Tolerant, clog-wearing bicyclists

Have you ever heard the saying “God created the world but the Dutch created the Netherlands”? Take one look at all the dykes, pumping stations and cities below sea level and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. The water is everywhere and we have been battling and taming the North Sea for centuries. The Netherlands resembles a huge bath tub waiting to be filled with water; twenty-six percent of the country lies less than one meter above sea level and twenty-four percent lies below sea level. We could actually equalize this difference and even out the country at sea level by simply breaking the dikes. Even the highest mountain in the Netherlands would then be easily reachable on a pool float.

But there is more to this country than water: It’s flat, and green, and there are windmills, tulips, lots of bicycles and happy cows. And lots of Dutch people.      

We are a neighbor-loving people. We have to be because we live together in a very crowded country: The population density in the Netherlands is the highest in Europe, 475 per sq km. (It’s 100.2 in Austria.) The need to love our neighbors goes beyond friendship with the people next door. That doesn’t mean we’re soft and cuddly; we speak our minds and expect to be looked in the eye. This may seem arrogant but the impulse comes from a desire to be honest and direct. It means that we respect everyone, regardless of his race, gender, age, nationality, physical disability, sexual preference, political opinions, or religious views.

We are also passionately liberal and we believe that people should be free to do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t hurt or offend others. That doesn’t, however, include hanging around in coffee shops on Sunday mornings. That’s for tourists. It includes an attitude of tolerance towards homosexuals. Gay communities are common and well integrated and the atmosphere is so relaxed, that businessmen, teachers, doctors and even politicians are openly gay or lesbian.

It also includes a liberal immigration policy. Although almost ninety percent of the population is of Dutch origin, there are many ethnic communities, especially in big cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam. We share our small country with people from the former colonies of Indonesia, the Dutch Antilles, Surinam, Turkey and Morocco.

However, all is not well in this once so tolerant country. After the assassination of the right-wing politician Pim Fortuyn in 2002, the atmosphere changed drastically. Fortuyn initiated a fear of foreigners and intolerance towards them, something that had been unthinkable up until then. And the fact that he was assassinated by an animal-rights activist gone mad made us realize that we might not be so tolerant after all. But, since our open-mindedness towards foreigners goes back for centuries, we will continue to welcome newcomers with open arms, because this is what we are, more than all the clogs and bicycles put together.