Students going crazy at university are usually depicted in films as gross exaggerations of what actually happens. Not this time, however, with a video surfacing online of a student association in Utrecht, UVSV, visiting Rotterdam student association, RSC/RVSV, where an annual ‘friendly fight’ turned nasty.
The video shows students wrestling with one another and wrenching each others hair, in the most unfriendly way possible. Saskia van Bergen, vice-president of the Rotterdam student association, told RTL Nieuws she understands for outsiders the images may give the wrong impression.
“Our society committee has intervened as much as possible with some first-year students who went too far, such as pulling their hair,” she said, adding that some students also yelled things that crossed a line for the organisers, although didn’t give a specific example.
Was this hazing?
People have questioned whether the activities shown in the hectic video are a result of hazing, given their violent nature.
Hazing is considered “any action taken or any situation created intentionally that causes embarrassment, harassment or ridicule and risks emotional and/or physical harm to members of a group or team, whether new or not, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate.”
Watch the student fight in the video below (the video has been blurred to protect identities, but you can still see all the action):
It is a term associated with new university students who must take part in challenges to achieve entry in a university group.
However, the student groups deny that it is a hazing activity. Van Bergen explained to RTL Nieuws that the fight is an annual tradition and is entirely for fun. “The visit usually starts with fighting for a few minutes. Everyone does this voluntarily and it is not about hazing.”
No injuries reported
The student associations say there were no injuries, and it is not as serious as the video depicts it to be. “After the traditional 5 minutes of pushing and pulling, the party was celebrated together in all conviviality”, Van Bergen assures.
What do you think of the video? Hazing or innocent fun? Let us know in the comments below.
Teachers in primary and secondary education in the Netherlands will hold good on their promise of a national strike on November 6 if the government did not respond to their demand of 423.5 million euros to be invested in the education sector next year, reports NOS.
According to the national unions, they never responded to these demands when they were previously announced. They say they require this money to tackle the problems of teacher shortages, work pressure, and meagre salaries of the teachers.
What will happen during the teacher strike on November 6?
The teachers had held one other strike in the Netherlands on March 15 where they demonstrated at Malieveld where more than half of the primary schools in the Netherlands had to suspend classes. This time, they are hoping to raise awareness through social media. “On 15 March we were at the Malieveld as an AOb with 40,000 teachers and supporters. And now there is this distress signal from all unions and from employers. The minister really cannot ignore these signals,” says AOb chairman Liesbeth Verheggen.
They chose November 6 as this will be the day that the House of Representatives will be discussing the education sector budget for 2020. The education union AOb says, “you are probably familiar with the image: politicians looking at their phones during the debates. So we [will] ensure that our message appears there. We cannot be ignored if we have their attention at that time. Wednesday, November 6, is, therefore, the ultimate opportunity to influence the budget and get extra money for education.”
They will also be organising regional events where the teachers will come together to discuss the budget and the problems they’ve been having. You can find more information on this on AOb’s website.
Why does the education sector need 423.5 million euros?
The so-called emergency package was demanded so as to reduce workload, have the capacity to hire more teachers and provide decent wages for the teachers they already have.
Reducing workload in primary education
They say 241.5 million euros would go towards primary education where it will be utilized to reduce the workload of the teachers. According to AOb, the workload of the teachers are too harmful to them where they would rather work fewer hours. They also have older teachers quitting earlier than they would as the pressure is getting immense.
In regards to secondary education, they want around 91 million euros allocated for the same reason, where they will reduce 50 hours of lessons and improve the quality of education every child receives.
Better working conditions
They also would require around 91 million to improve the working conditions of staff in schools which are located in “disadvantaged areas”. The trade union and employers say, “these schools have a big motion to attract teachers. That poses a direct threat to the quality of education and leads to an even greater opportunity inequality of students.”
Bridging the pay gap between primary and secondary school teachers
They say they will require 185 million euros in 2020 so that teachers in both types of schools are paid comparable wages. This money would go to primary education again.
They also demand 16.5 million euros to improve the wages of teachers “in the diploma-oriented part of special education”.
Will you be supporting the teacher’s strike on November 6? Let us know in the comments below!
Mercer ranked 37 different countries according to their adequacy, sustainability, and integrity. The Netherlands scores 88.3 points in integrity and is in the top three for the other two categories. They say it is better than other pension systems studied because of economic growth and better accessibility to work.
They also say that the country can improve on the sustainability front by encouraging retirees to work at an older age as the general life expectancy of the people increases.
But they said it could be higher if people started saving more and paid off their debts, reports NU.nl. It is the first of its kind to study the so-called “wealth effect” where people feel like they can spend more as their wealth starts to increase. They found a direct correlation between pension assets and an increase in wealth – as pension assets increase, people feel richer and are more likely to borrow.
Best in the world despite concerns in the country
Despite having concerns within the country about reducing the pension, the Dutch system is still ranked as the best in the world. “We are critical with each other, and that is also good because only then can you continue to guarantee quality. But sometimes it is good to cherish your blessings through this type of research and realise that we are doing very well worldwide,” says Marc Heemskerk, a pension expert at Mercer.
It was announced last week that the coverage ratio has fallen wherePensioenfonds ABP (National Civil Pension Fund), the largest pension fund in the Netherlands, saw a decrease in coverage from 95.3% to 91%. The third-largest fund, BpfBouw, also saw a decrease but is still at 108.1%, reports NU.nl.
Autumn is rolling out all of its beautiful colours, it’s getting chilly outside, and you’re making your homes as gezellig as possible to prepare for the oncoming winter. Should you layer up in raincoats and get your umbrellas out this week, though? You may not have to because starting tomorrow, it’s going to be the driest week in October, reports RTL Nieuws.
For anyone looking to enjoy a nice walk around the wooded areas in the Netherlands can rejoice! There was a bit of rain this morning, but it’s gradually going to get better as the day progresses. It is going to be cloudy with just a hint of sunshine breaking through in the afternoon. It will be around 14-17 degrees with moderate wind blowing through the country.
In the night, there’s going to be some rain in the western provinces and coastal areas of the country but it should stay mostly dry, reports Weeronline. Expect pleasant temperatures of 8-10 degrees.
But will the sun be shining through?
Starting from tomorrow, it’s going to get drier with only a few light showers. But no rain does not mean the sun will be shining through because there might be thick fog which might be difficult for it to breakthrough. But when it does manage to do that, the temperatures are set to go up to 20 degrees on Thursday in Limburg. The rest of the country will have to endure lower temperatures of 18 degrees.
How are you going to enjoy the driest week in October? Let us know in the comments below!
If the first time fails, try and try again? Not anymore! If PostNL is one of your preferred delivery services to use, then you will have to get the package from one of their locations because they will no longer be attempting to deliver the package a second time if the first attempt failed.
They will be sending the package to a PostNL delivery location, where you will have to pick it up within a week after delivery. One of the reasons they are doing this is to reduce CO2 emissions and to maximise their delivery capacity which will be needed with Sinterklaas and Christmas right around the corner.
Customers prefer to pick it up from a collection point
The hard workers at PostNL are delivering around 800,000 packages a day, where 95% of them are successful on the first attempt, according to NU.nl. But out of the 5 % of packages that are not delivered, it is common for the second attempt to also be unsuccessful.
The company also said to NU.nl that most customers prefer to have their packages delivered to a PostNL location. “After all, these packages will be available the day before,” the company said. So instead of the delivery person carrying it around for another day, customers are able to pick it up the following day.
Having it delivered to your neighbours
This does not affect the option of having it delivered to your neighbours instead. However, if they are also not at home, it will be given to a collection point.
Would this make your life easier or harder? Let us know in the comments below!
If you were passing an ATM and saw those sparkling 500 euro notes poking out of the machine with no one in the vicinity, what would you do? Walk up to the machine, grab the money and make a run for it? Or dutifully hand it in to the police? Well, a man in Wageningen found over €500 in an ATM on Sunday evening and decided to turn it in to the police.
Man dubbed ‘Hero of the day’
In a Facebook and Twitter post, the Wageningen Police explained how the man handed the cash over and has been proclaimed the hero of the day. The police have teamed up with the bank and together they are now searching for the rightful the owner of the money.
The police cheekily add to not send them a private message if you forgot your money (I am sure many people will try and pull that trick…)
Kwam iemand aan bureau die vandaag wilde pinnen bij pinautomaat Stationsstraat. Stak nog geld uit automaat. Groot geldbedrag bracht meneer naar de politie. #held. Nu samen met de bank uitzoeken van wie het is. #eerlijkemensen#dikkepluimpic.twitter.com/0JtxaRvfYc
Earlier this year, Twitter was successful in reuniting a woman with a man who gifted her a bike when she was a refugee child over 20 years prior. Will the same success be achieved in this story?
What would you do in this situation? Let us know in the comments below!
In 2015, a Dutch F-16 plane bombed a car bomb factory controlled by IS in Iraq. As a result of this attack, seventy residents were killed, according to sources who spoke with NOS and NRC.
During the bombing, an entire neighbourhood in Hawija was wiped out, making it one of the bloodiest attacks perpetrated by the western coalition against IS. This is the first time that it has become clear that the Netherlands did bomb places in Syria and Iraq, and that the number of people killed became known.
Seventy people died
The Pentagon has confirmed that on the night of 3rd June 2015, seventy citizens lost their lives. Eyewitnesses claim that a lot more people died, hundreds were wounded, and 23 children were wounded for sure. For security reasons, the Dutch Ministry of Defence does not want to confirm that the Netherlands was involved in this bombardment.
Refugee families were known to be in the area
It is unclear why this Dutch airstrike went so wrong. Investigations by the NRC and NOS in the area last summer revealed that it was known that refugee families were staying in the area around the car bomb factory. However, it was still in the hands of IS. An informant that NRC and NOS spoke with said that he had informed the Iraqi army about the presence of refugee families in the area. We don’t know if this information was passed on to the Netherlands.
How the airstrikes worked
Dutch F-16s were deployed in Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2016, and again in 2018, as part of a large international coalition to fight IS. The location of the airstrikes would have been decided at the international headquarters of the operation in Baghdad. The available information would again have been reviewed at a second headquarters in Qatar, and then the green light would have been given. A Dutch defence lawyer could have examined the evidence and stopped the attack; so could the pilot of the plane, if they thought the risk of civilian casualties was too great.
Ammunitions in the factory may have caused second explosion
The Pentagon has said that the reason the attack went out of control was the huge amount of ammunition and flammable materials stored at the factory. According to US Air Force General John Hesterman at a press conference after the bombing, this caused a second explosion to take place. He said the “targeting process” was very careful, and a relatively small bomb was used. He did not mention the presence of refugees in the area.
House of Representatives left in the dark
The Dutch House of Representatives was not made aware of the seriousness of the attack. They were only told last year that it was very likely that there were civilian casualties at the car bomb factory airstrike. They specifically asked for more information, and were not given it. They did not know that this car bomb factory airstrike was the Hawija airstrike, that refugees were killed, or that dozens of people died.
Met precisiebombardementen van Nederland blijken nu zeventig burgers in Irak, waaronder kinderen, te zijn omgekomen. Een complete wijk Hawija is verwoest. En ons is helemaal niks verteld. Iedere keer hebben we ernaar gevraagd. Nooit antwoord gekregen.https://t.co/GvNkwtMEzB
The Pentagon decided that there was no need to launch an investigation into the airstrike, as did the Dutch Public Prosecutor (the latter had not conducted any investigations in Iraq).
Compensation not being paid
NOS and NRC spoke with victims’ families in Hawija, and found that compensation was being paid out very slowly, or not at all. According to Minister of Defense Bijleveld, surviving relatives who have lost family members during the Dutch airstrike can make themselves known and expect compensation. “Initially, Iraqi citizens must end up with the Iraqi authorities,” she said in the Lower House in May.
In addition, according to the minister, there is a possibility that the Netherlands will pay damages itself. “Should a Dutch deployment unexpectedly lead to civilian casualties, it will be assessed on a case-by-case basis whether there is reason to pay compensation.”
Various relatives and victims in Iraq say that they have requested compensation from the Iraqi government, but heard nothing back. The Hawija authorities confirm this. Other victims say that they had to pay half of their eventual compensation as a bribe before they were paid.
Amsterdam is well-known for its spellbinding views of canals and out-of-this-world cute houses. In the morning mist that blesses cold mornings, the city looks eerier than ever in the fall. With Halloween just around the corner, I can’t help but look for magical things and places to visit during Halloween in Amsterdam.
If you, too, like to hunt for witches/ghouls/spirits/unicorns and so forth, or would like to know more about Halloween in the Netherlands, read on!
Is Halloween celebrated in Amsterdam in 2019?
Generally the Dutch don’t celebrate Halloween, as we have our own slightly different version called Sint Maarten. During Sint Maarten children don’t dress up, they instead go door to door with homemade lanterns in hopes of scoring a months’ supply of candy. However, Amsterdam being the internationally oriented city that it is, there are of course quite a few events surrounding Halloween for everyone to enjoy!
Halloween in Amsterdam: Visit the Chimera Fantasy Shop
Okay, I know, a shop isn’t the most magical place you would think of. But this is no ordinary shop. As soon as you walk in, you are transported into some kind of magical forest full of fairies, little trolls and miscellaneous objects and accessories you will love to stare at.
Ooooh.
Breathe in the fairy dust and try to spot all the little characters and fun details sprinkled here and there for your enjoyment. This shop is a must-see for fantasy lovers, wiccans and anyone with a taste for interesting scene-setting. The shop is located on the Damstraat, right downtown.
Halloween in Amsterdam in 2019: Find a party
There are quite a few Halloween parties in Amsterdam, especially when you take into account the Dutch don’t even celebrate Halloween! Take for instance the Helloween Bal Masqué happening at Paradiso. Hosted by Amsterdam BeatClub, go with the most frightening costume you can think of and rock out to The Helloweeners, T-99, The Spades and Venderghoul on the decks. They say you should dress-to-kill and not impress!
If parties aren’t your thing, the Amsterdam Dungeon may well be. Brace yourself! You’ll get to turn back time and witness a real-life witch-burning… Brrr! But be warned: your own magic may be found out, and punishments may ensue…
Halloween in Amsterdam in 2019: Reconnect with your familiar
Cats have been associated with witches for the longest time. They were believed to be spirits that assisted witches in practicing their craft. Amsterdam is a cat lover’s paradise; it is the home of a (rescue) cat boat, a cat café and numerous pubs with resident cat assistants.
Look how cute!
Whether you prefer shopping for your cat (or your own cat-related needs) or honoring cats’ power of inspiration by visiting Amsterdam’s cat museum, you will find whatever you need to reconnect with these elusive and loving creatures.
Visit the apothecary for your magic potions
… Literally. The Jacob Hooy apothecary was established in 1743 and used to stock products such as tobacco and opium, which were used as medicine back in the day. Nowadays, Jacob Hooy is a herbalists’ shop where you can find essential oils, herbs (no, not thoseherbs), candy and all sorts of tea. For added effect, the shop has retained some of its original decor. A must-see for potions masters.
I just love that a place that holds so much history still fulfills its original purpose. Pop in and meet fellow witches or druids; y’all could discuss your favourite magical must-haves.
Take a moonlit walk down the Prinsengracht
Take a walk through Prinsengracht for Halloween in Amsterdam. Image: Aforaseem [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia CommonsMagic is often found in simple places for anyone who has a keen eye. The Prinsengracht is one of the prettiest canals of Amsterdam. The tall, narrow houses will enchant you; so many secrets and stories of times past and present must be held in these whimsical buildings.
Taking a walk through the old town at dusk or at night is a sure way to make you feel like you have gone back in time and that maybe, just maybe, you might cross the path of a magical creature on your way.
And if you don’t want to be in Amsterdam, there are a lot more things happening around the country. Celebrating Halloween in the Netherlands can be an exciting (spooky) time!
Me, I’ll keep looking around for magic in Amsterdam – and perhaps cozy up with a cuppa and a good Halloween movie.
What are you going to do for All Hallows Day? Let us know in the comments below!
Earlier this morning, a car filled with jerry cans deliberately drove into a police station in Kerkrade. There was significant damage done to the police station, but no-one inside was injured.
Police think that the driver of the car wanted to set fire to the police station. The jerry cans were filled with a liquid, which could have been flammable. A small fire did break out, but it was quickly brought under control- so if arson was the plan of the driver, it failed.
A car packed with jerrycans was driven into a policestation in Kerkrade, The Netherlands. No injuries, but major damage. 1 arrest. I Auto met jerrycans rijdt politiebureau Kerkrade binnen | NOS https://t.co/dcTwmtj4JM
Someone has been arrested, but it’s not yet clear if this person was the driver of the car. The police have set up barriers around the police station. There were two police officers in the building when the attack took place, but luckily they were in another part of the station.
After literal years of humming and hawing, panicked Prime Ministers, and general confusion, might Brexit actually be happening? This morning, Boris Johnson and Jean Claude Juncker came up with a deal that will hopefully be accepted by the House of Commons in the UK.
Johnson is seeking the support of EU leaders on the deal he made with President Jean Claude Juncker of the European Commission this morning. He will ask them to rule out a further postponement of Brexit, and encourage them to make it clear to the House of Commons that it’s this deal- or nothing, reports NOS.
House of Commons to vote in Saturday
The House of Commons will convene this Saturday for a special meeting to vote on this deal. If they don’t pass the deal, then Johnson will be legally required to postpone Brexit further. The House of Commons passed a law to this effect in September.
European summit to discuss Syria and Brexit
The European government is holding a summit in Brussels today and tomorrow, which will be focused mainly on Brexit and the Turkish invasion of northern Syria. It is almost certain that European leaders will not block this deal- even Ireland has said it supports the deal in principle. According to Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, “it serves the most essential interests of the Irish”. The deal would be a big step forward “This deal recognises everything that we have fought for for three years.”
Dutch PM Mark Rutte “Very encouraging news, we have to see the details, but very encouraging news…” https://t.co/unrefLuG8J#Brexit
Other European countries, including the Netherlands, have responded very positively to the deal as well. After arriving in Brussels, Rutte said the fact that there was an agreement on Brexit was very encouraging news. “Now we have to study the details,” he added, but indicated that in general, he was very happy with the deal.
Premier #Rutte: #brexitdeal is goed nieuws voor Nederland. Premier Johnson heeft echt iets bereikt. “Het is gelukt om een cirkeltje en een vierkant samen in een hokje te krijgen.” Rutte wil nog niet speculeren over uitstel, als parlement deze deal zou afstemmen. pic.twitter.com/ZjC2HPWyRq
France and Germany still need to agree to the deal, with Macron saying that the details still needed to be examined as well. And then there’s the question of whether the deal will actually pass in the House of Commons, given that the DUP have refused to support it. This means that the Johnson government does not have a majority. Accordingly, pressure from the EU will be a huge asset to Johnson if he gets it today.
Do you think Brexit will finally happen this time? Let us know in the comments below.
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