Word: der
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Talk about being in synch. Dutch synchronized swimmers Sonja and Bianca van der Velden were even born, via caesarean section, at exactly the same moment 28 years ago in the Dutch city of Nijmegen. In the water at age 3, they started off as speed swimmers. But after trying synchronized swimming they began competing - and winning - at the national level. Bianca defends their choice of this obscure, often ridiculed sport. "It's more than just ballet in the water," she says, noting that speed, power and grace are also required. "People think it's only a smile on the face...
...works come from a singular collection amassed by Dutch philatelist Wim van der Bijl and his associate Ronald de Groen. As a stamp dealer participating in international fairs, the Utrecht-based Van der Bijl befriended a North Korean dealer who later switched from stamps to art. On a visit to Pyongyang in early 2003, Van der Bijl's contact offered him some souvenir landscapes from around Asia, but the Dutchman turned them down, expressing interest instead in the propaganda posters he had seen around the city. "But I was told those were not for export," recalls Van der Bijl...
...Perhaps it was the prospect of a much-needed influx of foreign currency that changed the authorities' minds. "At first they wanted an awful lot of money," says Van der Bijl. But he was ultimately able to buy another 300 or so pictures at an acceptable price. Worried that permission to export them might be withdrawn at the last minute, he carted about 85 of them with him on the plane to Holland...
...guest at Borchardt's could bump chairs with German Cabinet Ministers, the Rolling Stones, Leonardo DiCaprio or Cameron Diaz. Hillary Clinton dined here in July 2003 with Stefan Aust, editor of the newsmagazine Der Spiegel. "It's very central and the food is good," says Ursula von Langermann, head of the North American division at the German Foreign Ministry. "Whenever I have an international guest I take them here, and if Chancellor (Gerhard) Schr?der or Foreign Minister (Joschka) Fischer walk in, they're just floored...
Most Germans would probably welcome lower taxes. But Gerhard Schröder is preaching against it. For months now, the Chancellor has taken every opportunity to admonish his new E.U. neighbors to the east for their low tax rates. In Schröder's eyes, they are freeloaders, taking E.U. aid to build up their economies while stealing business from nations like his. "It is certainly unreasonable that we finance an unbridled tax competition among each other via the budget of the European Union," he said in Poland on May 26. Germany is expected to press its case again...