UPDATED! Critical Thinking and Freedom of Speech is not one of the goals of SEFA With the occasion of having Mr. Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, participating in the “Room for Discussion” event, the Student Association for Economics and Business (SEFA) of University of Amsterdam avoided any opportunity to expose tomorrow's economists to critical and diverse thinking. Mr Draghi gave a r ...

Over the last 1.5 years, the VU University Amsterdam has been embroiled in a battle against severe budgetary cuts. The university board (consisting of three members, one of whom is the former CEO of a port company and another, the former CEO of a bank), has launched a reorganization program that includes budget cuts of €33 million. This reorganization will result in 500-600 layoffs (a reduction of 350 full- ...

Het uitkleden van de gezondheidszorg en in het bijzonder van de thuiszorg in Nederland, is niet nieuw in Europa. Dit gebeurt al in de zuidelijke landen met als excuus de crisis. In Griekenland was de goedkope staatsgezondheidszorg al voor 2008 zo uitgekleed dat privéklinieken, instellingen, corrupt medisch personeel en leveranciers er jarenlang flink aan verdiend hebben. Na de bezuinigingen, die door de EU ...

Last Saturday home care workers protested massively in the Hague. More than 6000 home care workers joined one of the biggest demonstration in the Netherlands. Rutte's cabinet plans to reduce the government's home care budget by 1,1 billion euros. Such a plan will lead to 100.000 lay offs in the social sector.         ...

The Netherlands, Berlin's most important ally in pushing for greater budgetary discipline in Europe, has fallen into an economic crisis itself. The once exemplary economy is suffering from huge debts and a burst real estate bubble, which has stalled growth and endangered jobs. Graphic detailing the economic downturn in the Netherlands. By Christoph Schult and Anne Seith   Michel Scheepens is familiar w ...

Repost from  FT Alphaville Raise your hand if you didn’t first hear about the way in which the Dutch government took over ailing SNS Reaal on February 1st and think ‘oh, really now?’ along with an arched eyebrow. The mechanics of the takeover are interesting indeed, but given that two of the four largest Dutch banks have been nationalised, we have a bigger picture question: How much warning was there that S ...

Last Saturday over 2000 people participated in the demonstration in Amsterdam to support the refugees’ struggle for a normal life. Every year the asylum requests of thousands of refugees are denied. According to the Dutch state these people are supposed to return to their country of origin. However, in many cases this is impossible: their country of origin does not provide them with the correct documents, r ...

New Diaspora is an independent web documentary movement, focusing on the stories of Greeks living abroad during the crisis in their homeland. Please share and support our crowdfunding campaign. It’s time to tell our own part of the story. Why did we leave? What’s our point of view on the current situation in Greece? How much have we adapted to our new lives? ...

Precarious work in Morocco’s green beans production for Dutch supermarkets. Green beans sold in Dutch supermarkets often hail from Morocco, where they are picked and packed under poor labour conditions. Pay is less than a living wage, unions are not respected or tolerated, overwork is mandatory and occurs on a regular basis, and labourers are exposed to pesticides and fertilisers without protective equipmen ...

Tijd voor protest! Per jaar wordt van duizenden vluchtelingen het verzoek om asiel afgewezen. Dit zijn wij, de ‘uitgeprocedeerde asielzoekers’ die volgens de Nederlandse overheid terug moeten naar ons land. Maar in een groot deel van de gevallen is dat onmogelijk. Omdat het land van herkomst niet de juiste papieren verstrekt, ons niet meer accepteert, of omdat we moeten terugkeren naar landen waar het, ook ...