Category: Politics

Politiek Verzet In Nederland 0

Politics

Politiek Verzet In Nederland

Niemand ontkomt eraan – het is crisis. Niet alleen in Nederland, maar de gehele Westerse wereld wordt door deze economische crisis geaffecteerd. Wat in 2008 begon als een door ongezonde hypotheken gevoerde bankencrisis heeft ertoe geleid dat landen de rente op hun staatsschuld niet meer konden betalen. Gevolg: landen als Griekenland, en in mindere mate, Ierland, Spanje, Italië en Portugal, moesten drastische veranderingen toebrengen aan hun spenderingen als voorwaarden aan de economische steun die zij verkregen van de EU. Dit werd niet altijd goed ontvangen door de burgers van de...

RANT: FYRA and the Dutch ‘Poldermodel’ 0

Politics

RANT: FYRA and the Dutch ‘Poldermodel’

A few weeks ago, the new high-speed train connection between Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport, Rotterdam and Breda (and a possibility to take you to Antwerpen and Brussel) called ‘FYRA’ made its first commercial ride. Five years later than expected, it is supposed to take you from Amsterdam to Breda in 67 minutes, 35 minutes less than taking a normal intercity train. It is owned by the ‘High Speed Alliance’, a consortium of NS (90%) and KLM (10%). It is operated by NS Hi-speed, a NS subsidiary. They opted for trains by...

Palestine recognized by UN as State, what now? 0

Politics

Palestine recognized by UN as State, what now?

Late last night, news broke that Palestine has received a majority in the UN (138 for, 9 against, 41 abstained votes), implicitly recognizing it as a proper state and as member of the United Nations. While this is arguably great news for politicians in Palestine, what are the implications for the people living in Gaza? Is Israel going to back down, now that Palestine has received a mighty ally? Perhaps. But not likely. Why? Let’s go back to the events leading up to this vote.

LIVEBLOG: Dutch Elections 2012 1

Politics

LIVEBLOG: Dutch Elections 2012

Today is election day in Holland. The first results are turning up, and I’ll be liveblogging the whole event. The big question is Europe, yes or no. Do we send more money to Greece and other failing economies within the European Union, or do we withdraw? Socialists and Populists both want to exit the EU, while Labour (PvdA) and LibDem (D66) want to further tie our economy with the Union. A little intro on the Dutch Parliament. It has 150 seats. Last election (2010) was won by the ‘VVD’, with...

TV REVIEW: The Newsroom (episode 1) 1

Politics / TV

TV REVIEW: The Newsroom (episode 1)

I’ve awaited ‘The Newsroom’, HBO’s new drama series from the mind of Aaron Sorkin, for a long time. I even wrote a preview for it nearly two months ago. After much waiting, the first episode premiered yesterday, so I could watch it today. Which I did. I’ll post my experiences while watching the first episode below. ‘The Newsroom’ starts out with Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) being questioned during a college tour. He tries to remain neutral on political topics, but when the speaker insists on getting an answer from the heart, he snaps. He...

G500; Undermining the Principles of Democracy Since Today 0

Politics

G500; Undermining the Principles of Democracy Since Today

One of my classmates, Sywert van Lienden, proposed a system where 500 enthusiastic, politically engaged adolescents would join every large political party in order to change their policies from within. I’m currently watching a rerun of ‘De Wereld Draait Door’, a daily public broadcast on Dutch television where he explains his plans, and tries to legitimize them. Earlier today, I was approached by a journalist of ‘De Volkskrant’ while at the university to discuss his plans. I didn’t know anything about it prior to this enquiry, but I started thinking...

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Politics

The Fourth Power: Media’s Role in Politics

Let’s go for something different now, a change of pace. Something serious. Being a Political Science major, I (have to) read a lot of political themed literature. Not all of them are easy to read through, especially the older works from the likes of Hobbes and Locke are quite hard to read if you are not a native english speaker. I imagine that even people who do have english as their first language, find it hard to understand what is written down by these enlightened philosophers. But what I do understand,...

ACTA, what is it, and what will it do? 1

Politics

ACTA, what is it, and what will it do?

There’s something brewing in international politics. Governments are seeking possibilities to limit out freedom. In the USA, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) have luckily been shot down due to popular activism to do so. Then why do these elected government officials keep looking for new ways, new bills, new names, to limit our freedom on the internet? The newest contender is ACTA (Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement). Well, it’s not fairly new, it has been introduced in Octobre of 2010. The problem with this legislation, is...