9-12 Oct: Jazz Promenade, the biggest jazz festival ever in Maastricht


From October 9 to 12 we expect 50.000 people (including you !) to assist to the 100 concerts of the Jazz Promenade. It’s not only big, it’s also special. 
Some highlights:


• World premiere Gregorian & Jazz: vicar, musician and singer Alphons Kurris with the jazz trio of vocalist Roderik Povel. During three days in the [...]

Read the story »

Does Dutch music sound like eel?

This year the Netherlands celebrated 50 years of pop music, a good reason for Misia Furtak to take a closer look at the Dutch music scene.

Read the story »

Melamine powder found in Geleen

Part of an industrial estate in Geleen was covered with a quantity of melamine powder on Friday after it blew out of a storage silo for an unknown reason, news agency ANP reports.
Staff from chemicals company DSM and fire officers were busy cleaning up the spillage on Friday afternoon. There is no risk to health [...]

Read the story »

Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad launches an English language website

NRC Handelsblad launched its English language website nrc.nl/international on Tuesday, 16 September. The target group of the new site are foreigners who cannot read Dutch but who are interested in Dutch quality journalism.
A selection of news items, background articles, features and opinion articles about Dutch subjects with a cross-border interest will be published daily [...]

Read the story »

Dutch cities slow down for car-free Sunday

More than 20 Dutch cities have staged a car-free Sunday. Cars were banned in Amsterdam, Maastricht, Eindhoven and other cities. The capital organised around 100 special events, including a zero-emission car race through the city centre. The authorities in Amsterdam say the public enjoyed the car-free day. There were only a few reports of people [...]

Read the story »

Dutch town declared Europe’s greenest

The Dutch town of Uden in the south of the country has been declared Europe’s greenest. The award was announced during a European Union meeting in the Croatian town of Split. The international jury said it had been impressed by Uden’s public parks, which last year earned it the award for the greenest town in [...]

Read the story »

Dutch mayors want to ban foreign polygamists

The mayors of the four main cities in the Netherlands are going to ask the government to stop giving Dutch citizenship to foreign nationals who have more than one wife. Dutch towns currently register such marriages even though polygamy is banned in the Netherlands. The mayors of Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Rotterdam are drafting [...]

Read the story »

Cultural season opens in Maastricht

Maastricht recently celebrated the beginning of a new cultural season with a vast range of activities taking place in the city centre as part of the popular festival “Het Parcours” and the national Heritage Days . A photo-reportage by Catalina Goanta.

Read the story »

English-speaking population grows, but not enough for Brussels

More and more people learn English every year, but fewer and fewer of them are good enough at it to act as interpreters, the European Union’s languages tsar lamented Thursday.
The situation is paradoxical, EU Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban told journalists in Brussels.
“There are more and more people speaking English nowadays, and at the same time [...]

Read the story »

Five percent of Dutch population current cannabis users

Around 5 percent of the Dutch population aged 15-65 are current cannabis users. The drug is particularly popular among men in their late twenties, show figures released by the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS).
Last year, 30 percent of men and 18 percent of women aged between 15 and 65 years said they had ever smoked [...]

Read the story »

Dutch men have least desire to have children

The largest-ever study into European men, sponsored by the Discovery television channel, shows that of all European nations, Dutch men have the least desire to have children.
Work, friendships, having fun and travel are all considered more important than raising a family.
Dutch men also postpone having children because they want to know for sure they are [...]

Read the story »

Brussels International, an English language programme for the international community in Brussels

Brussels International is the English language programme on TV Brussel, the capital’s regional broadcaster.
The cooperation with TV Brussel enables people outside Brussels to be able to enjoy at least part of the programming of Brussels International.
Every Sunday the regional station TV Brussel broadcasts a special lifestyle programme aimed at the international community in [...]

Read the story »

New website lists smokers’ cafes across the Netherlands

Dutch smokers, who want to smoke in a restaurant or cafe, can now click onto a new smokers restaurant database, according to the online publisher Tressis. Smoking was recently banned in all Dutch restaurants, cafes and bars, except in places that have separate smokers’ rooms or corners with ventilation facilities.
However, the places where smoking [...]

Read the story »

Holland has nearly 12 million pigs

The number of pigs in the Netherlands rose to 11.7 million last year, up just 3,000 on 2006, according to figures from the pig farming sector.
However the number of pig farms was down by over 500. Pork is the most popular meat in the Netherlands.
Source: DutchNews.nl, 17 September 2008

Read the story »

Main points of the 2009 budget

Finance Minister Wouter Bos presented the budget for 2009 to the Lower House yesterday. Most plans had already leaked out in the past weeks.
The key points follow below:
ECONOMY
· A planned VAT hike from 19 to 20 percent has been dropped. · The unemployment benefit (WW) premium for employees will be abolished, and the employers’ portion [...]

Read the story »

Zoo in a Maastricht hotel room

When a guest at a hotel in the Dutch city of Maastricht told Reception she’d found a two and a half metre snake in her toilet bowl, the subsequent investigation revealed a large menagerie of exotic animals in the room one floor below hers. The snake had, apparently, made its way upstairs through the sewage [...]

Read the story »

6 Oct: For an easy living in Maastricht: fair for expats

When: 2008-10-06 from 17:00 to 19:30
Where: Kapoenstraat 2, room 0.009
Maastricht University is organizing an integration fair where expatriates can collect information concerning all sorts of facilities and services, e.g. health insurance, banking, cultural and social activities, childcare.
Recent research done by the City Council, has shown that there is a need amongst expatriates for more information [...]

Read the story »

26 September: Researchers’ Night: beyond borders

During the “Beyond Borders” Researchers’ Night on Friday September 26th 2008, visitors will learn more about research and its influence on the daily lives of individuals and society as a whole.
Beyond Borders will be a day and evening with new science, provocative ideas, great music, and above all interesting people and new things to discover.
More [...]

Read the story »

5 October: Eminem meets Mozart in modern dance production ‘Rotterdam/New York’

 
Eminem meets Mozart in modern dance production ‘Rotterdam/New York’
October 5, 2008: Parkstad Limburg Theatres, Heerlen
Time: 20.30 pm, with introduction by choreographer Ton Simons at 19.30 pm.
Tickets: starting at 10 EUR
Dance Works Rotterdam unites the controversial cities Rotterdam and New York with their successful production ‘Rotterdam/New York’ by Stephen Petronio, artistic director/choreographer of the Stephen [...]

Read the story »

Join the international community of South Limburg on Facebook!

Would you like to meet other expatriates in the Maastricht region?
Yes? Then, please feel welcome to join the newly created “International community South Limburg” group on Facebook at:
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=26306583670&ref=mf
This virtual network aims at bringing together the professional international community in South Limburg and will be presented on October 6th during the Expat Fair organised by [...]

Read the story »

Schools get €200m to boost standards

Secondary schools are to get an extra €200m over the coming four years and school heads, teachers and parents are being allowed to decide how best to spend it, the Volkskrant says on Thursday.
Junior education minister Marja van Bijsterveldt is to publish details about the extra funding shortly, says the paper. The aim is to [...]

Read the story »

Paedophile judge advises Supreme Court on paedophilia

Former judge Fokke Fernhout is part of a university research team looking into a possible miscarriage of justice in a child abuse case. This is striking as he was convicted of possessing child pornography himself.
Fernhout is involved in a project at the University of Maastricht to examine whether reasonable doubt has been overlooked by judges [...]

Read the story »

Environmental lobby enters Dutch classrooms

As well as arithmetic, language and history, children at primary schools in the Netherlands will now also have lessons about global warming. They will be taught that humans are causing this alleged phenomenon.
At a primary school in Vleuten, two Nature and Environment Foundation (Stichting Natuur en Milieu) staff members gave the Netherlands’ first climate lesson [...]

Read the story »

Netherlands launches Human Rights Tulip award

Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has introduced the Human Rights Tulip. This will be presented annually to an individual “who has shown great moral courage in the protection and fostering of the rights of his or her fellow-citizens.”
The prize will be presented for the first time this year during a ceremony in the Knights Hall of [...]

Read the story »

Dutch spend less on education

The Dutch government spends less on education compared to other countries. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has published a study on educational spending in all of its member states. The results show that OECD countries spend an average of 5.8 percent of their GDP on education, compared to 5.1 percent in the Netherlands. [...]

Read the story »

13-14 Sept: What to do in and around Maastricht: Het Parcours, Heritage Days, Gardens Festival, Taste Slovenia

Het Parcours:
Opening of Maastricht theatre season. At 37 different locations in Maastricht you can enjoy tasters of theatre plays, music, etc. which will be performed this coming season, all for free! Please check website for further details.
Open Monumentendag – Heritage Days:
The Open Monumentendag (Heritage Days) are designed to bring people into [...]

Read the story »

12-14 Sept: Scottish Weekend at Landcommandery Alden Biesen

Scottish Weekend at the Landcommandery of Alden Biesen (Kasteelstraat, Rijkhoven-Bilzen, Belgium) – 12-14 September 2008
The Landcommandery Alden Biesen was built by the German Order (Teutonic knights). Nowadays this castle is a cultural centre of the Flemish Community and a perfect venue to host the Scottish Weekend.
More and more visitors have found their way to [...]

Read the story »

On a numbers trail in the Belgian province of Limburg

Belgian’s province of Limburg has a compact network of cycle paths with over 2,000 kilometres in all. Cyclists do not have to pore over maps to find a route as 20,000 blue, numbered signs across the network makes finding your way easy.
A sign reading “96-97-98-91-71″ may resemble a telephone number, but it is in [...]

Read the story »

Dutch to introduce burqa ban at schools

In a letter to parliament, Dutch Education Minister Ronald Plasterk writes that the government intends to introduce a burqa ban in education. Not only teachers and schoolchildren, but also parents and school caretakers will be banned from wearing face-covering garments, both inside the school building and outside in the playground. The minister writes that it [...]

Read the story »

Fall 2008 agenda: Maastricht Debates

In the fall of 2008, Maastricht Debates continues with its successful formula of lively debates on current issues of globalisation, European relations and international cooperation.
The thematic focus for the 2008-2009 programme is twofold: i) on the role of Europe in the World, economically, socially, politically and culturally. And – more specific – ii) on [...]

Read the story »

Next Page »