Heineken's cold, frothy Dutch beer cartel

This is my photo of the Heineken brewery at night, caught right when a tram was going past. Artsy, no?

I love Heineken beer*

In April, the EU slapped Heineken with a EUR200 million fine for running a cartel to keep beer prices artificially high in the Netherlands, and today a bunch of Dutch bars said they're planning to sue for damages.

Bit of a bummer for Heineken, I suppose. On the other hand, DON'T RUN A CARTEL THEN, right?

There are many things I don't understand about this whole cartel story, and unfortunately, Heineken says it won't comment because the case is under appeal.

When the EU investigation started a couple of years ago, they wouldn't comment because it was an ongoing case.

Prediction: if they lose the appeal in 2010, they won't comment because it's "old news."

This way, they never have to comment at all. Magic!

I understand not wanting to draw attention to mere allegations that you've been defrauding your customers.

What I don't understand is, wouldn't you want to give some kind of explanation after you've been found guilty? Even if it's under appeal? I mean, the facts are out there.

Maybe you might want to say why the EU got the facts wrong, or got its interpretation of the facts wrong. Or apologize to your loyal customers who, thanks to the ruling, think you've been screwing them. No?

Another thing I don't understand is (and this is kind of in Heineken's defense)

why would they need a cartel when they've already got HALF the Dutch market?

Also, the prices never seemed that bad to me (as an American). But everybody noticed that the cost of beer went up by about 100 percent at the time the euro was introduced _ bars just changed the price sign from guilders to euros.
Yet, this cartel was supposedly in action from 1996-1999 _ two years before the euro changeover!

Another thing I don't understand is why it's just the bars suing. What about consumers? We're the ones drinking the beer! Weren't the bars just passing their costs on to customers?

And finally,
*why does Heineken seem to taste all skunky when you drink it in the United States, but it's delicious here?

I've asked them about this very directly _ I think it was the previous CEO _ and he (denied it was skunky and) ruled out two possible explanations:

a) he said there's no difference in composition because it's all brewed here (hence 'imported' in the U.S.)
b) he said it takes no longer to get onto U.S. shelves than onto Dutch shelves.

That's obviously a bit of a stretch to believe since it's got to take some time to ship it over there, but he insisted.

So the mystery remains.
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Soldier of Orange / Soldaat van Oranje

This photo (from Wikipedia) is a screenshot of Rutger Hauer in the film, Soldier of Orange/Soldaat van Oranje. The real Soldier of Orange died this week.

Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema was a man who lived a romantic, somewhat reckless, and somewhat peripatetic life, and was indeed fortunate to survive into old age.

Movies always make things seem more glamorous than they are, but c'mon: smuggling radio equipment into the Netherlands by boat, shuttling resistance leaders back and forth across the English Channel; flying bombing missions with the RAF; earning the highest military honor for bravery in battle; becoming close friends with the royal house; it's an amazing story.

Like the hero of "Europa, Europa" in some ways.

As an appendix, I highly recommend Soldaat van Oranje, which is debatably the best Dutch film there is (though debatably there's not a lot of competition). But Paul Verhoeven is, in my opinion, an underrated director, and this is his best work. Yes, better than "Turkish Fruit," not to mention "Starship Troopers" and "Robocop."

The photo above shows the war hero face to face with the collaborator; but the film itself is subtle. People make difficult choices, and live and die by them.

The ending of the movie is one of the ultimate expressions of the Dutch national character: Rutger Hauer drinks a glass of wine with an old school buddy who basically just sat out the war without doing anything. He says something to Hauer (Roelfzema) like "gosh, did all those things really happen to you?"

A multifaceted question.

I find that Verhoeven would end on that note so typically Dutch. Critical, self-critical, realistic in appraisal of his countrymen. Most of us are not heroes nor villains; and most Dutch who 'just followed orders' in shipping off Jews to the camps weren't either. They just watched as history went by.


Secondarily, I notice that Google has this story hosted on its own site. Is this Armageddon for AP's newspaper customers/owners?

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Richard Branson / Qurrent / My Solution for Global Warming

And the winner is...

Qurrent.

With all the plans out there for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption, I asked Branson whether he thought there were any good ideas for actually fighting global warming, rather than defending against it.

He said no, but there is a $25 million prize for someone who can figure out a way to take x tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere.

Okay. But actually, I have a different plan. What about painting the Earth white?

No seriously. Here's my recipe: grind up one billion teaspoons' worth of aluminum, strap it to the back of a rocket, and detonate it up in the stratosphere. The dust reflects the sun's rays and *hey presto* global cooling.

Just a thought.

Branson's best joke, though I have a feeling he's told it many times, was that he had thought about starting a wedding dress company called Virgin Bride _ but he couldn't find any customers. Badum-bump.

By the way, please tell me if these videos are choking my site's download speed. I seem to experience that; if so, I'll go back to just photographs.

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Cory Doctorow at Picnic

(credit: silvertje)
In blog, and in life, sometimes the quantity overtakes the quality. So this post and the following are dedicated to un-erasing several days of professional mediocrity brought on by the immense time pressure I suffer (And who doesn't? But I think I am a special case. And who doesn't? But I do...)

I interviewed Cory Doctorow at Picnic. Even though there was limited "news value" to what I could get out of him, it was fascinating from start to finish. It's the people who are most different in their way of thinking that sharpen your wit the most.

So what I'm saying is, we probably haven't read the same books.

Too bad the story only reflects the serious stuff, because he was very funny when discussing copyright.

If you don't believe me, click "More."

(credit: eschipul)

My main interest was to try to get him to talk about how "developments" in the digital liberties sphere are shaking out differently in Europe vs. in the United States, and to pick his brain a bit on who, what, where to keep my eyes on.

He compared the record companies who are filing lawsuits against music downloaders to the gnomes in one 'Simpsons' episode who steal everybody's underwear as part of a scheme for world domination. The problem with their scheme is that they've only got three steps:

1) Steal Underwear,
2)
3) World Domination.

But there's no step 2.

The record companies have the same plan:
1) Sue Best Customers,
2)
3) Profit.

His description of the bigger landscape was fascinating:
He says the record companies have figured out their winning tactic, which is intimidating people into settling civil suits, so they're pressing ahead with them in massive numbers.
Meanwhile, due to the nature of technology and people's desire for information to be free, downloaders have ever-better tools, and ever-faster connections, and of course are downloading ever-more files.

So in essence, both sides are winning on offense and losing on defense, and it's a battle royale out there...
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Woody Harrelson

Woody Harrelson was at the Picnic conference in Amsterdam today.

I've always liked Harrelson as an actor. Here's him on his return to work after a long hiatus:


He also talked about how much he loves Amsterdam, riding a bike. He refused to comment when a Dutch journalist asked him what he thought about the marijuana policy here, which was a little surprising. Yes there is More...
Here's a little taste of his yoga class:


Go Woody!
Celebrities are magic. You can't see very well from this photo, but there were a fair number of people actually participating. Yes, even me. Sorry, no photo of that...


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We just saw it from a different point of view

Look kids, Big Ben! Parliament!

It was a lovely trip to London, dampened slightly by a little trouble with the immigration authorities at Schiphol when I tried to re-enter the Netherlands.

They saw in their computer that I was once Dutch, but my passport has been revoked. Of course I wasn't traveling on the Dutch passport (I've already handed that over to immigration authorities), but on my U.S. passport; and I now have a valid Dutch immigrant work visa.
But they wanted me to turn in my Dutch passport.

Not possible.

To recapitulate, I was supposed to turn it in at Amsterdam City Hall, but was refused by the bureaucrats there. I later handed it over at a very formal meeting with the IND (Dutch Immigration Service) at the Vreemdelingenpolitie (foreigner's police) office, conveniently located in a heavily immigrant neighborhood in the 'slums' along Amsterdam's outskirts.
These are pretty nice slums compared to the French Banlieues, by the way, speaking as someone who has lived briefly in both.

It really should have been noted in their computer system, since I could never have gotten the new visa without turning in the passport.


So anyhow, we were at loggerheads. I would have photographed the Maurechaussee (border cops), but my life experience with police has taught me to be very polite with them; and they often don't take kindly to people taking pictures...

Eventually something in my weary gaze, and/or the fact that my Dutch wife was with me and/or that our son was uh, impatient, convinced him just to make photocopies of my documents and let us through.

We saw the "Merchant of Venice" at the Globe Theater (Theatre) along the Thames. Possibly the best Shakespeare production I've ever been to.
I tried to get a bit of the atmosphere in the photo _ the theater has an open roof (night photography is difficult!). At the start of the show, Lancelot Gobbo (the clown) comes out and looks sullenly at the crowd, addressing first the people with seats and then those with standing room only tickets ('groundlings'), pointing at us with a half-eaten chicken bone: "Ladies and Gentlemen _ and the POOR _ please turn off your futuristic ringing and picture making devices.
I had to laugh.
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Farewell, but not goodbye

I'm off to London-town on family business for a few days, which means brief posts, or none, or few.

If you're in Amsterdam this weekend and looking for something to do, I highly recommend "Robodock."

http://www.robodock.org/2007/

(flickr:silvertje)

Tip tip, cheerio and all that rot. MORE

Two Passports Toch? The WRR, "dropping science"

(photo credit: flickr's spatfield. And to quote Michael Jackson's Billy Jean: 'the kid is not my son.')

As I was busy packing my bags for a little intra-Europe travel, I came across the following item:

The Netherlands' WRR, or "Scientific Council for Government Policy," has proclaimed it should be okay for immigrants in the Netherlands to become naturalized Dutch but also retain their original passport.

"The Council pleads for formally-juridically allowing dual nationalities. In a globalizing world, having two passports is becoming a given. Not only for 'New Dutch,' but also for Dutch emigrees. Problems that could arise from allowing officials who represent the Netherlands (to have two passports) should be discussed in a professional manner and resolved in a practical way. In addition, identifying with the Netherlands is more likely to succeed when you're not forced to give up the bond you have with the country you come from."

As some of you know, for me, this is too little, too late. I already had to give up my Dutch passport.

I estimate the cost of all the time, paperwork, citizenship classes and visas over the eight years I've lived in the Netherlands at well over 5,000 euros (okay, peanuts to some, but more than just an inconvenience to us impoverished journalists). And now that the dollar is tanking, that's what, US$1 million?

Kidding.


I have noticed in the past that the WRR is made up of a bunch of well-meaning but impossibly academic folks whose ideas are never taken seriously by the government. And they have zero to do with science that I can see.

I wonder how they're funded?


In any case, this time they are obviously spot-on _ and they came to this conclusion a mere four years after the previous Cabinet's reign of terror began, and only six months after it came to an end.

So: thanks a million, guys.
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