1.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
2.
Portuguese language
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Portuguese is a Romance language and the sole official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, and São Tomé and Príncipe. It also has co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, and has kept some Celtic phonology. Portuguese is also termed the language of Camões, after Luís Vaz de Camões, one of the greatest literary figures in the Portuguese language and author of the Portuguese epic poem, the museum is the first of its kind in the world. In 2015 the museum was destroyed in a fire, but there are plans to reconstruct it, when the Romans arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in 216 BCE, they brought the Latin language with them, from which all Romance languages descend. Between 409 CE and 711 CE, as the Roman Empire collapsed in Western Europe, Portuguese evolved from the medieval language, known today by linguists as Galician-Portuguese, Old Portuguese or Old Galician, of the northwestern medieval Kingdom of Galicia. It is in Latin administrative documents of the 9th century that written Galician-Portuguese words and this phase is known as Proto-Portuguese, which lasted from the 9th century until the 12th-century independence of the County of Portugal from the Kingdom of León, by then reigning over Galicia. In the first part of the Galician-Portuguese period, the language was used for documents. For some time, it was the language of preference for poetry in Christian Hispania. Portugal became an independent kingdom in 1139, under King Afonso I of Portugal, in the second period of Old Portuguese, in the 15th and 16th centuries, with the Portuguese discoveries, the language was taken to many regions of Africa, Asia and the Americas. The language continued to be popular in parts of Asia until the 19th century, some Portuguese-speaking Christian communities in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia preserved their language even after they were isolated from Portugal. The end of the Old Portuguese period was marked by the publication of the Cancioneiro Geral by Garcia de Resende, Most literate Portuguese speakers were also literate in Latin, and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing—and eventually speech—in Portuguese. Portuguese is the language of the majority of people in Brazil and Portugal, perhaps 75% of the population of Angola speaks Portuguese natively, and 85% are fluent. Just over 40% of the population of Mozambique are native speakers of Portuguese, Portuguese is also spoken natively by 30% of the population in Guinea-Bissau, and a Portuguese-based creole is understood by all. No data is available for Cape Verde, but almost all the population is bilingual, there are also significant Portuguese speaking immigrant communities in many countries including Andorra, Bermuda, Canada, France, Japan, Jersey, Namibia, Paraguay, Macau, Switzerland, Venezuela. In some parts of former Portuguese India, namely Goa and Daman and Diu, in 2014, an estimated 1,500 students were learning Portuguese in Goa. Equatorial Guinea made an application for full membership to the CPLP in June 2010. In 2011, Portuguese became its official language and, in July 2014. Portuguese is a subject in The school curriculum in Uruguay
3.
Dutch language
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It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after English and German. Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English and is said to be roughly in between them, Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and incorporates more Romance loans than German but far fewer than English. In both Belgium and the Netherlands, the official name for Dutch is Nederlands, and its dialects have their own names, e. g. Hollands, West-Vlaams. The use of the word Vlaams to describe Standard Dutch for the variations prevalent in Flanders and used there, however, is common in the Netherlands, the Dutch language has been known under a variety of names. It derived from the Old Germanic word theudisk, one of the first names used for the non-Romance languages of Western Europe. It literarily means the language of the people, that is. The term was used as opposed to Latin, the language of writing. In the first text in which it is found, dating from 784, later, theudisca appeared also in the Oaths of Strasbourg to refer to the Germanic portion of the oath. This led inevitably to confusion since similar terms referred to different languages, owing to Dutch commercial and colonial rivalry in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English term came to refer exclusively to the Dutch. A notable exception is Pennsylvania Dutch, which is a West Central German variety called Deitsch by its speakers, Jersey Dutch, on the other hand, as spoken until the 1950s in New Jersey, is a Dutch-based creole. In Dutch itself, Diets went out of common use - although Platdiets is still used for the transitional Limburgish-Ripuarian Low Dietsch dialects in northeast Belgium, Nederlands, the official Dutch word for Dutch, did not become firmly established until the 19th century. This designation had been in use as far back as the end of the 15th century, one of them was it reflected a distinction with Hoogduits, High Dutch, meaning the language spoken in Germany. The Hoog was later dropped, and thus, Duits narrowed down in meaning to refer to the German language. g, in English, too, Netherlandic is regarded as a more accurate term for the Dutch language, but is hardly ever used. Old Dutch branched off more or less around the same time Old English, Old High German, Old Frisian and Old Saxon did. During that period, it forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, on the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in nowadays France and Germany. The division in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, one of the few moments linguists can detect somewhat of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in the pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age, the Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups, East, West, and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration Period, Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots, Frisian, Low German and High German
4.
Portuguese people
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Portuguese people are an ethnic group indigenous to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and their predominant religion is Christianity, Portuguese people were a key factor to the Age of Exploration, discovering several lands unknown to the Europeans in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, helping to pave the way for Globalization. There are around 10 million native Portuguese in Portugal, out of a population of 10.34 million. A small minority of about 15,000 speak the Mirandese language, in the municipalities of Miranda do Douro, Vimioso, all of the speakers are bilingual with Portuguese. An even smaller minority of no more than 2,000 people speak Barranquenho, some people from the former colonies have been migrating to Portugal since the 1900s. More recently, a number of Slavs, especially Ukrainians, Moldovans, Romanians and Russians. There is also a Chinese minority, in addition, there is a small minority Gypsies of about 40,000 people, Muslims about 34,000 people and an even smaller minority of Jews of about 5,000 people. Between 1886 and 1966, Portugal lost to more than any West European country except Ireland. From the middle of the 19th century to the late 1950s, about 40 million Brazilians have relatively recent Portuguese background, due to massive immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. About 1.2 million Brazilian citizens are native Portuguese, significant verified Portuguese minorities exist in several countries. Portuguese Sephardic Jews are also in Israel, the Netherlands, the United States, France, Venezuela, Brazil, in Brazil many of the colonists were also originally Sephardic Jews, who, converted, were known as New Christians. In the United States, there are Portuguese communities in New Jersey, the New England states, in the Pacific, Hawaii has a sizable Portuguese element that goes back 150 years, Australia and New Zealand also have Portuguese communities. Canada, particularly Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, has developed a significant Portuguese community since 1940, argentina and Uruguay had Portuguese immigration in the early 20th century. So has Chile where an estimated 50,000 descendants live, an estimated 800,000 Portuguese returned to Portugal as the countrys African possessions gained independence in 1975, after the Carnation Revolution, while others moved to Brazil and South Africa. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Equatorial Guinea, in 1989 some 4,000,000 Portuguese were living abroad, mainly in France, Germany, Brazil, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, Venezuela, and the United States. Portuguese constitute 13% of the population of Luxembourg, in areas such as Thetford and the crown dependencies of Jersey and Guernsey, the Portuguese form the largest ethnic minority groups at 30% of the population, 20% and 3% respectively. The British capital London is home to the largest number of Portuguese people in the UK, with the majority being found in the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth and Westminster. The Portuguese diaspora communities still are very attached to their language, their culture and their national dishes, in colonial times, over 700,000 Portuguese settled in Brazil, and most of them went there during the gold rush of the 18th century
5.
Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
6.
Fatima Moreira de Melo
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Fatima Moreira de Melo, LL. M. is a former Dutch field hockey player of Portuguese descent. She has played 191 international matches for the Dutch national team and her debut match was on 21 October 1997 against Germany which ended in a 2-1 victory for The Netherlands. She plays on the position of striker, in the Dutch national competition she has played for Tempo 34, HGC and HC Rotterdam. She was part of the Dutch squad that became World Champion at the 2006 Womens Hockey World Cup, at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing she won an olympic gold medal with the Dutch national team beating China in the final 2-0. Besides playing field hockey she also studied law and has presented TV programs for local and national TV stations. She also has a career as a singer and she performed the theme song for the International Hockey Federations International Year of the Youth at the closing of the 2001 Mens World Cup Hockey Qualifier in Edinburgh. Her father is a Portuguese diplomat stationed in the Netherlands and her boyfriend is pro-tennis player Raemon Sluiter. She obtained a degree in Law in 2006. In December 2006 she became Rotterdam Sportswoman of the Year and became the new face of the Rabobank in their Dutch TV advertisements and she belongs to the Team PokerStars, Sportstars, and one can find her playing tournaments behind the nickname FatimaDeMelo on the PokerStars online poker card room. Official site for her music career
7.
Fernando Pereira
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The bombing of the boat had been designed to make the ship unsalvageable. The first smaller bomb bent the shaft, making repair uneconomic, Pereira stayed inside the boat to get his camera and other pieces of equipment. The second, more powerful explosion, designed to sink the boat, the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior lay moored at Aucklands Marsden Wharf on Wednesday,10 July 1985. It had arrived in New Zealand from Vanuatu three days earlier - a week after President Haruo Remeliik had been assassinated in Palau, on board, supporters celebrated the 29th birthday of Steve Sawyer, the American co-ordinator of the Pacific Peace Voyage. Unknown to the Greenpeace activists, French secret agents Dominique Prieur, when they arrived, they both swam underwater with the bombs, clamp and rope to the stern of the Rainbow Warrior. Tonel attached the smaller,10 kg bomb to the propeller shaft, camurier fixed the clamp on to the keel and ran out a rope to pinpoint a spot to attach the larger bomb next to the engine room. The hull explosive were meant to sink the ship and the mine was meant to cripple it. Both bombs were timed to explode in just over three hours, at 11.50 pm, once the explosives were set, the Frenchmen headed back to their hidden Zodiac. The first blast ripped a hole the size of a door in the engine room. The force of the explosion powerful enough to push a freighter that was moored on the side of Marsden Wharf 5m sideways. The Rainbow Warrior rapidly sank until the keel touched the harbor floor, but Pereira dashed down a narrow stairway to one of the stern cabins to rescue his expensive cameras. The second explosion probably stunned him and he drowned with his camera straps tangled around his legs. Now I am 18, I am an adult and I think by now I have the right to know exactly what events transpired surrounding the explosion which cost my father his life, she wrote. She also travelled to New Zealand to interview former Prime Minister David Lange, on the twentieth anniversary of the sinking, it was revealed that the French president François Mitterrand had personally authorized the bombing. Admiral Pierre Lacoste made a statement saying Pereiras death weighed heavily on his conscience, also on that anniversary, Television New Zealand sought to access a video record made at the preliminary hearing where the two agents pleaded guilty. The footage has remained sealed on the record since shortly after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings. Www. rainbow-warrior. org. nz - article on the twentieth anniversary, the French Secret Service Agents - Where Are They Now
8.
Demographics of the Netherlands
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The Netherlands is the 64th most populated country in the world, and as of March 21,2016, it has a population of 17,000,000. Between 1900 and 1950 the population doubled from 5.1 to 10.0 million people, from 1951 to 2000 the population increased from 10.0 to 15.9 million people, increasing by a smaller proportion. The Netherlands is the twenty-seventh most densely populated country in the world, if only the land area of the provinces,33,718 km², is counted,500 inhabitants/km² were reached in the first half of 2014 or possibly in the last few days of 2013. Bangladesh and South Korea are larger and more populated. There are 21 more countries with a population density. If the water area is not counted then Taiwan is larger, as a result of these demographic characteristics the Netherlands has had to plan its land use strictly. Since 1946 the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment has been occupied with the coordination of land use. Because of its population density the Netherlands has also reclaimed land from the sea by poldering. Between 1927 and 1968 an entire province, Flevoland was created and it currently houses more than 400,000 people. Because of these policies, the Dutch have been able to high levels of population density with extremely high levels of agricultural production. Moreover, the four big cities can in many ways be regarded as a metropolitan area. Furthermore, life expectancy has increased because of developments in medicine, and in addition to this and this demographic development has consequences for health care and social security policy. As the Dutch population ages, the proportion of people of working age, as a percentage of the entire population, furthermore, the costs of health care are also projected to increase. In 2003, the birth rate per thousand was highest in the province of Flevoland. The overall lifelong Total fertility rate, was highest in the province of Flevoland, the municipality with the highest TFR was Urk followed by Valkenburg, Graafstroom and Staphorst. The lowest TFRs were recorded in Vaals and Thorn, the total population at December 31,2006 was 16,356,914. The population loss due to net emigration was 35,502, in 2007, there were 117,000 immigrants and 123,000 emigrants. Nearly half the emigrants were native Dutch, followed at a distance by nearly 5000 Poles, there was an observable increase in net immigration from the former USSR, Bulgaria and Romania
Netherlands