EU-DIGEST

Ethnic food at NDIC Almere

Special EU-Digest report on Places of Worship

The Netherlands - Almere: A Christian Church where Nourishment of the Soul and Soul Food go Hand in Hand

New Day International Church (NDIC), an English language Christian Church, which opened its doors in Almere only 15 months ago, believes that nourishment not only includes the Word of God, but also good food. The Church which counts some 100 plus members recently started a bi-monthly "potLuck" Cafe program after its Sunday Worship Service. It calls this "New Day Cafe". The difference with other cafe's is that the food at "New Day Cafe" is free and voluntarily supplied by the members of the congregation - a rainbow mix of people from 16 different countries. The result, a spectacular variety of ethnic food specialties. Certainly a great incentive to visit NDIC, but that is not the only incentive. Peter and Nancy van der Meyden, the pastoral leaders and their organizational team say their objective is seeking to serve the international community in Almere by providing a growing relational and supportive network; an inspiring and contemporary Sunday morning church experience; and many resources (pastoral care, teaching, relevant literature, etc.), to help people connect faith to life. "We want visitors to NDIC to find this to be an inclusive environment they can feel comfortable with", says Pastor Peter van der Meyden.

All this adds up to the special character of Almere, a brand new city, to the northeast of Amsterdam, built on ocean reclaimed land during the early seventies. Its ambitious planners at the time envisioned a suburban living environment for commuters to the nearby capital Amsterdam, Schiphol airport and the very richy "Het Gooi" area. Currently, over 176,000 people live in Almere — one of the fastest growing cities in the Netherlands. The Dutch government recently announced plans for it to become the fourth largest city in the country, housing more than 400,000 inhabitants. It is also a very internationally flavored city with approximately a quarter of Almere’s citizens originating from outside the Netherlands, representing a variety of ethnic, cultural, social and religious backgrounds. Only 5 percent of these inhabitants come from Western European or US heritage. Places of worship in Almere also include Mosques and prayer centers for the Muslim community.

Almere is also a very open spaced community. According to the local government, there are on average 420 homes per square kilometers, compared with 1,930 homes per square kilometer in the four largest cities of the Netherlands - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht. Even though it is still looked down on by citizens of most "cozy, old-style, and traditional" Dutch cities, Almere is already viewed throughout Europe, and by most of its own inhabitants, as a leading example of a successful new and modern designed city. It certainly has a great deal to offer people who seek a suburban lifestyle in a central easily accessible location. Innovative ideas like the NDIC Cafe ( http://www.ndic.nl) just seem to materialize spontaneously on a daily basis in this surprising bustling new Dutch city.

Labels: Almere, EU, Religion, Soul Food, The Netherlands

Sinterklaas and his helpers arrive in Almere, Europe's most modern City"

Special report on Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas, or St. Nicholas, is an annual European event which has been uniquely Dutch and Flemish for centuries. The actual St. Nicholas' celebration, December 6th, is observed in most Roman Catholic countries primarily as a feast for small children. But it is only in the Low Countries - especially in the Netherlands - that on December 5th, the eve of his birthday, it is celebrated nationwide by young and old. Christian and non-Christian all having fun, without any religious overtones. The Sinterklaas celebrations on December 5, when St Nicholas visits children accompanied by his Moorish servants called Zwarte Piet, is the most important Dutch tradition, according to a poll for the Dutch folk culture centre NCV. Although Sinterklaas always wears the clothes of the bishop he once was, his original status as a canonized saint has little to do with what the Dutch think of him. To them he represents a kind benevolent old man, whose birthday is observed by exchanging gifts and making good-natured fun of each other. It so happens that the legend of St. Nicholas is based on historical facts. He did actually exist and lived from 271 A.D. to December 6th, 343. People still visit his 4th century tomb in the town of Myra, near the city of Anatolia in present-day Turkey, which was recently excavated has by archaeologists. Santa Claus the fat, jolly man wearing a red coat and trousers with white cuffs and collar, and black leather and who became popular in the United States in the 19th century is a commercial offshoot of ST.Nicolas, maintained and reinforced through song, radio, television, and films. In Europe he is called Father Christmas.

In the Netherlands, Sinterklaas made his early appearance at the end of November in Europe's most modern City Almere, to the delight of the children and of course the shopkeepers.

Labels: Almere, EU, Netherlands, Sinterklaas, Tradition

A special EU-Digest report on alternative energy applications in the Dutch city of Almere

Alternative Energy in the Netherlands: Almere to become the home of the worlds third largest Solar Energy Installation

Almere the most modern city in Europe, just 25 kilometers east of Amsterdam, is to be home to the world's third-largest solar energy installation. The alternative energy solar complex is being built on a 7,000-square-meter artificial island, and is expected to provide 10 percent of the city's domestic hot water. Only Denmark and Sweden have larger solar energy installations. The City of Almere, which only welcomed its first residents in 1976, has expanded to a city of 175,000 inhabitants and now is the fastest growing city in the Netherlands. Yearly some 6,000 people move there, mainly for its people friendly living environment.

The Sun Island project in Almere funded by the EU is expected to cut 50 per cent of the carbon dioxide levels required to generate necessary energy levels for the 2,700 homes. The Sun Island is just one of the many large-scale revolutionary initiatives taken by Almere that will benefit the environment, making it one of the most advanced alternative energy areas in Europe. People find it not only fun to live there but also a great place to operate a business. Almere presently has some 10,000 companies established within its borders, providing approximately 70,000 jobs, half of them filled by local residents. Another 50,000 Almere residents daily commute to work in Amsterdam by means of an efficient public transport system.

To meet its projected expansion to a city of some 400.000 inhabitants, the Almere City Council has also commissioned American architect William McDonough to develop an entire cradle-to-cradle neighborhood, called Almere Poort (Gate of Almere). It will be completed within the next five years. The cradle-to-cradle theory developed by William McDonough and German chemist and university professor Michael Baungart says that everything humanity needs can be made from environmentally-friendly, 100-per-cent sustainable material. The city, with commercial partners, has also laid an optical fiber network into homes and businesses. Its residents have access to services like flat-fee phone calls; super fast Internet; and digital radio and television (with 90 channels) and IP telephony - where voice calls are sent over the same network as data - which means calls made to numbers within the network are free of charge.

The solar power island in Almere is scheduled to open on June 21, 2009 - the longest day in the northern hemisphere.

For additional information on this article click on this link

Labels: Almere, Alternative Energy, EU, Solar Power, The Netherlands

VW Twin Drive Is German for Electric car - by Chuck Squatriglia

Volkswagen is moving right along with its plan to put a plug-in hybrid on the road by 2011, road-testing a "Twin Drive" Golf that goes 30 miles on lithium-ion battery power alone. The proof-of-concept test mule roaming Berlin uses a diesel-electric drivetrain, but VW says the production model will ditch the 1.4-liter turbodiesel in favor of a 1-liter turbocharged gasoline engine. Although the VW engineers discussing Twin Drive during the debut of the sixth-generation Golf called the engine a "range extender" -- the same term GM uses for the gasoline engine in the Chevrolet Volt -- it's not.

The engine in VW's Twin Drive system actually drives the wheels, whereas the engine in the Volt only charges the battery as it approaches depletion. Be that as it may, the plug-in Golf runs on electricity alone to about 30 mph, at which point the engine takes over, according to the engineers who told Motor Trend about the system.

Labels: Almere, Car Industry, Electric Car, EU, Volkswagen

New Jersey Lakewood company buys Dutch partner in Almere, Holland

Component Hardware Group, a Lakewood-based company that manufactures plumbing and hardware products, has acquired CHG-Europe in Almere, Netherlands, for an undisclosed amount, company officials said Thursday. The acquisition is expected to give Component Hardware a sales office and distribution center to sell its products throughout Europe. The two companies previously worked together through a joint venture.

Component Hardware is known in the industry for making bacteria-fighting products for commercial buildings and health-care providers.

Labels: Almere, Business, EU, Hardware, Netherlands

Reggefiber Builds Largest Fiber-to-the-Home Network In The Netherlands With Cisco Technology

Cisco® announced today that Reggefiber, a major fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband operator in the Netherlands, is rolling out an optical fiber network to three cities in the Netherlands based on the Cisco Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture and using Cisco Ethernet FTTH (E-FTTH) technology. Reggefiber owns an extensive FTTH network in The Netherlands and current planned projects will add approximately 100,000 to 200,000 households making Reggefiber's FTTH coverage the largest in The Netherlands. Reggefiber is active in a number of cities in The Netherlands and has recently started laying fiber in the city of Deventer. It will extend the FTTH network to the city of Almere and another city within the next few months. The network will give residents access to broadband speeds of up to 100 megabits per second* (Mbps) initially, and up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) in the future, making it possible to deliver advanced services, such as standard and high-definition IPTV, video on demand, voice over IP services and high-speed Internet services, delivered over a single broadband connection.

Labels: Almere, EU, Fiber Optics, Netherlands

For the complete report from the International Herald Tribune click on this link

Europe leads in designing buildings that save energy-by Nicolai Ouroussoff

After more than a decade of tightening guidelines, Europe has made "green" architecture an everyday reality. In Germany and the Netherlands especially, a new generation of architects has expanded the definition of sustainable design beyond solar panels and sod roofs. As Matthias Sauerbruch put it: "The eco-friendly projects you saw in the 1970s, with solar panels and recycled materials, they were so self-conscious. We call this Birkenstock architecture. Now we don't need to do this anymore. The basic technology is all pretty accepted." In the United States, architects cannot make the same claim with equal confidence. Despite the media attention showered on environmental issues, the government has yet to establish universal efficiency standards for buildings. According to some estimates, buildings consume nearly as much energy as industry and transportation combined. And the average building in the United States uses about a third more energy than its counterpart in Germany.

Labels: Almere, Architecture, Europe

The Netherlands: 499 ADB Luminaires Light Up Holland’s New Schouwburg Almere

A vibrant new multi-theatre complex in The Netherlands, the Schouwburg Almere, has taken delivery of one of the largest single lighting equipment orders to be placed in Europe in recent years, with nearly 500 ADB luminaires deployed throughout the venue’s three multi-function auditoriums. The theatre is located at the edge of the Weerwater lake in the Kunstlinie Cultural Centre at the heart of Almere, a new city that is the fastest growing urban area in The Netherlands, just half an hour from Amsterdam. This ultra high-tech venue was designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the Japanese architectural firm SANAA, and its sophisticated AV/IT integration sees most of the venue’s technology systems operating over a common digital network, with the show control MediaLon integrated with the lighting network, audio system, communications and dressing room video and audio feeds.

Labels: Almere, EU, Theater

Almere - The Netherlands: a new suburbia-by Becky Russell

Almere was built on reclaimed land to the northeast of Amsterdam during the early seventies. Its ambitious planners envisioned a suburban living environment for commuters to the nearby capital Amsterdam, Schiphol and Het Gooi.

Currently, over 165,000 people live in Almere — one of the fastest growing cities in the Netherlands. The Dutch government recently announced plans for it to become the fourth largest Dutch city, housing up to 400,000 inhabitants. Although roughly a quarter of Almere’s citizens originate from outside the Netherlands, only 5 percent are from a Western European or American background. Many expats come to the Netherlands to experience the stereotypical aspects of Dutch life found in a city like Amsterdam – the canals, the museums, the nightlife – and these elements are decidedly not what can be found in Almere. In fact, many residents liken its atmosphere to that of suburban America.

"Those unfamiliar with Almere are of the impression that it is a boring town with no atmosphere. Empty polder land filled with ugly new buildings,” says Melissa Bredow from Stichting Stadspromotie Almere (Foundation for the Promotion of Almere). "But everyone who comes is surprised by what they find — its central location with lots of space and nature. People are proud to live here, something you can tell by the amount of people moving to Almere. It's a great place to live!" The suburban quality of life is Almere’s greatest strength. According to the local government, on average there are 420 dwellings per square kilometre in Almere, compared with 1,930 dwellings per square kilometre in the four biggest cities in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, population 734,000; Rotterdam, 592,000; The Hague, 442,000 and Utrecht, 256,000).

Almere is viewed throughout Europe as a leading example of a successful "new" city, but expats should not expect to find a cosy old-style atmosphere or "traditional" Dutch environment there. Almere offers an alternative and more modern experience, and has a great deal to offer expats seeking a suburban lifestyle in a central location.

Labels: Almere, Architecture, Modern, Suburban, The Netherlands