among autochtonous was 9.6%.www.trouw.nl/nieuws/economie/article2980243.ece/Een_vijfde_allochtone_jongeren_werkloos.html ...

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