Category Archives: Europe

Holland Keeps Afloat; Why Can't New Orleans?

America, Europe, Government, Hollywood, Technology

It ought to be called The Anatomy of a Disgrace. The latest word on why the levees of New Orleans failed, faults their design, construction, and maintenance. In shorthand: everything about them!

I have not read the report, however, if it didn’t, it ought to have mandated, first, that the US Army Corps of Engineers be summarily dismissed—and then dismantled. And second, that the job be privatized. And pigs will fly, I know. Since these solutions are a pipedream, let our excuse for an Engineering Corps be forced to visit The Netherlands, and and learn from the masters who designed the great Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier in Hoek van Holland.

You must have heard the saying, “God created the world and the Dutch created the Netherlands.” This is not an exaggeration:

“The name the Netherlands refers to the low-lying nature of the country (nether means low). Its highest point is the Vaalserberg hill in the south east, which reaches 321 meters above sea level. Many areas in the north and west, constituting more than 25% of the total area of the country, are below sea level. The lowest point near Rotterdam is some 6.7 meters below sea level.

I believe New Orleans is only about 3 meters below sea level.

Earlier this month I visited the Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier, a true monument to human ingenuity. Engineers should find the information on this site fascinating. The mechanism is described as follows (I watched the mini-models in action):

“If a water level of 3.00 meters above NAP is anticipated for Rotterdam the Storm Surge Barrier in the New Waterway has to be closed. In these circumstances the Storm Surge Barrier computer – the Command and Support System (Dutch acronym BOS) instructs the Control System (BES) to shut the barrier. The BES implements the BOS’s commands.

In the event of a storm tide, the docks are filled with water, so that the hollow gates start to float and can be turned into the New Waterway. Once the gates meet, the cavities are filled with water and the gates sink to the bottom, thus sealing off the 360 meter-wide opening. After the high water has passed the gates are pumped out and the structure begins to float again. Once it is certain that the next high water will not be another abnormally high one, the two gates are returned to their docks.

When the New Waterway is sealed off it is no longer possible for shipping to pass. The storm-surge barrier will only be closed in extremely bad weather—in probability once every ten years. A test closure will probably be conducted once a year in order to check the equipment. This will be done when there is little shipping. With the rise in sea levels the storm-surge barrier will need to close more frequently in 50 years time, namely once every five years.

Incidentally, CNN subjects us to endless Katrina kvetching from its edgy, newest, girl reporter, Anderson Cooper. But Cooper is no journalist; he’s an instrument in the Oprahfication of the news. Has he done a story on how the Dutch stay afloat? Of course not; why supply your viewer with useful information, when you can continually tug at their heartstrings instead? Or has he deigned to report on how many people died due to the colossal collapse of these Third-World compatible structures? We still don’t know.

Send Us Your Con Men and Women

Christianity, Europe, IMMIGRATION, Islam, Morality

What do you know, a day after The Decider (Bush’s nickname for himself) praised millions of illegal immigrants for heroically forging documents and lying to employers about their status in the country, The American Enterprise Institute has opened its arms to a prominent Dutch counterfeiter, and is, evidently, sponsoring her immigration to the United States.

She’s the Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whom I’ve mentioned—favorably—before. Ali’s an outspoken and brave critic of Islam. She assisted Theo van Gogh, the slain Dutch filmmaker, in exposing the enslavement of women in Muslim countries. It goes without saying that followers of the religion of peace want to kill her.

Little did I know that she is liberal only with respect to views she endorses. According to Lawrence Auster, Ali has sought to ban conservative, Christian, and immigration restrictionist parties in Europe. Writes Auster:

She was also among the 12 signers of a leftist anti-Islam manifesto in March 2006 that said, ‘It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.’ The clear implication is that Christian ‘theocrats’—which by contemporary standards means anyone who actually believes in Christianity—are Ali’s enemy as much as jihadists are.

Ali, moreover, lied on her Dutch asylum application. Duly, after being a Dutch citizen for 14 years, and a member of that parliament, to boot, immigration minister Rita Verdonk has revoked her citizenship.

I’m not saying I support this ruling. The details are sketchy, and Ali claims to have “admitted lying to win asylum in the Netherlands when she was vetted as a candidate for parliament in 2002.” What makes me even more suspicious is that “a Dutch court ruled that she must leave her home in The Hague because neighbours felt she was a security risk.” That’s preposterous! What right has the court to evict her from her home because thugs have threatened her life? Let the court banish the thugs from the country!

I’d say that Ali is a candidate for asylum in the United States, although I’m not sure she’d be better protected here than in Europe. What I question is her candidacy for a fellowship with an American think tank.

Wait a sec, what am I thinking? Having no coherent political philosophy or lacking veracity—even talent—are not always impediments to being hired by such places. For example, Rachel Marsden, a convicted Canadian stalker, worked for Paul Weyrich’s D.C. think tank, the Free Congress Foundation, which is dedicated to fighting America’s “long slide into cultural and moral decay.” I’m sure there are other examples—of lack of talent, at least, if not of out-and-out wrongdoing.

* Image courtesy Point Of Inquiry.