It was the 13th day before Christmas and all was quiet in the Netherlands… except at The Hague University (THU), where a board decision not to put up a Christmas tree has sparked a “national outrage”.

De Telegraaf, in its never-ending quest to pander to the lowest common denominator, writes that “the THU’s decision not to put up the traditional Christmas tree this year because of the large number of non-Western students has spread dismay across the nation”.

According to the paper, students, council members, parliament and no less than 1,000 De Telegraaf readers have expressed their outrage at THU’s yuletide blasphemy. One of the more subtle reader comments suggested the school board should be “covered in tar and Christmas decorations”, clearly a more festive variant on the time-honoured corporal punishment of tarring and feathering.

De Volkskrant, in a slightly more nuanced commentary, writes that Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party, in its unrelenting campaign to prove that Western traditions are perishing under an Islamic onslaught, “hardly could have wished for a better Christmas present, particularly as the party is about take part in local elections in the Hague for the first time."

Local politician Abdu Khoulani of the Islam Democrats says: “This is so inept, there have been no signals whatsoever from our supporters suggesting that a Christmas tree would be considered offensive”.

And what about the THU? Communications Director Annelies van Rosmalen says in reality the decision was a little less politically inspired: “The decision was all mine. I hated that tree and thought to myself ‘let’s go for something different this year’. However, with my phone ringing off the hook, I can tell you that right now I would love nothing better than to see that fake tree standing here”.

Be that as it may, it does not answer the question why the THU in an internal memo said the decision was taken “To emphasise the international character and diversity of the student body”. Smacks of backtracking on the part of Ms van Rosmalen to me.

Motorway power...
On a – slightly – more serious note, De Telegraaf reports that ProRail, the company that operates the Dutch railway network, wants to become a major supplier of induction power for electrical cars.

The company has already negotiated agreements with the cities of Amsterdam, Den Bosch and Maastricht on the delivery of recharging poles at railway stations there. However, ProRail CEO Bert Klerk says: “That’s an old technique, in a few years we will be supplying induction power via the road surface. Cars will no longer get their power by plugging into an outlet, but simply by driving along the motorway, or waiting at a traffic light.”

The main advantage of the new technique is unlimited range for electric cars, which is presently limited to about 200 kilometres. Mr Klerk says the step is a logical one for ProRail: “100 years ago we electrified the railways, and now the motorways”. Traffic Minister Camiel Eurlings has already granted ProRail permission to explore the power market for electric cars.  

…and the race for the standard recharging pole
In a related report, de Volkskrant writes that “Even though there are hardly any electric cars on the roads”, “The race for a standard for recharging poles is on”. The paper writes that despite all good intentions, owners of an electric car seeking to recharge their environmentally responsible vehicles are facing a slew of obstacles.

The Amsterdam council has formed a partnership with the Nuon power company to create a network of 200 recharging poles across the city to be realised in the next two years. Users will need to apply for a special card to activate the service.

Rotterdam is working on similar plan called Nrgspots, but their scheme involves a different power company, a different type of recharging pole which, of course, requires a different card and a different type of plug. De Volkskrant writes that drivers wanting to travel from Amsterdam to Rotterdam “Will have to properly prepare themselves, and well in advance”.

On a national level, there is a third group active, called E-laad, a conglomerate of electricity network companies, which plans to roll out a national network of 10,000 recharging poles over the next three years. As you may have expected, none of the three systems is compatible with any of its counterparts. Nor are they likely to become compatible any time soon, as all three parties expect their system to set the standard, not just in the Netherlands, but across Europe. Spokespersons for both E-laad and Nrgspots claim to engaged in discussions with major car manufactures on standardisation of the type of plug to be used, and so on and so forth. However, if ProRail gets its way, the whole issue of the recharging pole may become irrelevant in the extreme.

Copenhagen climate summit
In the last of today’s triptych of ‘green’ stories, Trouw on its opinion page has an article co-authored by sustainability Professor Taco van Someren from the Nyenrode business university and his wife Shuhua van Someren-Wang, international business development manager at the Ynnovate consultancy firm founded by her husband. As you may have guessed, it focuses on innovation, sustainability and ‘Chinese business development’.

In their article, the couple argue that while the “official objective of the Copenhagen summit is reaching agreement on limitations of greenhouse gas emissions, in practice there is an underlying, much more important, objective: who wins hegemony over the future environmental market?”

The global environmental market already boasts a turnover running into hundreds of billions of euros, and is growing fast. Copenhagen will become a power struggle, between the US, China and some European countries. A new climate treaty, now or later, will lead to a new global redistribution of needed environmental investments and the development of new future sectors.”

The two authors go on to give a summation of the efforts made the respective players in the field.

In conclusion, they argue that: “A new symbiosis between government leaders, corporations and scientists is intended to create and divide the largest market of the future. In short, Copenhagen has long ago ceased to be an environmental conference. It looks more like an economic summit.”
Now, you may call me cynical, but these two authors, even though they have a dog or two in this particular fight, may just have hit the nail on the head.

And winter is nearly upon us...
Those among our readership who are actually in the Netherlands may find this hard to believe after the second-warmest November in recorded history (the warmest occurred in 1994), but according to meteorologists temperatures will drop to below freezing next week.

On its front page, AD reports that “the first snow will fall next week”.
According to meteorologist Johnny Willemsen it is still too early to start thinking about ice-skating, “but we may see some snowfall as early as Monday evening or Tuesday morning”.

“It is too early to say whether the snowfall will continue, but it may be a good sign for a white Christmas?”