The Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention has its Eighteenth Session in the first week of December 2013 at the World Forum in The Hague, next to the OPCW Headquarters. As requested by The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons… Read More

Each November Saint Sinterklaas arrives by steamboat in the Netherlands. In Amsterdam alone, hundreds of thousands turn out along to greet the tall, bearded saint and his helpers, jolly types called Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes). After riding off on a white horse, Sinterklaas is said… Read More

Marine Le Pen, leader of the French extreme right party Front national (FN), visits The Hague to meet Dutch politician Geert Wilders, in an effort to build a powerful far-right political movement during the 2014 EU elections. Receiving Le Pen in The Hague, Wilders said… Read More

Since orthodox Jews only marry and reproduce in their own community, genetic diseases like Tay-Sachs occur relatively often. In the 1980ties Rabbi Joseph Ekstein, based in Brooklyn New York, started an organisation with the name Dor Yeshorim (‘upright generation’), to fight genetic diseases to appear… Read More

It suddenly turns out that not the Pakistani Malala Yousafzai will receive the Nobel peace prize 2013, but the OPCW, the Organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons, which has its headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands. At a press conference the Nobel committee states… Read More

‘We make war so we are war’. That, some would say chilling quotation, came from Abdelkarim Honing, a young man in the Netherlands who has converted to Islam. He has seen many of his friends leave to take up arms in the bloody conflict in… Read More

The Yong Sheng is the first ever container-transporting vessel sailing transit along the Northern Sea Route. When arriving in the port of Rotterdam the 19,000-ton vessel Yong Sheng will get its place in the history books as the first container-transporting vessel which made it transit… Read More

After years of negotiation a new European rule to ban discarding unwanted fish overboard was agreed upon in May this year. Dutch fisherman and fish dealer Jan Geertsema wants to change the system by promoting fishing in a much more durable way, decreasing the number… Read More

Japan’s Economic Revitalization Minister Akira Amari visits the Netherlands and Denmark. He is hoping to find out how those countries boosted their economies. Revitalizing the agricultural and medical industries is a key part of the growth strategy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. While in the… Read More

Since the seventies of the last century the fans of the Amsterdam football club Ajax identify themselves with Jews. Although officially Ajax is not a Jewish club, many of the supporters sing and yell ‘Jews, Jews, Jews’ during every match. A Dutch foundation against anti-Semitism… Read More

In November 2012 the MTV UK show Geordie Shore filmed in Amsterdam on the flower market, the Leidseplein and Rembrandtsplein, the Albert Cuyp market, the Red Light District and sex theatre Casa Rosso. Something went wrong with the release forms, and since the video material… Read More

Switzerland is reforming its system to handle asylum seekers and it is using the Dutch system as an example. On the 1 of July 2013 Dutch deputy minister Fred Teeven will present changes to the asylum seekers system. He is forced to do so because… Read More