Following a sudden sharp increase in petrol theft after last weeks stupid remarks from Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner, our wise leaders today anounced that they will look into the posibility of thinking about planning to start an investigation to find out if it maybe is a good idea to create an institution where owners of gas stations can get the name and address of people who steal gas from their station. So they can send them a bill.
Now, why didnīt i think of that...... or did i? hmmm "give you the name and address of the thief so you can collect your money yourself", did i write that?
September 2003 Archives
In The Netherlands we have a special word for allowing things that are forbidden by law. It's "gedogen". We use it to allow all kinds of things, like drugs, prostitution and other minor offences.
And now Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner told Parliament that 'petrol theft' is a relatively minor offence. The police won't do anything about it anymore in most cities.
So imagine you have a gas station. You've invested a lot of money in an video system that monitors all cars. You tape everybody. When somebody steals over 40 Euro of gas you call the police and give them the licence plate number. All they have to do is type in the number on the computer and send a fine to the owner of that car. That's all! But they won't.... and they won't give you the name and address of the thief so you can collect your money yourself.
By the way, even when the police do take action, you won't get a fine for leaving the station without paying, as long as it's no habbit. The same thing for leaving a restaurant without paying. That's right, it's perfectly fine to steal gas every now and then. Just don't make it a habbit..... it makes me wan't to kick some politicians ass! Just every now and then....
NATO on Monday picked Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as its next secretary general. De Hoop Scheffer lied about his candidacy until the last moment, saying he wasn't a candidate. Our prime minister Balkenende said the same thing. This while everybody knew they dicsussed his resume with Bush recently. And everybode endorsed him. Why endorse somebody who's not a candidate?
But today our great and wise leader Balkenende explained it all to me on tv. It was all just tactical politics and the result is the only thing that counts! He talked to Bush about "values and norms" this month and now he says it's ok to lie as long you win the game in the end?
de Hoop Scheffer, kissing our Prime Minister Balkenende?
Today is my dad's birthday. We'll miss our parents when we move to the States. We really enjoyed visiting my parents tonight. They now live just five minutes away from us (by car).
I'm a big fan of The Feedroom and now you can watch Live Video of Hurricane Isabel. If found the link at wnbc.com. Check it out!
I'm so proud to be Dutch!
We have great Royal Family.... of pigeons:
click image to enlarge
I really don't understand why the Queen is wearing a lovenest on her head while presenting the countries biggest cuts in decades.
Every third Tuesday of September in the Netherlands is known as Prinsjesdag, a day in which the Dutch monarch, currently Queen Beatrix, addresses a joint sitting of the Lower House of Parliament and the Senate. It's our own little State of the Union, just different.
This year it will be mostly about the planned cuts. EUR 17 billion over the next four years. To lighten it all up, somebody at the Department of Finance came up wtih the great idea of a Prinsjesdag Screensaver! Open the site and click on the image to start the download. I think the Dutch public will feel a lot better about the cuts on public health, education and the two-year pay freeze. We have a FREE screensaver!
More about Prinsjesdag can be found here.
Official Prinsjesdag site here (Dutch)
Public confidence in Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has taken a nosedive like a muggle on a Nimbus 2000.
Would you trust Harry Potter Prime Minister Balkenende? Or can you tell why he didn't get my vote?
More about how the confidence in Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has collapsed can be found here.
Yuk!
Today Sweety and i went to enjoy the great weather. We had lot's of fun :)
The only bad thing was when we went to drink something at a terrace and found ourself surrounded by smokers. First we wanted to drink and eat something but the smoke spoiled our appetite. We just drank our coffee and went home to eat. And that reminds me of Sweety's earlier post about the Dutch Governmentīs U-turn about the smoking ban. They decided there won't be a smoking ban for bars, restaurants and cafes. The industry convinced our government that it would cost thousands of jobs! But iīm so sure, even more after today, that the ban would increase sales and thus create job! But who am i?
This Magazine cover caused a lot of commotion this week. It shows a KLM airplane about to hit the office of Nationale Nederlanden (Dutch site) in Rotterdam. This well known Dutch insurance company is a subsidiary of ING. The text reads "Target Netherlands, muslimterror getting closer". I haven't read the article, but there have been more stories about how the Dutch open society makes it vulnerable against terrorists.
KLM asked the judge to order the issue to be taken out of the stores but the judge decided not to. I think that's the right decision. But it's a very unappropriate cover, especially in the week that we remembered 9/11.
"Dutch service representatives contain within them a microchip pre-programmed to say "not possible" at the slightest provocation."
Kevin Lowe is a Canadian Expat living in The Netherlands. He wrote a great story about how Dutch tend to say something is "not possible" when you ask for a product or service. As i mentioned before, the US standard level of service is one of the reasons we want to move to America. On Expatica there is also a call to turn shoddy customer service around!
I haven't posted for a while, sorry for that. I got completely hooked on command & Conquer, Generals :)
I really wonder what they ate.... Do you think the Dutch Prime Minister took some real Gouda Cheese with him to Washington? Did they share pretzels at 7 am? Who knows!
It's nice to see that the US press still considers The Netherlands a 'key ally'. But it's not really the truth.
Maybe Balkenende didn't dare to tell Bush. A recent poll showed that a majority of the Dutch doesn't support sending more Dutch troops to Iraq. And a lot of people even want the troops currently there to come back. I just don't get it. Don't they think the Iraqis need as much help they can get, just as Canada and the US helped us after WWII?
