they have the greatest parental leave, and the greatest amount of tax paid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_Netherlands
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060825/ts_afp/indianetherlandsusairsecurity_060825152118
i live about 2 hours from amsterdam
not all gay marriages work, its only been legal for gay marriages since 2001
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1120/p14s03-woeu.html
**Even legal protections have limits, though. Other countries do not recognize Dutch same-sex marriages, creating problems for couples who travel or move.
Katharina Boele-Woelki, a professor of private international law at the University of Utrecht, tells of two Dutch men living in Germany who came back to the Netherlands to be married. When they returned to Germany, authorities there regarded the men as cohabiting partners, with no rights as a married couple.
Registered partnerships, now legal in approximately 10 European countries, also vary widely and do not cross borders.
When the subject turns to divorce, Dutch observers say it is too early to track the breakup of same-sex marriages. Beerten thinks gay divorce rates will probably parallel those for straight marriages.
Despite widespread tolerance for same-sex marriage in the Netherlands, opposition exists.
Peter Kohnen, spokesman for the Dutch Bishops' Conference, reiterates the Roman Catholic position, saying, "The institution of marriage needs to be exclusively reserved for the relationship between a man and a woman." Even so, he finds that in general "people want the church to bless these kinds of relationships, as the church blesses normal marriages."
**
the equal rights, are very much like the Uk equal rights, and the american ones.. open to abuse..
So, action plans, but also implementation with far-reaching effects for the Dutch society. Because, bearing in mind that we come from the traditional breadwinners' model, the redistribution of labour and care is gradually taking on the aspect of a silent revolution. Women are increasingly engaged in work and gradually men are getting more engaged in care. Shared labour and shared care, the so-called combination scenario. Care for children, for the elderly, for the sick. That is our objective and step by step we are gaining ground. Because by now 51 per cent of the women in the Netherlands have paid employment. And 35 per cent of the men have taken up care tasks. But the majority of the women works part-time, whereas the men work full-time. That is why women still account for a mere 28 per cent of the income. So, it still needs a lot of effort to put this situation in balance.
**The Dutch government is in the process of creating the conditions to achieve this. How? By introducing paid adoption leave, maternity leave for fathers, the 10-day care leave and the flexibilization of parental leave, the act on the adjustment of working hours, the right to temporarily work less and return to the job later. We subsidize initiatives for experimenting with new forms of daily routines for men and women; harmonizing childcare, school and work. On a large scale, we finance the possibilities for parents to place their children in care centres**
there are some good things, but the uk does the same,
http://www.feministcampus.org/know/news/newstory.asp?id=8255
The Netherlands Christian Democratic-led government instituted a new law requiring women over the age of 21 to pay for contraception, ending its policies of free contraception for all women and widespread sexual education in the country. The new law came into force on the first of this month.
The President of the Dutch Society for Contraception fears that the new law will result in a surge of abortions, particularly amongst poorer women, reports BBC News. According to Kaiser, the Netherlands was known to have the lowest teen pregnancy and abortion rates in Europe, though the number of abortions in the country has been steadily rising over the past decade. One of the reasons for the increase in abortions has been attributed to the withdrawal of sex education programs that were once available as well as the fact that Dutch authorities are becoming more complacent, reports BBC News
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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii
Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.â€
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein