Another thing that we as Dutch people can be proud of. According to Oxfam Novib, the food supply in the Netherlands is the best in the world.
The development organization compared the food data of 125 countries and made a ranking. The Netherlands is at the top. Chad is last on the list. The editors of Thailandblog have searched where Thailand is located, but unfortunately we could not discover that. Thailand does appear to be doing well when it comes to combating hunger. There is plenty of food available in Thailand and few people are really hungry (see: www.nu.nl/files/datajournalistiek/hongerkaart2013.htm).
The Netherlands
Why does the Netherlands score so high? Well, food here is relatively cheap, varied, healthy and of good quality. The Netherlands scores poorly only on the obesity component. Almost one in five Dutch people are overweight.
Top-10
What is also striking is that the top 10 is dominated by countries from Western Europe. After the Netherlands come France, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria and Belgium. The United States ranks 21st. Food is relatively cheapest in the US, but obesity and diabetes are common there.
In Chad, food is very expensive, hygiene is poor and one in three children is underweight. The bottom 30 countries in the ranking are almost all in Africa.
Source: Oxfam Novib – www.oxfaamerica.org/publications/good-enough-to-eat
So they forgot to rate Germany, among others. About the same food as in the Netherlands and a lot cheaper. Or are they making the mistake of confusing Germany and the Netherlands again? Something that happens often.
I haven't looked at the report, because after years of studying all kinds of reports, I'm getting tired of that nonsense!
Again something I don't understand! What does obesity and diabetes have to do with a good food supply? Doesn't that have to do with human eating habits? Because there is relatively much obesity and diabetes, the US ranks 21st? The food is the cheapest there, but not in the variety, healthy and good quality as in Europe? Could healthy and unhealthy eating not also be related to income or population density? Is that perhaps also the reason why Africa scores so poorly? America too, by the way, because obesity and diabetes is really not a rich lazy disease there. Certainly in the big cities of the US you can eat excellent healthy food, but a hamburger is very cheap in comparison and therefore by definition food for the less fortunate, just like anywhere in the world.
It seems logical to me that African countries, for example, score poorly, as the local “super” has to deal with (little) supply and demand. An extensive chain of Albert Heijn in Congo or Zimbabwe with an extensive range of fresh, healthy and varied products does not make much sense to me!
In short, another study that has been very busy for a lot of studied people and that probably cost a lot, but says little, or rather, nothing! A little sensible child could have made up the results! But it gives us Dutch people a nice feeling again! In this case probably only the little thinking Dutch!
Agree with previous comments, this is another study that should give us as Dutch people a good feeling, and kudos because we are doing well again. Apparently we get a kick out of that.
As if, as a Dutchman arriving in a country like Thailand, I would immediately be attacked by scurvy, hunger edema, or diarrhea, and would be condemned to eat the same soggy sticky rice every day, interspersed with some withered bamboo shoots. Something like that.
Says enough about that whole investigation again.
And what were the criteria again?
Food relatively cheap, healthy, varied, and of good quality.
Well, that is also the case in Thailand, and dare to say that the food is often even fresher, more varied, and cheaper than in our own little country.
At the market, the fish are sometimes still struggling in the tank, the shrimps are swimming one last lap (in the “Kung Ten” dish they even reach the diving board), the Peking ducks are hanging dripping in the row, and the enormous selection of vegetables is radiant. and fruit straight to you. How fresh or varied do you want it?
You can wake me up at night for some Thai dishes (Tom Yam Kung, yum!) and could try a different Thai dish every day, and not be done after a year.
Conclusion: thinking for yourself remains necessary, otherwise you would believe through this kind of research that the Netherlands was the last paradise on earth. Coincidentally, I know another nice spot, in South-East Asia.
I wouldn't cheer too loudly. Consignments from Thailand are regularly rejected and are not allowed to enter Europe because they contain too much poison. Read this again: https://www.thailandblog.nl/stelling-van-de-week/gerotzooid-voedsel-thailand/
@khun peter,
Oops, cheered too soon, I hadn't read that part.
Didn't really know that things were so bad with food control and production in Thailand, but learn every day.
Make me think, and won't shout so carelessly that everything is fresh, or better than here.
As the only counterweight, perhaps I would like to argue that we in the Netherlands (Europe) are of course not spotlessly clean either, as there are: high dioxin content in eggs from free-range chickens (hobby chickens) selling horse meat as beef, BSE disease, pork as organic meat selling, floppy chickens that collapse after six weeks, pumped full of antibiotics, but just as cheerfully sold by AH, bakeries where asbestos-leaking ovens contaminate bread, and the consumer knows nothing about it.. until now.
Or how about E-131 (patent blue) an approved dye that manufacturers use to color candy, or cherries in juice, but which is the same dye that is used in an internal medical examination, so that your lymphatic vessels glow so beautifully on the scan .
Contains heavy metals, such as cadmium, lead, and copper. Do not read anything about it on the package leaflet, because the manufacturer is not obliged to…
And there are some other things, such as the increase of the allowed radioactivity in food by the EU, following the nuclear disaster in Japan, where you would expect stricter controls on food from Japan.
In reality, the EU raised standards, so as not to frustrate trade with Japan, count your profits. So I don't feel completely safe in Europe either, with such things in mind.
Because who controls the controller?
Dear Khun Peter, I wouldn't exult too much about Europe and America either! More than 600 (!!!) different pesticides are used in Europe. With this, various “poison cocktails” are also made that entail risks for humans. The effect on humans in the long term is not even known for some substances, as was the case with DDT, for example. The substances that are currently permitted in Europe and America do not (immediately) die, but they can become chronically ill. The widely praised and widely used biological control agents are sometimes even more difficult for the body to break down. In addition, so-called organic farmers also often use chemical agents; so why "organic"? Despite the "strict" control, various pesticides are still found in fruit and vegetables, which are absorbed by the plants through the groundwater. Washing fruit and vegetables properly is therefore no guarantee that no poison will be ingested.
Research by Milieudefensie has shown that Europeans have a lot of glyphosate in their bodies. Glyphosate is found in herbicides. The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority does not test fruit and vegetables for this poison! This, while scientists assume that harmful effects will occur with repeated or prolonged exposure; even at low concentrations.
In short, let's not pretend that these kinds of investigations are sacred and serve humanity! Most studies – certainly carried out by the government and organizations such as The World Health Organization or Oxfam Novib – have only one goal and that is to change people's mindset! Many studies are manipulative and misleading and only serve the executing organization or client in achieving their objectives. Unfortunately, there are too many people who take any research for granted and swallow the results as proven facts!
It strikes me that some people take great pleasure in criticizing the Netherlands. As they usually say: Stay away from Thailand, let's turn it around, stay away from the Netherlands and enjoy your pension that you have in the Netherlands!!!!! have built. I haven't lived in the Netherlands for a very long time, but I can now live rough and give my Asian family a good life because the Netherlands has given me a good education and all the facilities for later! Think about that or do you owe your wealth to Thailand?
Dear Mathias, I believe that no one is criticizing the Netherlands, but only commenting on a study carried out by or on behalf of Oxfam Novib.
I am happy for you that you have a good pension and state pension from the Netherlands and therefore have a good life in Thailand with your Thai family.
You can be quite chauvinistic from me, but have you ever turned things around? Have you ever thought that you owe your current status and wealth here in Thailand to the poverty that prevails here? Or were you also so well off in the Netherlands that you supported your entire Dutch family there?
Don't you find it sad that, despite all your so-called wealth in the Western world, a structural solution has never been found for the hunger and poverty in many countries? In the western world, food is overproduced and thrown away by the consumer! Why? Because money, a lot of money has to be earned in order to be able to pay for your state pension and pension, among other things! Have you ever thought about it?
In the Western world we are able to convert heavily polluted water into drinking water, but in dark Africa, despite all that wealth, we cannot yet find a structural solution to provide millions of people with their daily required amount of clean drinking water. Billions are spent on development work, yet millions of people are still dying of hunger and thirst! Why? Because development work is also a billion-dollar industry invented in the West, which makes a lot of money!
Coming back to this topic; Have you ever heard of market protectionism? Why do you think, as Khun Peter states, fruit and vegetables from non-western countries in Europe, including the Netherlands, are banned? Because the western farmers can close their tent otherwise. Poison? I would read SevenEleven's reaction carefully about floppy chickens and the like, then you immediately know how good the government is for animals and people!
Wealth, dear Mathias? You don't know how rich you are until you know the misery of others and trust me, you don't have to travel far for that! Fortunately, you now live in Thailand and you finally know how rich you are! But you are not rich, the other has it much worse!!
Dear Bachus,
I can find myself a little petty in your argument.
But………..
What you say about other people earning so that my pension and AOW can be paid, I'm going to hang in there.
Indeed, the state pension started as a pay-as-you-go system.
However, in the 80s and 90s there was so much money in the old-age pension pots that the government of the day thought it was quite a big deal.
And voila, that is the reason why the AOW is still a pay-as-you-go system.
If the governments of the day hadn't done that, I mean that grabbing, then everyone would have been able to get their old age pension at 60 or after 40 years of service.
And since I contributed to the state pension for 43 years, so I just say, pay-as-you-go?
Can I checkout government, I paid for it, I want to enjoy it too.
My pension, like almost every Dutch pension, is based on the savings principle, you deposit money (part of your salary) and so does your employer.
It is of course true that there is an advantage to not taxing this “savings scheme”, but that does not alter the fact that tax is still levied on the payment.
So, ergo, what I get paid is my own money, and I saved for that myself.
Albeit that the government of the day has once again dug into the piggy banks, so that I can no longer enjoy, as I was promised in 5, a pension that retains its value and increases with the devaluation of money for 1965 years now.
Yes really, that's how it was in the folder and the application form, of which I still have a copy.
So, no, I don't feel any burden.
I paid for it, and if the governments stole from me, then I don't care, just like all those people who still have years to pay for their pension and AOW and are already complaining that we, the elderly draw up their pension.
Pay first, then collect.
Incidentally, the aging of the pensioners is only being discussed, the strange thing is that in the last 7 years the average age of ending the benefit of my pension fund has NOT increased
Didn't stay the same either.
No, the average age of death has dropped by almost a year.
And it is precisely this crazy event that has been observed at many pension funds.
The so-called rising age, I get the idea, is a product of the government's spin doctors working closely with the insurance farmers.
As stated in many writings, “An increase in the median age of death is expected in connection with….”
Dear Mathias, if you say that we retirees in NL, having worked and saved, are now enjoying our old age in TH, as you have been doing for many years, then I agree with you completely. That is of course true. You are even so prosperous compared to NL in TH that you can live 'coarsely', and even support your 'Asian' family. (Why don't you just use the word: in-laws?) But @Bacchus is absolutely right when he states that the wealth, in the sense of well-being and prosperity, that you now experience in TH, is not due to NL. He gives a full argument.
We all have our reasons to live in TH and spend our lives there.
And it looks like we can just keep doing that. Despite some malicious statements from ditto protest leaders in BKK, there is nothing to indicate that Thai people would no longer tolerate our farang. It has been argued before on Thailandblog: TH has been experiencing political unrest for many decades. The country is far from stable. Traditionally, an elite possessing group has kept the population poor and at a distance. This elite also dislikes interference and meddling, certainly not farang behaving in that sense.
However: among the poorer people, who have been distanced from growth and development, we can profile ourselves and move freely. This is due to the TH tolerance and mentality. (Fortunately that now, as can be seen in the streets of BKK, for example, an ever-increasing civil society is emerging, which hopefully will build a bridge between rich and poor in the long term.) That we tend to see TH society, based on inequality and growth and development, in all its facets to be measured according to our NL standard, which has taken off in the past 3 months, is not only arrogant, it is also a characteristic that makes WE ourselves dissatisfied with a number of events in the TH society.
We therefore cause our dissatisfaction and incomprehension with the TH society ourselves, which creates the conviction that we should praise NL. Strange, because the number of pensioners who prefer TH to their own native soil will only increase. The same has happened in the past 10 years, despite the army appearing on the streets of BKK in 2006 and 2010, despite the natural disasters of 2004 and 2011, despite the political turmoil throughout the past decade. And despite all the shouting and judgment of now that TH is calling for a catastrophe because 2 opposing parties are fighting each other in extremis. TH shows itself how to deal with this. We don't like it, but it is!
The fact that people leave their own country of birth does not come into the context of TH. It is true that TH enables them to lead a good, rich and prosperous life, which looks like this: unlike NL (more than) sufficient purchasing power, a caring and loving relationship, often a new family with a meaningful ( grandfather role, consolation in case of illness and lack, a spacious place to live and ditto garden, sometimes even rice fields and rubber plantations, an honorable place in the in-laws, and so on, with the most important thing most pensioners indicate: the recognition by Thai people to be there and mean something. In short: without further ado, all wealth, more than money and property, is due to TH.
So I do not share your assertion that we owe wealth precisely to NL. Dear Mathias, I don't have a monopoly on wisdom, as you asked elsewhere. I do think that with a few more nuances, it makes a huge difference in your experience of how valuable life in TH can be. Soi.
Moderator: You are chatting. Comments on topic only please.
I'll just say that both the Netherlands and Thailand fall short when it comes to food safety, whatever the researchers may say, and especially after reading that piece by Khun Peter. Didn't expect it to be so bad are in this area.
And @ Mathias, congratulations on your nice life in Thailand, but I don't think it's about "buzzing" the Netherlands, because in that case you also participate in it, simply because you claim to owe your wealth to the Netherlands have, but are still not inclined to live there, and spend your "wealth" there.
If people are already grateful to the Netherlands, and its facilities, why do people still like to emigrate to Thailand? Thinkdaktweet.
Because it is often nice and cheap, the sun almost always shines, and the people are usually a lot more personable and friendly than here in Frogland.
I love the Netherlands, but as soon as I see a chance, both in terms of age and financially, I will also pack the suitcase together with the woman, and land on Suvarnabhumi for a very long stay in Thailand.
And then I certainly won't forget my in-laws, although I don't know what "rough" life really means.
And if that wealth is due to the Netherlands, then it is because we worked very hard for it together, and received nothing as a gift.
Oxfam Novib's research is part of marketing. Six months ago they reported that of the 23 donor countries, the Netherlands had dropped to 16th place.
By coming up with this research now, the people who will now be in a euphoric mood because of the new (that the Netherlands has the best food supply).
You will be amazed at how large the proportion of the population is that is not aware that the milk comes from the cow, not the egg from the chicken. And so on. Maybe they've heard of it, but they can't imagine it. But this last one aside.
So by starting some kind of campaign after this reporting, those same people, plagued by feelings of guilt (we have it so good), will start giving more easily again.
It should also be noted that four days earlier I had seen the program Zembla “Bodemprijs en kiloknallers” 09 Jan. 2014. I would like to recommend that you also watch this program for a good impression.
http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl/afleveringen/1388664#0
The data from the research, which I have obtained via the Oxfam Nova site, is not secured and does not contain any owner characteristics. So it can be adjusted as you see fit. Can I draw conclusions from that?