It's Typical Dutch III

These ladies are dressed in the old-fashioned, typical Dutch outfits!

Melting Pot

I have lived in the United States for the past 14 years. Initial adjustment was hard, as some of the customs and views were quite different from what I was accustomed. However, as time passed, I began to appreciate and embrace the differences and similarities between both countries and have come to view the United States as the great experiment. Most cultures throughout the world are represented here, of course some more than others. The challenge is how we live together in the spirit of harmony and cooperation. Many countries still have quite homogeneous populations, and are now having to deal with issues of large scale immigration, so they are now starting to deal with some of the challenges that have always faced the United States. As a very young nation, we are still working out some of our problems, we got off on the wrong foot with certain groups (African slaves, Native Americans), but hopefully as we move forward we will begin to further recognize the contributions of these groups to the building of the United States and help those that have been left behind as our country as has sped ahead.

My hopes: Increased understanding and tolerance; community and cooperation; and of course peace and love. One Love

Less Crime & Less Punishment

In 2006, there were 17, 034 homicides in the United States. In the Netherlands, there were 140. Okay, okay. I know there are 300 million people in the US vs. 16 million in the Netherlands. I'll break it down a little more. In the city of Baltimore, MD (population of 640,000), there were 270 murders and in Rotterdam (pop. 589,000) 19 murders. Even Amsterdam, a city of over a million people, had 26 murders. Now, I just grabbed these numbers off of the internet but I have a feeling they're fairly accurate. Why is the crime in the US so much worse than in the NL? Let's look at the penalty for murder. In the US, we have the death penalty and we have life sentences. People who committ murder typically are put in prison for the remainder of their life. In the Netherlands, there is no death penalty and the most someone usually spends in prison for murder is 15 years...and that's the most! Wouldn't you think that a harsher punishment would stop people from committing crimes? Studies have actually shown that the punishment for a crime is not a deterrent at all. What is then? Gun control? From what I understand, the process for getting a gun here is pretty similar to the US. Also, guns are pretty easy to get if you "know the right people," especially with the port which brings in lots of shipments from all over the world.

Here are a few observations. 1) The society is very egalitarian. There are no extremely poor people in the Netherlands. There are very, very few homeless people here. In fact, I haven't seen one yet. In DC, I can't walk to work without seeing about five homeless people (and it's a ten minute walk). Everyone in NL has healthcare, children are 100% covered. So, there aren't those who are in great need for basic survival needs. Of course, with this comes very high taxes...that's a whole other topic. 2) Women with children don't work as much as in the US. Now I'm all for womens' rights and equality, etc. but I definitely think there is a great impact of having both parents working (or having a single mother). In NL, the majority of women with children work part-time and companies are set up to support this. There are very few daycares. Women are starting to work more and more though. In the US, crime skyrocketed following WWII when women started working. Obviously when kids are left alone without supervision, they will entertain themselves. So, the family structure seems to be more in tact here. 3) Liberal laws. The NL is very liberal with many things, their laws being one of them. They are famous for their prostitution and drug laws. Is there something to this? While I don't agree with prostitution, the system seems to work well here. It is controlled in one location and protected. There is very little crime in the Red Light District (remember, 26 murders in all of Amsterdam in a year). "The oldest profession" is going to continue. Maybe it's time to face it and deal with it. Same with some soft drugs perhaps. 4) Religion. The majority of the people in the NL do not attend church. I think religion can definitely be a great thing, but I think it can also perpetuate certain problems as well...yet another topic I could ramble on about. While many of the people in the NL may be spiritual, they are not religious and I think there is a significant difference. While many people think that having more religion will help lower crime rates, I think it may be the opposite in many cases. 5) Discrimination. Like I mentioned before, the NL is very liberal by US standards. They seem pretty accepting of all people. Gay marriage is legal here. There doesn't seem to be racial segregation as there often is in the US.

Well, I could go on and on but these are my observations in what I think could play a role in the low crime rate in the NL. Obviously, I can't solve our crime problems in a blog but it's interesting to ponder and get conversations started. I think this may actually influence my upcoming study that I'm starting this summer.

It's Typical Dutch II

Debbie on the way to the post office, "dutch style".

The End of Week Three?

Only a week left to go? Time is flying by. Our time in Hellevoetsluis was great! Thank you to everyone for all of your hard work in planning our time there. Our farewell party Friday night again brought fun and tears. The kids at the party took it upon themselves to start teaching me Dutch. Well, at first they were just trying to get me to say long words and then were laughing at me. So I had them go back to the beginning with the alphabet. I was surprised to learn that their alphabet song is to the same tune as ours (twinkle, twinkle little star). I wonder if it's the same in every country. Anyway, they were great teachers and I'm surprised at the number of words I've learned over the past few weeks. Last week someone accidentally said something to me in Dutch and I responded without realizing the language was different. Then we both realized what had happened and started laughing. The Dutch language is a very difficult one with two sounds that Americans don't use at all. I'm able to do one but no matter how hard I try I can't seem to pronounce the other. It is the sound the ui makes in Hellevoetsluis.

Yesterday we left Hellevoetsluis and landed in Rijnwoude, a small town near Leiden. Thankfully, the coordinators of the club we are visiting expected us to be exhausted and planned an easy schedule for yesterday and today. I slept ten hours last night! It was definitely needed. Today we went antique shopping in the Hague and I found a cute little coffee/tea set. We then had dinner at Hans and Jane's house. Hans was an excellent cook and we had a great time. Our schedule for the week looks great. Tomorrow I'm starting the day with a biking tour of the area and then I'm off to the High School in Leiden. The weather is back to cold again :(

Deja-Vu Hellevoetsluis

It's typical dutch. These poffertjes are like miniture fritters. They are the same as the ones I used to eat growing up in Jamaica, sans the powdered sugar. They gave me the same belly-ache too, because you cannot just have one. Delightfully painful though :-)

Containers and More Containers

This morning we took a boat tour of Rotterdam. Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and was the largest port in the world until 2004 when Shanghai outgrew it. The amount of goods that comes through here is unbelievable...more than 300 million metric tons. The ships ( about 30,000 a year) and barges (about 110,000 a year) are massive.

April Fools

Breille was the first Dutch city to be liberated from the Spanish after the 80 year war. This happened on April 1, 1572, and will be forever known as the day the dutch made a fool of the Spanish general. Hence April 1st is known as April Fool's Day.

Crude

Our team visited the Maasvlakte Olie Terminal with Monika and Hans. This is one of the world's largest crude oil storage and redistribution facilities. The share holders in the facility include some of the major oil companies, like Exxon Mobile and Shell, and they have their own pipelines leading away fron the tanks for easy retrieval. A storage tank (seen in picture) can store 120,000 cubic meters of oil, which is enough to fuel 90,000 cars for 1 year (I wonder if that meant smart cars or SUVs :) There are 36 tanks located here, you do the math, that is a lot of crude. Clement Saaltink, the Safety and Environment Supervisor, gave us a wonderful tour, we actually were inside one of the tanks, and then admired the views from the top of another. Some of us (I will not name names :-) faced our fear of heights, so kudos to you both.

Also, many thanks to drs. Harry van der Meijden (Wassenaar RC), Headquarter Director of Royal Dutch Shell, for the insightful history and tour of the Shell headquarters in the Hague. We had a great time and we felt your enthusiasm and dedication to your work and your company.

Tomatoes in Glasshouses

Today we visited a tomato Greenhouse, which they refer to as Glasshouse. There are glasshouses all throughout the Netherlands but there is a high concentration of them in this area. It is quite a complicated and interesting operation. I had no idea what all goes into getting produce into our grocery stores (kinda the feeling I had a flora holland about the process of flowers). The seeds are not put into soil, but into a kind of installation. The installation has water and nutrients put into it. The tomato vines are hooked to wires and grow up to about 10 meters high. Someone has to continuously watch over the plants. They wrap the new vine around the wire, they cut leaves from the vine, they make sure they are not damaged, someone checks the ripeness, etc. All of this is done by hand by about 40 people. There are also bees which help with pollination. This is just the growing part of it all. Then it has to all be weighed, measured, wrapped, and delivered. They sure make some great, juicy tomatoes!

I learned that almost all vegetables should not be put in the refrigerator. They should be kept at room temperature. This actually keeps the taste fresher.