Good news on the economic front today, but that optimism is tempered by chilling stories of delinquent youths and beatings in mosques. A Gothic church made of bamboo graces one front page, while all the papers cover Dutch skating madness.
 
Economic figures upbeat for 2010
Good news is always nice, but only one paper has front-page coverage of the upbeat forecast - from the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) - that the economy will actually grow by 1.5 percent next year.
 
Estimated unemployment in 2010 also looks better than expected, at 5.8 percent; the earlier forecast was 9.5 percent. De Volkskrant explains that, despite suffering a 4-percent recession, the better than expected jobless figures indicate the Dutch employment market is more flexible than experts thought.
 
The introduction of a scheme allowing staff to be put on a shorter working week, with the government picking up part of the wages bill, gets some of the credit for the improved outlook. But, says the paper, take-up of the scheme was not so extensive.
 
Another explanation could be that long overtime hours had become normal for many Dutch workers by 2008. Instead of laying people off when the recession bit, firms simply cut this overtime. East European workers also found sources of employment drying up and have simply returned to their countries of origin.
 
However, the paper also points to a hidden factor which appears to have helped make the jobs market flexible enough to deal with recession. It says over recent years many people have set themselves up as self-employed, working as one-person firms.
 
Nrc.next also picks up on this and quotes CPB Director Coen Teulings: "The bad news is that some of the pain of the crisis has hit the growing group of self-employed people who don't employ staff. Their suffering has been hidden." The paper also tempers the general good economic news with the forecast that the budget deficit is set to rise by a whopping 5.8 percent in 2010.
 
Teenagers who go off the rails
On an inside page, nrc.next continues on a downbeat course, reminding us how easy it is for youngsters to go seriously off the rails. "Adolescents who kill adolescents" is its chilling headline.
 
The latest in a list of disturbing cases involves three teenage boys and a girl who shut a deaf 16-year-old in a shipping container on an industrial estate. The boy died two days later, probably asphyxiated after starting a fire in the container to keep warm. The four are on trial in the small town of Zutphen.
 
An expert tells us that youngsters, especially boys, "have a limited ability to control impulses. Look at the way they drive and drink". He goes on: "They underestimate risks and overestimate what they can achieve". They are also easily influenced by "delinquent" friends.
 
A lawyer points out how thin the line is between simple bad behaviour and crime. He says if kids throw stones from a viaduct and nobody is hurt, the most that happens is that they will be told off by a passer-by. If a driver gets killed as a result of their stupidity, the results are dramatic. A judge sticks his oar in, with comments about "dysfunctional families, psychological make-up and education".
 
The last image we are given is of the four youngsters on trial in Zutphen as normal adults ten years from now asking themselves: "How could we ever have done it?"
 
Reported mosque beatings cause furore
Two papers cover what some may see as another aspect of the 'children and discipline' issue. Both the mass-circulation daily, De Telegraaf, and the AD have front-page pieces on reports of children being beaten during Qur'an lessons in mosques in The Hague.
 
The AD says local medical authorities have reported nearly 50 cases of suspected assault to the police. Parents are said to have reacted in different ways. Some removed their children from the classes, while others denied that the beatings had taken place. No parents were willing to make official complaints of abuse to the authorities.
 
A councillor tells De Telegraaf: "I just can't believe that the mosque authorities didn't know children were being so badly mistreated". Another indulges in fighting talk: "If the mosque refuses to take responsibility, the public prosecutor will have to deal with it".
 
Church without religion
A photo of what looks like the nave of a Gothic church made of huge arching bamboo poles dominates the front page of Trouw today. The "church without religion" designed by architect Simón Vélez is under construction in Cartegena in Colombia.
 
He is receiving the Principal Prince Claus Award, worth 100,000 euros, in Amsterdam today. Among other things, the citation praises his sustainable design technique. The paper says the architect has become the standard-bearer of ecological architecture.
 
Mr Vélez, who uses mostly bamboo in his work, plays down his environmental credentials. He doesn't see himself as "an ecological ambassador or saviour of the planet" but rather as "a craftsman who has discovered the potential of bamboo".
 
Skating madness
The papers are clear about today's really big news: that ice-skating madness is back in the Netherlands. After just a few days of sub-zero temperatures, the Dutch are looking forward to the first skating races on what they call "natural" ice. This usually means ice formed on specially nurtured shallow race circuits in the great outdoors.
 
De Volkskrant plumps for a picturesque front-page photo of two youngsters skating in the country, an old windmill in the background. "First scrapes on thin ice" reads the headline.
 
De Telegraaf prefers to report the contest between skating clubs in various parts of the country to stage the first 'natural' ice race of the season. Two serious-looking men are shown, tape measures in hand, seeing just how thick (or thin) the ice really is. "Ice battle reaching boiling point" quips the headline.