Deputy Minister Joop Atsma of the Environment is worried about the increasing resistance of brown rats to poison. This is what he wrote to Parliament. Studies show that 39% of rats studied are increasingly insensitive to pesticides. The Minister promised a detailed investigation into the exact size and spread of resistant mice and rat populations in the Netherlands.
The Amsterdam police were surprised by the anti-Kurdish riots after a demonstration by Turks. Jan Pronker, District Chief of Police in the center of Amsterdam told the Amsterdam Municipal Council that it had not been expected that the anti-PKK protest would deteriorate. About 60 Turks attacked a Kurdish center. There were wounded and there was destruction in the building. A Kurdish spokesman criticized the police and said that they were the attacked, but they were treated like perpetrators.
Dutch air, water and soil are the most polluted in the European Union. Its rank is number 27. This results from a report by the Dutch Foundation for Nature and Environment (Natuur & Milieu) in its report Ranking the Stars. The report compares the Netherlands with other European countries on issues such as climate, environment and nature. According to the foundation, the soil pollution largely derives from nitrogen and phosphates related to the large number of animals designated for slaughter. The air quality is bad because of the high emission of nitrogen dioxide.
The Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Dordrecht has closed a department due to the MRSA bacteria. This has been announced by the hospital. In the meantime, a number of people have been infected. This bacteria has been found in a patient at the oncology department and with three employees. The infected employees are at home at present.
The Organization of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) has written a letter to Deputy Minister Joop Atsma of Infrastructure and Environment warning him that the air quality in the four major Dutch cities – Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht has to be improved. If this is not done, economic developments in these towns may stop. The problems with for instance, nitrogen dioxide, are so major that communities cannot solve them by themselves. This the more so as they only have an impact on 20% of the pollution.
At the Kennemer Gasthuis, a hospital in Haarlem in July and September, six patients were infected with the klebsiella bacteria. Recently, part of the intensive care unit was closed because of this. Despite the fact that special hygienic measures were taken in July, patients were again infected in September.
In the southern part of Amsterdam, there are many brown rats. A woman who lives on a square there told a newspaper that she had seen 30 rats on the square where she lives. She said: “I understand that there are rats in Amsterdam, but the number of them is absurd. They cause me nightmares.”
The police and labor inspection have started a major investigation against the exploitation Philippine seamen on the Dutch inland navigation. The police now systematically control ships on Dutch rivers. The labor inspections suspects that exploitation, which is a form of human trafficking and false reporting are structural problems in Dutch navigation.
Five policemen were wounded in Nijmegen after riots at the end of the soccer-game NEC-Vitesse. NEC hooligans threw stones, tree branches and security gates on the policemen. Various police-cars and the busses of the visiting Vitesse were damaged. Twelve hooligans were arrested.
The ProRail company which is in charge of the Dutch railway infrastructure said that the number of cases of theft of copper from train tracks is increasing. Such theft now on the average occurs 43 times per month. ProRail considers this a worrying situation. It costs about 13 million Euro per year. The theft also creates dangerous situations on the tracks as well as train delays. ProRail is trying to fight the phenomenon with security fences, dogs and the police.
Professor Diederik Stapel of Tilburg University has been found to have recently published fraudulent research. Philip Eijlander, the Rector Magnificus of the university now is of the opinion that this academic may have invented research findings for many years. Eijlander thinks that the same is true for research by Stapel at the universities of Groningen and Amsterdam. The fact that the professor carried our most of his research alone may explain why it has lasted so long before the truth came to the surface. The commission which investigates the fraud will publish its results on 31 October.
The Telegraaf daily claims that because of quarrels in the Dutch military intelligence service MIVD in 2007 secret information about road-bomb factories in Afghanistan was not used. This has possible led to the Killing of Dutch soldiers. The factories could continue to operate after two secret agents were not debriefed. The daily obtained the information from a former spy.
The Liberal Party (VVD) and the Freedom Party want clarification from the government about news that criminals on the Dutch island of Curaçao are attacking Dutch marine soldiers and their families. The soldiers are deadly afraid of these criminals who also use violence against Dutch youngsters and regularly break into the soldiers families’ homes. Liberal Parliamentarian André Bosman wonders why the Netherlands subsidizes the Curaçao detective service.. www.spitsnieuws.nl/archives/binnenland/2011/10/zorgen-over-geweld-tegen-militairen-cura%C3%A7ao
A quarter of the Dutch police force doesn’t act in situations where they find themselves at risk. They are either poorly trained, afraid of violence, or consider that they have too little backup. These are the findings of a confidential report by the Police Academy. The study is based on interviews with 4,400 policemen. Other results show that certain policemen also avoid violent situations because they do not receive support from their bosses.
Mayor Yvonne van Mastrigt of Hoogezand-Sappemeer has been threatened with death. The police identified the person concerned as a 32 year old man from the Dutch Antilles. The man belongs to a group of 40 people who are watched closely upon orders by the Mayor. They cause a large part of the problems in the town. After the threat, the Mayor received police protection and the Municipality was closed. The Mayor became very emotional about the threats.
The Christian “quality” daily Trouw leaves extreme anti-Semitic talkbacks on its website. The following one has been there now for more than a day and a half: “The factories in Germany and the rest of Europe were in the hands of the Jewish people which paid starvation wages to their workers, while they made giant profits on the American markets. This is the reason why Hitler became so angry with this people. He had warned them frequently enough to be honest traders and pay decent salaries. The Jews refused this, which led to hatred against these people….That’s what I know about it. They became rich from the crisis.”
The Dutch railways have proposed that they will make urine bags available on trains which have no toilets. People who are in need can obtain these bags and isolate themselves in the one driver cabin which isn’t in use when the driver sits in the other one. Wim Eilert of the Trade Union of Train Personnel (VVMC) initially thought it was a joke. He now says that the plan has not been discussed with the drivers and it is inconceivable that drivers’ cabins where these people work become toilets.
The Liberal Parliamentarian Bart de Liefde has said that his party is afraid for the safety of Dutch soccer fans in Poland and Ukraine at next year’s European championship. This fear derives from the fact that Polish hooligans seem to have freedom to battle. Local security people say that tickets for the games are already in the hands of violent people. De Liefde said: “Polish hooligans are violent, racist, anti-Semitic and are not afraid to murder… The camping sites of Dutch fans should not have to be turned into fortresses.”
The German Automobile Association (ADAC) has published a comparison of taxi service in 22 European cities. They judged the cab driver, the cab, the route taken and the price. According to the research, half of the drivers failed – they drive through red lights, take longer routes, charge more than permitted, or refuse to take passengers. Amsterdam came in at 19th place. Rotterdam was 10th, Barcelona was the best rated, the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, was last.
Prince Bernhard, the late father of Queen Beatrix, broke his promise to the Dutch government not to be involved in any business matters. It now turns out that the Prince was not only involved in an effort in 1994 to sell Dutch marine ships to the United Arab Emirates, but also tried to sell planes of the Dutch company Fokker of which he had been a supervisory board member in the past. In 1976, the Prince was not prosecuted for bribe money paid by Lockheed. He had however, to promise to give up all of his board memberships, not to be involved anymore in business affairs and he also had to give up his military uniform. The historian Gerard Aalders said that this is the first proof that the Prince who died in 2004 did not keep his commitments to the government. He had suspected for a long time that this was the case, but could never find any proof.
Misbehaving judges or those who do not function face no risks of being fired. This results from research by RTL News. In the past ten years only one judge has been dismissed. During fourteen years she caused problems due to major drinking problems. Misbehavior of Dutch judges consists of unsolicited sexual approaches, drinking problems or unprofessional acts. The well-known lawyer Gert-Jan Knoops suggests that an independent council has to evaluate judges. He added that judges who evaluate each other are like butchers who give a mark of approval to their own meat.
In the past two and a half years, 1,100 illegal criminals have been released from jail and are now walking free in the Netherlands. Some are people who have been jailed for hindrance or theft. There are also potential murderers among them. These people should have been expelled from the Netherlands, but they were not. This data has been obtained by RTL News from the state service for Return and Departure.
The police in Eindhoven have arrested 25 supporters of the Rotterdam soccer club Feyenoord. These threw on terraces of coffee houses glass and furniture and also on the train station threw glass. They also broke windows of a cafeteria. It is unclear why the supporters were in Eindhoven.
