February 23, 2011

Thirty years after the Pierson Street riots in Nijmegen

Filed under: History by Orangemaster @ 2:14 pm

Today exactly 30 years ago, the Dutch government used 5 tanks, armored vehicles, a helicopter, nearly 3,000 soldiers (MP and special army units) and police, and two types of teargas (illegal use), to end a protest in my hometown of Nijmegen against the demolition of a centuries old residential area for a parking garage.

The major point was that there was (and still is) a lack of housing in Nijmegen and throwing people out of their homes to make way for a parking garage seemed like a good reason to fight.

The Mayor signed posters that read in capitals:

1. DON’T USE VIOLENCE.
2. DON’T THROW MOLOTOV COCKTAILS, FIRE BOMBS AND THE LIKES.
3 REMOVE YOURSELF.

UPDATE: Free and legal download of the punk track in the background and more by Nijmegen’s The Squats (Thanks Marco!)

(Tip: Thanks Rob!, Photo: studiezaal.nijmegen.nl)

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February 22, 2011

Mural from Gaston Lagaffe comic comes alive

Filed under: Art,Comics by Orangemaster @ 3:22 pm

Artist Rufus Ketting recreated a mural from the famous Belgian comic strip Gaston Lagaffe (known in Dutch as ‘Guust Flater’) because he liked the idea of paintings that could wreck important business deals.

Created by Belgian comics writer and artist André Franquin in 1957, Gaston Lagaffe works at French-language comics publisher Spirou in Brussels whose ultimate goal is to sign contracts with the rich Flemish Mr De Mesmaeker, seen here running away, as he often does. Prunelle (crying at the desk) is one of Gaston’s bosses, always desperately trying to get those contracts signed.

The mural can be viewed at Frank Taal gallery in Rotterdam until March 12.

(Link: Via Trendbeheer. Photo by Pim Top, used with permission.)

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February 21, 2011

Woman refuses to be fingerprinted for passport, sues

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 10:54 am

Eight months ago the city of The Hague refused to provide Louise van Luijk with a passport, even though as a Dutch citizen she has the right to one. Last Monday (Webwereld) or Tuesday (De Stentor) Van Luijk was heard by an appeals court which expects to have a ruling ready on March 23.

As part of new European rules for biometric passports, Van Luijk would have to provide the state with her fingerprints, which she refuses to do. For that reason the city has refused to issue her a passport. Van Luijk claims this is a human rights issue, as all kinds of official activities in the Netherlands require being able to identify yourself.

The Dutch government wants to store fingerprints from passports in a central database—not required by the new European law—, and Van Luijk fears that the French company managing this database could sell her private data to other parties. The fear may be unfounded, but the Dutch government does not have a good track record when it comes to securing the private data of its citizens.

According to De Groene Amsterdammer, passports are required if you want to register with the Chamber of Commerce, file a report with the police, register a newborn with the municipality, vote, buy a house, and so on. Van Luijk’s personal experience is different: when her child was born, the city accepted a copy of her birth certificate as proof of her existence. People in the Netherlands are obliged to identify themselves to the authorities when asked.

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February 20, 2011

3D video map your living room

Filed under: Architecture,Design by Branko Collin @ 1:04 pm

Mr. Beam is a company that uses the sides of large buildings as the canvas for light shows (an idea pioneered by the hackers of the Chaos Computer Club, and now adopted by a large number of department stores around Christmas time).

Their Living Room concept does the same for a room filled with white furniture. As Oh Gizmo says:

Using only 2 projectors and some extremely careful planning and mapping, they’re able to project an entire 360° decor onto a living room filled with white furniture. This includes projected wallpaper and even carpeting. The concept, which is not unlike Michel Gondry’s Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground video for The White Stripes (RIP), could make it really easy for interior decorators to try out an infinite number of pattern and color combinations before committing to a new decor in a room. That is if Mr. Beam ever decides to commercialize it.

(Video: Living Room from Mr.Beam on Vimeo)

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February 19, 2011

Exhibition about Princess Máxima and her ten years in the Netherlands

Filed under: Fashion,General,Music by Branko Collin @ 4:51 pm

On 19 January 2001, Crown Prince William Alexander of the Netherlands asked Argentinian Máxima Zorreguieta to become his bride, and on March 30 of the same year, the engagement was announced to the public. To celebrate the ten years of Máxima’s presence in the Netherlands, the Loo Palace in Apeldoorn will hold an exhibition about the princess from 8 May to 4 September 2011.

The marriage was controversial as Zorreguieta is the daughter of a minister of the murderous Videla regime, and could only go through once it had become clear that her father would stay away from the wedding. At the wedding, Dutch bandeononist Carel Kraayenhof played Adios Nonino, written by tango composer Astor Piazzola in memory of his father.

(Photo by Wikimedia user Prolineserver, some rights reserved)

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February 18, 2011

It’s a matter of playing the cultural card at the right time

Filed under: General,Music by Orangemaster @ 2:37 pm

The once very popular Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party has been losing a lot of ground particularly in provinces such as Limburg, to make a long story short. Interestingly, many prominent politicians such as Maxime Verhagen (right), currently Deputy Prime Minister (and first Dutch politician to Twitter) comes from Limburg, speaks dialect, especially as of late when asked to because it’s election time for the Dutch Senate.

Picture your favourite American or British band yelling ‘we love [fill in city or country of your choice]’ to woo the audience. And it works. In this case, Maxime loses points for not being able to fill in the blanks of a hugely popular song by Rowwen Hèze, Limburg’s number one ‘export’ who play American TexMex style music mainly in Limburgs dialect and have been around for some 20 years.

Presentator Twan Huys also from Limburg decided to see if Maxime wasn’t just ‘talking nonsense’ and made him switch to Maastricht dialect. At least he was able to fill that in. You could hear the sound of the students’ hearts strings twanging when ‘one of their own’ spoke their language.

The chorus of the song ‘Kwestie van Geduld’ (‘A Matter of Patience’) is in ‘standard’ Dutch on purpose.

” ‘t Is een kwestie van geduld,
rustig wachten op de dag,
dat heel Holland Limburgs lult,
dat heel Holland Limburgs lult.”

(’tis a matter of patience, waiting quietly for the day,
that all of Holland ‘yaps’ in Limburgs,
that all of Holland ‘yaps’ in Limburgs.)

The verb ‘lullen’ means ‘to bullshit’ or ‘talk nonsense’, but is much more neutral, so I went with ‘yapping’.

Holland is a large part of the Netherlands, South Holland and North Holland, a differentiation made by Limburgers to point out their cultural differences, especially their use of dialects in daily life instead of the ‘standard’ Dutch language.

No one give me a lesson on all of this, I’ve been hearing it for 12 years from my Limburg co-blogger.

(Link: limburger.nl)

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February 17, 2011

Ugly cat needs a home

Filed under: Animals by Orangemaster @ 12:19 pm

Here’s a picture of the cat
Here’s a picture its doppelgänger, Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter movies.

According to employees at the animal shelter, the cat scares people away. The poor cat has had skin cancer, and had to have its nose and ears amputated. The vet said that light skinned cats were more proned to skin cancer.

Harry Potter fans, it’s time to own the cat of your dreams! Charlie is 14 and was well taken care of before his operation as well. The woman who cared for him had to give him up because he cannot handle other cats. The employees will tell you he’s very cuddly as long as there’s no other cats around.

Charlie is pretty on the inside.

(Link: waarmaarraar)

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February 16, 2011

Banks make 125,000 homes unsellable

Filed under: Architecture,General by Orangemaster @ 1:48 pm

Dutch television news show EenVandaag gave me a new reason to be scared to ever buy a house in the Netherlands. Since 10 February 2010 Dutch banks have decided not to approve any mortgages to people buying a house built on ground owned by a private person. This means that some 125,000 home owners are now stuck in their homes forever, unless they leave it empty and move, or rent it.

Homes in the Netherlands are often built on ground that is leased from someone else, usually a local government or a housing corporation, a very common practice in big cities like Amsterdam. In fact, real estate agents in Amsterdam, where most homes are built on leased ground albeit owned by the city, are now refusing to sell any houses built on ground owned by private persons.

Why would banks pull this? Acccording to De Telegraaf, the regulatory body of Dutch banks has a duty to assess the risk of the loan, and find it too difficult when the ground is privately owned. The legislation on ground leasing is said to be “complete chaos” and deals with “forced contracts” (I like the Dutch ‘wurgcontract’, which literally means ‘strangulatory contract’). These private ground owners are basically mimicking the government who also ask for “mafia-like amounts” when ground leasing. Fighting the government for unfair practices is one thing, but you can’t do that with a private person who can apparently do what they want.

(Links: ad, telegraaf)

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February 15, 2011

The horrible, horrible comics of Maaike Hartjes

Filed under: Comics by Branko Collin @ 10:09 am

Comics artist Maaike Hartjes is from the generation that said ‘gaaf’ (cool) to express that they liked something very much. She has tried to say ‘vet’ (fat), but it made her feel as if she were a member of the ‘mieters’ (swell) and ‘jottum’ (neat) generation. The new cool, ‘gruwelijk’ (horrible)—now there’s a word she can get behind.

So it’s no surprise that she called her latest comics book Gruwelijk!, and it is full of small observations such as this strip:

I quite like the portrait in my old passport. But now I need a new passport. With a photo taken according to the latest regulations…

Tiny photographer: “DO NOT smile!”

Tiny Maaike: “Waaah! That’s not what I look like, is it?”

Tiny boyfriend: “Er…. nooo! You’re much prettier in real life.”

One advantage: after a twenty hour trip + jetlag:

Tiny customs person: “Horrible picture! It’s good that she looks much better in person.”

Maaike Hartjes, Gruwelijk!, EUR 12,90, published by Oog en Blik.

Via Holly Moors, who liked the result and has a couple more samples.

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February 14, 2011

Woman, 62, expecting a baby next month

Filed under: Dutch first,Health,Weird by Orangemaster @ 5:01 pm

A 62-year-old woman from Harlingen, Friesland may soon become the oldest woman in recorded Dutch history to be a mom. She underwent an IVF treatment in Italy where apparently age wasn’t an issue. The current record holder is a woman from Enschede, Overijssel who was 57 back in 2005 when she had her son.

I recently heard ‘how disgusting, there’s this famous singer having her second baby at 42, that’s just irresponsible’ and I also noticed a large percentage of the poll on the RTL website said that a 62-year-old woman ‘shouldn’t have the right’ to have a child. So what is OK then and whose business is it really? That’s right, it’s complicated.

I know one thing for sure: as long as a woman’s body can still get pregnant, she can potentially try and have babies. And IVF crossborder shopping is not news.

(Link: rtl.nl, Illustration by Leonardo da Vinci)

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