The Holland Times - March 2014

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FESTIVAL 20–26 MARCH 2014 THE HAGUE

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MARCH 2014

DUTCH GOLD AT SOCHI In a Winter Olympics plagued by controversy and human rights

abuse, Dutch skaters dominated and ruffled the world’s feathers p23

NUCLEAR SECURITY SUMMIT IN THE HAGUE p5

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THE STATE OF MENTAL HEALTHCARE p16-17

TEFAF COMES TO MAASTRICHT p19

02-03-14 19:56

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MARCH 2014 | 3

EDITORIAL

CONTENTS

This month is a month to take action in the Netherlands.

With the upcoming local elections, there is the chance for expat residents of this country to make their voices heard and choose the people who will represent them. (p6) While many expats tend not to get involved in the politics of their chosen host nation – and indeed cannot get involved on a national level without citizenship – the local elections offer a chance to directly affect who it is will be making decisions that have an impact on your own locality.

Declan Aylward, Editor-in-Chief

Another way that residents of the Netherlands can take action is linked to the reopening of the investigation into Joris Demmink. (p7) The Investigate Demmink website encourages people to get directly involved by writing to government figures to demand answers that have too long been denied.

Of course, taking action can be something less serious too. Perhaps you simply want to get out of the house and enjoy some fine art, (p19) or even set your goldfish free to wander the house as it wishes. (p15) Have something to say to the editor? Email: editorial@thehollandtimes.nl

Some convenient locations where The Holland Times can be found: AMSTERDAM The American Book Center Waterstone’s Booksellers Tony NY City Bagels Stadhuis A’dam voorlichtingsloket Raadhuis Amstelveen Stadsdeel Amsterdam Oud Zuid NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky

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The British School Hogeschool InHolland Webster University Aerofit The American School of The Hague Tyddewi

ECONOMICS P9 Weekers’ taxation debacle TECHNOLOGY P15 Dutch company puts fish on wheels FEATURE P16-17 The state of mental healthcare ARTS & CULTURE P19 Pearls in Baroque

SPORTS P23 Gold for Olympic skaters

Photography: Marc Breeman

The Holland Times, the Netherlands’ only English language newspaper, is widely distributed in Amsterdam, Eindhoven, The Hague, Maastricht and Rotterdam.

DIPLOMATIC P8 Macedonia: pearl of the Balkans

REVIEWS P21 Food, Film, Book and Music ratings

All images: Creative Commons Licence Cover images: Olympic.org

Life Mental Health Cea How can I get The Holland Times?

NATIONAL P4-7 Plasterk survives scandal p4

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27-02-14 12:57

NATIONAL

4 | MARCH 2014

Dolmatov case settled

MOSCOW | The mother of Russian opposition activist Aleksandr Dolmatov has accepted a settlement from the Dutch government, according to a recent report. Mr. Dolmatov, who was seeking asylum in the Netherlands, killed himself in early 2013 while being detained as a foreign national. His death led to widespread criticism of his treatment while on Dutch soil. Research performed by the Security and Justice Inspectorate later showed that various organisations cooperating in the immigration process acted negligently at various times.

Plasterk survives spy scandal

New cybercrime penalties

THE HAGUE | Criminals who destroy computer data, make files inaccessible by changing passwords or bombard computers with spam can now look forward to lengthier jail sentences, according to a recent government report.

Minister for Security and Justice Ivo Opstelten (VVD) has announced legislation to increase the maximum sentences for computer crime. Relatively minor crimes such as those listed above will carry a maximum sentence of three years, while cyber-criminals found guilty of damaging infrastructure can face up to five years in jail under the proposed law.

Dark net site shut down

AMSTERDAM | Police have arrested five people and shut down a “dark net” website as part of an investigation into online criminal marketplaces, reports the BBC. The site, known as Utopia, had been used to trade drugs, stolen credit cards and weapons among other illegal goods. Police also seized 900 bitcoins, worth about 610,900 euro.

Sites on the dark net are inaccessible to users without a special Tor browser, which penetrates this hidden layer. The government has declared the operation a success, however journalists point out that dozens of similar sites remain active.

Photo: Openbaar Ministerie

Death threat to journalist

KAATSHEUVEL | A US journalist who commented that a ride in the Efteling amusement park seemed racist has been met with aggression and death threats by Dutch people eager to defend their open-mindedness.

Gisela Williams commented that the “Monsieur Cannibale” ride, which features a cartoonish caricature of an African tribesman, “is a racist throwback to the days of the Dutch East India Company,” according to DutchNews.nl.

Some people took exception to this and Williams recently Tweeted that she had received her very first death threat.

Photo: Kennisland

Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk has found himself in hot water over spying allegations, but has somehow emerged unscathed.

JOEP DERKSEN investigates.

He was declared dead and buried by the media, but Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk (PvdA) seems to have arisen from the political ashes, like a Phoenix. But how did Plasterk get into this mess?

First, he blamed the American NSA for eavesdropping on Dutch civilians, but in early February news came out that it was the Dutch secret services MIVD and AIVD who registered the data of 1.8 million Dutch phone calls.

The real problems started for Plasterk (PvdA: Labour party) after a television interview with television programme Nieuwsuur (News hour) on 30 October 2013. He waved a letter in his hand, explicitly stating that it was the Americans who had intercepted 1.8 million pieces of telephone data in the Netherlands. However, Plasterk did not have a clue what was going on, he admitted in a letter to Parliament on 10 February.

The political soap went further in November 2013, after the television interview. At the time NRC Handelsblad reported, that the American intelligence agency NSA had been spying on the Netherlands between 1945 and 1968. This information came from documents that were publicised

by Edward Snowden. Snowden also made public that the NSA has been spying on prime ministers, diplomats and telephone and Internet data from citizens on a large scale for the past 13 years or so.

In November, D66 and the Socialist Party (SP) called on Plasterk to explain whether the Netherlands’ own agencies were involved in this eavesdropping on Dutch citizens by the NSA. GroenLinks called for a stricter control by Parliament on the Dutch secret services. Prime Minister Mark Rutte (VVD) said in de Telegraaf on 23 November 2013 that he expected more revelations on this subject.

In February of this year, Plasterk made public via a letter to Parliament that he was informed by the AIVD and the MIVD of the real facts on 22 November. Neither Plasterk, nor Defence Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (VVD) nor the Prime Minister decided to make this information public at that time. This would reveal the way the national secret service agencies operate and could cause a threat to national security, Plasterk explained in the same letter to Parliament.

However, early this year Plasterk

was forced to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth because of legal proceedings brought about by a group called “Citizens Against Plasterk” regarding the use of data collected by secret services. It thus came out that Plasterk had been lying to Parliament and neglected to provide all information of which he was aware.

This could have been a political death sentence for Plasterk. But in this country, it has become custom that the coalition partners (in this case: VVD and PvdA) cover each other’s backs. The fall of a high profile minister such as Plasterk could have disastrous consequences for the entire government. Adding to this is the fact that both the VVD and PvdA have been suffering heavy losses in the polls. The VVD is now down from 41 seats at the national elections one and a half years ago to 18 seats. The PvdA currently has 39 seats, but could only count on 12 seats if elections were held right now.

So, the good old “I’m sorry” statement was taken out of the closet.

Plasterk apologised profusely and said that it was his entire fault and that he would never do it again. He

HELP US!

would also diminish his appearances in television programmes and would do his utmost to improve his work.

Not surprisingly, the PvdA and VVD parliamentarians all accepted his statement. However, almost all of the opposition parties supported a motion that would force Plasterk to resign if it was accepted by a majority of the 150 members of parliament.

Even the ever-so-loyal D66 party supported this motion, but it did not stand a chance, since the PvdA and VVD still hold a majority.

But this story does not end here.

Although the VVD and PvdA have a majority in the Tweede Kamer, they still need the help of opposition parties in the Eerste Kamer (comparable to the House of Lords). Moves like this by the coalition government are destined to erode support among the loyal opposition. And without the support in the Eerste Kamer, the VVD and PvdA government will be a lame duck. Ultimately, the country runs the risk that extreme parties such as the PVV and SP will benefit.

The population always gets the government it deserves, it is sometimes said. So what have we done to deserve this?

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NATIONAL

MARCH 2014 | 5

Nuclear security summit in The Hague

Uganda measures needed

KAMPALA | Minister of Foreign Affairs Frans Timmermans (PvdA) believes that a strong response will be required from the Netherlands if Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signs an anti-gay bill into law. He followed that the EU’s budget support to Uganda, which is currently suspended, cannot be resumed if the bill becomes law. He will also investigate which organisations in Uganda that receive aid from the Netherlands have expressed support for the law. It was recently announced that Uganda would pass a bill that punishes homosexuality with lifelong imprisonment.

Dutch drug kills children

DA LAT | Authorities in the Vietnamese Central Highlands city of Da Lat, the capital of Lam Dong Province, are seeking Ministry of Health permission to suspend the use of Quinvaxem, a five-in-one vaccine produced in the Netherlands, following the death of a three-month-old boy caused by a shot last month, reports Thanh Nien News.

According to municipal authorities, between 2012 and January this year, three local children died after receiving the Dutch vaccine, leading to a sharp decrease in the number of parents signing their children up for the shots last month.

Drugs in traffic clampdown

As a nuclear security summit looms in The Hague, the question is what it will mean for world safety. WILLEM POST, US expert of Institute Clingendael, commentator for PRI The World in Boston and Sydney public radio as well as writer of the book Obamaworld, may have an answer.

Remember the fifties? Those films for educational purposes showing little children in their shelters under the school tables to protect themselves against the Soviet Bear trying to “reach out” to us with its mighty claws.

The world already knew the havoc Hiroshima and Nagasaki created, but in the fifties nuclear bombs had even more “impact.” A hundred times more!

Even in the eighties at the end of the Cold War there were many public outbursts of anxiety. There were vivid scenes of huge demonstrations in the Netherlands. People carrying signs with slogans like, “Away with all nuclear weapons in the world!” There was a lot of fear and insecurity. To be or not to be?

After the end of the Cold War, all kinds of new Start and Salt treaties, including a rather well-functioning inspection regime, instilled a “balance of confidence” instead of a “balance of fear.” And we learned, in hindsight, how close we were to a real nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, researchers concluded when they studied the recently publicised documents in the archives in Washington

and elsewhere.

So, in the end, common sense prevailed. One conclusion is that, if the politicians would have listened to the generals, the outcome would have been totally different. In both the East and West, the politicians who made the difference were rationalists. Thank you John Kennedy, Nikita Chroestjov and Michael Gorbatsjov.

In 2009, the incoming president Obama formulated a new worldwide danger: the proliferation of nuclear material. People have an idea of how nuclear weapons look. It is some sort of rocket with a sharp nose with highly explosive stuff inside. But who knows how highly enriched uranium and plutonium look? These are, in the opinion of president Obama, the new enemies of mankind. You can find them in nuclear power centres all over the world. There are no strict rules implemented for countries to lock down these materials in a safe way.

Terrorist groups such as Al Qaida have already publicly declared they would very much like to get these new weapons that can be put in small packages to kill millions of civilians in densely populated areas. Highly

enriched uranium and plutonium, used in a positive way for radiation in hospitals and clean energy, are also the new loves of terrorist organisations trying to destabilise whole societies, indeed the world.

For Obama, this issue is his number one security priority and so he ordered that in 2013 the problem must be solved. We have to compliment the president for his sense of urgency. His approach was no less than spectacular. The danger is so imminent that Obama initiated nuclear summits not only with experts and civil servants as participants but with as many political leaders as possible from all over the world.

After the Washington Nuclear Security Summit and the Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, and now The Hague, the conclusion is that we need more time. Reality dictates that we have to lower the bar somewhat.

It is possible that in The Hague we can conclude that the 25 countries (in 2012, 32 countries) possessing more than one kilo of enriched material will take more steps to destroy huge quantities; hopefully not only in the civilian sector but also in the military.

On the eve of the summit, Japan

and the United States presented a deal – they call it a “gift basket” – to the world that Japan would destroy 300 kg of weapon grade plutonium.

Another gift basket is that a coalition of countries including Belgium and South Korea are working together to develop a technical, fast track procedure in which highly enriched uranium is transformed into low enriched uranium. If in The Hague more “gift baskets” will be presented and especially if the watchdog organisation, The International Atomic Energy Agency, will get more responsibilities to implement international safeguarding rules, the world will take some important steps forward.

No, Mr. President, the problem is not solved. We need more time. You already concluded that a second and concluding Washington Nuclear Security Summit, will be held in 2016.

From a realistic perspective, we need a longer timeframe and a structural approach, including even more nuclear summits.

The world is no peace-loving Disneyland. But yes, Mr. President, you were right in seizing the moment.

Thanks to you we have nuclear security on top of the agenda.

THE HAGUE | A new statement indicates that the government intends to increase the detection of motorists, motorcyclists and moped riders who pose a serious threat to road safety due to drug use.

They will do so by introducing a socalled zero limit for combined use of several drugs and of drugs and alcohol.

A zero limit is the lowest measurable quantity of a substance that cannot be present in the blood naturally. This will initially have no effect on police approach to use of single drugs or alcohol.

Photo: epSos.de

New digital summons

THE HAGUE | Announcements to citizens having no known domicile or residence will no longer be published in daily newspapers, but will, from now on, be published in the digital Government Gazette. This more modern form of publishing announcements will save advertising costs and can be accessed better, according to the government.

Research conducted by bailiffs shows that people do not or hardly respond to messages in (paper) daily newspapers.

A person having no known domicile or residence will be given four months’ time to take note of an announcement in the Government Gazette.

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NATIONAL

6 | MARCH 2014

Dutch to tackle poaching

LONDON | Minister for Agriculture Sha-

ron Dijksma (PvdA) is to make agreements with other countries to tackle elephant and rhino poaching. Large numbers of these animals are killed every year for the trade in ivory and rhino horn. The Minister was invited to the London Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade, where together with 49 countries and 11 UN organisations, the Netherlands will sign a global statement for a moratorium on the ivory trade.

The government plans to make funding and knowledge available to seriously tackle poaching and to safeguard global biodiversity.

Local elections: cast your vote

Joint Benelux declaration BRUSSELS | At a summit in Brussels

held on 13 February 2014, the prime ministers and social affairs ministers of the Benelux countries met to discuss measures to combat labour market abuses. They agree that underpayment and exploitation must be dealt with firmly, in the interests of both workers and fair competition in Europe. In a joint declaration, they agreed to rapidly implement the future EU enforcement directive in this area. They also intend to intensify their pursuit of employers who abuse EU regulations in order to evade paying social security contributions.

Photo: FaceMePLS

AMERSFOORT | Most Dutch town

Municipality elections are coming up towards the end of this month, but what many expats don’t know is that they are entitled to vote despite not being a Dutch citizen. AARYA NARAYAN takes a look at the political landscape.

Photo: Andre Bulber

On 19 March 2014, the local elections for city council will take place. These elections take place every four years in every municipality in the Netherlands. This year, the country counts 403 municipalities and each municipality is responsible for the organisation of the elections. The number of seats in the council is dependent on the number of inhabitants in the municipality and is always an odd number.

The city council is responsible for the College van Burgemeester en Wethouders (college of mayor and aldermen) also referred to as B&W. That group is in charge of governing the municipality. The mayor is the chairman of the city council and of the B&W college. The aldermen are assigned by the city council, and the mayors by the national government after a procedure has been conducted in which the city council has a say too.

Voting is not just open to Dutch citizens. Citizens of other European Union states who reside in the Netherlands have the right to vote and can also run as candidate for the election, subject to the same conditions as Dutch citizens. Citizens from states outside the European Union who have been continuously resided for five years in the Netherlands and who are registered in Amsterdam are allowed to vote too. Additionally, they can also run for committee member positions in their city district. Interest-

Councils ignore weed ban councils are ignoring the ban on selling marijuana to non-residents in coffeeshops, according to a report by NOS TV. Many councils do not believe the new rules apply to their town’s situation.

“This law was introduced by The Hague to discourage drugs tourism in the border areas and every council is supposed to comply. But Amersfoort does not have any drugs tourism,” an Amersfoort CDA spokesperson told NOS. In all, 85 percent of coffeeshops do not enforce the ban, as found by Tilburg University researcher Nicole Maalsté.

Dutch aid British in floods

LONDON | Since December, England has

been hit by storms resulting in flooding, especially in the South West region. The Netherlands responded to the British government’s call for assistance by deploying the dike inspection team. To make best use of one another’s expertise, the inspectors worked in pairs with their English colleagues. The inspectors said that their colleagues at the Environment Agency, the main water management authority in England, are doing all they can to prevent further flooding.

Rijkswaterstaat was in contact with the Environment Agency for weeks regarding Dutch support and collaboration.

ing to note is that groups or individuals not connected to a political party can also run for a seat in the district committees. It is not necessary for candidates to run as a representative of a political party. This means that many expats can have a say in their city’s policy too.

The support of the parties differs per municipality and can have a great impact on the way that municipality is run. For instance, in Rotterdam, Joost Eerdmans announced that his party, Leefbaar Rotterdam, intends to put a maximum on the number of immigrants coming to Rotterdam from Eastern Europe. Leefbaar Rotterdam considers a maximum of 1000 employees from Eastern Europe sufficient per annum. Eerdmans argues that the pressure on older neighbourhoods would increase too much.

Temporary employees usually find residence in these neighbourhoods.

He also claims that this is the wish of the majority of Rotterdam’s population. Leefbaar Rotterdam is expected to come out of the elections as the municipality’s largest party, and other parties who wish to form a coalition with them would have to accept this point.

Over 20 parties are participating in the elections in Amsterdam this year and they all have different priorities and plans. For instance, the Piratenpartij worries about the government using modern technology to monitor civilians. De Groenen advocates a

greener city with purer air and safer traffic for cyclists and pedestrians.

Amsterdam Sociaal stands for freedom, equality and tolerance.

Currently, the Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA), otherwise known as the Labour party, is the most prominent party in Amsterdam and intends to keep its position. The party’s main plans for Amsterdam concern healthcare, which they believe should be improved. The PvdA is proud of the way it approached education and how it reduced the number of low quality schools from 44 to four. The party would also like to invest in houses for young people and those with a modal income. It also wishes to reduce crime by reforming young criminals to prevent reoffending. Finally, the party intends to take care of youth unemployment by joining hands with the corporate world and setting up internships.

This party has joined its list with Groenlinks (a left-wing green party), which means that the parties are considered to be united to gain more “restzetels.” Restzetels are the remaining unassigned seats in the council after all the seats are assigned to the parties in accordance with their numbers of votes. The remaining votes per party that were insufficient in number to form a seat will determine what party gets a restzetel. Note that the restzetels are assigned to the parties with the highest number of remaining votes. When two parties

join their lists, the number of their remaining votes increases. Groenlinks has similar ideas to that of the PvdA; therefore joining their lists seems logical. Groenlinks generally focuses on making Amsterdam a social and environmental-friendly city, in which citizens take care of each other. They also focus on education and encourage more travelling by bicycle and foot. The party’s general points of focus are good healthcare, education, more employment and Europe.

Apart from the PvdA and Groenlinks, the Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD), the conservativeliberal party, and Politieke Partij Democraten 66 (D66), the social-liberal and progressive party, have joined their lists too. The VVD’s policy for Amsterdam revolves around employment and safety. D66’s chairman Jeroen van Spijk explains that over 20 parties are participating in the elections this year: “Experience has taught that many parties do not earn a seat in the end.” Joining lists would increase D66’s chance to influence the city council more. D66 intends to end the PvdA’s reign in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam will turn this year’s election day into a complete party with first-time voters receiving a letter from the mayor and the national museum becoming a place to vote.

On top of that, the voting pass will also function as a coupon that might grant you a free cookie with your coffee!

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NATIONAL

MARCH 2014 | 7

Demmink investigation reopened

New pulse trawl licences

THE HAGUE | Dutch fishermen waiting for a pulse trawl licence will soon be able to put out to sea. The doubling of extra licenses for fisheries using the sustainable pulse trawl technique has been achieved on the basis of a national programme. In January the government was informed by the European Parliament that the additional licenses previously agreed upon would not be granted, while Dutch fishermen had already made considerable investments.

With the EU approval, the government will undertake an extensive pilot programme into the pulse trawl technique, and as a result 42 extra cutters may use the pulse trawl to catch flatfish.

Dutch delegation to Iran TEHRAN | A report by Iran’s Mehr

news agency says a that 10-member parliamentary delegation from the Netherlands is set to pay an official visit to Tehran early in the next Iranian calendar year, which will start on 21 March.

The announcement comes from Iranian Ambassador to the Netherlands, Kazem Gharib Abadi. The Netherlands is Iran’s third largest European partner and the volume of trade between the two countries totals 1.5 billion euro yearly.

The last parliamentary delegation from the Netherlands visited Iran in 2003.

New dike for Katwijk

Photo: Arrest Demmink Facebook page

The investigation into allegations of child abuse by former Justice Ministry official Joris Demmink has been reopened. ALICE BURKE has the details.

Joris Demmink, a former top official in the Netherlands’ Justice Ministry, is again in the spotlight following the re-launch of an investigation into claims of paedophilia that have surrounded him for several years now.

Mr. Demmink has worked within the Justice Ministry as Director General and Secretary General.

The Public Prosecution Office will lead the investigation and media reports say it will be completed within a year. A police research team will also be involved in the investigation.

Mr. Demmink has been accused of raping two young boys while on a mission to Turkey in 1996. He has always denied these claims.

The Public Prosecution Service confirmed the reports of the re-launch of the investigation in early February, following a court ruling in January that stated there was enough information on the table, ‘’that gives sufficient grounds for a reasonable suspicion of guilt for rape,’’ and that further investigation was warranted.

A Facebook page called Arrest Demmink that has garnered over 5,000 likes and has the support of former US Congresswoman Linda Smith, summarises the accusations as follows: “Victims within the Netherlands and Turkey allege that Demmink raped them when they were boys and that he was part of a group

of paedophiles committing these crimes. Demmink has been accused of using his power to obstruct justice efforts by eluding investigation and prosecution. Demmink stands accused of child sex tourism, a form of child sex trafficking.”

In 1998, an investigation conducted into an Amsterdam brothel linked several senior politicians and justice officials to the sexual abuse and trafficking of young boys. ”Demmink was specifically identified by one of the young boys as an individual involved in the abuses,” claims the campaign for his arrest.

“According to a former senior official at the Ministry of Justice, this investigation was foiled through the direct intervention of and obstruction by Demmink.”

A large-scale campaign is also underway on a website called www.investigatedemmink.com, which chronicles the events leading to Demmink’s eventual resignation from the Justice Ministry.

The language used on the site is not ambiguous. There appears to be no place for “alleged” or “supposed.”

The anti-Demmink campaign is absolutely clear in its convictions.

“An investigative report issued in 2007,” says the campaign, “confirms that high ranking Turkish officials employed video and documentary ev-

idence of Demmink’s sexual assaults to pressure Demmink and the Dutch Minister for Justice into fabricating evidence for trial against a Turkish exile residing in the Netherlands.”

Regarding the timeframe of the alleged rapes in Turkey, Demmink claims not to have been there at the time, but discussions of the submission of expenses have muddied the water surrounding Demmink’s pleas of innocence.

In September of 2009, the NRC Handelsblad newspaper published an article revealing that Demmink claimed 13,000 euro in business expenses over a two year period for drink and food.

Demmink did not file properly and declare his “official motivations for the occasion” and “who his companion(s) was (were).”

Claims have also been submitted by a Turkish police officer who was responsible for Demmink’s safety during official trips to Turkey. Officer Mehmet Korkmaz asserts that on Demmink’s first visit he used his real name, but on his second visit in 1995 and his third visit in 1996, Demmink used an alias.

In addition to security, Korkmasz says he was tasked with obtaining numerous “street boys” for Demmink to rape.

In April of 2013, Dutch MEP Lucas

Hartong spoke at Georgetown Law School in the US on the claims surrounding Demmink.

This followed Mr. Hartong’s tabling of questions to the floor of the European Parliament in an attempt to get the dates of Mr. Demmink’s travel to Turkey.

Mr. Hartong was subsequently told that he could attend a meeting of the Council of Ministers where the issue would be discussed.

Mr. Hartong says that, upon arrival at the meeting, he was summarily threatened with arrest and escorted from the room.

Henk Krol, former VVD Spokesman and member of the 50PLUS Party, went on the Dutch TV show One on One (Een op Een) in January of this year and referred to the Demmink debacle, asking for anyone with any information about the alleged paedophile ring to come forward.

Speculations of cover-ups and dodgy dealing continue to swirl on the Internet and various press outlets, but it remains to be seen whether any clarity will come from yet another investigation.

Demmink is keeping quiet for now, but if the allegations of a paedophile ring are true, there will be many in The Hague waiting in fear of a dark truth finally being aired in a year’s time.

KATWIJK | A new flood defence system is being built in the village of Katwijk, a dike the incorporates an underground carpark. Currently, part of the village of Katwijk aan Zee lies outside of the existing flood protection. The new dike will extend the protection to cover the entire village, while also providing a solution to the problem of parking during the busy summer months. The new sea dike will be built using the existing row of dunes between the boulevard and the beach. The new dunes will be where the beach was.

Image: Government.nl

Zanzibar cooperation

ZANZIBAR CITY | During a recent official visit to Zanzibar, Dutch minister for foreign trade and development cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen (PvdA), and Zanzibar president Dr. Ali Mohamed Shein reaffirmed both countries desires for stronger economic and political ties, reports Ipp Media. Dr. Shein expressed his appreciation and that of his government to the government of The Netherlands for setting aside a special fund for capacity building for Zanzibar, which he described as crucial support in realisation of Zanzibar’s development goals.

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27-02-14 14:18

DIPLOMATIC

8 | MARCH 2014

Macedonia: the pearl of the Balkans Nanda Jagusiak interviews the Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia, H.E. Mr. Nikola Dimitrov, as he ends his term in the Netherlands. the context of the demise of former Yugoslavia. With its mountains, lakes, vineyards, and plenty of sun, it is a country with spectacularly beautiful landscapes. In many ways, throughout its history, it has been a crossroad between the East and the West, a meeting place for different traditions and cultures. Our rich cultural heritage is illustrated with ample archeological sites, centuries old churches, monasteries and mosques. It is no wonder Macedonia is often called “the Pearl of the Balkans.”

1. You have been in the Netherlands since October 2009. How do you experience it to live here?

The Hague is such an easy and elegant city to live in. It has truly become a home away from home for my family and we have felt quite privileged for the opportunity to live and work in the international city of peace and justice. Impressed with the culture and the Dutch pragmatic and straightforward ways, our strong attachment with the Netherlands has become permanent with the birth of our second son Kalin at the Bronovo Hospital last September.

2. How would you describe your country for our readers?

Republic of Macedonia is a small country of 2 million people in the heart of the Balkans. I say small, but to me, as it is the case with many Macedonians, it is one of the greatest countries in the world. We gained our independence peacefully in 1991, in

3. What can you tell us about the bilateral relations between the Netherlands and Macedonia?

Last December, we marked 20 years since the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Macedonia and the Netherlands. In the first phase, the relations had been dominated by the noble legacy of the great visionary Max van der Stoel, who made an immense contribution to the Macedonian multiethnic model of democracy, as well as the Dutch generous support in the areas of public finances, rule of law and democracy in the framework of the development cooperation. The friendship between the two countries has evolved into a partnership based on common goals and interests, a partnership between a founding member state and a future member state of both the European Union and NATO.

ticular objectives on the agenda of your government in this respect?

Our journey to joining the European Union is the most important strategic goal of the Republic of Macedonia, uniting the citizens and all political forces. Reaching this goal is as important, as it is the process of reforms itself. In 2001 we were the first country in the region to sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU. Macedonia was granted the status of a candidate country by the European Council back in 2005.

On the basis of the sufficient fulfilment of the Copenhagen criteria, last October and for the fifth consecutive time, the European Commission recommended opening the accession talks with Macedonia.

5. Which are the most important sectors for the economic cooperation between your country and The Netherlands? Which country is your principal trade partner?

The Netherlands, throughout the years, have proved to be one of the largest bilateral donors in Macedonia, through grants and support programs, aiming at enhancing the longterm business relations between the two countries. Currently, the Netherlands is the 18th largest trading partner of Macedonia, while the principal trading partner is Germany. The investments from the Netherlands to Macedonia in the period of 1997 to 2012, amount to over €400 million or 4. How is the relationship with the over 11% of the total foreign investEuropean Union? Are there par- ments in Macedonia. At the moment,

there are more than 200 registered legal entities that have full or partial Dutch capital involvement, ranging from huge companies like Heineken, to the recently opened state of the art production plant of Van Puijenbroek Textiel. Among the sectors with the highest potential for Dutch investors I would certainly underline the agricultural sector, the textile, automotive, and the food processing industries, as well as the ICT sector.

6. Macedonian wine is almost unknown here in the Netherlands, but apparently it is already an important commercial product for your country. Are the wines already on the Dutch market?

Our winemaking tradition dates back to 13th Century BC. In the 1980s, Macedonia accounted for twothirds of the total wine production of former Yugoslavia. In 2013, 81 wineries produced 1.2 million hectolitres of wine, out of which 0.9 million was exported to the markets in Europe, China, Canada, the US and Japan. In the Netherlands, the Macedonian wines can be found at Schermer Wijnkopers and few other specialized stores.

My personal favourite is Vranec, one of the most notable indigenous red grape varieties in the region that translates as black stallion, to give you a hint of how it must taste like.

Macedonia is ranked 25th in the world, according to the Doing Business Report of the World Bank in 2014. This exceptional result has been achieved through the determined efforts of the Government to simplify administrative procedures, introduce one-stop-shop systems for company registration and cross border trading and many other business friendly reforms. The combination of the location, the competitive labour costs, investment incentives, low taxes (10 percent corporate and personal income tax) and a wide network of free trade agreements with the EU, EFTA, CEFTA countries plus Turkey and Ukraine, makes the country one of the most competitive manufacturing hubs in Europe.

8. Your country counts a lot of churches, monasteries and particular landscapes. Does Macedonia attract tourists from the Netherlands?

Macedonia is a hospitable country where leisure tourism meets cultural, wine and rural tourism. There are plenty of opportunities both for people who like to seat and enjoy by the lakes, but also for people who prefer a more active holiday. The Dutch were regular visitors to Macedonia up until the late 1980s. In the recent years, we have welcomed a resurgence of the Dutch tourists, counting more than 30.000 last season. The most popular 7. What steps are being undertaken is the incredible lake of Ohrid and to improve the business climate the city itself, one of the oldest conand make Macedonia more attrac- tinuously inhabited cities in the world tive for foreign investors? and protected by UNESCO.

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economics

MARCH 2014 | 9

Weekers and the taxation debacle

Photo: US Embassy The Hague

A series of setbacks and complications in the tax system has led to the downfall of the Secretary of State for Finance.

JOHN DONNELLY looks at the facts.

In 2007, the Tax Office introduced their now famous slogan, “Belastingdienst, leuker kunnen wij het niet maken, wel makkelijker,” which translates as, “The tax return, we can’t make it nicer but now it is easier.”

On Wednesday 29 January, 2014, Secretary of State for Finance, Frans Weekers of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, VVD) with responsibility for the Tax Department, found that the job was neither nice nor easy. Accepting that he no longer had the confidence of the Chamber, who had called him to task for the failures in his department, he resigned in the face of a vote of no confidence.

Weekers, an econometrist and lawyer, was born in Limburg in October 1967 into a politically active family.

Joining the VVD aged 18, he was active in local politics until being elected to the House of Representatives in May 1998. He was appointed Secretary of State for Finance in October 2010.

The Tax Department is responsible for collecting 220 billion euro annually. To realise this, it has 29,000 staff members, who process 10.9 million tax returns each year, 95 percent of which are returned digitally.

The department also collects social security premiums from six million private individuals and 800,000 businesses. In 2012, 360,000 tax returns were individually checked by inspectors, resulting in the prosecution of 360 cases for alleged fraud (0.1 percent).

Weeker’s appointment was a poisoned chalice. Since 1989, the Tax Department has undergone one reorganisation after another, with budget cuts resulting in several staff reductions of several thousand personnel each.

In 2003, 3,450 jobs were lost and in 2010 another 4,000.

On top of this, other ministries making changes to their procedures on account of their own budget cuts meant that the Tax Department had to amend their IT procedures to suit the new systems.

In the 1990s, the Tax Department had the reputation as the most efficient of all the Ministries. With computerisation and the increase in complexity, together with the tinkering from The Hague, the department is now buckling under the strain. In 1996, the digital tax return was introduced. In 2006, the Government changed the remit of the Tax Department, where besides collecting taxes, it would henceforth also be responsible for distributing personal allowances to the less well-off (the deserving poor).

There were four separate allowances: children’s allowance, rent allowance, health allowance and the crèche allowance for working parents.

Here, 12 billion euro was being distributed annually to 70 percent of the population. At the time, Gerrit Zalm, a VVD veteran, warned succinctly, “the Tax Office is there to collect, not to hand out.”

It was often the case that these allowances were paid directly to the various providers rather than to the

individuals, meaning that various payments for the same family could be paid into different bank account numbers, making the system susceptible to fraud. In 2013, a serious fraud was uncovered whereby a Bulgarian criminal gang got away with millions from a rent allowance scam.

Last year, Weekers, in an attempt to circumvent the fraud-sensitivity of the system, implemented a change whereby the various allowances, instead of being paid separately, would be bundled into a single payment to the individual. This change did not go smoothly, a charge that can be laid at Weeker’s door. In December 2013, 15,000 families did not receive their allowances because there was no bank account number available for payment. This was a combination of poor communication from the department and non-compliance from the recipients, who did not provide the correct information at all, or on time.

While he was in a tight position, Weekers compounded his own difficulties. He made the cardinal mistake of publicly blaming his Civil Servants for not informing him of the Bulgarian scam, which was true.

They subsequently did not give him the support he needed when under pressure. His performance at the dispatch-box was weak. He was obviously not on top of his dossier, constantly referring to notes and conferring with his staff. His debating skills are also weak, with the inability to think quickly on his feet in the hurlyburly of the debate.

Politically, Weekers was also turned over. The coalition Cabinet Rutte II, of which he was part, has no majority in the Senate, or Second Chamber, meaning that tightrope walking is advisable. An accommodation with the opposition (D66, CU and SGP) last year, to get the 2014 financial budget through Parliament was expected to hold, supporting the vote to maintain Weekers’ tenure as Secretary of State. However this support was not forthcoming and he was forced to resign. Hans Weigel, another VVD veteran, had also warned the Cabinet that, “the Opposition is there to oppose.”

Eric Weibes, Weekers’ successor at the Ministry of Finance, will be well advised to bear in mind the advice of Sun Tzu, the Chinese general who wrote The Art of War, (400 BC): “keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.”

New measures to prevent intervention New rules are to be introduced for financial institutions, making it less likely that another government bailout will be needed. DECLAN AYLWARD has the details.

In the future, banks and other financial institutions that get into difficulties will be subject to stricter and more intrusive supervision, according to a recent government report. Shareholders will also have to share in the cost of bailing them out.

Minister of Finance Jeroen Dijsselbloem (PvdA) announced these new measures in the government’s response to the conclusions and recommendations of the committee that evaluated the nationalisation of SNS REAAL. The main objective is to minimise government intervention in the financial sector and its provision of state aid to it.

The committee members, Rein Jan Hoekstra and Jean Frijns, have produced a thorough report and its critical observations will be taken to heart, as will its recommendations to amend the Intervention Act and other legislation. The recommendations concerning financial institutions in

thtmaart caroline.indd 9

difficulties are largely consistent with new EU legislation.

Kick-back fees have already been banned and a ceiling will soon be placed on bonuses in order to curtail perverse incentives. Furthermore, oversight has been tightened up and prudential supervision made considerably stricter. Bank balance sheets are currently being scrutinised in anticipation of the banking union. The introduction of the banking union will give the European Central Bank (ECB) a more prominent role in prudential supervision. Minister Dijsselbloem believes a new bail-in instrument should be developed alongside nationalisation to strengthen the range of intervention measures. Risks in the financial sector would then be considerably lower, and more effective and efficient action could be taken in future crises.

On behalf of the Minister of Finance and the Supervisory Board of

the Dutch central bank (DNB), Hoekstra and Frijns evaluated the government’s decision to nationalise SNS REAAL, on 1 February 2013, and the events at DNB and the Ministry that led to the nationalisation. The report contains critical comments that underline the need for further reform.

It also concludes that nationalisation was inevitable. The government’s response qualifies the conclusion that the “decks had not been cleared” immediately SNS REAAL received its first capital injection. In the period after state aid was provided to SNS REAAL in 2008, the Minister of Finance and DNB sought to sell off its property portfolio. At the time, the Ministry, DNB and the European Commission thought the measures agreed in the feasibility plan would be adequate. With the benefit of hindsight it is clear they were not, partly because of the rapid deterioration of the property market.

The instruments provided for in the Intervention Act will be brought into line with the EU Bank Resolution and Recovery Directive (BRRD).

The BRRD contains rules for the coordinated resolution of banks in problems. Emphasis will be placed on the continuity of a bank’s essential parts so that it is not necessary to save the entire bank. The extreme measure of nationalisation will remain available as a last resort, as recommended by Hoekstra and Frijns.

Hoekstra and Frijns’ recommendation to review DNB’s governance structure will be included in the analysis of governance planned for the introduction of the EU banking union.

The ECB is expected to assume prudential supervision of the main banks in the Netherlands on 4 November 2014. This will lead to changes in responsibility for bank supervision. The results of the analysis are expected in the course of 2014.

Dutch look to Mozambique MAPUTO | A trade mission to Mozam-

bique representing 25 Dutch companies has met with enthusiastic interest from Mozambican businesspeople and investors in extraction and maritime infrastructure. Mozambique is a developing country, but thanks to recent gas discoveries - including a gas field three times the size of the gas bubble in Groningen - it will undergo rapid economic growth in the near future, according to reports by the Dutch government. The discoveries are expected to enrich the Mozambican government’s coffers by many billions of euro by 2018.

Buldog defeats Red Bull

AMSTERDAM | The Amsterdam company behind The Bulldog chain of coffeeshops has won a battle in its war with Red Bull energy drinks, reports de Volkskrant. The Bulldog may once more bring some drinks to the market under its own name if certain conditions are met. This was suggested by the judges of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The logo of The Bulldog existed before that of Red Bull was filed in 1983, emphasised the court. In May 2010 The Bulldog was forced to remove its energy drink from the market as Red Bull objected to the word “bull” being used.

Photo: Michael Costa

Chinese company buys TIP

THE HAGUE | The largest truck rental company in Europe, TIP Trailer Services, has been silently bought out by the HNA Group of Chinese entrepreneur Chen Feng, reports de Volkskrant. The company, which is a market leader, has a turnover of over 300 million and employs a staff of 850, including 135 at its headquarters in Amsterdam.

HNA Group is a conglomerate that owns several airlines, airports, hotels and financial institutions. “The Dutch government should give me a medal,” Chen Feng said in an interview. “I’m the biggest investor from China in the Netherlands.”

Shell to drill Namibia

WINDHOEK | Royal Dutch Shell is to

drill offshore Namibia, a growing area of interest for oil and gas explorers, according to The Gulf Today. Shell has taken over exploration blocks 2913A and 2914B in the Orange Basin from Signet Petroleum, with the Anglo-Dutch group acquiring a 90 percent stake in the two blocks and Namibian national oil company Namcor keeping its 10 percent carried interest. Namibia is attracting interest from oil and gas companies keen to explore its offshore potential, which has been likened to Brazil’s Santos basin.

Photo: Lee Jordan

Kazakh business council

ASTANA | Kazakhstan and the Neth-

erlands should launch a Business Council to help expand economic ties, Tengrinews reports. “I am content with the high level of cooperation between the two nations. Launching a Business Council would be of great importance. It will enable to secure closer ties between the economy ministries and business circles of the two nations,” Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev said following a recent ceremony in Astana, where a number of ambassadors presented their credentials.

27-02-14 12:28

TAX SPECIAL

10 | MARCH 2014

Dutch employers call for reduction in taxes

As the Dutch economy shows some signs of improvement in the fourth quarter of 2013, employers’ organisations have called for a roll back of new taxes and a freeze on future taxation.

Dutch employers’ organisations have warned against any further tax rises in the Netherlands, given the latest positive statistics from the central statistics bureau (CBS), Statistics Netherlands, according to a report by TaxNews.com.

According to the first estimate conducted by Statistics Netherlands, the Dutch economy grew 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter relative to the third quarter. After modest growth in the preceding quarters, the speed of economic recovery is picking up.

The Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers (VNO-NCW) and the Royal Association MKB-Nederland welcomed this news in a joint statement.

As Statistics Netherlands found that Dutch companies are now importing and exporting more, the groups claim that it is business and entrepreneurship that is making the difference in the economy.

Exports were 0.4 percent up in the fourth quarter from the same period in 2012, Statistics Netherlands’ re-

port states. Exports of Dutch products were 1.5 percent higher, re-exports 0.2 percent. Re-exported goods are goods, which are imported and subsequently exported without having undergone any significant processing. Imports were 0.9 percent below the level of one year previously.

Both groups have called for no further talk of additional tax rises for companies in light of this news, as well as for reversal of existing increases in taxes, in particular excise duties.

Confirming that growth in the fourth quarter of last year was driven by rising exports, growth in industrial production, and increased corporate investment, Minister for Economic Affairs Henk Kamp (VVD) said that it is positive that businesses are investing more. The Netherlands is on the right track, although the Cabinet must continue with its reform policy, as “we are not there yet,” Tax-News. com quotes him as saying.

And as the journey to get “there” continues, how do people know they

are paying to correct amount of tax?

One company that can help is Finsens. Finsens offers expats expert financial advice using the one-stop shopping model. Expats can ask Finsens anything about financial matters. Moreover, Finsens has been answering such questions since 1993.

These questions range from issues surrounding filing taxes, making use of the 30 percent rule, mortgage advice and pensions for expats.This can be very important for individuals or businesses, as full economic recovery still looks a long way off.

Figures published by the Institute for Implementation of Employees’ Insurances show that 460,000 unemployment (WW) benefits were granted in January 2014, an increase by 23,000 relative to December 2013.

Compared to one year ago, the total number of current unemployment benefits grew by one quarter.

In particular, women, the over-55s, the sectors of health care and welfare and transport and storage and the province of Utrecht reported an increase relative to last year.

When looked at over the whole year, even the growth figures are not encouraging. Over the entire year 2013, the Dutch economy showed a negative growth rate of 0.8 percent relative to 2012.

Exports were indeed 1.3 percent up, but imports were 0.5 percent down. Investments were 4.9 percent down. Household consumption and government consumption were respectively 2.1 and 0.7 percent down.

On average, 138 thousand employee jobs were lost during the entire year 2013 compared to 2012. Such an annual loss of employment is unprecedented.

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27-02-14 13:11

22 - 28 MAART 2012 PARADOX UNVEILED DEN HAAG Unravelling contradictions and bringing together worlds of difference, the 2014 Movies that Matter Festival offers a wide array of films about human rights, international law, sustainability and much more. Two seemingly incompatible icons come together in this year’s campaign image: western popular film culture meets middle-eastern tradition; to raise questions and stir debate about what separates us and what brings us together.

In the theme-based film & debate programmes ATOMIC, COLOURS, GREED and LOVE the festival bares the ambiguity of these terms. These themes and one regional programme (MEXICO) map their way through close to seventy documentaries and fiction films, combined with a vast selection of daily Q&A’s, debates, music performances, exhibitions and master classes that enable the audience to exchange views with international guests. Most of these sessions are

INTERNATIONAL GUESTS Over the past five years, the Movies that Matter Festival has become a household name to the city of The Hague. Every year, the city sets the stage for fiction films and documentaries – most either spoken or subtitled in English. Many internationally acclaimed guests have attended the festival, including Kenyan Nobel laureate Wangari Mathaai; Cambodian activist Somaly Mam and human rights advocat Bianca Jagger. This year’s guests include Sir Nigel Rodley, journalist Jeremy Scahill and former opposition leader Andrei Sannikov from Belarus.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UNPREDICTABLE

© Aatjan Renders

ATOMIC

in English. From 20-26 March, Filmhuis Den Haag and Theater aan het Spui in The Hague, the International City of Peace and Justice, will serve as the backdrop for the festival’s 16th edition.

TO THE PROMISED LAND

La Jaula de Oro “Everything is better up north.”

These are the words of Juan, a young wild eyed boy from Guatemala. Determined to make a better life for himself he sets off to the Promised Land: the United States of America. But will he find the prosperity and happiness he has been dreaming of?

Multiple award-winning Mexican fiction film La Jaula de Oro is the opening film of the 2014 Movies that Matter Festival. It is a poignant road movie, telling the tale of teenagers Juan, Sara and

Samuel. Only 15 years of age and without any papers, they set out on a journey which takes them from Guatemala across Mexico to America. Despite their differences they are driven by the ambition to share in the wealth of the City of Angels: Los Angeles. On Thursday 20 March La Jaula de Oro will kick off the festival in the presence of director Diego Quemada-Diez.

La Jaula de Oro is part of the themebased film & debate programme MEXICO which includes one fiction film and two documentaries.

The documentary Narco Cultura offers an untold story about the Mexican drug war that is spiralling out of control, while at the same time a musical subculture that glorifies that war is blossoming in the United States. Eufrosina’s Revolution shows us the struggle of Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza, a Mexican woman who is elected mayor, but is banned from exercising her new office because she is a woman.

Grand Central WHAT do we know about nuclear power and what do we think we know? Is it safer than we think or is it a bigger threat to mankind than we can imagine?

ATOMIC offers a balanced film & debate programme with four documentaries, a fiction film and talk show about the benefits, dangers and uncertainties surrounding the use of nuclear energy and weapons.

Theme-based programme ATOMIC deals with the same themes at the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), which will take place on 24 and 25 March in The Hague. The NSS will welcome 58 world leaders and over 8000 journalists and delegates to the summit.

During these two days world leaders will discuss how to enhance the security of all nuclear material in the world within four years.

The documentary Countdown to Zero warns against

WARNING: NO PANIC!

Just because Obama and Putin will be visiting The Hague during the Movies that Matter Festival, there is no reason you shouldn’t.

To ensure that everything runs smoothly and safely, the authorities will take a number of security- and traffic measures.

Some roads will be blocked and public transport will be busy.

The Movies that Matter Festival

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROGRAMME AND TICKETS CHECK: thtmaart caroline.indd 11

the dangers of nuclear weapons and how easily they can fall into the wrong hands; while Pandora’s Promise is a passionate plea for nuclear energy, with statements from environmental gurus and former anti-nuclear activists. The remarkable Into Eternity is an open letter to future generations on the subject of Onkalo, a Finnish spent nuclear fuel depository deep below the rocky soil. Grand Central tells the story of lonely and uneducated Gary, who takes on a job at a nuclear power plant in France, and Snake Dance follows in the footsteps of the spiritual father of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, and German anthropologist Aby Warburg, who conducted research among the Pueblo Indians from Los Alamos in 1900.

will however take place as usual at Filmhuis Den Haag and Theater aan het Spui.

These venues will be perfectly accessible by public transport.

More information about how to reach the festival is available on WWW.MOVIESTHATMATTER.NL

WWW.MOVIESTHATMATTER.NL 27-02-14 13:02

A MATTER OF ACT 2014

WOMEN ON TOP Free your mind… and the rest will follow

Everyday Rebellion

2012 HAAGOFFICIAL

SELECTION A MATTER OF ACT 2014 #ChicagoGirl – The Social Network Takes on a Dictator Joe Piscatella

Whether rioting and rocking out in colourful dresses and balaclavas (Russian Katia, Nadia and Masha in Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer), covered in flowers and tattoos, but without their tops on (former Femen activist Inna Sjevtsjenko from Ukraine in Everyday Rebellion) or seriously taking up a political profession in a male-dominated government (Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza in Eufrosina’s Revolution), the women in the A MATTER of ACT selection are on top. The female voice is dominant in this year’s human rights defenders programme, with many female activists in a selection of ten documentaries. And this is a necessity, because the inequality gap between men and women is still very large all over the world. South America for instance, where hundreds of millions of people live in dire circumstances. And the poorest of the poor are women. One of them is Agripina Perea from Colombia. She is portrayed in the documentary Disruption, which tells the story of a community initiative set up by women who are determined to break the vicious circle of poverty, with the support of a couple of visionary economists.

Nineteen-year-old Ala’a Basatneh coordinates the opposition in her motherland Syria from her suburban home in Chicago. She is portrayed in the A Matter of ACT opening film #ChicagoGirl The Social Network Takes on a Dictator. Documentary The Sound of Torture shows how radio host Meron Estefanos uses her programme to offer help to hundreds of Eritrean hostages in the Egyptian Sinai desert.

The heroic men in this main programme about human rights defenders are not to be swept aside. Well-known American investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill will be one of the

Born this Way Shaun Kadlec, Deb Tullmann

prominent guests. In the Oscar-nominated documentary Dirty Wars Scahill reveals how secret drone strikes and special army units make numerous casualties among innocent civilians in Pakistan and Yemen, but also in less obvious countries including Thailand. Former opposition leader and presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov from Belarus (Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus) will also make a guest appearance at the festival. As will Yves Yomb, who is portrayed in the film Born This Way.

A MATTER OF ACT NIGHT & MOVES THAT MATTER PARTY On Saturday 22 March the A Matter of ACT Night takes place at Theater aan het Spui, moderated by Dutch anchor woman Simone Weimans.

The human rights defenders will take centre stage. The evening will start with the screening of Joe Piscatella’s documentary #Chicago Girl – The Social Network Takes on a Dictator about nineteen-year-old Ala’a Basatneh. She will attend the screening. Later that evening, the celebration continues at the moves that matter party, where you will be grooving to live music and meet with inspiring people from all over the world. A ticket to any film screened at the 2014 festival will grant free access to the party.

COMPETITION A Matter of ACT, the main programme of Movies that Matter founder and partner Amnesty International, includes ten exceptional documentaries about human rights defenders.

These portraits show their important work and day-to-day struggle, as they constantly face threats and danger. Besides screening the documentaries, the festival also invites the human rights defenders to come to The Hague to attend the screenings and engage in discussions with the audience afterwards. This programme is made possible by Amnesty International and the Gieskes-Strijbis Fonds. An international jury is appointed to honour the work of the activists and filmmakers with two awards. The first Golden Butterfly, Amnesty International’s A Matter of ACT Award, worth €5.000, is the human rights prize of the festival. The second Golden Butterfly, worth €4.000, is attributed to the director of the best A Matter of ACT film. These awards will be presented at the Award Ceremony on 26 March.

Dangerous Acts Starring the Unsle Elements of Belarus Madeleine Sackler

Ala’a Basatneh

Dirty Wars

Disruption

Richard Rowley

Pamela Yates

Xxx

The 19-year-old Ala’a Basatneh helps coordinate the Syrian revolution from a Chicago suburb, armed with all imaginable social networks. While the war rages, the question arises which is the most effective means to remove a dictator: social media or an AK-47?

Gay icon Lady Gaga is a role model for many gays and lesbians in Cameroon, but the tolerance she sings about in her hit song ‘Born This Way’ is only a castle in the air for them.

A portrait of the underground theater company Belarus Free Theatre, filmed before, during and after the disputed elections won by dictator Alexander Lukashenko.

A terrifying, revealing journey through the world of covert operations behind the War on Terror.

A depressing elegy that shows how this never-ending war continues to create its own enemies.

Latin America is booming business.

Yet millions of women live in appalling poverty. A militant economist joins forces with female community members in an innovative programme to put an end to economic inequalities.

Documentary, United States/Syria, 2013, 74 min. languages: English, Arabic subtitles: English

Documentary, United States, 2013, 82 min. languages: French, English subtitles: English

Documentary, United States, 2013, 76 min. languages: Belorussian, Russian, English subtitles: English

Documentary, United States, 2013, 86 min. languages: English, Pashto, Somali, Dari subtitles: English

Documentary, United States, 2014, 84 min. languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Quechua, English subtitles: English

Eufrosina’s Revolution

Everyday Rebellion

Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer

Sound of Torture

The Square

Luciana Kaplan

Arash T. Riahi, Arman T. Riahi

Mike Lerner/Maxim Pozdorovkin

Keren Shayo

Jehane Noujaim

When Mexican Eufrosina cannot exercise her office after being elected mayor only because she is a woman, she goes to battle. Once a grassroots activist, she gradually develops into a fully fledged leader.

‘Girl power’ movie from the remote mountain area of Oaxaca, Mexico.

A kaleidoscopic look at alternative and creative forms of protest in the world, showing that nonviolent resistance is more effective than the violent version.

Colorful documentary about the court case against three Russian punk chicks from the rock band Pussy Riot. President Putin put them behind bars because of an illegal appearance in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.

Radio host Meron Estefanos uses her programme to offer help to hundreds of Eritrean hostages in the Egyptian Sinai desert. She fights for their liberation and also travels to the dangerous camps in Egypt.

Impressive documentary about the fighting spirit and passion of young revolutionaries in Egypt. Despite the fact that real democracy is yet to come, their mindset has profoundly changed. No longer unresisting victims, they stood up for their rights.

Documentary, Mexico, 2012, 93 min. languages: Spanish, Zapotec subtitles: English

Documentary, Austria/Switzerland, 2013, 115 min. languages: Spanish, English, Russian, Farsi, Arabic subtitles: English

Documentary, Russia/United Kingdom, 2013, 86 min. language: Russian subtitles: English

Documentary, Israel, 2013, 60 min. languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Tigrit subtitles: English

Documentary, Egypt/United States, 2013, 90 min. language: Arabic subtitles: English

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROGRAMME AND TICKETS CHECK: WWW.MOVIESTHATMATTER.NL thtmaart caroline.indd 12

27-02-14 13:03

OUTLAWS & RENEGADES MASTER CLASS

that is the Mexican drug war. He is a forensic examiner in Ciudad Juárez, one of the world’s most dangerous cities, where there were 3,622 murders in 2010 alone. Every day, Soto drives around his beloved but so terribly violent city, picking up lifeless bodies. Meanwhile, a thriving subculture in the United States sings the praises of the drug world through the Mexican version of gangsta rap known as narcocorridos. Family man Edgar Quintero reaps the rewards with his narcocorridos about the lives of the Mexican drug barons who have such elevated status among Latin American youth. The songs reflect a macabre vision of the American dream, in which the drug trade is the key to fame, success, and an escape from poverty.

Sir Nigel Rodley, Chair of the UN Human Rights Committee, will give a master class on Sunday 23 March in the foyer of Theater aan het Spui, The Hague. Using film fragments and propositions he will exchange ideas with the festival audience on international law, torture and refugee policy.

DOCUMENTARIES IN COMPETITION Narco Cultura

CAMERA JUSTITIA NIGHT vfonds president Ton Heerts will host the Camera Justitia Night on Friday 21 March. This night kicks-off the Camera Justitia competition with a screening of the fiction film Het Vonnis. Director Jan Verheyen and actor Jappe Claes will attend the screening and will take part in a Q&A afterwards.

OFFICIAL SELECTION CAMERA JUSTITIA 2014 invests in

“There is no justice, only limits.” These are the words of the famous French philosopher Albert Camus. Director Jan Verheyen opens his thrilling fiction film Het Vonnis with this famous quote, setting the grounds for his critical indictment of law and justice, morality and ethics in modern-day Flanders. This captivating Flemish courtroom thriller puts Lady Justice herself on trial, exposing the failures of a judiciary system. The film tells the story of Luc Segers, who has a gorgeous wife, a nice daughter and a good job. It becomes painfully clear how fragile this happiness is when his wife is

killed in an armed robbery. Luc’s sense of justice is put to the test when his wife’s murderer is released shortly after being arrested due to a procedural error. That’s when Luc blows a fuse and decides to take justice into his own hands, waging war against the rule of law that abandoned him. Het Vonnis is one of the selected films in Camera Justitia, the festival’s second competition programme that highlights justice through intriguing films, in-depth debates and an enlightening master class.

Staying within the boundaries of Europe, the documentary Judgment in Hungary

reports on the trial against Hungarian right-wing extremists who brutally murdered six Roma, including a fiveyear old. It is an oppressive Kammerspiel starring the cold-blooded suspects, an irritable judge and the victims’ families.

Far beyond the borders of Europe, in sunny Mexico, the drug war is spiraling out of control. Meanwhile a musical subculture that glorifies that same war, is blossoming.

The documentary Narco Cultura provides a discomforting insight into the lives of a forensic examiner, Richard Soto and Edgar Quintero, a singer of narcocorridos.

Richard Soto is at the center of the storm

5 Jahre Leben

Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case

Closed Sea

Dance of Outlaws

Stefan Schaller

Andreas Johnson

Andrea Segre, Stefano Liberti

Mohamed El Aboudi

Murat Kurnaz was arrested in Pakistan in 2001. He was handed over to the US authorities and then detained at Guantánamo for over five years. Despite unimaginable torture, Kurnaz always maintained his innocence. Based on a true story.

After three months of solitary confinement, Chinese ‘artivist’ Ai Weiwei wonders about the toll his activism is taking. Straightforward camerawork captures Ai Weiwei with his family in and around his house.

Impressive documentary about Italy’s maritime interception operations aimed at returning migrants from Libya who want to reach the European shore. Some of the refugees apply to the European Court of Human Rights.

Poignant portrait of Moroccan Hind, a young woman who officially does not exist. She was cast away by her family at the age of fifteen when she fell pregnant after being raped. Since then, she is an outcaste in Indian society.

Italy, 2012, 60 min.

Documentary, Blu-Ray, Colour languages: Amharic, Tigrinya, Somali subtitles: English

Documentary, Finland/Norway, 2012, 82 min. languages: Finnish, Arabic subtitles: English

Fiction, Germany, 2013, 95 min. languages: German, English, Arab subtitles: English

Documentary, Denmark, 2013, 86 min. languages: English, Mandarin Chinese subtitles: English

Judgment in Hungary

Miners Shot Down

Narco Cultura

Het Vonnis

Eszter Hajdú

Rehad Desai

Shaul Schwarz

Jan Verheyen

Account of the trial against Hungarian right-wing extremists who brutally murdered six Roma, including a five-year old. Oppressive Kammerspielfilm starring the coldblooded suspects, an irritable judge and the victims’ families.

Reconstruction of the events surrounding the Marikana miners’ strike in August 2012, where poorly paid South-African employees of the British Lonmin mine went on a strike to peacefully call for higher wages.

The Mexican drug war is spiraling out of control, and meanwhile a musical subculture that glorifies that same war, is blossoming.

Disturbing look at the lives of a forensic examiner, and a singer of narcocorridos.

When the murderer of his wife is released due to a procedural error, Luc Segers blows a fuse. He takes justice into his own hands and wages war against the rule of law by which he feels abandoned. Het Vonnis is a captivating Flemish courtroom thriller about law and justice.

Documentary, Hungary/Germany, 2013, 104 min. language: Hungarian subtitles: English

Documentary, South Africa, 2014, 83 min. languages: English, Zulu subtitles: English

Documentary, United States/Mexico, 2013, 103 min. languages: English, Spanish subtitles: English

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROGRAMME AND TICKETS CHECK: thtmaart caroline.indd 13

Camera Justitia presents five fascinating documentaries and two fiction films, shedding light on justice and the rule of law. Hence, a programme that is closely connected to the field in which the International Criminal Court and several other tribunals in The Hague operate. The programme is made possible by vfonds.

An international jury is appointed to select the winner of the Camera Justitia Award.

This award goes to the director of the film that conveys the strongest message of humanity, the most original perspective on the case and the most powerful portrayal of a situation in which human rights are at stake. The Camera Justitia Award consists of the Silver Butterfly and €5.000.

Fiction, Belgium, 2013, 112 min. language: Dutch subtitles: English

WWW.MOVIESTHATMATTER.NL 27-02-14 13:04

22 28 MAART 2012 THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORYDEN HAAG

In Dance of Outlaws we meet Moroccan Hind; a young woman ‘without a shadow’: her name has disappeared from the registers. Without any personal documents or official address, she has no chance to find a job and lead a normal life. At the age of fifteen, she was raped and subsequently cast away by her family and the community. Love in an unusual place is portrayed in the fiction film Grand Central, where the lonely and uneducated young Gary decides to take on a job at a nuclear power plant. Between the reactors he finds what he was looking for: money, a surrogate family and handsome Karole. However, she is already engaged to another man.

The Heart of a Lion is about the truly unconventional friendship between a Neo-Nazi and his new stepson. When skinhead Teppo falls in love with beautiful, blonde Sari he is in for a surprise: she has a dark-skinned son from a previous relationship, called Rhamadhani.

727 Days Without Karamo Ten unconventional ‘love stories’ take center stage in theme-based programme LOVE, ranging from the forbidden love of gay couples in Uganda and Cameroon in God Loves Uganda and Born this Way to the forced marriage of a teenage girl and her husband, who is forty years older, in Night of Silence. Five documentaries and five feature films

throw light on love, sexuality, relationships and friendships in special places and unusual situations. Nicely stylised documentary The 727 Days Without Karamo provides an astonishing insight into the lives of binational couples in Austria, who are forced to live separately due to strict immigration laws.

GREED

IN THE LAND OF THE COLOURBLIND

72 Productions Presents

“ We make the rules of the economy – Someandare more equal… we have the power to change those rules.”

RobeRt Reich

graphic design:

1928

2007

‘Greed is good’, according to the character Gordon Gekko, played by actor Michael Douglas in Oliver Income InequalIty Stone’s 1987 film Wallstreet. Gekko utters these words in a speech to stockholders, stressing the fact that “greed in all of its forms has marked the upward surge of mankind”. Stone’s classic will not be screened at the festival, but has since come to be seen as the archetypal portrayal of 1980s excess. The theme in this more than thirty year old film is still very much alive in present day society and therefore it is one of this year’s main topics: GREED. Even though capitalism and the rules of the market have brought benefits to the ‘rich’ western world, is hasn’t brought prosperity for everyone. In contradiction to Gekko’s statement, the charming and good-tempered professor Robert Reich shows us that this excessive greed in combination with a hardly regulated market economy has disastrous consequences. In the very entertaining film Inequality for All he explains that the huge income inequalities in the United States are not only a major threat to the economy but to democracy as well. Paradoxically, one

Before Snowfall is an exciting road movie about traditions, love, honor and friendship. Sixteen-year-old Siyar chases his sister from Iraqi Kurdistan with its sandy stretches to Norway’s snow-white slopes in order to protect his family’s honor.

Just before the kick-off of the 2014 World Cup, Dutch celebrity Yolanthe Sneijder-Cabau travels to Brazil in to meet child prostitutes for the documentary Sex for 5 Euro. Shocked by the poverty and lack of perspective in the favelas, she provides the girls with a platform to speak out. Meanwhile, she is regularly on the phone with her husband Wesley Sneijder, a famous soccer player.

Wajma - An Afghan Love Story takes us to the snow-covered streets of Kabul, where Mustafa falls in love with beautiful Wajma. In defiance of the law, they start an affair, which will have far-reaching consequences.

Oppressing movie about forbidden love and the subordination of women in Afghanistan’s patriarchal society.

of the richest countries in the world also has one of the biggest wealth gaps in the world.

In nine documentaries and one fiction film, the film & debate programme GREED deals with unequal wealth distribution and huge income inequalities throughout the world. The films reveal the consequences of globalisation and show the reverse side of free market economy. Beautifully stylised A River Changes Course presents Cambodia’s indigenous population that attempts to preserve its traditional way of life as industrialization takes its course. Big Men reveals the perils and conflicting interests following the discovery of a large oil field in Ghana, whereas Fatal Assistance painfully reveals the destructive impact of the humanitarian aid received by Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

In Bay of All Saints we meet families living in shacks on stilts above the polluted waters in Salvador da Bahia in Brazil. Powerless shows us how Loha Singh, a modern-day Indian Robin Hood, steels electricity and gives it to small local businesses. The other films in this section are the documentaries Disruption, Everyday Rebellion, Miners Shot Down and the fiction film La Jaula de Oro.

The Movies that Matter Festival is made possible by...

12 Years a Slave Are you colourblind? Or do you judge a book by its cover? Questions like these are raised in COLOURS, a film & debate programme featuring four colourful fiction films and one remarkable documentary. The films zoom in on discrimination, racism and ethnic profiling. Fruitvale Station is an

TICKETS & LOCATIONS The Movies that Matter Festival takes place from March 20-26

exciting, poignant movie, based on the true story of Oscar Grant, who got involved in a fight on New Year’s Eve 2008 and was killed after a police officer made a fatal error of judgement. The touching and thrilling 12 Years a Slave is based on the memoirs of Solomon Northup. In 1841, while being a

@ Filmhuis Den Haag and Theater aan het Spui in The Hague.

The programme will be online as of March. Tickets can be bought and reserved from March 6 through www.moviesthatmatter.nl

free, black man in New York, he was kidnapped by two men and sold as a slave. An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker is a poignant film by Danis Tanovic about a poor Roma family in a remote area of Bosnia and Herzegovina. When Senada has to undergo surgery, Nazif is unable to pay the hospital bill, triggering a race against the clock. Previous productions from director Tanovic include No Man’s Land, for which he won an Oscar in 2001, and Cirkus Columbia, that was screened at the 2011 Movies that Matter Festival. Both films can be seen in the retrospective that the 2014 Movies that Matter Festival will devote to the work of Tanovic. Other films screened as part of this programme are Heart of a Lion and the documentary Judgment in Hungary.

Filmhuis Den Haag, Spui 191, The Hague. Tel: 070 – 365 60 30 Theater aan het Spui, Spui 187, The Hague. Tel: 070 - 346 52 72

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROGRAMME AND TICKETS CHECK: WWW.MOVIESTHATMATTER.NL thtmaart caroline.indd 14

27-02-14 13:05

TECHNOLOGY

MARCH 2014 | 15

TEDxBinnenhof comes to The Hague

Photo: TEDxBinnenhof

At the end of this month, TEDxBinnenhof returns to the Ridderzaal in The Hague. This year’s event looks set to be an extra-special celebration of innovation and creativity. DECLAN AYLWARD explains what visitors and viewers can look forward to.

In January of this year, the speakers for this month’s TEDxBinnenhof 2014 were announced to much applause. Jurors André Kuipers (Dutch astronaut and doctor), TEDx Licensee Jim Stolze and Bertholt Leeftink (Director-General Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Ministry of Economic Affairs) selected the eight best ideas from a long list of 25 candidates.

On 31 March, during TEDxBinnenhof in the Ridderzaal, The Hague, they will present their innovations.

The theme of TEDxBinnenhof is “Global Challenges | Dutch Solutions.”

The jurors have chosen the most

innovative solutions for the grand challenges in the world today. Challenges like an aging of the population, sustainable agriculture and energy supply system, scarce raw materials and cybersecurity.

In the Kromhouthal in Amsterdam, the winners received the good news. Unfortunately, André Kuipers was not able to make it to the announcement, but he did address the candidates in a video-message. He emphasised how impressed he was by the high level of the ideas and that he was very much looking forward to watching their TEDxTalks at the stage of TEDxBinnenhof.

Then in February, the announce-

ment came that Mike Eman, Prime Minister of Aruba, will be the closing speaker at March’s event.

“We are delighted that Mike Eman will join us as a speaker at TEDxBinnenhof,” Jim Stolze comments. “Several expert institutions and people tipped us off about Aruba’s dream of becoming a sustainable and self-sufficient island by the year 2020.

“The involvement of Dutch institutions such as TNO and TUDelft in realising this dream, convinced us to invite the Prime Minister to give his view on the theme ‘Global Challenges | Dutch Solutions’. Aruba is truly a testing ground for the world when it comes to positive change.”

Most recently, at the special request of Stolze, Bert Weckhuysen has been added to the list of speakers of TEDxBinnenhof,” Stolze explains.

“Every speaker will do a talk on his or her solution for a grand societal challenge. These solutions are of the technological kind, or they are social innovations. We were however still lacking some kind of ‘disruptive innovator.’

“In my opinion, Bert Weckhuysen is the ideal TED-speaker. He has proven himself to be a top-notch scientist, is currently working on a ground-breaking innovation with his team, and, on top of that, he can convey his ideas passionately.”

TEDxBinnenhof is an initiative by which the government, the business sector and universities offer a platform for Dutch inventions that will contribute greatly to the global challenges.

TEDxBinnenhof gives pioneers an international stage for spreading their ideas, and the platform will also establish network circles regarding above-mentioned themes in order to magnify the impact of innovation.

Viewing parties will be held at many different locations, in the Netherlands as well as abroad (including over thirty Dutch embassies), where those with an interest can follow the event live.

Dutch tech company puts fish on wheels Ever wondered if your goldfish gets bored sitting still in its aquarium all day? Dutch technology firm Studio Diip obviously has, because it has developed the first ever mobile fish tank.

If you have a computer with access to the Internet, then it is likely that in the last month you came across a YouTube video of a fish in a mobile tank of water set on wheels.

The movements of the fish inside the water tank translated into movement of the motorised contraption housing it, essentially allowing the fish to drive around the floor of a room.

This wonderfully strange little experiment is the brainchild of Dutch technology company Studio Diip.

Based in Leerdam, this company has been making image recognition products since it was founded by Thomas de Wolf and Guust Hilte in 2010.

An image recognition technology is exactly what allows the fish on wheels to direct its motorised tank.

The fish’s tank is mounted on a chassis and wheels not unlike a radiocontrolled toy car, the controls of which are connected to a computer.

A webcam is mounted above the fish, monitoring its position in the tank by distinguishing the fish’s bright orange colour from the light background of the tank’s bottom. The camera relays movement of the fish to the controlling computer of the contraption and once the fish heads in a particular direction, the machine begins to trundle off the way the fish “wants to go.”

However, it is still a little unclear as to whether this will have any practical applications.

thtmaart caroline.indd 15

Studio Diip seems to have envisioned it as more of a technical demonstration. “We came up with the idea of developing the ‘Fish on Wheels’ device because we wanted to have something to showcase the possibilities of computer vision technology,” Thomas de Wolf said in an interview with the Mail Online. “We then came to the idea that with computer vision even animals would be able to control devices. The best way to show this was to enable fish to drive their own aquarium wherever they want to go.”

But do the fish have any understanding of what they are doing, or even of the world outside their tank?

The answer is actually less clear than one would think.

“Goldfish tend to look for peaceful, dark places and this is something they seem to be doing, even on wheels,” De Wolf told Eindhoven University of Technology’s Cursor publication.

Although still very much in the prototype stage, the Fish on Wheels project looks set to be launched as a Kickstarter campaign, according to The Daily Mail. This crowdfunding site allows projects like this to find funding and investors, making previously unthinkable projects a commercial reality.

So lock up the cat and put Finding Nemo on the TV, because your goldfish might soon be wandering your apartment looking to be entertained.

Photo: Studio Diip

27-02-14 13:49

FEATURE

16 | MARCH 2014

Mental healthcare in NL and Czech Republic

Image: Life Mental Health

Mental healthcare is an essential concern in any society, but what is its status within the Netherlands? SOPHIA TAHA compares the Dutch situation to that of the Czech Republic and asks what can be learned from both cases.

Mental health problems affect one in four people around the world. According to a report by Jolijn Santegoeds, for Stichting Mind Rights based in Eindhoven. “In 2011, 1.647 persons committed suicide in the Netherlands (population 16.7 million). That is one suicide per 10,113 inhabitants, almost five persons each day. In four years (2007-2011) the number of suicides has grown by 18 percent. In 2010 almost 25 percent of all deaths between the ages of 15-30 are suicides (197 of 840), which is more than the number of deaths by traffic-accidents (146) and cancer (131).”

It is a poignant and important issue, yet the differences between countries when you compare their mental healthcare systems are huge. The Netherlands’ expenditure on mental health care is one of the higher ones in the EU; the Czech Republic is the second lowest. To understand the problems, successes and improvements needed in mental healthcare within the EU we compare the two countries.

Lack of funding, stigmatisation, staff shortages, the state of mental health treatment in the Czech Republic is suffering. During communist times in the Czech Republic, mental health was barely spoken about and diagnoses of mental health problems were frequently given to people who disagreed with the running of the Soviet Union. The Velvet Revolution in 1989 meant a lot of change for mental health issues. In particular, the quality of care has risen dramatically.

Modern treatments are available including the use of medications. Tomas Petr, manager of the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit at Central Military Hospital says that the state of mental health has definitely improved since the Velvet Revolution. “It used to be a secret branch of medicine, now you can openly talk, but the stigma is still the same.”

Despite offering training to the Czech Republic in many areas of mental healthcare, the Netherlands

thtmaart caroline.indd 16

struggles too. Once more a lack of funding and budget restrictions is blamed. Roos Korste, psychologist, blogger and trainer from in2mentalhealth based in the Netherlands says, “Because of our economic crisis and because costs were spinning out of control, we face huge budgets shortages.”

There are two main methods of treating mental health problems in Europe, psychiatric hospitals and social care institutions. Most countries in Europe use psychiatric hospitals to treat acute cases and hospitalisation times are short, but in the Czech Republic – due to the lack of resources – many patients have long stays within these institutions.

Dr. Pavel Mohr, head of the Clinical Division, works in the largest mental hospital in the Czech Republic. He says that budget restrictions are just one of his worries. He hopes that in the next year reforms will materialise. These reforms promise to bring more money to and change the structure of mental health care in the Czech Republic. Currently there is little care in the community, with hardly any outpatient facilities and barely any trained nurses. A lot of work with care in the community is picked up instead by NGOs, but these are mainly concentrated in the larger cities such as Prague.

Mohr talks about a revolutionary new method of monitoring and preventing relapses in schizophrenic patients, which now struggles for funding. Dr. Filip Spaniel’s method uses text messages to check on the weekly experiences of patients. The system can automatically flag to a doctor a patient who is at risk of a relapse from their responses to 10 simple questions. It is a scheme that has been exported around the world, but now the Czech insurance companies are no longer willing to pay for it.

In the Netherlands, too, a lot has improved. Roos Korste got into the profession because she, is “a strong believer in the potential of people to

Photo: epSos.de

27-02-14 12:29

FEATURE

MARCH 2014 | 17

Photo: Life Mental Health

disabilities and elderly care.”

In the Czech Republic, Tomas Petr says the main hurdle to transformation is people’s thinking. “Firstly the professionals think working in asylums is the best way. We have to take the professionals to the UK or Holland and see how it works.” The second thing is to change the opinion of the public. He says, “there is a lot of prejudice; they want people away from the city, behind the walls.”

Tomas claims that while there are no longer caged beds in the largest hospital, the use of caged beds still occurs in some smaller hospitals where the ratio of staff to patients can be one to 40. Dr. Pavel Mohr refutes this and says that caged beds are no longer used.

However, there was a reported suicide of a patient in a caged bed from September 2012 so it would seem that there are still some patients experiencing these conditions. Tomas explains, “Caged beds are tolerated by the government,” and that the reason for their use is staff shortages. He goes on to say, “if you have enough staff you don’t need caged beds.”

How does the Netherlands help the because the psychotropic medication Czech Republic? approach has been showing its limitations.”

Tomas says, “The Dutch system is When asked about what the state one of the best,” and he speaks of a lot of mental health care will be like in of cooperation with friends and col- five years’ time Dr. Mohr says that he leagues from Holland. Studies have fears the changes, unfortunately, will taken place between the two coun- be “mainly cosmetic.” He does not extries, including work by the Nether- pect there to be the promised increase lands Institute for Health Services in funding, as mental health is not Research (Nederlands instituut voor the primary focus within healthcare onderzoek van de gezondheidszorg, in the Czech Republic. Only four perNIVEL), which has collaborating proj- cent of the healthcare budget goes on ects with the Czech Republic amongst mental health care. This is one of the other partners. These projects support smallest allocations of any EU memhealthcare reforms. They hope to im- ber state. prove primary healthcare and general practice services.

What can we learn?

What does the future hold?

There are still problems in the Netherlands, and in order for improvements to be made in the next five to 10 years Roos Korste advocates the need for, “More attention for human rights and empowerment of service users and their carers. More use of psychological and community approaches in mental health care,

While the Netherlands has a lot of advancements over the Czech Republic in this issue, there is still a lot of room for improvement. People are advocating a rethink about forced care and asking for a greater amount to be spent on mental health care within both countries. While there is a lot to be proud of in the Netherlands, this mustn’t distract from the improvements needed.

Photo: Life Mental Health

grow and overcome difficulties.” She goes on to say, “I’m a strong supporter of the empowerment of people and a transparent, honest and dignified mental health care. I’m an optimist and idealist and want to contribute in finding ways for people with mental conditions to live an independent and fulfilling life.” She says that in the last 20 years, “the stigma for seeking mental health care for family or relationship problems, depression, anxiety, occupational problems, etc. seems to be decreased. For a lot of people nowadays, looking for a psychotherapist in order to enhance coping with life problems is not surrounded with shame or stigma. It’s regarded as taking good care of yourself or your child, and an opportunity for personal growth.”

What are the problems in both countries?

In the Netherlands, agencies are downsizing, and according to Roos Korste, “too much attention is going

thtmaart caroline.indd 17

to the business aspects, and too little to the content of the treatments offered. Decisions made by our national politicians are based on money and not on what is the best care for our people.”

According to Jolijn Santegoeds, “A person in a mental health crisis in the Netherlands can be exposed to forced treatments (18,000 persons a year).” He argues that this counts as a form of torture. He goes on to say, “Several laws in the Netherlands allow for substitute decision making by a court order regarding forced treatments. Under Dutch laws (BOPZ, PIJ, OTS) both for children as for adults, the practice of forced treatments is legally connected to forced admission to a (specialised) mental health institution.”

Later he reports that, “A few hundred persons each year in the Netherlands are subjected to long term solitary confinement inside mental health care institutions, and long term fixation (physical restraints) in facilities for persons with intellectual

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

27-02-14 12:29

DIPLOMATIC

18 | MARCH 2014

Tunisia, 58 years of independence On the occasion of the Independence Day on 20 March, Nanda Jagusiak-Monteiro interviews the Ambassador of Tunisia, H.E. Mr. Mohamed Karim Ben Becher

1. How would you describe the relationship between Tunisia and The Netherlands?

Tunisia has good relations with The Netherlands in many fields. On the political level, they are based on mutual understanding, fruitful cooperation and developing exchanges.

As you may know, Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab spring, adopted of a new constitution in January 26th, 2014 sending a message of peace and stability. This consensual and progressive constitution enshrines a democratic civil nation, freedom of conscience and belief, and establishes gender equality. It is considered as one of the most progressive constitutions in the Arab world. Mr. Frans Timmermans, Foreign Minister, rightly considered the approval of the new constitution as “a milestone in the transition process”, setting “an example for other countries”.

portant import and export products between the two countries? Are there any Dutch companies settled in Tunisia? How is the economic situation at the moment?

Bilateral economic exchanges between Tunisia and the Netherlands are steadily growing. During 2013, the volume of trade between the two countries reached about one billion and a half Tunisian Dinar-TND (about 800 million Euro). We consider that there is much room to further develop economic exchange, trade relations, partnership and investment.

Tunisian and Dutch companies should be encouraged to make additional efforts in this regard. During the previous year, Tunisia exported to the Netherlands, mainly crude oil, 60%, ready-to-wear garments, 23%, and mechanical components, 3%.

Imports from the Netherlands are dominated by agricultural and food products 10%, iron, steel and tele2. The Netherlands are one of the communications equipment,18%. The most important trading partners Netherlands is Tunisia’s 9th biggest of Tunisia. Which are the most im- export market and ranks 12th as a

supplier country.

Over 80 Dutch companies are operating in Tunisia in the fields of electronics, leather, energy, aerospace engineering, brewery, lighting, chemicals, mechanical components, garments and textile.

Although Tunisia recorded an estimated growth rate of 2.6% in 2013, it is considered not enough to significantly bring down the unemployment rate, especially among the youth, which is estimated at around 15 %.

For 2014, the economic growth would reach 3%. In comparison, there are forecasts of an average 1% growth rate for the EU countries, 2.3% for North America and 2.5% for Arab countries.

The prospects for future economic growth in Tunisia are very positive and will be boosted by the success of the democratic transition process.

3. Agriculture is very important in your country? Which are the main products?

In Tunisia, the food industry ranks second in terms of production and creation of added value. It is nowadays among the first industrial sectors with 23% of total investments.

Tunisia is the second largest exporter of olive oil after the EU and the first world exporter of dates. The main exported products are olive oil, dates, fresh and frozen fish, fresh fruits and vegetables and canned food.

Tunisia is an important producer and exporter of high quality olive oil.

It is the most important olive-growing country of the southern Mediterranean region; over 30% of its cultivated land is dedicated to olive growing.

After the European Union, Tunisia is a major world exporter of olive oil.

Great efforts are being made to modernize the olive oil producing sector as well as to enhance olive oil quality and promote the exports also to The Netherlands. Tunisian olive oil is known worldwide by its unique delicious and fruity flavour.

most powerful city in Mediterranean region before the Roman Era. Carthage is well preserved and has the same antique name. Tourists can visit the city of Carthage and also the Roman and Byzantine Vestiges (Byrsa hill, Acropolium de Carthage : ex St. Louis Cathedral, Museum of Carthage, Roman Villa, Carthage theater, Antonius Therms, Thophet and Punic 4. Does your country attract Eu- port in Salambô. ropean tourists and which are the main tourist attractions?

6. What can you tell me about the The position of Tunisia at the Douz Sahara Festival? south of the Mediterranean, with The International Douz Festival, beautiful golden beaches, a rich his- started at the beginning as a “Camels tory with very developed tourist festival”, and then became an event products, make the country one of about the nomadic traditional way the main destinations for European of life. By the end of December of tourists. Tunisia ranks as the second each year, thousands of people gather world destination in thalasso, and in “Hnich place” to witness features offers world class golfing sites and of camel Marathon, Fantasia, Arab beautiful hotel resorts. horses galloping, famous desert dog The country is attracting more and “sloughi” hunting rabbits, and Bedmore tourists from Europe and es- ouin marriage ceremonies. pecially from Great Britain and Russia. In terms of arrivals from Europe, 7. If you can tell our readers in one French and German tourists rank sentence about your country, what first. would you tell them?

In the coming period, we hope to The Tunisian government is deterattract more and more Dutch tourists mined to get the country definitely thanks to the rich cultural heritage on the path of democracy, promote and the stability of the county and its human rights and improve the livnatural beauty. ing standards of its people so that the new, mostly well educated genera5. In ancient times, Carthago was tion, could live decently in peace and one of the most important Ro- best enhance the prosperity and furman cities. Is the city still well pre- ther development of the country. served? What is the present name?

Within its Arab and African reCarthago was a Punic antique city. gion, Tunisia has set itself as a good It was founded in 814 BC Era by the example in leading successfully the Phoenician queen “Dido” (Alyssa). process of democratisation in a peaceThe original name of Carthage is ful and consensual way. In this con“Kart Hadasht” which means “ New text, Tunisia could well be regarded City”. Carthage was known as the as a source of inspiration.

200 year anniversary of Dutch constitution On 29 March, celebrations in The Hague will mark the 200 ear anniversary of the Dutch constitution.

The Noordeinde shopping district among others will host many interesting events.

Photo: Bas Kijzers

On 29 March the Dutch celebrate the 200 year existence of their constitution. Setting up a constitution marked the start of a political system uncontrolled by the French.

It envisioned the political beliefs of the Dutch and has formed the basis of their identity as a people ever since.

Because of the 200 year existence of this very special document, festivities are held throughout this year.

On 29 March this results in a major festival around the political centre of the country, the beautiful city of The Hague.

The constitution festival offers a program with a large variety of ac-

thtmaart caroline.indd 18

tivities for all ages. Several historical government buildings that are rarely open to the larger audience will be opened on this day and offer special activities like workshops, lectures and tours.

Amongst those buildings are the Ridderzaal, Senate (Eerste Kamer) and the Peace Palace. The already existing walking tour called ‘The Constitution Path’ will guide you passed all the historic important buildings, great or small.

For example the Council of State and the Noordeinde Palace (work palace of the King) are featured, but also a small yet important monument on

the Heulstraat.

Almost all participating locations will open the doors and organise something special for this occasion.

Not only the constitution, but also the Dutch army celebrates it’s 200 year existence.

The army will give demonstrations, workshops for kids and several concerts in The Noordeinde shopping Area. Soldiers will take social patrols, dressed in historic costumes throughout time.

People are invited to test their driving skills in a simulator, drink purified water from the Hofvijver or test their climbing abilities on the specially built wall.

On the Lange Voorhout, an actual mediaeval knights tournament is organised. Watching these titans of combat skill and riding prowess may finish the stroll around the area in a truly exciting way!

This day is to celebrate the Dutch constitution and by extension the Dutch people.

That means it is an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with Dutch culture and history. Besides all the wonderful activities that are being organized, the many shops, galleries and restaurants will be open as usual.

The compact area of the Noordeinde Palace offers an abundance of historic monuments, art galleries, high end fashion stores and many unique and original stores that are not found anywhere else.

For modern or classical art objects,

custom or branded fashion, a unique gift or a special souvenir, a visit to Het Noordeinde will be well worth the time.

Combine history and serious matters with contemporary art and artisanal shops, take a break at a prize winning coffee bar and finish the day at one of the many world class restaurants in the area.

A once every 200 years opportu-

nity, The Hague is waiting to be discovered on 29 March.

Constitution Festival Date: 29 March Time: 10.00-17.00 Entrance: Free www.grondwetfestival.nl www.hetnoordeinde.nl

Photo: Bas Kijzers

27-02-14 12:31

ARTS & CULTURE

MARCH 2014 | 19

The European Fine Art Fair comes to Maastricht

Photo: Cea

The Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre (MECC) will once again play host to The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) when it comes to Maastricht in March. TRACEY TAYLOR talks to the organisers.

TEFAF is a prestigious annual event where one has the chance to view – and purchase – stunning maserpieces of art, antiques and design.

This year, over 250 prominent art and antiques dealers from all around the world (from Argentina to Uruguay – so almost A-Z!) will exhibit various paintings, antiquities, manuscripts, furniture pieces, ceramics, jewellery and tribal art – to name but a few of the items on display.

When Mr. Robert Aronson – Board of Trustee member and (interim) Chairman of the Executive Committee – kindly agreed to take some time out of his busy schedule for me, I asked if he could share a little more about TEFAF and its importance.

“TEFAF Maastricht represents some 7,000 years of art history,” he

explains. “Every single object for sale is vetted for quality, authenticity and condition by a total of 175 experts in 29 specialised committees. We keep up the highest possible standards in the field.”

The offerings that will be presented to the public from 14 – 23 March range from exceptional European and Asian antiquities, magnificent antiques, Old Master paintings and drawings, great examples of impressionism and Modern Masters from the 20th century to post-war and Contemporary Art including photography and video art.

One highlight of the event will surely be the loan exhibition from the National Graphic Arts Collection (Munich) which is entitled “Timeless Beauty” and includes drawings

from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain and France.

“As TEFAF Maastricht represents the high-end of the global art market and many economies in Asia, some of the Latin American countries, and the USA show strong signs of growth, I am confident that TEFAF Maastricht 2014 will benefit from these positive tendencies as well,” says Mr. Aronson.

“Moreover we have always had a very strong foothold in Europe and expect this to continue.”

The top of the art market has almost always performed well - even in a period of economic downturn as more and more, art is considered to be a good alternative to investing money in real estate, stocks and bonds or putting your money in the bank.

The dealers, organisation, vetting experts and the city of Maastricht, go out of their way this year to turn a visit to TEFAF into a one-of-a-kind experience. The elegant ambiance, the expertise, the art; TEFAF provides a unique physical meeting point for professional and private art buyers from across the globe.

“Our success is a cycle,” comments Mr. Aronson. “Dealers retain their best objects for TEFAF and professional and private art buyers come to TEFAF because of this. And because these professional and private art buyers come to TEFAF, the dealers retain their best objects for the event.”

The economic consequence of an event such as TEFAF is very positive for the region. Hotels, bars, restaurants, shops, and also taxi drivers and

temp workers are just a few of the primary beneficiaries of the visitors and dealers’ spending power.

At the location of the event, the works of art are displayed per designated section so be sure to grab a Floor Plan to help navigate your way around.

A good tip is to pick up a copy of the TEFAF Catalogue – it is beautifully designed and illustrated and will really make for a very nice keepsake.

The event runs from Friday 14 to Sunday 23 March inclusive, with doors open daily from 11am – 7pm (note: on Sunday 23rd March, doors close at 6pm). For more information visit www.tefaf.com TEFAF and the beautiful city of Maastricht are waiting to welcome you!

Pearls in Baroque: Requiem for Fukushima Japanese harpsichord player, Noriko Amano plays a classical concert to aid those still suffering from the after-effects of the Fukushima disaster. DECLAN AYLWARD talks to the artist.

Lovers of classical music have a treat in store next month as Japanese-born harpsichord player Noriko Amano comes to the Kleine Zaal in Amsterdam’s Koninklijk Concertgebouw on Wednesday 16 April.

The night will be comprised of two connected performances: The King’s Favour and Requiem for Fukushima.

With The King’s Favour, Ms. Amano presents her favourite works by 17th century French composers Chambonnières, Lebègue,

thtmaart caroline.indd 19

d’Anglebert, Jacquet de la Guerre and Marchand that were published with permission by King Louis XIV. “When we talk about the French style, it is divided into two parts: the 17th and 18th Century,” she explains.

“The 18th Century was more rococo, more decadent, while the 17th was more spiritual and intimate.”

“The works are simpler but more concerned with sound. I like to give more attention to this spiritual period.”

Unique about this programme is her cooperation with Shusaku Takeuchi who in his butterfly costume dances to some of Noriko Amano’s melodic, lyrical and spiritual interpretations of these Pearls in Baroque.

“French composers created dancing music for court,” Ms. Amano comments. “As a baroque player, if I do something authentically, there should be dance. He [Shusaku] is also very spiritual in his approach to music. We also have the same purpose, to support this project. We have many reasons bringing us together.

“Most of these French pieces were composed for court dances, except Prelude and Tombeau. However, for this concert we decided to combine Shusaku’s spiritual dance with d’Anglebert’s Tombeau. We believe this to be a great and profound match as Shusaku characterises his dance as a marriage between body and soul.”

And the reasons for wanting to support this project are easy to see as the concert is being held in aid of the victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster that took place in March 2011.

The disaster is commemorated with the tranquil Tombeau de Mr. de Chambonnières by d’Anglebert.

Children have been the most effected by the radioactive radiation caused by the catastrophe.

The revenues of this concert will be used to support the Itten Cooking Studio of Kyoko Onishi that sup-

plies the children of Fukushima with healthy, macro-biotic food.

The concert takes place on Wednesday 16 April in the Kleine Zaal of the Koninklijk Concertge-

bouw. Tickets can be purchased through the Concertgebouw website at www.concertgebouw.nl, or by calling the ticket office on 0900-671 83 45.

Irish in A’dam This month, Amsterdam gets ready to celebrate all things Irish in the run-up to St. Patrick’s Day. On Sunday 16 March, the eve of St. Patrick’s Day, the first ever celebration of Irish culture in Amsterdam will take place.

St. Patrick’s Day, the national holiday of Ireland, comes and goes every year in the Netherlands with barely any notice taken. This year, Corkborn musician and Principal Oboe with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Aisling Casey, has organised an evening of music and dance in Splendor, a newly opened music centre in the heart of Amsterdam.

Music is an essential part of Irish identity and one of its greatest exports. As a member of the Irish diaspora and a part of this musical export herself, Aisling wants to highlight the

richness of Irish Culture with a special musical focus in a very special location in Amsterdam.

In this first-of-its-kind event for Amsterdam, Dutch and Irish musicians will collaborate and explore the influence of Irish music on European culture. Musicians such as Irish fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh from “The Gloaming” and Sony recording artist Daria van den Bercken will perform, alongside many of the Netherlands’ top classical, jazz and world musicians. An Irish Dance workshop for children at 4:30pm will add a family element to the event to ensure that everyone is included in the festivities.

More information and tickets are available at: www.stpatrickamsterdam.com.

27-02-14 12:30

HEALTH

Information for expats Information meetings for expats Do you want to know more about information meetings for expats?

Contact: Nanda Jagusiak-Monteiro Bronovo Expat Coordinator E: NJagusiak@bronovo.nl

Overseas Patients Administration Do you have any questions about the Dutch health care system, Bronovo Hospital, your insurance or the handling of your invoice?

Contact: Deborah Warmenhoven-Walmsley Overseas Patients Administration Assistant Patient Administration Office T: +31 (0)70 312 41 80 or (070) 312 41 80 (Monday, Wednesday & Friday) E: DWarmenhoven@bronovo.nl Accident & Emergency department

Loving care from then

with all the prospects of now

Emergency services are available seven days a week and 24 hours a day at Bronovo Hospital. The Accident & Emergency department is always open for everyone.

The A&E department (SEH) is available on (070) 312 44 45 or via the central Bronovo number (070) 312 41 41. Every A&E patient must produce proof of identity and a health insurance card.

Contact Bronovo Hospital Bronovolaan 5 2597 AX The Hague +31 (0)70 312 41 41 or (070) 312 41 41 www.bronovo.nl

BRONOVO HOSPITALITY www.bronovo.nl

Bronovo offers general hospital services for the residents of The Hague and surrounding areas. Providing personal care is a priority, because at Bronovo our patients are at the heart of everything we do. The hospital has an alliance with the Leiden University Medical Centre. Our team of medical specialists offer a wide range of services, covering almost every specialisation. At Bronovo, over 1,500 employees and 120 specialists work closely together in a multidisciplinary team to provide what we like to think of as health care with added hospitality.

BRONOVO HOSPITAL Bronovolaan 5, 2597 AX Den Haag WASSENAAR HEALTH CENTRE Hofcampweg 65, 2241 KE Wassenaar BRONOVO SATELLITE OUTPATIENT CLINIC President Kennedylaan 15, 2517 JK Den Haag

EXPAT SERVICE DESK On workdays from 8.00 – 16.30 hours: E mail: expat@bronovo.nl Anneke van Kooten +31 (0)70 312 40 16

Hollandtimes_maart_links.indd 1 thtmaart caroline.indd 20

26-02-14 10:34 27-02-14 13:06

REVIEWS

MARCH 2014 | 21

FOOD: BORSCHT AND THE UNIVERSE

film REVIEW

Chillin’

The Invisible Woman

Photo: deepdarksquid

venison or beef and suet into blocks that could be reconstituted on the trail with water and mixed with fresh chili peppers. Today’s chili queens add tomatoes, onions, and beans – kidney, navy, great northern, or even black-eyed peas. Garlic and cumin seem like a natural addition, but they were only introduced when Morroccan Berber-influenced Canary Islanders were brought by the Spanish to settle the Rio Grande in the 1700s. Mom swore by McCormick’s chili seasoning – She Good Woman prefers to mix her own oregano and thyme, but she does stop short of adding the cinnamon and cloves that Greek Americans swear by.

Brown ground beef (turkey also works) with onions and garlic, gradually adding black pepper, cumin, and oregano as things progress. Next comes any kind of hot pepper – Il Pacifico prefers habanero – but remember that the later you add it, the more powerful the kick, even if you take out the seeds. Fresh tomatoes and dried beans that have been softened overnight are ideal, but the canned versions will also do. Two hours on low heat, lots of salt, and then a night in the refrigerator are all it takes. Serve over rice, like a real Texan, except if you’re from Ohio and you learned to eat chili with pasta. Brooklynites ladle it over french fries. When we had it that way at Nathan’s in Coney Island two years ago, the combination proved too much for Number Two Son. It must have been his Texas roots.

When Pop was called up for service in the Vietnam War, we were lucky: He ended up at Lackland Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas. It was impossible to get kosher meat there, but Mom was born ready, culinarily speaking, and she soon discovered that there was much to discover.

As it turns out, San Antonio’s claim to fame, after the Alamo and before the Spurs, was the simple beef and hot pepper dish known as chili con carne. Mexican-American women known as “chili queens” set up stands for hungry visitors to the city’s 1893 Columbian Exhibition. By the 1920s, the dish had spread across the United States, available in cans as early as 1908.

The most basic version of chili consists of beef and chili peppers. That’s the way American pioneers in the Southwest did it, though they prepared it before their journey by forming dried (IL PACIFICO)

Based on Claire Tomalin’s book The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens, the British drama The Invisible Woman follows the story behind the secret affair between the great English novelist (played by Ralph Fiennes) and the young actress Nelly Ternan (Felicity Jones).

The Invisible Woman is Fiennes’s second endeavour as film director (the first one was Coriolanus in 2011) and a successful one at that. Fiennes also puts up a splendid performance as a vigorous and highly energetic Charles Dickens who tries to fulfil his duties not only as a writer, but also as a journalist, actor, theatre director and social campaigner. During the preparations for the play The Frozen Deep, Dickens falls in love with the beautiful and perceptive young actress Nelly Ternan, who eventually becomes the writer’s mistress.

music

book REVIEW

Maximo Park: Too Much Information

Haarlem

By the time a band’s fifth album rolls around, you hope it’s not more of the same. Maximo Park do not disappoint in this sense, changing things up just a little by trying out a more polished sound.

Not completely polished, though – just a little bit, like wearing a tuxedo on the bus.

The gritty distress of their previous songs turns to euphoric longing with Give, Get, Take, and as the first track ends, Paul Smith asks – “where do we go from here?” You’re not sure how to answer that question, so you keep listening, and in the background of your mind you think you recognise any or every element of Brit influence on alternative and/or indie rock since the 1980s.

The “turn to electro” that critics claim Maximo Park is making could also just be seen as the result of transition and flow, like post-punk caving to temptation and fiddling with synthesizers, melding and molding some alternative sound.

The song Leave This Island contains echoes of

some synth-pop blend that will probably surprise those who were expecting the roaring rhythm of Tom English’s drums next to a frayed guitar. Yet, Smith’s voice is still clearly coming from the same dark place (probably because it’s night time when nothing and everything makes sense and inspiration tends to strike).

With lyrics that would make The Cure proud, the angst is not lost, but it has definitely changed focus, moving on from Roller Disco Dreams and Reluctant Love(s).

“I visit South America via a dead man’s words,” sings Smith in I Recognize the Light, referring to Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño. That is just one song out of three that stand out among the others in this album for referencing (and honouring) a literary figure. The other two, Lydia, the Ink will Never Dry and Her Name Was Audre, speak of American author Lydia Davis and feminist poet Audre Lorde.

Perhaps because the album is self-produced by the band (with the exception of Dave Okumu’s help with Brain Cells), or maybe because they recorded at their own studio, there is a certain feeling of familiarity that makes me think, regardless of how different the guys might sound, we could also just be getting to know each other better. As the album title suggests, there’s Too Much Information in these songs - but you might want to listen twice in order to catch it all.

Recommended: Deluxe Edition if you want covers of Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake.

(MARIA MARTENS)

For the past few decades, Haarlem has slowly been transforming itself into a bedroom community for Amsterdam. At least that’s what Amsterdammers looking for cheaper housing and a quieter way of life see it.

Few of them are aware that Haarlem is not only older than Amsterdam, but for hundreds of years, through fire, flood, plague, and siege, it was bigger and more important, a major center for bleaching, brewing, silk, linen, flowers, and printing.

The city’s monumental and intimate sides come together into focus in Charles M. Vella’s marvelous new book-length photo essay on Haarlem, available as an e-book. It is a treasure trove of classic and unexpected shots of the most consistently surprising city in The Netherlands.

Vella, a Hague-based photographer who works here for the first time to digital technologies, is not only interested in the visual remnants of the city’s grand history.

However, Nelly is asked to pay a heavy price for her involvement in the affair: that is, to become invisible. When the 18-year-old actress met Dickens, the famous novelist was already 45 years of age, married and a father of several children. Although he did separate from his wife Catherine, divorce for a celebrity such as Dickens was still unthinkable in the realm of contemporary Victorian ethics. The affair was thus doomed to outmost secrecy.

Next to the outstanding performances by Ralph Fiennes and Felicity Jones, Kristin Scott Thomas and Joanna Scanlan are also astute and convincing in their roles as Nelly’s mother and Dickens’ wife respectively. Neglected and mostly kept in the background, these female characters seem to stand alongside Nelly, who comes to represent a whole lot of women whose fate in the late nineteenth century was to lead hidden lives and carry with them a secret past.

And it is precisely that aspect that Fiennes found most compelling about the whole project: “I wanted to make a film about how Ellen Ternan became the mistress of Charles Dickens. I also think the film is about a woman holding a past relationship inside her, which has marked her forever, and of which she is unable to speak.”

(MIMIS CHRYSOMALLIS)

Director: Ralph Fiennes Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Kristin Scott Thomas

To be sure, his love for the Grote Markt, the Saint Bavo Church, and the Stadhuis, shown here in crisp, lively, colourful detail, is evident. Indeed, one of the book’s great features is the abundance of close-ups of statuary that is often too high up or too far away to be appreciated from the street.

There are also interiors of spaces rarely seen by tourists, such as little-known rooms of the Provincie Huis.

More recent buildings, like the gorgeous central train station, with its stunning tile work, and the Municipal Theatre, also come into Vella’s viewfinder.

Oddly enough, it is the occasional shot of contemporary Haarlemites pushing strollers along quiet streets, reading newspapers in the city’s many hidden hofjes, cycling along the canals, or just doing the daily shopping, that calls up the intimacy and human scale of paintings of Haarlemites like Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Jan Steen.

It is a rare eye that can capture both the human warmth of a brick building and the aesthetic pleasures of a child at play in the way that Vella does here.

This wonderful guide to the visual treasures of this underappreciated city is a perfect gift for day trippers and longtime residents alike.

(JONATHAN GILL)

Author: Charles M. Vella Available at the English Bookshop www.englishbookshop.nl

RESTAURANT REVIEW

See You at Noon, The Hague See You at Noon is The Hague’s most charming Thai restaurant nestled in the heart of the city in Korte Houtstraat, a narrow little street just off the bustling Plein.

Upon arrival, expect to be welcomed by ladies in traditional Thai dresses embellished with gold patterns and intricate designs; their appearance immaculate and complete with flowers in a sleek updo. They immediately bring their hands together to greet you as you open the door.

This unexpected gesture is followed by yet another “wow” moment. Inside, you’ll find the décor to be vibrant, atmospheric and welcoming. Gold Buddha statues adorn windowsills, not in a “kitsch or cool” way, but rather in an elegant, sophisticated and luxurious manner.

The menu offers a variety of tasty Thai dishes ranging from mild to spicy (indicated by a red chili symbol next to each dish on the menu).

There is a choice of over fifty main dishes and only the freshest traditional Thai ingredients are used to ensure an authentic Thai taste throughout.

For those who desire a mouthwatering, piquant meal with

thtmaart caroline.indd 21

a definite kick, be sure to try the delicious Phad Phed Kung (number 56 on the menu), comprising shrimps, vegetables and a strong red curry sauce.

This is by far my favourite meal at See You at Noon and it is the reason for which I keep returning.

The Kung Phad with Mamuang is a milder oriental delight with shrimps, vegetables and cashew nuts, and equally has a flavoured and zesty taste (number 51 on the menu). Whatever your choice may be, ask for a bowl of tasty egg-fried rice to accompany your meal.

See You at Noon is an upmarket restaurant with honest prices. It is small enough in size to enjoy an intimate, candlelit dinner.

This is a restaurant evidently appreciated by couples or close friends. If you desire first-rate service, an overall tasty meal that packs a punch, and a sophisticated, cozy and charming setting ideal for escaping chilly winter evenings, be sure to reserve a table well in advance.

(ELIZABETH JOSS)

Korte Houtstraat 14M, 2511 CD Den Haag 070 345 8147 info@seeyouatnoon.nl www.seeyouatnoon.nl Open daily from 17:00 – 22:00

27-02-14 13:50

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27-02-14 17:14

SPORTS

MARCH 2014 | 23

Dutch skate to victory at Sochi games

Van Gaal praised for Spurs

TOTTENHAM | Former Tottenham Hotspur favourite, Rafael van der Vaart, has commented that Louis Van Gaal would be a fantastic appointment for Spurs when his stint as Holland boss ends after the World Cup in Brazil this summer, according to the team’s blog.

“He would be great at Tottenham, and not just for him but for Tottenham as well,” Van der Vaart said. “He’s a great manager. He knows how to win big games and how to talk to a team.” Van der Vaart moved to Hamburg from Tottenham in August 2012 after two years in London and has been captaining Holland through qualification.

Newcastle look to Depay

EINDHOVEN | PSV Eindhoven winger Memphis Depay may be in the sights of British Premier League side Newcastle, according to a report by Football Direct News. The 20-year-old made his International debut for the Netherlands last October, in the FIFA World Cup game against Turkey, when he came on in the last minute of a 2-0 win. This season, Depay has racked up 10 goals and 11 assists in 35 games for PSV. And it is more than just Newcastle showing an interest, with Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham also reported to be tracking the young player.

Photo: Olympic.org

The recent Winter Olympics were a triumph on the ice for Dutch speed skaters as gold after gold was brought home by the now record-breaking teams.

DECLAN AYLWARD looks at the story of their success.

The Winter Olympics 2014, held in Sochi, Russia, have finally come to a close and the Dutch athletes have returned victorious.

If there is one thing to take away from this year’s Games – other than the terrible state of human rights in Russia – it is that nobody can touch the Dutch on the ice.

The speed skaters from the Netherlands cleaned up during the competitions, sweeping the podium numerous times to take a total of 24 medals, all but one of which was won in the long track events.

While the Netherlands finished fifth in overall medal rankings, the skaters broke a number of records.

The trio of Jan Blokhuijsen, Sven Kramer and Koen Verweij stormed to gold in the men’s pursuit at the Adler Arena, finishing over three seconds clear of the Korean team in the A Final, to set a new Olympic record time of 3 minutes 37.71 seconds.

That was impressive enough…

But then the women’s trio of Marrit Leenstra, Jorien Ter Mors and Ireen Wüst did just the same in their A Final against Poland, but in even more emphatic style.

In taking gold, the Dutch raised the Olympic benchmark to 2 minutes 58.05 seconds, which was a full 7.5 seconds faster than the beaten finalists.

For Wüst in particularly the win completed a hugely successful Games, following her three silvers in the individual 1,000m, 1,500m and 5,000m and her gold in the 3000m.

“It’s an incredible feeling and I can’t really believe it yet,” said the 27-year-old, who took her overall medal tally to eight. “In these Olympics alone I have five medals. It’s a little bit crazy.”

“We have a lot of great skaters.

There’s a lot of high-level competition and that’s why we keep improving,” she added.

Ter Mors meanwhile, attributed their incredible success to pure hard work: “We train very hard. We are always focused, and if you do that, then this is the reward.”

“It’s always very nice to win a medal with a team,” she added. “Here we practised every morning. We really tried to skate and work together as a team.”

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But it was not all roses and backslapping for the Dutch at Sochi. The success of the men’s pursuit team was somewhat marred by the absence of Jorrit Bergsma, who opted to withdraw prior to the quarter-finals, leaving his record-breaking trio of teammates to skate without him.

Reports indicate that Bergsma was not willing to be a backup skater as, with four Dutch skaters competing for three positions, there was no chance of everybody winning a medal.

Feelings did seem to be hurt about the decision. “I don’t know, man. Who? Jorrit who? Who is that?

He was not here, that’s all I know,” Blokhuijsen, who won silver in the 5,000m, told reporters. “We did it with the three guys who were here and were here for the last two years.”

Dutch coach Jillert Anema said that Bergsma’s decision to depart the squad came before the trio had been picked but hinted the skater knew he wasn’t going to be selected and so would miss out on any possible medal, according to a report by Business Recorder.

“As a coach you decide on the lineup and there will always be a few

who are not chosen. That’s where trouble starts,” he said. “Nobody ever told Jorrit that he could skate but also nobody told him that he couldn’t.”

And it is not just his skaters that Anema managed to antagonise at the Games. The Netherlands’ major rival was supposed to be the USA, who performed in a very disappointing manner, despite high-tech new suits that were supposed to aid the team but had to be abandoned as they actually slowed the skaters down. When talking to press about the performance of the US team, Anema’s comments were less than diplomatic.

“You have a lot of attention on a foolish sport like American football and you waste a lot of talent, athletic talent, on a sport that is meant to kill each other, to injure each other,” he told CNBC, apparently uncaring or unaware of the deep affection the American people have for football.

“You’re so narrow-minded, and then you want to compete against the world (in other sports) when you waste a lot of time, (and) good talent on a sport that sucks.”

Anema’s comments garnered a lot of negative publicity for the Dutch

athletes, compounding the fact that the Dutch success left many nation’s athletes despondent.

The Guardian reports that ahead of the men’s 10,000m there was a mass withdrawal by other nations, who questioned whether speed skating should stay in the Olympic programme. “It is only interesting for the Dutch,” claimed the Ukrainian Dmitriy Babenko, who finished twelfth of 14 in the final.

However, the International Skating Union has thrown its support behind the Dutch and backs retention of the race in the Olympic Games. For their part, the Dutch athletes and organisers feel no guilt that their dominance may have upset the other teams.

“We are not ashamed by winning such a level of medals, of course, because we trained very, very hard,” Gerard Dielessen, secretary of the Dutch Olympic Committee, told The Guardian. “It’s a challenge for us to keep the distance. What we say to the other countries, well, they failed. They have to train harder.”

With an attitude like this, it seems the Dutch intend to maintain their dominance on the ice for some time.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

World Ports Classic

ROTTERDAM | The third edition of the

World Ports Classic finishes this year in the Rotterdam harbour, reports the KNWU. The organisation says goodbye to the old finish location Boompjes to look for an environment that “more fits the look of the game.” The two-day stage race starts on 24 May with a drive from Rotterdam to Antwerp about 191 kilometres and ends a day later with a stage in the opposite direction.

Breda is a new stopping place on the route this year. The new date means a three-month difference in the season compared to last year.

Bergkamp statue unveiled

HOLLOWAY | Dutch football legend Dennis Bergkamp has been immortalised by his former team Arsenal with the erection of a bronze statue outside Emirates Stadium, reports The Daily Mail. The 44-year-old gave an emotional speech at the unveiling.

Bergkamp, who joined Arsenal in 1995 from Inter Milan, scored 120 goals in 400 games. The Dutch forward helped win seven major trophies, including the “Invincibles” Premier League campaign of 2003/2004. The statue of Bergkamp joins those of former manager Herbert Chapman, captain Tony Adams and club-record goal-scorer Thierry Henry.

Photo: Tim Snell

Euro 2016 group set

Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

AMSTERDAM | The Netherlands will face Turkey, Kazakhstan, Iceland, Latvia and the Czech Republic in Group A of the qualifying groups for Euro 2016, reports Turkish-football.com. The top two from each group will qualify for the European Championship 2016 in France, while the team that comes third will reach playoffs. Guus Hiddink will lead the Dutch side for qualifying matches. Oranje has previously defeated both Turkey and Iceland in World Cup qualifiers, and has a good record against the Czech Republic.

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Located between two historic canals in the heart of the city, Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam stands out among other five star luxury hotels. It is home to the acclaimed Michelin star Restaurant Bridges, Parisian themed bistro, private inner garden, suites with Butler Service, the multiple award-winning luxury hotel spa and to the magnificent banqueting facilities

including the Council Chamber where Netherlands’ former queen, princess Beatrix, married in 1966. The history of The Grand is deeply entwined with the past of the city – from a 15th-century convent to royal lodgings to Dutch Admiralty headquarters to the city hall of Amsterdam. Poetry and a rich history captivate and seduce everyone into visiting the hotel.

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