Today's Dutch papers focus on the human interest stories in the aftermath of Haiti's earthquake. Meanwhile the Dutch government receives timely advice on development aid, accusations fly on first day of the financial crisis inquiry and lonely socks find an artistic home.

The situation in Haiti continues to dominate the Dutch press, with NRC Handelsblad speaking of "an ominous atmosphere, major problems with food and shelter, and thousands of refugees". Amid the chaos, AD and De Telegraaf focus on a story closer to home - the tragic tale of Dutch couple Rowena and Richard Pet. De Telegraaf features a front-page picture of the couple and their baby with the caption "The last photo of a happy family". For now Richard and Rowena are being counted among the 20 Dutch nationals officially reported missing in Haiti.

The couple had travelled to Haiti to collect their two year old adoptive son Arnout, leaving their five-month-old baby Jim at home. While their fate has yet to be confirmed, their family are convinced that they have perished in the earthquake along with Arnout, leaving little Jim an orphan. The couple thought they would be unable to have children of their own and were already making arrangements to adopt when Rowena unexpectedly became pregnant. And now it's Jim who will have to be adopted by family members, AD notes sadly.

De Volkskrant's TV reviewer is critical of what it calls the media's "fixation on the Dutch angle" in the crisis, mentioning how one current affairs show reported over 200,000 dead yet still had "Search for missing Dutch" as its top story. But De Telegraaf's columnist takes a different view, describing how, in the face of all the news coverage of Haiti, he felt "an invisible shield" materialising as "a defence mechanism ... a way of not letting the situation get to me". Until that is he heard the story of Rowena, Richard, Arnout and Jim "and that shield broke in two. When I make my donation for Haiti," he concludes "I'll be thinking of them."

The Netherlands does its bit
AD talks to professional footballer Lesly Fellinga, born in Haiti and adopted by a Frisian couple when he was five months old. A dual passport holder, he has also played for the Haitian national team. "I don't know whether my teammates are alive or dead," he says. He was on holiday in the Caribbean when the earthquake hit. "My first reaction was 'I've got to go there'. I'm only an hour away by plane. But I soon realised there were no flights and besides if the rescue workers are at a loss, what on earth could I do? "

De Telegraaf announces "All of the Netherlands is helping" and reports on all kinds of local campaigns: a local baker is selling loaves baked according to a traditional Haitian recipe and donating part of the proceeds. Flower bulb sales, benefit concerts, special collections: all kinds of activities have been organised. "It's heartwarming," says the adoptive father of a Haitian boy in the town of Almere.

Ahead of a major TV fundraising event scheduled for Thursday, de Volkskrant's TV reviewer takes a more cynical tone. "A huge disaster has occurred. Journalists and newspapers are reporting little else. A special bank account has been opened for donations ... yet there are TV viewers who sit back and wait nearly two weeks for their favourite TV presenter to tell them to give money. Sure, every euro counts. But that's what I call a disaster."

Report shakes up development aid sector
As the problems in Haiti stretch the international aid effort to its limits, the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy has issued a report that looks set to shake up Dutch development aid. De Volkskrant describes the publication, entitled Less pretension, more ambition as "a tough report that exposes a lack of self-criticism in development aid". NRC Handelsblad says the report bridges the gap between two extremes: "TV celebrities keen to experience their own Bono moment" on the one hand and, on the other, a stream of publications which slam development aid for becoming "a million dollar business" in its own right.

The paper sums up the main argument as being that "a country's development is only dependent on aid to a modest extent and so donors themselves should exercise modesty", pointing out that foreign investment and money sent home by emigrants are often a greater source of revenue. The report calls for a more common-sense approach - reducing the number of countries from 36 to 10, specialising in the areas that the Netherlands is strongest in and abandoning the notion that the amount spent must equal 0.7 percent of the national income.

De Volkskrant describes the report's emphasis on more targeted aid as "sensible advice". It also talks to Peter van Lieshout, the man behind the publication, and asks the question of the moment "What about Haiti?". His reply is that "emergency aid is necessary but not necessarily good" and he calls for longer term solutions to keep a country on its feet. "It's the old dilemma of the chain smoker who falls ill. When there's nothing else you can do, you admit him to hospital, but prevention is better."

Financial watchdogs under fire
The first day of the Dutch parliamentary inquiry into the financial crisis is behind us and the accusations are flying already. In Trouw, Rabobank's Bert Bruggink lashes out at ABN AMRO's government-appointed director Gerrit Zalm for poaching Rabo staff by offering them more money. "He's buying up our staff and he shouldn't be allowed to. This is where he should draw the line." He accuses Mr Zalm, a former finance minister, of going against the spirit of the collective code that Dutch banks drew up in the wake of the financial crisis.

But one person more than any other appears to be taking the flak at the inquiry: the head of the Dutch central bank Nout Wellink, whose task it is to keep a watchful eye on the Dutch banking sector. De Volkskrant reports "no one has a good word for Wellink" while Trouw warns that when he appears before the inquiry in the coming weeks "he'd better have a solid defence". Economics Professor Sweder van Wijnbergen told the panel yesterday "Bankers drove a truck through the loopholes in the regulations." Whether the inquiry will make things better remains to be seen. The good professor certainly appears to have his doubts: "Bankers are particularly bad at learning their lesson" he comments.

Desperately seeking socks
Inspiration is a funny old thing. A new work by artist Stef Kreymborg started in the laundry basket. She tells De Telegraaf "It was born of pure frustration at all those single socks that emerged from the washing machine and lay around for years without their partner turning up." An appeal on local television resulted in 4000 single socks being donated to help her realise her creative ambitions "and not one smelly one among them!"

"People were happy to do something constructive with their left-over socks. They felt it was a shame to throw them away ... perhaps it was a Calvinist guilt trip because the socks themselves were still perfectly good. Or they just didn't want to abandon hope that the other one would turn up one day."

The result is a monumental work, spanning 18 square metres, entitled The Wailing Wall of Lonely Socks. "It sounds a bit sad but I ended up becoming quite attached to them all, " the artist admits. "I found myself daydreaming about where all these socks had been and with whom. It's an intimate thing, a sock." But her dream of reuniting a few sibling socks along the way failed to materialise: "4000 socks and there wasn't one that matched another!"