Negotiating the traffic at Maastricht-Aachen Airport
March 6, 2008 Leave a Comment
Buying a $6 million Brueghel at this month’s art fair in Maastricht is easy. The hard part: negotiating the traffic at Aachen Airport.
The Dutch city of Maastricht, just next to the Belgian border, plays host each year to the Davos of the art world, the European Fine Arts Fair. The annual March show, often simply [...]
Dutch have average Internet skills
March 5, 2008 Leave a Comment
The Dutch are using the Internet for an increasing number of activities. Young people in particular are very active. Compared with other countries in Europe, there are not many highly skilled Internet users in the Netherlands.
Internet used mostly for searching and e-mail
Eleven million people in the Netherlands use the Internet. Nearly all of them used [...]
8.5 thousand Kosovars in the Netherlands
March 5, 2008 Leave a Comment
Just over 76 thousand first and second generation former Yugoslavs were living in the Netherlands on 1 January 2008. An estimated 11 percent of these, some 8.5 thousand, can be counted as Kosovars.
Many Kosovars are refugees
Most Kosovars living in the Netherlands arrived here in 1999 and 2000. In 1998 an armed conflict developed between Serbia [...]
Municipal rates increase by over 4 percent
March 5, 2008 Leave a Comment
In 2008, proceeds from municipal taxes were 4.4 percent higher than last year. This is mainly attributable to an increase in property tax (OZB) and sewage charges. According to figures released by Statistics Netherlands based on municipal budget data, office fees and building permits showed the highest proportional increase.
Property tax higher due to recent property [...]
UM at TEFAF: Robert Noortman Lecture, Master Classes and Limburg stand
March 5, 2008 Leave a Comment
This year, for the first time in its history, Maastricht University (UM) will be represented at The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) Maastricht. The university’s activities will reflect the vivid academic community that Maastricht University stands for.
UM’s TEFAF programme revolves around the Robert Noortman Lecture, which will be given on 7 March. This year’s lecture, [...]
Snow disrupts Benelux traffic
March 5, 2008 Leave a Comment
Snow has been causing problems for motorists in the Benelux and Germany. A section of the E25 motorway between Luxembourg and the Belgian city of Liège has been closed after a number of trucks skidded in slippery conditions, blocking the road.
Between 15 and 25 centimetres of snow fell on higher ground in eastern Belgium overnight. [...]
Maastricht Fair offers $1 billion of artworks to collectors
March 5, 2008 Leave a Comment
The world’s largest art and antiques fair, beginning this week in the Dutch city of Maastricht, puts $1 billion worth of paintings and other works up for sale in the year’s first test of demand from buyers outside the auction rooms.
Organizers of the European Fine Art Fair, known as Tefaf, are hoping to exceed [...]
Dutch text books ‘extremely expensive’
March 4, 2008 Leave a Comment
Dutch school text books are extremely expensive compared with France, Germany and the UK, the Volkskrant reports on Monday.
While the Dutch government assumes average expenditure per secondary school pupil to be €308, none of the other three countries budget more than €80 per pupil.
The Dutch government has pledged to transfer the cost of buying books [...]
Children’s allowance to go up for big families
March 4, 2008 Leave a Comment
Families with more than one child will from 2009 receive higher children’s allowances than in 2008. The cabinet has approved a proposed bill by Youth and Family Minister Andre Rouvoet.
Currently, the sum for supporting families with children is not dependent on the number of children but only on the income per household. But from 2009, [...]
Cabinet appoints six ambassadors
March 4, 2008 Leave a Comment
The cabinet has nominated new ambassadors for Pakistan, Colombia, Cuba, Uruguay, Latvia and Costa Rica.
T.F. de Zwaan is to become ambassador to Pakistan. He currently heads the Dutch mission in Egypt.
M.S. Kappeyne van de Coppello is to be ambassador to Colombia. She is now deputy Permanent Representative at the UN in Geneva.
R.C.J. Muyzert will lead [...]
PvdA leader: integration requires polarisation
March 4, 2008 Leave a Comment
Labour (PvdA) leader Wouter Bos believes polarisation is necessary for successful integration of immigrants in the Netherlands. He made his remarkable statement in De Volkskrant.
“Polarisation is the only way to get things further. You must enter the debate with consensus; you must come out of it with consensus,” said Bos in an interview with the [...]
Belgium: huge transit port for drugs
March 4, 2008 Leave a Comment
A US government report says that a quarter of all drugs intended for Europe are imported through Belgium, making the country one of the biggest drug transit ports on the continent. The report says that every year 60 tons of cocaine and 30 tons of heroin arrive in the country.
Belgium is an ideal entry point [...]
Korfball: scoring with the opposite sex
March 3, 2008 2 Comments
US student Amrit Dhir continues his exploration of those sports traditions that are foreign to his home culture, yet thrive in Maastricht. This time Amrit introduces us to the world of Korfball. [continued...]
Microsoft to open embedded development center in Aachen
March 3, 2008 Leave a Comment
Microsoft Corp. has launched its first Microsoft Embedded Systems Development Centre (MESDC) in Aachen, Germany. The MESDC is part of Microsoft’s effort to expand regional development centers in Denmark, France, Ireland, Serbia, the U.K. and other countries across Europe.
Located within the European Microsoft Innovation Centre (EMIC) in Aachen set up in 2003, the company [...]
Van Gogh work on sale for $30m at TEFAF Maastricht
March 3, 2008 Leave a Comment
A Van Gogh work, painted weeks before he killed himself, goes under the hammer for the first time in more than 90 years, estimated $30m.
L’Enfant a l’Orange (The Child With An Orange) will go on sale next month at the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, the Netherlands.
The painting, which is one of [...]
Roman sex artifacts on show at Trier museum
March 2, 2008 Leave a Comment
Erotic carvings and excavated Roman artefacts connected to sex go on display Saturday in Germany’s best-preserved ancient Roman city, Trier.
The temporary exhibition, 100,000 Years of Sex, comprises 250 items, mainly archaeological.
Read the rest of the article: Expatica Germany, 29 February 2008
Almere ugliest spot in the Netherlands, Heerlen fourth, Eindhoven fifth
March 2, 2008 Leave a Comment
Almere is the Netherlands’ ugliest spot. The town can call itself the ‘winner’ of an election organised by De Volkskrant.
The newspaper’s travel editorial staff asked readers to specify ugly spots and then vote on the most-named destinations: five abroad and five in the Netherlands. In total, 2,900 people voted. Together they distributed points on the [...]
Cabinet panic over Koran film
March 2, 2008 Leave a Comment
If Dutch companies, citizens and interests abroad are hurt following MP Geert Wilders’ film on the Koran, there is only one person responsible, according to Prime Minister Balkenende. “At this moment, a great responsibility is resting on Mr. Wilders”.
The cabinet on Friday produced an official statement that Prime Minister Balkenende read out after his [...]
Expat centre in Amsterdam to cut red tape
March 2, 2008 Leave a Comment
A new centre, due to open in Amsterdam in April, aims to reduce the bureaucratic hassle omnipresent when foreign workers come to work in the Netherlands.
The new centre will focus on making it easier for companies employing knowledge migrants and the skilled employees themselves to enter the Netherlands and clear their paperwork before officially being [...]
Is Holland becoming a nanny state?
March 2, 2008 Leave a Comment
More restrictions on marijuana use, a ban on magic mushrooms, restrictions on setting off fireworks on New Year’s Eve. These are just a few of measures proposed by Jan Peter Balkenende’s fourth cabinet. Critics say the government is creating a nanny state.
Read the article: Radio Netherlands, 29 February 2008
Hille’s Goatriders forum: Keeping a Limburg legend alive
March 2, 2008 1 Comment
Far away in the cold and northern province of Friesland, a 22 year-old young Dutch woman by the superb name of Hille Morel van Mourik is passionately dedicating her free time to unravelling the mystery of the Limburg Goatriders. [continued...]
