Dutch cabinet struggles with Burqa ban

The cabinet wants a general ban on wearing the burqa in public. But it has not yet found the legal scope to allow such a ban, Integration Minister Verdonk reported Friday.
According to Verdonk, the cabinet considers wearing the burqa, a garment covering the body from top to toe, is “undesirable”. A burqa ban is already [...]

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Big increase in traffic congestion in 2006

Tailbacks on Dutch motorways increased by 8.1 percent between January and September compared with the same period last year.
It looks as though the increase for the full year will be even higher. This is because traffic-jams surged by 29 percent in October from the same month in 2005. In previous years, there were increases of [...]

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14 November: Genootschap Nederland-Engeland presents The Houses of Hidden England

At the request of the Limburg branch of ‘Genootschap Nederland-Engeland’ Mr Ray Biggs, Chairman of ‘Hidden England’ shall give a presentation on The Houses of Hidden England.
The contrasting splendours of five great historic house estates, ‘hidden’ in a fascinating part of the British countryside, all within easy access of the Netherlands. Slide illustrated, [...]

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3-26 November 2006: World Press Photo exhibit at Centre Céramique

The World Press Photo 2006 exhibit will be hosted at Centre Céramique from November 3 to 26, 2006.
To conclude the exhibit, Centre Céramique will on Sunday 26 November hold a lecture by Peter Dejong, a photojournalist originally from Maastricht, who is currently a member of the World Press Photo Advisory Board and a photographer [...]

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Most employees do not want to work longer hours

Four out of five employees in the Netherlands are content with their weekly working hours. Full-time employees are more often satisfied with their working hours than part-time workers. People working only a few hours in part-time jobs would like to work more hours; people aged over fifty would prefer to work less.
Most employees content with [...]

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Most short-term unemployed are young

In 2005, four in every ten unemployed were unemployed for at least of one year. Long-term unemployment is mainly found among older people. Although the unemployment rate is highest among young people in the 15-24 age bracket, unemployment in this age category is often only temporary.
Four in ten face long-term unemployment
In 2005, the unemployed [...]

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Joint fight against discrimination

Central, municipal and local authorities together with anti-discrimination services will jointly tackle discrimination. Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk and Almere’s mayor Annemarie Jorritsma signed an agreement to that effect at an official meeting aimed at working towards a national network of facilities to combat discrimination.
The agreement will also be signed by all other [...]

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Dutch are less concerned about terrorism

Additionally, more people have faith in government actions to combat terrorism: 40% of Dutch people in 2006 as opposed to 27% in 2005.
This year, research also included a survey of the public images on radicalisation. Underlying research shows that most people perceive right-wing political movements and Islamic movements as radical and as a threat. [...]

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School cannot force teacher to shake hands

Schools in the Netherlands cannot demand from teachers that they shake hands with persons from the opposite sex, the Equal Treatment Committee (CGB) ruled yesterday.
The Vader Rijn College, a secondary school in Utrecht, demanded from a Muslim teacher that she shook hands with men. She did so in the past but changed her mind after [...]

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CDA, VVD Divided On ‘Black’ Schools

The Christian democrats (CDA) appear to be turning against a conservative (VVD) proposal to force white and foreign children to mix at school. This would undermine parents’ freedom of choice, CDA suggested yesterday.
Integration Minister Rita Verdonk wants “as far as possible to force” white parents to send their children to ‘black’ schools. The number two [...]

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Restaurant without Borders in Utrecht

From yesterday’s Radio Netherlands Press Review:
NRC.next reports on an interesting volunteer experiment to help asylum seekers in their transition to a new life. A cafe called “Contrary” (Averechts) in Utrecht turns itself into “Restaurant without Borders” once a week and offers dinners cooked and served by illegal foreigners.
Undocumented immigrants from the four corners of [...]

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New EU hand luggage regulations

As from today, all airports within the European Union, as well as those in Norway, Iceland and Switzerland apply new rules on the transport of liquids in passengers’ hand luggage.
Read full article: Expatica Belgium, VRT News, 6 November 2006
Also read Dutch Ministry of Justice press release: New luggage regulations as of Monday 6 November [...]

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Meet the Mosasaurs

Very interesting feature article from Radio Netherlands:
At the end of the Cretaceous period, mosasaurs were ‘top-dog’ in the marine food-chain. Now the fossils of these fearsome, lizard-like creatures are yielding clues about their lives and deaths, thanks to the efforts of Dutch researchers.
Read full article: Radio Netherlands, 6 November 2006

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Experts to study flooding risk in Netherlands

An expert committee is being established to study the risk of flooding in the Netherlands and the current state of preparedness. Last month an advisory council, under leadership of crown prince Willem-Alexander, warned that the country was insufficiently prepared for a water-related disaster. The political parties reacted with reticence at the idea of the tens [...]

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Review: The transformation of the Netherlands, a lecture by Simon Kuper

British journalist and Netherlands watcher Simon Kuper on a recent visit to Maastricht gave a compelling two hour lecture on the transformation of the Netherlands. He wanted to dispel the myth that the Netherlands is suddenly unsafe and rife with religious and cultural conflicts.

Yes, he said, the country’s demographics have changed drastically since WWII, but this is still probably the safest land in the world!

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Pollsters predict close race for prime minister in upcoming Dutch elections

Dutch pollsters Saturday predicted a neck-and-neck race for prime minister in Nov. 22 elections after the two prime candidates faced off in a televised debate.
Fifty percent of viewers thought Bos of the Labor Party performed slightly better in the debate than Christian Democrat leader Balkenende, according to a TNO-Nipo poll of 1,342 people. Forty-six percent [...]

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Province of Limburg to sell Limburg regional products

The Province of Limburg has started to sell Limburg products at the Gouvernement in Maastricht.
It is the first province in the Netherlands to sell local products. The project is a three-month pilot.
The Province will then evaluate whether there is sufficient demand for the products.
Source: L1 nieuws (in Dutch), 2 November 2006

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Curaçao and Sint Maarten to have country status

Minister for Government Reform and Kingdom Relations Atzo Nicolaï has signed an agreement with Curaçao and Sint Maarten about the conditions under which they can become separate countries within the Kingdom.
This agreement marks the end of the Netherlands Antilles.
The Minister has already signed an agreement with Bonaire, Saba and St Eustatius. These islands [...]

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Netherlands invests 80 million in new drugs for poor countries

Development Cooperation Minister Agnes van Ardenne will invest around 80 million euros in the next four years in development of new drugs for poor countries. The investment covers drugs for malaria (20 million euros), tuberculosis (30 million) and AIDS (30 million).
Over 250 million people in Africa have malaria every year and a child aged under [...]

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Dutch house prices highest in Bloemendaal

Of all Dutch municipalities, Bloemendaal is the most expensive for buying a home. Reiderland is the cheapest, according to market research by housing site DIMO.nl.
DIMO reports the average selling price of a house in Bloemendaal in the past nine months as 696,745 euros. Blaricum and Wassenaar come second and third, with average house prices of [...]

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Belgium: More foreigners caught speeding

More and more foreigners travelling through Belgium or visiting the country are caught speeding on Belgian roads. An increasingly higher number of them refuses to pay the fine.
The number of people driving too fast saw a ten-fold increase during the last ten years. The same goes for the percentage of drivers who refuse to [...]

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Dutch prisoners switch identity

The Justice Ministry is going to check the identity of all 17,000 inmates in Dutch prisons. The move was announced by Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin in response to revelations that some convicted criminals in the Netherlands pay other people to go to jail to serve their sentences for them.
A partial probe revealed that [...]

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Dutch parties told to act on sea levels

The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency says Dutch politicians are ignoring the threat of rising sea levels and has called on the government to start making plans now, including cost estimates. The agency says no major political party in the Netherlands has come out and said whether protecting the Netherlands against the new threat from the [...]

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9-10 November: UNU-MERIT seminar: Bringing the economy forward – innovation policy in Canada and the Netherlands

Bringing the economy forward – innovation policy in Canada and the Netherlands, Maastricht, November 9-10, 2006
A special seminar organised by the Association for Canadian Studies in the Netherlands in co-operation with UNU-MERIT.
More information: UNU-MERIT

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Expatriate community: Reflections on my year abroad: savouring the differences between home and Maastricht

Maxine Chan recently returned to Toronto, Canada after living in Maastricht for ten months during an academic exchange at University College Maastricht. An interview with Crossroads.

Crossroads: How do you look back on your year abroad in Maastricht?
Maxine: It was a very transformative time in my life, but an overwhelmingly positive experience. With it being my first time living abroad and my first time in Europe, this was a very big deal to me, so I tried to take advantage of all of the opportunities I could and make the best of the situation. I like to think I mostly succeeded; I have few regrets about the experience. [continued...]

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9 November: Austrian documentary “We feed the World” première in Lumière

The University Environment Platform Maastricht announces:
On Thursday, November 9th, filmtheater Lumière has the Dutch première for ‘We feed the world’, a documentary about the industry which supplies our plates.
Close to a billion people are starving today. But the food we are currently producing could feed 12 billion people. A film about food and globalization, [...]

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Autumn light in Maastricht

Photograph by Atticus Mullikin. [More photographs...]

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Second Eurotop for Top Students in Maastricht

The university of the future begins to take shape on 15, 16 and 17 November
During the second Eurotop for Top Students, being held on 15, 16 and 17 November, forty-three students of eleven different nationalities will be discussing the future of academic education. Participants have been invited from universities that have close connections with [...]

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Less spent per student in higher education

Together, the public and private sectors in the Netherlands spent a total 28.7 billion euro on education in 2005. This is 4 percent more than in 2004. Spending on primary and secondary education has risen sharply in the last ten years, unlike spending on higher education.
Education accounts for 5.7 percent of GDP
Central government, municipalities [...]

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Half a century of adoption history in the Netherlands

On 1 November 1956, half a century ago to the day, the Dutch adoption law came into force. Since then, 60 thousand children have been adopted in the Netherlands. Approximately two-thirds of them came from other countries.
From foster status to legal status
In the first half of the twentieth century, more and more children were [...]

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