Fjallar um Hollenskar fréttir

Blog overview

2007-04-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

In my first blog I write; "I blog about interesting stuff which happens in Holland. This can be all kinds of news, but I must say that I like the unimportant, weird little articles which are not worldnews but yet to remarkable to ignore."

Going through all the blogs, I see that most of the topics which i blog about are indeed quite remarkable. Most of them are about pretty intens matters. It is news, which not only was made in Holland, it also seem to touch matters which characterise my country; our loose policy towards things like drugs and sex-related issues (prostitutes, gays, abortion etc) and our densed population.

Needless to say that these are therefor topics that strike me personally, imagening the circumstances (knowing how Dutch handle things), often not understanding why it happens or understanding very well why -for example- people react in a certain way. People sometimes ask me wether I like things better here or in the Netherlands. After living here for almost three years now, I better understand Iceland and its culture. I can now also imagine the circumstances when reading a news-report here. Some things are better here, some better in the Netherlands.

To return to the question; I think best is not to choose between the two, it is to gather experience yourself so you can make up your mind and have something senseable to say once in a while. And I hope that that is what I did.

Enjoy reading, kveðja, Robert.

Abortion on sea

2007-04-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

The organisation "women on waves" just got permission to break of pregnancies until <7 weeks in international erea. The organisation is dissapointed because they were hoping for a permission going up to 13 weeks. They now rent spaces on board of dutch ships to help women in countries where it is prohibited to have an abortion. See articel.

Becoming a father myself in october, I can imagine how difficult it must be that when a child is not welcome, your government forbids you to do anything about it. In most of these tricky affairs (drugs, mercy-killing(euthanesia), extreme organisations, prostitutes and so on), I am in favour of guiding people and helping them finding a way then just to simple ban it. I believe that by forbidding it, your rather turning your back on society, instead of dealing with its old and known obstacles.

Women on waves, you have my support!

Agressive driving

2007-04-22T05:26:00.000-07:00

Two participants of the "amstel gold race" (a bicycle-race in the south-east of Holland) were arrested for beating up a man and woman. The knocked down couple (around 45 year old) honked their horn so that they could overtake the bikers with their car. As a response, the two bikers seperated from the group, forced the car to stop and mistreated the two. Especially the woman was in a bad shape. They both needed to be taken to the hospital. The bikers have been comprehended and will be judged tomorrow. See article.

I don´t know what happened excactly, ofcourse. But it seems like the bikers ...slightly... over-reacted. A friend of mine was racing too, maybe he knows something more. (He is back home, it wasn´t him, for sure...)

Coming to Iceland, it was such a relief, driving my car here, compared to Holland. No more bikers to watch out for (at least not as many as I am used to), enough room to drive, very few parking fees and almost none one-way streets! Even owning a car (without driving it) is much cheaper and easier. But then I started to see how loosely (yes some also lousy) Icelanders drive (not really paying attention to traffic lights, signs, rules in common), had to pay my first part of the insurance-fee for the car (why sooooo much???) and noticed all kinds lanes and roads which, from a logistics point of view seem very well, just stupid to me.

I have put down some suggestions to smoothen Icelandic traffic, and thereby avoiding such incidents as described above;

1. The lane to your far left is the fast lane. You don´t use this one unless you want to take over the car(s) in front of you. This way we avoid 3 cars next to eachother (on seperate lanes)driving at the same speed, slowing down all traffic.
2. This only works when you are not longer allowed to take over cars on the right side. It confusses and is dangerous.
3. Truck are no longer allowed to take over on a two-lane road. On a three-lane road they may use the middle lane to do so.
4. When you need to park your car quickly (no more gas, phone-call, or whatever t is that makes Icelandic people leave their cars all the time), you put it along side of the road THUS IT DOES NOT OBSTRUCT ANY OTHER CARS ESPECIALLY NOT IN RUSH-HOUR DRIVING TO SCHOOL LADY IN WEIRD BUSINESS-SUIT!!!
5. When in line, waiting for a bottle-neck or doing the rúntur, you don´t wait on an intersection. You cross the intersection when there´s enough room for you on the other side. This way cars on your right and left can still drive and will be less irritated.

Well, these are only five of the main things which are bothering me and are the main runners for improvement. We dutch people in Iceland thank you for finding some sense in them.

Moss

2007-03-13T05:42:00.000-07:00

Due to a joined research-project of the universities of Amsterdam, Wageningen and Nijmegen a thrilling discovery was made. What a research of sand was, a finding in another field of nature surfaced. The researchers found a square centimeter of moss which was assumed to be extinct for some time now. For all you moss-freaks out there, the stuff is called pycnothelia papillaria and it´s back in Holland! Woohoo. See article.

I am sorry but I have always had difficulties with students final projects or this sort of investigations. I am always glad for having some creating talent so I am not counting how many turts the south-american mini-ant drops while migrating every summer to a warmer climate. Or doing research about how deep the footprints of the female Ghanese fruit-fly are in the few days of pregnancy. Man, oh man, may I please yawn my brains out! The discipline of some people, investigating plants and animals that common people haven´t even heard of... I admire that, I just don´t understand. What´s the drive, knowing that your project is not world-shocking, not making you famous, and which is a mood-killer explaining at parties!

Train suicide

2007-03-12T07:59:00.001-07:00

A 32-year old man first killed his mother in law and then commited suicide by jumping in front of a train, dragging his 2 sons (4 and 6 year old) with him. The police believes the reason for the dramatic events are to be found in the breaking up of te couple. See article.

I am not sure what to say about this topic. The topic hit me, ofcourse because of the nature of the article, but also because it happened in Haarlem, the place where I grew up. How does one get to that point of killing yourself, murdering your own two sons and your mother in law? Unexplainable...

Just for fun..

2007-03-06T02:17:00.001-08:00

Accident

2007-03-06T00:36:00.001-08:00

A truckdriver lost control over the wheel last monday due to nouciouscy. He drove his truck with 29.000 liters of bensin into a house. Luckely the owners where on a holiday.

Tankauto rijdt woning binnen in Drenthe.

In het Drentse Westervelde is maandagochtend een tankauto met 29.000 liter benzine een woning binnengereden. De chauffeur is vermoedelijk onwel geworden en heeft anderhalf uur bekneld gezeten. Op het moment van het ongeluk was er niemand in de woning aanwezig. De bewoners zijn met vakantie.
See article.

Very James Bond-like, driving a 29.000 liter bomb through a wall of a house, parking it into the livingroom. All that was misssing was the explosion. Thank god for the driver there wasn´t one. The article said that he was stuck for one and a half hour, that´s akward enough.

As soon as I read the article, I imagined the owners -all tanned, still wearing colourful shorts and their sunglasses- coming back from Cerveza del mar. Some homecoming!

Price peepshow reduced

2007-02-14T07:09:00.002-08:00

A judge decided that peepshows are like theatre and music, it´s part of culture. Because the dutch government wants to encourage people to go to shows and exhibitions, you don´t have to pay the normal VAT price of 19% anymore, you pay a mere 6 % for peepshows. See article.

The judge stated that it has nothing to do with the level of entertainment, wether it is cheap erotic entertainment or a concert of Bach, visitors pay both 6% VAT.

Eventhough the girls dancing on the rotating stage do not speak, it doesn´t stop the court from calling it a theatre-show. (To be totally clear, the judge said that "pantomime" is also a form of theatre.)

Ofcourse people all have the same rights, no exceptions, so i think the judge´s call is fair. I just wonder if Amsterdam likes to be known as the sex and drugs city that it has been for so long. Isn´t it time to polish its presentation and have something positive like tulips and the nice facades of amsterdam in the foreground?

Illegal living

2007-02-14T07:09:00.001-08:00

Every big city in the Netherlands has an university and every big city in the Netherlands has this problem: where to put all of those studying youngsters? There are just too many of them. This has led to illegal renting and sky-high renting fees.

I have seen friends of mine living in closet-spaces in Amsterdam, paying 350 euros for a few square meter. With walls as thin as paper because the man they´re renting from diveded the (already very tiny) 4 bedroom-house in a 8 bedroom house. Simply by putting up some gips-walls here and there, doubling his income.

Two organisations who fight for matters like this, revealed the biggest conman (or actually conwoman) in Utrecht, the city where I studied. See article. Mrs. Chang rents out rooms sometimes the size of a mere five meters in houses old and very unsafe.

The need of better and more housing has become so urgent that a few years ago containers were put up in Utrecht to make sure that students had a place to go.

I sure hope that students get more rights and get more easy-to-use, and especially more directly effective weapons to fight off people like mrs. Chang. These people are a real bug to the city and should be treated like other plagues; exterminate!

Weatheralarm

2007-02-09T03:44:00.000-08:00

The Dutch weathercentre gave out a "weatheralarm". They were worried about the safety of people traveling because they expected "five til ten centimeter of snow". Because of this cruelsome blizzard, they adviced people who were gonna drive their cars to bring food, drinks, blankets, a torch and a shovel. And to be absolutely sure one is well prepared; fill up your tank and fully charge your cellphone. See article.

Because of the alarm, more people stayed at home or went home earlier from work. Because of all this, the Dutch railways, gass-stations etc made less money and they estimate a indirect damage of tens of millions

more 2 come..

Nude fitness

2007-02-05T06:17:00.000-08:00

This is something I did not read on the net as usual, but I heard it on the Icelandic radio this morning while driving to school. The dj reported that a gym in Holland starts to offer naked workouts. I looked it up on the net, and yes, it is true! See article See in Icelandic.

It will be the first gym in Holland ever to offer something like this, only on sundays for now. People coming to Holland who want to work-out should be prepared to travel a little bit though. The gym is quite a ride from schiphol airport. But not to worry, since january this year Dutch railway-systems offer nude-family discount tickets, so bring grandma and leave you clothes at home. (Start stretching on the way there?) haha.. Crazy stuff, offcourse the trains are still to be ridden with your clothes on but the gym-topic is real. Why cant things be normal? There´s a reason why this is the first one in Holland (probably in Europe) and it is not because its akward being naked, no..! It´s because loose bodyparts wobbling and bouncing out of control just look awful!

Eleven year olds in gaypride

2007-01-30T04:27:00.000-08:00

Word came out that this year for the first time, children young as eleven year old are allowed to come along in the gaypride. The gaypride in Amsterdam is held every year in agust. Between all the extravagant looking party-boats going through the canals, there will be a "childrenboat" with (very) young homosexuals. See article.

Gert Hekma, professor in homosexual and lesbian sudies at the university of Amsterdam says that he approves of the lowering in age-limit. Personally he thinks that even 6 years old should be allowed. Fear of pedofiles is not necessary, there will be so many people around that day and the parents will be on a boat along-side, he stated.

So, let me get this right, there will be queers, dykes, transexuals, gays, homosexuals, faggots etc, in short; all the people from the Amsterdam village will be partying on and around the canals in agust. And then somewhere in this colorful crowd there will be 11 and 12 year olds drinking their coca-cola, celebrating their sexuality. Woohoo. Don´t know about you, but it sounds a bit weird to me and I pick up a faint smell of pedophilism here.

Monsterly love

2007-01-22T04:45:00.000-08:00

First of all; I blog about interesting stuff which happens in Holland. This can be all kinds of news, but I must say that I like the unimportant, weird little articles which are not worldnews but yet to remarkable to ignore.

Today SBS6 (a dutch televisionchannel) announced the start of a new dating program. A dating program for mutelated people that is. According to the broadcasting-station, not all people are adequate. Their contenders should be "pretty severe" mutelated and "are stared at by 80% of the people while walking on the streets". The program was first going to be called "monsterly love" but it has now changed into "love at second sight" (See article)

Pretty unbelievable stuff... Eventhough the station opposes on turning it into a freak-fest, this is exactly what I think it will be. I am pretty used to our poor taste of television (especially in Holland) so I just skip watching television for the most of the time. This way I wont get irritated, my girlfriend keeps on liking me and we will live happily ever after. But I do read the paper, so I know what kind of shows are on. This show is a lowpoint but we´re far from hitting rock bottom.

I would love to have a peek into the tv-guide of say 2107. Whats gonna be on the box? (Whats gonna be on the stretchable/rollable piece of fiber?) Now were watching at shows like "Jackass" and "Dirty Sanchez" where people perform masogistic stunts in name of entertainment. Will there be "self-amputaters"? Cutting of your forarm and having it fixed while laughing at it?(we then have the technology to fix this flawless, it will even improve)"Next Iraqian top child suicide bomber"? "So you think you can clone handicapped people"?

Putting something shocking on television is something anyone can do. So please people, dont settle for cheap thrills, demand more from our producres!