It's a bit blunt summary. I will write a loose explanation based on a Dutch history TV programme's blog post, this event is called the "Lieftinck Tenner". [1]
A few weeks after the new post-war government was installed, all hundred currency notes were declared invalid, out of the blue. All hundreds could be taken to the bank, where they were put on a blocked account for an indefinite period. Anyone who could not prove that they obtained the money in a honest way, their money would be taken and they would also be put on trial for black market trading. It was a rare case of the burden of proof being reversed in NL.
The confiscation of the hundreds was only just the beginning. The next step was that all Dutch paper money was invalidated in one swoop on 26 September 1945. At the same time, all bank accounts were frozen. Everyone was given a week to bring their money to the bank. Everything was registered, including foreign currency holdings, life insurance contracts and recently concluded mortgages. Only the coins remained outside this purification. Salaries were not paid that week as not to disrupt the system; the following week the pay packets were doubled.
For a week, from 26 September to 2 October, everyone had to survive on exactly the same amount: the famous "Lieftinck Tenner". For a short while, there is total economic equality in the Netherlands. It was not a tenner by the way, it was five notes of one guilder (1) and two of one rijksdaalder (2,50). It was a conscious decision not to pay out the money in one banknote, but in different denominations because no one else would have change.
Lieftinck, the economic minister at the time, explained: “Money purification is not only necessary to track down black market profits and to hit those who have made black market profits, but also because, after five years of German extortion, we are as destitute as no one could imagine. Limiting the circulation of money must prevent disloyal elements from stealing all the available goods from the market due to their excess of money, whereby people with small fixed incomes will be duped.”
From 3 October 1945, the money that has been frozen was gradually unblocked and replaced by freshly printed banknotes. There are only a few hundred million guilders of new money available, barely enough to pay wages. Lieftinck wants to hold on to the surrendered money for as long as possible, to prevent inflation and to detect the illegal war profits. As long as the monetary balance has not been restored, everyone gets enough money to live on, but it is not much. In retrospect, it is unbelievable how the whole of the Netherlands obediently accepts that Lieftinck keeps the piggy bank locked up indefinitely. The realisation "that it is simply necessary" was so widespread in the country that there was no notable protest against the blockade.
(Also, in order to complete the monetary purification, Lieftinck introduced two drastic wealth taxes: a one-off wealth tax, and a special levy on capital obtained during the war. The latter levy in particular could be quite high: anyone who could not prove how they earned their money during the war was assessed 90% and thus lost almost everything.)
The monetary purification was not completed until 1952, when the last amounts were unblocked. In seven years, Lieftinck had thoroughly reorganised the economy. The monetary balance has been restored and, moreover, the banking system has been unintentionally stimulated enormously. Thanks to the purification measures, for the first time in Dutch history almost everyone has a bank account, which means a huge boost for the Dutch banks.
It is not sure if this move was also succesful in actually punishing the people that made cash profits during the war - there was a huge flight in capital goods of gold, jewelry, land, houses. Another example is a farmer laundering his money by buying a bull for hundred times the real price. Some researchers claim the government might have emphasized dealing with the war profiteers because such a radical national economic effort would not have received as much support otherwise.
If you work at a 'real' paper pusher office they have a three month calendars with week numbers hanging at every office wall, gifted from the wholesale and office center!
(You can activate week numbers in Office Outlook as well. Or go to ukenummer.no for simple display)
I know you can get to them - but people just don't have them at hand most of the time, in most places :) (My Android phone doesn't display them by default but I've not looked around)
Then you are not aware of all printed papers. As someone outside the USA, my local university library already stocks two - Harper's Magazine and The New York Review of Books (not related to the NYT book section at all). They both have an independent editorial board and decades of dedication to journalism.
See also social acceleration [1], from German sociologist and political scientist Hartmut Rosa. Rosa argues that this current culture leads to a crisis in democratic self-determination, as the current quick demands of modern society often conflict with the slower, more reflective processes that democracy requires. The pressure to respond quickly can make democratic governance appear dysfunctional, as governments find it increasingly difficult to react to the complex issues of today within tight time constraints.
Gen Z affect? This Substack post has all the staples of a Millenial tumblr blog post, not only the lack of uppercase but also the whimsical drawings of cherished children books to emphasise the “vibe”, and the whole thesis of the post is basically promoting the hipster “”“authenticity “”” (using hipster runoff inspired use of quotes on purpose here)
Man I do the quote thing and couldn't tell remember where I'd picked up that particular affect. HRO is a pretty good guess. Maybe Carles is in web heaven with MySpace Tom.
Rest of World had an informative article about Xiaohongshu few months ago, it seems indeed to be a combination of Instagram and Tripadvisor. Chinese people that are able to travel are using it to find the "authentic" places.
It's also TIGHTLY controlled, with people complaining on Twitter and elsewhere that their posts are under 48 hour review before posting. The rules are also quite strict around LGBT issues etc, and not in favor.
Most of all though it's just a very silly protest, given that the "tiktok ban bill" is really a "hostile foreign-power controlled platform divestment bill" so Xiaohongshu will just be next on the block in the unlikely event that it becomes popular.
I have tried doing this as well, but usually the edits get reversed within 48 hours by a power user of Wikipedia. I have given up. You have never encountered this or are you a power user yourself?
Anders Puck Nielsen is a Danish military analyst and naval captain at the Royal Danish Defence College, he is not a human rights lawyer. I will trust the organisations and experts that have studied human rights in deciding if a genocide is occuring.
Isn’t this the standard in all fields? I trust the top scientists at the Large Hadron Collider to define the presence of a Higgs boson, I trust the doctors of the WHO to define if a pandemic is occurring. These strongly defined terms need experts.
There are several sources online claiming the model used is the Gold Apollo Rugged Pager AR924. This pager is made in Taiwan, a country that has close ties with Israel and it's most important ally USA. Just a week ago Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin Chia-Lung openly emphasized the critical importance of intelligence sharing and technology cooperation with Israel.
It was reported in Turkish news (allegedly via IRGC on X) that pagers are all Motorola branded, and supposedly at least include the Motorola LX-2 model.[1][2] However, the provided image of a Motorola LX-2 is also the first image on the Wikipedia English page for pagers.
There is also a photo circulating of a destroyed pager[3] which has visible writing "Distri: GOLD" and "Model: AP" (or "AR"). This has been matched to the Gold Apollo AR-924 model pager that is manufactured in Taiwan and is not a Motorola pager.[4][5][6][etc][7][8][9]
Correction after more information has become available:
The Gold Apollo AR-924 model pager is reported to have been manufactured under license by Budapest-based company "BAC Consulting KFT", but the head of this company denies manufacturing the devices and instead described themselves as an intermediary, without providing further information. The Taiwanese company which allowed these devices to be manufactured under license also reported receiving strange remittances from BAC via banking systems in the Middle East (not Hungary).[1]
"Taiwan has no record of Gold Apollo pages being shipped to Lebanon or the Middle East"
"Gold Apollo founder and chairperson Hsu Ching-kuang told reporters on Wednesday that his firm had signed a contract with a European distributor to use the Gold Apollo brand. Hsu said the distributor, which he did not name, established a relationship with Gold Apollo about three years ago."
You are not thinking past the first point. Considering what these people have been doing lately, even if you are currently on their good side, what happens when you’re not or don’t want to serve them anymore? Think places like India and Brazil may be rethinking their supply chains right now?
Any .org should be considering the risk of allowing devices unfettered into onto their businesses premesis which could be used to trigger remote explosions, allies and enemies.
95g, USB-C rechargeable up to 85 days of operation, separate control and charging boards, multiple replaceable components for easy maintenance.
Probably lots of ways to free up space, most notably by using a smaller battery but with a few resources you could probably combine the boards and probably not even be obvious ("generation 2, less expensive to produce"). With state-actor level resources new boards would be easy as would something concealed within a LiPo battery.
A few weeks after the new post-war government was installed, all hundred currency notes were declared invalid, out of the blue. All hundreds could be taken to the bank, where they were put on a blocked account for an indefinite period. Anyone who could not prove that they obtained the money in a honest way, their money would be taken and they would also be put on trial for black market trading. It was a rare case of the burden of proof being reversed in NL.
The confiscation of the hundreds was only just the beginning. The next step was that all Dutch paper money was invalidated in one swoop on 26 September 1945. At the same time, all bank accounts were frozen. Everyone was given a week to bring their money to the bank. Everything was registered, including foreign currency holdings, life insurance contracts and recently concluded mortgages. Only the coins remained outside this purification. Salaries were not paid that week as not to disrupt the system; the following week the pay packets were doubled.
For a week, from 26 September to 2 October, everyone had to survive on exactly the same amount: the famous "Lieftinck Tenner". For a short while, there is total economic equality in the Netherlands. It was not a tenner by the way, it was five notes of one guilder (1) and two of one rijksdaalder (2,50). It was a conscious decision not to pay out the money in one banknote, but in different denominations because no one else would have change.
Lieftinck, the economic minister at the time, explained: “Money purification is not only necessary to track down black market profits and to hit those who have made black market profits, but also because, after five years of German extortion, we are as destitute as no one could imagine. Limiting the circulation of money must prevent disloyal elements from stealing all the available goods from the market due to their excess of money, whereby people with small fixed incomes will be duped.”
From 3 October 1945, the money that has been frozen was gradually unblocked and replaced by freshly printed banknotes. There are only a few hundred million guilders of new money available, barely enough to pay wages. Lieftinck wants to hold on to the surrendered money for as long as possible, to prevent inflation and to detect the illegal war profits. As long as the monetary balance has not been restored, everyone gets enough money to live on, but it is not much. In retrospect, it is unbelievable how the whole of the Netherlands obediently accepts that Lieftinck keeps the piggy bank locked up indefinitely. The realisation "that it is simply necessary" was so widespread in the country that there was no notable protest against the blockade.
(Also, in order to complete the monetary purification, Lieftinck introduced two drastic wealth taxes: a one-off wealth tax, and a special levy on capital obtained during the war. The latter levy in particular could be quite high: anyone who could not prove how they earned their money during the war was assessed 90% and thus lost almost everything.)
The monetary purification was not completed until 1952, when the last amounts were unblocked. In seven years, Lieftinck had thoroughly reorganised the economy. The monetary balance has been restored and, moreover, the banking system has been unintentionally stimulated enormously. Thanks to the purification measures, for the first time in Dutch history almost everyone has a bank account, which means a huge boost for the Dutch banks.
It is not sure if this move was also succesful in actually punishing the people that made cash profits during the war - there was a huge flight in capital goods of gold, jewelry, land, houses. Another example is a farmer laundering his money by buying a bull for hundred times the real price. Some researchers claim the government might have emphasized dealing with the war profiteers because such a radical national economic effort would not have received as much support otherwise.
[1] https://anderetijden.nl/programma/1/Andere-Tijden/aflevering...
reply