Parents are poisoning their kids with drink and the old boys (and girls) network is still monopolising positions on boards. There are tears from football fans in court and Santa’s website has been hacked.

Just two of today’s papers cover yesterday’s dramatic events in Egypt on their front pages. The others lead with domestic news... of one sort or another.

Alcohol-poisoned kids
De Telegraaf tells us that a 10-year-old was admitted to hospital with alcohol poisoning last week - the youngest person so far in the Netherlands. The lead report marks the publication of a book, Our Children and Alcohol.

The paper says the phenomenon of children drinking themselves unconscious is on the increase, with 75 percent of the youngsters receiving their first taste of alcohol from their parents.

A large colour diagram show us that, in 2007, there were 297 emergency hospital admissions for alcohol poisoning involving young people up to the age of 17. By 2010, the number had increased to 684.

A doctor at a special alcohol clinic for children tells the paper: “Ten years is terrifyingly young. Last week, we also saw a 12-year-old. He had downed a bottle of whiskey which was in the garage.”

The book, says De Telegraaf, is intended as a wake-up call for parents. “...they are from the 'applause' generation,” complains another doctor. “They always applaud their children no matter what they do. That has got to stop. Children have the right to an alcohol-free environment.”

Nice little earners
De Volkskrant treats us to a similar type of story on its front page. It’s the sort of piece that isn’t specific to today – it could just as well be featured tomorrow or have been run last week. It deals with the huge numbers of part-time positions held by top executives.

Apparently legislation coming onto the statute book in January is designed to limit the number of appointments to supervisory boards one person may hold. However, de Volkskrant says the law is set to fail, with many high-flyers continuing to hold a clutch of positions on various boards.

The trouble is they are all too busy – with all these nice little earners – to devote the time needed to actually do the supervising these boards are, by law, obliged to do.

The paper gives examples and names names. It reminds us that the head of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) was recently suspended for, among other things, earning in excess of the government-imposed limit for such jobs.

The leader of the conservative VVD party in the Senate, Loek Hermans, de Volkskrant says, was the president of the COA’s supervisory commissioners but had failed to do anything about the situation. It informs us that he holds 25 such positions. He’d be doing well if he could actually name all the boards he is on.

Individuals from a mob
A number of the papers cover the trial yesterday of five of the 32 people arrested for various violent offences outside Feyenoord football club’s headquarters in Rotterdam on 17 September.

AD’s photograph shows the truly frightening picture of police barricaded behind glass doors, guns at the ready, while rioting fans smashed the glass to get in. We are told that various people including children were sheltering inside the club’s offices. What had started as a peaceful protest about supposed failures at Feyenoord ended with 300 angry supporters storming the building.

Yesterday’s defendants got sentences ranging from nine months in prison to community service orders. One accused of throwing a stone at a policeman’s face was found not guilty because he was only identified by his clothes. AD points out that many of the rioters hid their faces with scarves.

Trouw highlights the fact that the culprits did not belong to the hard core of violent Feyenoord fans, nor were any of them actually from Rotterdam. One defendant, who tried to smash his way into the Feyenoord building with a 2.5 metre-long metal bar, was tearful in court.

He was “swept away by the atmosphere” and didn’t know why he did it. Voicing what many people might ask, the judge said: “What I don’t understand is - You’re 36, not a really young man. You have a 3-year-old child. You should have gained some wisdom by now, shouldn't you?”

‘Santa’s website’ hacked
An anonymous hacker has broken into the Sinterklaas (the Dutch version of Santa) news website, according to nrc.next. The hacker has placed log-in details online. The frightening thing is that he or she could have taken more sensitive information about the children who use the site.

The Sinterklaas website came under fire earlier, says nrc.next, when children were urged to fill in their names and e-mail addresses on the site. Otherwise, they were told, they wouldn’t be getting any presents this year. Furious parents complained it was a breach of their children’s privacy rights.
 

http://www.rnw.nl