Difference between revisions of "Netherlands"

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(→‎Netherlands drug policies: Revert one of DanH's grammar changes: "consuming" and "carrying" are presumably two things, so the plural was correct.)
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{{Country|
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|map=Netherlands_map.gif
 
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|flag=Netherlandsflag.gif
 
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|arms=
 
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|capital=Amsterdam
 
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|government=Constitutional monarchy
 
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|language=Dutch
 
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|queen=Beatrix
 
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|president=
 
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|chancellor=
 
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|pm=Jan Peter Balkenende
 
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|area=41,526 km²
 
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|pop=16,570,613
 
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|pop-basis=2007 estimate
 
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|gdp-year=2006 (est)
 
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|gdp-pc=$35,078
 
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|currency=Euro (€) (EUR)
 
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|idd=31
 
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|tld=.nl
 
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}}
 
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The '''Netherlands''' (''Dutch: Nederland'') is a country in [[Europe]]. It is bordered by [[Belgium]] and [[Germany]], and has a total population of approximately 16 million (2007). Its system of government is constitutional monarchy. The country is often referred to as "Holland", this was originally the name of two densely populated provinces of the country (North-Holland and South-Holland), the cities of [[Amsterdam]], [[Rotterdam]] and [[The Hague]] all lie in these provinces that have always been the most influential regions in the Netherlands, leading to the point where foreigners would equate Holland with the Netherlands.
 
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As its name implies, it is a very low-lying country. About a quarter of the land area, containing more than half of the population, is actually below sea level, and would flood if the sea were not held back by a system of dikes. The Dutch have a saying  that "God created the earth, but the Dutch made Holland".
 
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A major breach of the dikes occurred in 1953, killing 1800 people.
 
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To avoid a repeat of the disaster the Dutch began construction of the "Delta Project" to protect the country from future inundations. Begun in 1953 and completed in 2002 the Delta Project is considered a modern wonder of civil engineering.  After [[Hurricane Katrina]], a delegation of American engineers was invited by the Dutch government to see how the project works and how its technology can be applied in the United States for low-lying cities like [[New Orleans]].
 
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[[Amsterdam]], named for the Amstel river, is the largest city, and officially the capital (although the seat of government is actually in The Hague ). It is ringed by an extensive system of concentric canals.
 
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[[Eindhoven]] is the location of the giant electronics corporation, Philips (full name: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.), with annual revenue equivalent to about $40 billion. (The U.S. corporation [[General Electric]] has revenues of about $150 billion, but much of it is from non-electronics businesses). The Netherlands is also the home of the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell, whose full name is ''Royal Dutch Shell'' or ''Koninklijke Nederlandse Shell''. Other well known Dutch or partly Dutch multinationals are ''Unilever'', a compay owing many household brands, ''ING Group'', a banking group,  ''Ahold'', an international chain of supermarkets, ''Reed Elsevier'', a publishing house, ''Nielsen Company'', owner of the [[Yellow Pages]], and ''Randstad Holding'', a company providing ''human resource services''. The famous ''Dutch East India Company'', known in Dutch as ''Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie'' or VOC, which dominated trade in with South-East Asia in the 17th century, is regarded as the first multinational in history.
 
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The Netherlands has long been famous for its production of flowers, and also for a related economic event, the "tulip mania" of 1636-1637. A classic example of a "bubble," [[tulip]]s were traded on stock exchanges, and bid up to fantastic prices by people who understood that the prices were crazy but hoped to sell at a profit to even crazier investors. Many people mortgaged their homes for a single tulip bulb and in one case an entire brewery was exchanged for a few bulbs. As with all bubbles, when bidding began to lag people tried to sell and the bubble burst with disastrous consequences.  Since then the Dutch have been renowned for their carefulness with money and have established a significant presence in the banking and financial sectors.
 
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The Netherlands is also famous for its low-crime rate (although comparable to other western European nations) and [[libertarian]] legislation. Examples are licensed prostitution in designated areas of major cities, such as Amsterdam's Red Light District, the legal soft [[drugs]] sold in the country's many coffee shops, [[abortion]] rights, [[same-sex marriage]]s and [[euthanasia]].
 
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==Netherlands drug policies==
 
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Consuming and carrying (for personal use only) the "soft drugs" ([[marijuana]], [[absinthe]], [[hashish]] and [[hallucinogenic  mushrooms]]) were made legal in the Netherlands in 1976 in a final attempt to stop drug-related crime in the 1970s. Soft drugs can be legally purchased by individuals over 18 in the famed (licensed) coffee shops, that do sell coffee as well, but are prohibited from serving alcohol.
 
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The Dutch policy regarding soft drugs (and previously prostitution) is called "gedoogbeleid" (condonement policy). This means that although certain behavior is officially prohibited by law, a condonement clause prevents law enforcement agencies from persecuting this behavior. This clause is, legally speaking, not a law and can be reverted much easier than a regular law.
 
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The main reason for this policy is to try to split the market for "soft drugs" from the one for "hard drugs", this to avoid that users "upgrade" from soft to "hard drugs" (the latter are still illegal). So in short it tries to avoid that canabis users get exposure to e.g. heroine in the place where they buy their drugs. The policy also lets the police focus on the war on the more harmful "hard drugs" and criminal trade, and not get swamped in all kinds of minor drug abuse cases. In fact most major cities in the world have similar non-prosecution policies, but the Dutch one is the only nationwide one.
 
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Interestingly growing marijuana and hashish for commercial purposes is still officially illegal (it is legal to own up to four plants per household), causing coffee shop owners to rely on illegal homegrown products.  Only two state run companies are exempted from this rule in order to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes.
 
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Leftist movements have stated that the government should make its mind up: "either make growing marijuana and hashish legal, or ban soft drugs altogether".
 
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The legal status of soft drugs has had no significant adverse effects on Dutch society and it seems the 1976 experiment has worked out. This is probably due to the fact that it has become a more or less socially accepted drug like alcohol and tobacco. This removes the need for dealers and effectively terminates its status as an anti-establishment symbol as well as its popularity among thrill-seeking youths.
 
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The Dutch government is currently (2007) considering banning magic mushrooms, after a French tourist committed suicide after eating a mushroom.{{fact}}
 
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==Queen's Day==
 
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April 30th is known as Queen's Day (''Koninginnedag'') - the national holiday to mark the official birthday of the monarch. This is actually the birthday of former Queen Juliana (Queen Beatrix's mother) but has been kept as the official holiday because of the better weather (Queen Beatrix's actual birthday is 31 January). Queen's Day is the one day of the year when ordinary Netherlanders are permitted to sell goods on the streets without a license.  Consequently the whole country is turned into a gigantic flea market (garage sale).  The primary effect of this is that people buy goods they do not want or need, solely in order to sell them the following year.  In an act of patriotism, most of the populace wear orange colored clothing (the national color) to identify with the Royal House Of Orange-Nassau.
 
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Those not involved with selling their surplus belongings celebrate the national holiday at outdoors parties in the cities or with fine weather, spend the free day on a terrace of a pub, or cycle in the national ''Fietsen op Dijken '' tour around the nation's dikes.
 
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==Society==
 
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[[Same sex marriage]] has been recognized by the Dutch government since 2001.<ref>[http://marriage.about.com/cs/samesexmarriage/a/samesex.htm About.com]</ref>
 
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==References==
 
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<references/>
 
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[[Category:European Countries]]
 
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[[Category:NATO members]]
 
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[[Category:EU Members]]
 

Revision as of 01:55, December 7, 2007

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