Stop worrying, the euro’s going to be fine after all, says De Telegraaf cheerily. The Netherlands’ prized sex education in schools is under threat. The Dutch copyright collecting agency is embroiled in a corruption scandal. The racism row about Black Peter flares up – and can you still use the Dutch word for ‘negro’? And residents in the west of Amsterdam can expect chocolate and a stern warning in their shoes.

A ray of hope for the euro
“At the end of the dark euro tunnel, suddenly there is a glimmer of light,” De Telegraaf leads cheerily. And the photo alongside shows a group of ecstatic teenage girls, cheering the good news about the European currency.

On closer inspection, it turns out they’re cheering a rapper at a concert for World Aids Day, but never mind, they add to the hopeful mood.

So what’s to be happy about? European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has apparently “opened the door to support for the ailing euro zone in return for watertight budgets”. (You’ll have to turn to the financial pages of some more serious paper to find out what that actually means.)

And IMF chief Christine Lagarde is having a whip-round of emerging economies, De Telegraaf adds – she says she’ll soon have enough donations to sort Europe out.

But it’s a poor show when a filthy rich continent has to go cap in hand to countries like Brazil and India, moans de Volkskrant in its editorial. “A request for help from the IMF is humiliating for the euro zone and at most can only offer temporary relief,” the paper warns.

Meanwhile, the Dutch public don’t exactly seem worried that their currency is on the point of collapse and needs propping up by the Brazilian taxpayer, we learn from De Telegraaf’s editorial.

Apparently figures show the Dutch have just splashed out a record sum on presents for the upcoming Sinterklaas festival. Don’t tell the Brazilians.

Read the RNW coverage of the story

Sex ed cutbacks
The central region of the Netherlands will have to brace itself for a baby boom and an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases in a couple of years’ time, according to de Volkskrant’s lead story. The local health authority is to stop providing sex education in schools. It’s yet another victim of government cutbacks.

But what of the Netherlands’ worldwide reputation for keeping its teenagers out of maternity wards and STD clinics by teaching them the facts of life young? “The local councils are up to their neck in it financially,” the regional health authority chief tells the paper. “It’s easy to go for the soft, preventative aspects that are hard to measure, like education.”

Other health authorities are also likely to be cutting back their youth education programmes on sex, smoking and alcohol, the health authority’s national director says. “But people forget that for every euro spent on prevention, you make two or three back because you spend less on health problems.”

Copyright corruption scandal
A board member of the Dutch copyright collecting agency Buma/Stemra has stepped down after revelations of corruption, de Volkskrant, De Telegraaf and AD report. De Volkskrant prints the transcript of the recorded phone call that proves it.

Composer Melchior Rietveldt claims Buma/Stemra owes him a million euros. Board member Joachim Gerrits told Melchior’s business representative he’d use his weight to make sure the composer got his money – but only in return for a kickback of a third of the money. “He’ll be 600,000 richer, and now he’s got nothing,” he said.

Melchior isn’t the only person with an axe to grind with Buma/Stemra. It’s only the latest in a string of scandals surrounding the collecting agency, AD reminds us. “I guarantee you, all artists have problems with Buma,” singer Margriet Eshuijs tells the paper. Her husband, songwriter Maarten Peters, sums up: “Buma is a rotten organisation.”

Racism row
“Is it OK to say ‘negro’?” nrc.next wonders. And more topically, is Black Peter racist? The Dutch word ‘neger’ is still blithely bandied about in the respectable media, the paper points out. Even though the negative connotations of ‘negro’ already blew over from the US in the 1980s, as racism expert Louk Hagendoorn explains. Not to mention the fact that to make matters worse, ‘neger’ sound confusingly more like ‘nigger’ than ‘negro’.

“Afro-Dutch” would be a more preferable option, says Roy Groenland, who heads a Surinamese campaign group. Evidently he’s not worried that ‘Afro-American’ has long since slipped out of the realm of political correctness in the US.

‘Black Peter’ (Zwarte Piet) is another example of the apparently casual attitude the Dutch take to matters that elsewhere go beyond the pale of racism. The Dutch equivalent of Santa’s little helpers come with a blacked up face, black curly hair and thick red lips.

There’s been more commotion about the issue than ever this year, nrc.next points out, with a graph of media mentions to prove it. The row has been fuelled by the arrest of anti-Black Peter campaigners in Dordrecht and a documentary series on slavery has probably raised awareness.

But a professional Black Peter, who blacks up for parties and TV shows, tells de Volkskrant: “No-one in the Sinterklaas world is bothered about whether it’s racist, all that fuss about Black Peter. The argument comes up every year. Some are for and some are against and there’s something to be said for both camps.”

Sinterklaas issues fire regulation warning
Finally, a story from AD that brings together a triptych of Dutchness – Sinterklaas, a questionable degree of political correctness, and a passion for rules and regulations.

At Sinterklaas time, Dutch children put out their shoes in the hope that in the morning Black Peter will have filled them with treats – such as a large lump of chocolate in the shape of the first letter of their name.

Meanwhile, the Turkish and Moroccan residents of housing blocks in Amsterdam are in the habit of putting out their shoes all year round. Right outside their apartments in the public stairway. And all those shoes littering up the place are a danger in case of fire, according to the housing association.

So on 5 December, the night of Sinterklaas, residents who leave out their shoes can expect to find them filled with a present from their landlord – a chocolate letter. Along with a letter warning them they’re in breach of the fire regulations.