Canadutch
I was reading An American in Amsterdam this morning and saw a video posted that left me slackjawed.
Fox News completely trashes the Netherlands, I was shocked. Many of the things they mention in the report are things I love about this country and I found myself rolling my eyes and ‘pfft’-ing to my husband at the way the report was presented.
Here, have a look:
It’s so irritating the way they generalize and almost sneer at the beliefs and lifestyles of the Dutch… but it’s just so damn American, isn’t it? (I know I’m not going to make any friends with that statement, but whatever)
It sickens me how Americans automatically consider any culture that differs from their own as being wrong. I know I’m generalizing as well but when a media giant like Fox News does a report like this and are allowed to openly trash the lifestyles of others, it gives the impression that such a thing is acceptable in America.
As I said earlier, the things they mentioned in the report are the things I love about this country.
Legal Weed seems like an atrocity to most Americans. In a country where getting caught with marijuana means a hefty fine or prison sentence and you have to be 21 to have a beer, it’s understandable. What they aren’t getting is that by taking away the forbidden nature, you also take away the secrecy and irresponsibility with drugs and alcohol that is running rampant in the United States.
Have a look at this site and then tell me how anyone in the United States has a right to comment on the drug policies in the Netherlands.
Legal Prostitution is again something that Americans can’t fathom. How can you legalize something so horrible as a woman selling her body. This really makes me laugh. It’s a typical response of a country that would rather ignore a problem than actually deal with it.
Forced prostitution happens everywhere. Women and young girls are taken from their home countries and forced to have sex for money that they never even see. This IS horrible and it happens everywhere… this is not the kind of prostitution that can be controlled anywhere, and that’s not what is being aided by the toleration of prostitution in the Netherlands.
There is another side to the prostitution story. The women who do it by choice. For whatever reason… they do it knowingly and of their own free will.
How are these women dealt with in the United States? They walk the streets, they are bullied and beaten by pimps before being bullied and beaten by their customers. If they are caught they run the risk of going to prison.
Here in the Netherlands, these women are independent and prostitution is their business. They pay taxes like anyone else, they can get medical insurance, have regular medical checkups and whatever supplies (condoms, lubricant, toys, clothing etc) they use for their profession is tax deductible. They work for themselves in a safer and more controlled environment.
How is this wrong? Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world… women always have and always will sell their bodies for money. There is nothing any of us can do about it, so why not make it as safe for them as possible?
Yeah… you’re right America, that IS a stupid idea. Lets just ignore them, arrest them when we manage to catch them and let them die in our streets. That’s a much better idea!
Oh and lets have a look at this site where the United States is listed under crime statistics for rapes (per capita) by country as #9 and the Netherlands is listed as #22.
So not only is the United States a scarier place to live for prostitutes than the Netherlands, but for the average woman as well.
Euthanasia seems to be another hot topic in the news report. They make it out as though people can go through a drive-thru like at McDonalds and order a side of death with their McChicken meal. How absurd.
Here in the Netherlands people can be euthanized, and yes that does include children, but there are very strict regulations about it. You can read the full legislation here but here are the requirements:
Due care requirements
The due care criteria which must be met in order to obtain exemption from criminal liability require that the attending physician:
- be satisfied that the patient has made a voluntary and well considered request
- be satisfied that the patient’s suffering is unbearable, and that there is no prospect of improvement
- has informed the patient about his or her situation and prospects
- has come to the conclusion, together with the patient, that there is no reasonable alternative in the light of the patient’s situation
- has consulted at least one other physician, who must have seen the patient and given a written opinion on the due care criteria referred to above, and
- has terminated the patient’s life or provided assistance with suicide with due medical care and attention.
Again, HOW IS THIS WRONG?! If someone is suffering unbearably and will do so until they die, which is absolutely certain to happen, why not relieve them from their suffering? Isn’t that the most humane thing to do? Especially if it’s what THEY want? Doesn’t a person have a right to decide when they are ready to die or when they’ve endured enough pain and want it to end?
If you were told you were going to die a month from now and until then you’d be in incredible amounts of pain, wouldn’t you wish there was someone there who could save you from that?
I guess Americans do have the right idea though. It’s better to pump them full of morphine until the screaming stops so everyone around them feels better.
Gay Marriages are legal here, sure. I’m not sure where they are getting the bit about it polygamy being legal here. I think they made that up because the gay marriage stabs didn’t carry enough weight on their own.
Yeah so gay people can get married here and EVEN have children! What a ridiculous idea, to let people who love each other vow to spend their lives together. Oh and to let them have children! Stop the world, I want to get off! You know all those gay people are going to do is turn their children into little gay people too! /sarcasm
Has anyone looked at the divorce rate among heterosexual couples in the United States lately, OR the statistics for children who are in therapy because their messed up parents use them as emotional missiles to shoot back and forth between each other?
Like heterosexual Americans have any right to preach about the institution of marriage or what is healthy for children nowadays. Give me a break.
I think it’s fairly obvious now what I think of this news broadcast… also how enamored I’ve become with the Dutch and their ability to deal with the tough issues.
What I cannot fathom is how a country that sends so many young men and women to Iraq to die for the greed of others has a right to say anything about what the Dutch are doing to make life better for their people.
A note to Kathy: I think what most people fail to understand about the native Dutch is the ‘live and let live’ mentality.
“Sure, marijuana is legal, sure prostitution is legal, but that is *their* thing and we over here doing *our* thing are fine upstanding citizens who don’t do that.”
The figures for drug use amongst native Dutch are very low, as are the figures for sexual crimes. I think that foreigners underestimate the level to which Calvinism is entrenched in the local population.
As for emigration? A lot of native Dutch find the taxation rate too high (52% in the upper brackets). There are a variety of other taxes too. Water, electricity and gas are expensive. Owning a car and paying to drive it is expensive.
There is a housing shortage. There is also a perceived ‘overcrowding’ situation – 15 million people on a tiny little piece of land. We are a family of four and live in an apartment of 75 m2 (that’s 800 sq ft).
A lot of Dutch who can take the chance opt for emigration, especially those in blue-collar occupations, because of the competition for blue-collar jobs from other countries in the EU.
You can’t simply look at it and say ‘oh the Dutch pushed tolerance too far and now they have a problem’. There is much much more to it than that.
People seek opportunities elsewhere for myriads of reasons and I do not believe that the tolerant nature of our society here in the Netherlands is a big factor.
EXCELLENT POST!!
I will add one: The Netherlands has one of the lowest c-section rates for childbirth in the world, because most births are attended by midwives, and not doctors. There is a low rate of interventions like epidurals and inductions, both of which contribute to a high rate of unnecessary c-sections (27% in the US! Can you believe that suddenly, one quarter of all American women cannot give birth vaginally? Absurd.)
I’ve never gotten to visit The Netherlands, but hope to in my lifetime. Glad I found your blog through BOTB.
I think a lot of the reason the Dutch people are leaving is for the same reason a lot of other people leave their home countries, to see the world. Especially when you come from such a small country. The Dutch are generally travellers anyway. Everyone I know that is Dutch takes great pride in how much time they spend OUT of the country.
As for the amount of Muslims moving in, I really have no idea. This is a seriously multicultural country for sure, and that can be a good thing and a bad thing at the same time.
As for losing the high moral ground, I’m not that fussed. I wasn’t really looking for it, I was just having my say about their comments. A sort of, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, type of thing :P
I am sad to say that I am an American when things like that are put on the news. But, like most other posters have pointed out, Fox News is nothing but a puppet for the religious right and Bush. It’s sad to think that more than half of the US population that votes wanted this moron out, but this is what is broadcast to the rest of the world. Shameful. I’m this[]close to leaving the US and becoming an expat.
Breigh, I think your reaction is justified, however “Fox News” is known in the US as being the right-winger’s news service. You need to remember that the people that listen to Fox News and nod their heads in agreement are from the same cut of cloth as the Puritans that settled the country – people (as Robin Williams points out)”so uptight the British asked them to leave”.
Of course they are going to go off on legal weed, prostitution, gay marriages, and euthanasia. Those are the hot-button issues that get their conservative base to march and protest and ignore anything factual.
You sort of lost the moral high ground when you got upset at Fox News generalizing the entire country you live in, then turned around and slammed all Americans. Bad form.
I found this on a website, I think Brussels Journal.
It’s kinda interesting and pertains to your post.
John Gibson (Fox News), however, has a point in his analysis of Dutch culture. It is no coincidence that the collapse of Western civilisation, complete with political assassinations, is most visible in the country which in the past three decades has taken secularization, multiculturalism, tolerance of alternative lifestyles, drug abuse and other fads to its furthest extremes. The murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh have led to some Dutch soul-searching. Voters have shifted dramatically to the right, but the collapse of Dutch society is most visible in its emigration figures. Since 2003 emigration exceeds immigration: 110,235 people (mostly Dutch natives) left the Netherlands last year, compared to 94,019 people (many of them Muslims) moving in. In the first half of this year 53,808 people moved out, compared to 40,842 moving in. To lose 100,000 natives a year is a lot for a country of 16 million, one million of whom already are Muslim immigrants. The emigrants are leaving for Western countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Scandinavia and the United States.
I can see why so many Dutch natives are moving away from their homeland if they don’t agree with how the society has evolved, but I wonder why the large number of Muslims moving in. Odd.
Fox is known for being Bush’s puppet.
You should look up the interview they did with Bill Clinton, he blasted them for this.
However, that being said there can’t be just one huge rosey side to legalizing pot and hookers.
What is the age limit for buying weed over there?
What do the kids do who want it, but are not old enough to buy it. I doubt they say “oh well, tough luck for us”. They prob find someone old enough to buy it for them so there is still some element of backdoor business going on like anywhere else.
As far as hookers go, I say legalize it and tax it to death in hopes the profession takes a huge enough hit that women decide they may want to try something a lil less degrading with their life.
Let’s face it, no lil girl grows up and says I wanna be a hooker. These women prob had much bigger dreams yet something turned them onto the wrong track. No matter how you look at it it is degrading to sell yourself for money. Any I have seen in interviews always say they felt powerless, felt they had no other options, had huge self-esteem issues and somewhere in their background had been abused, neglected or made to feel they had no self-worth.
The business of prostitution feeds off women who are just like that. It’s not that these women can’t go find any other job even if it means flipping burgers. It’s that these women don’t feel they deserve any better, can do any better or have the gumption to try b/c change is daunting even to strong people so for someone not so strong or beat down a lil by life making a change is sometimes impossible until someone takes the time to show you how.
I doubt anyone shows them how.
Certainly not the owner of the business.
To be honest, it’s even too liberal for me and I am pretty darn liberal. I need a place with more balance and more moral accountability, especially to raise a child in.
OMG! what an excellent post!
Breigh I’ve read some good posts from you in the past, but this just tops it all.
Well done to you! :=)
I agree totally
Mandy x
Ugh. Fox News sucks. Holland is cool, and I like living in a pragmatic, non-religious society.
What about that tone that the reporter used when he said about how the EU didn’t even consider Europe’s ‘Christian roots’?? Ugh again.
Pfft, they’re judging The Netherlands and I bet they haven’t even visited. Arseholes. That’s just as ignorant as you can get, what do they care if the Dutch smoke weed, have legal prostitution, ot anything else for that matter. None of their business. If they don’t like it, don’t visit, but don’t go trashing the place on tv, what’s the point? Silly people.
1. Grass will not be legalized in USA, because it would be virtually impossible to tax it.
2. Legalized prositution is fine by me. It would help control disease, lessen the abuse of the girls doing the job now illegally, and would be taxable.
3. Euthanasia- I have had suffering animals(pets) at the end of their lives treated better than both my parents were when it was their time. I support this movement. It will not ever happen in USA until the money runs out. Keeping people alive is a lucrative, huge business over here.
4. Gay Marriage- I don’t care, but the insurance companies do.
Notice the theme here? It’s all about the money in the USA!
Its not about people thinking they are better than others. I don’t know why people are so offended when they see this. Its real, its life… Yeah sure the truth hurts but it’s really about morals. The world is going down the crapper because people are morally bankrupt.
As a former resident of the Netherlands (Maarsen) I’m pretty familiar with the Dutch way of life. So are most Americans who have traveled, and I can’t think of one person I’ve ever met who looked down on the Dutch.
Fox news isn’t a media giant, they have a small, dedicated audience of morons. They draw the people who believe Bill O’Reilly and think America should kowtow to the Christian right. They are in the minority and growing smaller with each moment that Bush is in office. Their popularity is doing to diminish because they are proven liars and because they keep supporting perverts, liars, and crooks. How long do you think that behavior will continue to grow?
Americans don’t, for the most part, believe anything that Fox news reports. It’s a laughing stock amongst thinking Americans. The educated don’t care what Fox says, they think for themselves.
No matter what, the Netherlands will remain just about the coolest place on earth, even if the weather sucks!
Ugh. You’re so right. Sometimes, I don’t want to be american. I’m so disgusted with Fox News now, that I think I will go tell my friend he should quit working at a Fox affiliate.
I can only agree with absolute every word you said.
The Americans are such hypocrites!
So far you have only made friends with your comment ;-)
Look out! Hopefully the Americans stay busy enough in Iraq so that Bush doesn’t start a war in the Netherlands. I am sure you guys must have weapons of mass destruction there too!!!!!!
Well you gotta remember FOX news is the mouthpiece of the Republican party, and they are all screwed in the heads. Bush’s press secretary (Tony Snow) used to work at FOX and had other assignments like guest-hosting the Rush Limbaugh show (!!). They are the right-wing news station. ;)
I haven’t commented for ages, but I have to say something — totally agreeing with Willem — about the reputation of Fox Media. They are the absolute WORST and their demographic audience is the right-wing, church-loving bunch who suck up whatever propaganda Fox spits out of the tube.
Religious zealots don’t think for themselves, they depend on the church to dictate their lives. So when they see people taking control of their own situations in the examples of assisted euthanasia and legalised prostitution, it’s an affront to their institutionalised ignorance.
While the global trend is to secularise, to separate church and state, the U.S. government is heading in the opposite direction… ultimately, that will be its downfall, I think.
Don’t waste your eloquent rants on Fox! All the “thinking people” know what a load of bollocks it is! :)
I live in the US and I agree with you. I think a lot of our laws are stupid! lol
I think it’s disgusting that such a big news station would do a report like this, but I stand my ground and say this isn’t what all American’s are like. And I do beleive across all cultures there are always people who bring out the worst, that doesn’t mean the culture and it’s people are horrible. Keep that in mind. I can list MANY things about Dutch people, and other cultures, that have just as many stigma’s as well.
I live in the US and was born and raised here. Can’t say that I disagree with you. But I can’t say I agree with you either.
Different countries, different laws. Doesn’t make either one right or wrong. Just is what it is.
Fox News tends to offend those of us who live here in the States as well. Don’t take that program as the whole opinion of the citizens of this country.
Fox News sucks ass and they are all pretty much asshats.
Breigh! Thanks so much for having our backs! I would have loved seeing your face when watching that program…
So… wanna come over and smoke some weed, sell our bodies and get a McDeath burger tonight?
Breigh, I completely agree with you, but what did you expect from a tv station that is totally on the side of that “money grabbing and backstabbing” president? The whole Bush family is known for these kinda things. And what else can you expect from these bible thumpers?
Let’s see what country it becomes when Hillary takes over, because I think that this is the best thing for a country that has to look up to Canada. :D
For sure, have you seen that program Weeds? I saw an episode and thought it was crap how the parents sell weed, take any opportunity to smoke it, and the kids can’t wait to get their hand on any drug around. Then there’s Sex in the City and Desperate Housewives. I don’t watch the shows but I’m sure there’s heaps of sex and disrespecting of marriage and all that (sorry if you like those ones). America has a whinge when countries try to allow things, which are going to happen anyway, happen in a controlled environment and then make shows that endorse exactly what they’re complaining about.