The real story?

Earlier in the week, I wrote a rosy entry about how friendly and peaceful New Year’s Eve had been in the Netherlands. It seems that was not the case everywhere in the country.

On Tuesday, Dutch News ran with the headline “New Years celebrations marred by deaths”, whilst Expatica ran with “2006 ends in good spirits despite violence, arrests”.

One man died when 'fireworks' exploded in his face. Police suspect that the device was a mortar shell. The more colloquial versions of that story going round the office suggest it was a pretty gruesome death. And a 90-year-old woman was killed when fireworks resulted in her house catching on fire.

Whilst obviously tragic, it is not really surprising to hear these stories. I suspect there were hundreds more injuries around the country given the number of fireworks being let off. Certainly where we were in Zaandam the ambulances were standing by waiting.

Their workload is increased of course by the element of stupidity. In Limburg, in the south, a man was seriously injured when 21kg of fireworks exploded in his face. The man tried to light the fireworks with a cigarette.

There are also those snippets in the news you just wonder what the full story is – in the western province of Zeeland, a 71-year-old man was arrested after shooting a teenager in the foot. The youth was part of a group setting off fireworks. Or the resident of Nunspeet who initially thought he had been injured by fireworks, but later appeared to have been injured by a bullet. Police have no idea where the bullet was fired from.

And of course there were incidents of thuggish behaviour, but I guess there is always that minority in any crowd. I still reckon the festive family atmosphere is a real feature of Dutch public life.

That said, coming from Australia where personal fireworks have been banned for some time now, I am still amazed at the relaxed attitude here. At home, the combined issues of personal safety and protection of animals drove the move to ban fireworks, both pretty good reasons.