Despite daily headlines bemoaning record gas prices in the U.S., it's actually one of the cheaper places to fill up in the world. The Netherlands is in fourth place. We pay $8.37 a gallon. Of that an staggering 62% goes to the government. The gas station has a 3% margin, before profit tax. 1% goes to the oil company's and the rest is production and distribution costs.
Recently in Why move to the USA Category
Dutch writer Leon de Winter writes in the New York Times:
"For centuries the Netherlands has been considered the most tolerant and liberal nation in the world. That Netherlands no longer exists."
I don't fully agree with Mr. de Winter's analysis but at least I'm very glad to see a better image of Pim Fortuyn in the International press (finally):
"He was a liberal with respect to personal freedom and a conservative with respect to social norms and values - that is, he was a classic tolerant Dutchman.
Proud to be gay, he protested against the religiously based homophobia openly espoused in the Muslim ghettos. Yet he also emphasized the need for integrating Muslims into larger society and tolerance for their faith. His political incorrectness shocked the press and political establishment, but many among the traditional citizenry recognized Mr. Fortuyn as a kindred spirit. This unconventional gay politician spoke up for the conventional middle-class heterosexual. At the time he was killed by an animal-rights advocate in 2002, he was the front-runner to become prime minister."
The Netherlands has the worst performing economy of all 25 countries in the European Union. Do I really need to explain why this is another reason to leave?
A few weeks ago Sarah Johnson interviewed me on my motives to move to the US. You can listen to it here. She only used a couple of minutes of the much longer talk we had. At least I got to mention my weblog :)
I've had some reactions already and hope to get some more. After our trip to Rome I'll make some time to respond :)
No really, I'm not kidding here. If this becomes law, a surcharge as much as €3.28 ($4.3) per gigabyte will come into place on mp3 players. This might put €180 ($235) to the price of a top end iPod.
Does this mean that when I buy an iPod, I am allowed to download any music I want on it? Without ever paying again for music? Because otherwise I would be paying twice for copyright! I guess not.
I think this is illegal. And the EU should prevent the Dutch government implementing this. But they probably won't. I'll vote NOOOOOO! on june first anyway.
Dutch people where asked to give their opinion about Dutch society and rank it with a number between 0 and 100. It turns out that a lot of people are much more negative about it than I am, on average only 36 points :) Yesterday's emigration numbers make sense. People want to get out of here.
DutchReport has the full translated results here.
We are not the only ones that want to emigrate. The bureau of Statistics Netherlands reported emigration is on a record high. Not since 1954 did so many people leave The Netherlands. With one big difference, in the fifties the Dutch government promoted and even financially supported migration out a fear of over-population. This is not the case now. Part of the reason for this increase in migration is the economic situation. But when you look at the countries people are moving to; Belgium/Germany, it’s not much better there. So there must be other reasons why people are leaving.
This morning we watched a TV show about emigration. There was a panel of ‘experts’ and one of them basically said emigration is a negative thing. “Instead of fleeing for your problems you should stay here and help Holland make a better place.”
No thank you. People that come forth, trying to change this country for the better, risk getting killed (Pim Fortuyn, Theo van Gogh, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Geert Wilders). Only people striving for status quo are welcome here. Please don’t do anything out of the ordinary. (Doe maar gewoon dan doe je al gek genoeg.) And why let my thinking be limited to this little country? Why not try make the world a better place instead of just Holland. When we move to the US and stay long enough to be given the right to vote, we can influence American politics. And on a global scale, what country has more impact?
Today our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ben Bot, was quoted in the newspaper proposing a ban on Plasma TV’s. He says Plasma TV’s are "a grievous example of how it’s not supposed to be". Why? You might think our Minister of Foreign Affairs has discovered that Plasma TV’s are made by poor people working long day’s in poor countries. No, that’s not the case. They are made in the USA for a Dutch company :)
The Minister of Foreign Affairs can’t have a problem with that, can he? No, he says they consume too much power. In some cases even one fifth of the total energy bill of a household. That's right, you can grow cannabis under 10.000 Watt Lamps but just don't watch Plasma TV when you're stoned. Now, if I promise to watch less TV and work longer hours, as was asked by our Prime Minister today, can I still buy a Plasma TV? Please Mr. Bot…?
By the way. The Minister has a funny name. His first name 'Ben' means '(I) am'. The Dutch word 'Bot' means a lot of things like: wet behind the ears and rude… go figure.
No English sites reporting this yet, but during a raid in The Hague three police men where hurt. They are now waiting for a Close Combat Unit (BBE)
Dutch news:
www.nu.nl
www.telegraaf.nl
UPDATE 1.20p.m.
International news also reporting, situation still ongoing.
CNN
ABC
...or why I didn't feel like blogging, and why dad asked my forgiveness for bringing me in this world...
Mohammed Bouyeri shot Mr. van Gogh, slit his throat and left a five-page letter on his chest stabbed under a knife.
Dutch Muslim school damaged by bomb blast. Second school (NL) is burning as I write.
Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician receives a letter addressing him as “ugly dog”. It told him he would soon be beheaded.
Goodbye Netherlands as I knew it.
Islam will celebrate victory by the blood of the martyrs. There will be no mercy for the wicked, only the sword will be raised against them. No discussion, no demonstrations, no parades, no petitions, only death will separate truth from lies.
I forgive you dad.
Hmm.... let's think about this. What if they are right, what if a driving SUV is damaging the environment and is a traffic hazard.... if they are that dangerous, do you really want them driving around? Or is it better if they are parked somewhere?
A city council majority backed on Wednesday a parking ban on the four-wheel drive vehicles in the city of Nijmegen. They claim SUVs damage the environment and are a traffic hazard.
Just like Sweety said: I live in a very, very, VERY small country.
Read more at Expatica.
We're going crazy over the Euro2004 :)
Take a look at these pictures. Yes, all this over soccer :)
Tomorrow we have to take on the Czech team.
The cafe at our streetcorner is getting ready, as you can see our street is relatively calm...
Being Dutch i'll always be the better biker when i move to the USA.
Today during a lunchwalk i noticed commotion on the street. American voices where shouting "Stop! Turn around, we have to take a left." There was a group of about 25 Americans trying to take a cycling tour through The Hague. Dangerous!
As you can see (yes, that's my thumb) they where all over the place. You can clearly regonize them by the helmets. Can you spot the ones using the sidewalk on the left? Americans on bikes are so funny and they make cycling look extremely difficult :) Especially in the typicle traffic of a Dutch city.
You should read Erics observations about Dutch bikers: Rolling By, Beneath My Window. Eric is an American living in The Netherlands. I took this picture from his site; a Dutch biker...
In The Netherlands we've been using an Electronic Voting System for some years now. And one thing always bothered me. I press a button and the display says my vote is registered. But then the display goes blank. And with it any real physical proof of my vote disappears in the machine. Though the law requires there should be ways to do a recount, no recount is really possible. The machine won't come up with a different result. So what if the machine malfunctions? And now the Irish Government tested the same system we use in The Netherlands to determine if they could use it for the upcoming European election. Guess what: The Commission on Electronic Voting have said that they are "unable to recommend the use of the proposed system at the local and European elections".
Read the full report here.
Some of the findings:
“Certain of the tests performed at the request of the Commission identified an error in the count software which could lead to incorrect distributions of surpluses; there is a possibility that further testing will uncover further software errors”
WTF, a voting computer that doesn't count right? Who programmed that software?
“experts retained by the Commission found it very easy to bypass electronic security measures and gain complete control of the “hardened” PC, overwrite the software, and thereby in theory to gain complete control over the count in a given constituency”
Before you know it some German script-kiddy is elected as the new Dutch prime-minister.
“the system does not have a voter-verifiable audit trail (VVAT)”
he! where did my vote go!
It's now time for a new post of "Better in America", after museums and manners and service, it's now time for: in God we trust.
Most Dutch are easely annoyed by the presumption Americans have that God is on their side. But i like it! In The Netherlands it's not commen to talk about your religion. In most families it's not even discussed, let alone at school, work or anywhere else. And so the Dutch turn on the tv to watch American shows and CNN. And they see al those Americans talking about God, like they actually know Him. Or President Bush who was quoted saying: "the greatest gift that people can give to a president or people in positions of responsibility — anybody else, for that matter — is prayer.". That would be considerd "To American" in Holland.
But it's normal in the US where almost 60% is Protestant, 30% Roman-Catholic, 2% Jewish and 4% has some other religion. That means only 4% considers themself not religious. Compare that with more than 40% of the Dutch saying they don't belong to any ideology (according to this Dutch CBS report). No wonder Dutch don't understand it when they hear "God bless America" or "In God we trust". They're like "who's this God dude?"
Why is it better for a country and its people to have trust in God? Religion gives you purpose and direction. It helps you with wrong an right. There's also a clear connection between religion and economic prosperity. Like Max Weber said; capitalism strongly profited from the protestant urge to develop your own potential and to be dedicated to labor. Christianity also promts loving one's neighbour. American dedication to charity has its roots in being your brother's keeper. Not all good deeds should be left to the government.
It used to be different in The Netherlands. When we still had our own money (pre-euro), it read "God zij met ons", simular to "In God we trust" on the USD. When our Kingdom was found in 1813 the constitution was largely based on Christianaty. So The Netherlands is historicly based on Christian beliefs, but we lost it somewhere. Probably by smoking to much grass. Believe in God can make your life better. A nation's believe in God makes it a better place to live in.
You see? Everything is better in America. God bless :)
I promised you a serie of posts "Everything is better in America”. It's been a while sinds my first and still only post about museums. Now it's time to talk about manners and service.
In The Netherlands people often say that Americans are shallow or superficial. Maybe some are, but i think most are not. I surely wouldn't call the Americans i know superficial. Far from that! Dutch are as morose and grouchy as Americans appear shallow. An example: when you walk into a typical Dutch store a grouchy employee tries to stare you away, sincere. Enter an average American store and the employee greets you with a smile and a polite ”How are you?”. This may not be as sincere as the grouchy Dutch store attendant, but i like it!
Something else that really struck me when i visited the States for the first time was the repeated use of ”Excuse me”. In crowded areas Dutch start pushing. Hardly anybody asks you to move over when you´re in the way, they just start pushing or sigh and groan. I think that´s so impolite! I really like the American way to say excuse me. Not that it´s my fault somebody is in my way :)
There are other examples of bad manners and service in The Netherlands. You don´t get refills in restaurants, you have to pay to use the toilet almost everywhere and a cloakroom is never free of charge. And finally the Dutch habbit to say "it's not possible", while the truth is the person does not want to do what you request. Dutch service representatives contain within them a microchip pre-programmed to say "not possible" at the slightest provocation. Kevin Lowe wrote a great article about this on Expatica.
You see? Everything is better in America :)
Finally some of the yearly American TV highlights are broadcasted live in The Netherlands as well. I'm talking about the Super Bowl and Oscar Awards kind of shows. Great! Or so i thought.... because of the time difference (we are far ahead of you guys) it's hard to stay awake sometimes. Yesterday i gave it another try but i fell asleep just before the Red Carpet show started. During the Super bowl we where both sleeping and missed the nipple incident, it would be great to stay in the States for at least a full year so we can see it all!
What's the point Sweety asked me... what's the point staying up for the Super Bowl.... And i didn't stay up for the halftime show... after all, what's the point... pfff... now i missed Janet's Super Bowl Breast!
Watch the nipple slip video (after the Dutch commercial) of Janet Jackson and her breast... Maybe she can enter next years Boobie-Thon, if there is one.
There´s a growing anti-America sentiment in Europe and now also in The Netherlands. The government owned tv stations go out of their way to show how stupid Americans are and how going to war in Iraq was a bad, bad thing to do. Now, maybe the Dutch news agencies just missed the story about Saddam supporters receiving lucrative oil contracts, because they where busy with the 'Dike flood threat'. But i don´t think so. I think a story that explains that some where against the war in Iraq because of oil interests, doesn´t fit into the anti-American storytelling.
George Galloway, a British member of Parliament and vocal critic of the Iraq war, received 19 million barrels of oil from Sadam, a $9.5 million profit. Indonesia President Megawati Sukarnoputri, an outspoken opponent of U.S.-Iraq policy, received a contract for 10 million barrels of oil — about a $5 million profit.
This all accoring to ABCNEWS.
First in my series "Everything is better in America" is Museums. Now i'm not a big museum fanatic. And that's a shame because in The Netherlands there are famous works that draw a croud from all over the world. Like Rembrandt's Night Watch, the van Gogh Museum and eh... and more!
During our visit to New York Sweety and i visited a couple of museums and i noticed the professional approach and great collection of the museums. I wondered: why the difference? Well i found a few plain and simple reasons why American museums are better than Dutch. It's always about money. Dutch museums get 80% of their budget from the government while US museums get just 20% of their money from the government. The colections are made out of gifts from the public and companies to the community. Why does this help them be better? Well, American museums have to earn most of their income. They have to perform and be in touch with the community, Dutch museum just have to be there. Another big difference is that Dutch museums are ofter run by one person, often a historican, under great influence from the government. US museums are run by a Board of Trustees where often business people with serious experience take seat. Hence the proffesional approach i experienced. Overall US museums offer great collections and publications and a committed audience.
Here are some of the museums Sweety and i visited and liked.
Guggenheim Museum
American Museum of Natural History
Elsevier magazine ran an article this week called "Everything is better in America". The article handles 14 fields on which things are better in America. Thanks Elsevier for giving me so much blogging information, it's just a shame you guys didn't mention my site in the article :)
I'll use the information in the article as inspiration the coming weeks, so expect to agree with Elsevier and me.... Everything is better in America!
Wednesday evening i had a communication training at Qmagic. It was basicly more of the same.... T-Mobile had good training so not much new this time. But it was fun anyhow, although the pizza was cold when i got there. The guy that gave the training did a good job at entertaining us. There were a total of just 6 people taking the training and it was remarkable to see that half that group wanted to leave The Netherlands.... asap :)
One wants to move to Canada, one to Venezuela and (as if you don't know) i want to move to the USA. So 50% wants to move... why would that be.
We had one thing in common. We all want more space, in The Netherlands we have 16 million people living on just 33,883 sq km of land. To compare, in the USA there are 290 million people on 9,158,960 sq km. Canada has just 32 million on 9,093,507 sq km.... wow... what a space!!!
Anybody out there......? No.... hardly :)
First the worst news of the day. Most of you don't know my brother so won't care much but today he was told he'll be fired! That's actually better over here than in the States, you have much better job protection. So he isn't unemployed... yet. But it will happen and i really feel sorry for him. But i do see great oppertunity comming his way.
Now about the train. Sweety (great site) and i are staying at her parents place, read here why. Their house is just five minutes walking from a trainstation and it's all paid parking at my work. So, i take the train from here to The Hague and then a bus to work. I know... i shouldn't have said last week that this public transport thing was perfectly working for me....
So Sweety and i were in the train at ugly The Hague Central Station, ready to get home after a long day at work. It was time for the train to leave.... it didn't... that's nothing special, in 2003 just 83,1% of the NS trains left our dirty stinking Dutch stations in time. But this time we had to take a bus, the train wasn't going anywhere.
In the USA, Amtrak trains arrive on time 95% of the time. Now, for some reason in The Netherlands there is a lot of discussion about trains leaving on-time and not arriving on time. I'd rahter leave late and arrive on-time than the other way around. But anyhow, if you have to take the train to work, you're better of in America.
I'm so happy!!! When i was walking from work to the bus i saw a sign that read "There's No Taste Like Home". I stopped to take a look and a there's a new store in my rainy Dutch city of The Hague: Expatshopping... they offer a wide range of British and American products. And i'm very interested in the American products. Our good friends Kev & Mel gave us a superb cookingbook, based on american products. Now i hope we can buy them at Expatshopping :)
And for all you people in the States that want to order Dutch products. Visit Holland's Best or Holland American. They both sell speculaas, Venco drop and.... duh Dutch Cheese :)
In previous posts i had some complaints about Dutch police and justice. Those where just my opinion and based on my personal experience. So i decided to do so research to come up with independent facts. Here they are and they support our dream to move to the States.
Continue reading Crime.
The two officers that came to our house yesterday said we should go to the police station today to file charges againt the neighbour that forced his way in our home yesterday and threatened to kill us. We had to call the station and make an appointment with a detective because our neighbour is a ''known suspect". That means he's been in contact with police before. So this morning i called to see at what time we could come by.
Well, first i had to talk talk talk to convince the officer who anwsered the phone to connect me through with a detective. Then i told the detective why i was calling, she wrote everything down and said she would call me back after reading everything about last night in the computer. She did call back but only to inform me that there was nothing about yesterday in the computer..... uh, let me see... we called 112 (Dutch 911) twice, called directly to the station twice, two officers came to our place and said they would put it all in the system and now they can't find anything? Sigh.... Dutch Police
But, who needs the report from those officers? I don't! We can file charges without them. The detective told me she would talk it over with the IVD, something like Sherrif i guess, the boss. She'll call us back to make an appointment to file charges. She did warn us that what our neighbour did will probably not be enough for the OM (district attorney) to actually DO anything.
Basicly she told me a threat is not a threat untill you're almost dead.....
Welcome to The Netherlands.
Today our friendly angry neighbour aka the drunk capdriver paid us a visit. The two of us managed to kick him out of our house. Read all about this, and more thrilling neighbour stories at Hello World It's Me.
For the record. Our landlord is "Groothuizen & Mauritz" who work on behave of "Brinkel & Jansen". Posting their names gives them free publicity. It's up to them whether it's good or bad :)
I want to move as far away as possible from the neighbours we have right now.... can i get a Greencard now?
Read more about our neigbhours at Sweety's site...
I know there are some major developing stories at the moment. The wildfires in California, Duncan Smith voted out and something with Russian miners.
But today The Netherlands are also in a major CCN newsstory....
Why is it that when The Netherlands is mentioned it's either about sex, drug or both? Like mentioned in the story it's true that we are keener to ban violence than sex from tv. Maybe both should be behind some decoder.
Anyway, read all about "This Is How You Screw" and how bestiality on the internet is making sex programs loose their audience.....
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....
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).
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 Government´s 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 i´m so sure, even more after today, that the ban would increase sales and thus create job! But who am i?
US gas prices zoomed at a record pace during the past two weeks, increasing by more than 15 cents per gallon to a national average of $1.72, according to cnn. But you know what? In The Netherlands we pay $1.30.... per liter! That's $4.92 per gallon.
It surprises me still.... a lot of things are so expensive in The Netherlands that it is cheaper to by it on a different continent and ship it! Like the clothes our friends brought back for us from the States. We ordered them by phone at Macy's and had them delivered to Mel's sister in Atlanta.
Or the Canon powershot Cristin got. The best buy she found in The Netherlands was $454, so she had it deliverd to her dad in the US for $289 and he shipped it for $30.... that's $226 saving!
Or the books i ordered last week, to get just one in a local bookstore was the same price as to get both online from the UK. Holland is expensive....
Sometimes i feel so tired of the Dutch way of thinking. Or is it just human nature maybe? Anyway, let me just expectorate.....
Dutch farmers say the government is accountable for the damage caused by recent dry weather and high temperatures.... That´s like the me saying Levi's is responsible when a bird shits on my jeans.
There was a typically Dutch news item on tv today. One i wouldn't expect in the USA. The last few weeks the weather was uncommonly warm, even hot. And the Dutch like to complain so they complained about the weather a lot. Oh, it's to hot! And since there's not much else happening in The Netherlands, the tv has been wasting airtime to let people tell about how the warm weather is affecting their lives. Yesterday the florist could complain about how the flowers grow faster as a result of the high temperatures. And to make thing even worse, people aren't buying as much flowers as when it's cold!
Today a different group of entrepreneurs got their go. The pimps, prostitutes and mistresses. Yes, really... a five minute news item about how the prostitution industry is suffering from the warm weather. It turns out that when the weather is hot, the horny guys are not. The pimp was putting up a "for rent" sign. The prostitute was smoking some pot on the beach. The mistresses was weeping in her dungeon... such an awful sight.
You know there's actually a union for prostitutes in The Netherlands. I think they'll start lobbying for a tax deduction for airconditioners soon. Yes, in The Netherlands prostitution is taxed. In Holland you really can get screwed by the government, so to speak.
Click here to get more info about prostitution in The Netherlands.
Continue reading Prostitutes to Hot to Handle.
I've found this study by David F. Duncan, Dr.P.H., CAS, and Thomas Nicholson, Ph.D. It's about the Dutch Opium Act and how the US can learn from it. In The Netherlands we don't have a war on drugs, some drugs are tolerated. It's a nice, scientific and theoretical study and i would like to add my own 27 years of experience with the Dutch policy. It's not all that....
Continue reading Dutch Drug Policy: A Model for America?.
I've found a site about Dutch emigration to Michigan. We've been to Michigan twice and really liked it. Heck, we could live there! When you're there the Dutch influence and heritage is very obvious. You see a lot of Dutch family names and cities like Holland. There's also the annual Tulip Time Festival!
Click here for From Holland to Holland.
The desperate Cuban migrants that took a '51 Chevy and build a boat gave me a great idea! Sweety and i want to move to the States and i figured that we could try the same thing. If the Cubans can do it, the Dutch can do it! We've alway been a nation of seafarers. We've conquered the sea before! So i bought a beautiful red VW Beetle. Now all we need is to get the engine running again and some drums to make it float. Can you help us out?
Dutch Cheese and American Pie, what do i mean when i say that? Since i was born and raised in The Netherlands i'll always be a bit like Dutch Cheese, a cheese-head (not this one, they're ridiculous). Very down-to-earth and a bit boring even. I'd like to move to the USA and be more like an American Pie. It represents comfort, wholesomeness, and family values. Where an American Pie tastes better warm, Dutch cheese should be served cold. Dutch cheese gets better over time, an American Pie isn't getting better by leaving it on the shelf for some weeks. American Pie is made with Love, Dutch Cheese with milk. Don't get me wrong, i like Dutch Cheese, its very functional, it gives you energy and it's cheap. But American Pie has that little something extra, a shine.
More about Dutch Cheese:
Cheese
Order some Beemster
More about American Pie:
My, My American Pie
Farmers’ Almanac
Well, Sweety and I want to move to the states. It's not that we hate The Netherlands, or is it? Anyway, we want to try something else, expereince a differed culture and we've been to the States a couple of times and really liked it there. So this Dutch couple dicided to move to the states. And that's not as easy as buying a plane ticket. A lot of steps are to be taking in order to stay in the US for longer than 90 days. As a Dutch citizen we don't need a visa for the first 90 days, as long as we don't work or study in the US. When we want to stay longer or work there, we need some kind of visa or be a winner in the Diversity Visa Lottery.
On this weblog i'll be posting the steps we take and the results we get. They'll be in the "Move to the USA" category. I hope it will be helpfull for other people who want to move to the States and do not have a family or employer who can get them there. And maybe it's even fun to read :)
