Netherlands

"Hjalmar Nilsson had the utmost admiration for Ruben “who in his activities had proven capable of accomplishing things that to others seemed fantastic, yet he managed to realize them”. And from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was announced after much contemplation that the project could legally be implemented. However, although the project was technically and legally feasible – apart from the fact that the seabed likely could not be used as farmland – and although Ruben was supported by some influential people, he had missed an important aspect: a society does not always let cold rationality prevail over emotions. Ruben himself had no feelings for the sea since many of the seafaring relatives on his mother’s side had never returned from their voyages and fishing trips; the sea had taken them. But for many others, the sea holds great symbolic value of almost mythical character. Countless are the Nordic songs that in one way or another are about the sea; “while we sail on the still lovely night-dark blue of the Oresund,” goes the refrain in one of the traditional songs of the Student Association in Copenhagen. The sea is what separates man from the safe and familiar. On the other side, there are always the adventures and the unknown that one dreams about. Ruben objected to such sentimentality by pointing out that diking had already been done in the Netherlands and that the only thing that really happened was that a new kind of beauty was simply created. But he missed that the Dutch dikes only meant moving the boundary against the sea, while his own proposal meant that he would take away the sea from the people of the Oresund entirely. And the people of the Oresund did not want Ruben’s new beauty; they wanted to see the waves roll in and be able to dream into the rhythm of the sea. The proposal was simply not politically feasible."

"In 1961 Rupert moved into the former Federation of Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyassaland (Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi), where he had to operate via Britain because of South African exchange-control regulations. That same year he formed a partnership company in Malaysia. Two years later be bought Sullana in Switzerland and formed a partnership in Ireland, which became the largest factory in that country. In the Netherlands he obtained a share in Schimmelpenninck cigars."

"Nutella contributes to the unstoppable growth of Ferrero in Europe. Other factories and commercial offices open in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. There's an anecdote that alone could tell the success of the new product, without resorting to what we now call market research: the 'spalloni', smugglers who come from Switzerland to Italy loaded with American cigarettes and with some watches, on the return carry in their robust backpacks loads of Nutella and other Ferrero products. Especially in Switzerland, one of the historical homelands of chocolate."

"Fredriksen believed in an upturn, and had the courage to invest 20.5 million dollars per ship. He put up over half a billion kroner in his largest poker game to date. Like most shipowners, he immediately started investigating the possibilities for subsidies. He found the most favorable offer in the Netherlands. The generous Dutch government gave 12.5 percent support if the ships were under the Dutch flag. And why not? Fredriksen readily hoisted the red, white, and blue striped flag when the Dutch put $2.5 million on the table per ship. Four flags for 70 million kroner was certainly not an everyday occurrence!"