Today's newspapers report on a decision by Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb to ban all major free dance festivals for two years. The measure follows a shooting spree at the Sunset Grooves dance festival on Saturday in which 19-year-old Robby van der Leeden was shot dead and six other people were injured.
 
 
According to the Rotterdam-based daily AD: "It is not yet clear what sparked the outburst. Visitors saw men waving guns all of a sudden, but it is not clear if all of them were undercover agents. The Justice Department says it is also not clear who fired the dozens of shots." The paper says one version is that undercover agents became involved when they saw a member of one of two rival groups draw a gun. Others maintain that the undercover agents were besieged by a gang of youths who recognised them.
 

Friend says victim was not a hooligan
Trouw says police had received information that a group of between 70 and 80 'hooligans' would be present at the dance festival and decided to send a special team of undercover agents who know many of them personally. "The police officers involved work undercover and - conversely - can also be recognised by the hooligans." In an interview with AD, a friend of the boy who was shot dead says Van der Leeden was never involved in fights and was not a hooligan.
 
 
In an editorial, NRC Handelsblad writes that the presence of police at large festivals can have a preventive effect but in this instance the pressure was too great. The paper compares the Rotterdam dance festival to the Lowlands Festival, where there were no major incidents. The 55,000 visitors had paid an entrance fee before the event. At free festivals one does not know beforehand if there will be too many visitors.
 
 
Firms use excuses to fire older workers
AD carries an interview with businesswoman Nel Peijffers (36), who in 2007 sold her recruitment agency to set up a consultancy to promote "diversity at the workplace". Peijffers told I that despite a law which forbids discrimination against older workers, nothing has changed. She did a survey and found that it takes older workers five months longer to find a job. Also, they must write five times as many applications. "Competent people receive the most daft excuses when they are told why they have not been hired. For instance, that they have too little experience. Then the job goes to a younger person who really has little experience. This is done not only by businesses, but also by the same government which is asking us to work until we are 67."
 
She hopes that unions and employers will realise what situation they will get themselves into if they keep focusing on "young and dynamic" workers. "In 2012 an historic number of people will be pensioned off." She says that if nothing is done about the unemployed above the age of fifty, soon they will have been out of work for too long to be of any use.
 
 
GreenLeft party wants to legalise sale of cannabis
The GreenLeft party in Amsterdam has made regulating the growth and sale of marijuana to coffee shops one of the issues in its election campaign for next year's municipal election. One of the conditions is that the marijuana be cultivated in an ecologically-friendly manner. Metro interviewed the party's chair in Amsterdam, Marieke van Doorninck, who said that legalising the sale of cannabis and other drugs would be to the benefit of the health of the consumer.
 
The GreenLeft party also condemned the "zero-tolerance" police at dance festivals. The "intimidating" controls create a "grim atmosphere instead of a party feeling". Moreover, partygoers are more inclined to take a lot of pills before attending the festivals because of the controls. "This is dangerous as far as one's health is concerned." The party also wants the Amsterdam town council to reverse a recent decision to close down shops which sell magic mushrooms.

Lord, save our Evangelical Broadcast!
De Telegraaf reports on protests by members of Evangelical Broadcasting (EO), the country's public broadcasting corporation for the religiously devote. A picture accompanying the article shows a group of believers in deep prayer near the Hilversum communications tower, right next to Radio Netherlands Worldwide. Many EO members are up in arms about the "wrong kind of" programming, which instead of reaching believers is, in their opinion, tending to lead them astray.
 
 
For instance, one of the EO's most well-known presenters has been accused of "flirting with Darwinism". To the shock of many of the devoted, he announced that he was sorry to have always told his children and viewers that the world was created in six days. Another controversy arose when, without the knowledge of the EO, a young male presenter Arie Boomsma appeared half-naked in a sexy pose for a glossy magazine called L'Homo. To add to the shock the presenter, who was temporarily suspended, has come up with a controversial programme made by non-believing cabaret artists called 'Man is Walking on the Water...'
 
 
Wind
The Dutch research and marketing survey organisation TNS NIPO has done a survey which found that a fourth of the Dutch public suffers from flatulence. "Nearly 70 percent of the public is ashamed of letting out a fart...More than a quarter of those interviewed say that they fart more than 20 times a day. A spokeswoman for the website hetluchtop.nl (hetluchtop = what a relief)  says that it is normal to fart between ten and twenty times a day. "However, if you have this problem every day, then seek (medical) help."