Two Data Points

The first data point: today is the first Dutch Naturalisation Day for "new" citizens. So low key that I totally didn’t realise that it was going on until I read this story on the Radio Netherlands web site. And of course, the lovely Rita is milking it for all she’s worth. This story in the NRC has a nice picture that sums up most people’s feelings about it all.

 

Which brings me to the second data point, also on the Radio Netherlands web site, the fact that between 20 and 30 women each year visiting Morocco from the Netherlands are abandoned there by their husbands or fathers. And Rita features yet again. She met with some of these women when she visited Morocco in June 2005, and promised to take some action. But of course, Rita Verdonk, with her "hot head and cold heart" (the words of Amsterdam’s Mayor, Job Cohen) has done sod-all for them. Why am I not surprised?