Today’s papers focus on the miracle survivor of the Tripoli air disaster and mourn the shock death of a Belgian cyclist. They also report on war-mongering youths in a fishing village, feel the pain of defence cutbacks and wonder if the Dutch are too happy.

Ruben: Tripoli’s miracle survivor one year on
A year has passed since the air disaster at Tripoli Airport which claimed the lives of everyone on board except one nine-year-old Dutch boy who miraculously escaped death.

AD reflects “his life changed completely on 12 May 2010 when the plane he was travelling in with his parents and his brother crashed near the Libyan capital ... one year on Ruben looks like any other ten-year-old boy who walks, rides his bike and laughs and who has found his place in the family of his aunt and uncle and their three children.”
 
AD is the only newspaper to feature Ruben on its front page, in a tasteful photo of him and his cousins which doesn’t show their faces. Determined to keep Ruben out of the spotlight, his aunt has only given one interview to news agency ANP. It’s quite a contrast with the media frenzy that surrounded the young boy immediately after the tragedy.
 
Tellingly, the paper that was lambasted at the time for going all out to get a scoop on the story – even publishing details of a phone conversation with Ruben from his hospital bed – is the soul of discretion today. De Telegraaf’s story on “the miracle boy of Tripoli” is tucked away on page 7. It has even refrained from publishing any of the official photographs.

Wouter Weylandt: a death to shock the sporting world
All today’s papers are shocked by untimely death of Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt in yesterday’s leg of the Giro d’Italia. A severe fall left the young father-to-be dead at the age of 26. Trouw describes it as “a fatal accident that has sent shivers through the world of cycling”.
 
The paper notes the “encyclopaedic precision” with which Wikipedia updated its entry on the sportsman: “Wouter Weylandt was a Belgian cyclist ... ‘is’ replaced by ‘was’ ... a fraction of a second somewhere in Italy and all of a sudden Weylandt belongs to the past.”
 
De Volkskrant pays tribute to the young Belgian as a potential star who never quite fulfilled his potential: “His career alternated between misfortune and success. On balance misfortune had the upper hand, with yesterday’s fall as a tragic final blow.”

Urk: war on authority in Dutch fishing village
Today’s papers look at the ongoing conflict between teenage lads in the fishing village of Urk and their mayor, whose clampdown on troublemakers has prompted attacks on his official residence. AD reports “the youth of Urk have declared war on the mayor”. 
 
The paper talks to a bunch of disgruntled teens who complain “we’ve never had a mayor who’s been so hard on the youth ... this man is spoiling all our traditions”. These traditions mainly seem to involve tearing around the village on scooters without a muffler to dampen the noise. The mayor now wants a meaningful dialogue with the youngsters but so far they don’t seem convinced: “He’s saying all kinds of things but seeing is believing,” says one.
 
De Volkskrant sees the attacks on the “beleaguered mayor” as part of a wider problem: “violence against authority figures as the dark side of our increased freedom and equality”. It argues that “We need authority and using force to express your grievances shows a lack of civilisation.”

Dutch defence cuts hit home
Dutch armed forces chief Peter van Uhm is looking decidedly downcast in today’s papers, standing beside one of the Cougar helicopters taken out of service yesterday along with tanks, aircraft and minehunters due to sweeping defence cuts.
 
On what AD calls “a sad day for the armed forces”, the general observes bitterly “It’s bad enough to have to make these cuts but perhaps worse to observe that the Netherlands doesn’t seem at all bothered”.
 
According to nrc.next, the Dutch are terrified of ending up with an army like Belgium’s “which only makes the news when something goes wrong”, like running out of bullets due to an administrative error.
 
But the Belgians insist the Dutch can learn a lot from their stripped-down approach to defence. “We have to accept that we have small armies,” says one expert. “It’s not something to be embarrassed about.” And as for loss of status “well ... NATO HQ is still based in Brussels.”

Dutch happiness: a double-edged sword?
Great news ... or is it? NRC Handelsblad reports on a study which has found that a whopping 89 per cent of the Dutch “often” or “always” feel happy. But watch out! Too much bliss is not necessarily a good thing. 
 
Under the headline “the Dutch may be a little too happy”, the man behind the study - Ad Bergsma of Erasmus University Rotterdam – warns that “People who say they are completely happy have less successful careers and even die earlier.”
 
His explanation betrays more than a hint of Dutch Calvinism: “That’s because you have to suffer in order to gain wisdom.” In short “it’s better to score eight out of ten on the happiness scale.” I think I could live with that ...