by Rhoda Wilson, Expose News:
What does life look like in 15-minute cities that have already been realised in the Netherlands? How can we recognise the transformation of our cities into smart cities and, in particular, how can we prevent it? Dutch activist Maartje van den Berg discusses this in a recent interview with KLA.
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Last week alternative news channel KLA interviewed Maartje van den Berg to discuss “smart cities” and 15-minute cities in Holland.
“These so-called ‘smart cities’ and ‘15-minute cities’ of ours [in The Netherlands] are being sold to us as being ‘green’ and ‘healthy’. And at the same time, people should live in their own neighbourhoods and be happy being in them where everything is in their own surroundings and you don’t need to go out. And if you need a car, because they are made car-free zones, and if you need to go out [of your neighbourhood] you’d better share a car with somebody else. They’ve made hubs outside cities where you can share a car or share bicycles,” she said.
This is not only being planned, she explained, it is already being implemented in small towns and municipalities all over Holland. And in 2025, in three months, Amsterdam is going to be introducing “zero carbon emissions” zones. Where “diesel trucks and vans are not allowed to enter our cities,” van den Berg said. At the same time, they are building hubs where shared cars will be stored and accessed.
Last year a vehicle-free zone was trialled in Amsterdam. For six weeks, the major road in Amsterdam was blocked with physical barriers to stop vehicles from entering or leaving Amsterdam. “A lot of people got really annoyed but also really alarmed because ambulances were not able to pass through and a lot of accidents happened,” she explained.
The municipality of Amsterdam had to concede that their pilot project using physical barriers to “make Amsterdam more ‘green’ and ‘healthy’” had failed. So instead, the municipality decided to introduce “intelligent entrance” into Amsterdam. “Intelligent entrance” means installing “licence plate recognition cameras,” van den Berg said.
“On 1 January 2025, 14 municipalities will introduce the ‘zero carbon emissions’ zones and [people will] get fined if they enter [these zones] with a diesel truck.”
Licence Plate Recognition (“LPR”), also known as Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), is an image-processing technology used to identify vehicles by their licence plates. Over the years we have seen councils and local governments in several countries introducing ANPRs.
As van den Berg said, “the same thing is going in Germany with the cities. They [are] also introducing zero emission zones. And they [are] doing the same in Belgium and France, and in Portugal and Spain … The financing is coming from the European Union for all these programmes called Horizon 2020. … and the Green Deal. All the [EU] governments signed the Green Deal … so they’re all applying these policies.”
This year we have also seen Oxford City Council forge ahead with what they refer to as “bus gates.” As in Amsterdam, Oxford also previously piloted physical barriers to create low-traffic neighbourhoods (“LTNs”) which were met with protests from residents. London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan has for years been attempting to implement his version of LTNs called Ultra Low Emission Zone (“ULEZ”) which has also been met with resistance. And the Isle of Man is planning to install ANPR at its entry and exit points.
At the same time that municipalities or local governments are installing cameras in Holland, they are removing parking spaces, van den Berg said. It is already difficult to find parking spaces but “by the end of 2025, 10,000 [parking] places [will be] removed … and new parking permits are no longer being issued.”
It’s not only driving privately owned vehicles that they are trying to control, if not abolish. Smart meters, for example, are being installed in people’s homes, she said.
Related: Additions to technocrats’ surveillance toolkit: Microfliers, human-computer networks and AI
While rolling out tolls of surveillance, in preparation for switching from gas to electricity, the Dutch government is also building “transformer houses.” “In the coming years, there are going to be 50,000 ‘transformer houses’ being installed in residential areas,” van den Berg said. “People don’t like it.” The electricity transformers are noisy and emit electromagnetic fields.
Previously all homes were powered by gas and the Netherlands was significantly impacted by the destruction of the Nord Stream Pipeline and, as with Germany, it affected the country’s energy supply. Additionally, van den Berg said, “We had big gas fields in the north of Holland and they said they were going to close them. And they have been closed.”
Related: The Most Likely Saboteur of the Nord Stream Pipeline is the USA
Why would they do this when the gas supply was so obviously disrupted? “They want to make this transition, energy transition, towards electricity,” she said, even though there is not enough electricity to supply the country’s needs.
“That’s why we have … areas without electricity supply. [ ] These wind turbines only give electricity when the wind is blowing. And there is not always sun, very much so in the winter times. So, [“renewable” energy sources such as wind and solar] is not working out and people are realising more and more that it is not a steady electricity grid.”
