Mubarak will go, yes, but when exactly? Tweets “to the streets” in Syria. Fast track to ruin for train that no one’s using? Damp but toasted – Dutch musical gets former prime minister tearful. Bunny New Year and a personal rant. 

Egypt and the mass protests there again dominate the front pages of the Dutch press – all the papers in fact.

Last night’s NRC Handelsblad, for instance, almost fills its front page with a photograph of protesters, taken on Cairo’s Liberation (Tahrir) Square. Inside the paper tries to covers just about every aspect, starting with the fact the President Hosni Mubarak has been forced to react and announce he will go in September this year. That’s not enough to satisfy the protestors, as all the papers report today. 

NRC also reports that the Suez Canal is still open but “foreign investors are getting nervous”. It even addresses the cultural side of things, telling us that UNESCO – the United Nations cultural body – is warning Egypt (quite who in Egypt it does not say) to take better care of its treasures.

Apparently looters forced their way into Cairo’s Egyptian Museum last week, and UNESCO is clearly fearful of scenes – and, more importantly, theft and damage – along the lines of those that took place in Iraq back in 2003. Indeed, there are some 120,000 items of historical value at this particular museum, including many of those world-famous Tutankhamon artefacts.

In a way, this ‘cultural’ fear reflects the potential for chaos in Egypt. The people on the streets are calling for change, but what will that change bring and how it will actually come about? For example, when will the current president actually leave the scene?

The ‘thinking person’s’ left-of-centre tabloid de Volkskrant justifiably wonders on its front page “Another 8 months of Mubarak?” However, biggest-selling and populist broadsheet De Telegraaf goes for “Friday ‘leaving day’ for Mubarak”. That, says De Telegraaf, is how the folks on Liberation Square are talking about Friday this week.

Even when he does go, the papers all ask, what next? Many in Egypt – from atheist to Muslim Brotherhood member – are currently united in their opposition to Mubarak and co. But what happens when that uniting ‘target’ has gone?

‘Day of Fury’ for Syria
Inside de Volkskrant there’s a tiny article – sizewise – but one that again touches on a story with enormous potential. The paper tells us about a call that’s gone out on Facebook and Twitter to people in Syria. The paper reports that Syrians are being asked to join a Day of Fury (or Anger - depending on your translation preference) to be held possibly on February 4th, or maybe the 5th, to “put an end to the state of emergency and the corruption” in their country.

King Abdullah of Jordan has already started to make changes to his government in an apparent attempt to stay one step ahead of Egyptian-style developments in his country, how long before Syria’s President Assad has to do the same? 

Speeding towards bankruptcy?
Much closer to home, nearly all the papers bring the news that the private company running trains on the Netherlands’ new high-speed railway line is in serious financial trouble.

NRC has this story on its front page, other papers cover it on their inside pages. The more ‘accessible’ and popular AD puts it way back in the economy section on page 23, but explains – like the others – that the operator HSA (High Speed Alliance) is a joint venture between airline Air France KLM and main Dutch passenger rail company NS.

AD refers back to its own December 2010 report on a ‘confidential’ document that showed the Fyra service (Amsterdam to Rotterdam) – with its additional charge of 7.40 euro on top of a normal ticket – had been running at 15 percent capacity, i.e. 85 percent of seats empty!

Surprise, surprise, the extra charge has just been slashed to 2.70 euros. But things are still not looking good for HSA. The delivery of trains that can actually use the line at high speed has already met with severe delays. Now German rival Deutsche Bahn has announced it also wants to run trains on the line. At this rate the German company could end up being the first to run a through service from Amsterdam to London. 

Tears and toast
De Telegraaf’s second front-page photo today is of former prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende.  But the story is not about his new job with accountants Ernst & Young (featured in yesterday’s press review). No, Mr Balkenende has been to see a new Dutch musical. 

De Telegraaf’s headline: “A tear and a toast”. The toast – of the alcoholic, not burnt, kind - came after the show, and is shown in the photo of Mr Balkenende with two of the show’s stars raising a glass at the after-party.

The tear? Well, like many an original Dutch musical of recent years, the subject is both an historical as well as a painful event. In this case, the disastrous floods of 1953, which left almost 2,000 people dead in the coastal province of Zeeland.

De Telegraaf tells us the former PM was himself moved by the show – called, how apt, 1953 - but whether the paper does him justice by quoting him saying to the actors “I saw the emotion in you, too” is debatable.

As for this recent Dutch trend when it comes to musicals, well, we had Titanic the musical a couple of years ago. That one had former child star Danny de Munk playing – if I recall correctly – a stoker on the ill-fated liner (no doubt singing as the coal got damper and damper).

Then, just last year, there was the spectacularly staged - it featured a genuine World War Two plane, and was put on inside a former military base - Soldier of Orange. That one’s based on the real WWII experiences of one of the Netherlands most famous war heroes, Erik Hazelhoff-Roelfzema.

What will they think of next? The possibilities are frightening… 

Dragons, rabbits and vegetarians
Oh, and one last thing I have to mention. De Telegraaf tells us in big, big letters in its WOMAN section (why there?) that tomorrow, 3 February, is Chinese New Year’s Day and the start of the year of the Rabbit.

Now, as rabbits are up there on my list of the world’s most brilliant creatures (they are basically vegetarians, so they are cool!) this is good news in my book.

De Telegraaf says it’s actually going to be a great year for love. That’d be good - but I also have a New Year’s wish for the rabbits – I hope we stop buying clothes with bits of them and other creatures stuck on them, pretending to be fake fur! But enough of my personal rant!

I also have a wish for all the 1.3 billion human celebrators of this occasion: may those dragons chase all the bad spirits away and bring you peace, health and happiness in Bunny Year!