Up in smoke: Amsterdam’s mayor to ban marijuana at school
Russia Today
December 12, 2012
Employees put a sign forbidding people to smoke cannabis. (AFP Photo / Marcel Antonisse)
Amsterdam is to become the first city in the Netherlands where students will be formally banned from smoking marijuana at school. The city’s mayor introduced the law after receiving complaints from teachers that students showed up to class stoned.
Under the current ‘policy of tolerance’ towards drugs, marijuana is considered a soft drug and though it is technically illegal, there is no active prosecution against the individual using it. Police cannot prosecute people for possession of small amounts, with up to five grams being deemed acceptable for personal use.
Some schools have already had prohibited smoking but done so as individual institutions, rather than city ordained legislation.
“This year we have introduced a ban on smoking. We have since become a smoke-free school,” Jolanda Hogewind, head of the Calvijn met Junior College, was quoted by Dutch national newspaper, Volkskrant, as saying. “If a student still smokes on the schoolyard, we warn once. In a second time we send a letter, and if the student persists in his behavior, we invite parents to a meeting,” said the director.
When the law is put in force, schools will be able to involve the police if teenagers are caught smoking on school premises.
However, some supporters of the initiative, like Hogewind, say that schools must be free to maintain their own rules.
All previous attempts to ban marijuana from schools have not succeeded, as the Council of State insisted that it was technically impossible to ban something which is illegal. But recent changes in drug law make this possible. The city will now be able to declare starting January 1 “no toking zones” – areas like schools and playgrounds where weed-smoking will be forbidden.
The law may also affect tourists as some 44 of the city’s 220 cannabis cafes – Amsterdam’s popular attraction among guests of the city – will have to close because they are less than 250 metres from a school.
Earlier there have been calls to introduce a national “weed pass” that would have blocked tourists from buying marijuana. But the initiative was widely opposed by Amsterdam.
Last month, the city major Van der Laan allowed coffee shops to stay open for tourists.
The capital will still have more coffee shops than The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht put together, local Parool newspaper reported.
The government is also planning to raise the age at which teenagers can buy cigarettes to 18.
Netherlands to abolish blasphemy law
AFP Photo / Stan Honda
Russia Today
November 30, 2012
Dutch parliament approves a motion to scrap law that made insulting God a crime. The move is welcomed by freedom of speech supporters and confirms anti-Islamists’ right to criticize religion.
The blasphemy law is no longer relevant in the 21st century, a majority of Dutch parties stated. This law has not been in use for more than half a century, Dutch MPs added.
Liberal parties’ predominance in the current Dutch parliament has made the repeal of the 1930s law possible, with the same motion blocked by Christian political party’s allies back in 2008.
The issue was brought to the attention of the parliament following the 2011 Geert Wilders case.
Wilders, a far-right anti-Islam MP, was acquitted after facing trial on charges of inciting hatred and discriminations against Muslims. The judge ruled Wilders’ comparisons of Islam to fascism “acceptable,” allowing further criticism despite it insulting Muslims.
The blasphemy law abolition was welcomed by freedom rights activists across the globe as a victory.However the decision was dubbed as a “painful loss of a moral anchor and a symptom of a spiritual crisis” by Dutch Christian SGP party, media reported.
It is still illegal to insult police officers or the country’s monarch under the Dutch law.
Many European countries still have blasphemy laws restricting freedom of expression, rights activists say. Others have replaced such laws with more general legislation criminalizing religious hatred.
The UK has annulled its blasphemy law, replacing it with the Racial and Religious Hatred Act in 2007. The new law implies a prison term of up to seven years and an unlimited fine for the intention of stirring up religious hatred.
Ireland stood out by introducing a new blasphemy law in 2010, instead of abolishing it. The recent Irish Defamation Act makes “publication or utterance of blasphemous matter” punishable by a fine of up to €25,000.
Although such laws have not been invoked for decades in most of Europe, there remain some countries where charges on grounds of religious hatred have often been exercised.
In Poland causing offense to religious feelings is considered a crime, even though there is no separate blasphemy law as such. Several cases of people charged with violating the Polish criminal code for religious offence have attracted media attention over the last decade.
In 2008 a Finnish court sentenced the far right activist Seppo Lehto, to two years and fourth months in jail for defamation, inciting ethnic hatred and religious blasphemy against Islam.
WeAreChange Rotterdam Confronts Fmr. Prime Minister of The Netherlands (Eng subtitles) [video]
WeAreChange
October 24, 2012
From http://www.youtube.com/WeAreChangeRotterdam
We Are Change Rotterdam was at a Congressional meeting in The Hague on October 6th, 2012. Ruud Lubbers is the former Dutch Prime Minister (1982 – 1994) and Honorary member of the Club of Rome. Ruud attended the Bilderberg Conferences 4 times (1983, 1991, 1992 and 1994.) WeAreChange Rotterdam asked him about expenses claims of the European commissioners for attending the Bilderberg Conferences. They also confronted him on his own participation during the conferences. The former Prime Minister was clearly not in the mood to talk about the past secret meetings.
Check out more info from this great group on http://www.wearechangerotterdam.tv
http://www.youtube.com/wearechangerotterdam
http://www.twitter.com/wearechangerdam
http://www.facebook.com/wearechangerotterdam
Netherlands Chemtrails 4 planes in formation [video]
AirCrap.org
Published on Oct 13, 2012 by BeePss
4 airplanes flying in formation above Hilversum, the Netherlands on October 10th 2012. I was taking pictures of chemtrails all day and decided to go outside again for some more. I looked up to the left and saw 4 chemtrails next to each other like a scratch mark and when i looked right i saw these planes flying next to each other. Its illegal to fly that close to each other.
Project X Haren party turns into riot [video included]
Channel 4 News
September 22, 2012
Police and prosecutors are investigating how rioting erupted after thousands of revellers descended on a small Dutch town for a party that was inadvertently advertised on Facebook.
Authorities say 34 people were arrested overnight as rioters clashed with police in Haren, 115 miles north of Amsterdam.
Mayor Rob Bats said: “Scum ran amok in our town.”
Dutch media reported that the party was originally planned as a small celebration by a 16-year-old girl but her invitation went viral when she posted it on Facebook.
Around 30,000 people reportedly signed up for the party on Facebook and the girl’s family actually went into hiding, as the town, which has a population of 18,000, braced itself for the onslaught of party goers.
Police estimate around 3,000 people arrived in the town on Friday night to attend the party.
Some of the people arriving in Haren on Friday night wore T-shirts emblazoned with “Project X Haren”, a reference to the film Project X that portrayed an out-of-control party.
[hat tip: LittleSisMedia]
WeAreChange Holland Confronts Dutch Bilderberg Member [video]
We Are Change
September 15, 2012
Check out WeAreChange Holland’s youtube channel here http://www.youtube.com/wearechangeholland
On 25 August 2012, during the VVD party congress in Rotterdam, WRC Holland interviewed Uri Rosenthal. Rosenthal, the outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs shows how transparent the VVD is about the involvement with the Bilderberg Conferences.
Amsterdam’s Weed Pass : No More Pot for Tourists! [video]
The Truther Girls
April 30, 2012
Apparently displeased with its thriving tourist industry, the Dutch government has decided to implement a ban on the sale of weed to foreigners. As of may 1st, 2012, only Dutch citizens who have registered for a ‘Weed Pass’ will be allowed to buy cannabis from the world-famous ‘Coffee Shops’. Naturally, the Coffee Shop owners, the public, and even the local government officials are opposed to this new regulation. The only ones who are in favor of it are those who will benefit from it: the federal government, those who want a police state, and probably the organized crime syndicates.
PN 