Thursday, December 29, 2011

Eighty Percent of Dutch: Abuse in Roman Catholic Church Continues

Four out of five Dutchmen believe that even today, there is still sexual abuse in the Dutch Roman Catholic Church. Eighty percent think that the leaders of the Church in the Netherlands were aware of the enormity of the abuse. Seventy-five percent think that the statute of limitations for this type of abuse should be abolished. This was found by an opinion poll by the pollster Maurice de Hond. The report of the Deetman Commission found that between 1945 – 1981, Roman Catholic officials sexually abused 10,000 – 20,000 children. Of the approximately 800 perpetrators who have been identified, more than 100 are still alive.
www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2686/Binnenland/article/detail/3093937/2011/12/24/Peiling-4-op-5-Nederlanders-gelooft-dat-misbruik-in-kerk-doorgaat.dhtml

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

‘Scumvillage’ – New Dutch Word of the Year

The annual competition for the new word of the year has – as a sign of the times – been won by the word “scumvillage” (tuigdorp). The word was invented by Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party who suggested that persistent offenders would be separated in such a village where only asocial people would be housed. The word won 43% of the votes. In second place came the word “Guinea pig police” (caviapolitie) – a nickname for the new animal cops.
www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2011/12/tuigdorp_is_van_dales_word_of.php

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Netherlands Hemp Champion of Europe


As far as European drug rankings go, the Netherlands is now the continent’s leader in hemp growing. There are about 40,000 illegal hemp growers there. Their annual profit is about 2 billion Euro. Every year, 5,000 hemp nurseries are dismantled. According to the police, the operators of these nurseries are mainly big criminal organizations which have no opposition to using violence, corruption and killing. Often for these nurseries, illegal electric hookups are used which increases fire risk.
www.depers.nl/binnenland/619275/Nederland-het-Europese-hennepland.html





Monday, December 26, 2011

Finance Minister: Economy Recovery Only After 2013

Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager (Christian Democrat) said that only from the year 2013 can one expect economic recovery. Problems have been built up in southern Europe for 15 years. Europe has been too slow to understand that action was needed. He added that if one looks forward, countries shouldn’t be saved, but rather the banks. The only main reason why at present countries are saved is because of the fear that it may infect the European banking system. 2011 is going to be a difficult year.
www.nu.nl/politiek/2700288/jager-verwacht-herstel-2013.html

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Soccer Game Cancelled after Fan Attacks Player

Due to a security lapse, a fan was able to enter the playing field in a cup match between two top Dutch clubs, Ajax and AZ Alkmaar. He tried to hit the goalkeeper of AZ Alkmaar, who evaded him and kicked the fan multiple times. The referee then showed the goalkeeper a red card because of violent conduct. Thereafter, the AZ Alkmaar players walked off the field. The police are holding the fan. The Dutch Justice Minister, Ivo Opstelten (Liberal Party) said the attack was “beastly” and added “jerks and nuts don’t belong on the field.” He approved of the Alkmaar players walking off the field.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/dec/21/ajax-az-alkmaar-goalkeeper-fan/print

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Investigation into Major Mortality Rate in Catholic Establishment

A major investigation will be undertaken into the high mortality rate of the Roman Catholic Girls’ establishment, St. Anna, in the township of Heel between 1952 and 1954. In that institute for mentally handicapped women and girls, 40 people died in that period. The independent investigation commission will look into the archives of the municipality and also interview former inhabitants or their descendents. www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/5091/Religie/article/detail/3084680/2011/12/20/Uitgebreider-onderzoek-naar-sterftecijfers-meisjes-St-Anna.dhtml


Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Lawyer: Diocese is a Criminal Organization

The lawyer Jan Boone said that the Rotterdam Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church is a criminal organization. He wants former Bishop Philippe Bär, the leaders and the members of the diocese to be prosecuted and has put in a complaint to this effect to the police. Boone said that the diocese had the intention to facilitate or at least to tolerate the sexual abuse of children. If it didn’t do so intentionally, it allowed it to happen while knowing about it. According to Boone, that is enough for condemnation. Bishop Bär brought into his diocese a priest about whom negative opinions had been given. While he was a priest, he was prosecuted twice and sexually abused many children. The diocese said that Boone’s claims have no foundation in truth.
www.nu.nl/binnenland/2698438/aangifte-bisdom-mist-grondslag.html

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

University Hospital Specialist: Intensive Care in our Hospital is Poor

Specialists at the Medical Center of the Amsterdam Free University (VU) have said that the intensive care department of their hospital gives poor service to patients. If they needed treatment, they would go to another hospital. The specialists speak about “a culture of fear where the advice of medical specialists is not listened to.” They mention two incidents where patients have died. The Inspectorate of Health has also published a critical report about the “exceptionally worrying situation.” In March, a lung patient died. The department has ignored the advice of lung specialists on various occasions.
www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/5270/Zorg/article/detail/3075761/2011/12/14/Situatie-op-intensive-care-van-VUmc-alarmerend.dhtml

Monday, December 19, 2011

15,000 College Students Possibly Affected by Certificate Fraud

The Telegraaf daily reports that fraud with certificates of qualification at the College Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) possibly affects 15,000 students. They might have become the victims of years of mismanagement and intimidation. Peter Fonkert of the Economy and Management Studies Department says that results of exams were introduced mistakenly into the computer due to errors in the administration system. He said that the chaos on campus is hard to describe. Students with the lowest grades, might have received the highest ones. These results were never corrected because teachers were afraid of measures being taken against them. Sixty percent of HvA teachers have expressed in writing their lack of confidence in the college’s management .

www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/11147000/__Beerput_HVA_geopend__.html

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Journalist: Ten to Twenty Thousand Victims of Catholic Sex Scandal

Journalist Joep Dohmen of the NRC Handelsblad daily said that between 10,000 to 20,000 children were abused in Catholic institutions between 1945 and 1985. This calculation was made by the Deetman Commission in its investigation of sexual abuse in the Dutch Roman Catholic Church. Most victims were between 11 and 14 years old. In most cases, only touching was involved. In 10% of the cases, it was worse, such as rape.
Dohmen claims that Dutch Cardinal Simonis did not tell the truth on TV last year when he said that he did not know about the abuse. One example is that in 1991, he appointed a condemned pedophile priest as Pastor in Amersfoort. There the Pastor abused 6 children who complained to the police and possibly tens of others.
www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/5091/Religie/article/detail/3079067/2011/12/16/Tussen-10-en-20-000-slachtoffers-RK-Kerk.dhtml

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Research Organization: Al Qaeda Plans Attack in Amsterdam

The American research organization Flashpoint, follows Muslim extremism worldwide. It says that on the website Shamukhforum, a terror attack on Amsterdam has been announced. This website is related to Al Qaeda and is a chat room for Al Qaeda sympathizers. Flashpoint collaborates with the ministries of Justice and Defense in the U.S., Scotland Yard in England and the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1041/Amsterdam/article/detail/3076515/2011/12/14/Al-Qaeda-dreigt-met-aanslag-in-Amsterdam.dhtml

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Netherlands in Economic Recession

The Central Planning Bureau (CPB) has announced that the Netherlands is in an economic recession. The current quarter will be the second consecutive one where there is economic shrinkage. For the first two quarters of 2012, shrinkage is also forecast to amount in total to 0.5%. The budget deficit next year is expected to be 4.1%. In September, the forecast for this figure was 2.9%. The CPB expects that 475,000 people will be unemployed, which is 90,000 more than in 2011.
www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2011/12/13/cpb-cijfers-nederland-in-recessie-extra-bezuinigingen-nodig

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Muslim Radicals Want to Continue Creating Disturbances


Abu Hamza, of the radical Muslim group Sharia4Holland told the Spits Daily that his organization wants to continue creating disturbances, similar to the one where they disrupted a debate in which Parliamentarian Tofik Dibi (Green Left) and the author Irshad Manji participated. The debaters were spit at and eggs were thrown at them. Hamza expressed his sympathy for Al Qaeda and said that the radical Muslim Mohammed Bouyeri who killed mediamaker Theo van Gogh was justified in his actions, as van Gogh had insulted Allah. Hamza said that his organization was still small, but through Twitter and the distribution of flyers, they were looking for more members. The Christian Democrats Party wants the same laws used against soccer hooligans to be applied against Muslim radicals also. In this way, they can be prohibited from entering meetings, their range of movement can be limited and they can be forced to visit police stations regularly.
www.spitsnieuws.nl/archives/binnenland/2011/12/meer-acties-zoals-deze%E2%80%99

Monday, December 12, 2011

Employees of Police Center Complain about Quarrels and Abuse of Power

The National Expertise Center for Diversity (LECD) of the Dutch Police, functions poorly because of infighting and abuse of power of the director. The Center was founded in 2001 in order to attract more non-Western immigrants, women, homosexuals and the handicapped to the police ranks. According to the TV program Nieuwsuur, 10 of the 15 employees have complained to a person they trusted about the center’s management. One of them said anonymously, “I lived through Hell at the center.”
www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2686/Binnenland/article/detail/3069240/2011/12/07/Expertisecentrum-politie-gebukt-onder-ruzie.dhtml

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Secret Service Worried about Radical Muslim Group

The Dutch Intelligence Service, AIVD is worried about the rapid radicalization of the Muslim group “Sharia4Holland.” The AIVD remarked that the group appears increasingly in public and hands out flyers on the street. This group is held responsible for the disturbance in an Amsterdam meeting where Parliamentarian Tofik Dibi, (Green Left) had eggs thrown at him. Radical slogans were also shouted. Various parliamentarians of the Labor Party, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals have criticized the group. The Freedom Party wants the group to be prohibited.
www.parool.nl/parool/nl/4024/2011/article/print/detail/3070660/Moslimgroep-radicaliseert-razendsnel.dhtml

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Radical Muslims Throw Eggs on Parliamentarian

Parliamentarian Tofik Dibi (Green Left) and author and Muslim activist Irshad Manju have complained to the police after the debate in which they participated in Amsterdam was disturbed by radical Muslims. They threw eggs on them and spat at Manju. The special mobile unit of the police had to expel these Muslims which numbered between 20 and 30 out of the building. Two were arrested. The group probably belonged to the Belgian organization Sharia4Belgium. The discussion focused on “a new generation of Muslims which inspire hope.”
www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2686/Binnenland/article/detail/3069160/2011/12/07/Radicale-moslims-verstoren-debat-over-geloven.dhtml

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Rating of Major Dutch Bank Cut

The Dutch cooperative bank Rabobank lost its triple-A rating from Standard and Poor. About 15 other banks were downgraded, but Rabobank was the only one that was taken down two notches. Its current rating of double-A still makes it the highest rated privately owned bank in the world.
www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/30/us-rabobank-rating-idUSTRE7AT0UP20111130

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Five Policemen Wounded After Soccer Game

After a soccer game between FC Utrecht and FC Twente in the Dutch top soccer league, riots broke out and five policemen were wounded. The policemen felt threatened enough to fire several shots into the air. The Mayor of Utrecht, Aleid Wolfsen (Labor) said that hooligans misbehaved terribly and that their entrance should be prohibited for many games to come. Supporters of FC Utrecht claim that the mayor is responsible for the riots because he did not react when hooligans of the FC Twente threw firecrackers at young Utrecht fans.
www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2698/Sport/article/detail/3064358/2011/12/05/Fans-FC-Utrecht-woedend-op-burgemeester.dhtml

Monday, December 5, 2011

Wikileaks: Dutch Companies Sell Spy Software to Dictators

RTL News reported that Wikileaks revealed tens of documents that Dutch and other Western companies sell spy software to dictatorships. Where spy services in the past focused on individuals and their environment, now, massive digital data are being collected and analyzed. Three Dutch companies are named by Wikileaks: Group 2000, Pine Digital Security and Fox-it.
www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/3884/WikiLeaks/article/detail/3060113/2011/12/01/Nederlandse-bedrijven-verkopen-spionagesoftware-aan-dictators.dhtml

Sunday, December 4, 2011

The Hague: Leakage Causes Evacuation of Intensive Care Department

Sixteen patients in the intensive care ward of the Haga Hospital in The Hague have been moved to other hospitals or other departments due to leakage in the intensive care ward from the roof. A number of operations had to be delayed.
www.powned.tv/nieuws/binnenland/2011/12/ic_haags_ziekenhuis_ontruimd.html

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Minister: Impossible to Prohibit Pedophile Organization

Minister of Security and Justice Ivo Opstelten (Liberal) does not intend to ask the prosecution to try to legally prohibit the existence of the Martijn Organization of Pedophiles. He said that there is no case because there is no child porno on its website and no links to sites where prohibited material can be seen. All that has happened is that individual members of the club, including the chairman, have been condemned of child abuse or the possession of child pornography. Five parties have asked the minister to take legal action against Martijn. Christian Democrat Parliamentarian, Madeleine van Toorenburg said, “The Netherlands doesn’t understand how such a disgusting organization can exist.”
http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/11032288/__Opstelten__Pedoclub_niet_vervolgd__.html?p=2,2