1.
Tilburg
–
Tilburg is a city in the Netherlands, in the southern province of Noord-Brabant. With a population of 210,289, it is the second largest city in Noord-Brabant, Tilburg University is located in Tilburg, as are Avans University of Applied Sciences and Fontys University of Applied Sciences. Tilburg is known for its ten-day-long funfair, held in July each year, the Monday during the funfair is called Roze Maandag, and is primarily LGBT-oriented. There are three stations within the municipality, Tilburg, Tilburg Universiteit and Tilburg Reeshof. The 75-hectare Spoorzone area around Tilburg Central station, once a Dutch Railways train maintenance yard, has purchased by the city and is being transformed into an urban zone. Little is known about the beginnings of Tilburg, the name Tilburg first appeared in documents dating from 709 AD but after that there was no mention for several centuries. This village centred around a castle or Motteburcht on an equally small hill. Of this first Tilburg Castle, nothing remained c,2000, except for a few remnants of its moat in the suburbs of Oisterwijk. In the 14th century, Tilburg was proclaimed a manor, together with Goirle, it acquired the title of The Manor of Tilburg, successively, the manorial rights fell into the hands of several lords of noble lineage. They derived their income taxes, fines and interest paid by the villagers. In the 15th century, one of the lords of Tilburg, Jan van Haestrecht and that stone chamber at Hasselt is mentioned in several historical documents. In 1858, however, the castle was pulled down to make way for a factory, a replica of the foundations of the castle was restored in ca.1995 in its original location, after the factory was demolished. In 1803, Goirle was separated from Tilburg and on 18 April 1809, in that year, it had about 9,000 inhabitants. In 2009 Tilburg hosted several festivities in celebration of 200 years as a city, Tilburg grew around one of the so-called herd places or Frankish triangles, triangular plots where a number of roads met. These herd places were collective pasturelands for flocks of sheep and their shape is still reflected in the layout of many places in Tilburg. Many districts, including Korvel, Oerle, Broekhoven, Hasselt, Heikant, De Schans, as so-called drapers they supplied the weavers with the raw materials for their home working, and the first Tilburg mill houses came into existence. From then on, the industry underwent rapid growth. Home weaving continued, however, until the early 20th century, woollen textiles from Tilburg were known far and wide
2.
Netherlands
–
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
3.
House of Representatives (Netherlands)
–
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of the Netherlands, the States General, the other one being the Senate. It has 150 seats which are filled through elections using a party-list proportional representation and it sits in the Binnenhof in The Hague. Although this body is called the House of Representatives in English, this is not a translation of its Dutch name. Rather than representatives, members of the House are referred to as Tweede Kamerlid, the House of Representatives is the main chamber of parliament, where discussion of proposed legislation and review of the actions of the cabinet takes place. Both the Cabinet and the House of Representatives itself have the right to propose legislation, review of the actions of the cabinet takes the form of formal interrogations, which may result in motions urging the cabinet to take, or refrain from, certain actions. No individual may be a member of parliament and cabinet, except in a caretaker cabinet that has not yet been succeeded when a new House is sworn in. The House of Representatives is also responsible for the first round of selection for judges to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands and it submits a list of three names for every vacant position to the Government. Furthermore, it elects the Dutch Ombudsman and his subsidiaries, the normal term of the House of Representatives is four years. Anybody eligible to vote in the Netherlands also has the right to establish a political party, parties wanting to take part must register 43 days before the elections, supplying a nationwide list of at most 50 candidates. The candidate lists are placed in the hands of the voters at least 14 days before the election, each candidate list is numbered, with the person in the first position known as the lijsttrekker. The lijsttrekker is usually appointed by the party to lead its election campaign, two or more parties can agree to combine their separate lists, which increases the chance of winning a remainder seat. Only large parties usually have some regional candidates at the bottom of their lists, a single vote can be placed on any one candidate. Many voters select one of the lijsttrekkers, but alternatively a preference vote may be made for a lower down the list. Once the election results are known, the seats are allocated to the parties, the number of valid national votes cast is divided by 150, the number of seats available, to give a threshold for each seat, 1/150th is approximately 0. 67% of the valid votes. Each partys number of votes is divided by this threshold to give a number of seats. Any party that received fewer votes than the threshold fails to gain representation in the House of Representatives, the threshold is one of the lowest for national parliaments in the world, and there are usually multiple parties winning seats with 2% or less of the vote. Any party that received more than 75% of the threshold will have its deposit refunded, after the initial seats are allocated, the remainder seats are allocated using the DHondt method of largest averages. This system slightly favours the larger parties, list combinations compete for the remainder seats as one list of the combined size of all parties in the combination, thus having more chance to gain remainder seats
4.
Democrats 66
–
Democrats 66 is a social-liberal and progressive political party in the Netherlands. D66 was formed in 1966 by a group of politically unaligned young intellectuals, the partys main objective was to democratise the political system, it proposed to create an American-style presidential system. In the 1967 general election, the party won 7 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, the electoral history of the party is characterised by large fluctuations. At one point they had 24 seats, currently they have 19, the party was in government from 1973 to 1977,1981 to 1982,1994 to 2002 and 2003 to 2006. Over time the party began to other issues in addition to democratic reform. In addition to its nineteen seats in the House of Representatives, it holds ten in the Senate, the party leader and Parliamentary leader is Alexander Pechtold. The party has a number of elected local and provincial politicians and supplies a relatively large proportion of mayors. The partys voters are concentrated in cities, especially among people who hold a university degree. The organisation of D66 is based on principles of direct democracy, important decisions are made per referendum. D66 is a member of the Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals, Democrats 66 was founded on 14 October 1966 by 44 people. Its founders were described as homines novi, although 25 of the 44 had previously been members of a political party, the initiators were Hans van Mierlo, a journalist for the Algemeen Handelsblad and Hans Gruijters, a municipal councillor in Amsterdam. Van Mierlo became the political leader and Gruijters the partys chair. The foundation of the party was preceded by the Appeal 1966 on October 10, the party renounced the 19th-century political ideologies, which dominated the political system and wanted to end pillarisation. It called for democratisation of the Dutch society and its political system. The party entered in the 1967 general election with Hans van Mierlo as their top candidate, the party won an unprecedented seven seats in parliament. In the 1971 general election the party won an additional four seats and it formed a Shadow Cabinet with the Labour Party, in the 1972 general election, the three parties formed a political alliance called the Progressive Accord and presented a common electoral program. In the elections D66 lost nearly half its seats, leaving only six, the alliance became the largest political force in the country, but it did not gain a majority. After long cabinet formation talks the three PAK-parties formed an extra-parliamentary cabinet joined by members of the Protestant Anti Revolutionary Party
5.
AFC Ajax
–
Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax, also AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam. Historically, Ajax is the most successful club in the Netherlands, Ajax is historically one of the most successful clubs in the world, according to the IFFHS, Ajax were the seventh-most successful European club of the 20th century. The club is one of the five teams that has earned the right to keep the European Cup and to wear a multiple-winner badge, in 1972, they completed the continental treble by winning the Eredivisie, KNVB Cup, and the European Cup. It also won the first organized UEFA Super Cup in 1972 against Glasgow Rangers, Ajax is also one of three teams to win the continental treble and the Intercontinental Cup in the same season/calendar year, This was achieved in the 1971–72 season. Ajax, Juventus, Bayern Munich, and Chelsea are the four clubs to have won all three major UEFA club competitions. They have also won the Intercontinental Cup twice, the 1991–92 UEFA Cup, as well as the Karl Rappan Cup, Ajax plays at the Amsterdam Arena, which opened in 1996. They previously played at De Meer Stadion and the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium, Ajax was founded in Amsterdam on 18 March 1900. The club achieved promotion to the highest level of Dutch football in 1911 and had its first major success in 1917, winning the KNVB Beker, the following season, Ajax became national champion for the first time. The club defended its title in 1918–19, becoming the team to achieve an unbeaten season in the Netherlands Football League Championship. Throughout the 1920s, Ajax was a regional power, winning the Eerste Klasse West division in 1921,1927 and 1928. This changed in the 1930s, with the winning five national championships. In 1956, the first season of the Netherlands new professional league, the team were again Eredivisie champions in 1960 and won a third KNVB Cup in 1961. A year earlier, Johan Cruyff, who would go on to become the greatest Dutch footballer of all time, between them, Michels and Cruyff led Ajax through the most successful period in its history, winning seven Eredivisie titles, four KNVB Cups and three European Cups. Ajax won the Dutch championship in 1966,1967, and 1968, during the 1966–67 season, Ajax scored a record 122 goals in an Eredivisie season and also won the KNVB Cup to achieve its first league and cup double. In 1969–70, Ajax won a fourth Dutch league championship and second league and cup double in five seasons, winning 27 out of 34 league games, after this success, Michels departed to become manager of Barcelona and was replaced by the Romanian Ștefan Kovács. In Kovács first season, Ajax completed a treble of the European Cup, the Eredivisie, in 1973, Michels Barcelona broke the world transfer record to bring Cruyff to Catalonia. Kovács also departed to become manager of the France national team, in 1976–77, Ajax won its first domestic championship in four seasons and recorded a double of the Eredivisie and KNVB Cup two years later. The early 1980s saw the return of Johan Cruyff to the club, as well as the emergence of young players Marco van Basten, the team won back-to-back Eredivisie titles in 1982 and 1983, with all three playing a significant role in the latter
6.
Nederlandse Spoorwegen
–
Nederlandse Spoorwegen or NS is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. NS provides rail services on the Dutch main rail network, the rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight services, formerly operated by NS Cargo, merged with the DB Schenker group in 2000, NS runs 4,800 scheduled domestic trains a day, serving 1.1 million passengers. Also, NS provides international rail services from the Netherlands to other European destinations, the NS was founded in 1938 when the two largest Dutch railway companies, the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij and the Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen, formally merged. These two companies had already been intensively cooperating as early as 1917, There were both economic and ideological reasons for the cooperation. As a result of the First World War, the Dutch economy had declined causing HSM, given their national importance, allowing them to slip into bankruptcy was not considered acceptable. While remaining independent companies, HSM and SS improved overall efficiency by cooperatively integrating their operations, the Dutch government further supported HSM and SS by purchasing shares in both firms. In 1938, the government merged the two companies to form the Nederlandse Spoorwegen, in the process, the government bought all remaining shares, yet never nationalized the company. Therefore, NS remained, and still is, a company solely owned by the Dutch government. The NS went on a strike once during the war, in the winter of 1944-45, the NS played a pivotal role in the reconstruction of the country. There was little alternative transport in the country besides the train, while the 1950s were a good time for the company, it started to decline in the 1960s, like most other railways around the world. The NS had been involved in the transport of coal from the mines in Limburg to the remainder of the country, the NS responded with an aggressive strategy named Spoorslag 70. This strategy meant, among other things, that the NS substantially increased the number of trains per hour, however, it was quite clear that this would never return the company to profitability. Nevertheless, the company was declared to be of national importance, in the early 1990s, the government started to question the subsidies given to the NS. Not only were there questions regarding the way the NS spent the subsidies, the government decided on the verzelfstandiging of the NS. The idea was not only rail transport was economically viable. There were two external circumstances which allowed for this to happen, secondly, the old CEO of the NS, Leo Ploeger, retired, which allowed the government to name a new CEO which would execute the governments plans. The new CEO was Rob den Besten, the plans entailed that the government would remain responsible for the rail infrastructure, while the NS would provide the transport on a commercial basis
