De Les van Polare: Oproep tot Innovatieve Renaissance

This is a first post on this blog in my native Dutch.  I will post an English translation shortly.

Afgelopen week schreef ik een bijdrage voor de Volkskrant opinie pagina, dat daar werd gepubliceerd onder de kop: 


"Het gaat niet enkel om Polare maar om de stad als bruisende kern":

Tijdens mijn afgelopen bezoek aan Nederland, waar ik gesprekken voerde met uitgevers en boekhandelaars over het boekenvak, kwam vanzelfsprekend Polare ter sprake. Inmiddels terug in mijn woonplaats New York volg ik een gestage stroom van commentaren zoals van schrijver Kluun die het “niet meer uren achtereen lezen” geen probleem vindt, of van Max Pam die roept om kleine boekhandels met kennisvan zaken, of anderen die Polare’s management de schuld geven, en dan het nieuws dat Nederlandse uitgevers werken aan een streaming dienst voor e-boeken. 

Allen met een kern van waarheid, maar er valt een grotere les te leren. Polare is de spreekwoordelijke kanarie in de kolenmijn, die een zoveelste signaal geeft dat er meer aan de hand is dan het omvallen van een prestigieuze boekhandelketen. Het gaat om de toekomst van de Nederlandse binnensteden, de kenniseconomie en de kwaliteit van de Nederlandse cultuur.

The Olympics Are Over with Dutch Best Result Ever

The Winter Olympics at Sochi are over with many winners: the host country Russia not only by having hosted a successful and secure Olympic Games, but also by winning the medal count: number one with 33 medals in total, of which 13 gold; closely followed by the U.S. with 28 medals, of which 9 gold, and little Norway - but it is a Nordic country - is third with 26 medals, of which 11 gold. The Netherlands has achieved its best result ever by being fifth in the overall ranking with 24 medals, 8 of which gold. 

The Dutch have achieved an amazing result no matter what some critics may say about them having won only in speed skating events. If one compares the Dutch results with other countries who could have done better due to their size (for example Germany and China) or due to their tradition in a broader range of winter sports (for example Austria, Sweden, Switzerland) then the Dutch have truly achieved an outstanding performance. 

Also by comparing the Dutch results in Sochi with the previous Olympic Games in Vancouver, where the Dutch won 8 medals (of which 4 gold,) then the improvement is staggering. Bear in mind........ 

US - Dutch Skating Saga Continues

The US - Dutch skating saga continues with the appearance of Dutch skating coach Jillert Anema on the morning show Squawk Box of business network CNBC, as described on their website:

" The Netherlands' speed skating coach scoffed at the controversy surrounding the American speed skating team's weak performance and their Under Armour skating suits, telling CNBC that the overall American sports system is to blame for the U.S. skaters' dismal performance.

Anema cited a lack of domestic competition and support for American speed skaters for the team's disastrous showing, and contrasted it with the popularity of speed skating in the Netherlands, which hosts many leagues and lots of competition....

Anema drew a contrast between a lack of American support for speed skating and the huge support shown for sports like basketball...............Anema singled out American football for criticism. The sport isn't played anywhere else in the world and is one that he clearly doesn't care for.............He's convinced that the Americans won't be able to threaten the Dutch in Olympic speedskating anytime soon, no matter how much the U.S. may be favored going into the Winter Games."

Have a look at this hilarious exchange, where Squaw Box host Joe Kernen is taking the bait offered by coach Anema, known in Holland for his eccentricities.

Wall Street Journal Apology to the Dutch

Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters (H. Avercamp/Wikimedia)

The Wall Street Journal writer Matthew Futterman apologizes in an open letter to the Dutch for "trivializing your work in Sochi":
"Dear Dutch: Please Forgive Me."

As I mentioned  in my post "The Dutch Olympic Skating Success & Misconceptions in the Media", I found his earlier comments a bit denigrating to speed skating and unfair to the Dutch wins in Sochi. Apparently mr. Futterman received many more less friendly responses from Dutch readers, and felt compelled to respond:

"Sunday night, after the Netherlands won yet another speedskating medal and swept the podium in the women's 1,500-meter race, I wrote a column for this newspaper in which I suggested that all those medals from one country in one sport were making things kind of boring for "anyone not wearing orange underwear." (The Netherlands has 20 total medals, tied with the U.S. for most overall, but 19 of them have come in long-track speedskating.)
 

Since then I have been bombarded with hate mail from the Netherlands, like this:

"Hello crying baby…Come to Holland/Netherlands then I will give you my 50-year-old Dutch fists on your ugly face."

 I seem to have created the mistaken impression that I dislike all things Dutch and that the U.S. speedskating debacle has made me bitter and jealous. I promise neither is true. I really love all things Dutch."

Mr. Futterman then continues his apology by listing things he loves about Holland, such as

Dutch Skiing in the New York Times

Ski slope in Rastkogel/ Petr Novák, Wikipedia

While the Olympic Games continue, and I already mentioned in a previous post the international media attention for the Dutch speed skating success, now a  quite an unlikely op-ed article was published in The New York Times,  "Why the Dutch Hit the Slopes" by Eric Weinberger.

Unlikely, because it refers to the Dutch increased love for skiing, in a country which is known for its flatness, and also for its successes in speed skating not downhill skiing:

"...Still, nothing stops Dutch people from skiing. In 2012, while the country was still struggling through recession, nearly one million (out of a population of almost 17 million) traveled to the Alps. They descend en masse on Alpine resorts, most of them Austrian; some fly or travel by train, but most drive. The beginning of the February week that the Dutch schools are off is known for some of the longest traffic jams in Europe........

......And yet in the 2014 Olympics, for the first time, a Dutch person — Nicolien Sauerbreij, from the town of De Hoef, a few feet below sea level — will be defending her title as champion in a downhill event, having won gold in the parallel giant slalom snowboarding event in 2010."

Weinberger then ends his article by stating that globalization and improved travel will enable athletes from different countries to excel in sports which they traditionally would never have been able to participate in, let alone win:

The Dutch Olympic Skating Success & Misconceptions in the Media

Hans Brinker, The Silver Skates

The Dutch Olympic team is on its way to achieving one of its best Winter Olympics. Sofar, the Dutch have won seventeen medailles: five gold, five silver and seven bronze. What  is going on? The international media have started to notice.

The Wall Street Journal states in its article "In Sochi, the Dutch Are Dominating the Overall Olympic Medal Count":

" The Netherlands winning  the overall medal race.This is absurd. The Netherlands has about 15 million people. They are competitive in a single Winter Olympic sport. Sunday brought more domination, as the Dutch swept the podium in speedskating's women's 1,500 meters. The Netherlands had 17 medals at day's end on Sunday, one more than the U.S. and Russia; 16 of those 17 have come in long-track speedskating. (The other? Short-track speedskating.)...........

 The Dutch have chosen one of the few sports that a country of the Netherlands' size could dominate, since only about five nations are even competitive in speedskating. The U.S.—which was very competitive in speedskating until this year, when it became obsessed with its wardrobe—only has a couple thousand competitive skaters of any age. If the Winter Games are about being opportunistic, then the Dutch deserve the gold medal for opportunism. The Netherlands should enjoy this moment of Olympic supremacy, even if it doesn't last another 24 hours."

The International Business Times tries to explain the Dutch success in its article "Winter Olympics 2014: Speed Skating Continues To Be Dominated By The Netherlands, But Why?":

Finland, Holland and Norway At Top, US Plunges in World Press Freedom Index

The Netherlands

Finland, Holland and Norway again at top. The U.S. plunges....
I'm referring here to this year's the World Press Freedom Index which has been released again by Reporters Without Borders. According to Wikipedia, "this is an annual ranking of countries based upon the organization's assessment of the countries' press freedom. It reflects the degree of freedom that journalists, news organizations, and netizens enjoy in each country, and the efforts made by the authorities to respect and ensure respect for this freedom."

Finland tops the index for the fourth year running, closely followed by the Netherlands and Norway, like in 2013.  The U.S. is 46th out of 180 countries, a 13-place drop from last year due to NSA leaks and attacks on whistle-blowers in 2013. The US had occupied a lower position, 47th, in 2012 after "arrests of high-profile journalists during the Occupy Wall Street protests.", according to RT News.  Let's see what next year's World Press Freedom Index will bring as the Netherlands is just experiencing its own intelligence controversy about the role of its domestic intelligence agency in collecting the metadata of 1.8 million domestic telephone records. 

In case you consider traveling to some of the lowest ranked countries, these are the four lowest in this year's index: Syria, Turkmenistan, North Korea and lastly 180th Eritrea.