We All Need A Song

Thousand of high school students have stormed the streets of Dutch cities over the past couple days to protest a law that mandates 1,040 hours of classroom time. Enforcement of this law has apparently led to so-called "useless hours", where schools with a lack of lessons or teachers force the students to stay in the classrooms anyway in order to fulfil their legal obligations.

How angry has this made the students?

Well....

I'm a pampered North American; my worst experience with strikes is having to deal with the inconvenience of not having my trash picked up. Welcome to Europe!

Police doused students with a water cannon at Amsterdam's Museum Square and charged on horseback into the crowd of about 1,000 after students pelted them with rocks, apples and bottles. Police said 15 people were arrested and two officers suffered minor injuries.

Television footage showed students throwing eggs at the entrance to the parliament building in The Hague and at the headquarters of NOS, the national broadcaster, in
Hilversum.

Remember, these are 15- and 16-year-olds. How did they get so organized?

Students spread word to join protests on Friday and Monday using online and mobile phone text messages.

Shoulda known....

Parliament is set to debate the issue on Wednesday, so the ruckus should be over soon.

Hey, it could worse. I could be living in France.

(Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Things I've Learned: Muppets Are Contagious

If you have a problem with kids singing the same gibberish song over and over and over again, do not show them this video.

Afghanistan

Big news in these parts: the newspapers this morning are all reporting that the Dutch government will extend their military mission in Afghanistan by another two years, until 2010.

There was a lot of pressure on the government here as their mandate was the first to expire, originally set for August 2008. The decisions of other governments to extend their mandates, particularly Australia's and Canada's, were seen to be heavily influenced by what the Dutch decided to do.

The Netherlands currently has about 1600 soldiers in Uruzgan province. Twelve soldiers have died during the deployment. They lead a Provincial Reconstruction Team headquartered in the provincial capitol of Tarin Kowt. On the map below, in the center south, you can see that it is directly north of where the Canadian PRT team is in Kandahar.


The mission is not popular here; it is hard for me to find news sources in English, but I've seen polls quoting only 30% of the population being in favour of extending the mandate. The Dutch have the sixth largest contribution of forces among NATO countries in Afghanistan and are one of only a handful of countries which allow its soldiers to engage in combat with the Taliban.

The extension will see the number of Dutch soldiers fall to around 1200 but France, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have all promised to send small numbers of troops to help. There has been and will continue to be a significant number of Australian soldiers in the province, as well as American special forces.

For context, there are currently about 2500 Canadian soldiers in Kandahar. 73 soldiers and 1 diplomat have been killed. The current mandate lasts until February 2009 and was established by the Liberals under Paul Martin. Stephen Harper has stated that he intends to extend the mandate until 2011, but will only do so with parliamentary consensus.

Nobody I've talked to about it here is in favour of extending the mission, although I suspect this has something to do with the circle of people I've met. A month ago, when discussing the Myanmar military junta killing protestors, throwing monks in jail, and disabling all media and cutting off internet access throughout the country, somebody said "Yeah, but is George Bush any better?" I was once asked how Canadian people compare to Dutch people. "Canadians are not as superficial as Americans, are they?" the lady enquired. When Pakistan came up, the real shame was not religious extremism or Musharraf's power grab--it was, of course, America's financial support for Pakistan's military.

Anyway, Canada's parliament will be debating the Afghanistan question soon. Will be interesting to see what happens.

(Pictures and links via The Torch)

November 18: Skating In Utrecht

It's been a busy week; Hans went off on a trip to Brazil so I've had a bit more work to do than usual.

Yesterday, while on our way to visit friends of the family in Rotterdam, we decided to stop by a rink in Utrecht to go public skating.

I bought myself skates last week because, after finding out what a big hockey fan I was (and enduring my emotional highs and lows while watching Canucks games), Hans spoke to one of his friends who helps organizes a hockey school for kids here. The school is chronically short of people to help run the training exercises, so on Sunday mornings I've been going to a rink in Amsterdam to help Dutch kids learn hockey.

I bought the skates from a crazy lady in a nearby town who sells them out of her huge garage in her backyard. There were so many boxes of skates in there that she could barely walk through it to find pairs for me to look at. She kept handing me these really crappy skates that were basically a hard plastic shell with a sock inside--possibly made by Fisher Price or Nickelodeon. Finally she pulled out a pair and said "Now, these ones are from Canada, and they're a bit more expensive, but--" I cut her off and told her that those were the ones I wanted.

I should add that in Canada I'm a terribly mediocre hockey player, but I'm considered a superstar here as soon as I strap my skates on. I've already been asked to join teams but I'm not really interested in shelling out a bunch of money for equipment!

In general, ice hockey is almost non-existant in Holland, but skating itself is quite popular. Speed skating ovals are scattered around the country and the Dutch come out in full force to skate endless loops around them. If the winters are cold enough you can apparently skate for miles on the extensive canal networks--hopefully we can do that this year.

Unfortunately I forgot to charge my batteries before the trip so I wasn't able to take many pictures. The first two here are from the outdoor speed skating oval. That's Job in the second one.

There was also an indoor rink which had the worst ice I've ever skated on. While everyone was allowed on the outdoor rink, no speed skaters were allowed inside, so most of the skaters here were pretty bad!

Lieselot and Thom:



Merel and Job:



Me and Thom:



Merel giving her nicest smile:

After skating around for about 15 minutes on the indoor rink, doing laps and zipping in and out of everyone else, I had a couple hooligans around my age skate up to me and, after establishing my language, ask if I wanted to "play" with them. It felt like something out of The Mighty Ducks (You know, when they find that guy who shoots the 'knuckle pucks'). I said "Play what?" And the guy said that they skate around and try to catch each other. I declined, officially for the reason that I was there with young kids, but also because tag is something you play when you're in Grade 5.

November 3: Rotterdam

Warning: this post contains a poetic device. (Take heed, Michael Howe).

Last weekend I decided to venture down to Rotterdam, the second largest city in The Netherlands and Europe's largest port (and the busiest in the world until Shanghai overtook it in 2004--damn Chinese).

With this trip I've pretty much covered the "Randstad", which is the region outlined by Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht. The Randstad is essentially a metropolis that contains almost half the entire population of the country. It's among the most densely populated regions in the world.

You know how forest fires are supposed to have benefits? After the fire blows through, new growth takes place and the forest goes through a rebirth.

Well, Rotterdam is kinda like that.

As I mentioned in the War Monuments post, Rotterdam was bombed by the Germans in World War II after the Dutch tried to resist the invasion. 800 people died, 80 000 were left homeless, and the city center was almost completely destroyed.

For that reason, Rotterdam wasn't high up on my list of places to visit. I'm a history major; I want to see old stuff. Well, I needn't have worried. In the past few decades Rotterdam has made the conscious decision to make the city a mecca of unique and modern architecture.

The forest begins anew...

(Of course, for the metaphor to stick, you have to remember that the fire wasn't started by natural causes--say, lightning--but by a manmade cause--say, racially-charged Jew-hating fascists with blowtorches.)

You remember my view when emerging from the station in Amsterdam?



Well, this is what greets you when you step out of Rotterdam Central:




Yep; this place is different than anywhere else I've been so far.

Here are some of the buildings I noticed.















This is a brilliant stroke of urban planning; now, Rotterdam is still a visually interesting place to visit, but in a completely different way than any other Dutch city. Architecture references were everywhere; in the tourist information booths there are loads of flyers detailing all the awards different buildings in the city have won. You can buy 3D puzzles and plastic models of various skycrapers.

In one of the information centers there was an entire model of the downtown with the significant buildings highlighted and explained. (The large blue one is a prospective tower and obviously out of proportion with the rest of the city--it was hard to tell because nothing here was in English.)



As I mentioned, the port is the largest in Europe (which is why it was a big deal when it was closed last week.)

This is sort of a panorama view going from right-to-left.






A major bridge spanning the waterway is the Erasmus Bridge. It's nicknamed the Swan for the bend in its "neck".



With almost all of its historic buildings destroyed, you can imagine that the city suffers from a serious case of steeple-envy.

Well, I'd say Rotterdam has more than compensated with this impressively phallic structure: the Euromast.




The Euromast complies with the regulation that all major Dutch projects must be sponspored by its national institution: Heineken beer.



It's also a bit of a well-kept secret to outsiders that the best nightlife in Holland is actually not in Amsterdam, but here. Rotterdam's downtown shopping district is modern, funky, and lively. If you are a Cool Person, then this is Where It's At. (notice how I speak in third person when I say that).






Somehow the city hall survived the bombings.



The only museum I visited while was the National Architecture Institute. It actually wasn't very good. I didn't really learn anything there.



This is a fountain with some giraffe statues. Fun!



This, I think, is an outdoor concert stage. Neato!



So that's Rotterdam. Too bad the weather was so crap-tastic.

I'm working on plans to go London in about two weeks. That will be exciting.

Lest We Forget

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae

Lest we forget.

Things I've Learned: Radar Love Is Dutch!

Did you know Golden Earring is from Holland? I didn't.

That is, I didn't until I was working on my computer, listening to some good ol' classics, and Hans' ears perked up when this song came on.

(Watching the video confirms it; they sure look Dutch alright--especially their androgynous guitarist).

Mother Nature

Things were a bit dramatic here over the past day.

You remember this picture from my trip to Zeeland?



Well, it turns out they build those flood gates, which are found in various locations all around the country, for a reason.

Dutch port authorities prepared to close Europe's largest harbor in Rotterdam to defend against storm surges predicted for later Thursday, officials said.

Coastal authorities were put on the highest weather alert since 1976.

If forecasts of 4-meter-high (13-feet) surges and winds of 100 kph (60 mph) prove true, the new Maeslant Barrier protecting the mouth of Rotterdam Port will close for the first time under storm conditions, Traffic and Water Ministry spokeswoman Cleo Vissers said. That would halt all ship traffic.

The storm was not expected to breach any of the dikes and dunes that protect the Netherlands, where more than two-thirds of the 16 million population lives below sea level.

Jan Kroos, spokesman of the Storm Flood Warning Service, told NOS state television that people should not be too worried. "We presume our water defenses will do what they're supposed to do," he said.

Hans told me that this is the highest water levels the country has seen in fifty years. As Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans showed us, things can get pretty nasty when you combine high water levels with large populations living below sea level.

Fortunately:

Ten-metre-high waves beat the North Sea coast of the Netherlands overnight, but damage caused by the storm remained limited. The association of insurance companies VvV said on Friday the damage due to the storm was "limited" and estimated it at no more than 500,000 euros (736,000 dollars).

[...]

The harbour of Vlieland, one of the northern islands in the North Sea, flooded Friday morning. Flooding also occurred in Terschelling and Ameland, two other islands in the North Sea.

Strong winds of 100kph are not exceptional for this time of the year in the Netherlands, but it is the combination of wind direction, rain and a seawater level that was already high prior to the storm that caused the state of alert.

In Harlingen, a town bordering on the north-east coast of the country, the seawater level rose to 3.4 metres above the so-called New Amsterdam Waterlevel (NAP), the standard used to establish the altitude of the water.

Near Rotterdam, the level stood at 2.84 metres above NAP while in Zeeland, in the south-west, the sea level rose to 3.43 metres, the third highest level since the Delta water defence system in the Zeeland province has been built.

Late Thursday night, all Dutch water defence systems along the North Sea coast, such as the Maeslant and Hartel defence systems near Rotterdam, had been automatically closed due to the high water level.

Istanbul Bound

So I've booked my first big trip across Europe. Actually, it's not even in Europe.

I'm over here, well, let's just say 'unofficially'. I don't have a work visa, I just have the 3-month tourist visa that a Canadian gets when one lands in the European Union. On December 22, my three months are up.

When I got here my host family said that we could do the paperwork to get a proper visa, but it would cost about 450 euros and take a long time. Another option would be to just use that money for me to travel outside of the EU because when I come back in I'll get a new 3-month stamp.

Hmm......tough choice!

So, I'm off to Turkey on December 14th. I'm going with a good friend, Lindsay, who's an aupair living just over the border in Belgium. She came up last week to see me and we hit a few Amsterdam museums.

I'm pretty excited. Istanbul, known previously as Byzantine and Constantinople, is one of the most historically significant cities in the world. It straddles the only opening to the Black Sea, making its geographic location extremely strategic. A history dork could spend months there without a boring day.

I'll wait to say more about Turkey itself until I go there, but it's a fascinating place to keep an eye on. It encapsulates so much of the tension in the world right now--the clash between secular democracy and Islamic sharia rule.

Turkey also currently has about 100,000 troops along the border with Iraq and has been threatening very seriously over the past month to invade. A group called the PKK, a Kurdish separtist group, has carried out many terrorist attacks across Turkey over the past decade and operates out of the northern Iraqi Kurdish region.

So, hopefully there isn't a massive regional war being fought when I go.

(pictures used in this post are from here)