october
On Wednesday November 5 the French economist Thomas Piketty will visit the Dutch parliament to give a speech about inequality possession and property. Piketty became world famous after he published his bestseller Capital in the Twenty-First Century', an attack at the super rich that often did not even had to work for their wealth. The French economist is invited by an Green Left MP to pay attention to the increase of inequality in the Western world.
Regional and national public TV programs are cooperating in a project to create live coverage future earthquakes in the northern Dutch province Groningen. Under Groningen the largest gas field in Europe is located and since years the continuous gas extraction causes serious earthquakes. Two families are followed 24 hours a day by cameras that have been installed in an outside their houses.
While in the Netherlands employees in health-, elderly- and child care are fired, on the other side of the border there is a serious demand for these kind of functions. In the Dutch province of Drenthe the unemployment figure is 14%, while 30 km away in Germany the figure is only 28%. European cross-border cooperation offers many opportunities.
Today and tomorrow King Willem of the Netherlands and his wife Maxima are visiting Japan. As usual a trade delegation travels along and among them is the Dutch couple that has founded the very successful home care organisation Buurtzorg. Since Japan is the most greying society in the world, they are in need of new innovative care concepts. Buurtzorg runs small teams of nurses that cooperate with the rest of the medical chain, but work without the usual heavy management structure. Early next year a Buurtzorg experiment will start in Japan.
According to research from the Agricultural University in the Netherlands, Ukraine does not need any Russian gas if it starts to produce energy from biomass. The locally produced ‘pallet’s’ from reed, straw and grass could even be exported to countries like the Netherlands, since there is a serious shortage of biomass. At the moment most of the bio mass grown in Ukraine is uselessly burned.
According to a book from a Dutch journalist that will be published tomorrow, the truth behind the perpetrator that caused MH17 plane disaster in the east of Ukraine will never be revealed. The journalist concludes that the involved authorities, besides the Netherlands also Ukraine, Australia, Belgium and Malaysia, made a deal that they can all force to swear the others to secrecy.
Even on markets that are dominated by large brewers, newcomers can find room in the market. As long as the consumers oppose the superpowers strongly. Steve Jobs had the opinion that consumers never come up with something new, but in the beer industry it is the consumers that takes initiative again. This is the result of research that was presented at the Erasmus University yesterday.
This coming Saturday October 25, the Origin Chocolate Event is organised at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. An event for the world’s most renowned chocolate makers and experts working with the best 100% sustainable chocolate. The event fits in a new trend of small scale specialised chocolate makers that work with the best quality organic cacao beans from small producers. They are so-called 'bean to bar makers' that keep the complete process in their own hand.
Two 'fundamental' cannabis growers from the northern Dutch province Groningen are sentenced for cultivating illegal cannabis but they will not be punished because the way they were working fits into the Dutch drugs toleration policy. The Dutch minister of Justice Opstelen is surprised, but does not want to change the policy.
The Dutch Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam did research after illegal trade in organs. It also happens in the Netherlands. The main donor organs mainly come from Pakistan, India, Columbia and China. In China sometimes people are operated just before their execution. The results of the research will be presented on November 21 at a symposium at Europol in The Hague.
The Dutch opposition parties CDA and D’66 want the Dutch Lower House to organise a hearing about the conclusion of the German secret service BND that satellite images clearly proof that separatists shot down flight MH17. The two parties are irritated that German parliamentarians are informed about this, but that the Dutch do not receive enough information.
Besides cannabis the Dutch production of hemp fibres is reintroduced in the Netherlands. For thousands of years hemp fibres were used for clothing, rope and sails, but when cheaper synthetic fibres were introduced, around 100 years ago, hemp got out of favour. Now the strong and anti-fungal hemp thread can find its way to the car-, furniture- and even glass wool industry.
Since last year the lock gates of the IJsselmeer Dam are slightly opened to let fish like eels, salmon and trout into the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. Because the results are very positive the lock gates will now even be opened on a daily basis. The Dutch are also creating other so-called fish crossings in the IJsselmeer Dam.
On November 15, the traditional entry of St Nicholas and his black Pete assistants will take place again throughout the Netherlands. But some of the black Pete’s will not be black anymore, after some citizens lodged complaints against the black Pete figure because his appearance is linked to the Dutch history of slavery and through this discriminating. Since two years the discussion has come to a climax and has led to changes in the appearance of Pete. One thing is for sure, the debate and the changeover of Pete will be continued.
From 2015 the Dutch government will introduce the new ‘participation’ policy. The new legislation has the goal to find work for as many unemployed as possible and achieve a budget cut of €. 1,6 billion. Especially handicapped will get priority, but half of the employers do not want to give a so-called ‘guarantee job’ to handicapped. The social workplaces where most of the handicapped work now will be closed down anyway.