Besides the front page splashes of wailing and whimpering North Koreans in the obligatory show of public grief for the loss of their ‘Dear Leader’, there’s lots of domestic drama in today’s papers.

A local ‘child porn’ councillor resumes his seat at the table after a stint in jail; a ‘pedo-imam’ refused entry; the Saab fairytale - an international epic without a happy ending; a bleak job market unless you’re a farmer or a theologian, and Dutch celebs band together to stop child deportations.

“Second chance” for pedo-councillor
Under the screaming headline “Pedo politician booed at”, De Telegraaf writes that the whole eastern city of Arnhem “had been sharpening their knives after the announced return of ‘child porn’ local politician Martin van Meurs to the city’s council”.

Van Meurs served a nine-month jail term this year for possession and distribution of 3,463 child pornography “perverse pictures” and 241 films showing the abuse of children. Some of the images displayed “very young children being treated roughly”. 

“I’m not the type of person who’ll lie down quietly ‘under a street tile’ in the hope that everyone will walk around me....I’m 60 years old, have worked all my life and am not going to throw it all away now,” protests Van Meurs in AD.

After a flood of poisonous name-calling from the public gallery, one demonstrator replies. “He thinks that someone who’s been prosecuted deserves a second chance. But the children who were abused in the making of the pornography will suffer all their lives.”

Van Meurs admitted he “needs the money, because I lost my other job”. But money isn’t the most important, he pleads. “We live in a country where every prisoner has the right to a second chance. If I’m not allowed to carry out my function, then that would apply to some 70,000 released detainees each year. Are you going to reject them all?” 

No entry for ‘pedo imam’
Well, at least one ‘pedo imam’ has been rejected. De Volkskrant writes that “the controversial Moroccan imam Mohammed al-Maghraoui, who approves of the marriages of nine-year-old girls, will not be coming to The Hague”.

The imam was invited by the Salafi brotherhood to a five-day Arabic conference on ‘The Muslim battling between perseverance and temptation’ which begins on 23 December in the As Soennah Mosque in The Hague.

If the Moroccan applies for a visa, Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal “will refuse to issue one to the ‘pedo-imam’.”

“A clear signal to radical mosques like As Soennah that this type of imam is not welcome in the Netherlands,” agrees opposition Labour Party MP Kadija Arib. 

Theologians and farmers: your country needs you
“We don’t need any more bankers in the coming years, but farmers. No more journalists, but truck drivers...And theologians will be able to find work more easily,” exclaims de Volkskrant.

You might think these are the words of a “prophecy uttered by the Occupy movement urging us all to go back to our roots”; but no, explains the left-leaning newspaper, these are serious words of wisdom, “the findings of a serious job market investigation conducted by the University of Maastricht”.

Its dedicated research centre for education and employment publishes a report every two years. “There’s no demand at the moment for complicated bank and insurance products,” says researcher Frank Cörvers.

So, while demand dwindles for insurance agents, accountants and bookkeepers, there are lots of opportunities for anyone who wants to be a farmer when he grows up. “Many farmers are retiring...and the mega-farming seems to have reached a ceiling.”

Ditto for theologians and truck drivers – “baby boomer saves the job market” headlines De Telegraaf. And whereas many austerity measures bear down hard on young people, work will abound for them “because hundreds of thousands of elderly people will be retiring.”

What's more, reports De Telegraaf, the government will be closing the door to Bulgarian and Romanian immigrant workers. The cabinet feels it’s time for the Dutch to go harvesting their own tomatoes and asparagus.

Dutch-Swedish Saab fairytale open-ended
“A huge shame. A real pity. Not surprising. Defeated. A TV soap with a  sad ending”: some of the reactions to yesterday’s announcement that Dutchman Victor Muller has filed for carmaker Saab’s bankruptcy, writes De Telegraaf. “The Saab fairytale is over. Saab is no more. The dream ends in a nightmare.”

The dream was Victor Muller’s, owner of Dutch sports carmaker Spyker, who thought he could save the poor ailing Saab. He bought Saab from US owner General Motors two years ago. He fought a hard fight with dragons – trying to get Chinese investors on board.

And during his two-year “quest for money”, he sometimes encountered some “unsavoury characters”, writes AD. Russian banker-cum-entrepreneur “Vladimir Antonov wanted to invest tens of millions, but the Swedish authorities wanted him for dodgy banking practices with the Russian mafia.”

Then, the battle went on. Muller was nearly there – Chinese Youngman and Pang Da had their bags of money on the table. But an American voice of pride spoke out – General Motors vetoed the sale, explains Trouw. “The US carmaker is owner of Saab’s technical specs and was not prepared to hand over that knowledge to the Chinese because the same know-how is used in the manufacture of Opels.”

Muller remains in hope. “I’m not opening any crates of champagne or wine from the people who bet Saab wouldn’t survive its first year,” he says in AD.

Freedom Party signs to keep child immigrants
Do you remember Mauro, the expressive 18-year-old Angolan whose story was recently under the spotlight of international media? Mauro came to the Netherlands as an unaccompanied asylum-seeker when he was 10 years old. He went to school here, speaks Dutch and eats cheese. Then the authorities told him to leave when he was 18: time up!

Now a group of prominent Dutch politicians, footballers and entertainers have launched a campaign for a children’s pardon “to remove this group [of underage asylum-seekers] from a circus of uncertainty and tumultuous national - and parliamentary – debate,” reports Trouw.

More than 32,000 signed the petition on the internet on its first day yesterday. If nothing is done, these kids will end up in Iraq, Afghanistan, Angola, Eritrea, “where they don’t speak the language, where they don’t know anyone, where they’re social outcasts,” pleads Green Left politician Tofik Dibi.

And the anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV) were touched to boot. “Anything concerning children reaches a primal nerve. Even PVV members signed,” says Dibi. 

Maybe they can even study to be a farmer or theologian when they get older. There’s hope for our children yet.

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