9th July 2010

The Dutch: Businessmen first, human second.

Since the start of the program we have been looking into different aspects of the Dutch society, getting acquainted with their culture, and identity. We have also had a look into the education, political, and other civil institutions. Today, we looked into the Dutch history primarily focusing on the 17^th century. During this period, the Dutch were at the height of their power with a booming economy, and flourishing trade. As explained by Dr. Frank at the National Institute of Slavic Past, “in the 17^th Century Dutch merchants dominated trade in Africa, Philippines, India, and Caribbean”. He went on further saying that, “the West India. Co in 1620 dominated the Caribbean. It was the architect of profitable wars setup by the government as a private co. to continue war in the Caribbean by piracy and conquest.” Using this policy of pillaging boats the Dutch were also able to break down Spanish communication, and trade. This completely amazed me, as I would have never imagined that one could gain control of the seas just by piracy. However, the Dutch “pirates” did have the government’s complete backing as well. Nonetheless, the creative Dutch policy did work then, and they went on to establish colonies in islands like Aruba, Antilles, etc in the Caribbean to ones in Africa and eastwards uptil Indonesia. Upon learning that the Dutch controlled the Atlantic slave trade, I started to question the validity of the moral and just Dutchmen I have been learning about since coming to the Netherlands. In the tropical museum I found a quote apt to the topic by Bredero in 1615: ‘inhuman usage! Heathen villainy! That people are traded into slavery! There are people in this town that engage in this trade’. Furthermore, after watching a movie at the institute on the Dutch colonial treatment of natives in Africa, I came to the conclusion that the Dutch are businessmen first, and humans later. I do realize such a thesis is very strong, but if one looks at the price others have had to pay for the greed of the Dutch merchants, it is apt to say something like this. The movie, ‘Max Havelaar’ that followed Dr. Frank’s presentation proved the aforementioned point decisively.

From the movie, we learnt a lot about the Dutch treatment of African natives. It is no rumor that natives were terribly exploited in every way possible. Women were forced into sleeping with the Dutch officials, and natives were made to work without suitable payment. In fact, not only was their sweat, and blood taken from them, but also their livestock, house, etc. While, it would be wrong to say that every Dutch official was corrupt, but the movie showed how greed can be such a blinding force. Mr. Max Havelaar understood this fact, and tried to solve it by economizing his life-style for the betterment of the natives. However, there was little that he could do in the end to help the natives as his superiors, and colleagues let him down. In fact, the planned murder of the former assistant general “displayed a picture of corruption which overshadows the worst of what the Oriental peoples are accused of in this respect” (Dewulf, 2010). The desire to make money made the Dutch commit horrible sins, which they could have never thought of committing in the Netherlands. While some played an active part, others played a passive role, and some like Max thought of changing things. This comes as no surprise to me as the Dutch are very individualistic, and each of them did what they had to or wanted to. I might sound like a broken record when I say this, but I was truly shocked by the Dutch loss of morality. Not only that, when Dr. Frank mentioned that during Santa-Claus festivities people paint their faces black even today, I was shocked. I thought the racism, and oppression based on color was a thing of the colonial age. However, to see it in practice even today was rather surprising. Not only that, I learnt that there is a show on TV every December that has racist comments to and fro from the whites to the blacks. While it is one thing to be tolerant and liberal, I feel its totally another thing to be ignorant. And after hearing this, I feel that the Dutch are ignorant of others. Lastly, Dr. Frank’s comment that “kingdom of the Netherlands has never apologized formally to its colonial treatment of slaves, and its participation in the slave trade in the Atlantic” further strengthened my view on this topic.

As customary, we went to another museum in the evening called the Tropical Museum. I found this museum very interesting, and educative. It did a remarkable job in displaying most of the world’s different societies under one roof. Also, it gave a lot insight into the different colonies occupied by the Dutch, their commercial exploitation, and their historical objects such as coins, armory, etc. All in all, it was a great experience. Not forgetting, our celeberation of Teresa’s 21^st birthday in a nearby park after that was the perfect end to the day.

Works Cited

Dewulf, J. (2010). In the jungle of amsterdam. In J. Dewulf, The Amsterdam-Brussels Connection: History art and identity in the heart of europe (p. 219). UC Berkeley.

8th July 2010

The Work-Palace of the Queen

Our entry card into the Foreign Affairs office

Hague

Yesterday in Utrecht we were treated to some amazing architecture, historical monuments, and extraordinary information about the city. However today, we had to change from a micro to macro perspective of the Netherlands. Making an early start to the day, we took the train from central station into the capital of Netherlands, Hague. In Hague, we visited the Dutch House of Representatives, wherein we got a tour of the parliament building. The parliament, the library, and a couple of other rooms were shown to us. An interesting observation about the architecture of the building was the merging of an old 17^th century building into a modern 21^st century building. The way glass was used to make them seem compatible reminded me of the glass walkway that the tour guide cum architect in Utrecht had built inside an old building. The glass allowed for a new structure to be joined to an old existing one thereby preserving the latter in its original form.

Moving on, the next item on the Agenda was our meeting with the top advisor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The advisor discussed the relationship of the Netherlands and U.S.A. From her presentation I realized that the Netherlands and the U.S.A. are very important partners not only economically, but also politically, and militarily. Together they play an important role in maintaining global peace, in supporting the UN, and other such organizations. Moreover, even the current Gulf of Mexico spill had the Dutch lending a helping hand to the U.S.A. Unfortunately, due to complicated legal issues, the Netherlands is unable to fully support America in this catastrophe, but they are still doing the best they can. Another show of Dutch loyalty to the US is the resigning of the ex-government over the Afghanistan war. This shows the importance the Netherlands gives the U.S.A. and I feel that the latter has every right to demand this importance. For if it were not for the allied forces during WWII led by the U.S.A., the freedom of Netherlands would have probably still be under threat. By looking at the relationship between both these countries I realized that the Dutch are also very loyal. I think that it is a very big step for a government to resign because of a conflict of interest. In fact, I found it very odd that the government would resign over the war issue, when a decision could have been made. But, I guess the moral side of the Dutch truly came to the forefront with their decision making.

After our meeting, we quickly changed our focus back to art and made a trip to Mauritshuis, and then visited the world’s oldest surviving panorama painting. After walking up the stairs to the room where the painting was on display, my jaw literally dropped on seeing the painting. The circular nature of the painting got me feeling as though I was present in the scene painted. His depiction of a very realistic warm sunny day by the beach added to it illusionary effect. The coastline was full of activity with the military on their horses accompanied by canon, fishermen drying their nets, traders loading and unloading cargo from their carriages onto ships. The town preceding the coastline can be seen clearly divided into posh, common, and religious areas. The presence of a church nearby, and a couple more in the background show the influence of religion in those days. I felt this picture truly represented the Dutch Golden Age with its flourishing trading, and business activities. Additionally, the prominence of religion and the elite which was an important characteristic is also shown. Lastly, the division of the society into different sections based on religion, and wealth reflected the reality of those days.

After seeing the panorama, we had our last visit of the day scheduled with a Dutch language professor. We were not able to learn much about the Dutch language as most of our conversation revolved around topics that were much different from the Dutch language. However, I was still able to extract some interesting information from the professor. His favorite moral lesson was from a Peter Burger landscape painting have the message that ‘great fishes tend to eat the smaller fish’. I found this quote the truth of life, as history has always proved that the people in power are usually the ones who exploit those that are weak, and the basis for their power. A truth that I learnt about any language from the Professor was that ‘a language is dying when the parents say to their children that it is not important anymore’. I found this a very interesting revelation as it is always the parents who teach a language to the child before they join school. Therefore, it made a lot of sense for the professor to say, because if the parents don’t teach their children, why will they learn?

7th July, 2010

Dutch Education System: Lack of options

In my first journal I had spoken about Amsterdam being a very touristy city, and that it wasn’t full indicative of Dutch culture and society. Today that complain of mine was completely taken care of. We travelled to probably the oldest city of the Netherlands, Utrecht. After disembarking the train, we walked through the railway station that was interestingly also a mall. On noticing the mall, I was immediately reminded of a typical Dutch stereotype i.e. “a money-minded nation whose greatest pleasure is scraping money out of every transaction” (Vossestein, 2010). Usually, I have noticed that there are very few (if there any at all) boutiques and fashion labels at a railway station. However, the Utrecht railway station felt as though it was completely converted into a mall with multiple restaurants, shops, boutiques, etc. It was as though the city planning commission had this quote in mind while approving the plans for the station. Nevertheless, after a short walk we reached Utrecht University where we met the Dean, a couple of professors, and students. I found our reception at the university very warm, and our hosts in typical Dutch style very honest and direct. The Dean was amazingly critical of the Dutch educational system, and very comprehensively laid out its flaws, and advantages. His openness about his dislike for the system came as sweet shock to me. Until now, I had heard a lot of praise for the Dutch education system. However, after hearing about the relative inflexibility, few options, and working of the system I was not very impressed with it. Firstly, I thought that deciding someone’s future based upon an exam given at age 11 was wrong. I feel that giving an exam at that age provides an inaccurate reading of a student’s capabilities, because the student is too young, and still needs more time for the brain to develop intellectually. Not only that, if one performed poorly at the test, the system’s rigidity would make it nearly impossible to have a brighter future than the one instructed. By not allowing students to freely choose their education, I feel that the Dutch are educating robots rather than humans. I do realize that calling them robots is somewhat extreme. Nevertheless, doing something that your told to do, rather than wanting to do it; I feel is equivalent to functioning like a robot. Additionally, I find this an anomaly in a country with such a liberal society. However, after understanding the complexity of changing the system, I do realize that it is very difficult to change. It’s been an integral part of the society since decades, and bringing about change will take a lot of time and discussion. Nonetheless, I support the Dean in his view that it is a system that has to change of the betterment of future generations, and equal opportunity to immigrant students. Thinking about immigrants, I feel the Dutch might be forced to change the system rather than wanting to. As we have learnt, the immigrants’ students are at a disadvantage to native students due to their little knowledge of Dutch language, history, culture, etc. Therefore, keeping in mind the egalitarian face of the Dutch, the exam should definitely be tested at much elder age. This however, has not happened yet, as the immigrants are still a minority, and the Dutch like to “focus more on the average, and take them higher” (Akker, 2010).

After a generous lunch by our hosts at the university we had the opportunity to get a very interesting tour of the city. We visited the catholic churches that were only accessible by priests, monasteries, houses, quiet lanes, and learnt a lot about the architecture and history of the city. Utrecht seemed like a typical Dutch city. There were many churches, and monasteries that covered a huge area of the city thereby highlighting the importance of religion in the past. Also, the egalitarian society could again be seen by the size and façade of the houses. Interestingly, there was a lot of greenery in the city, and there were beautiful tulips in many places. Tulips are loved by the Dutch, and are a rarity in Amsterdam. Therefore, it was nice to see them decorating Utrecht. We also came across the story of a street wherein the daughter of a priest lived on the street. Her identity to the public was unknown at the time she live as she would be surrounded by four walls. She chose to be in that small square giving advice to other women for 57 years as she felt morally obligated to do so. Her father was a priest, and hence had committed a sin. This truly impressed me as the woman sacrificed her life for penance of one sin, thereby again highlighting the importance of religion in Dutch lives at that time.

In conclusion, I found Utrecht to be a wonderful city. It was quiet and beautiful, which is stark contrast to Amsterdam. Also, the visit to the university was very enlightening. We learnt a lot about the Dutch education system, and got to witness many Dutch stereotypes in action. However, I learnt something very important about stereotypes/prejudices from the Dean that I find worth quoting. “The brain always looks for similarities. In the attempt to reference different faces, objects, etc, we can tend to ignore the inherent fundamental differences. One should be aware of this. Always doubt the prejudices.” I think this is something I’m going to try to apply from today onwards, and hopefully learn more about the Dutch.

6th July, 2010

Portrayal of Dutch through Art

Yesterday was an exciting start to the program wherein we touched the surface on a lot of topics. However, today we stepped a little deeper into the Dutch society. Professor Dewulf started the proceedings with a lecture on Dutch history leading up to the Dutch Golden Age, and Dutch artists and their works. We learnt amongst other things about the Dutch aristocracy, the liberties of the cities, the 80 year war, and about Dutch artists during the Golden Age. After the lecture, we headed to Rijksmuseum wherein I made a few interesting observations. There were paintings of many artists of varying styles and subjects on display. The “jeare” (paintings of everyday life) paintings depicted the typical Dutch culture of those days, while the “vanitas” (constant reminder that life is short) portrayed the influence of Calvinism. While these styles of paintings mainly dealt with the middle class, other more pompous paintings like those of wars, ships, generals, etc were also on display depicting the tastes of the upper class. Delving further into these paintings, I realized that there was a lot that could be learnt about the Dutch through their art. For example, paintings of people singing, dancing, drinking, working, etc portrayed daily life. On the other hand, painters such as Nicolaes Berchem, Kan Both, and Jacob van Ruisdel focused more on still life paintings, and landscapes. From subject of their paintings it is very clear that these paintings were made for sale. I dint find much artistic value in these paintings as most of them involved some sort of a water body, thereby using the symbolic importance of water as a selling point. Thus, I found it to be inconsequential as the paintings themselves spoke very little, and were more of a product than a painting.

Moving on, the influence of Calvinism also had its place in Dutch art. Many still life paintings during the Golden Age were based on the teachings of the Calvinist church. A carbon copy of the modest Calvinist teachings in the form of a painting was Jan David’s ‘de Heem’, 1660. It was a still life picture of fruits, and flowers in a vase. The symbolic bug and butterflies could be seen in many places. Interestingly, there was a cut pomegranate drawn with its little seeds falling like blood. This I feel was the clearest message that a Calvinist painter could portray. While the flowers and fruits obviously meant that life is beautiful, the insects signified that there are many things that can cut life short. The cut pomegranate and the depiction of blood in the form of seeds showed that life is short, and can end anytime.

Another buyer of paintings were aristocrats who loved paintings that showed power. The traditional way of painting this was through depiction of the army, navy, wars, generals, etc in paintings. These were paintings that famous artists like Rembrandt, and Frans Hals would paint. However, the painting of two roosters hanging by their legs by William Van Aelst was very different from others. Such a painting was supposed to be famous amongst kings, and aristocrats. This I felt showed their love for abuse of power. I consider that only somebody with dark intentions or just a sick mind would like such a painting. Nonetheless, such people did exist, and they were the ones in power. Luckily, their love for paintings allowed us to see them indirectly in a dark light.

After making a lot of connections of the paintings with the real life of those days at the museum, our program moved forward. After lunch, we met Professor Freek Bruinsma who gave us an enlightening lecture of the Dutch law, and policies focusing legalization of soft drugs, same-sex marriages, and euthanasia amongst others. I completely agreed with a lot of the rationale behind the liberal and tolerant policies of the Dutch. For example, soft drugs like cannabis don’t harm the society, and its users are many. Therefore, going after them makes little sense considering these users don’t destroy themselves, or anything around them. The real problem is with the hard drugs, and thus by being tolerant towards the soft drugs it becomes easier to go after hard drugs due to a narrower focus, and more resources. In my opinion, I find this as a very practical solution to a problem that has plagued the society since a long time. By being harsh towards soft drug users, nothing got solved. Additionally, there was little information to base policy on. Now, the Dutch can frame more effective policies as they have a lot of information which they earlier did not have access to.

Following the presentation was a tour of the red light district where I found the existence of designer boutiques there very encouraging. It showed that the red light district had more to offer than just prostitution. I felt that it added a positive spin to an area infamous for prostitution. All in all, it was a very educational day in which we learnt a lot about the Dutch society and art.

5th July, 2010

A view from the Canal ride

First Impressions

“He gezeille” is the Dutch expression for feeling cozy, and pleasant. This is exactly what I felt after spending four days in Amsterdam by myself. Even though I was alone in the city; the friendly nature of the locals never made me feel so. I found the city to be a lot of fun, with a lot interesting people to meet and talk to. Nonetheless, Amsterdam being more of a tourist city than typically Dutch, presented me with a very partial view of the Dutch. This was completed by our first lecture in the University of Amsterdam. Professor Jeroen introduced us to various aspects of the Dutch society ranging from civic systems like the education, social security, and political system to its language, culture, and religion. From the many aspects of the Dutch culture, and history that we touched upon, I found a quote very interesting. “God created earth, the Dutch created Holland”. I have learnt about many nationalists from different countries who are loyal to their motherland, primarily because of it being their birthplace. However, with the Dutch this is different. There are very few countries whose citizens who can legitimately claim together as a unit that they made the country with their own bare hands. The fact that the Dutch worked tediously over many decades, building one windmill after the other, followed by dykes so that they could reclaim/create land from the sea; I feel gives them this right to claim it as their land. It is a unique event and what makes it even more special was the way the citizens were united in protection against their common enemy, water. A video in class on the locals relentlessly working together in harsh conditions to build a dyke further buttressed the perceived unity amongst the people. Apart from the unity another interesting observation was the rarity of seeing an expensive car like BMW, Mercedes, etc and also that of most of the buildings looking similar. The reader had mentioned of “a certain uniformity in Dutch housing” (Vossestein, 2010), but after seeing it for myself I felt impressed. Most of the buildings had the same façade, following a similar pattern, and of an almost uniform height. “At the heart of Dutch culture lies egalitarianism, a sense of everyone being equal from a moral point of view” (Vossestein, 2010). I believe that the lack of expensive cars and the well developed and utilized public transport system support that quote. Additionally, during our canal ride I also noticed that many houses did not have curtains. It was easy to look inside an apartment and observe the interiors. The interiors usually comprised of white color wall, a painting, and wooden furniture. Not only did the apartments look similar, but also the canal houses were more or less equal in their interiors, and exteriors. Thus, it was the Dutch unity, national pride, and egalitarian nature that impressed me the most.

In between our class, and canal ride we had made a trip to the Vincent Van Gogh Museum. Van Gogh was born in a protestant family, and was an exceptional painter who was heavily under-recognized during his time. He believed in paintings for its artistic values, rather than its financial value. Therefore, during the early part of his career he focused his paintings on the dark image of daily life. As time progressed he learnt different styles, and travelled to different places which brought about a change in the way and subject he painted. The museum did a remarkable job of putting them in an easy timeline. Since a floor was shut we couldn’t see more of Van Gogh’s paintings. Nonetheless, there was a painting that struck out to me. It was a still life painting called “Stilleven met bijbel” from 1885. The painting had the French novel la joie de vivre drawn next to an open bible to illustrate Van Gogh’s critical attitude to his father who was an ardent believer in Christianity. I found this painting to be typically Dutch. There was nothing exceptional about the painting itself. It was the reason behind the painting that I found interesting, and immediately linked to an aspect of Dutch culture. Professor Jeroen had educated us that Dutch parents don’t like their children to be obedient. They want them to be critical, self-conscious, and an independent thinker. This is exactly what I saw in Van Gogh’s painting. He was being very critical of his father’s religious belief, and it displayed his independent thinking mechanism in the way he chooses to express this attitude.

In conclusion, I found today to be very productive. It was a great way to start the program by bombarding us with all kinds of information that we could use when required. There were many more moments when I found something that I had read in the reader or heard in class and saw that in action. Given the space constraints, I choose to focus on a few aspects of the Dutch culture. I find them very interesting, and something I choose to identify myself with. The Dutch way of thinking, parent’s attitude towards upbringing, their art, their culture, etc all excites me, and I can’t wait to see more.