by christo komarnitski - bulgaria

Dutch schoolchildren have less knowledge of the political system compared with their European peers but trust their government more than children in other European countries. Schoolchildren in Vlaanderen and the Netherlands are the most negative towards migrants.
[read on] (more…)

by rainer hachfeld - neues deutschland, germany

European leaders have finally given the green light for Iceland to begin EU accession negotiations, but the Dutch Prime Minister has indicated it will be hard for the country to join if it does not pay for losses incurred in the Icelandic banking collapse.
The European Council in Brussels signed off on language approving the start of official talks. The British and the Dutch insisted however on wording that made implicit mention of the ongoing banking dispute. whole story

gorilla

by patrick corrigan - the toronto star

by arend van dam

by joep bertrams - the netherlands

Ficomic in Barcelona is een van de grootste stripbeurzen van Europa. Het trekt meer dan honderdduizend bezoekers in vier dagen. Dit jaar is Nederland gastland en dus zijn cartoons aanwezig van: Fokke en Sukke, Sigmund, Zusje en de kat Heinz. ‘Die blote Fokke en Sukke, die zijn wel erg macho!’

Dibujantes holandeses en Salón del Comic

Quien visita Ficomic, uno de los principales salones europeos del comic, que se celebra en Barcelona, hallará famosas series holandesas, como Fokke en Sukke, Sigmund, Zusje y El gato Heinz.
leso verdero hiero>> (more…)

Brussels, EU Observer - The daughter of a former Bulgarian minister appears to have received €700,000 in EU aid last year. Notable sums were also paid to an accordion club and a billiard club.
Galina Dimitrova Peicheva-Miteva, the 27-year-old daughter of Dimitar Peichev, Bulgaria’s deputy agriculture minister until July 2009, who was responsible for handling EU funds, got €700,000 from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) last year, according to the Danish and British-based pro-transparency NGO Farmsubsidy.org.
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by patrick corrigan - the toronto star

by paresh nath - the khaleej times, uae

by arend van dam

by joep bertrams - the netherlands

[..]A survey, which questioned 5,820 adults in nine European countries including Scotland, Wales and The Republic of Ireland, found that The Netherlands was the most patriotic European country while England was the least patriotic.
Just ten per cent of the English said they would happily fly the national flag on their house or in their garden, compared to more than a third of Dutch people, with more than a quarter saying they feared being called racist if they did so.[..]

Netherlands 7.18
Scotland 7.1
Wales 7.06
Italy 7.01
Ireland 6.72
Spain 6.57
France 6.44
Germany 5.81
England 5.80

England is the least patriotic country in Europe
England is the least patriotic country in Europe, with just one in three British people aware of the date of St George’s Day a survey has shown.
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by patrick chappatte - the international herald tribune

by frederick deligne - nice-matin, france

Een horde heidense losers, dat zijn wij, Europeanen, volgens deze tv-presentator van Fox News. Hij weet natuurlijk niet dat uit alle statistieken blijkt dat Europeanen gezonder, gelukkiger en veiliger zijn dan Amerikanen. Ze leven in een economie die bijna net zo groot is als die van de VS en China samen waar minder armoede heerst en die een hogere economische groei heeft.

While debating raising taxes on the wealthy with radio host Mark Levine, Fox Business host Stuart Varney claimed that progressive tax policies will turn us into Europeans, who are “a pack of Pagan losers”:

VARNEY: Europe is paralyzed with debt, subject to massive entitlement programs, and riddle with anxiety. We are going down that road with our taxation policies. And once we enact a VAT, a hidden sales tax, we’ll go even further down that road. It is profoundly un-American. We’re going to resemble Europeans, who are essentially, a pack of Pagan losers. And I don’t want to go in that direction!

Varney’s claim is ironic, given the fact that the Fox Business host is British-born and a graduate of the London School of Economics. It should be noted that Western Europeans enjoy a lower poverty rate, an economy nearly as large as China and the United States combined, much more generous worker benefits and vacation time, and a higher per capita GDP growth rate than the United States.

The closer countries are geographically and culturally to Russia, the more cautious they are of NATO. In the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine that border Russia, residents are more likely than those elsewhere to perceive NATO as a threat. A September 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project found a similar pattern in Ukrainians’ views toward NATO membership: People in the East and South were more likely to oppose joining NATO. read on>> (more…)

in which european country do people still drive on the left

Glenn Greenwald over de geheime CIA- campagne om er voor te zorgen dat na Nederland - ‘worries that what happened to the Dutch will spread as a result of the “fragility of European support” for the war’ - niet ook andere Europese landen hun soldaten uit Afghanistan weghalen. De apathie onder de bevolking is mogelijk niet voldoende, aldus het rapport van de CIA. Daarom moet in Frankrijk van Afghaanse vrouwen gebruik gemaakt worden (sympathie) en in Duitsland van angst (de terroristen komen er aan).

The war on WikiLeaks and why it matters

A newly leaked CIA report prepared earlier this month (.pdf) analyzes how the U.S. Government can best manipulate public opinion in Germany and France — in order to ensure that those countries continue to fight in Afghanistan. The Report celebrates the fact that the governments of those two nations continue to fight the war in defiance of overwhelming public opinion which opposes it — so much for all the recent veneration of “consent of the governed” — and it notes that this is possible due to lack of interest among their citizenry: ”Public Apathy Enables Leaders to Ignore Voters,” proclaims the title of one section.
But the Report also cites the “fall of the Dutch Government over its troop commitment to Afghanistan” and worries that — particularly if the “bloody summer in Afghanistan” that many predict takes place — what happened to the Dutch will spread as a result of the “fragility of European support” for the war. As the truly creepy Report title puts it, the CIA’s concern is: ”Why Counting on Apathy May Not Be Enough“:
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Wist u dat Geert Mak de belangrijkste schrijver en intellectueel van Nederland is? Inderdaad, ik ook niet, maar dat zeggen onze Duitse buren. Wie ze dat aan de neus heeft gehangen? Geert Wilders in ieder geval niet.
Mak stelt in een interview in het Duitse DerWesten dat Geert Wilders een verschijnsel van voorbijgaande aard is. Hij noemt Job Cohen een uitstekende kandidaat. “Op zo’n politicus hebben we gewacht. Hij zal het land naar het midden voeren.” Wilders gaat volgens Mak beslist niet regeren. “Hij voelt zich prima in de oppositie”
Iets wat JdeW ook al vaststelde. Wilders wil helemaal geen premier van Nederland worden. Als hij met zijn partij de grootste van Nederland had willen worden, had hij na de val van het kabinet iedere controversiële uitspraak over moslims achterwege gelaten. Die stemmen heeft hij toch al, stuk voor stuk. Als hij echt Nederland had willen leiden dan had hij zich vanaf dat moment geprofileerd als iemand die kan samenwerken, als iemand die op zijn manier ook een bindende factor kan zijn en compromissen kan sluiten. Zijn recente woeste uitspraken over moslims maken duidelijk dat hij niet wil of niet kan. Wilders is geen politicus, hij is een ideoloog. Niet dat ideologie per definitie slecht is.
‘Great ideology creates great times’ (Kim Jong Il)

Geert Mak: “Geert ist keine Alternative”

DerWesten, Kleve/Amsterdam - Die Niederlande beruhigen sich wieder, da ist sich Geert Mak sicher. Der wichtigste Schriftsteller und Intellektuelle des Landes hält die Rechtspopulisten für eine vorübergehende Zeiterscheinung. Er glaubt, dass die niederländische Politik wieder ihre Mitte finden wird.
Die NRZ sprach mit dem niederländischen Schriftsteller und Essayisten Geert Mak über die politische Situation in den Niederlanden.
Job Cohen ist neuer Vorsitzender der Sozialdemokraten. Eine gute Entscheidung?
Geert Mak: Job Cohen ist eine hervorragende Entscheidung. Auf so einen Politiker haben alle gewartet. Er wird das Land wieder mehr zur Mitte führen.
lese weiter>> (more…)

patrick chappatte - le temps, switzerland

The massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys following the fall of the enclave of Srebrenica is a myth, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is quoted as saying on the second day of his genocide trial in the Hague. The town was under the protection of Dutch UN troops at the time when it was over-run by Serb forces in 1995, during the Yugoslavian war.The over 2,000 bodies buried at the Potocari memorial could well have been brought from somewhere else, Karadzic was quoted as saying in the Volkskrant. They could also have died in active combat or of natural causes, he said.
On Monday, Karadzic described the war as ‘just and holy’.
For the BBC report on the hearings, click here

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