The following update was sent to Crossroads’ mailing list subscribers on Thursday 20 December 2007:
Dear Crossroads reader,
First of all, I would like to wish you - also on behalf of the European Journalism Centre -  a healthy and inspiring 2008!
This past year has been very rewarding for Crossroads: we’ve welcomed many new writers (who joined our magazine with great ideas for articles […]

Despite the ease of sending Christmas greetings by email or mobile phone text message, the Christmas card is still popular in the Netherlands, Dutch media reported Wednesday.
The Dutch postal company TNT said Tuesday it expects that more than 190 million Christmas wishes will be sent by post this year in the country.
The Netherlands […]

The G.N.E. Limburg / Netherlands-England Society, Limburg branch, presents:
Mr Martyn Everett, M.A.: “ART and the ANARCHISTS”
venue: Grand Hotel l’Empereur, Maastricht (opp. Railway station)
date : Wed. 16 January 2008. [8-10 p.m., with a break around 9p.m.]
The Speaker: Historian and free-lance journalist, Martyn Everett, worked as a librarian in […]

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Rosanne Rademaker shares her impressions of Maastricht in winter time. Visit her photo-reportage.

Foreign students from outside the EU are to be given one year to find work after completing their studies in the Netherlands, the social affairs ministry said on Wednesday.
At the moment, graduates have three months to find a job.
In addition, the salary level to qualify for the high-skilled migrant (kennismigrant) scheme is being reduced from […]

The first prize in this year’s ‘For Diversity. Against Discrimination’ Journalist Award has today been awarded to a Portuguese journalist writing about the discrimination faced by migrant workers in the Netherlands. The second and third prizes went to entries from France and the United Kingdom respectively. The special award to mark the 2007 European Year […]

Zuyd University is the best vocational university in the Netherlands, according to the 2008 edition of the Higher Education Guide (Keuzegids Hoger Onderwijs 2008).
Zuyd University owns facilities in Heerlen, Maastricht and Sittard.
The list of the Higher Education Guide is published every year through surveys among students.
Source: L1, 18 December 2007 (in Dutch)
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The Dutch are in the top three of richest EU nationalities. The purchasing power of the Dutch is 31 percent higher than the EU average, European statistics bureau Eurostat reported on Monday.
The richest EU citizens are the Luxembourgers, the residents of the Grand Duchy enjoy a whopping 280 percent more purchasing power than average. […]

The cabinet is to use Internet consultation in drawing up legislation and regulations. This will serve to supplement existing possibilities for asking the advice of those involved.
The cabinet has backed a proposal of Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin for a trial of allowing citizens, companies and interest groups to discuss new regulations via the Internet. […]

Thousands of Dutch secondary school students took to the streets recently across the country. They were protesting the shortage of teachers in secondary schools, and the requirement that they spend 1040 hours a year in class, regardless of whether or not they receive instruction during those hours.
But the students aren’t the only ones worried […]

Crossroads writer Amrit Dhir sat down with Jan Sluijsmans, Director of Production & Programming for Muziekgieterij, a new resource for Maastricht’s underground rock and pop music community, on a Friday evening while local bands performed on the venue’s main stage.

They discussed the founding and development of the Muziekgieterij concept; the recent success of the inaugural festival on the Market square; why the Netherlands’ music scene has much to learn from Belgium; and the astonishingly low cost of renting a rehearsal space. [continued]

The perception that the EU is a global player is increasing worldwide, while the image of the US as the world’s biggest power is fading, a new survey has shown.
Citizens in major states across the globe see the EU as the fifth superpower in the world after the US, China, Russia and Japan - but […]

Most people think they know at least something about the history of Europe and the EU. But the first exhibition of the Europe Museum in Brussels shows that what’s common knowledge often barely scratches the surface.
The journey from the ruins of war-torn Europe to the modern amalgamation of states now known as the European Union […]

A group of scientists have asked for the case to be reopened against Lucia de Berk, a nurse who was convicted of murdering seven patients and attempting to murder three others.
On Friday, a petition will appear in the national newspapers explaining why the request has been submitted.
Novelist and biologist Maarten ‘t Hart and the mathematician […]

The Lower House of the Dutch parliament has rejected a citizen’s initiative to make livestock farming more animal-friendly and less harmful to the environment.
The Stop bad meat initiative was submitted earlier today by the Dutch branch of the environmental organization Friends of the Earth. It was supported by more than 100,000 people. Friends of the […]

A survey by Filosofie Magazine shows that the Dutch consider security the most important value. The value that scores lowest among those surveyed is patriotism.
The philosophy monthly presented 10 values to 528 respondents aged 18 or more. They were asked to rank these in order of importance. Security was seen as the most important, followed […]

The 50 municipalities where many immigrants from the countries that joined the EU in 2004 are working have called on the government to postpone free admission of Romanians and Bulgarians to 2013. This is the last date allowed by the EU.
The previous cabinet decided it would in 2008 review whether workers from Bulgaria and Romania […]

Companies running integration courses for immigrants are resorting to entering no-hopers for the compulsory exams, reported tv programme Network reported on Tuesday evening.
The firms claim they are doing this to avoid having their budgets cut. Companies have to ensure a 90% attendance for the integration exams or face funding cuts.
Source: DutchNews, 12 December 2007
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The Dutch use 100 litres of water per person per day to drink, wash, shower and flush the toilet, according to research by Twente University.
Another 3,300 litres of water are used indirectly to make the products people use and consume. Among the top five water-guzzling products used everyday are: short-sleeved t-shirts (2,700 litres), chocolate bars […]

Netherlands has a brand new problem. The Polish workers who have been free to work in the Netherlands since 1 May of this year form a new problem group. The new group of strangers is causing problems in the already beleaguered slum districts of the country’s main cities. At least, that is the spectre increasingly […]

Around 100,000 youngsters aged 12 to 23 live in Amsterdam. Of this number, only 38 percent are ‘white’ Dutch people, as figures by the municipal department for research and statistics reveal.
Over half of Amsterdam youths aged between 12 and 23 has a non-Western background (52 percent). This is over three times the national average for […]

A Dutch diplomat and his wife living in Hong Kong want to dissolve the adoption of their seven year old South Korean daughter. The girl, adopted by the couple when she was four months old, apparently does not fit in with the family, Trouw newspaper reported yesterday.
Last May, the couple transferred the girl to Hong […]

Radio fans will from next year onwards be able to tune in to a new pan-European station, to be set up by a multinational group of broadcasters and funded by the European Commission. The ‘European Radio Project’ (ERP) - a consortium of 16 radio stations from 13 member states - will from April 2008 onwards […]

Have you heard about the miracles of Saint Servatius or the story of the Black Christ of Wijck? Crossroads’ writer Hennie Reuvers retraces for us some of Maastricht’s most famous religious stories and legends. [continued…]

Parliament in the Netherlands is better able to determine its own agenda than in France and the UK. There, parliamentarians are more influenced by the media, concludes Lonneke van Noije in doctoral research at Amsterdam’s Free University (VU).
Van Noije looked at whether parliament or actually the media put the topics on the agenda on […]

Are academics are stuck spinning their wheels? Crossroads writer Rosanne Rademaker continues her investigation into the world of academia in Maastricht with a portrait of Paul Stephenson, a 33-year-old British lecturer in political science at Maastricht University. [continued…]

The rise of ’social media’ was the most important Internet trend this year, according to research bureau Multiscope. It has published its annual list of the twenty most-visited Dutch websites.
Search sites google.nl and startpagina.nl and sales site marktplaats.nl are as last year the top three most visited websites. Google.nl grew to about 11 million visitors […]

Dutch public broadcaster IKON (Netherlands Interdenominational Broadcasting Company) and Radio Netherlands Worldwide have launched a world first: the Bible and Koran brought together on a single Internet site in Dutch, English and Arabic.
The people behind the project hope to encourage a global dialogue between Christians and Muslims. However, the site is also intended to be […]

Young and old tell all on social networking site
Curious about your ex or an old classmate? If you’re Dutch there’s a good chance you’ll find them on Hyves, the Dutch social networking site, which welcomed its 5 millionth user on Thursday. What’s the attraction of Hyves? “You can look in on someone from your computer […]