Travelling: Talk/discussion, December 2018, Kharkov: Additional: Dutch people and culture

(written 2018-10-24 - 2018-11-16, 2018-11-23)

It's hard for me to describe Dutch people and culture because I have always lived here and seeing something from the outside it's easier to identify the characteristics, than from the inside because as an outsider you see everything as if it is new and so you analyse and some things stick out immediately... But I will try:

A well known saying about people in NL: Don't stick your head out of the mowing field, or it will get cut off. There is also a crude way to say this: "Don't behave unusually, normal is crazy enough". This saying is not a prescription of what to do (of how you should behave), as some really stupid comment here (https://www.opencircles.nl/blog/hoofd-boven-maaiveld/) says, but it is a description of what happens in reality... So people don't appreciate different ways of thinking and especially a better way of doing things. Though I must say, when I gave improvement suggestions to companies for products almost none were interested, Dutch or Finnish or any other country... The 1 exception was Philips with their bicycle lamps, they made changes according to my suggestions... (but I'm pretty sure this was really due to 1 person working in the press department of Philips who organised an lighting discussion day)

Another thing typical of the Netherlands is that many people have, or had, as this is changing, the curtains open most of the time, so passers by could look in (for houses next to the street). This was explained somewhere as being from the calvinistic era, to prove to others that your house is clean...

I think the Dutch essence is in trading (which made NL rich hundreds of years ago and it's still important). This trading mentality is one which I really dislike, as it means people are always complaining about prices and trying to get things as cheaply as possible, eben though they have enough money to buy what they want. Perhaps the custom of having open curtains is related to trading: With open curtains you show that you are open, and thus honest, about everything.

The importance of trading could explain why so much is copied from esp. the USA, it may be a subconscious form of opportunism: do what makes you get the most contacts, and what will get you the most trade. Perhaps this explains why people are throwing away their values and customs here and import things like 'halloween' which never used to be even mentioned when I was in school. It started about 10 years ago I think... Earlier started the copying of another American fest, Valentine's day, which was not a thing at all until perhaps 20 years ago.

The bad point of this American influence goes further. A lot of words from English are used in NL where it is absolutely unnecessary. I see this in German happening too, but less so. In Ukrainian I think the word 'shake' for a milk shake is an example. In Russian there are many words that were imported from English long ago, and that seems to have come from a more natural process, of using words for which there is no equivalent in Russian.

An important part of the background of Dutch culture/society is dealing with the elements. NL lies on the sea and a lot of land was reclaimed by pumping away water and making dykes. The Dutch are experts in this area, it started hundreds of years ago, and continues to this day. Big Dutch companies who work in construction related to how to deal with water, work all over the world. Then of course there is art (such as Rembrandt, van Gogh), but I can't think of good literature...

The history of NL also contains exploration as part of trading. Similarly to the UK, Portugal, Spain and the French, who were seafaring nations. In the present day the Dutch people let outsiders influence them in this area by telling them 'these explorers were no good', and it goes even further in wanting to change our customs such as St.Nicholas day celebrations, etc. I call such people cultural invaders, which are people from other countries, esp. Africa and the middle East, who don't fit in here in mentality, education, culture/customs/history and who try to change the Dutch customs and culture instead of changing themselves to fit in (they could also just leave if they don't like it in NL!). That some people in the past such as explorers did things we don't find acceptable now is no different from any other country! You can't judge the past by today's viewpoints, countries and people evolve. History is history, names and statues do not mean an appreciation for those people and their 'achievements' but an appreciation that they are part of history.

All this means that if I had ever felt at home in NL, then I certainly wouldn't feel at home any more, especially the past ca. 5 years...

Last modified: 2018-11-26