Mostly hot linkjes
It's a sick day
I’m unwell with the flu and incapable of reading and thinking. Or writing. More than this, which is technically writing, I know. You know what I mean!
I wanted to write about last week’s big news, the surprise passage of the spreidingswet, or “distribution law,” through the Dutch senate. Intended to better distribute asylum seekers across the Netherlands, the law will allow the government to force municipalities to accept people if necessary.
Rural Dutch municipalities bear the burden of asylum seekers. Some are overloaded with severely overcrowded reception centers, and this imbalance is one of several factors contributing to rural / urban polarization in the Netherlands today. The sense that some Dutch people experience of being left behind, or being asked to take on more than their fair share of the social burden, in part drove the far-right victory in our recent elections.
Alas, the machinations of the Dutch Senate and society beyond what I’ve already said are completely beyond me right now.
Anyway, here are some hot linkjes and leuke dingetjes I came across laying on the couch, hopped up on American cold medicine, watching reality television.
🔥 Hot Linkjes
Politics
Geert Wilders’ empty gestures. (Economist)
Why Mark Rutte’s deftness with handing Trump might make him a good head of NATO. (Lee Hockstader / Washington Post)
Society
Speaking of polarization, an expat in the Jordaan really pissed off echte Amsterdammers last week by starting a petition to silence the Westerkerk bells at night. (Lyna Meyrer /
)Big Brother, Deal or No Deal, the Voice, and now the Traitors: many international reality TV hits were originally Dutch. Why? This article hazards some guesses about collaborative culture, but it’s probably just that John de Mol, the Dutch mogul behind many of these shows, is very good at his job. (Charis McGowan / Guardian)
The New York Times has discovered Dutch camper van culture. (Tim McKeough)
Arts
Dutch art world leaders are afraid of a new right-wing cabinet decimating culture. (Senay Boztas / Art Newspaper)
Business
ASML’s stock hit a record high last week, “cementing its place at the heart of the artificial intelligence boom.” I wrote about NL-based, most valuable tech company in Europe, a couple weeks ago, when my brain worked. (Henry Ren / Bloomberg)
Law
Under the legal principal of “universal jurisdiction” a Dutch court sentenced a Syrian man to twelve years in prison for war crimes committed in Syria in 2013; he had been granted asylum in the Netherlands in 2020. With this conviction the Netherlands joins France and Germany in seeking justice for crimes in Syria within Europe. (Mike Corder / Washington Post)
Was this John de Mol’s idea? Another Dutch court ruled that authorities can shoot “deviant” wolves who pose a threat to public safety with paintball guns. The wolf population in the Netherlands has exploded in recent years after near-extinction, and being pro- or anti- wolf has become yet another symbol of growing urban / rural polarization. (Guardian)
🥳 Leuke Dingetjes
You hear a lot about about how much livestock farming there is in the Netherlands (we’re the largest exporter of meat in Europe!). I learned why from this video: grass is one of the few things that grows on the wet, reclaimed land created by dikes. That’s how the Netherlands became a hotspot for cattle. And cheese.
The Dutch part of Saltburn
The Saltburn soundtrack drove “Murder on the Dancefloor” back to the top of the charts twenty years after its release. The soundtrack also includes the 2007 club banger “Perfect (Exceeder)” from Mason, a Dutch artist.
*all typos in this post are on purpose