Belizeans in The Hague
A one week of coverage from The Hague, Netherlands concludes today. News Five’s Marleni Cuellar and eight other media colleagues from seven media houses and the government press office have participated in a week-long immersion trip to increase their knowledge of the functioning of the International Court of Justice. There has been coverage on many angles about the court, but there’s also one aspect of this experience left to share – that is the perceptions of The Hague from a Belizean perspective. Tonight, Marleni shares some of the sights and sounds of The Hague with video shot by cameraman Samuel Wagner from the Government Press Office.
Marleni Cuellar, Reporting
The coastal city of The Hague is a mere thirty-eight square miles; a small block of land in long the North Sea. The population of this city alone is half a million people making it the ninth most densely populated city in the European Union.
We never really felt the buzzing rush of an overpopulated city while in The Hague. It was more a tranquil city, a little slow with businesses closed by six p.m. and restaurants by ten. We’re told it more of a commuter city, like the Netherland version of Belmopan, except The Hague is not the capital. It does hold the seat to the Dutch parliament. It’s where the monarchy lives, it’s also home to several international bodies the I.C.J., the International Criminal Court, and several others. So many people travel into town for work and leave at the end of the day or week.
There’s one thing we do have in common with the Dutch, it’s that both Belize and the Netherlands are below sea level with some areas lower than others. Here in The Hague, it’s a mere three feet, above the sea. This is why across the country you will see canal systems that were created in the 1900s for drainage. Now it just adds to the quintessential Dutch landscape.
One thing we were quick to notice was the love of bicycles! It is precisely what you may have heard about the Netherlands – where the number of bikes actually outnumber the total population. There are bikes everywhere! Everyone rides from the little ones being pushed in bikes to every other age group. This is not leisurely riding or exercise. It is actually their preferred means of transportation. So much so, that here, the bikes have the right of way and the infrastructure has been built to support their riding culture. They ride on rainy days to cold days, cold by Belizean standards of course. We’re told that even the princesses of Netherland ride their bikes to school, although we never saw it for ourselves. We did verify that the prime minister rides to work as well. They love bikes so much that the coffee shop duals as a bike repair shop because that’s just convenient I guess.
Speaking of coffee, don’t to walk into a cafe expecting some hot brew – nope a cafe sign indicates a bar and that’s not what any of needs in the early morning.
Luckily you can ask anyone for directions because there’s a good possibility they’ll speak English. No wonder the Netherlands ranks consistently as one of the top countries with the highest non-native English proficiency. So finding that coffee will only take a matter of asking.
As for the weather, well it is the time of year for cooler temperatures. There was quite a bit of rain, which we are told is a typical year round. In fact, our first sunny day in The Hague coincidentally is our last day on this trip. Perhaps a bit of symbolism, of the light we aimed to shed this week on processes and functions of the International Court of Justice. Reporting for News Five from the Hague in the Netherlands, I am Marleni Cuellar.
