This week was all about commemoration and liberation, the province’s new environmental vision received heavy criticism and the Tuinland family business came to an end.
You can read all that in Drenthe week.
The victims of the Second World War were commemorated in several places on Monday, May 4. This happened, among other things, at the Camp Westerbork Remembrance Center. One of the speakers was Eva Weyl, who was imprisoned in Camp Westerbork as a child.
“It’s a miracle that I’m standing here,” Weyl addresses the spectators. “I was locked up here with my parents for more than three years and we escaped from the camp for deportation five times. Escaped from certain death.”
Freedom was celebrated a day later. The Liberation Fire was traditionally lit in Wageningen. Runners from all over the country then brought the flame to their own Liberation Festival, including in Drenthe.
Running group Kloosterveen brought the fire to the Liberation Festival in Assen. “It was a tough trip,” runner Sonja Hamming-Gusman reflects. “But it’s cool that we achieved it, because it was exciting at the end.”
The province’s new environmental vision is receiving strong criticism, it became apparent on Wednesday. It states what Drenthe should look like in the future. According to Ondernemend Emmen, there is too much attention for nature in the Zuidoosthoek and not enough for the economy.
Nature and environmental organizations in Drenthe are also critical of the environmental vision. No hard choices would be made, for example about water and housing.
How do you get in touch with family and friends if the internet and mobile network are down? A collective from Coevorden is working on a possible solution: an emergency network. A connection to a transmission tower is then no longer necessary. A message travels from A to B via the devices. If a device fails, it simply looks for another route.
“Ultimately, we hope that other people can also appreciate this. That they like it and that we can all create a network that really works. That we can rely on in the event of an emergency,” said Rein Velt of Hackerspace Drenthe last Thursday.
The 107-year-old Drenthe family business Tuinland is coming to an end. It was announced on Friday that the chain will be taken over by Ranzijn Tuin & Dier from Alkmaar. The four stores will remain open under the new ownership. The office with support staff in Assen will eventually close.
Owner Girbe Drenth announced last year that he intended to sell the branches. “Then he threw some balls in the well-known garden centers,” says operational manager of Tuinland Constante Roman.
