Posts from ‘April, 2009’

If you’ve come here via the Radio Netherlands website, you’ve probably already heard about the disaster today.
But in case you haven’t, basically, a car was driven through a crowd of people watching the Queen visit the city of Apeldoorn. Four people were killed and 13 injured. The driver, a native Dutchman, was arrested but sent [...]

April 30th: Koninginnedag!
Koninginnedag, or Queen’s Day, celebrates the former Queen Juliana’s birthday. When her daughter Beatrix succeeded her on Queen’s Day 1980, she decided to keep the holiday on April 30 as a tribute to her mother. (The decision was made easier by the fact that the weather on her own birthday (January 31) would [...]

Obviously, Dutch forces in Uruzgan have many encounters with Afghans. These encounters could involve the interrogation of a captured insurgent, a friendly meeting with a tribal leader, or a session teaching local police officers investigation techniques.
Of course, there aren’t too many Dutch people that speak local Afghan languages… and there aren’t [...]

This week on Curious Orange (the radio show)…
It’s part two of our series on the Dutch in Afghanistan - “Just Doing My Job”.
We’ll hear stories of soldiers working, fighting, and rebuilding in Afghanistan… including the guy who walks in front of the trucks - scanning for road-side bombs, a police officer who volunteered to go [...]

I know, you’ve already seen a lot of my photos of spring time in Holland… don’t worry, this isn’t more floral photos… it’s a video!!
Last week I went to Heemstede, a suburb of Haarlem, to meet Jan Brouwer and Chris Cornet, two members of “Groei en Bloei” (”Grow and Bloom”), the Royal Dutch Horticultural Society. [...]

“Oh, sh**.” I roll over and fall back asleep.
A few minutes later:”F***.”
“Uuh…” My girlfriend reacts, still sleeping. She roles over, and pulls the covers up.
“C’mon, we gotta get up. It’s past seven.”
Friday morning, and we’ve overslept. Both kids have to get to school. But the youngest hasn’t been sleeping well the whole week, and the [...]

I was on the edge of my seat. You could hear a pin drop in the hall. Mariette Hamer walked from her seat, deliberately but without haste, a few paces, up two stairs, put her paper on the triangular podium, and turned to face her colleagues.

Adjust the microphone; deep breath.

This is the moment everyone has [...]

This blog started as a collaboration between Political Editor John Tyler, Dutch Affairs Specialist Robert Chesal, and the Curious Orange Duo (ie, Michel and me).
While Michel and I were in Afghanistan, John and Robert went AWOL (just can’t stop with the army terminology…)… but now that we’re back it’s no longer going to be All [...]

General Tom Middendorp and Civilian Representative Joep Wijnands share control of the TFU - Task Force Uruzgan (you’ll get used to all the acronyms, I promise). As you might imagine, the General is more or less in charge of the military side of things while the Civ Rep (that’s what they call him) is in [...]

This week on Curious Orange (the radio show)…
We’ve got the first in a 4-part series of Dutch-in-Afghanistan shows. This week we’ll stick with the basics and “Define the Mission” - we’ll tell you why the Dutch are there and what civilians, soldiers, and politicians think about it.
We’ll also tell you what the Dutch doing, how [...]