Dutch Class

The NRC newspaper today reports that bloggers are increasingly being imprisoned by authoritarian regimes that do not appreciate their comments.

The article in NRC is worth reading as it mentions a number of interesting facts and arguments. One of the minor ones being that Technorati counted 70 million blogs in April of 2007. Dutch Class suddenly feels very small! We do however consider ourselves lucky in that we are probably not going to be imprisoned.

…is my pick from the NRC Handelsblad website for today (see article). Recently I feel like doing it too.

“Toeteren” in this context means honking the car horn. Honking in protest against a proposed raise in fuel tax in the context of rapidly rising diesel prices which will swell the government coffers anyway.

As part of this protest all protesters honked their horn three times today at 11:45. Part of the reason I mention this on Dutch Class is because of the cutesy Dutch colloquialism in the slogan the organisers of this protest came up with.

De maat is vol, de tank is leeg! Toeter voor lagere dieselaccijns!

Literally this translates to: “The measure is full, the tank is empty! Honk for lower fuel tax!”. Now though the meaning is clear enough this isn’t really very natural English and the pun also doesn’t quite work.

Can anyone come up with a better translation?

The NRC Handelsblad today reports that the Dutch Children’s channel Nickelodeon is switching off between 1pm and 5pm to coincide with the national play in the street day organised by Veilig Verkeer Nederland (the Dutch road traffic safety association).

On national play in the street day many streets are closed off to make them safe for children to play in. At the same time many parents will be drawing attention to child (play) safety issues by walking around with placards and handing out leaflets.