There is nostalgia, soap operas and bullying in the papers today. Meanwhile a chemical dump is transformed into a nature area and killer whales are sighted in the North Sea - or are they?

Nostalgia over household name TVs
Dutch electronics manufacturer Philips is stopping its production of televisions. This has led to a little nostalgia in the papers. In nrc.next, old 1950s posters showing whole families watching the box are printed in the paper. De Volkskrant shows a collection of older models - including the first TV the company presented to the public in 1928.

Once upon a time, there was probably a Philips television set in almost every living room in the Netherlands. But the company’s once so successful television division has been making losses for many years. So what went wrong? Well, its more luxury range failed to compete against cheaper Asian TV sets made by Sony and Samsung. Another problem is that production costs of flatscreen televisions are relatively high and there is huge pressure to lower prices. Added to that, expectations that last year’s World Cup would lead to a surge in sales didn’t materialise. So while older cumbersome models are being sold at dump prices, flatscreens are still too expensive.

Philips’ new CEO Frans van Houten only needed 19 days after a shareholders' meeting to decide to set up a joint venture with Chinese company TPV. In effect production will move to China and Philips will retain 30 percent in shares. Will it be the end of Philips television sets in Dutch living rooms? No, not yet, the name will remain the same for the next five years.

Wilders soap continues
The trial of Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders is to continue after the latest development in what is fast becoming a soap opera. Lawyer Bram Moszkowicz tried to have the three judges dismissed from the case for a third time. Why? Because they refused to investigate one of the witnesses for perjury. Trouw writes that his next move will be to plea that Mr Wilders has no chance of a fair trial because of bias. It’s all to do with a dinner attended by both an expert witness for the defence and one of the judges who ordered the court to try the case for discrimination in the first place.

Although the paper does not believe the defence’s tactics will manage to get the case thrown out of court, they have successfully deflected attention away from the actual issue of whether or not Geert Wilders is guilty of insulting Muslims, inciting hatred against Muslims and discrimination.

Chemical time bomb becomes nature area
Prince Willem-Alexander is opening a new nature reserve just north of Amsterdam today, the Volgermeer polder. Trouw describes how Amsterdam’s most notorious chemical dump mixed with decades of the city’s bin bags has been transformed into a recreation area. It’s taken 20 years to complete the project. If nothing had been done, it would have only been a matter of time before the chemical cocktail started seeping into the environment.

The toxins, which include 30,000 barrels of benzene, dioxins and DDT from pesticide manufacturer Philips Duphar, have been sealed off with sheeting and covered with three million cubic metres of sand and clay straight from the construction of Amsterdam’s latest metro line. Eventually reeds and water plants will die off forming new layers of peat, so that when the protective sheeting perishes, the new peat layers prevent the toxins resurfacing.

The area will be monitored closely to make sure no trees set root and damage the sheeting too soon. Meanwhile Amsterdammers have a new destination for an out-of-town cycle ride.

Bullying a persistent problem
The issue of bullying has made it into two of the papers today. Trouw reports on a book ‘The great thing about bullying’ telling the true story of Julian van Dalen (fictitious name), who was bullied severely as a teenager. Once he was pushed into a pond while the whole school looked on. Now an adult he models for Giorgio Armani. The author of the book, Edward van de Vendel, interviewed his parents, the bullies, the school teachers and the pupils. The bullies admit if no-one had been watching they wouldn’t have pushed him in the water. Mr van de Vendel’s conclusion is that so little is done to tackle bullying because the teachers thrive on popularity so they do not want to be associated with a perceived weakling, and the same goes for the pupils. So it is up to the parents to stick up for their kids.

Meanwhile AD reports that an 11-year-old who was so sick of being bullied that he sent threatening emails to his primary school on his Blackberry. The school closed for two days last week after receiving the threats. The boy has been suspended. The boy’s parents complain that the school had consistently failed to stop the bullying. Maybe the school in question should buy a copy of the aforementioned book.

Killer whales sighted in North Sea
Whale watchers on a ferry between Hook of Holland and Harwich in Great Britain sighted four killer whales in the North Sea last weekend reports AD. The animals looked in good shape and were probably all females swimming in a northerly direction says nature organisation Stichting Rugvin which regularly uses the ferry service to count sea mammals. Killer whales, or orcas as they’re known here, are seldom sighted in the North Sea, although last year one young killer whale was spotted in the Wadden Sea off the northern Dutch coast.

However, on its website de Volkskrant throws doubt on the sighting. The paper has found a marine expert who dismisses the probability of killer whales swimming so far away from their natural habitat in the Atlantic. No photos were made and the vision of the whale watchers may have been slightly influenced by earlier reports of sightings, he suggests.