The Dutch Ministry of Justice is in charge of the immigration policies and procedures in The Netherlands and is easily recognized by their logo, seemingly full of intentions.
However, their special department for inmigration, the IND, soon reveals a tight anti-inmigration scheme.
“Een ogenblik geduld alstublieft”, is the recorded standard sentence you hear n-times while you wait on hold during a call. When the information is finally given, it consists mostly of a confusing tangled set of partially explained rules. It is given at a rate of 10 eurocents per minute if calling local, mobile phone rates you are to find yourself on the website of your cellphone provider.
Ironies aside, there is a beautiful detail in the standardized sentence that most company phone lines use in Holland: the Dutch word “ogenblik” would translate something like “eye blink”. The whole sentence could be literally translated as “hold (for) an eye blink please”.
