The News in the Netherlands

While the anglophone world is caught up in impeachment and Brexit, it can be refreshing to focus on the local news. Presently, this includes:

New efforts to regulate nitrogen1 have angered farmers, who are driving tractors all over and making a mess of traffic.

There is a lot of support for making Liberation Day a no-work holiday every year.

The tension between the economic benefits of being a major travel hub to the world and the pollution, including noise, of air travel is a source of perennial debate. Similarly, Amsterdam is destined to be a car-light city but there are a lot of opinions on how, and how quickly, that future can be reached.

There is increasing pressure to invest in law enforcement, from serious matters like disrupting the drug mafia to making sure scooters stay off the bike paths. I have very complex feelings about this, being wary of the “law and order” culture In the US but also eager to see the sensible rules here enforced.

The US news seems to have crawled down to basic safety and rights issues. But when I turn my focus locally, it feels like a return to halcyon days of debate over how to advance society.