Abortion rights in the Netherlands

I saw a whole lot of police on the Dam square this afternoon, and wandered over to see what the protest was this time.
It’s protest to preserve women’s right to have an abortion, and it’s there as a counter a march from “Screeuw om leven” (Scream for life).
Their pamphlet points out that there are worrying [...]

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Prinsjesdag

Yesterday was Prinsjesdag, it falls on the third Tuesday in September and it’s the day on which the Queen addresses the Senate and the House of Representatives, and the budget is presented. Most years it’s not a particularly interesting day, the Dutch economy is relatively strong and stable (well apart from the crisis).
But this year [...]

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Pro Choice

The church near my house, the Noorderkerk, has been defaced with “pro choice” spray painted on the doors of the church.
Abortion is legal here, and is generally considered a woman’s right to chose. Although the law guaranteeing that was granted by a narrow majority we don’t have the radical pro-life movement picketing abortion clinics [...]

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Ai! Amsterdam

I’ve seen a few of these signs around town and wondered what they related to. Today I took a look at the website to find out what it’s all about. The name is a play on the “I Amsterdam” name used for the campaign by the city council to promote Amsterdam.
They’ve produced a manifesto which [...]

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Anti-Islam party wins 4 seats in EU election

… and the party’s leader calls for the Dutch government to stand down.
The man needs to go back to school and learn some maths, and then relearn democracy.
Firstly here are the results;
There’s a summary of the parties available on Wikipedia.
The election results show several changes, big losses for CDA and PvdA, two of the three [...]

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Time to Vote

If you’re an EU citizen that is.
This billboard was set up on beursplein and relates to the upcoming election. The three images indicate a camera, a fingerprint and an immigration officer.
The slogan reads “How much control will we tolerate?”

Within 50 metres I spotted this surveillance camera monitoring Damrak.
It may be monitoring traffic or linked to [...]

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John Lennon’s Bed-in: The Forty Year Anniversary

This month is the fortieth anniversary of the “Bed in“, the protest for peace held in Suite 702 of the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam. There is a photo exhibition of the bed-in protest in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono used the media attention surrounding their wedding to promote the cause [...]

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Dutch Economy

We’re in a recession. The economic signs are all there, and so are the physical signs. I’ve noticed more “for sale” signs on apartment windows, and a number of businesses have closed.
However according to Bloomberg the Dutch economy is doing better than other EU economies
In the EU’s ranking of countries meeting the so-called Lisbon targets, [...]

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Terrorism in Amsterdam

Ruined my day.
There was a real threat of terrorism in Amsterdam today, apparently 7 people have been arrested so far and more arrests may occur. This was following an intercepted phone call which gave specific details of an attack in the south east of Amsterdam – naming Mediamarkt and IKEA as target stores.
As luck would [...]

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Go home Wilders

Geert Wilders, the right wing MP who has campaigned against Islam, and worked to ban or even destroy the Koran. The man who has angered Muslims across the world by producing a biased film casting Islam as a violent and agressive religion. The man who now needs a security detail which is funded by the [...]

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