BREAKING: 12 injured, 5 dead in Queensday incident

Radio Netherlands:

A car ploughed into the crowd watching the Queen's day parade in Apeldoorn. Two spectators were killed and 12 injured, some of them seriously.

Reporters on the spot say the car drove at high speed, hitting a number of people that were thrown into the air. The black Suzuki Swift crashed into a monument for Queen Wilhelmina. The driver was taken out of the car in a serious condition. Emergency services are rushing to the spot to provide aid to the victims.

More EN reporting at DutchNews.nl. Footage from another angle from Sky News. All festivities in Apeldoorn have been cancelled. Elsewhere festivities are also on the proces of shutting down. One delinquent moron, it takes just one delinquent moron to shut down what is arguably the best party of the year in the Netherlands.

Reports say the driver of the car was a Caucasian male in his mid-twenties (photo). According to GeenStijl (NL) he was turned away in a first attempt to pas the barricades. There are also rumours a passenger jumped from the car just prior to the crash. The number of injured is still sketchy. Most reports mention 12 injured, but Omroep Gelderland (NL) reports 21 injured.

The main unanswered question: Was it a terrorist attack? Reports are conflicting. Some eyewitnesses say the driver was already hurt or incapacitated, slumped in his seat at the time of the crash. Others maintain the Swift was deliberately aiming for the touring car transporting the royal family.

De Telegraaf (NL) reports that according to the police the driver was hurt in the crash, but was taken into custody and to a police station for interrogation. The probability of this being an accident are slim, says De Telegraaf (NL): The royal family and their entourage were twenty minutes late, but the driver of the black Suzuki Swift managed to ram through the barricades (two of them!) just as the touring car transporting the royal family passed the intersection.

Speculations abound as to whether the crash was deliberate, and if so: what the pretext of it is. Whatever it was, this moron has in all probability ruined Queensday for years to come and maybe even forever. One wishes we still had the possibility of eternal exile for pond scum like this.

[UPDATE 1521] More photos of the culprit here. One hopes his agony is sublime...

[UPDATE 1532] State broadcaster NOS also reports 21 injured.

[UPDATE 1611] Press conference by the Apeldoorn authorities: The number of injured is 17, with 4 dead. Eight of the injured are in critical condition. The incident was 'a deliberate act, but not a terrorist one'. The culprit is a 38 year old Dutchman without a criminal record and no prior records of mental instability. In contradiction to earlier reports, authorities say he was taken to hospital with severe injuries and was still being operated on at the time of the press conference. Police still do not know the reasons for this 'deliberate act'. EN report here.

[UPDATE 2055] The culprit has a name: Karst Tates, a recently layed-off ex-employee of a private security firm. He lived alone in an apartment in Huissen. Neighbours describe him as a normal, if somewhat private, person. In the few moments of consciousness right after the crash he has stated he was making an attempt at the royal family.

The public prosecutor has formally charged Tates with manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and attempted murder of members of the royal family (the latter being a separate category from 'civilian' attempted murder). Tates is in hospital in a life-threatening condition. There are rumours he is already brain-dead and may pass on before the day is out. Which would mean that we may never find out what the hell this character was thinking (Minor update: Elsevier (NL) thinks this was 'suicide by cop').

In the mean time some media report a fifth dead. The authorities won't release the name, but the hospital stated it is not Tates. If you are so inclined, save a prayer for the families and friends of the victims of this senseless act.

And so ends a day that had the makings of a legendary Queens day. But for one insane act of... who knows? Thousands of volunteers saw their many, many hours of preparation and rehearsals come to naught. For them it must be as close to the Grinch stealing Christmas as one can get in real life.

[FINAL UPDATE] The bastard croaked (NL):

The 38-year old Tates from Huissen passed away in the hospital tonight at 02.58.

Which makes the total deaths 6 with 11 injured. And now we'll probably never now why this character did what he did.

Every once in a while...

... our provincial government gets it right: Dutch parliament agrees to block all dialogue with Hamas.

The Dutch parliament on Tuesday approved a motion seeking to block any dialogue between government officials and Hamas, Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom announced.

The motion - made in effort to counter growing calls in Europe to engage the Islamist group in dialogue - was put forward by MP Raymond de Roon, third on Wilders' list.

(h/t HVV)

Fitna - the Sequel

From Dutchnews.nl:

Wilders to make second Fitna film

Thursday 16 April 2009

MP Geert Wilders is to make a follow-up to his 15 minute anti-Islam film Fitna, the leader of the anti-immigration party says in Thursday's Telegraaf [NL - KV].

The new film should be finished next year and will 'reflect how far the 'islamisation' [of the west] has progressed, Wilders tells the paper

'It will not be a copy of Fitna. This is the second phase,' Wilders said. 'I now want to show the consequences of mass immigration from Muslim countries.' The film will focus on freedom of speech issues and the strict Islamic legal system known as sharia, he said.

Offensive

'We have to attack more, go on the offensive,' the paper quoted him as saying. 'We have to fight back.'

Wilders claims that several professional film makers from New York and Hollywood have offered to help. He declined to name names but said they had in the past made films which were shown in the cinema.

Wilders was recently in the US to attend showings of Fitna. He was banned from entering the UK to attend a discussion about the film.

Fitna, a compliation of video footage interspersed with quotes from the Koran, was finally released in March 2008. The government went on a diplomatic offensive to head off mass protests from Muslims at home and abroad, a campaign which was largely successful.

Why are they not thoroughly discredited?

The picture below shows the varying IPCC projections and the actual realized trends in CO2 and global temperature. Why do we still give these lying sacks of human waste posing as scientists (yes, I am looking at you dr. Hansen) money, airtime? Why are they not thoroughly discredited yet? Why are they still in town, untarred and featherless?


(Click for larger version. Hat tip to Hans Labohm of De Dagelijkse Standaard)

What the ...?

You have got to be kidding me!

Dutch officials visit Dearborn to learn about improving Muslim relations

[Dutch minister for European Affairs]Timmermans said that before the terrorist attacks on the United States in Sept. 11, 2001, problems of integration of immigrants in Dutch society were often described as issues related to young. "Since 9/11 all of these people have simply become Muslims," he said. "This is simply, probably a knee-jerk reaction to fear in the society.

And this is a good example to follow, because...?

(h/t Europe News)

The latest victim

The Dutch version of Sesame Street, Sesamstraat, is about to disappear from Dutch television. It is the latest victim of the culture wars, slowly throttled by the ideological preoccupation with multiculturalism of those managing Dutch public TV (state TV, if you will).

Sesamstraat used to be broadcast in the 18:30 - 19:00 slot, where is enjoyed huge success, averaging 500,000 viewers each night. But the NPS, the broadcaster producing Sesamstraat, wanted to introduce a new multicultural propaganda news show: Dichtbij Nederland (Close to Holland).

To ensure a sizeable audience they picked the very slot that gave Sesamstraat it's biggest reach with the target audience (young children and their parents). And thus it was that Sesamstraat was kicked back to the 17:00 slot, where it languishes with a grand total viewership of around 50,000.

That wouldn't be so bad, were it not for the fact that Dutch public TV is a misbegotten compromise between being fully state-funded and being fully commercial. For a program in Dutch public TV to have any future, revenue from advertisements is a major component. With considerable production costs and no comparable income from advertisers, the 17:00 slot is just a last gasp away from the axe.

In the Volkskrant (NL), one of the main forces behind Sesamstraat, Aart Staartjes, accuses public TV in general and the NPS in particular, of 'smothering the baby in a pillow'. In a follow-up statement in the same paper (NL), the NPS, responsible for both Sesamstraat and Dichtbij Nederland, claims innocence where the slotting is concerned. It puts the blame squarely on the net manager and the board of Public Broadcasters. They in turn have not responded or claim no responsibility for scheduling.

The latter, of course, is especially rich coming (as indeed it does) from the general director of Public Broadcasters, Henk Hagoort. If he cannot wield his influence to secure a somewhat more appropriate slot for the program, then why are we paying his considerable salary? Clearly, if what he says is true, he is not the man for the job.

And so, after a successful run of almost 30 years on Dutch TV (one of the longest running programs, and certainly the longest running children's program), virtually daily, Sesamstraat will disappear. They are about to fall victim to be the joyless ideologists of public TV, who insist on force-feeding the gospel of multiculturalism to the masses.

And if it breaks the hearts of a few little ones, well that's just tough cookies, isn't it? It's all for the greater good, after all.

EUnion gophers

It is really surprising to notice how deeply the EUnion has penetrated our daily lives. Even more surprising is that everyone (politics, civil services, media and even the industry) not so much denies this, but seems to pretend measures taken are completely national, sovereign initiatives. Utterly infuriating it is, when even a little digging reveals that sovereignty isn't even a factor anymore (though, for readers of this blog, or EU Referendum, while infuriating, this isn't much of a surprise).

Take the 'smart energy meter' we reported on yesterday. From the coverage we got, what little there was for this, one would be forgiven to get the impression that the entire misbegotten, 2 billion euro costing, privacy destroying scheme came from the hats of the members of our Majesty's cabinet. Indeed, the articles in Trouw en Elsevier (to name just two) mentioned only the desire of the cabinet at large, the ministry of Economic Affairs in particular, and the energy industry that we, wasteful citizens, become more aware of our energy consumption.

It was only when minister Maria Verhoeven (p) was confronted by the Radio One interviewer today about the resounding defeat of the original proposal for a compulsory introduction, that she let the cat out of the bag. Presumably this was a matter of 'I will have the last laugh, don't you know' when she gloated that by 2020 the 'smart energy meter' will be compulsory anyway. Today's rejection of the proposal was, she implied, a temporary reprieve.

And speaking of temporary reprieves: Judges in Breda last Friday ruled the smoking ban in bars and cafes in breach of Article 1 of the Dutch constitution. That would be the non-discrimination article. In the case at hand, the owner of the Victoria cafe in Breda was found not guilty of breaking the ban on smoking.

The court in Breda said the smoking ban treated the owners of cafes with and without additional personnel differently.

Cafe owners with additional staff had to ensure that workers had a smoke-free working environment, the judges said. This could be achieved, for example, by a ventilation system, the Telegraaf quoted the judges as saying.

By contrast, cafes without personnel have to completely ban smoking on the premises, the judges said.

In addition, bars without other staff are being harder hit by the financial effects of the ban, the Telegraaf reported the judges as saying.

The public prosecution office had demanded the owner of the Victoria cafe be fined €12,000 for allowing smoking on the premises.

This of course flies in the face of the original blanket ban on smoking. And what makes it even more delicious is the fact that the judges used the one article in our constitution that has been used over and over again to throttle Dutch identity, the existence of which our 'betters' deny to begin with.

However, we have argued before that Health minister Ab Klink is in no position to lift or slacken the ban.

Minister Klink finds himself in a bind. Even if he was inclined to do so, he can't revoke or change the smoking ban. The ban is EUnion law and minister Klink has no discretionary powers in the matter.

And today he does what his overlords in Brussels demand of him: Klink firm on smoking ban.

Health minister Ab Klink said on Tuesday he had no intention of amending the ban on smoking in cafes and bars, despite last week’s court ruling which said bar owners without personnel were being unfairly hit.

Nor would there be fewer inspections to make sure the law was not being broken, Klink said.

Klink pointed out that last week’s ruling by a court in Breda was totally different to a similar case in Groningen. He said he would wait for the appeal court’s position before taking any further action.

An appeals court that will undoubtedly have received guidelines from the Justice department, pointing out the treaty obligations we as a nation have in implementing every brain fart emanating from the hallowed halls of Brussels, by the time the appeal hits this august body.

And to hammer home the point of this post: today we heard that the EUnion in all it's magnanimity has seen fit to approve Dutch plans for 'fine particulate concentration' reduction. This means that the Dutch government itself gets a reprieve from the EUnion 'standards on air quality' until 2015. This waiver was necessary because, if not, a number of large and important housing and infrastructure projects would not be possible, adding, as they do, to the 'fine particulate concentration'.

Even if the reporting by Radio Netherlands (in the link above) has the air of joyful relief, it does speak volumes for the extent of sovereignty and freedom we have left in this country when our own government has to go hat in hand to Brussels to humbly ask for permission to start these projects. And to put insult to injury, the people granting the permission haven't even been elected for the job.

This is the true nature of how we are ruled. The democratic theater is still in place. It's actors are still pretending they busy themselves in a meaningful matter. But the decor is creaking, the make-up is fading. And anyway, the directors of the play are about to drop all pretence anyway. In Brussels the wheels have been set in motion to usurp member state seats in important international fora such as the IMF , the World Bank, NATO and the UN Security Council (nobody is telling us that either, are they?).

We have ministers (and a PM) in name only. The same goes for parliament, if Maria 'the EUnion will do it anyway' Verhoeven is to be believed. Our government plays what the EUnion requests. Real power to affect what goes on within the borders of this wet, swampy corner of the world has long fled The Hague in favor of Brussels. The conclusion that becomes more inevitable with every week passing, is that what we're left with, is a group of over-paid gophers, dashing hither and yon for the EUnion Commission. Not a government in any real sense of the word.

So why do we tolerate them?

Oppression watch: Jail time for refusing new energy meter

Tomorrow the First Chamber of Dutch parliament (the senate, if you will) will vote on the nation-wide introduction of the 'smart energy meter'. The proposal has already been approved by Second Chamber. This despite the fact that 70% of the Dutch (NL) don't want the thing in their house.

And with good reason. The 'smart energy meter', a digital replacement of the the usual electricity meter, reports the household energy consumption to the supplier every 15 minutes. Consumer protection agency Consumentenbond, also dead set against the new meter, has raised questions over privacy issues, as do 65% of respondents to interviews conducted by the consumer TV program TROS Radar (NL). With the meter reporting consumption four times an hour, it is easy to detect whether or not occupants of a home are away, for instance.

The government wants the introduction in a bid to make the average citizen more conscious of their energy consumption, which can be tracked on a dedicated website. Yet of the 1300 households participating in a trial, 53% indicated they have never looked at their energy consumption.

Of the total of 13,000 people interviewed, 20% indicated they would refuse the 'smart energy meter'. But (and here's the kicker): They were not aware that refusal of the new meter is punishable by a jail sentence of 6 months. When advised of this, most thought that they were hearing an April-fool's joke (the interviews were conducted on April 1st).

Six months in jail for refusing a privacy invading contraption that nobody wants, foisted on us by the government. I did a bit of googling to find out, what else a person in the Netherlands needs to do to get such a sentences. Here's what I found (all links NL):

- Sabotaging two F16 figher jets.

- Computer hacking, internet fraud and extortion

- Stabbing a fellow student in school

That is the sort of criminal behavior our government, and our 'representatives' in parliament find comparable to refusing a gadget that would destroy your privacy. Why aren't we ringing the Binnenhof with a multitude of angry men and women waving torches and pitchforks?

[UPADTE001] Proposal defeated! The Dutch senate voted down (NL) the proposal for a law making introduction of the 'smart energy meter' compulsory, on pain of conviction for an economic crime. The proposal will now call for voluntary adoption of the new digital meter, and not slap a 17,000 euro fine and a 6 months jail sentence on anyone refusing to install the thing.

But Minister of Economic affairs Maria Verhoeven is not very upset by this defeat. By 2020 the 'smart energy meter' will be made compulsory throughout the EUnion anyway. Undoubtedly with the same draconian measures for refuseniks.

No longer of any use

As NATO commemorates it's 60th birthday, it has become clear that the organisation that once was the bulwark against Soviet communist conquest of Europe is now a frail old man, too weak to be of any use.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen will be the new Secretary General of NATO. Turkey protested the nomination but, rather unexpectedly, gave up it's resistance. Now we know why. Elsevier reports that as part of a deal, Rasmussen will be forced to apologize for the Danish cartoon brouhahah:

NATO will pay a heavy price for Turkish consent of the nomination of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the next Secretary General after Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Among others, the Dane will have to make his apologies for the controversial Danish Muhammed cartoons.

Sources report that several muslim countries, all of them not NATO member, have put pressure on [Turkish prime-minister] Erdogan to block the nomination.

That pressure, according to Germany's biggest paper Bild [link in German - KV], has been richly rewarded. To start Rasmussen will make is apologies, tomorrow in Istanbul, for the very controversial Danish Muhammed cartoons.

In addition, the Turks demands that Danish justice initiate prosecution of the Kurdish broadcaster Roj TV, according to Ankara the voice of the Kurdish PKK.

And finally, Erdogan gained three high NATO posts. For instances, Rasmussens replacement will have to be a Turk.

And to put insult to injury, Obama the Messiah urged the European Union on Sunday to accept Turkey as a full member.

Maybe I will have something intelligent to say about all this in a couple of days. Right now, I am just seething with anger and disappointment for this graven betrayal of the principles NATO was founded to defend.

[UPDATE001] So did he, or did he not apologize? Hot Air seems to think Rasmussen deftly danced around the issue by offering a non-apology. Over at Poligazette, Michael thinks the 'non-apology' was an apology after all. And mr. North thinks the brouhaha was the crowbar for securing a Turkish place in NATO command. Esther has more on the non-apology apology, as does Gates of Vienna.

Strike ... I lost count

Aaargh... Minister Permits Separate Male-Female Dutch Language Classes

THE HAGUE, 03/04/09 - Municipalities are allowed to schedule separate classes for men and women for integration courses if this boosts the effectiveness of integration, according to Integration Minister Eberhard van der Laan.

Van der Laan has sent a letter to all municipalities in which he points out that migrants on integration courses must be made aware of "the principle of equality between men and women." This does not mean however that men and women always have to have lessons together, in his view.

According to Van der Laan, local authorities can organise separate courses for men and women if this is the most effective way to point out equality to migrants. Separate courses can avert women not turning up at the Dutch language and culture courses, because they feel they are not allowed to meet strange men, he argues.

Gender separated classes to point out equality between men and women. You just have to be a socialist to make that logic work!

One double passport at a time

A curious bit of news yesterday: Couple furious as baby becomes Turkish.

A couple from Amsterdam are furious that their new baby Friso has been given Turkish nationality by city civil servants against their express wishes, the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday.

The child is entitled to be Turkish because his maternal grandfather is Turkish. But his parents are strongly opposed because they do not want their son to have to undergo military service with the Turkish army.

Earlier this week, the Telegraaf reported that civil servants in Amsterdam are registering children born in the Netherlands as Moroccan with the Moroccan consul, without being asked to do so by their parents.

The couple in question are Suzan and Vincent van Saase, hence the baby's full name is Friso van Saase, about as Dutch a name as there is (what with the 'van' and all). Yet a civil servant of Amsterdam city council decided that since one of Friso's grandparents (Suzan's father) is Turkish, Friso should be a Turk as well. When Suzan inquired why Friso was made Turkish in the Amsterdam council administration, the answer she got was: 'Such is the Turkish law'.

This immediately begs the question why Amsterdam city council should busy itself upholding Turkish law in the Netherlands. Indeed, this is what Suzan wanted to know, but an answer to that question (repeated three times) was never provided.

You may well think: So what? An extra passport can be very handy. But in this case it has some real world consequences, not least of which is that poor Friso, because of his Turkish nationality, upon reaching the age of 18, will be called up for service in the Turkish army (which is still conscription based).

In the mean time, the whole scandal is heaped upon the head of the hapless civil servant, who is said to be of the 'overzealous kind'. But some minor quibbles remain. For instance: civil servants the world over (and Dutch civil servants are no exception) are not prone to initiative. If there is no law or directive or guideline expressly allowing something, a civil servant will not do it.

So, no matter how overzealous the civil servant in question might be, I very much doubt he or she was acting on his/her own initiative. There must be a guideline circulating around Amsterdam that tells civil servants that if a child has Turkish (or Moroccan) forebears, it automatically is also of that nationality. Irrespective of parents wishes. Who wrote that guideline? And why? Does that guideline cover all nationalities?

What strikes me about this behavior is the fact that if this is (Dutch) law, then we have a law that is aimed at slowly eradicating the Dutch nationality. A sort of Neuremburg law in reverse. Is this how we will complete the construction of multicultural society in the Netherlands? One double passport at a time?