Saab fans tour to support Sweden's dangling brand

MUIDEN, Netherlands (Reuters) - More than 500 Dutch Saab lovers toured on Sunday to support the Swedish car brand, which a fan described as the "Apple of the car industry," while owner General Motors GM.UL was preparing the company's wind down.

Saab owners in several parts of the world have staged events for the loss-making car maker, and fans in the Netherlands, Sweden and about 30 other countries drove in convoys to voice their support, Dutch organizer Sidney Polak said.

"It was a big success, there were many people. Some 585 cars joined the tour," said Polak, who started organizing the Dutch event about three weeks ago.

The future of Saab still hangs in the balance as U.S. owner General Motors nominated two wind-down supervisors on Tuesday but at the same said it was considering several bids for Saab.

Drivers of the car, which is hailed for its design and turbo engine, would not shed a tear if Saab would become independent from GM, which gained full control of the brand in 2000.

"Saab was a brand of its own, it made no concessions. But since GM, that has changed and it made concessions. I hope the old situation will return when it is taken over," said Polak.

Fons Bitter, a 64-year old consultant and owner of a Saab 9-6, also disliked GM's involvement with the company and said people wanted something distinct.

"We have to go back to the roots. Isn't it bizarre that so many people are concerned about this brand?," Bitter said.

His son Sander, a 24-year old marketing and communication student, said Saab's design and image made it different.

"Saab is the Apple of the car industry," referring to U.S. computer and phone maker Apple Inc (AAPL.O), which has been successful with its iPhone and iPod music player.

Saab owners, however, acknowledged the car brand, which has not made a profit since 2001, has failed to be a success.

"GM has tried to make it a mass product but you shouldn't do that. You should cherish its distinct character," said Dutch Rene Lensink, 40, who owns a Saab Cabriolet and is a web designer.

Belgian technical designer Mark Waegeman, 57 and owner of a bright yellow Saab race car model Sonic 3 from 1973, would like to see Swedish parties take over Saab to safeguard the brand's reliability and technology.

"Saab has developed this car which is at the same time a sports car, a family car and freight transporter," said Waegeman, who owns four other Saabs and drove with about 50 other Belgian Saab cars to the event in the Netherlands.

Many families took part in the Dutch convoy, which drove about 75 kilometers (50 miles) from Soesterberg in the center of the Netherlands to Muiden located near Amsterdam.

"I like the sound of the turbo. I miss it in our street, this turbo feeling," said 42-year old Jacqueline Veldhuizen, who joined the convoy with her partner and 8- and 6-year old son and daughter.

Her 25-year old friend Romy Lensink, who made a spinning sound when talking about the turbo, also liked Saabs for their safety.

Source:reuters.com/

Saplings from Anne Frank tree planted in Netherlands

Five saplings from a chestnut tree that Jewish teenager Anne Frank wrote about in her famous World War ll diary while in hiding from the Nazis were planted in the Dutch capital Friday.

The Hague - Five saplings from a chestnut tree that Jewish teenager Anne Frank wrote about in her famous World War ll diary while in hiding from the Nazis were planted in the Dutch capital Friday.

The saplings were the first to be planted from among 150 donated by the Anne Frank House, a museum dedicated to the teenager immortalised by her own diary, said museum spokeswoman Annemarie Bekker.

All the trees are to be planted in Amsterdam's Bos Woodland Park in the next few years, she said.

"It feels as if we are allowing a part of Anne Frank’s hopes and dreams to grow on in the Amsterdam Bos," said city councillor Marijke Vos, who helped to plant the trees, in a statement from the museum.

The saplings were grown from chestnuts collected in 2005 from the 150-year-old white horse chestnut, one of the oldest trees in Amsterdam, which was found to be suffering from a disease, it said.

Through a window in the attic where she was trapped with her family and four other Jews, Anne Frank could see the sky, birds and the chestnut tree.

She wrote about the tree in her diary three times, the last on 13 May 1944, the museum said.

The group was discovered in August 1944 after a tip-off and sent to concentration camps. Anne Frank died in 1945, when she was 15, at a camp in Bergen Belsen in northern Germany.

Her diary, published in English as The Diary of a Young Girl, is one of the most widely read books in the world. It was found by a family friend after the ouster of the Nazis at the end of the war.

AFP/Expatica

Source: expatica.com/