Culture’s cry for help may fall on deaf ears. The minority coalition finds it difficult to get hold off its parliamentary supporter. The Public Prosecutor´s Office gets tough on discrimination. And while boys are being boys, women are speaking more clearly.

Will ´cry for help´ fall on deaf ears?
More than 100,000 people demonstrated on Saturday in 70 towns and cities in the Netherlands against government plans to cut 200 million euros in the cultural sector, reports Trouw. The biggest demonstration, in Amsterdam, attracted 20,000 protesters. The day of protest ended in The Hague where The Hague Philharmonic played the last post and a two-minute silence was held to mourn the Dutch cultural sector. But the cry for help may have fallen on deaf ears as another 173 million euros could be cut from the culture budgets of local councils.

Culture vultures up and down the country turned out to scream, shout and cry. De Volkskrant compares the atmosphere in Leidse square in Amsterdam to the demonstrations against nuclear cruise missiles in the 1980s.

Meanwhile, AD announces ticket sales for festivals next summer are to begin early to get around a hike in Value Added Tax on tickets. According to the paper, Deputy Minister for Culture Halbe Zijstra says he understands that artists are angry about the measures, but he denied that they are aimed at ´left-wing hobbies´. “Culture is for everyone,” he says. Well isn’t that exactly the point the demonstrators are trying to make.

The problem with the Freedom Party is…
We already know that the coalition parties meet weekly with the Freedom Party, which lends the minority government its parliamentary support, but de Volkskrant explains the problems encountered because of this construction.

This is the first time a Dutch prime minister has had two obligatory meetings a week. Alongside a cup of tea with Queen Beatrix, there is the weekly chinwag with the leaders of the `cooperation partners´, Maxime Verhagen and Geert Wilders. But Prime Minister Mark Rutte is not the only one with a two fixed weekly engagements. Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders spends 30 minutes every week with conservative VVD and Christian Democrat parliamentary party leaders working through a whole list of issues, in this very strange form of dualism.

Meanwhile, there are two problems with the Freedom Party. Absolutely all decisions have to be run past its leader, while at the same time, it is almost impossible to reach him. The corridor where the party has its offices is closed off due to security reasons. Very convenient for a party which does not particularly like transparency, press contact and peeping toms, writes the paper. The problem was demonstrated last week when attempts by VVD and Christian Democrat MPs to talk with the Freedom Party so an alternative could be found to increasing tax on tickets for cultural events failed.

Meanwhile, Freedom Party MP Hero Brinkman is calling for more openness in the party. As one coalition MP puts it “Wilders span of control is out of control”.

Prosecution gets tough on discrimination
After the Wilders trial descended into chaos, the Dutch Public Prosecutor´s Office is apparently having another bash at showing it takes discrimination seriously. Trouw writes that a number of cases will be heard in special session today in Amsterdam. By bundling the cases the PPO hopes to attract enough media attention to give the idea it is getting tough on discriminatory insults and aggression in the capital.
One of the defendants is - oh what a surprise - a politician… well, a would-be politician. The leader of the Amsterdam branch of the Republican Modern Party, Delano Felter, said on local television that homosexuals are “people with a sexual deviation that should be suppressed by heterosexuals.” His party failed to gain even one seat in Amsterdam’s city council.

The bundling of cases not only attracts more media attention, it also makes it possible to demand a higher penalty. Many of the cases involve multiple complaints against a single defendant, involving discrimination.
The bundling of cases in theme hearings results from meetings between the mayor, the head of police and the head of the PPO in Amsterdam as a way of tackling certain social issues. Mayor Eberhard van der Laan is thought to be behind the tougher approach to discrimination and racism. Nevertheless, referring to the Wilders case the PPO admits, “It is not easy prosecuting discrimination cases.”

When boys will be boys
What is wrong with boys these days? According to nrc.next a number of them are wasting away their days, smoking dope, drinking alcohol, playing games on computers and hanging around. The paper writes most of us know someone in this group. They are 16-24 year olds from good families, who sometimes spend years “doing nothing”. “They don’t even chase after girls,” says one family doctor.

In spite of the extent of the problem, no scientific research has been done in this area. “They are like birds that don’t fly the nest,” says a family therapist from Amsterdam. But sometimes it is the nest which is causing the problem. High expectations and pressure to succeed can be the cause. A lack of parental control is another. And while girls still communicate when they get into a rut, boys pretend everything is fine.

One of the problems may be a lack of structure. If students don’t turn up to tutorials there are few or no consequences. Young men are no longer required to find a job, marry and have children, so they have longer to freewheel. Conscription no longer exists, which is when many of them realise what it is they want to do, according to the therapist. Nrc.next asks: what about the girls. Well apparently, they are doing much better.

Women speak clearly
AD may have the answer why females are doing better. Women talk more clearly than men. Their plain speaking is due to the higher position of the voice box, making it easier for them to articulate. Bart de Boer of Amsterdam University researched the position of the larynx; his findings were published in the Journal of Phonetics last week.

Up until now, it was thought that the low position of voice boxes in men meant they articulated their words better. However, in men the larynx is longer making it more difficult for them to pronounce words. “They have to put more effort into speaking clearly,” says the researcher. Fortunately for them, the position of the voice box makes them sound more impressive. So it doesn’t really matter what they say.