De Telegraaf writes that the introduction of a pay-as-you-drive scheme – scheduled for 2016 – will change little: "Cars will still be cheaper than public transport". The 15-percent reduction in road traffic predicted by Traffic Minister Camiel Eurlings as a result of the pay-as-you-drive scheme is to come about due to an increase in the number of car-poolers, motorists switching over to bicycles and, in the long term, people moving house to live closer to their jobs.

According to the paper, based on pay-as-you-drive charges and fuel costs driving your own car will in most cases still be substantially cheaper than buying a train or bus ticket. Even though motorists also have to pay for maintenance and insurance, in weighing their options many will only consider fuel costs and the pay-as-you-drive charges because they’re paying the other costs anyway. Only driving a luxury sedan would be more expensive than public transport.

Traffic Economist Erik Verhoef of the Free University in Amsterdam confirms that not many motorists will switch to public transport as a result of the pay-as-you-drive scheme. “People will also take travelling time, reliability and comfort into consideration. Also, the positive effects are always less strong than some policy makers expect when they are sitting at their drawing boards”.

The Rural Association of Small Residential Areas argues for a reduction of pay-as-you-drive charges for residents of rural areas where people often have no choice because of limited public transport. Spokesperson Koos Mirck says: “It would only be fair if residents of rural areas paid less than motorists elsewhere. They benefit the least from measures to reduce traffic jams and are highly dependent on their cars.”

Young workers will continue to face difficult labour market
In today’s de Volkskrant is a report on the difficult labour market for young people. According to the paper, the worsened conditions will prevail at least until 2014.

In its bi-annual labour market prognosis, ROA, a research institute of the University of Maastricht, predicts that in particular unskilled workers and students who graduate in a technical study, economics or law will have great difficulty finding employment. ROA researcher Frank Corvers believes that even though the recession itself has ended, the slump in the labour market will last for quite some time. “We expect the labour market will recover very slowly”.

According to the ROA prognosis, by 2013 there will be 220,000 jobs less than in 2008, a three-percent reduction of the labour force. According to Frank Corvers: “to young workers, the ageing population is a blessing in disguise”.

Notable are the unfavourable conditions for students in technical studies. For years, there were serious shortages of all kinds of technical personnel, and government-sponsored campaigns were launched to encourage young people to choose technical studies. However, employment in the technical sector has shrunk and replacement demand is small.

In general, students graduating from schools of higher vocational education have the most chance of landing a job, primarily because of the large number of workers in these jobs going into retirement. In particular young people who choose a career in health care have very little to worry about.

A safer neighbourhood thanks to 'coffee shops'
Two cannabis-selling coffee shops in the Amsterdam problem district de Baarsjes have launched an initiative to clean up the area and improve security. Free newspaper De Pers has a report on how coffee hops Boerenjongens (Country Lads) and Bij (Bee) hired a local security firm to prevent all kinds of trouble in the area.

Each day between 1600 and 0130 two or three employees of local security firm BG Groep keep an eye on a 250-metre radius around the two coffee shops. They address people who park their cars illegally, throw litter on the street or make a lot of noise. Each day they also mop down the doorways of the coffee shops’ neighbours, pick up cigarette buts and empty cans.

A spokesperson for the Amsterdam police says: It has improved the quality of life in the neighbourhood, our local police officer has nothing but praise for the initiative”. Even the manager of the local day care centre is enthusiastic: It’s never been this clean before here in the playground. We have a fingerprint reader for parents which was always being demolished by problem youths, but there hasn’t been a single incident since the boys from the coffee shop arrived”.
 

The general improvement in the area is also the result of BG Groep’s special approach to problem youths. Owner Martin Jansen says: You can put some Hell’s Angels or bouncers out on the street, but that won’t work. It’s all about approaching boys the right way, it’s about saying hi and having a chat. These days people are afraid to talk to somebody or they go about it the wrong way around. You need to take it easy, like ‘Hey bud, could you please go stand somewhere else, there’s kids here trying to get some sleep’, and then you’ll get a normal answer”.

How 'Kaas' became a hero in Uruzgan
De Volkskrant has a report on the publication of Taskforce Uruzgan, a book including 29 stories by Dutch soldiers on their experiences in southern Afghanistan. The initiative for the book was taken by Volkskrant editor Noël van Bemmel. The defence ministry lent its assistance but did not interfere with the contents of the book. Today’s edition of de Volkskrant publishes the story of Captain Jasper Gorissen, a defence ministry social worker who talks about feelings of impotence after an attack.

“Death reeks. It’s a nauseating smell, death. It finds its way to your brain via the nose and the airways, and settles deep in your memory, never to go away again. And so it was for the soldier who everybody called 'Kaas' (Cheese).

Before I met him, his convoy had passed an Afghan. Neatly groomed and shaved he was, the Afghan. After all, it was going to be a special day for him. It was also going to be a special day for Kaas. His tour of duty was coming to an end and this was to be the last trip he would have to make. Kaas was ready to go home.

The Afghan smiled broadly at the convoy as it drove by. In a split second, because of ‘something’ Kaas decided to go ‘under armour’ just before passing the Afghan. What followed was a huge explosion, a plume of smoke and flying debris. The Afghan had selected Kaas’ armoured vehicle as a stepping-stone to eternal life. For a long time, Kaas would wonder what made him decide to go ‘under armour’. What if ’something had been ‘nothing’?

Whatever the case may be, his reaction to ‘something’ saved not just his own life, but also the lives of three of his comrades. And so, Kaas became an instant hero. After the blast, Kaas stuck his head out of the hatch to see what had happened. The first thing he saw was a leg. A severed leg. A quick inspection of his own body showed he still had an ample supply of limbs. The leg belonged to the Afghan he had just passed by.

A day later, I ran into Kaas near his damaged armoured vehicle. A small crowd of disaster tourists was watching from a distance how the new local hero was cleaning out the vehicle which had taken the brunt of the blast and thus sealed its own fate. I was curious how Kaas was doing after a night’s sleep.

As I approached the vehicle, I was assaulted by a pungent odour. I could tell from the expression on Kaas’ face that he also unsuccessfully tried to rid himself from the odour that was so blatantly forcing itself on us. While approaching Kaas, I was trying to find the right words for striking up a conversation, but failed miserably. What do you say to someone who has had a narrow escape? What comforting words can be found for a person who has held a severed limb in his hands?

Kaas greeted me with a cynical smile: This be f****d up, hey Cap! Not exactly the most poetic description of the situation, but certainly the only accurate one. I nodded in consent. “What’s that smell Kaas? “It’s the explosion, something like fuel mixed with burned flesh. It sticks in your nose and won’t go away again.” From up close the tracked vehicle resembled a caked frying pan.

The pungent odour kept the disaster tourists at bay. While Kaas stubbornly continued working, I desperately tried a find a way to keep up the conversation. “I don’t want the rest of the group to see this vehicle, I want to spare them that”, Kaas said, while sticking his head through the hatch to enter the vehicle again.

I don’t know whether it was the stench that took my breath away or the fact that I could not think of an appropriate sentence in reply. Nothing I could say would ever be proper. I had been living within the safe perimeter of the camp for the past four months. What right did I have to speak? Anything I would say would be bullshit philosophy.

“Would you like me to help you clear the vehicle? was all I could come up with. “If you don’t mind Cap, that would be great. You have to be really weird to blow yourself up, right? This be simply f****d up, hey, Cap?” “It sure is Kaas, it sure is”.

Flu jabs
Most of today’s front pages feature photographs of children crying,  screaming and generally making a spectacle of themselves as they were being inoculated against the A(H1N1) flu, commonly known as the Mexican flu here in the Netherlands.

The inoculations are part of a nationwide vaccination campaign focusing on young children and high-risk groups. So far, turnout for the inoculations is high at 85 percent. The health authorities say the epidemic is still ‘mild’ but growing steadily. The number of hospital admissions is particularly high among children. However, the epidemic’s economic impact has been low, with just under 0.1 percent of the workforce calling in sick. Experts expect the epidemic will subside after Christmas, also as a result of the vaccination campaign.