[Dodec]

I'm Dutch, 19 years old and I'm a bioinformatics student living in a tiny village near the provincial town of Groningen. Please forgive me for my English grammar, it's really bad sometimes. Well, uh .... I voted the left-liberal political party D66 during the last elections. If you want to know more about me, just ask.

[Tigerlily]

Welcome to the forums, Dodec.

What's "bioinformatics"?

[Dodec]

Here is some more information about bioinformatics. A classmate made this website.

http://www.bio-informatica.tk/

[Adrien]

Welcome aboard comrade!

I hope to see you soon in the Europe section, where you might meet some of your compatriots (we have one or two Dutch already)!

[Boondock Saint]

Welcome to the forum,

I am Satan, the darklord himself. I believe mankind should engage in one huge orgy. I believe naked women on every street corner would be a good thing. I also believe in torturing little bunny rabbits by forcing them to watch reruns of Britteny Spears videos.

I feel the US was created by Elvis aliens to take over the world and force the people to eat fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

[CasX]

I voted the left-liberal political party D66 during the last elections.

How many seats did they win?

[sokath]

Welcome aboard Dodec. Hope to see more of you.

Any questions, feel free to ask. Most people here will be more than willing/able to help you. And don't worry too much about the grammar; you're likely to have better grammar than many of the natural English speakers out there (take this sentence for example.. )

Cheers,

S./

[Dodec]

How many seats did they win?

6 of the 150-seats-parliament.
No, that's not a success ....
But they are in the government right now, because it was the only possible coalition.

Current government: CDA - VVD - D66

The results of 22 february 2003, parliamentary elections:
CDA (christian-democratic, like the German CDU) - 44
PvdA (social-democratic, like the British Labour Party) - 42
VVD (conservative liberal, like the German FDP) - 28
SP (socialist) - 9
LPF (party of Pim Fortuyn, ultra-liberal on some issues, anti-immigrant) - 8
GroenLinks (environmental, socialist) - 8
D66 (social-liberal, like the British ?Democrats?) - 6
ChristenUnie (christian conservative) - 3
SGP (christian conservative) - 2
Other parties - 0

[Xawery]

Hmm, being a D66-voter and member myself I must object to the categorisation 'left-liberal'... In my opinion Boris Dittrich described D66 very well by comparing it to the 'Libero' in football, not adhering to a specific position in the field (or on the political spectrum) but acting there where it is needed. Pragmatism. Now that's a word I would like to hear more often in politics.

Maybe the Lobby isn't the best place to post such posts, but it's too late now:)

regards,
Xawery

[Dodec]

Yes, but practically, in the history of D66 they have always had progressive and liberal views, especially on personal freedoms and democracy. Is 'progressive liberal' a better categorisation?

[smashthestate]

"There are two things I hate in this world: people who are intollerant of other people's cultures...and the Dutch."

- Nigel Powers, Goldmember.

I, of course, do not hate the Dutch, but I think it's funny that he hates one of the things he hates, if that makes sense. Kind of a contradiction in terms.