Amsterdam – Page 7

Dutch Transplant News

Published on May 29, 2007

Should’ve known it would be the BNN channel though…

As someone who’s going to need a new kidney in the nearish future you can imagine how this story makes me feel.

Terminally ill woman to give away her organs on Dutch TV
dpa German Press Agency
Published: Saturday May 26, 2007

Amsterdam– Dutch TV on Friday is due to air a show in which a terminally ill woman choses one out of three kidney patients to receive her organs after she dies, reports said Saturday. The Dutch public can advice 37-year-old Lisa in making her decision by sending her text messages via mobile phone.

Earlier on Saturday, legislator Joop Atsma of the Christian Democrats (CDA) called the Big Donor Show, as the TV programme is called, “morally wrong and reprehensible.”

Atsma said he would question the Minister of Health Ab Klink (CDA) and Media Minister Ronald Plasterk of the Labour party (PvdA) about the issue in parliament next week.

The TV show is a production of Endemol Entertainment and due to be
aired by broadcasting company BNN.

BNN, which primarily targets teenagers and young adults, is known for its controversial and provocative shows, having aired highly explicit programmes on sex and drugs in the past.

The Dutch public has grown accustomed to the type of provocative shows that BNN prefers to air, and is usually indifferent when the company launches a new controversial programme.

The Big Donor Show however does not go unnoticed.

Atsma said: “I want to talk to BNN about this issue. BNN is solving one problem, but creates two others. Did BNN even consider how the two people will feel who will be rejected as donor recipients?”

BNN president Laurens Drillich said on Saturday the broadcast would go through as planned. “Participants have a 33-per-cent chance to get a kidney. That is substantially higher than people on the waiting list. One would expect the shortage of donor organs to diminish, but the contrary is true.”

Originally, BNN was founded by the late Bart de Graaf, a kidney patient since early childhood. De Graaf never received a donor kidney and died five years ago. BNN said the show wanted to demonstrate that five years after De Graaf’s death, there was still an alarming shortage of donor organs in the Netherlands.

The number of Dutch nationals registering as organ donors has been decreasing in recent years, causing the government to launch a new campaign urging the public to register.

Paul Beerkens, director of the Dutch Kidney Foundation, which collects money for research on kidney diseases, said he was very pleased BNN was paying attention to the donor shortage problem.

“But I do not support their methods,” Beerkens said, adding: “Besides, they do not offer a structural solution. For structural solutions, one must implement one of the donor masterplans our foundation developed.”

© 2006 – dpa German Press Agency

And yet I still have a better chance of getting a kidney here in NL than at home in the UK, because the UK hasn’t signed up to the EU transplant pool.

To those reading this who are disgusted by it – go and sign a donor card. Then you can be as disgusted as you like.

UPDATE:

Not often you get two bits of Amsterdam kidney news in one day – the nephrology department that I attend at Vrij Universiteit Medisch Centrum burned down on Saturday:

Amsterdam – Police in Amsterdam said Saturday they were still investigating the cause of a fire which heavily damaged one of the city’s largest hospitals but caused no injuries.

The VUMC hospital in Amsterdam said Saturday it will not admit any new patients following a fire on its second floor.

The first aid and dialysis departments remain closed. The measures were put in place after a fire broke out in the hospital just before 0400 GMT Saturday morning, resulting in heavy damage.

Not a good week for us Amsterdam kidney patients, really.

Today’s comedy double is all about Holland and the Dutch – it’s about time I did my tiny bit towards cross-cultural ~~understanding~~ ~~confusion~~ ~~ah fuck it~~ muddling along as usual, and as I’m often asked, “what’s life actually like in Holland?”, here it is – life in Holland, via the magic of comedy.

This clip from cable ‘yoof’ channel BNN shows the sorts of things we see in the streets every day:

If you watched that and you’re still going “wtf?”, here, from Amsterdam’s very own US expat comedy theatre Boom Chicago is a quick primer on the difference between European and American senses of humour:

Anyone whose ever been to NL will give a shudder at the mention of Dutch supermarkets. Let’s face it, they’re just weird. The Albert Hein chain of stores, for instance, combines all the glamour of Kwiksave with the aspirations to gentility of Waitrose, but with a complete and utter bonkersness that’s all its own. Recently all the Dutch AH customers went mad for the Wuppie, a little furry doodad given away free with groceries. The key word here is ‘free’ – the Dutch bow to no-one in their ability to grab anything free that’s going, no matter how useless or ugly it might be. “But it’s free! ”

This is how excited the Dutch can get over a cheap supermarket giveaway:

It’s not just me thinks Dutch supermarkets are weird – here’s a vintage clip (you can tell it’s vintage cause he mentions guilders) of British comic John Fearley attempting to explain Albert Hein, in English, to the Dutch:

You see what I have to put up with? As much as I loathe Tesco’s attempts at world domination, every day I cross my fingers and wish for a local, wuppie-free and most of all reliable Tesco. Or even a Somerfield. Whatever, just somewhere where the assistants don’t alternately scowl and snarl at you and the veg don’t rot the minute you get them home and there’s milk and bread after lunchtime… and they open after 6.

But leaving Dutch supermarkets aside, because it makes me depressed, no visit to NL or Amsterdam would be complete without the obligatory nod to history.

We’re surrounded by history and people gawping at history and this time of year it gets particularly difficult. If only we could make historical tourism more user friendly….

So it’s back to Boom Chicago (who have) for the first bonus clip and -Anne Frank is Lonely Girl 1944:

Ooh, that’s mean, and very, very Dutch. Boom Chicago may be expats, but like me they’re being assimilated despite themselves.

116766333728797465

Published on January 1, 2007

On A Lighter Note..

…though no less explosive: here’s video of the stunning fireworks over the Thames last night, stunningly beautiful and all very contained and orchestrated, with well-behaved, polite and cheering crowds.

I bet it was risk-assessed up the wazoo.

The next video is of the Nieuwendijk leading to the Nieuwmarkt in Amsterdam at midnight last night. You might think the Dutch were nicely liberal but as staid and safety-conscious as many Northern Europeans appear to be.

Think again.

No mind-numbingly tedious risk asessments or health and safety droids here, oh no – where fireworks are concerned, the Dutch spit on your risk-asssessments, they dip risk assessments in breadcrumbs, deep-fry them and eat them with transfat-laden mayonnaise. On New Years Eve, every street is like this; unlike in the UK where firework sales and displays are strictly controlled, you can buy huge amounts of explosives over the counter here. The Schengen agreement means open borders for fireworks too.

I wonder what pyrotechnical wonderments new EU members Bulgaria and Romania’ll have in store for us next year?

Read more: New Year, Europe, Amsterdam, London, Fireworks, Video

Happy Hallowe’en, Mwahahahahahahacoughsplutter

Published on October 31, 2006

Not sure happy’s the right word for Hallowe’en, but it’s nicely alliterative. Anyway I found this site, Extreme Pumpkins, via a commenter at Pandagon and this of all the nicely sicko designs sums up how vile I’m feeling at the moment.

I actually went to get a flu shot yesterday, but it’s too late, I already caught something. Every year the bugs blossom earlier and earlier – soon they’ll have to start giving flu jabs in August .

This means I really can’t be arsed blogging today, not with a headful of hot wet sand and the screen swimming like it is and my nose throbbing and throat scratching and my bones hurting. Ow ow ow. Woe is me.

Bed beckons. Luckily we just re-found a couple of second-hand books I’d bought a while since and hidden for just such an eventuality as this. Martin will just have to take up the blogslack today. I’m outta here. I’m sure the world can collapse perfectly well in my absence.

Update: Yeah, yeah, I know I said I was going – but I just remembered I saw that one of our neighbours has put up Christmas lights and decorations already, the day before Hallowe’en. Earliest I’ve seen yet on a private dwelling in Amsterdam. or anywhere.

Just had to get my dibs in quickly.

Meanwhile, In Dutch News…

Published on October 1, 2006

The Register:

Dutch TV hounds Google Earth topless sunbather

Caught on camera

By Lester Haines ? More by this author

Published Thursday 21st September 2006 11:26 GMT

Find your perfect job – click here from thousands of tech vacancies

Here’s a cautionary tale for those of you who like to indulge in a bit of light sunbathing in the privacy of your own patio: make sure you ring Google to see if they’re planning a satellite pass-over before whipping off your top:

No sooner had the poor Dutch woman pictured here popped up on Google Sightseeing, than Digg got hold of her assets. This immediately prompted a heated debate – sadly not on the technological threat to privacy – but rather as to whether or not she really was enjoying her leisure time as nature intended.

Unfortunately, we may never know. Dutch TV quickly identified the address and moved in for the kill, dispatching a team armed with grabs from Google Earth to the sun-worshipping resident’s domicile. Mercifully for her, she wasn’t in.