Chaos results from chaos-avoiding measures; Taliban warning ahead of Kunduz mission; Animal Party leader on why she went for a slaughter ban, and Dutch central bank robber lives it up in Delhi.
As ended yesterday’s press review, so begins today’s - with the weather. Yesterday’s semi-tropical heat blast made way for thunderstorms, hail and much rain. These climate events do happen of course, but you’d be forgiven for thinking that we were about to face a truly major disaster yesterday.
Storm disrupts transport before it arrives
The storms did cause problems, but it’s the preparations for possible problems that caused annoyance and grab some headlines today. De Telegraaf, for example, tells us “Once again a premature weather forecast throws the whole country into chaos”.
The main passenger rail company NS and the ANWB motoring organisation warned the public to avoid the evening rush hour on Tuesday because of the impending threat from the heavens. NS even implemented a ‘reduced’ train timetable from about lunchtime in anticipation of bad weather that hadn’t even arrived yet. The result – as Trouw reports – was “considerably fewer trains, and hence delays... causing much incomprehension and moaning”.
De Telegraaf joins giveaway daily Metro in reflecting the criticism being hurled at both the ANWB and NS for what they clearly felt were precautionary measures meant to help the public, which actually did the exact opposite. Metro quotes a disgruntled passenger “I’m sat here in the sunshine waiting for my train, which isn’t running because of stormy weather”.
The bad weather did eventually arrive but only after the rush hour had ended and many rail passengers had experienced a longer-than-normal journey home. To make matters more heated, NS offered – in not the cleverest of gestures given the 33-degree-plus temperature - hot tea or coffee free of charge to those delayed by its overzealous planning.
Afghanistan, specifically the Dutch ‘reconstruction’ mission to that country’s province of Uruzgan, helped bring down the last government here in the Netherlands, and now the current government is sending a ‘training mission’ to a different province, Kunduz. Today’s de Volkskrant leads with a worrying headline “Dutch trainers on Taliban death list”.
The first batch of Dutch police trainers head off to Kunduz next week and the paper warns that they “need to beware of infiltrators who pretend to be police officers but then open fire on them.” The source quoted by de Volkskrant is ‘Taliban spokesperson Zabilullah Mujahed’ who the paper interviewed on the telephone. He says: “Dutch trainers in Kunduz are our enemy. We intend to kill them”.
He warns that suicide attacks and roadside bombs could also be used against the Dutch. The article in de Volkskrant rightly points out that the Taliban have a clear interest in spreading fear, but also says the threat of infiltration by would-be killers is nonetheless a very real one. The 150 initial trainers and those that follow will visit police posts in and around the town of Kunduz to give practical lessons – and the local authorities and inhabitants say they will be most vulnerable when travelling by road or on foot, or when stationary at checkpoints. The provincial police chief doesn’t mince his words or pretend his area is safe “People are being killed in Kunduz.”
Worrying stuff. A leading figure in the NPB Dutch Police Union doubts whether the Kunduz mission should go ahead. He tells the paper that parliament needs to look again at whether the police training mission is a wise thing to do, because in Kunduz “The situation has clearly got worse.”
See also the RNW item on this story
A legitimate reason to curtail religious freedom
The country’s only Christian mass circulation daily Trouw leads on its front page with the headline: “Thieme: Animals sometimes take precedence over religious freedom”.
This item is about yesterday’s decision by parliament – 116 of the 150 MPs voted in favour – to back a bill banning the unanaesthetised slaughter of animals (a.k.a. ritual slaughter) drafted by Party for the Animals leader Marianne Thieme. The paper puts a short – and interesting (your author confesses to being a party member, but endeavours not to show his bias) - interview with Ms Thieme on its front page.
She says she was nervous during the vote “But, happily, a large majority is aware that animal welfare is actually a legitimate argument for curtailing religious freedom” - the religions in question being Judaism and Islam which both prefer their animals to have their throats slit without any pre-slaughter stunning.
And her next proposal for new legislation? “I’m think about an increase in the tax (VAT) levied on all food that isn’t produced in a sustainable manner, and that includes meat.”
Bank robber amid Bollywood stars
AD brings us another domestic story - but with an Indian connection - under the headline “Bank robber living in luxury in India”. It seems the Dutch central bank has been robbed. In fact, a total of 1.5 million euro went from its vaults in September 2008 and the alleged perpetrator, a certain Sanjay D., has – the paper tells us on the basis of statements by his former brother-in-law – been living it up in New Delhi. Apparently he’s living amid Indian movie stars, with two homes: a luxurious villa and an apartment.
Former brother-in-law Sahil tells AD that Sanjay had always planned to ‘score big time’ and that shortly before he fled the Netherlands he had proudly announced he ‘had made it’ and was flashing around 500-euro bank notes. Nonetheless Sahil says “He had managed to keep very quiet about his plans for this robbery.”
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