- The four most important ministers in the Dutch cabinet agreed unexpectedly
about a budget-cut of nearly 4 billion euro, in addition to the 13 billion
euro previously decided in the governmental accord by the coalition
partners. In general, the Dutch government seeks to impose austerity through
budget cuts, rather than tax cuts.
- Mick Jagger cancelled the planned forty liks concert at the Amsterdam
ArenA stadium, because of problems with his voice. The forty liks tour was
not without problems so far. In Spain, Jagger had had voice problems as
well, and in France the Stones had to cope with striking workers.
- The film Pirates of the Caribbean by Jerry Bruckheimer, starring Johnny
Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley is immensely popular and attracted
an audience of 243,000 so far, grossing 1.5 million euro. The film is 8th in
the top ten of the films attracting the largest audiences when it opened.
- at the tenth international concours hippique, organised by Jan Tops in
Valkenswaard, Queen Beatrix briefly attended. According to Jan Tops, we had
met earlier at the Queen's palace in The Hague. I was invited for a dinner
with the Mexican president Vicente Fox, because I supply a lot of horses to
Mexicans.
- Squatters have again been very visible in Amsterdam due to the continuing
housing shortage and many empty office buildings. In the last weeks,
squatters of the Southern Action Group broke into, and occupied the old
villa of former social democratic Prime Minister Joop Den Uyl, and
discovered there a collage given to Den Uyl by socialists from Maastricht.
Students occupied part of the Olympic Stadium - 7,000 of 80,000 students in
Amsterdam is still looking for accommodation. The Tenants Association of
East/Watergraafsmeer notified it would break into an empty residence to
organise a squat for a family in an emergency situation.
- the Hotel de l'Europe in Amsterdam achieved 23rd place in the top 50
Hotels in Europe, according to the British Travelandleisure. This was a
similar score to the George V in Paris, an ahead of the Carlton in Cannes,
the Venetian Cipriani and the Ritz in Madrid. Istanbul achieved the top
score, followed by the Four Seasons Hotel in Milan.
- According to the Belgian sports doctor Goossens, who together with Durex
corporation did extensive research, soccer players can perform better during
the match, if they haven't had sex the night before. Ten out of twelve
players recorded higher scores in an acidity test and a faster heart-beat
when given a physical performance test after sex. Goossens claims that this
could be the critical factor in scoring and not scoring a goal.
- a number of police officers take pepperspray home, and pepperspray is
possibly used unjustifiably once in every 7 cases according to Minister
Remkes of Internal Affairs. Pepperspray was introduced by the police two
years ago and was used in 2000 incidents by police so far. Volunteer police
and special police are likely to be armed with pepperspray as well.
- The computer virus Sobig.F, which appeared this week, is the fastest
spreading virus in history. This was concluded by the Message Labs research
bureau, which filters email of enterprises around the world for porno and
viruses. One in 17 emails scanned by the bureau on Wednesday contained the
virus.
- Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen has mooted the idea of a compensation fund for
employers who suffer damages as a result of public demonstrations, in the
wake of the Mercator Square incidents. Cohen wants those who cause damages
to pay themselves, but possibly with a subsidy from the City Council. It is
better to apprehend the lawbreakers immediately than to film them, he said.
In addition, a number of windows were broken in a completely different
location than where the demonstration to place.
- according to Marije Randewijk in the Amsterdam paper Het Parool, silence
is golden in the world of sport. Sport used to be something that people
could talk about with passion and love. But it scarcely exists anymore in
this culture. Sports-stars no longer talk about it. In fact two league
coaches muffed their national teams. After a disappointing 1-1 score by the
Dutch soccer team in Brussels, Ruud van Nistelrooij said it was just
nothing at all and added that this was a mild comment. Van Nistelrooij
has been know for more pithy comments, prior to playing for Manchester
United, where the soccer-fronter was expressly forbidden to give interviews.
In the equestrian sports, Ger Visser of Eurocommerce jumping stables dared
to question the integrity of the league coach, who in turn prohibited all
competitors from interviews because his own position is under scrutiny.
Marije Randwijk concludes that sportspeople permit themselves too easily and
too quickly to be silenced, just because this suits a league coach, an
administration or a sponsor, and that the sportsworld is growing up much too
fast.
Jurriaan
