News

After the Dutch government reported that primary schools would re-open from 8 February, there are now rumors that shops will be able to open for pickup (only) from 10 February (article from nltimes.nl in English). At the same time the “British variant” now counts for half of all infections in the Netherlands as opposed to one-third of the infections last week (article from nos.nl in Dutch).

But, the number of corona cases is dropping in the Netherlands (graph from rivm.nl):

The red line is the 7 day average of the cases. Today we had 3,280 cases, the lowest count since 1 October. However, we are coming out of the weekend and hospital intakes haven’t been falling that fast in comparison.

There is also an article on nos.nl in Dutch: Oproep uit IC-hoek: ‘Versoepel aantal maatregelen, accepteer meer overlijdens’, or Call from [some] workers in the ICU: ‘Relax some measures, accept more deaths’. It’s an interesting take on a very, very sensitive topic – how much damage to society do you accept in exchange for keeping people alive? I am still on the side of ‘keep the measures’, but I do think that care of coronavirus patients cannot always take precedence over other patients (for example cancer patients who might themselves die while waiting for care). But the article is also talking about the social, emotional and financial cost of a continued lockdown.

Heck, I don’t live alone so I always have someone to talk to. I don’t have children who I need to help with homework or entertain on a regular basis. But even I go stir crazy sometimes and I have noticed work has gotten under my skin more often in the last month. I’ve mentioned a few times that what I miss the most is spending a few hours at a café in the weekend just playing around on my computer or tablet while watching the world go by. I want to get back to that, at some point.

I am glad to report that my work week is now over. I think everyone on my team was a bit tired and we all could have used a break at the end of it! Marco and I made the classic Friday night meal of hamburgers and twister fries. The hamburgers had lots of jalapeños, lettuce and onions with yellow mustard for me and sweet habanero sauce (cholula.com) for Marco.

Berlin man suspected of ‘making radio contact with air traffic’ from euronews.com. I first found this one on nu.nl (link in Dutch) and then searched around for an English language version to link to on this blog. Crazy!

Brabander creëert thuiswerkplek in auto om even weg te zijn van kinderen from nu.nl in Dutch (Person from North Brabant creates a home office in car to get away from his kids). The police noticed the car in the woods because the windows were fogging up. In the car they found a large computer screen, table and laptop. The police said they understood why he did it. However, I’m hoping he didn’t leave his partner at home to deal with the kids while also working…

Speaking of which: Cabinet aiming to reopen primary schools on Feb. 8 from nltimes.nl, although even that article stresses that it is a a wish and not a fact. If primary schools are able to re-open then the government would also re-open daycares, to help relieve some of the pressure on working parents. However, others in the government think any relaxation of corona-related measures on February 9 is unlikely (article also from nltimes.nl), so I think we are just going to have to wait and see what happens. There is another press conference planned for next Tuesday.

Have a good weekend, all.

After three nights of rioting (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) things were more peaceful last night. Less unrest on fourth night of curfew; 131 arrested from nltimes.nl. There was still some unrest in Rotterdam – 81 of the 131 arrests yesterday were there – but police said there was a major difference between the first three nights and yesterday evening.

There were rumors that The Hague’s city centre would be a gathering point for rioters last night, but things remained quieter. See also Rustige avond tot dusver in de regio Haaglanden (Peaceful evening for the moment in The Hague region) from regio15.nl in Dutch. It includes pictures of shop owners taking precautions to protect their shops from plunderers and secure entrances and outdoor furniture. There are also pictures of the massive police presence in the Grote Marktstraat, the heart of the city centre. Around 20:00 or a bit before police started telling everyone to leave the area immediately or risk being arrested (the city passed a temporary emergency order allowing this). Better safe than sorry, after seeing some of the damage done in the three days before that… But in the end things remained quiet.

No need to bring in army to quell riots, Rutte tells MPs during debate from dutchnews.nl. For the moment police (and riot police which fall under Defense) have been able to handle the situation. Perhaps not as fast as the cities wanted, though.

In other news:

Registration cards of Dutch Holocaust victims to go on display from theguardian.com. From the article: “The Dutch Red Cross has passed ownership of the records to the Jewish Cultural Quarter of Amsterdam, an umbrella organisation of several institutions, including the Dutch National Holocaust Museum.”

Dutch warehouse boom as UK firms forced to invest aboard also from theguardian.com

Yesterday I mentioned that during the first night of the curfew (Saturday until Sunday) there were incidents in two small Dutch towns, Urk and Stein. There were a few other minor skirmishes reported, but nothing too crazy.

And then there was yesterday.

There were rumors that Eindhoven and Amsterdam would see some unrest in the afternoon, but things got worse later in the evening. Curfew riots in at least 10 municipalities; 190 arrested in Amsterdam from nltimes.nl. Including a group of rioters who tried to force their way into a hospital in Enschede (?! Why!). Luckily they weren’t successful.

Most of the damage was to the train station in Eindhoven. Check out this video at The Guardian:
Anti-lockdown rioters clash with Dutch police in the Netherlands. And seriously, why do train station pianos always get trashed?

The news isn’t all bad though. Here’s a video of residents in Eindhoven helping with clean up this morning:

“Dozens of Eindhoven residents armed with brooms arrived at the Station plaza this morning to help clean up the damage after yesterday’s riots. ‘Extremely sad” says one of the volunteers.”

We’ll see what tonight brings. There are rumors that there will be more rioting tonight. My plan: stay inside (there IS a curfew after all, people!) and drink some hot chocolate. What more could you want?

As noted, the Netherlands currently has a curfew from 21:00 to 04:30 every day through 9 February. Last night there were 3,600 fines issued and 25 arrests (article from nos.nl in Dutch, with a lot more detail than the English language articles which have been posted so far today).

The YouTube video at the bottom of the linked article is funny. You see some police canvassing the area for anyone breaking the curfew when a cyclist comes into view. You see him stop for a moment and try to think about what he can do. Can he turn around? Should he still try to go past? Eventually he decides to cross to the other side of the street and then make a break for it. The cyclist ignores a police officer’s request to stop. Of course the police agent has a motorcycle with him, so he simply gets on that and chases after the cyclist (off frame, unfortunately).

As noted in the article above, there was also unrest in a small town name Urk. It is a deeply religious town known for its fishing trade. About 96% of the 20,000 residents are protestant. There was also unrest in Urk in November and December. This time the youth set a corona test street located in the harbor on fire. The only other major incident played out in a small town called Stein, close to the Belgium border, with minor protests also occurring in Amsterdam and Amersfoort.

Amsterdam en Eindhoven nemen maatregelen vanwege signalen gewelddadig protest, also from nos.nl in Dutch. The area around Museumplein in Amsterdam and Eindhoven’s city centre have been labeled as “safety risk areas” today so that police need less cause to search anyone in the area. This step has been taken because there are rumors that both places will see illegal protests this afternoon.

In beeld: Nederland uitgestorven door avondklok from nos.nl in Dutch. The article shows images of a very empty, quiet Netherlands last night after the curfew came into effect. I especially like the aerial photos.

In Utrecht klinkt vanaf morgen de avondklok elke dag letterlijk from rtvutrecht.nl in Dutch. The article talks about a church in Utrecht’s city centre. The church bells ring at 21:55 every night. Originally this was to signal that the city gates were about to close for the evening, but this tradition has persisted even in modern times. Now the bells will ring at 20:55 every night, to warn residents that the curfew is about to begin.

A curfew has been announced from 20:30 to 04:30, starting either Saturday or Sunday depending on a final vote by the Dutch parliament. For the moment the curfew will last until 9 February. Some of the exceptions to the curfew include essential workers (who have a signed declaration from their employer), persons seeking medical assistance for a person or an animal, caretakers and meal delivery workers with a declaration from their employer. You can also let your dog out, but you need to do it alone and the dog must be leashed.

Coronavirus in the Netherlands: What you need to know (January 20) from dutchnews.nl

Oh, and you see how I said the curfew doesn’t apply to meal delivery workers? Marktplaats bans sales of delivery worker apparel ahead of curfew from nltimes.nl. Markplaats is like a Dutch eBay. Apparently people were already selling (and buying) clothes to make it look like they had a legitimate reason to be outside during the curfew.

Other measures include:

• all flights to the United Kingdom, South Africa and all South American countries will be banned until required quarantine procedures can be put into place, which might take up to four weeks
• all travelers by boat and plane must have taken a fast test within four hours of their flight departing, in addition to the previously required PCR test within 72 hours
• all travelers by boat and plane are required to quarantine for 10 days, but they can take a test after 5 days
• only one house guest over the age of 13 is allowed per 24 hours. Previously 2 guests were allowed.
• only 50 guests are allowed by a funeral (instead of the previous 100 guests)

The goal of the extra measures is to prepare for the scenario where the “British” variant is more dominant in the Netherlands, to prevent the situation that is currently happening in the United Kingdom. Another goal is to force the number of cases down even faster to allow schools to hopefully re-open on 8 February.

In other news:

• dinner today was sauerkraut (English Wikipedia), made by Marco’s mom. Very tasty – thank you!
• Marco and I forgot to take photos of the sauerkraut because we were busy watching the US inauguration of Joe Biden on CNN International. Fun fact as told by Marco: here in the Netherlands, CNN became widespread in the Netherlands during the Gulf War in the early 1990s. After the war ended the channel was still offered by most Dutch television providers, through today.

Random observation #1: I had a dream this morning. The only thing I can remember is that I was speaking Dutch. I remember this because I woke up and was wondering why I was speaking Dutch so slowly in the dream. The sentences I said certainly did not seem that difficult to me. But I thought about it and realized I don’t dream that often in Dutch. My mind was likely trying to construct the sentences as fast as it could but having a bit of trouble doing so, which likely woke me up.

Perhaps I should give the credit to Marco, who tries to keep me speaking Dutch during the day even when I’m working. (Which helps since we don’t get outside that much outside of grocery shopping, so there are a lot less spontaneous conversations with strangers.)

Random observation #2: If you are standing a supermarket and trying to lick your fingers to futilely open a plastic bag to put some jalapeños in, but you’re wearing a face mask, what can you do? I managed to get enough friction to open it after about half a minute, but it was a weird sensation to bring my fingers to my mouth and then realized I could not lick them because I was wearing a face mask.

I am sure this one was noticed by others months and months ago, but generally I have a re-usable bag on hand so I don’t need to grab a plastic bag.

Elementary schools will remain closed in the Netherlands until at least 8 February from nltimes.nl. Previously there was hope that elementary schools could re-open from 25 January, however there is still uncertainty around the British variant of the coronavirus, so the Outbreak Management Team (OMT) recommended against re-opening them early and the Dutch government agreed.

Museumplein schoongeveegd door politie om verboden demonstratie from nos.nl (Amsterdam’s Museumplein cleared out by police, ending an illegal demonstration). The city had said the protestors would not be allowed to protest at the Museumplein. An alternative location with a maximum of 500 protestors allowed was given, however 1,500-2,000 protestors still showed up at the original location today. The name of the protest was “Don’t vote for Rutte’s cabinet!” (elections will be held in mid-March).

Pretty much! Books rule (both physical and digital).