The Four Freedoms Medals are presented each year to men and women whose achievements have demonstrated a commitment to those principles which President Roosevelt proclaimed in his historic speech to Congress on January 6, 1941, as essential to democracy: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear.
On Saturday, May 29, HM The Queen and TRH The Prince of Orange and Princess Máxima will attend the awards ceremony at the Nieuwe Kerk, Middelburg, in the province of Zeeland. FDR's ancestors were from the province. In odd-numbered years the awards are presented in Hyde Park, New York.
President Roosevelt's 1941 speech can be read here.
Also this weekend, HM The Queen will attend the Memorial Day ceremony at the American War Cemetery at Margraten on Sunday, May 30th on occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Liberation from Nazi occupation. The ceremony at Margraten always takes place the Sunday before Memorial Day.
UPDATE Here's an article about the visit. And the video:
__________________________ From the front page of the Ruilwinkel, and exchange shop in Goes (Zeeland);nearby is the birthplace of my father and in the same town is Wolphaartsdijk, where my uncle was the village doctor.
Donderdag 27 mei krijgen we hoog bezoek in de Ruilwinkel. Kroonprins Willem Alexander komt 's morgens naar de ruilwinkel voor een werkbezoek. Het zal een besloten bezoek zijn. Burgemeester van der Zaag en Gedeputeerde van Waveren zullen ook aanwezig zijn bij dit voor de ruilwinkel toch heel bijzondere moment.
I'll post the group photo, after it's released today.
Yes, in May 2009 the Ruilwinkel was recipient of an "Appeltje van Oranje."
Here are two very, very nice videos by Goes TV (the station films interviews by local youth). The interviews are in Dutch, but clearly the volunteers are proud of their important work and this recognition!
Before they left to travel to The Hague...
The volunteers' reactions after the ceremony give us an idea what happens to an honored group when they go to the ceremony.
The Dutch Royal family and the families of the victims attended the unveiling of the memorial monument, at the crossroad Jachtlaan-Loolaan in Apeldoorn, made by Menno Jonker, commemorating the tragedy on Koninginnedag 2009. The very moving NOS (Dutch) broadcast is now online. Photos.
HM will celebrate Queen's Day tomorrow in the province of Zeeland, where I have my family roots.
Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard van Oranje Nassau. Since 1980 she’s been the queen and symbol of the Netherlands. As head of state, Queen Beatrix is elevated above all other institutions. It is her task to unite all Dutch citizens. “In accepting this office I have vowed to propagate respect for the nation.”
It wasn’t easy at first. Both her marriage in 1966 to the German Prince Claus so soon after the end of the Second World War and her swearing in as queen exactly 30 years ago this month caused an uproar that echoed far beyond the country’s borders.
43 photos to commemorate the anniversary in this Parool.nl album.
Today, HM unveiled a monument in Apeldoorn to commemorate the victims of the killings that occurred on Koninginnedag 2009.
Photo: one of the official portraits taken this month at Huis ten Bosch by Vincent Mentzel. (Courtesy RVD)
Blauw Bloed has a summary of the just-completed State Visit of HM Queen Beatrix to our neighbour in the south - Mexico, broadcast on Dutch tv yesterday evening:
On May 12th, Princess Máxima of The Netherlands and Co-Patron of the Orange Fund [English] presented [Dutch] the Apples of Orange - Appeltjes van Oranje - to three innovative projects at Noordeinde Palace.
See the photo at the right; the bronze award has been designed by Queen Beatrix, the "Sculptor Queen." HM The Queen and HRH The Prince of Orange were in attendance. One of the Appeltje recipients was a volunteer group in Zeeland.
I was intrigued because this service organisation - Ruilwerk, an exchange/resale shop - is in Goes, near my father's birthplace. (Wolphaartsdijk, where my uncle was a family practice doctor, is in the same municipality.) So I did an on-line search and found a YouTube site with interviews of the workers there.
Here are two very, very nice videos by Goes TV (the station has interviews by local youth). The interviews are in Dutch, but it makes my heart glad to see the clips: clearly the volunteers are proud of their important work and this recognition!
Before they left to travel to The Hague...
Dinsdag 12 mei vertrekken vrijwilligers van de ruilwinkel in Goes naar Den Haag. Daar ontvangen ze uit handen van prinses Maxima een geldbedrag en een beeldje (het Appeltje van Oranje) dat door de koningin is gemaakt. De burgemeester van Goes en een wethouder gaan ook mee. Reportage: Mandy, Bram & Yamie.
The volunteers' reactions after the ceremony give us an insight about what happens to an honored group when they go to the ceremony.
De vrijwilligers van de Ruilwinkel in Goes zijn dinsdag 12 mei naar paleis Noordeinde in Den Haag geweest om uit handen van prinses Maxima een prijs in ontvangst te nemen (het Appeltje van Oranje)....
During the National Remembrance at the Dam Square in Amsterdam the Mayor said, "Every year we remember the fallen, here on the Dam, with the attendance of our Vorstin [Sovereign]. This year in particular we are fortunate to have her presence." [spontaneous applause of 20,000 in attendance] This gesture of support from the spectators is unique in the history of the commemoration of the dead.
The Queen, the Prince of Orange and Princess Máxima were visibly moved by this support from the public.
Blauw Bloed: Now on line [Dutch], a very good summary of a Dutch Royal Week full of contradictions. Click Bekijk Online. Images from Queen's Day, the national and cultural festival, in Apeldoorn, plus radio reporters voices... orange suddenly turns black. I still watch it in disbelief.
Update: Death toll reaches seven. It was a civilian working as chauffeur for the Royal Marechaussee, the special military police force which protects the Queen.
Radio Netherlands reports today that the Queen's Day attacker has died, bringing the total deaths from this tragedy to six.
The 38-year-old Dutchman who killed five people and injured 12 during Queen's Day celebrations in Apeldoorn is dead. He died in hospital last night from serious injuries sustained after driving his car at high speed into a crowd in an attempt to hit the open-topped coach carrying the Royal Family. The car missed the royal coach by 15 metres and came to a standstill when it crashed into a well-known monument.
The perpetrator was an unemployed security guard named as Karst Tates. His neighbours in the east of the country say he was made redundant a few months ago. They describe him as a quiet, withdrawn person.
The five people killed are three men and two women. Among the injured are three children, aged 9, 15 and 16. A number of Antillean musicians also were hurt.
400 flower bouquets in orange, red, white and blue that were to be displayed on the steps of Het Loo Palace, are now being placed at the scene of yestrday's tragedy.
UPDATE II: Just received email from a Dutch friend:
"A shaken, dreadfully looking queen almost burst into tears when addressing her Dutchmen. Compare this with her perfect radiating majestic wellgroomed look this morning! Even her hairdo lost all energy... :( A black day in Dutch History.
3rd time NL lost its innocence (after Fortuyn, Van Gogh...). The laidback character of our country is ruined for ever."
Celebrations throughout the land for Koninginnedag have been canceled.
The queen may have escaped an attack. The car broke through the barriers, hitting people and crashing into a monumental column as the open-topped coach carrying the Royal Family passed.
Updated: 4 dead now and the Queen has just addressed the people, almost in tears.
It was strange, when the royals were having fun with the spectators etc. "bathing in the crowd," fifteen minutes before - everything seemed soooo relaxed (smiling security officers...) Who would have thought a lunatic would get some weird ideas! It is not clear if the driver of the car acted intentionally, but he was clocked at going 80kms/hr.
It was supposed to be a fabulous day of joy, celebrating Koninginnedag and the start of the 100th anniversary of the birth of former Queen Juliana, but has turned into a day of sadness.
In celebration, I had put out my Dutch flag with the Orange streamer, but have taken it back inside. The flag on the sidebar is at half-mast, too.
A car ploughed into the crowd watching the Queen's day parade in Apeldoorn. Two spectators were killed and 23 reported injured, some of them seriously.
Eye witnesses speculated that the accident may have been an attempted attack on the Royal Family. Others say that the car went off course with a shattered windscreen and that the driver appeared to be slumped motionless over the wheel. The vehicle came to a halt after crashing into a monument (pictured right).
The incident occurred minutes after a luxury open-top coach carrying the Royal Family passed the spot (pictured below). The coach briefly stopped and was then accompanied to Het Loo palace by security forces.
Queen Beatrix has sent a message expressing her sympathy to the victims. The government information service says the queen and her family are deeply shocked by the incident.
The photo on the left shows the reaction of the Prince of Orange and HRH Princess Máxima after the accident. Story developing...a press conference is scheduled in the afternoon (Dutch time). Follow this channel for the latest on line news. CNN coverage; BBC report.
Beatrix was 42 when her mother Juliana stepped down in favour of her daughter.
The prince is spending his birthday at home with family and friends, the state information service RVD said. On Thursday he will join his mother and brother in Apeldoorn for the traditional Queen's Day celebrations.
Swedish royals
Rumours that Beatrix is poised to abdicate were driven by Nos tv's claim to extra broadcasting time last week, but that turned out to be for a programme about the Swedish royal family's visit.
'This is the third hype in the past four months,' an RVD spokesman told the AD. 'But there is nothing to report.'
When she does decide to go, Beatrix will make her decision known in the form of a televised address to the nation, the AD states. And insiders say she will wait until next year, after celebrating her 30th jubilee as queen.
Today is the anniversary of the deaths of two Dutch queens. Queen Juliana died five years ago on 20th March. Her grandmother queen Emma died 70 years before. (see the photo on left taken at Soestdijk, soooo long ago!).
Today is also the start of a two-day event, Make a Difference Day, a program promoting volunteerism in The Netherlands. Members of the Dutch royal family will take part in MADD at various social service agencies throughout the land.
Last year Queen Beatrix made apple pies for volunteers at a nature center (photo at right). Tomorrow she will put her sculpting talents to work and will help the visually impaired create art at a center in Zeist.
I remember Juliana saying that if she had not been queen, she would have liked to have been a social worker. What a wonderful way for Beatrix to honour the exuberant spirit of her mother.
Volunteering comes in all shapes and sizes. In the US, there was a MADD last October. And Michelle Obama dished out mushroom risotto for the homeless at a soup kitchen earlier this month and promised she'd be back to help. The Dutch royals do the same and quietly return to volunteer, without fanfare, when the cameras are not around.
(Photos are copyrighted & courtesy of BV Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau ANP.)
Today, Queen Beatrix will open the 60th jubilee edition at De Keukenhof, the largest and most beautiful garden in the world.
This year"s theme is "USA - New Amsterdam - New York - 400," and a contingent of New Yorkers has gone to Holland as part of a a yearlong celebration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival in New York Harbor in 1609 aboard the Half Moon. There's a tribute included in the Keukenhof display, a likeness of the Statue of Liberty made out of 51,000 tulips!
Dutch carnival is approaching... and tomorrow is the birthday of the queen...
Queen Beatrix organizes a party but she doesn't feel like serving posh canapés this year but just ordinary Dutch meatballs for a change, perhaps due to the financial crisis.
Next week Queen Beatrix celebrates her 71st birthday. Over the weekend there was a report on the role of the monarchy. And as in recent years, with each birthday, the question, Should Beatrix 'stay on' or abdicate?
Leidsch Dagblad (Dutch): - According to a research by a commercial marketing company called Synovate, 54% of the dutch people don't want queen Beatrix to abdicate right now. 84% think prince Willem-Alexander is ready to inherit the throne though.
The dutch people give an '8' to the queen.
84% want to maintain the monarchy, 10% are in favour of a republic.
On Saturday, KRO's In de Schaduw van het Nieuwsasked (Dutch) Oranje-experts: Stay on or abdicate?, with an excellent video (Dutch).
COMMENT: I was surprised by the results of this poll. Abdication is not a dirty word in the Netherlands. It just means royal retirement. (The British example is ridiculous.) There seems no indication that Beatrix is tired or has had enough. Should she abdicate in favour of her son? Maybe if she no longer liked her 'job.' But she seems more enthusiastic than ever. On January Beatrix will become a year older, but she certainly seems 'young' to me! Zij doet 't prima toch! That said, however, most Dutch treat the queen with indifference - including most of my friends and family. And yet, thousands come out for Koninginnedag!
The theme of Queen Beatrix's Christmas address was the generation gap. As in many western societies, in the Netherlands there are more and more elderly people, who live longer as never before and fewer and fewer younger people. The burden of the solidarity within generations is a heavy one, for the smaller and smaller group of younger shoulders having to bear it.
Here is the full text (in Dutch - there is also a video of the queen delivering the address on that link). Her speech was well-meant; she was relaxed and caring. It was an intensely personal address. Here is a rough transation of the last paragraphs:
The advancing of years also sees a growing experience of sadness, disappointment and setback, of people hurting each other, of indifference or impotence to improve conditions and to create better relationships. Ordeals are part of life and forms a human being: no matter how heavy, we have to learn to handle them. You see things differently with eyes that have cried.
Also in the coexistence within the close and the extended family, reconciliation and peace with each other and with ourselves is important. Every word, every gesture of forgiveness contributes to peace. It is never too late to offer a hand, to overcome mistrust or to solve a disagreement. It is never too late to love. In love you hold people.
Christmas is the celebration of God's love in the birth of His son. Every child that comes in the world, may expect warmth and security. The creation of trust and a feeling of security is on the path of parents. In the relationship between the generations there remains a need for values and traditions to life for. By learning how to deal with good and evil, conscience is formed and young people will become more stronger in life.
In a bond, each generation thinks about what offers guidance and gives a meaning to life. Generations come, and generations go, but in God's love we last forever.
"So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was." - Molly Ivins 1944-2007
THIS IS ME...
... I blog from BURLINGTON, VERMONT. I'm a hustler about civic engagement & social action and I'll make publicity against a world that degrades and shames whatever way I can. Joy!
