Under Dutch Skies

Sinterklaas

2008-11-15T22:45:00.004+01:00

Sinterklaas is back in the Netherlands, just in time to save everybody for a brief moment from economic misery and the expectation of difficult times ahead. He arrived this morning in Almere Harbor, applauded by numerous dutch children and their parents. A nationwide broadcast event. Sinterklaas can be considered the great-grandfather of Santa. His birthday is december 5th and that day dutch children are given presents by the bishop considered to be a protector of children. All the same his birthday is a very serious event. Economically in the first place. Lots of money is being spent in his name. Besides that it seems to have an importace as a kind of nation-defining event. If Sinterklaas arrives in town (as he does in every dutch town and village) he is traditionally received by the mayor and lots of families eager tho see the "kindervriend". Any mayor that happily concedes his own importance to Sinterklaas, for on that day Sinterklaas is the most important person in town. He's a kind, fatherly and very sensible man, almost untouchable by his enormous age. The kind of father-figure the dutch like looking up to; the kind they have been lacking lately. It's kind of instructive, just watching what's happening. It reveals something of dutch society in public not easily to be seen at other times. Each year the same little play is enacted. Dutch parents take their children to see something they have been watching with their parents. It's kind of odd, to see all these serious-minded dutch adults, in a big conspiracy aimed at tricking their children into the conviction, this old bishop really exists and will be riding the rooftops of their houses, to drop little gifts for them down the chimney. When Sinterklaas arrives, everyone sets aside their problems for a moment. Not only dutch children. You can bet his arrival was very welcome to all dutch, in these dire economical times. Deluding yourself a few days a year turns out to be a sensible way of surviving, not just in the late dark autumn of 2008.

Writer's block.

2008-11-02T22:32:00.004+01:00

I left this blog two years ago. Don't ask me why. I do feel a little embarassed about it. I seemed to have run into a writers block; an old habit of mine. Just when things seem to be going nicely, i run out of breath, out of subjects to write about and lacking the required discipline to continue nevertheless. Let's have a look at my accomplishments so far. A rather diverse collection of subjects. No coherent view of dutch reality, which was part of what I was aiming at. So I was a little disappointed. I had hoped for more. Who was to blame? Me, myself and I; in the first place. If the writer doesn't have a coherent view he's the only one to blame. Developing something like that is not an easy mission. Despite its small size, as seen from a european scale, dutch society is complex, diverse and fractured. There are globalists and stiff-lipped calvinist provincials; both groups as dutch as can be. A blog that would matter, would have to take all of them into account. It would have to go beyond daily news, trying to make sense of the invisible undercurrent. It seems a huge task; maybe something more fitting for a novelist than for a parttime blogwriter, preoccupied with all kinds of other things. And yes, these are excuses, and in the end not all that relevant. If you want to be a blog-writer, there's really only one thing you have to do.. write.

Stay Sober; Have a Beer

2006-05-15T07:07:00.000+02:00

Where alcohol is concerned the dutch population can be divided in two sub-classes. The ones that drink and the ones that don't. Don't know much about the actual percentages, but my gut feeling tells me a majority of the adult population is dtinking alcohol. If you remember the breezer discussion, you are perfectly entitled to think a lot of minors are using it too, but thats not what i'm trying to deal with here. I wanted to share some thoughts about a subdivison in the alcohol drinking adult population. Subdividing is possible here too. I am focusing on the ones who drink beer and the ones who drink wine. There is a crowd which foregoes both, but thats another post. I am not talking about the people who use all of it either. These people usually fall into the category of alcoholics. Back to beer and wine. The dutch have been beerdinkers for ages. Wine is a recent addendum to dutch drinking pattern. Wine consumption figures have soared. But beer is still the beverage of choice for most dutch. It's affordable, wonderful on a hot summer day and you don't have to teach yourself a foreign language be able to read the label. Wine used to be something for the very wealthy, the dutch nobility; nowadays the middle-classes are drinking it too in a futile attempt to elevate themselves. As you might guess; I'm not really the wine drinking type. I like a white wine on a sunny afternoon, but that's about as far as it goes. The rest of the time I turn my back on elevating myself. My adage: stay sober, have a beer!

Collective Sunstroke

2006-05-08T21:45:00.000+02:00

Now that the weather is getting better, familiar people suddenly turn up with a little tan. A summer tan is a highly coveted asset these days. You can wear Prada and even own a Rolex, but if you don't have a tan, they have only half their value in modern social traffic. A tan makes you look healthy, it changes you into an attractive person. There are drawbacks too. In the first place it is not healthy. Your skin oldens faster. This is supposed to be common knowledge. As is the fact that too much sunlight can cause skin cancer. Each year you read about an increase in this diseases figure. Why do people take the risk I wonder. Fact is that for people with particular kinds of skin diseases a limited amount of sun can be beneficial to their skin condition. A minority might benefit by getting a tan, but for most people its not a good thing to do. Maybe it depends on what is more important to you: feeling healthy, being healthy or looking healthy. Demanding contemporary consumers probably want all of that. This desire for a tan knows no boundaries. Lots of Dutch homes are in the possession of a tanning bed. People who cant afford it pay a visit to a tanning studio. Or they take a package deal to Spain or Turkey. Getting a tan never was easier. A whole industry has developed to cater to this desire. And its within nearly everybody's reach. Few people care about the unhealthy side-effects; is that sloppy thinking or are we all just a bunch of stubborn donkeys in the sun?

A Flock of Tourists

2006-04-10T15:14:00.000+02:00

Easter holidays are approaching. Hundreds of thousands of tourists are coming to the Netherlands this time of year. Most of them are Germans; the amount of French visitors seems to be on the upswing. And then there are lots of Americans, Japanese and Spanish visitors as well. None of them is coming here to enjoy the weather. Summer resorts are not something for which the Netherlands are famous. A lot of visitors are coming to see the cities, the museums and the tulips. Their ideas represent a somewhat quaint, picturesque idea of Dutch society. One untarnished by modern things like the multicultural society and overpopulation just to name a few. The Netherlands are slowly turning into something like an oversized HongKong kind of town. I'd be really interested to know how all these visitors feel about the Netherlands when they have returned home safe and sound.

Deprived?

2006-04-06T20:52:00.000+02:00

Suppose you are a young African, living somewhere in central Africa. No job, the constant threat in famine, drought. One day your satellite dish gets confused. All of a sudden you're confronted with news about deprived Dutch neighborhoods. What would you think? I wouldn't know and I just thought that up because the phrasing in it self struck me as kind of odd. There are neighborhoods in the Netherlands, where people are living in poverty and the inhabitants are more or less denied equal access to what's happening in society, to a job, to a prosperous life. I just tried to imagine what it would be like having to explain to a young African that I am living in a deprived neighborhood.

Frog in the City

2006-04-01T11:53:00.000+02:00

An amazing thing happened. Our frog is back. We already noticed last week but she's showing herself quite frequently now. I guess she's female. What other explanation could there possibly be for the big lump of frog-eggs hanging on the papyrus? All of a sudden I feel responsible for this new life. I spent my morning reading about frogs in the city. Our frog possibly is a brown frog; that's about the only subspecies not threatened with extinction. Frogs used to ubiquitous in the Netherlands, but not anymore. All of them are protected. I must say it almost makes me feel flattered. The frog is an amphiby, hundreds of millions of years old, going way back before the dawn of mankind. Something like Jurassic park in the backyard. I feel really good about that.

Bargaining Basics

2006-03-23T21:16:00.000+01:00

Making a promise is quite a hazardous enterprise. Especially when you are tempted into making promises with long ranging consequences. I'm not talking about personal life. Promises made in personal relations even have more weight than they already have in business-affairs. "Afspraak is afspraak." This Dutch saying is best translated as "a deal is a deal". Its not quite the same. A deal is about an agreement. An "afspraak", sometimes is about a deal, but it also involves making a commitment of a personal nature. You made a deal and you are going to take personal care that deal will really be made. I think this notion is one of the cornerstones of Dutch social life. Today I walked out of an important meeting because I had promised a client to be at a certain place at a certain time. My colleagues were not too happy about it; I had my doubts myself, but the client was satisfied. I had kept my end of the bargain which to him was nothing exceptional. And the reason I did it? I did it because "afspraak is afspraak".

Flow on a Bike

2006-03-20T15:34:00.000+01:00

Monday morning. So many people riding a bicycle. I left home on time, so I took my time having a good look around. Right now the sun is shining, but it didn't look like that this morning. One of the wonderful things about living in a Dutch city, is the diversity of bicycles you get to see. Black bikes and blue ones, but yellow, purple, and olive are not uncommon other colors. Old ones, new ones. Dutch bikes yes, but also Swedish, French and American. All terrain bikes, city bikes, touring bikes, racing bikes even bikes you can lie on and still get ahead. Usually I am in hurry at that time. Focused on the place I'm driving to, instead of focusing on where I am, which is on the road and on my bike. A dedicated biker sooner or later ends up in a state of flow. It happened to me on a Monday morning.

Democratic Party

2006-02-25T16:20:00.000+01:00

This weekend its 'carnaval'. Don't ask me to give a translation. Its something they do in New Orleans (Mardi Gras) in Rio de Janeiro and yes in Tilburg too. People change into something uncommon. They leave their homes to meet friends, relatives and people they don't know in bars, cafe's, parlors, canteens and other places where people meet. Usually it continues after midnight and goes along with some rather serious beer-drinking. You meet folks old and young and of all socio-economic backgrounds. A very democratic party. All this goes on for four days; if you're really in shape that is. Nothing else to think about. Just get up, get dressed, start drinking, eat a little and go on until you go to sleep again. I've left my carnival days far behind me. I like to watch the parade, but that's as far as I get into it. Sometimes I feel a little sad about it, but I have to admit to myself that I'm not really the party type anymore.

Congestion

2006-02-23T16:34:00.000+01:00

Driving to work and back again; this seems to be a national pastime. Each morning and each evening on weekdays, different radionetworks are broadcasting a long list of congested highways. It has grown into something of an industry in its own right. Depending on where you are its either a depressing, or a feel-good list. You feel really good when you're (still) at home and made aware of just how miserable you would be, if you would have been on the road right that moment. It's also a lot of time wasted. Politicians for years are debating solutions to this problem. Usually they come down to three options. First one is reintroducing a toll system on the most congested highways. The second one is building more highways. Third one is make everybody take public transport to work. Government seems to be opting for the first option, but apart from government, nobody is really enthusiastic about it. The second option is the favorite of the regular driver. Its difficult to realize this, because none of these drivers wants a highway in his backyard. The third option is a non-option because Dutch trains are even more overcrowded than the highways. Very likely, the problem is going to outlast the traveler. Until we all run out of gas, that is.

Electrofog

2006-02-19T18:40:00.000+01:00

I've looked it up and it doesn't exist. Some of you may have heard about electrosmog, but I don't think anyone ever came across electrofog. Its easy. Electrofog is the residue that clutters your head when there's too much electrosmog in the air. Electrosmog comes from microwaves, mobile phones, dect phones, wireless networks, that kind of stuff. I didn't make it up, really. All week my head was cluttered with quarrelling kids, birdflunews, work-related stress and coldplay-speed-of-sound music. So this weekend I tried to do as little as possible, just to clear my mind again. I spent my Sunday afternoon eating my way into a can of green olives, reading a Donna Leon novel and yes, listening to speed of sound. My head does feel a little better, which is kind of strange. The electrosmog still is here, even after kicking out my dect-phone. So is the fine dust which has reached inadmissible heights in the grey Dutch sky. I will admit the fog in my head is not only due to pollution of whatever kind you may think of. Perhaps it can be attributed to some questionable habits, like excessive coffee-drinking and smoking high potential Brazilian cigars as well. But granted that, you will have to admit to me, that there are a lot of things in the air which weren't around some four hundred years ago. Dutch skies have changed, definitely. You may think I'm paranoid and deluded, but if so, will you please make allowances for the amount of electrosmog in the neighborhood.

Love Hangover

2006-02-05T09:03:00.000+01:00

Valentine's day. Yuk. I see advertisements in newspapers. Surprise your sweetheart! Take her out for dinner! Come to our place! We'll give you a reward and a free glass of champaign! Valentine's day still is something relatively new to the Netherlands. But it has gained momentum, especially in the past five years. I think it's a little strange. What makes me say that? I just take a look at the day after. Then you see the concept of eternal love is quickly disappearing behind the dutch horizon. Divorce rates are rising. And its not adultery that makes dutch couples split up. Some people are even starting to get worried over the impact it might have on the education of dutch youngsters and family life in general. People seem to forget about that, when february 14th is approaching. After that they wake up with a love hangover. Another good reason to say sober .

Treat your children well

2006-02-05T08:56:00.000+01:00

Children don't have it easy nowadays. That at least is what you read in the papers. Child abuse has probably always been there. You might think its an international problem. There are different kinds of child abuse, and Unicef is trying to do its best to stop things from getting worse. What worries me is that also in the Netherlands children are abused, and that I seem to be reading more and more about it. Last week a toddler in Rotterdam seems to have died because of the wounds inflicted on him by babysitter. Its not only parents or teachers who seem to be doing it. A new development furthermore is that people are trying put the blame on responsible authorities, who should have tried to prevent these things from happening. If a child dies questions are asked by politics and local newspapers about welfare work. Were they aware of the particular problem? How did they deal with it. Most stunning about all of this is, that what you read about it, seems to be the tip of the ice-berg. That is what is really frightens me. All-too-often mistreated children grow into mistreating adults; a very wry "circle of life". Of course lots of people are worried. There are citizen and government inititiatives to spread awareness of the problem. Whether it's going to help, will probably only become clear in the long run.

Brick Borg Cube

2006-02-03T17:09:00.000+01:00

Today I visited a really big hospital. Don't worry. It was strictly business. I refer to the size because it was really huge. I think it consisted of some twenty buildings all at least four stories, all of them interconnected by long corridors. I wasn't sure of where to go but followed the indicated route, which led me, among others, through the basement were I saw a huge kitchen, piles of blankets, a nurse and a patient riding together on a hospital bed, and people wearing all kinds of uniforms. I have been to hospitals before and very likely this visit is not going to be my last one (professional or personal), but for some reason I was impressed and felt awestruck. Maybe I should say I felt depersonalized. I'm not sure what the right words are here. Anyway. On my way home I found myself thinking of a spaceship. Don't ask me why my head turns the directions it does. Spaceships are largely imaginary things. But I do think they represent a concept. What was my next step? I couldn't help thinking of this hospital as a kind of brick Borg cube gone out of control. It had been growing, and building activity was still going on. I cant say I feel very comfortable comparing a big academic hospital to a science fiction bad guy starship. The people working in this hospital are doing it for some good reasons; they're there to help us. But like everything in medicine there are side-effects. Depersonalization in this case. I think I can say it made me feel a little dehumanized. Indeed, like being assimilated and living in a Borg cube. If you're really ill there's probably no better place to go than an academic hospital. At the same time I realize there's probably no other place where so much suffering is concentrated, where things unimaginable even for science fiction writers happen and which we all, sooner or later will inhabit.

The Razor's End.

2006-02-01T16:45:00.000+01:00

Can't say I ever used one. But I know for certain, some of my recent male ancestors did. The Philishave electric razor was the embodiment of modernity for them. Wet shaving was backward. If you wanted to count, being a young man, you bought a Philishave: a Dutch produced device. And even later on when electric razors from Germany, the US and Japan entered the market; even then the Philishave kept a large share in sales. All that is coming to an end now. Philips has decided to put a stop to the assembly of Philishaves. And then Dutch men will have to settle for foreign devices. Not that they will object much. The Philishave has followed those long forgotten Dutch cars, Dutch TV-sets and even Dutch ships, into the heaven of things material. The Netherlands have become an international market, earning its money by buying and selling. That's what modernity is today.

The Night of Bad Taste

2006-01-30T16:38:00.000+01:00

The "International Filmfestival Rotterdam", is an important event for those who like arthouse movies. Each year in January some of the best movies produced in the year before are selected for the audience. Among the visitors are directors, producers, actors and other important people from the industry. The festival started out more than 25 years ago and has evolved into a big cultural thing. This should serve as a kind of introduction to what follows next. Today I was browsing the website of the festival. There I ran into the "Nacht van de Wansmaak" (Night of Bad Taste). That struck me as odd. There you have a big cultural event. All kinds of intelligent, fashionable people gathered together. And these people are going to watch "Night of Bad Taste"? Perhaps it is supposed to be camp. On the other hand. Bad taste is not such an uncommon thing in the Netherlands. Bad taste can be good fun indeed. At least; that is an opinion not uncommonly encountered around here. Furthermore I think it is really hospitable, to share this with our foreign guests.

Our Little Secrets

2006-01-28T09:27:00.000+01:00

What is essential about a secret? A secret is something you don't want to share with other people. Or a few people at most. Your trusted ones. Furthermore: secrets are usually about things you want to keep to yourself. Secrets are about things you've done, you're embarrassed about, or things that give you a bad feeling about yourself. And then there are the secrets you want everyone to know about. This of course, is my interpretation of what a secret is. But definitions abound, as, at least was demonstrated by the Dutch secret service AIVD (pronounce AhEeVayDay). Someone, we don't know who, that remains a secret, sold secret information to criminal organizations in Amsterdam. This was not an incident. In 2005 the same thing happened twice in other cases. Things are not at all well at the AIVD you might think. Not the home secretary Mr. Remkes. He tried to reassure everybody, by declaring nothing structural was wrong. Very likely this is an interpretation too, but one thing is certain: if you have a secret and you want everybody to know about it, informing the AIVD might be a good strategy. I don't think parliament is going to solve this by debating the AIVD. What you need to understand is that where secrets are involved, disclosure is inevitable. A secret that no-one knows about is a non-entity. And probably most important; telling a secret is an exciting thing to do. That's why most people cant refrain from doing it in these thrill-seeking ages.

Winter Blues

2006-01-26T22:07:00.000+01:00

In winter, sometimes i get to feel like a kind of caveman. You leave home, and its dark. You get back and its dark again. But do you think I'm going to complain about that? I'm not. I help myself by starting to think about Northern Sweden, about Archangel and about Murmansk. If you tend to get depressed about a little darkness, then these are places you should really try thinking about. People there seem to be living in total darkness for about four or five months. That's at least what I heard, or read somewhere. In any case. Just the thought that I'm not there, cheers me up. The trick is not to think about the people in Australia where everyone is out cold because of the heatwave. Australia is way to remote to even think about. That's what I say to myself. Then again... a sunny beach; a cold beer. I want that. I want that very much. But I tell myself not to think about it. Its torture and masochism. I'm not into that kind of thing. I just want to get out of the dark.

Energy Prices

2006-01-25T22:26:00.000+01:00

This month energy companies are sending their customers the yearly bill. This year, again, Dutch consumers will be confronted with higher prices to pay for gas and electricity. Resentment about this is almost tangible. The energy market has been reformed. Governments and companies involved, promised it would be to the benefit of the consumer. So far, nothing of that has come true. After another year of increasing prices people are getting frustrated. You try to reduce on the energy you use and even then you end up paying more .Than you did the year before. Liberalizing the market was supposed to be a good thing. The main beneficiaries so far seem to be the energy companies.
The weather hasn't been that bad so far, but financially it already has turned out a rotten winter.

Garden Lovers

2006-01-23T17:13:00.000+01:00

Who would have thought. The dutch turn out to be garden lovers. The professional organization announced last week, that the number of companies earning a living in the gardening business, has been rising almost 80%. It turned out to be news. Nobody seems to be really sure what has caused this. Financially, things are not at all well for the dutch (that is at least what we read in the papers). So how is it possible that we are able to spend more money on gardening and spend less on other things we probably need more? Questions eh? An expert tried to explain it, as the result from the desire to get nature in your own backyard. Also, home - and garden improvement shows on dutch TV, are drawing lots of viewers. These factors seem to have contributed to the current success of the gardening business. But that doesn't make it less puzzling. On the one hand dutch people are demanding more highways from their government. Nature suffers for that. And then people start spending money to see some leaves from their own back window. Everyone his or her own patch of green. That's what we're going for. It may not be logical, but it certainly is dutch.

Sunday Fitness

2006-01-22T20:12:00.000+01:00

A grey sunday; an overcast sky, as is often the case in winter. One is reminded of the "Hazy shade of winter", song by Simon and Garfunkel. Winters in the Netherlands nowadays are not half as severe as they used to be in the days of the 17th century. Ice skating is mostly done in halls on artificial ice. A lot of people sit in front of their tv set watching speedskating. The olypmic games are only two more weeks away. Expectations are rising, and 60 % of the population seems to think, dutch speedskaters are going to do very well. As they did four years ago when Jochem Uytdehaeghe snatched away some medals in the winter-games in Salt Lake city. But if the only way to enjoy speedskating is to watch someone else doing it, what else can you do, if you want a little outdoors exercise? Some people go running; some take a sunday stroll in the local green patch and some take their bike out of their garden shed and pedal a few kilometers. So, on my bike i visited the nearby National Park "Loonse en Drunense Duinen". Compared to the Mojave or the Gobi desert ( a little far-fetched i admit), it's nothing more than some grains of sand, scattered underneath the pine-trees. But you should try seeing it in dutch dimensions, which make it pretty big. Also a good place if you'r having the sunday-blues and feel like seeing someone else. Who needs skating anyway?

War of the Grocers

2006-01-21T21:30:00.000+01:00

Yesterday papers announced a new stage in the grocery wars. Thats how i have named what is happening in dutch food retail for the past two years. Most papers named it "supermarket wars", but that seems to suggest a kind of mythological dimension, which is altogether absent. After the introduction of the euro in 2002, prices had risen. With the economy slowing down and more and more people getting into dire financial straits dutch supermarkets were in for some heavy weather. The only way out for the suffering supermarkets, seemed to be in the form of substantial discounting. It has served the benefit of the dutch consumers wallet, but if this turns out to be a good thing for food retail still remains to be seen. The dutch could not easliy worry less. Spending money on good food has never been a top priority in most dutch households. Eating habits are not very demanding on food producers. Food is good when it's cheap, you might say. The Netherlands still are famous for their huge export numbers of vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers, but not everybody is enthusiastic about their taste. "Water-bombs", they seem to be called in some sophisticaded french restaurants. It's not something the dutch really worry about. Their food prices still are decreasing. Party-time, no?

Something Fishy

2006-01-21T12:23:00.000+01:00

Dutch skies need clouds. You don't often see a day without a cloud. The ones Hieronymus van Diest has painted here are among the most characteristic. You can see them almost any spring day, cycling in the "polder". Of course there were no bikes in the days of Van Diest. People moved around walking, in coaches, or on their horse, although the possession of a horse was limited to the happy very few. And then in the Netherlands, no small number of cities and villages were interconnected by waterways. Public transport depended for a large part on the "trekschuit" ( a boat pulled by horse, walking on the canal bank) . In Dordrecht, as you can see, fishing was an important way of making a living. Fish was a substantial part of the daily diet. Things have changed since then. Eating fish is considered to be healthy. But fishing is restricted, due to european guidelines, aimed at protecting a speedily diminishing fish population in the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean. As a result of that, people nowadays are eating canned tunafish and frozen cod. I wonder how the good people of Dordrecht would have felt about that.

Spring Clouds

2006-01-20T23:25:00.000+01:00

This picture was taken early May 2005, at Westkapelle beach. Westkapelle is a small village on the Walcheren peninsula. It is in fact, as far as you can get. Beyond the village is the North Sea. Standing on the beach, the sense of space is overwhelming. The wind has blown the air free of humidity. That in itself would be reason enough to go there. In summer the village is visited by hosts of mostly german tourists. Outside the season, the village is quiet. There are occasional english visitors. They come in remembrance of the english army which landed on this beach in early winter 1944. There is a museum commemorating this historic event. Walcheren is part of the Zeeland province. History and beer are not bad reasons to visit this place. But the main reason that people keep coming back is probably something else; the enormous sense of space, almost out of time and most cerainly a rarity in contemporary Netherlands.