Posts under ‘Political(ish) stories’

So the Dutch army runs into Taliban insurgents pretty often. These encounters are often violent… and sometimes the Dutch capture some of the militants.
Which got me curious… were there detainees on the base? While we were there? There must have been… but we never saw any “detainment center”… and nobody ever talked [...]

It’s been one week now since a guy drove his car headlong into a crowd of people on Queen’s Day. Seven people were killed. 15 metres separated the royal family from disaster. The bus that the queen and her relatives were travelling in was apparently the target.
A horrendous tragedy. It’s led to hand-wringing about whether [...]

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 [...]

“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 [...]

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 [...]

Last night 4 rockets were fired at TK.
Two fell outside the camp.
One landed in the Afghan National Army compound. The other landed just outside the compound in Kamp Holland.
One Dutch soldier - Azdin Chadli - was killed. Five other Dutch soldiers and two Afghan soldiers were also wounded. Two of the wounded were flown here [...]

The sun was shining brightly in my window this morning, and I looked forward to a warm spring day. But when I stepped out the door, I had to shiver from the cold: the temperature was just above freezing.
Made me think of all the contradictions in the air these days.
The ultra-capitalist government of the US [...]

“The worst recession since the 1930s.”
“The situation is exceptionally grave.”
“This country faces a great ordeal.”
17 February 2009. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende
That was one month ago, when new figures showed just how badly the Dutch economy was doing.
I’ve never seen the prime minister look so somber or so glum. The weight of the world, or [...]

This week on Curious Orange, Radio Netherland’s reporter Marcel deCraene gave us a story about the Dutch doing business in Vietnam - apparently Dutch businesses are heading to Hanoi in record numbers.
You can (um, and probably should, if you’re going to read further) listen to the story here.
But to give you a brief summary, Marcel spoke [...]