November 30, 2007
A couple of butchers in the very small village of Triemen, Friesland found an odd way to cheat the local government out of about EUR 150,000. Although the couple received welfare money, they actually ran a very professional butcher’s shop out of a shed. Finally, someone who called themselves a “hard-working tax payer” tipped off the authorities. Not only did the couple receive welfare money, but they mooched off their “friends” as well. Maybe it’s time for them to move.
(Link: vleesmagazine.nl)
November 22, 2007
Doutzen Kroes, known as a L’Oréal and Victoria’s Secret model, has been asked to use her pretty face to make the Frisian language even more attractive.
The 22-year-old top model will be playing a major role in the campaign ‘Praat mar Frysk’ (roughly, ‘Just speak Frisian’) for the province of Friesland, which will be launched next week in Tytsjerksteradiel, according to news website Wâldnet. Doutzen was asked because she can show that she comes from Friesland and speaks Frisian ‘beautifully’. The goal of the campaign is to make Frisians aware of their language. Only about 2% of the Dutch population speaks it. And then a few years back, there was that nice duo Twarres who scored an international hit with their song ‘Wêr Bisto’, which is in West Frisian (the same Frisian I’m on about, as the Germans and Danish have their varieties).
For the folks who thought Dutch was the only official language of the Netherlands, there is also Frisian as well as the regional languages of Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish.
(Link: reclamewereld.blog.nl)
Tags: Doutzen Kroes, Friesland, Frisian, languages
November 21, 2007
Ever since the Poles have been coming en masse to the Netherlands to apparently do jobs that the Dutch can’t be bothered with, there’s been some talk of trying to get them to accept the ways of the Dutch. In other words, those of the Dutch government, to ‘integrate’ them, although as EU citizens, they do not have to. Basically, the media tends to portray the Poles as ‘being in Rome, but not doing as the Romans do’ and that tends to irritate the Dutch quite a bit.
Apparently, the Poles like to fish in their spare time, but according to Sportvisserij Nederland (the fishing authorities), which hand out permits, they are over-fishing and not following the rules. The situation is so bad that a Polish translation of the fishing rules is being handed to them.
What’s the problem? Dutch fishers put back the fish they caught, while the Poles catch them and either eat them or sell them. It almost sounds like the Dutch expected them to do the same without explaining it to them first. On the other hand, obviously some Poles who may have learned about the rules chose to ignore them for the media to pick this up. This is what we call a ‘cultural difference’, kids.
“The Poles have different ethics and a different food culture and don’t follow the rules,” according to spokesman Juul Steyn from Sportvisserij Nederland.
(Link: ad.nl, Photo: zeebaars.nl)
Tags: fishing, Netherlands, Poland, rules
November 20, 2007
The fate of the Anne Frank tree has been decided, after a judge had a good look at the tree just before making his decision: it may not be chopped down. Remember, it was really sick and hundreds of thousands of euro were spent to try and save it. At 7 pm Dutch time, a judge decided that the tree needs to be healed or fixed and that there are still things that they can do to keep it alive properly. He added that if the tree causes damages to houses nearby, owners will be compensated.
To anticipate the possible cutting of the tree, grafts have been made. And then there’s our earlier posting about the chestnuts of the Anne Frank tree sold on eBay. Apparently, they currently have a bid of $USD 10,340, which is pretty useless at this point in time.
The 150-year-old tree (a white horse chestnut tree – Aesculus hippocastanum) stands in the inner garden of the house at Keizersgracht 188, one street over from the Anne Frank House, which is on the Prinsengracht.
Anne Frank wrote the following entries about the chestnut tree in her diary:
23 February 1944
The two of us looked out at the blue sky, the bare chestnut tree glistening with dew, the seagulls and other birds glinting with silver as they swooped through the air, and we were so moved and entranced that we couldn’t speak.18 April 1944
April is glorious, not too hot and not too cold, with occasional light showers. Our chestnut tree is in leaf, and here and there you can already see a few small blossoms.13 May 1944
Our chestnut tree is in full blossom. It is covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year.
(Info: Live RTL 4 television, Photo: annefranktree.com, link: annefrank.org)
Tags: Amsterdam, Anne Frank, chesnuts, tree
Erik Kurvers, owner of consulting agency Eiffel in Den Bosch, Noord-Brabant, bought this original piece of the Eiffel tower stairs yesterday in Paris for EUR 180,000. Kurvers also happens to be the chairman of the Den Bosch basketball club, the EiffelTowers. The 4,5-meter-high staircase is to be seen as a symbol for the company and club to ‘climb higher’ (aim higher really, but not miss the hoop). This piece of staircase connected the second and third storey of the original tower of 1889.
(Link: omroepbrabant.nl, Photo: Frogsmoke)
Tags: Den Bosch, Eiffel tower, France
November 19, 2007
It was on the news for many months, the scheduled chopping down of the Anne Frank chestnut tree probably on November 21, the tree she talked about in her world-famous diary. Amsterdam does not chop down anything without serious consideration, and according to many experts, this tree has to go, although so many people have so many ideas on how to save it. There is even a webcam on the tree and the secret annex of the house.
According to local TV station AT5, the highest bid on the tree’s chestnuts is EUR 355, for sale on eBay. Someone who claims to live on the next street over from the sick Anne Frank tree put the chestnuts on eBay last Friday. The idea is that someone can grow their own Anne Frank tree. Neighbours and associations will be fighting the chopping down of the tree until the very last day.
(Link: AT5.nl, Photo: annefranktree.com)
Tags: Amsterdam, Anne Frank, chesnuts, eBay, tree
November 17, 2007
Belgian Norbert Verswijver went to the Dutch chain store Blokker in Merksem near Antwerpen with a bag full of discount vouchers. He was smart enough to notice that the vouchers did not have the usual “cannot be combined with other promotions” disclaimer. Basically, Blokker made a huge mistake.
“For example, I buy a television set with a 20% off voucher. For the remaining amount, I use another one until the price is EUR 0.” The man even checked his assumptions beforehand with authorities in the matter and brought along a bailiff.
He scored EUR 48,511 in televisions, CD burners and what have you, and paid a mere EUR 0,60. The woman who owned the stored tried to block the sale, and called the CEO to tell him what was going on. Later, Mr Verswijver called the CEO to tell him his side of the story. ”I totally understand this woman at the shop. I hope that they will deliver the goods because if they don’t, I will take them to court and probably win.
Mr Verswijver is planning other such moves and calls himself a modern-day Robin Hood because he shares his booty with others.
(Link: fok.nl, Photo: Blokker in Enschede, The Netherlands)
Tags: Blokker, Robin Hood, vouchers
November 14, 2007
Copyright trolls are the copyright equivalent of patent trolls, but not as common. However, they operate on the same principal: they buy “intellectual property” and use it to legally extort money from the naïve. The Verbal Jam blog reports (Dutch) about a Dutch company called Cozzmoss that has recently managed to extract hundreds of euros from non-commercial bloggers. Their website (Dutch) might look clunky, but their approach is anything but. First, they let authors sign over their copyrights to them, which makes legal action that much easier (no squabbling over who you represent). Then, they only appear to attack people with limited knowledge of the law, and third, they seem to limit their claims for damages to relatively small amounts, amounts that do not exceed the money you would lose if you would let it come to a lawsuit.
Dutch copyright law does not allow the infringed upon party to recoup insanely high statutory damages, but the cost of going to court is still substantial, whether you win or lose, which is why parties usually settle out of court, and this is the sort of reaction that Cozzmoss seems to hope for. People with shallow pockets who won’t contest your claims will settle relatively meekly.
Except of course that bloggers blog: Jolie.nl has a long list of bloggers that have written about Cozzmoss during the past fortnight, and only few of them show any understanding for what the others call “vultures” and “bounty hunters,” both perfect analogies if you ask me.
One of the bloggers that got caught in the trap is Cinner (nomen est omen?), who republished an interview with professor Bram Buunk on her website. In the interview, the social-psychology professor belittles people like her who have chronic fatigue syndrome as not really being ill. Another blog called Ango copies newspaper articles with permission from the local paper, but they found out the hard way that the paper doesn’t own all the articles it publishes. Strictly speaking, Ango is in the clear because it was acting in good faith – they too chose to take the 500 euro hit from Cozzmoss instead of risking a court case that might have cost thousands.
Tags: blogging, copyright, Dutch copyright law, infringers, steal, swindle, trolls
November 13, 2007
I don’t dare get into Dutch politics because they’re nuttier than a nut farm, but when a political party gets into gift giving so close to Sinterklaas and Christmas, it’s time to crack some nuts.
Democratic political party D66 wants to give free memberships as gifts to attract new members. Party members can give memberships as gift certificates to acquaintances, friends and familiy (the only people that will listen to them). This madness will be launched at the party congress in Nijmegen this Saturday.
The gift certificate costs EUR 15, whereas a membership usually costs about EUR 30. So it’s a bargain apparently. If you don’t like your gift, you can’t get your money back and probably won’t be invited to cool parties in the future.
The D66 slogan read “Finally you’re a D66er” and the gift certificate comes in a festive packaging.
Tags: D66, holidays, Nijmegen, party membership
October 30, 2007
You could just blame it on semantics, but you could also agree that by calling your product “indestructible” (Superman comes to mind), they were asking for it. A Dutch businesswoman once said that when the Dutch claim their product to be something, you have to multiply it by three to get its real value. This time, it applies much more to the after-the-fact, save-your-derriere comment.
The municipality of Binnenmaas was very proud of their new ‘vandal-proof’, bus shelters until a group of badazz firestarters burnt all of them down in Maasdam, South Holland. The manufacturer’s comment after the fact was “but anything can be destroyed”. Got Kryptonite?
Follow the link for a nicely framed picture of the ashes.
(Link: nieuwnieuws.nl)
Tags: Binnenmaas, bus shelter
