After the fall of the DSB bank, the other parts of Dirk Scheringa’s empire had to follow. Only you wouldn’t have thought it would have happened quite so quickly.

The AZ football team played against Arsenal last night in a European Champions League home fixture. The lights of the stadium were switched off so that only the word Stadium was lit up. The players sported plain red and white shirts without the name of their bankrupt sponsor. The Alkmaar team’s fans showed their appreciation for everything Dirk Scheringa had done for the club, by singing “Dirks, thanks...” in chorus. De Volkskrant prints a photo on its front page showing fans standing behind the banner “Our Hero”. The game ended in a draw.

The Dirk Scheringa museum also made the news today after the ABN Amro bank decided to call in its debts. It sent lorries to empty the museum of all its 130 paintings, as they were security for a 32-million euro building loan. The collection is estimated to be worth 40 million euros. Now you see it now you don’t: NRC.next prints two photos of the same wall before and after the pictures were taken away. A canteen lady says, “They came like thieves in the night.” Art lovers hope the unique collection of modern realism paintings will be kept together. Minister Ronald Plasterk called on collectors to see what they could do, but was not offering government money to save the collection. However, as ABN Amro is currently a state bank it seems the collection is in government hands.

Dutch gynaecologist calls for early intervention
In de Volkskrant, gynaecologist Gerard Visser states that babies are dying unnecessarily in the Netherlands because midwives and gynaecologists allow nature to take its course too much. He believes the system in the Netherlands is old-fashioned. He says that, in most cases brought before medical tribunals, intervention came too late.

The Netherlands has one of the highest infant mortality rates in Europe. A Ministry of Health steering group has been put together to give its recommendations by the end of this year to curb this trend.

Dr Visser wants more aggressive intervention. Pregnant women should, for example, undergo a formal risk assessment at 38 weeks. Delivery should be induced in pregnancies which have gone over 41 weeks (with the woman’s permission); at the moment that only happens at 42 weeks. His reasoning for this is because the number of babies who die at the end of the pregnancy is increasing.

But Professor in Midwifery Simone Buitendijk calls for more research, as there is nothing to say that these babies would survive outside the womb. And the chairperson of the Midwives Association says "Complications rise very slightly if you wait longer before delivery, but inducement actually leads to more complications.” On the forum pages of Tuesday’s edition of Trouw, Professor Buitendijk points out the advantages of home birth. It seems the experts are sharpening their scalpels for a long debate on the issue.

 
Ambitious mayor faces difficult debate
An ambitious mayor in the southern Dutch city of Tilburg faces a difficult debate this evening as the town council decides his future. According to Trouw, Ruud Vreeman started on the wrong foot in the former industrial city back when he became mayor back in 2004. His criticism of a bronze statue of a man holding a jug of urine as the city’s symbol went down the wrong way with many Tilburgers. Urine used to be collected for the textile industry in the olden days and the statue therefore symbolises the city’s heritage.

In his endeavours to improve the allure of Tilburg, Mr Vreeman appears to have overplayed his hand. His vision includes new housing projects for yuppies, the largest sport complex in the south of the country, a mega shopping centre and attracting creative businesses to the city. However, when his plans to transform the local cinema into a venue for comedy, cabaret and regional television shows turned out to be much more expensive than anticipated, he kept it to himself. And that is the subject of tonight’s debate.

The mayor is accused of tunnel vision, of only listening to arguments when it suits him, and of thinking everything that is controversial must be good. But in his defence Labour Party councillor Auke Blaauwbroek hopes the council will remember what he has done for the city, "He has put Tilburg on the map and attracted new businesses to the city. His courageous initiatives have created 6000 jobs in the last four years." It remains to be seen whether the Tilburgers will forgive Mr Vreeman for putting his foot in it in his early days as mayor.

Ambitious station plans back on track
Another ambitious project that became stranded halfway appears to have been rescued by Spatial Planning Minister Jacqueline Cramer, reports Trouw. The south-eastern city of Arnhem planned a new station with international allure. The old station building was demolished in 2007, and passengers were forced to cross long wooden bridges to get from a distant makeshift station to the platforms. However, the design of the new station building was so complex that it was impossible to find a builder that would do the work for the available budget. The credit crisis compounded the problem and with a huge sandy hole next to the rails, the project ground to a halt at the beginning of 2008.

The initiative takers meanwhile refused to bin architect Ben van Berkels’ complicated blueprints, although they did concede to drawing up a simpler construction plan.

Now an extra 36 million euros has been found to finish the work, part of it from the sale of a power company by the province. Work will recommence in the coming week. A better temporary station will replace the current makeshift facilities, and by 2015 it is hoped the splendid new station will be complete.

Union chairperson is the Netherlands’ most powerful woman
Trade union federation FNV’s chairperson Agnes Jongerius has been named the Netherlands’ most powerful woman reports AD. She heads a list of 100 successful women compiled by feminist magazine Opzij and beat Euro commissioner Neelie Kroes, who got to number 47 in the Forbes list of powerful women in 2008.

The decision fell on Ms Jongerius because of the “crucial role she played in the economic crisis and she is afraid of neither the devil nor her old mother.” Opzij editor-in-chief Margriet van der Linden admits there are not many women at the top in the Netherlands. According to the statistics the Netherlands is at the same level as Pakistan. “To become a top woman you have to dare to stick you neck out.” She explains that women are generally too timid, while men don’t seem to have this problem.