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DutchNews podcast – The Empowered Busybodies Edition – Week 13

Photomontage of a house in Baarle-Nassau with a shop closed sign on the Belgian side and an open sign on the Dutch side

DutchNews podcast – The Empowered Busybodies Edition – Week 13

Our latest quarantined podcast brings you news of the latest coronavirus figures, the government’s strict new social distancing rules and the efforts to step up testing. The KNVB still hopes to finish the football season and the MH17 trial is postponed to June for non-corona reasons. The virus is separating not just friends and families, but the men’s and women’s clothing racks in a shop on the Belgian border. And while the first corona babies may be a few months... More >

10 Dutch delicacies to buy in snack bars

So while we are all largely confined to base, what better time to brush up your knowledge of all things Dutch? DutchNews.nl is pleased to present its very own ‘inburgering’ course in, well, however many lessons it takes. Lesson 2: 10 delicacies to order from snack bars The Dutch call it ‘een vette bek halen’ – literally ‘to get yourself a greasy gob’ or pigging out on fried food. And now restaurants are closed thanks to coronavirus, takeaway rules supreme.... More >

Great virtual things to do in April

Now that you can’t go to museums, theatres and cinemas, a good many are coming to you. No queuing, no annoying people blocking your view and all from the comfort of your couch. And you can munch on crisps (in your pajamas) without so much as a shush!! Have a museum to yourself A lot of Dutch museums have met the virtual content challenge head on. Here are a few examples. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam invites you to a virtual... More >

10 key moments in Dutch history

So while we are all largely confined to base, what better time to brush up your knowledge of all things Dutch? DutchNews.nl is pleased to present its very own ‘inburgering’ course in, well, however many lessons it takes. Lesson 1: An introduction to Dutch history Being the well organised folk that they are, the Dutch have drawn up a list of 50 key events and periods which shaped the country and made the Netherlands what it is today. This mighty... More >

It's social inequality, stupid

The coalition government should stop kowtowing to right-wing politicians and concentrate on tackling social inequality, say Leiden professor Leo Lucassen. Now that the dust has settled on the latest ‘refugee crisis’ the conclusion has to be that the predicted, sometimes apocalyptic, consequences have failed to materialise. Societies in Western Europe have not been disrupted and in Germany, the country which has taken in most refugees by far, most of the 1.2 million immigrants are in work. There are, of course,... More >

Podcast: Corona Ate Our Podcast Edition

In the first virtual edition of the DutchNews podcast, this week we bring you all the latest news on the shutdown, with some audio issues as we get used to our new working conditions. How are families managing home schooling? What help is the government giving to people and businesses? Can you still go outside? And should we quarantine Hugo de Jonge’s shoes? We also look at the community initiatives that have sprung up to help people cope and the... More >

'I wish Van Gogh had come from my country'

Originally from the United Kingdom, Tim Butler moved to the Netherlands because he really liked the art. He thinks Dutch pastries are underrated and knows where you can find better Van Gogh’s than you can see in the Van Gogh museum. How did you end up in the Netherlands? It was for Van Gogh that I came here originally. My entrance to Van Gogh was through The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, a collection of 903 which he either sent... More >

Ten global brands which are partly Dutch

The Dutch get everywhere. Here are 10 companies which are at least partly Dutch but which do a good job of hiding their origins. Australian Homemade Yep – that nice company with the chocolates decorated with aboriginal drawings is based in Veenendaal and was set up by a Belgian called Frederik van Isacker. The Aborigines aparently protested and Australian Homemade then said its designs were by a Dutch artist inspired by indigenous art. Booking.com The hotel booking giant may have... More >

Respect democracy, safeguard prosperity

Democracy is the safeguard of prosperity. We tamper with it at our peril, warns Coen Teulings, professor of Economics, Institutions and Society at Utrecht University. From Roman times until the 19th century the average standard of living remained virtually unchanged, and differences in prosperity between countries were minimal as well. We know this thanks to the work done by economic historians Paul Bairoch and Angus Maddison. Around 1830 the income in ‘the West’ (Western Europe, North America and Japan) was... More >

Podcast: The Better Call Paul Edition

As the coronavirus rate among the podcast team hits 25%, we take stock of how the Netherlands is responding to the pandemic. Will isolated Brabanders produce a miracle drug? Is anyone checking on Dick Advocaat? And is cancelling Soldaat van Oranje the sign we really have reached the end of days? In non-corona news, the MH17 trial got under way and the king apologised to Indonesia for the Dutch excesses during the decolonisation war. Airbnb faces a €200 million bill... More >

Feel the vibe: buy in Groningen

Ground is moving in Groningen – in the best possible way. The capital of The Netherlands’ north-eastern province, always a popular university destination, is attracting steadily more house buyers. Drawn by its mixture of history, nature and keen prices, home seekers have been flocking to Groningen. In the last quarter of 2019, according to the Dutch statistics office CBS, prices in the region as a whole rose the most in 14 years – rocketing by 8.4% and driven by the... More >

Black in Rembrandt's time shatters myths

A new exhibition at the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam tells the story of the black community in 17th century Dutch society and how the portrayal of black figures in Western art reveals much about attitudes to race. With a keen eye, surprising discoveries can be made in Jacob van der Ulft’s gouache painting The Market in Dam Square, Amsterdam (1653). Amidst all the loading and unloading of goods, trading and gossiping, are a trio of turbaned men from the... More >

ML6: smart computing helps drug research

As scientists around the world race to see if they can come up with a vaccine for the coronavirus, one thing is clear to the experts at ML6: artificial intelligence can help. ML6, a machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) expert with offices in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the UK, says its tools can help life sciences companies find new drugs to test, match patients with trials and improve quality controls in manufacturing highly-regulated medicines. ‘The playing field in... More >

Judges should not lay down the law

Judges laying down the law to politicians? It should not be allowed, says columnist Syp Wynia. Politicians are worried. Increasingly, the courts are telling them what to do. In the normal course of things, MPs make laws and ministers and junior ministers carry them out. The courts step in when people break these laws. It no longer works like that. Last year the judges of the Council of State decided that Dutch nitrogen emissions policy does not comply with European... More >

No more canal houses - a dismal day out

If at times you’ve had enough of medieval canal houses, tulip fields and picturesque villages, help is at hand. Treurtrips (dismal days out) is a new guide to some of the places the Dutch tourist board would rather you forget. Decaying snack bars in The Hague, sad playgrounds in the north and gloomy blocks of flats everywhere – they might not feature in the guidebooks and the ‘how to settle in Holland’ handbooks, but they are, nevertheless, an integral part... More >

Podcast: The Slippery Corona Slope Edition

This week’s podcast looks ahead to the start of the MH17 trial with an interview with Asymmetrical Haircuts, a two-woman team of reporters who specialise in international justice. We also do our best to keep up with the rapid spread of coronavirus, the even faster decline of Ajax and the extensive Dutch preparations for Eurovision. And we tell you why jumping on your bike after hours is a more hazardous undertaking than you might think. Want to support the DutchNews... More >

'I've seen so many rainbows'

Daniel Loebl grew up in Peru and spent several years in the United States before he moved to Amsterdam with his family. He currently lives in Amstelveen, is working on his second novel, and would love to go get coffee with Rutger Bregman. How did you end up in the Netherlands? In 2016, I was living in Madison, Wisconsin with my family. I was offered a job opportunity at a company with offices in Amsterdam. It took me less than... More >

15 restaurants for Amsterdam group dining

Birthdays, bachelor(ette) parties, business dinners – whatever the occasion, we all have reason to get groups of family, friends or colleagues together from time to time. And when that occasion arises, one of Amsterdam’s cute gezellige cafés isn’t going to cut it. As lovely as Amsterdam’s narrow buildings are to look at, tiny two-person tables are not much help when you’re dining with a group of eight or more. But fear not – there are a number of restaurant options... More >

Podcast: Corona and Taghi Ruin Everything

This week’s podcast was recorded before news broke of the first case of coronavirus in the Netherlands. We examine how the country has been preparing as the disease spreads through Europe and ask the key questions, such as: is Brexit muppet safe? Elsewhere, there’s a withering exposé of tax avoidance in the flower trade, Dutch clubs are knocked out of Europe and ophef champion Thierry Baudet threatens court action over a TV show that said what he was thinking. Our... More >

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