Dutch politics – Page 3

Making Friends and Influencing Cloggies

Published on September 4, 2008

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More bad news for those US leftists considering the allegedly liberal Netherlands as their reserve bolthole now Canada’s gone wingnut. Here’s Radio Netherlands on the witch-hunt being orchestrated by far-rightist Geert Wilders against former 80s activists now in Dutch mainstream politics:

What did you do in the 1980s? That question has cost one Dutch member of parliament his job, and led one party to bring a motion of no-confidence in a government minister. Here in the Netherlands, the 1980s was a time of economic crisis and of social activism, particularly in the housing rights and anti-nuclear movements. Now a number of Dutch politicians are being called to account for their alleged activities, or support for activities, dating from that period.

Accused of activist past: Dutch Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer

Resigned: former MP for GreenLeft, Wijnand Duyvendak

Geert Wilders’ right-wing Freedom Party has spearheaded the accusations.

[…]

Of course the other parties are loving it, and are even rubbing salt in:

Instajustice

Published on May 22, 2008

The Dutch minister of justice wants to block credit cards which were used to buy child porn (link in dutch). And he wants to do this as soon as the police notices that a particular credit card was used to buy child porn, without involving the courts. It sounds though and decisive, everything a minister in a bit of trouble (due to the Gregorius Nekschot case) needs to bolster his image. Very likely nothing will come of this of course, due to all those nastly little practical details that always derail bright ideas like this. Like, if the police knows somebody has used a credit card to buy child porn, why don’t they arrest them for it, rather than just blocking that credit card? How will the police get this transaction data anyway, and how will the credit card companies be sure it’s the police telling them to block a card and not J. Random Person with a grudge against the person whose card is blocked?

But most importantly, how will the police determine that said card hadn’t had its details stolen for use in some internet scam or other? You might think this a theoretical danger, were it not for what happened in the UK back when their police went fishing for child porn buyers, in Operation Ore. The Yorkshire Ranter has the details:

The killer fact? Many of the credit cards presented for payment don’t correspond to the server log – to put it more brutally, a mysteriously large number of people were paying up in advance but not taking delivery of their smut. In fact, quite a lot of the websites that used Landslide contained no porn, nor anything else, existing purely for fraudulent purposes. The M.O. was to get hold of a list of cards – a black market exists – set up an account, and then run a script that would charge small amounts (say £25) to each, hoping that the payments would go unnoticed.

This is why we have courts, because even when the police is correctly representing the facts as they know them they may very well be wrong about what’s going on. If you go through the courts, you have the chance to test if the police is right in their assumptions; if you don’t, you run a much greater risk of harming innocents, branding people as pedophiles because their stolen credit card data got used for dodgy data. Instajustice sounds great in a soundbyte, but in reality it doesn’t work.

Crossposted from Wis[s]e Words.

Back to the red pencil

Published on May 19, 2008

Not every political campaign can boast that it only took two years for their goals to be reached, but that’s exactly what the Dutch campaign against voting computers can do. Of course to a certain extent they were swimming with the political tide, so to speak. The election disasters in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 had shown the dangers of relying on voting computers and how easy they could be manipulated by people with malign intents, and when that theoretical danger turned out to be not so theorethical as both types of voting computer in use in the Netherlands turned out to be easily hackable, things came to a head. Already the most vulnerable machine had to be withdrawn just before the last elections and last year a parliamentary commission to investigate voting systems came with their proposal for a safer voting computer, but even this turned out to have problems. So last week the ministry of home affairs bit the bullet and decided to go back to the red pencil.

Now if only the US followed suit. (Hattip: Avedon.)

Amsterdam Police arrest teenager over virtual theft

Published on November 15, 2007

Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent
The Guardian Thursday November 15 2007

Police in the Netherlands have arrested a teenager suspected of stealing virtual objects inside a popular social networking site, it has emerged.

The 17-year-old, who has not been named, is alleged to have tricked players of 3D cartoon world Habbo Hotel before removing a number of virtual items they had bought. It is believed to be the first time European officers have arrested someone for stealing virtual property.

[..]

Police in Amsterdam confirmed that five other teenagers were being questioned over the theft, which is believed to have netted items worth around €4,000 (£2,800).

The sale of the Second Life Amsterdam Cemtraal Station fell through because they couldn’t establish a clear title.

I wonder if this prosecution will also collapse?

Cheaper Health Insurance For Dutch Vegetarians

Published on August 29, 2007

This‘ll be good news for my Dutch brother and sister in law, whose combined BMI (Body Mass Index, a measure of obesity) must be about 5, if that. When you look at the processed, deepfried crap that even Dutch vegetarians consume it’s odd they’re all so thin at all. It must be all the cheese.

[…]

The United States has the heaviest body mass index population over 30 on the planet, with 30.6%. With statistics like these, why is it that in America, vegetarians are not given a break when it comes to health insurance?

Uh…. because that would make the insurers less money? But do carry on.

The Netherlands, which has 10% of BMI over 30, is the first country where vegetarians get discount health insurance. This policy, VegePolis, has the motto that people who choose not to eat meat live a healthier lifestyle. The Netherlands is considering health insurance policies for nonsmokers and people who don’t smoke or drink. Niko Koffeman, an animal-rights activist and entrepreneur, believes that people with healthier lifestyles should be able to reap the financial benefits of it. This policy was introduced by Agis Zorgverzekeringen and Stichting PreventiePolis. Besides advantages in health insurance, members get 10% discounts on vegetarian dinners at restaurants affiliated with the Netherland’s vegetarian union. A portion of insurance revenues goes to animal welfare groups. With the healthcare issues in America along with health issues, it looks like Americans need to take note from the Netherlands. Although I’m not fond of the idea of spending 80% of the speaking time of all parties in parliament being dominated by the theme of animal rights to be copied in America, which has a world of other issues, I do believe that this should be a more popular topic, specifically in states like Michigan that find hunting season to be the joy of the year, yet another reason why I hated Marquette, Michigan so much during my undergraduate years.

Read more…

In the light of significantly higher prices for meat being expected as a result of the damage to fodder crops from the terrible summer weather and the fact that it’s to the point that I’m now on a no fat, no dairy, low wheat, low fibre, low protein, high salt, low potassium diiet and a rise in health insurance premiums is predicted, again, it may be time to look at vegetables in a new light. Plain bread, lean ham sandwiches, boiled sweets and bananas begin to pall after a while anyway. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a giant steak and a buttered baked potato full of sour cream or a big cheese laden pizza, followed by several chocolate eclairs or even a whole croquembouche or sachertorte.

Can you make sachertorte from tofu?

[By the way I see that this report comes via Associated Content, a syndication service that purports to pay bloggers for content (which Associated Content then owns rights to). The way they use aspiring writers as an ad revenue farm is a story in itself.]