Portal:Netherlands

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Welcome to the Netherlands Portal!
Welkom bij het Nederlandportaal!

The Netherlands is one of four constituent countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarch, located in northwestern Europe. It borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east.
Since 2010, the Caribbean islands of Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius have become part of the country of the Netherlands, whereas Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are considered separate countries within the Kingdom, however only the Kingdom functions internationally as a sovereign state.

Although the Netherlands is often referred to as Holland, this use is strictly incorrect, as Holland is a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands, consisting of only two of the country's twelve provinces. The country's constitutional capital is Amsterdam, but the seat of government is in The Hague. The Hague also locates most international embassies, as well as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

The Netherlands is a very densely populated and geographically one of the most low-lying countries in the world (its name literally means "Low lands") that is popularly famous for, among other things, its dikes and canals, windmills, wooden shoes, tulips, bicycles and social tolerance. Its liberal policies, for instance regarding drugs, homosexuality or prostitution receive international attention.
As of 2014^[update] the country ranks fourth in the world on the United Nations Human Development Index, or third on the inequality-adjusted H.D.I.. The Netherlands also ranked as the fourth happiest country in the world in the U.N.'s 2013 World Happiness Report, reflecting its high quality of life.

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Selected article

This page is a list of films that received the Golden Film since its introduction in 2001 by the Netherlands Film Festival and the Netherlands Film Fund. In 2001 and 2002, films from the Netherlands received the award once they had sold 75,000 tickets. From 2003 to date, the Golden Film is awarded to films from the Netherlands once they have sold 100,000 tickets. This page shows, for both audience criteria, which films received the Golden Film and how soon they received it after their releases.

In the following tables, the 'year' column contains the years in which the films received the Golden Film, the '#' column contains the number of the Golden Film, the 'film title' column contains the titles of the receiving films, the 'film release' column contains the dates on which the films were first released in the cinemas, and the 'Golden Film' column contains the days when the Netherlands Film Festival and the Netherlands Film Fund announced that the receiving films reached the audience criterion of the Golden Film.

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Selected picture

Credit: Flickr user Ross Huggett

The Netherlands women's field hockey team, photographed right after winning the 2012 Summer Olympics, are the most successful team in the history of the Women's Hockey World Cup, having won the title seven times.

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Did you know...

... that Dutch Nuna solar racing team, guided by former Space Shuttle astronaut Wubbo Ockels (pictured) won the World Solar Challenge six times out of the last eight events ?
... that The Hague is home to over 150 international organisations (including NGOs) working in the field of peace and justice ?
... the Netherlands is a very densely populated country for its size ? With 406 people per km² – or 498 if inland waters are excluded – only Bangladesh, South Korea and Taiwan have both a larger population and a higher population density.
... the Netherlands is nevertheless the world's second largest exporter of food and agriculture products, after the United States ?
... and that it has the most plentiful, nutritious and healthy food, according to a 2014 comparison of 125 countries by Oxfam ?
... a UNICEF report published in 2007 ranked the Netherlands as the best country for children to live in ?
... the Netherlands also exports more flowers and flower bulbs than the rest of the world combined ?
... the KLM is the longest running national airline in the world ?
... the Port of Rotterdam was the world's busiest port from 1962–2002, and is now still the world's largest seaport outside of East Asia, measured by total cargo tonnage handled ?
... that two major clusters of flood control and land reclamation projects: the Delta Works and the Zuiderzee Works, were declared one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. ?
... of which the Maeslantkering storm surge barrier is one of the largest moving structures on Earth ?
... of which the 1932 Afsluitdijk is still one of the world's longest dams and causeways ?
... and of which the Flevopolder, at an area of 970 km² (370 sq. mi), is by far the world's largest artificial island ?

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Selected biography

Jan Pieter "Jan Peter" Balkenende, Jr. (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjɑn ˈpeːtər ˈbɑlkənˌɛndə]; born 7 May 1956) is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 July 2002 until 14 October 2010. Balkenende, a jurist by occupation, worked for the Academic Council and the Christian Democratic Appeal Think tank from 1982 until 1998. Balkenende became a professor of Christian theology at the VU University Amsterdam in 1993. He was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives after the Dutch general election of 1998, serving from 19 May 1998 until 22 July 2002. After the then Leader of the CDA and Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stepped down, Balkenende was selected to succeed him in both positions, and became the top candidate for the Dutch general election of 2002. The CDA became the surprising winner of the election, gaining 14 seats becoming the largest party in the House of Representatives.

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