Let the games begin!

Our first formal meeting began at 09:30 this morning in the C building. The classroom space is very modern and clean-cut, a somewhat significant change from the rest of the city. Clifford and Jessica gave us a bit of an introduction and Mirjam Schieveld of the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) went over our schedule and provided a more formal orientation, including a lecture entitled "Introduction to the Netherlands"

After a few days of roaming around the city, I have several notes on Dutch culture. First, the Netherlands is an extremely densely populated country; this is noticably manifest in all of the sandwiched "townhouses" lining every street. While in the city itself, the street level is packed with retail shops, restaurants and cafes, the second through fifth or sixth stories are all apartments. Interestingly, while there is a housing shortage in the areas surrounding Amsterdam, most of these apartments remain empty; at present, the government is trying to find a way to defer the housing crisis by filling these apartments. It is interesting to note, too,that all of the houses and buildings lean in on each other because, like old Seattle, the city is built on a swamp buy pounding in wooden stakes (approximately similar to telephone poles) upon which the city stands.

The Dutch: liberal and tolerant or controlling?

Mirjam Schieveld, professor at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, developed this thesis: the Dutch regulate tolerance to exercise control.

The Dutch people are "pragmatic" (a term which they frequently use, and as Mirjam notes almost over-use, to describe themselves) which leads to forced tolerance, which in turn eventually leads to condonation. Cooperation is a necessity and the composition of the population requires a consensus (poldermodel). For centuries the Netherlands has been a mercantile country (remember the Dutch East India Company?) which historically empowers the merchants moreso than most other countries.

Sex, drugs and... gay marriage?:
Principle socio-cultural differences between the United States and the Netherlands (as a function of legislation)

The legality of sex work, soft drugs and gay marriage. Two main points to keep in mind: the Dutch pride themselves on their pragmatism but also the idea of compassion instead of punishment. While sex work is legal in the Netherlands, this does not mean that it has social/societal approval. Just because it is not criminalized as it is in the United States does not mean that it is a fully accepted practice or profession. The emphasis is on work, prostitution is seen as a necessity: the oldest profession in the world (another example of Dutch pragmatism). There are main concerns for the population (both for prostitution and soft drugs): abuse of minors and public nuisance. With such a densely populated country, most Dutch laws are to "keep the peace" and prevent/reduce any public disturbances.

Finally, while gay marriage is legal here (in the Netherlands), it is a purely secular practice. This, to me, is the fundamental issue in the United States: it seems to me that US citizens are unable to separate civil marriage from holy matrimony. I'm not about to dictate your religious practices or comment on your spirituality, and while I feel that same-sex couples should be granted the same legal rights as heterosexual couples, maybe that's just my pragmatism speaking. If gay couples are going to exist anyway, why discriminate against an unavoidable situation? By not legalizing gay marriage, we are not preventing homosexuality or preventing the formation of same-sex couples; not providing basic rights is not preventative, so how can you justify this type of legal discrimination?

The whole legal issue surrounding soft drugs originated in the 1970s and they certainly provide a health/medical issue. Drugs are seen as a reality: people are going to use them, so do not criminalize them. The original goal of this legislation was to separate the worlds of 'normal use' and criminality. A lot of people are able to use (soft) drugs without becoming addicted, and of course, coffeeshops pay specific taxes for operation. While it is legal for coffeeshops to have up to 500g of cannabis on the premises, and only able to sell 5g per customer, it is illegal to grow marijuana. While seven plantations are shut down every day, seven more are opened. If the local government wants to enforce the law, they can do so (the iron fist in the velvet glove), it looks liberal and tolerant, but is actually a highly controlled and regulated practice. This applies not only to the drug policies, but also policies concerning sexwork.

We watched this video from 2006, which is a song written by (and featuring) the may of Amsterdam, Gerd Leers (of the Christian [protestant] Democratic Party), about the Netherlands drug culture:


Heideroosjes feat. Gerd Leers "Da's Toch Dope Man!"

He sings: "A coffeeshop can sell, but where it comes from, no one knows. You can smoke it, but you can't grow it, that's odd, how can you distribute something that doesn't exist?" He also specifically says: "Legalisation to Control"

The Minister of Justice, Piet Hein Donner, also a Christian Democrat, responded to Gerd Leers clip with one of his own:


"De Don" Piet Hein Donner

While I'm terribly amused by these innovative forms of propaganda, I'm almost embarrassed on behalf of the Dutch Parliament. Who can take these public officials seriously if they are rapping on YouTube?

Netherlands Politics:
In the 1960s the Netherlands underwent a very sudden and very fast depillarization and secularization of the government. The current government is a pariliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy. This means that while the monarch (at present, Queen Beatrix) is head of state and has considerable constitutional power, this has mostly fallen into a ceremonial role. This is not to say Queen Bea has no control: she acts as the neutral party to determine the composition of the cabinet and to moderate between the parties. The major parliamentary players are: the CDA (Christian Democratic Party), the PvdA (Dutch Labour Party), the SP (Socialist Party) and the VVD (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) which are centre/right liberals who advocate both private enterprise and public welfare. Hmm...

We closed out our lecture oriented portion of the day with a nice lunch, and a trip over to ARCAM: architectuurcentrum amsterdam, an independent architectural centre for the city of Amsterdam. We received an exceptional lecture on the history of Amsterdam and its architecture, from 1200CE to present. As you may know, the entire "province" of Holland is below sea level (which prompted Al Gore to predict in "An Inconvenient Truth" that the Netherlands will be completely underwater in 2015-2025) but what you may not know is that the Netherlands is composed of 12 provinces, of which Holland (technically a combination of two provinces: North and South Holland) holds the three most important cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague. Amsterdam is the capitol and largest city (but, ironically, is not the capitol of North Holland), Rotterdam (the lowest point in the country at 7m below sea level) is the largest and most important European port (both historically and at present) and the Hague which is the parliamentary seat.

We spent the next few hours touring Amsterdam with Dick Weeda, our temporary tour guide. For more details, see my inaugural entry in the Amsterdam 2008 Daily Video Blog.