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botte bijlen

English translation: vicious cuts


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GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Dutch term or phrase:botte bijlen
English translation:vicious cuts
Entered by: K Forrest
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11:00 Nov 7, 2011
Dutch to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting
Dutch term or phrase: botte bijlen
Context: Zowat overal op het oude continent staat onze sector (kunst) onder toenemende druk en worden kaasschaven of botte bijlen boven gehaald
Katherine Forrest
vicious cuts
Explanation:
In this context I would say something like,

...threatened by vicious cuts or the total withdrawal of funding.
Selected response from:

Clair Richards
Netherlands
Local time: 23:17
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +3draconian measures
Jack den Haan
4indiscriminant measures
Jack den Haan
4vicious cuts
Clair Richards
4the chopKirsten Bodart
4finely tuned cost-cutting or draconian measures
ntschanz
3 +1blunt axesW Schouten
Summary of reference entries provided
botte bijl hanteren
Isabelle O'Neill
References
Josephine Isaacs

  

Answers


6 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
blunt axes


Explanation:
is what it means

W Schouten
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:17
Native speaker of: Native in DutchDutch, Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  writeaway: if a literal/dictionary-based translation is all that's needed
5 mins
agree  Josephine Isaacs: more often the singular from: use a blunt axe
45 mins
  -> thank you, and one blunt axe is more than enough(-;
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36 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
finely tuned cost-cutting or draconian measures


Explanation:
and finely tuned cost-cutting or draconian measures are being weighed/considered

ntschanz
Netherlands
Local time: 23:17
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in DutchDutch
PRO pts in category: 4
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
the chop


Explanation:
I don't think that the true extent of "kaasschaaf" and "botte bijl" has been appreciated here. They are both terms which are used in cost-cutting contexts and that reflect a particular way of applying cost-cutting by governments and companies.
"Kaasschaafmethode" meaning linear cuts, or cuts across the board, so every department x%. In the arts that would be the whole of the culture sector receives less and so galleries, museums etc. receive also x% less money each, without regard to any of their uses/needs/etc.

"Botte bijl" refers to 'the chop' or synonymous in Dutch: de stekker eruit trekken. So no longer any financing at all. No linear cuts, but just eradication of any financing for x activities, say musicals for example.

Neither of them are finely tuned, and both are draconian, or have the tendency to be.

If think though that you can better paraphrase as you can't make nouns of both methods in cost reduction like you can in Dutch.

"Zowat overal op het oude continent staat onze sector (kunst) onder toenemende druk en worden kaasschaven of botte bijlen boven gehaald."

"Our sector (the arts) is finding it increasingly difficult on the old continent and nearly everywhere it has been subject to linear cuts or it has got the chop altogether."


    Reference: http://www.faillissement.nl/nl/banken/boobytraps-in-relatieb...
    Reference: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaasschaafmethode
Kirsten Bodart
Germany
Local time: 23:17
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in DutchDutch, Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Jack den Haan: 'Botte bijl' synonomous with 'de stekker eruit trekken'? That's a bridge too far, Kirsten. Grote Van Dale: ruw te werk gaan, niets of niemand ontzien; harde, ongenuanceerde maatregelen nemen.
5 hrs
  -> There is an expression 'met de botte bijl' which Van Dale lists rightly and then there is the financial expression. I think it is quite safe to say that in combination with kaasschaaf, there is a clear financial meaning here.
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5 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
vicious cuts


Explanation:
In this context I would say something like,

...threatened by vicious cuts or the total withdrawal of funding.

Clair Richards
Netherlands
Local time: 23:17
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
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29 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
draconian measures


Explanation:
Zie bijv. Grote Van Dale N-E.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 hrs (2011-11-07 19:54:47 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I think you could use 'indiscriminate measures' as an alternative.

Example sentence(s):
  • draconian measures are being taken
Jack den Haan
Netherlands
Local time: 23:17
Native speaker of: Native in DutchDutch, Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  writeaway
9 mins
  -> Thank you, writeaway.
agree  David Walker
13 mins
  -> Thank you, David.
agree  Kate Hudson
55 mins
  -> Thank you, Kate.
neutral  Kirsten Bodart: Van Dale seems to be slightly off-topic there... Both are actually cost-cutting methods. Both can be draconian. (If I cut my budget across by 50% that is kaasschaaf and draconian too)./ Off-topic in accounting terms. Kaasschaa is a specific strategy.
2 hrs
  -> I don't think Van Dale is off-topic at all, Kirsten. IMHO the gist is that the author is making a contradistinction between finely-tuned cutbacks (as ntshanz suggests) and indiscriminant cutbacks.
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8 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
indiscriminant measures


Explanation:
Please see my previous answer and my response to Kirsten in particular.

Jack den Haan
Netherlands
Local time: 23:17
Native speaker of: Native in DutchDutch, Native in EnglishEnglish
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Reference comments


15 mins
Reference: botte bijl hanteren

Reference information:
I do not know whether it can help. Here is a definition of the phrase :

http://www.muiswerk.nl/WRDNBOEK/LTR_B/W347.HTM

Isabelle O'Neill
Ireland
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
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10 hrs
Reference: References

Reference information:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10110173

The case of the downsizing decision....To cut across the board is to take a blunt axe to the company when a surgeon's scalpel is called for....

http://dissertations.ub.rug.nl/faculties/eco/2006/h.c.van.de...

... organisations with a dismal performance fall apart through economic necrosis (the blunt ax) or economic apoptosis (the surgeon's scalpel). ...Volgens hem valt in de markt een onvoldoende functionerende organisatie uiteen door economische necrose (de botte bijl) of door economische apoptose (het fileermes).

Josephine Isaacs
Australia
Native speaker of: Native in DutchDutch, Native in EnglishEnglish
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