Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende was in New York earlier this week to speak to the ‘chic’ Netherlands Club in midtown Manhattan. The PM is attempting to raise cash for the next year’s Hudson 400 celebrations.

According to NOS tv, Balkenende raised quite a laugh when he told his audience that the word Yankee comes from the popular Dutch name Jan Kees. They could have been Yanpeters, Balkenende was reported as saying.
The prime minister was in town as part of efforts to get club members to support next year’s celebrations to mark the 400 year anniversary of VOC captain Henry Hudson’s ‘discovery’ of Manhattan, NOS says.
Earlier in the day, he had gone for a cycle ride and planted a nut tree on Governors Island, in reference to its earlier name.
Unconnected with the Hudson festivities, Dutch architecture firm West 8 won the contract to design a new park for the island – without a windmill or a clog in site, the tv station says.
For more on the festivities, click here