July 16, 2013

Dutch tourist tax is the top moneymaker for municipalities

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 12:00 pm

This year Dutch municipalities expect to rake in 162 million euro in tourist tax, 62 million more than in 2010. In 2011, 174 of the 418 municipalities hiked up its tax and in some places, the tax at hotels simply doubled.

Of all the municipal taxes, it is the tourist tax that goes up the most each year. And this year 76 percent of municipalities are collecting this cash cow of a tax, as compared to 72 percent last year. Tourist tax on the Wadden Sea islands is quite high with Texel at 26 percent and Vlieland at 42 percent.

The winner is Amsterdam, cashing in on 37 million euro in 2013, and the year isn’t over. A dubious honourable mention goes out to Rotterdam, which got rid of the tourist tax in 2005, but brought it back in 2010.

Paying tourist tax in your own country as a Dutch person does not seem to make much sense, but you could easily argue it. However, it is unclear when and where you pay tourist tax, as every municipality has either a fixed rate or a percentage, looking like a typical Dutch bureaucratic free-for-all that nobody can keep straight.

(Link: www.nieuws.nl, www.etoa.org)

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July 15, 2013

Joost Swarte designs pair of glasses

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 10:34 am

A person might say that Joost Swarte’s dark-rimmed Quotation Marks glasses are ‘expensive’, but that person would fail to see that these 250 euro glasses are ‘design’.

What makes the design of these glasses is a pair of quotation marks displayed on each side of the wearer’s face—which also is the name of the product, Quotation Marks. I can imagine it now, you go to Lukx, the off and online optician, and the sales person says “these glasses really make you what I like to call quote-unquote-you”. And you will say “these glasses really speak to me”. Sale for Mr Humphries!

I guess that in the grand scheme of things, if you are going to pay for a name, that name might as well be that of comics giant Joost Swarte, and you might as well pay 125 euro per quotation mark.

At least you get a free signed and numbered Joost Swarte print when you purchase his glasses.

(Image: Lukx)

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July 14, 2013

Companies rank Dutch banks as barely sufficient

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 2:16 pm

One in three Dutch companies wants to break up with its bank, but only one in six thinks this is possible, Z24 reports.

The business news site commissioned a study by DVJ Insights to find out how over 500 entrepreneurs feel about their banks. Most Dutch businesses manage their finances through either Rabobank, ABN Amro or ING, which control about 88% of the market. Of the other banks, German Deutsche Bank is the biggest, or rather, the least small. The big three received grades of around 5.7 out of 10 from their clients—the lowest passing grade. Deutsche Bank, which according to Z24 wants to get rid of its Dutch customers, received a 4.

The article doesn’t mention if any of the smaller banks got high grades.

A third of entrepreneurs is considering switching banks, but about half of them think it would be difficult. A reason given is that they also have a private account with the same bank.

One of the reasons businesses are unhappy with their bank is that banks are reluctant to provide loans. In the past two years a third of businesses requested a loan from a bank, but in 64% of the cases these loans were denied.

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July 12, 2013

Mobility scooters fall over often

Filed under: Health by Branko Collin @ 10:10 pm

A study commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment revealed that accidents with mobility scooters involve tipping in 70% of cases.

Plus Online wrote yesterday that 20% of these falls was due to inclines, bumps in the road and the likes, while 14% was due to driver error and 7% because the driver took a turn.

The cause of accidents with mobility scooters has become more relevant as the use of mobility scooters in the Netherlands has increased from 150,000 in 2006 to 250,000 in 2012.

The union for the elderly, ANBO, told Telegraaf yesterday that municipalities should provide training to new users of mobility scooters. Project leader Liesbeth Boerwinkel told the paper that matters such as braking and accelerating are confusing: “You need to squeeze the handle to accelerate, but people are used to bicycles with hand brakes. That is one source of problems.”

Both ANBO and traffic safety organisation Veilig Verkeer Nederland have their doubts about making training mandatory. A spokesperson for VVN points out that enforcing training “would be a reason for many people to not to use a mobility scooter in the first place. That would limit their freedom whereas we want to keep people mobile for as long as possible.”

The city of Purmerend recently offered a mobility scooter course to 450 people, Dichtbij writes. One third of them took the city up on its offer. During a two-hour workshop participants had to drive over an obstacle course that contained bumpy surfaces and sharp turns and where they had to practice stopping on an incline and parking.

The workshop was provided by scooter seller Harting-Bank who are in favour of making training mandatory—surprise, surprise!

(Photo by Facemepls, some rights reserved)

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July 11, 2013

Child injured on public art, parents take on city hall

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 11:05 am

In Hoogeveen, Drenthe, Dutch designer duo Tejo Remy and Rene Veenhuizen designed a place made of painted steel for primary school children to sit down that can also be used as a gathering point for annual class pictures. The artists claim that their work was inspired by children, but is by no means a playground. In fact, painted metal when wet can be very dangerous.

A seven-year-old girl hurt herself so badly on the art that she was rushed to hospital and now her parents are holding city hall responsible for her injuries. City hall replied that art is not a playground and denies any responsibility. Local residents and parents want the thing removed and have started a Facebook page.

Of course kids will play on it, that was to be expected unless you’re from Mars. Kids hurt themselves on normal playgrounds, even with adult supervision. The assumption that kids won’t play on it because it is not for playing is city hall’s argument and that’s really stupid. Parents telling their kids not to play on the art is useless because unless you’re from Mars, kids do stuff when adults aren’t around. There is a general assumption that placing the artwork there was safe, and city hall could be to blame.

I think some building codes should be reviewed. Putting anything with sharp edges near children and expecting them not to hurt themselves is stupid. Blaming artists for designing something that meets all building requirements is fruitless. The decision-makers in Hoogeveen were stupid in placing something so close to children with sharp edges and expect nothing bad to happen.

Put the art work elsewhere, Hoogeveen gets free publicity when the moving happens and praise from the parents, ask the artists’ opinion about the move and they get free publicity, too, everybody happy and safe. Next!

(Links: www.binnenlandsbestuur.nl www.telegraaf.nl, Photo: www.remyveenhuizen.nl)

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July 10, 2013

The world’s biggest bike garage planned for Utrecht

Filed under: Bicycles,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 11:13 am

All that heavy duty construction work at Utrecht Central station, the country’s biggest train station, will eventually house the world’s biggest bike garage — all three floors of it. The garage will also feature a bike path and fit neatly under the train station, unlike the sea of bikes that can now be found around the station in the photo above.

Also home to Utrecht University, the country’s biggest university, Utrecht is very visibly full of students, many of which bike everywhere.

Just a few days ago we told you about how many wrongly parked bikes had been removed in 2012, but this kind of mega project should help alleviate the problem. The bike garage will be able to accommodate 12,500 bikes, which is exactly five times as many bikes as Amsterdam’s bike flat next to the train station that’s already overflowing.

Designed by Ector Hoogstad architects, the mega garage will open partially in 2016, and be ready entirely in 2018.

(Link: www.bright.nl, Photo Photo of Bikes at Utrecht Central station by Fietsberaad, some rights reserved)

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July 9, 2013

The Dutch love Lucie on their satellite navigation

Filed under: Automobiles,Technology by Orangemaster @ 11:45 am

I’ve spotted a trend amongst my Dutch friends who own cars. They use TomTom sat nav, incidentally a well-known Dutch brand, but prefer to drive to the soothing sounds of the Belgian Dutch (notice I didn’t say Flemish) female voice over the ‘standard Dutch’ voice from the Netherlands, also known as ABN (‘Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands’).

The reasons they gave me include “Belgian Dutch is sexier”, “The Dutch woman sounds depressed” and “I can understand the Belgian Dutch pronunciation more clearly”. Even a quick lurk at some Dutch language forums shows that ‘Lucie’ (The Dutch Belgian voice — here she is for real, scroll down a bit) is considered quite the favourite. Her voice is ‘warm’, while the Dutch voice is more staccato (‘choppy’) in my humble driving opinion. As for the depressed bit, the Dutch voice lowers in tone at the end of sentences as if she were bored telling you were to go all the time. It could be my foreign ears, it could be my friends’ predilection for the exotic, who knows.

Lucie, or Hildegard, which is her real name, recorded the TomTom voice in just one afternoon and earned back in the early noughties no more than 450 euro. Anyone want to chime in as to why they like Lucie better or why they would actually rather use the Dutch voice or even the male equivalent? Do tell.

(Photo Photo of TomTom by LettError, some rights reserved)

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July 8, 2013

Armenian Genocide survivor turns 107 in the Netherlands

Filed under: History by Branko Collin @ 3:59 pm

The oldest man in the Netherlands, Mr Serob Mirzoyan of Amersfoort, turned 107 last Monday.

Interestingly Mr Mirzoyan was born in the Armenian part of what then was the Ottoman Empire (currently Turkey). According to a website called Horizon Weekly he moved from Diarbekir in Turkey to Iraq and from there to the Netherlands in 1996. Mayor Lucas Bolsius of Amersfoort came by to congratulate the birthday boy.

It is not clear whether Mr Mirzoyan was still living in Turkey when the Armenian Genocide took place, but if he did his reaching such an old age seems to be a triumph over the Turks that tried to exterminate the Armenian people.

According to De Stad Amersfoort, Mr Mirzoyan is a devout Christian who has read the Bible at least twenty times front to back. He also likes to listen to music.

(Photo of ponds near Diyarbakır by Wikipedia user Dûrzan, some rights reserved)

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July 7, 2013

Diet Wiegman’s shadow sculptures

Filed under: Art by Branko Collin @ 3:10 pm

Diet Wiegman (b. 1944) is an artist from Schiedam who creates sculptures that acquire an extra layer of meaning when light is cast upon them.

In English: his seemingly shapeless sculptures cast shadows that look Michelangelo’s David, Michael Jackson or the Venus de Milo.

Petapixel writes:

Using garbage, pieces of glass and other rubble, he creates a sculpture that, with the help of a light source, projects a beautiful image onto a wall.

You can stare at the photos for a very long time (trust us, we have) and it still won’t make sense that a carefully arranged pile of recycled items can produce Michelangelo’s David. Or that a pile of broken glass and a few other items can somehow produce a beautiful image of a sunset.

(Photo: Diet Wiegman’s Tumblr, where you can find many more examples of his art)

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July 6, 2013

Police officer sews Twitter handle onto uniform, forced to remove it

Filed under: Fashion,Technology by Branko Collin @ 3:33 pm

Sergeant Fred Stork is a beat cop in Eindhoven and is also on Twitter. He thought it would be fun to sew his Twitter handle, @brigadierSTRYPi onto his uniform, but after a reporter tweeted about needle work, his superiors told him to remove it.

A spokesperson told Algemeen Dagblad: “There are national regulations for a police uniform that an officer may not deviate from.” The spokesperson liked the initiative though and added, “who knows, one day this may be possible. But ‘The Hague’ must first give permission.”

The word ‘brigadier’ in the handle @brigadierSTRYPi means ‘sergeant’ and ‘STRYPi’ is likely a reference to the Strijp neighbourhood which is part of Fred Stork’s beat.

Interestingly, sergeant is the lowest police rank in the Netherlands where the insignia does not consist of stripes, but of a sword over a crown surrounded by laurel.

See also: Neighbourhood cops that twitter.

(Photo: politie.nl)

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