Netherlands, Sweden, Tribal Report (17 December, 2013, 14 Tevet, 5774)
Contents:
1. PM Netanyahu on the Netherlands and Israel
2. Sweden opens doors to Syrian refugees [from the ancient area of Gad and Reuben]
3. Dutch construct dunes against rising seas (an old article but still relevant)
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1. PM Netanyahu on the Netherlands and Israel
Extracts from:
JN-1041. Jerusalem News
#7. Statements by PM Netanyahu and PM of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Rutte
After Their Meeting in Jerusalem 08/December/2013
http://hebrewnations.com/features/jn/jn1041.html#a7
Netanyahu: ...It's a great relationship that we have, both between our countries, our peoples, our
governments and between us personally. ...
Holland is a natural partner. It's a small country. It's got a tremendous
history facing very powerful forces, the Spanish Empire at one time, a
great commercial and economic enterprising people that has been the hob of
expertise and initiative and entrepreneurship. And I think that in many ways
there is a parallel here and a natural affinity. We have looked at a lot of
the things that you have done: your transportation hubs, your economic
policies.
We've learned a lot from that, copied quite a few things and we think that
the ability to cooperate together in the fields of technology is key. The
future belongs to those who innovate. This is the only way that we can
justify the higher cost of products and our services and raise the living
standards of our people. We have a capacity to innovate; you have a capacity
to innovate; and if we work together, I think that capacity could be very
powerful, both in direct cooperation and also in things that we can do in
third countries and better the lot of a lot of peoples, for example in
Africa and other places. I think that Dutch-Israeli cooperation can be
productive, not only for ourselves, but also for the peoples that we serve.
... Last time I was in Holland, I visited the ancient Portuguese Synagogue in
Amsterdam. It's one of the great synagogues of the world and it's a
reflection, I think, of the role that Holland, really the free state of
Holland, played in our history, being a point of refuge for Portuguese Jews.
We know that they found there not merely a spiritual and physical haven, but
a people that is fundamentally, I would say, sympathetic to Jewish values. I
know that the Dutch language contains a lot of words, so the one word that
I'll tell you that I know has come from Spinoza and the greats who occupied
Holland, it's mazal [good luck]. We need a lot of good mazal. And with our cooperation,
I think we'll get it. Mazal Tov, exactly.
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2. Sweden opens doors to Syrian refugees [from the ancient area of Gad and Reuben]
http://www.dw.de/sweden-opens-doors-to-syrian-refugees/a-17072567
Extracts:
Sweden has become the first European Union country to send a positive signal to Syrians who have fled their country due to the ongoing civil war: permanent residency for those who have already made it into Sweden.
The decision, says Anders Danielsson, the director-general of Sweden's Migration Board, stems from the EU's failure to act on growing numbers of refugees.
"The conflict in Syria has heated up, to put it mildly," he said. "And we can assume that it's not going to be resolved in the foreseeable future."
Since 2012, 14,700 Syrians have fled to Sweden. Eight thousand of them are to receive permanent residency. The remaining 6,700 - as well as subsequent arrivals - may follow.
Danielsson knows the new rule may spur more Syrians to seek refuge in the Scandinavian country. And those refugees, too, are to benefit from the change in policy.
Permanent residency will offer Syrian refugees one thing above all else: security. But more important for the new arrivals is the legal right to bring family members to Sweden.
For Anders Danielsson, the ability to reunite families ripped apart by war is at the fore of new policy.
"That's perhaps the most important consequence for every individual - that one can be with one's family again, that family in Syria or anywhere else in the region can turn to a Swedish embassy."
Beyond Sweden, Germany has agreed to take on 5,000 Syrian refugees. Austria's government also agreed to take 500.
Sweden is a particularly positive example in that its plans have received little domestic resistance. Concerns that Sweden will be unable to cope with increased waves of refugees have been few and far between.
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3. Dutch construct dunes against rising seas by Alix Rijckaert, in Monster (an old article but still relevant)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/6613101/Dutch-construct-dunes-against-rising-seas.html
Extracts:
20 Nov 2009
Stretching more than 20 kilometres (15 miles) southwards from The Hague, the project is one of many in a battle against rising sea levels.
"Because it is a low-lying delta, the Netherlands is very sensitive to climate change," Tineke Huizinga, the water management deputy minister, said on a recent visit to the bustling work site.
"If sea and river levels rise, the Netherlands will be under threat," Huizinga said, walking in yellow boots along a pipeline of several hundred metres spewing out dredged sand.
"Fortunately, the coast is safe today, but we are investing in the security of people who will live here in 50 years."
More than 18 million cubic metres of sand - enough to fill 7,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools - will be poured onto the new coastal band of dunes until 2011.
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Sand is dredged from the bottom of the North Sea, about 15 kilometres from shore, by two specialised vessels that work in turns, day and night, before being relayed to the beach via the pipeline.
Bulldozers then amass the sand to create the dunes, broaden the beach and gain territory from the sea, metre by metre.
"We had no choice but to extend the coast towards the sea," Michiel van Haersma Buma, the area's flood prevention chief, told AFP.
"Our coast is relatively narrow. Houses and greenhouses lie just beyond the dunes. This area is so densely populated that we had no space to construct more dunes and dykes further inland."
The new dunes - 30 to 60 metres wide, and rising up to 10 metres above sea level - are going up next to an existing band of dunes. Covering them is a special type of grass with long roots to keep the sand intact.
"The more dunes there are, the less sea water can infiltrate," thus reducing the danger of contamination of fresh water inland, Haersma Buma explained.
When completed, the project would have made the 20-kilometre stretch of dune-lined beach up to 200 metres wide at low tide, compared to 180 metres at present.
The economic stakes are high: up to 65 per cent of the Netherlands' gross domestic product comes from areas that are located below sea level.
"We want to to be able to live and work in security," Huizinga said.
"It is a big investment. But the cost of protecting this area is a fraction of the cost that a flood would cause to the economy - and that does not even take into account the social disruption and loss of life."
The Delta commission predicted a sea level rise of between 0.65 and 1.3 metres by 2100, and said about nine million of the country's 16 million inhabitants already lived in areas directly shielded from the sea and rivers by dikes and dunes.
Floods in 1953 killed 1,835 people and left 72,000 homeless when a total 200,000 hectares of land in the southern provinces of Zeeland, Noord Brabant and Zuid-Holland were inundated.Â