The newly agreed #Dutch coalition government on Thursday plans the "strictest-ever" #asylum policy, including an opt-out from European Union rules. After six months in the making, the 26-page coalition agreement proposes to “deport people without a valid residence permit as much as possible, even forcibly”. Monte Francis reports. #Netherlands#EU#immigration#FarRight
There's so many little things the new #Dutch xenophobic rightwing / anti-environment government will make worse.
Here's one most people will have missed:
In the early 2000 my "farmer" classmates got diesel cars as their first vehicle. They'd fill it up with "red diesel", a very cheap (no sales & excise tax) fuel legally only to be used in farm vehicles.
Despite stern warnings only one of them ever had its fuel checked. He received a small fine.
One of the first farm vehicles to be electrified is "that small wheel / front loader". The machine that never leaves the farm yet gets used hours a day for a million little things.
It can charge locally and thus doesn't need a massive battery. Its effective up-time is easily higher than comparative diesel vehicles.
The new #Dutch government just made the business case for these waaaay worse by subsidizing every liter diesel with 15 to 20 eurocent.
One central problem that resulted from the federal nature of the #Dutch republic was secrecy: How could one keep a secret with so many actors involved? This was almost a mission impossible, although one tried several measures such as an oath of secrecy to deal with the problem.
When dealing with Dutch #emdiplomacy you inevitably come across two other big issues: the Protestant character of Dutch #earlymodern#diplomacy and the importance of trade and commercial interests. For @helmers_h and @NinaLamal these are not contradictory interests. However, they argue that “commerce, geopolitics, and protestantism were perfectly reconcilable”. (4/5)
Finally, @helmer and @NinaLamal argue that it is important to analyse #Dutch#emdiplomacy not only in its European context, but in its global dimension. The East India Company (#VOC) and its growing importance in #Asia played an important role in the rise of the Dutch republic. Unfortunately, both dimesions – the European and the global one – are far too often dealt seperately with by modern research. A problem that is generally true for research on #earlymodern diplomacy.
This leads to an overarching problem of how to competently connect national, European and global perspectives on diplomacy without blurring the focus. A question to be discussed elsewhere. (5/5)
I don't follow news from my home country #netherlands much, but I just saw that the coalition is going as fashy as possible. With the liberals (note for Americans, liberalism is not left wing in most of the world) being the most left wing party in the coalition.
Diseases are used for swearing in Dutch – but how does that work? @sesquiotic analyses the idiom "sjouw me de tering" in a new post on the Strong Language blog:
"On Saturday, Swedish police confirmed that a 👉man (#JoostKlein) had been reported for making "unlawful threats" at #Malmö Arena👈, after Thursday's semi-final.
"The police have taken all essential investigative measures..."
"#Swedish and #Dutch news outlets have said that the incident involved a member of the television production team."
Due to rising tensions between Iran and Israel, the #Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to close the #embassy in the Iranian capital #Tehran tomorrow. The consulate in the Iraqi city of Erbil will also remain closed as a precaution. Normally both posts are open on Sundays because that is the start of the working week.
Two days ago on #Dutch TV channel #VPRO I watched the documentary "Beyond Utopia", and it left a deep impact on me.
It shows both the terrible plight of all those people that have to flee #authoritarian regimes. Where on their perilous journey, every step is either towards doom or freedom.
And it also shows the unimaginable #oppression that can be laid down onto an entire population and still keep people in line, praising their glorious leader.
John Simmerman #ActiveTowns and I sat down for a chat on how Dutch street infrastructure reflects #Dutch values.
Premieres 11amPST 8pmCET on 10 April. Podcast also drops Wednesday.
My thesis is that #Netherlands values of commonsense, punctuality, consensus, adaptation, sharing, self-reliance, and looking for bargains are actually built into the Dutch streets.
What #urbanism values are reflected where you live?
Looking for literature on German in the Netherlands for a sociolinguistics class next semester!
I'm especially interested the German-speaking communities abroad (who is part of it, what languages do they speak) & language ideologies around German in the Dutch context. Thanks! ☺️