End in sight for ENCI?
June 27, 2008 1 Comment
The future of the ENCI cement factory, at the foot of the St. Pietersberg in Maastricht, is keeping the minds of the local community busy. It is a hot issue on the local political agenda, both at city and provincial levels, and it is sparking off passionate discussions in the streets.
ENCI’s 60-year concession is expiring at the end of 2008, and the factory wants to ask the Provincial government of Limburg for an extension until 2020. All the heated debates are centred around one crucial question: Should the extension be granted or not?
An analysis of the issues at stake by Nynke Salverda. [continued...]
Fewer smokers yield higher sales
June 25, 2008 Leave a Comment
The number of smokers in the Netherlands has fallen by 17 percent since the year 2000. But sales of cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco (’shag’) increased by one quarter.
At the end of 2007 just over one quarter of the Dutch population (aged 12 years and older) were smokers, or 3.7 million people. This was down from [...]
Majority of 55-64 year olds not in jobs
June 25, 2008 Leave a Comment
Less than half of the 55-64 year olds in the Netherlands have paid work. The situation is however improving, the Social and Cultural Planning Bureau (SCP) concludes in a report presented yesterday.
“Participation in paid work by 55-64 year olds rose between 2003 and 2006 from 43.3 percent to 46.7 percent. If the increase in participation [...]
2012: The end is nigh
June 25, 2008 Leave a Comment
From Radio Netherlands Press Review of 23 June 2008:
Some people believe that a major worldwide catastrophe will destroy civilisation in 2012. This weekend’s de Volkskrant wrote about the thousands of people in the Netherlands who believe in an impending apocalypse in 2012 (the number of believers is many times larger in the United States and [...]
Neighbourhoods not origins foster crime
June 25, 2008 Leave a Comment
A report by the Verwij-Jonker Institute at the University of Utrecht concludes that the likelihood of a child becoming involved in crime is often determined more by the neighbourhood in which he or she grows up than by the ethnic origins of the parents.
The researchers found that children growing up in neighbourhoods with much crime [...]
Dutch cabinet: compromise on embryo testing
June 25, 2008 Leave a Comment
Sources in the Dutch government say the Cabinet has reached a compromise in the question of an expansion of embryo testing during in vitro fertilisation by the Maastricht University Medical Centre. A committee of medical experts will be set up which will make assessments on an individual basis.
The controversy started at the end of last [...]
The man outside the box
June 22, 2008 3 Comments
Reinder van Tijen is 76 years old and lives in a squat. A mechanical engineer by profession, he can look back on an unconventional life devoted to finding simple and sustainable technological solutions to today’s pressing questions. An unusual candidate for public recognition, he has now been awarded the Dutch royal Order of Oranje-Nassau. A portrait by Henrik Hartmann. [continued...]
Strolling through the market in Maastricht
June 22, 2008 11 Comments
Spanish expat Diana Berdun never misses a chance to go to the market in Maastricht. “I often purposely leave part of my grocery shopping (fruit, vegetable and fish) for the market. There I can find more choice, better prices and it is more entertaining to go from one stall to the other,” she says. Let’s follow her! [continued...]
Maastrichts Mooiste 2008: Racing for health and habitats
June 18, 2008 Leave a Comment
About 9,000 people raced for healthy living in this year’s edition of the increasingly popular Maastrichts Mooiste event, which has evolved over the five years of its existence into a five-day fitness extravaganza. Next year may see the addition of a sixth day, organisers say. Or the event might become biannual. A report by Kathlyn Clore for Crossroads.
Expat Desk opened at Amsterdam’s World Trade Center
June 18, 2008 Leave a Comment
NIS News reports that the Expatcenter Amsterdam Area was opened yesterday at Amsterdam’s World Trade Center.
For more information, check:
Expat Center
IND
Shooting Flikken Maastricht
June 17, 2008 Leave a Comment
Big surprise yesterday afternoon in Maastricht: I was just coming out of the Selexyz bookshop when all of a sudden, I saw the two main actors of the popular Dutch police series Flikken Maastricht playing a scene right in front of me. [continued...]
Poll: Dutch would also reject EU Treaty
June 16, 2008 Leave a Comment
A majority of the Dutch is against the Treaty of Lisbon, according to a poll by Maurice de Hond. But the Netherlands is going ahead with its ratification.
If the Netherlands were to hold a referendum now on the new EU treaty, 54 percent would vote against it, De Hond reported. He polled the views of [...]
Flanders more popular with Dutch than vice versa
June 16, 2008 Leave a Comment
One Dutch person out of five would prefer to live in Flanders than in the Netherlands. The feeling is not mutual, though, as barely one Fleming in 20 would prefer to move to the Netherlands, a survey held by the Belgian newspaper De Standaard shows.
When asked where they would prefer to live (the Netherlands or [...]
Only few Dutch people go to church or mosque regularly
June 16, 2008 1 Comment
Nearly 6 in 10 of the Dutch population say they are religious. Only very few of them go to church, to a mosque or other religious assemblies every week, however.
Nearly six out of ten Dutch are religious
In 2005/2006, 58 percent of Dutch people said they belonged to a religion or believed in a certain ideology. [...]
New details about Rembrandt’s personal life
June 16, 2008 Leave a Comment
Rembrandt van Rijn, the most famous Dutch artist of the 17th century, enjoyed international fame in his final years. Newly discovered documents in the city of Genoa reveal that Rembrandt received a commission to adorn two altarpieces for a wealthy Italian nobleman, just three years before his death. The letters give a new insight into [...]
Everything that we desire in the bedroom
June 16, 2008 Leave a Comment
The free newspaper Metro reports on a convention held last week at Maastricht University, where the crème de la crème of specialists in robotics met to discuss the latest developments in their field. The paper writes:
“What would the world be like if we had someone who followed our every order and cooked for us, washed [...]
Integration is key, says Labour leader Bos
June 16, 2008 Leave a Comment
Labour party leader Wouter Bos told delegates to the party congress on Saturday that integrating newcomers into Dutch society will be his priority, according to press reports.
‘It is the key to winning back the hearts of the people,’ he said.
Bos said that the building of mosques, training imams and Muslims working in the caring professions [...]
New life for language teaching
June 16, 2008 Leave a Comment
The government has set aside €11m to fund a new experiment to get older immigrants speaking Dutch.
The cash is to be used to couple immigrants with a native Dutch person to boost their knowledge of the language.
Some 500,000 people do not speak adequate Dutch, integration minister Ella Vogelaar says.
Source: DutchNews.nl, 16 June 2008
Netherlands opens special desk for Japanese companies
June 13, 2008 Leave a Comment
Japanese ‘knowledge employees’ are to have a special desk at the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND). This has been promised by Economic Affairs Minister Maria van der Hoeven in meetings with Japanese companies in Tokyo.
“Employees of Japanese companies that want to visit the Netherlands often have to go through very complicated procedures. This is a [...]
Soon to come: the ExpatTVShow
June 12, 2008 Leave a Comment
The Expat TV Show is a brand new weekly series to be broadcast later this year.
A full website will follow with lots of new features including the possibility to view past episodes and the ability to podcast so you can watch your favourite bits whilst travelling or on the way to work.
The first episode [...]
Dutch text-messagers charged too much
June 10, 2008 Leave a Comment
The Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade, Frank Heemskerk, has called on telecommunications companies to lower the rates of text-messaging between European states. In Tuesday’s parliament, he referred to the findings of telecom watchdog, Opta, which reveal that the average price of sending an international text-message in Europe is 35 cents, compared to a steep 51 [...]
More people in the Netherlands rely on alternative healers
June 10, 2008 Leave a Comment
Last year, 7 percent of the Dutch population consulted alternative healers, e.g. homoeopathists, acupuncturists, natural healers, magnetic or paranormal healers. If GPs practising alternative treatment methods are included, the rate rises to 11 percent. In 1981, only 4 percent in the Dutch population put their trust in alternative healers.
Middle-aged (age category 45–65) individuals are keen [...]
Studying music in Maastricht
June 10, 2008 Leave a Comment
Studying music in Maastricht, a video report by Europocket TV at Conservatorium Maastricht. Includes interviews with foreign students.
Source: Europocket TV, May 2008
Government to invest in tourists from India and China
June 10, 2008 Leave a Comment
The government is to invest an extra €50m in attracting high-income tourists to the Netherlands, junior economic affairs minister Frank Heemskerk announced on Monday.
In particular, the ‘new business elite’ in China and India are being targeted. ‘They are the ones who decide where to locate a new company and they are the ones with the [...]
22 June: Manus van Alles multicultural festival in Maastricht
June 9, 2008 Leave a Comment
The 8th edition of the Manus van Alles multicultural festival will take place on Sunday 22 June from 10.30am till 7.00 pm in the Wittevrouwenveld district of Maastricht.
The festival will feature various music and dance performances - 24 groups and 230 artists from 20 different countries divided over three podiums - a street fair, children [...]
The Great Dragon: Africa’s great hope for development or simply profiteers?
June 9, 2008 Leave a Comment
May or may not Africa be viewed as an economic springboard for China’s forecasted rise to geo-political dominance? For its last event of the season, Maastricht Debates on May 20 decided to take a closer look at the Chinese strategy in Africa. A critical review for Crossroads by Eliot Rolen.
Maastricht hospital disregards parliament’s call to withhold embryo tests
June 5, 2008 Leave a Comment
The Dutch parliament is due to convene an emergency meeting Thursday to debate whether Dutch hospitals may screen embryos resulting from IVF treatment for certain genetic diseases, reports said Wednesday.
After screening, only those embryos free of the gene that may later cause a person to develop the disease will be implanted in the uterus.
The emergency [...]
24 May- 14 Sept: Be(com)ing Dutch: art about identity in Eindhoven
June 5, 2008 Leave a Comment
Art about Dutch identity. The Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven has commissioned 37 artists to think about multicultural society in the Netherlands. The result is an exhibition aimed at stimulating the imagination, entitled Be(com)ing Dutch.
The title can be read in two ways - it is both about being Dutch and becoming Dutch. Dutch identity - [...]
Christian Union leader furious with Maastricht hospital
June 5, 2008 Leave a Comment
Deputy Prime Minister André Rouvoet is furious at the decision by Maastricht Academic Hospital to continue screening embryos for the gene that causes breast cancer. In the television programme Nova, the Christian Union leader said that the matter should first be debated in the cabinet.
The Christian Democrats are also annoyed with the hospital’s decision. Christian [...]
Regional bus drivers go on indefinite strike
June 3, 2008 Leave a Comment
Bus services over much of the country were paralysed on Monday as regional bus drivers continued their indefinite strike in support of a 3.5% pay claim.
The strike began on Sunday and means that no Arriva, Veolia and Connexxion buses are operating in most parts of the country. Services are continuing in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The [...]
