Monday 4 January

Here in eastern Holland, the morning dawned cold but dry; overnight low was -7C. Current temperature at -4C, but the windchill is at -10C. In other words, not a nice day out in the open. This village has a lot of trees in it, so in the shelter it is not too bad.


An echo from the past occurred over the New Year, when clashes occurred between people from two different ethnic groups in the town of Culemborg, some 40 miles south of Amsterdam. One man reversed his car into the garden of a house, where several people were standing outside. There were injuries. The ethnic groups involved were Moroccan and Moluccan; the latter are from the Spice Islands, in the east of Indonesia. That country used to be a colony of the Netherlands until 1949, when it gained independence following the Second World War and a war against the returning colonial power. The Dutch East Indies Army (KNIL) comprised of a lot of Moluccan soldiers, who could not stay in their islands after the war. They were promised independence for their islands, an independence that never materialised. Bitterness and frustration boiled over into violence in the 1970s, when two trains were hijacked in the north of Holland. Several people were killed. With the passage of the years, this frustration has subsided, and most Moluccans appear to have integrated into Dutch society very well.

The Moroccans in Holland came here as migrant workers in the 1950s and 60s, supposedly only for a little while. So at the time, no attempt at integration was made. The other problem is that many of the Moroccans came of Berber stock, who are itinerant shepherds, living in tents in the Atlas mountains. When their third generation came along, living in Holland, they were no longer prepared to subject themselves to the strong social control and patriarchal aspects of Berber society. They saw the freedom that their Dutch contemporaries enjoyed and rebelled. In some cases, went wildly out of control. A few years ago, a number of them disrupted the Memorial Service on 4 May in Amsterdam, which caused a lot of upset. After talks with the community leaders, a number of them agreed to go to Auschwitz and see what the 4 May Memorial was all about.


Inter-ethnic clashes are nothing new, and a signal for the authorities to talk to both groups and sort out any problems that there might be. The mayor of Culemborg has invoked emergency powers to stop people from outside of town to join their respective groups and cause more trouble.Speaking on NOS TV this morning, he said he wanted those lifted as soon as practicable.

Winter wonderland

Sunday 3 January

Awoke to a winter wonderland, with 5 cm of snow on the ground, which appears to have fallen last evening, between 6 and 9pm. The day started with cloud, but this soon moved away leaving us with a gorgeous snow landscape. Went for a walk at 11.30, but managed not to return until just after 2pm. The trail took us through the forests around the village all the way to the Koningsweg, some 2½ miles to the north. The going was a bit tricky in places. On a previous walk, roads and paths had become like sheets of ice and that was still present underneath the snow. It was perfectly feasible to walk. Some people even took their mountainbikes out. Just checked the weather reports, which state a temperature of -4C at the moment, up from -9C overnight. I took well over 100 pictures on the way, a selection of which I shall post in a little while. Overnight temperatures at Stavoren, on Lake IJssel, went down to -14.4C. Now I know that is peanuts compared to areas in the States, which have gone down to -40C in recent times. If this cold weather persists for long enough, people will start to itch to get their ice skates out. For the moment, young and old are content to sled their way down the hills around here - yes, this is Holland but we got hills round here.

Visit to Moscowa

If you think I've just nipped over to Russia for the afternoon, please read the title of the post again. Carefully. Moscowa is the name of the Arnhem city cemetery, located 2 miles from my position. It is the location for five Scottish Commonwealth Wargraves, so once more the object of a visit. It was very cold this afternoon, although we're spared the snow that is blanketing the north and northeast of Holland. The poor light conditions caught me out, as my pictures turned out to be of quite poor quality. As in you can barely read the name on the gravestone. Moscowa is a huge cemetery, situated on the Galgenberg - which translates as Gallows' Hill. It won't come as a surprise that the road I took this afternoon is called Scoundrels' Road, as translated from the Dutch Schelmseweg. In days gone by, villains would be taken along this road to be hung on Gallows' Hill.

Along the Scoundrels' Road

Wargraves at Moscowa

War memorial at Moscowa

Saturday 2 January

Good morning from a chilly Netherlands. We just had a small snow shower, but more snow is forecast for the north(east) of the country this afternoon. My father is heading north for a funeral, so he may well encounter some more of the white stuff.

Yesterday, I mentioned the town councillor of Oldenzaal, who was hurt after a starting gun mishap. I wish to amend my rendition of the events, which were not correct. It appeared that a gun, belonging to a sailing ship, had been set up to fire the starting shot. When the councillor tried to activate the device, it did not work, so he sent the swimmers off by using the PA system. At the end of the swim, the gun did go off after all, and the shot ended up in the councillor's leg. He was seriously injured and transferred to hospital where emergency surgery was performed. The councillor is reported to be in a serious but stable condition. The skipper of the sailing ship was arrested for questioning, but has since been released - his ship is liable for the condition of the gun, according to NOS.nl.

Comment spam

I just spent half an hour deleting a dozen spam comments in Chinese or Japanese on all my blogs. As a result, I'll moderating all comments on this blog prior to publication, in order to ward off this nuisance. This Blogger user goes by the Latin script username of disa. Having searched Google for an answer to this problem, I've found that they have no solution in place for it.

New Year's Day 2010

After the clock struck midnight last night, the people of the Netherlands started to let off their fireworks. On average, every person in the country spent more than €4 on fireworks this year (€65m nationwide). And it was all over in an hour or two. In the past, the dense smoke has given rise to fogbanks of spectacular density: some drivers reported not being able to see past the bonnet of their car. No problems like that this year. It was cold, around freezing. That did not deter the hooligan element in the country from going on the rampage again. Dozens of cars were set alight in the major conurbations in the west, quite a few arrests were made. Nonetheless, the police said that although it wasn't quiet, it was not as bad as in previous years. One person died, who was run over by a car as he was lighting a firework in the road in the city of Utrecht. One town councillor in Oldenzaal, near the eastern city of Enschede, literally shot himself in the foot as he let off the starting gun for a new year swim. Why on earth he had to load the pistol with a live round is beyond me.

Just after midnight, I went outside to take pictures of the fireworks. Not terribly successful, due to the proximity of houses and trees. And you need to time your shot carefully, quite difficult as you never know in what direction a firework is going to go off. Got a few nice shots though, one of them is shown above.

Night has once more fallen. Went out for a walk to the Heathlands, but the conditions on roads, pavements and tracks is very treacherous. The snow has now compacted into ice and it is ever so easy to go for a flyer if you're careful. It was cold, with the thermometer firmly down at freezing. Quite a few people had had the same idea, but those who went out by car had quite a job to even get away from their carpark.