Radio Netherlands Worldwide

SSO Login

More login possibilities:

Close
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • LinkedIn
Home
Monday 13 February RNW - NEWS AND ANALYSIS FROM THE NETHERLANDS IN 10 LANGUAGES, WORLDWIDE 24/7 ON RADIO, TV AND ONLINE
Dutch Press Review
Map
Hilversum, Netherlands
Hilversum, Netherlands

Press Review Monday 23 November 2009

Published on : 23 November 2009 - 12:36pm | By Jacqueline Carver
More about:

All the papers report on vaccination day: at least one million children and their family members have been called up to be vaccinated against influenza A(H1N1) in 250 centres set up across the country.


AD
writes, "Today sees the Netherlands start its most comprehensive vaccination campaign". Although it's not the largest vaccination campaign, Public Health Netherlands director Laurent de Vries tells the paper, "It's certainly the largest challenge considering the extremely short prep time that we had. So far we've met all the deadlines".

The health ministry gave the order to vaccinate all children between the ages of six months and five years just two weeks ago and de Volkskrant makes it sound like a military campaign: "the fire services are delivering vaccines, the police are directing traffic, ambulance personnel are assisting, public transport authorities have laid on buses and employers are giving people the day off as the mass inoculation campaign kicks off".

Diary from Dutch concentration camp presented
Several papers report on Sunday's presentation of the concentration camp diary of Klaartje de Zwarte-Walvisch in Amsterdam. De Volkskrant writes, "She started where Anne Frank was forced to leave off. Klaartje de Zwarte-Walvisch, murdered in Sobibor, kept a diary so the rest of the world would know what happened".

De Volkskrant writes that 32-year-old Klaartje started her diary on 20 March 1943, the day that she and her husband were arrested in their Amsterdam apartment by two Dutch Jew hunters. They, along with thousands of others were taken to the Hollandsche Schouwburg Theatre before being taken to Camp Vught, the only official SS concentration camp in occupied northwest Europe.

De Telegraaf writes, "After the world-famous diary of Anne Frank, and the diary by Tilburg's Helga Deen, discovered just five years ago, another diary written by a Dutch Jew has been discovered".

Trouw says Amsterdam's Jewish Historical Museum had had the diary for some years but the author was unknown until the researchers for the television series The War discovered the book and went searching for the author.

De Telegraaf writes "the first copy of Everything Was Destroyed was presented to Deputy Public Health Minister Jet Bussemaker in a ceremony at the Hollandsche Schouwburg Theatre; a place of brutal significance as the collection point for Amsterdam Jews".

Traffic chaos predicted in 2010 as anger grows over toll scheme
De Telegraaf reports that public anger is growing about government plans to introduce road pricing schemes; the populist paper writes that the conservative VVD party has begun a protest campaign against the proposal. VVD MP Charlie Aptroot says the campaign is in response to the massive number of protests about the pay as you drive scheme and has organised a petition and is handing out stickers that say, road pricing: no way!

The party says the scheme is far too expensive and far too complicated to work and the "four billion euros set aside for the project should be spent on improving and widening existing roads".

Under the headline "Traffic chaos predicted in 2010," AD says Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings should do more to inform motorists about the record number of road repairs that are planned for next year. The paper reports that a majority in the lower house is extremely concerned about traffic chaos that has been predicted that next year.

Call for specialised birthing hospitals
De Volkskrant reports that several gynaecologists have called for the establishment of 40 specialised birthing hospitals spread across the country, in order to cut infant mortality rates in the Netherlands. At the moment, there are around 100 hospitals in the country where women can give birth but the doctors, interviewed on current affairs TV programme Zembla, say no gynaecologists are on duty outside office hours.

Dr Paul Reuwer said the Netherlands needs specialised birthing centres with gynaecologists on duty day and night in order to improve infant mortality.

AD reports that research carried out across the European Union revealed that the Netherlands has one of the highest infant mortality rates in EU. According to the paper, the gynaecologists criticised the emphasis on home births and claimed that midwives wait too long before calling for specialised help.

They also said that the lack of gynaecologists, surgeons and personnel capable of performing a caesarean section contribute to infant deaths, "by the time a specialist has been drummed up, much valuable time has been lost valuable".

New children's book for children of gay dads
AD reports on the upcoming release of a new book for children of gay parents: "Growing up with two dads is a-okay," headlines in the paper above a photo of Jarko De Witte van Leeuwen sitting on the sofa reading a book to his children, four-year-old Arwen and her younger brother Wolf. The paper writes that the family is shining with happiness as Arwen points at a drawing in the book and says, "That's me".

The book, which will be officially released on 30 November, is called Arwen and her Daddies and was written by Mr De Witte van Leeuwen because none of the other books available portrayed a family that Arwen could identify with. He says, "a mother pops up somewhere in all of the other books I bought to read to Arwen, but that's not a situation that is familiar to her".

Mr De Witte van Leeuwen says the book is not only for gay and lesbian families but heterosexual couples as well because it's important to show that it is possible to have a family with two fathers "It's good to let those kids know that it it's okay. Just imagine, one of those children could grow up to be gay or lesbian, this could help them feel safe enough to tell their parents".

He says an English-language version of the book will be released simultaneously in the United States although he admits, "many arch-conservative Americans will not welcome the subject".

 

 

Discussion

Post new comment

Please be reminded all comments must be in English, short and to the point - guideline 250 words. Abusive and inappropriate comments will be removed.

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <p> <br>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.

More information about formatting options

Video highlights

Homs: where is the UN?
The citizens of Homs in Syria are under attack and are asking the UN for...
In from Holland
On this week's show: winter weather takes hold of the country, we find out...

RNW on Facebook

Sign up for our newsletters

Email news bulletin

What's on - Programme Preview

Press Review - of the leading Dutch newspapers every weekday

Media Network

Euro Hit 40 - Europe's No. 1 chart show

RNW - News and analysis from the Netherlands in 10 languages, worldwide 24/7 on radio, television and online