January 11, 2017

Groningen to house asylum seekers in hotel ship

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 9:54 pm

In Groningen, some 112 failed asylum seekers and asylum seekers waiting on answers who are homeless will soon be housed in an old hotel ship, explains John van Tilborg, Director of the Inlia Foundation in Groningen that works with asylum seekers. They all have a right to a place to stay during the night as well as a shower and a meal according to the Dutch government, but that same government isn’t doing what’s needed to ensure they have an actual place to say, Van Tilborg explains in a recent radio interview in Amsterdam on BNR.

“The State decides whether someone can stay here or not. If someone can stay, they get a resident’s permit from the State and if they have to go, the State has to kick them out of the country or make sure they leave. If that doesn’t happen, then the city is saddled with the problem, like it is now […]. The city has to pay for a problem created by the State and the city has no influence on the situation”.

And the rest is all about cities not getting the money they need from the State to deal with these people who end up on the street. Elections are coming up in March and the outgoing Dutch government has stopped all funding to new housing projects for asylum seekers, leaving cities to figure it out for themselves.

(Links: bnr.nl, dvhn.nl, Photo of the Vluchtkerk church in Amsterdam that housed many asylum seekers)

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January 10, 2017

Dutch activist denied Swiss passport over cowbell row

Filed under: Animals by Orangemaster @ 11:48 am

The Swiss have hit back at Dutch vegan activist Nancy Holten who has been living in Switzerland for most of her life by denying her request for a Swiss passport for the second time. The local political party of her canton said no because they feel she “has a big mouth”, claiming that cows wearing cowbells was akin to animal cruelty and has been vocal about church bells being rung at 6 am in her village. And she’s not a fan of the local tradition of racing piglets, either.

In Switzerland, locals sometimes have a say in the naturalisation requests of people in their canton, and in Holten’s case, a majority were against it. Now her request is in front of the ‘Conseil d’État’, the council that decides on cantonal matters. Dutch site Joop.nl when relating this story told of a family from Kosovo who were refused Swiss nationality because they walked around their village in jogging suits and the locals didn’t like that either.

Activism aside, according to Swiss site 24heures, Holten is the ideal candidate and had been given a positive review in the beginning of the process. She’s been living in Switzerland for 34 years, speaks the local Swiss German dialect, provides for her three Swiss-born daughters and has never committed a crime. Holten says if her village is not going to let her get a Swiss passport, she’ll move down the street to the next village where the decision on naturalisation is made directly by a Board without any input from locals.

In the comments section of 24heures, the opinions range from ‘piss off back to the Netherlands’ to ‘the Swiss pride themselves on direct democracy only when it suits them’. And then not in a jogging suit.

(Link: 24heures.ch)

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January 9, 2017

Woerden can open its shops on Sunday

Filed under: General,Religion by Orangemaster @ 10:36 am

The city of Woerden, Utrecht has made local news for having the right to open its shops on Sunday thanks to the progressive political parties in their municipal council. The religious parties who were against it and have left (bye!) still live in an imaginary world were nobody works on Sundays except the help. This is just a reminder to anyone who still thinks it’s liberal heaven over here.

It’s extremely disrespectful to claim that Sunday is a day of rest when there are tens of thousands of people working in hospitals, restaurants, shops, public transport, trains, as well as the police, fire brigade, emergency services, ambulances, carers, bars, cafés, theatres, construction and so on. If you don’t want employees to have to work more on Sundays or even weekends, we understand, but if your sole argument is that you want a day of rest and you’re not even fighting for other people’s rights not to be exploited, then don’t go to the shops and please feel to step out of as many municipal councils as you can.

(Link: rtvutrecht)

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January 8, 2017

‘No more bike wheels stuck in tram rails’

Filed under: Bicycles,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 8:30 pm

A Dutch friend once told me about when he was a student in Amsterdam and went on a date, which involved the girl hitching a ride on the back of his bicycle (on the rack) and instead of having a typically fun and possibly romantic moment of her having to hold on to him, the front wheel of his bike got stuck in a tram rail and they both fell.

SafeRails solves the well-known problem of getting your bike wheels stuck in tram rails. Invented by two engineering students, Ward Kuiters and Roderick Buijs, SafeRails is a profile made from recycled plastic that can be inserted into existing tram rails. The idea is that bike wheels cannot get stuck in the rails and the tram can ride right over the profile as if they weren’t even there.

SafeRails is sustainable, durable and makes cycling safer. The guys’ goal is to start with The Hague, the political centre of the country, but first they need to win The Hague Innovators Challenge 2017 and are currently in second place. You can vote, too.

In Dutch with English subtitles:

(Link: www.bright.nl, Photo of the Kinkerstraat by Wikimedia user Ilonamay, some rights reserved)

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January 6, 2017

World record Game of the Goose in Dutch hands

Filed under: Dutch first,General by Orangemaster @ 6:32 pm

Ganzenbord

And it’s a wrap: the Dutch world record of playing Game of the Goose is now 80 hours and is in Dutch hands, getting the four guys who played it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

According to Omroep Brabant, the last few hours were exhausting and not much fun any more, but once they had broken the old world record, they got a boost to finish the job. Fighting against the will to sleep was the most difficult part of what they had to do, but they did it.

(Link and screenshot: omroepbrabant.nl)

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January 4, 2017

A new year, a bigger bike rack for cargo bikes

Filed under: Bicycles by Orangemaster @ 5:08 pm

Not too far from 24oranges HQ, the city of Amsterdam is trying out a new bike rack that fits cargo bikes and bikes too wide to fit into normal bike racks, usually with crates in the front.

People with bigger bikes usually park them willy-nilly, taking up more space, which is a bit inconvenient. As well, instead of jamming your bike front wheel first where it may bend because the bikes are stacked too close to each other, the front fork of the bike rests on the rack, as the slots are wider, and hopefully morons won’t lock their bike to yours catching your brake cable in the process.

For anyone living in Amsterdam, you can even e-mail your opinion about the rack to help the city decided whether it should install more.

(Link: parool.nl)

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January 3, 2017

Live world record attempt of Game of the Goose

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 11:07 pm

Goosy_Goosy_Gander_02

Some of you probably had enough of board games during the holidays, but four Dutch friends are going to attempt to play Game of the Goose (‘Ganzenbord’ in Dutch) for 80 hours in a row, as a way to kick off the year.

Four friends from Vught, Noord-Brabant are trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records: they started playing today and plan to keep going until Friday. They do get a five minute break every hour.

The current world record of playing Game of the Goose is 62 hours. The merriment is taking place in the scouting building of Vught-Noord and you can even watch on a livestream.

(omroepbrabant.nl, Photo of Game of the Goose, Public Domain)

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December 30, 2016

Branko’s favourite postings of 2016

Filed under: Bicycles,Food & Drink,General,History by Orangemaster @ 1:30 pm

It’s that time of year again where we look back and tell you about some of the things we wrote about, and this year we had one clear theme that stood out and that, sadly, was ‘tastelessness’.

First the weird junk food combos:

Spring: the discodel

Summer: frikandel ice cream

Winter: smoked sausage and kroket

Dear Dutch snack bars, please follow our neighbouring countries and sell halloumi, and stop mixing crap already.

Next up, we have a tasteless escape room with Anne Frank as a theme.

The entire year saw some tasteless bashing of Ukraine. What did Ukraine ever do to us? Oh yeah, they gave back stolen Dutch paintings to a museum to show how classy they are.

As well, we found out in 2016 that supermarkets sell fertilised eggs, chicks prove it, we saw a food bank snub the poor over a Facebook like and had a good laugh at this organic fries truck stuck at a junk food chain drive.

And then to move towards some more classy bits, here’s the bicycle tunnel built in a single weekend in Utrecht, police training eagles to attack drones and a woman as the world’s first ever Professor of Fatherhood.

To finish off, here’s a story that went from classy to tasteless, an elderly woman sews bags from abandoned umbrellas, but then a few months later is pushed off her mobility scooter and robbed of her gold chain.

We’ll leave it at that, thanks for all your comments, and a reminder that next year is our 10th year anniversary in February, so I guess we should think about doing something special.

Happy New Year!

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December 28, 2016

Dutch chocolate company to brew beer

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 3:22 pm

Dutch chocolate company Tony’s Chocolonely, whose goal is to raise awareness for the slavery that still persists among people harvesting cocoa to make chocolate, has decided to brew some beer, and it’s called ‘Chocolate Milk Stout’.

Together with Amsterdam brewery De Prael, this new beer claims to be ‘smooth with a taste of chocolate’ and will be available in Amsterdam as of 1 January 2017.

(Link: nieuws.nl)

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December 24, 2016

Time for the Christmas break at 24oranges HQ

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 6:02 pm

Xmastree2016

24oranges is going to take a breather for a few days to enjoy some peace and quiet, try out some new Christmas food and drinks, and catch up on some sleep.

Branko will again have a Top 10 list of this year’s favourite stories before the end of the year. By the way, next year on 23 February will be our 10th anniversary!

Happy Holidays and thanks for your continued support!

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