Digging for the Dutch identity

26. Science & school

text Malini Witlox illustration Bas van der Schot

The Ramadan didn’t make the search for booze any easier

What does a typical Dutchman look like? How does he behave, what characterizes him? A quest for the Dutch identity.

Column

Shadowed by a Mosque Red, fluorescent lamps on each table illuminate the grinning profiles of teenagers almost too young to be sipping flamboyant cocktails. Their fun was accompanied by old school, American 80’s hits instead of rhythmic, Arabic music so typical for the streets of Marrakesh by night. I happen to sit next to an artificial palm tree, even though the street just outside was full of the real deal. There were only few elements in this scene that were comfortingly local: colorful water pipes smoked by those giggly youngsters, complimentary spicy olives, and a Mosque tower in the background, quietly guarding the city from a distance.

It seems that, just as traditional tourism, party-tourism is spreading to spoil more and more unspoiled places. Ibiza and Mallorca are slowly becoming passé as more exotic countries like Morocco are taking over as party destinations for thirsty teenagers. The most surprising thing about this choice of a location for spring break-esque holidays is that alcohol is a rather sensitive subject in Muslim countries. And the upcoming Ramadan didn’t make the search for booze any easier; I myself went to great lengths to get hold of even the smallest bottle of nameless white wine to satisfy the kind of thirst that water cannot.

That makes us, tourists, a gold mine for Moroccan bars and restaurants trying to accommodate our shameful lifestyle. But they do prefer to keep it a secret. Tourists ordering alcohol are rarely seated among regular customers; they are secretly sent upstairs instead. If you think that sipping beer while being secluded behind a fence of a restaurant terrace adds more excitement and makes you nostalgic about your high school years, this type of holiday destination is for you. The question is, however, how much this type of tourism changes the ways in which Muslim cultures deal with the issues of (public) drinking. And I don’t necessarily mean for the better.

Sonia Kolasinska

Univers 19 augustus 2013

Digging for the Dutch identity

D

ear student, welcome to the Netherlands. The country where people are down to earth but also stingy. A country where we don’t believe in God anymore and where everyone uses soft drugs.

We, the Dutch, have no regard for authority. We’re coldblooded by nature, honest and direct. Our lunch breaks last 30 minutes at the most and preferably consists of a homemade cheese sandwich to be eaten out of our lunchboxes. Dutch men aren’t romantic and never dance in a pub. So, once again, welcome to our little country.

If you try to portray the Dutch identity it will often result in the clichés mentioned above. Although, according to most immigrants you could just as easily replace honest and direct by abrupt and inhospitable. The Dutch aren’t received too well abroad. The English didn’t coin the phrase ‘Let’s go Dutch’ for nothing when they want to make it clear that everyone pays for themselves after a good night out in the pub.

But the Netherlands has almost 17 million inhabitants.

Can we fit all of these people into one and the same box?

The Dutch identity doesn’t exist, said the then princess Maxima in 2007 and she was almost tarred, feathered and chucked out of the country. But, according to four scientists at Tilburg University, she was right.

The need for a sense of community Hans Dooremalen, University lecturer of Philosophy at the School of Humanities: “There is no such thing as the Dutch identity. There isn’t a single thing that we all share. Many Dutch people love soccer and the monarchy, for instance. But I am a republican and I couldn’t care less about soccer. The Dutch identity never even existed. The Dutch are entrepreneurs, according to those who refer to the days of the VOC. But do you really think that the peasants who worked the land and the people who lived in small villages possessed the same mercantile sprit? ” Why did Maxima get so much critique when she made her remarks? According to Dooremalen the reproaches came from people with nationalistic inclinations. “There is a need for a sense of community. People want to belong to something. Those

Science & school .27

who were angry with Maxima haven’t got a clue what they are talking about. There is no such thing as the Dutch identity and neither is there a Belgian, French or German identity.”

In 2007, the Dutch government introduced an assimilation exam.

Migrants from outside the EU, who want to settle in the Netherlands for a long period of time, have to sit an exam to prove that they have enough knowledge of the Dutch culture and language.

The questions lend themselves to much criticism. For example: What do the Dutch find important? Receiving gifts, making their own choices or family visits? Dooremalen: “To such questions there is no right or wrong answer. One Dutchman thinks family visits are important whereas another thinks that making one’s own choices is important. We shouldn’t make people sit exams based on a non-existent national identity.”

National customs Univers asked various international students on the campus about their opinions of their Dutch fellow students. The verdict was overwhelmingly negative. Rigid and impolite to lecturers, was the outcome. “If I want to go for a drink with a Dutch fellow student, I have to book an appointment, days in advance. It’s hard to get into their diaries,” was an example given by a Spanish student.

However, this difference has nothing to do with identity but with behavior and upbringing, says Loek Halman, University Professor of Sociology at the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Halman: “What are you used to, what are the customs in a certain country? In Japan they take their shoes of indoors, we keep them on. You can’t speak of the rigid or abrupt Dutch.

It’s personal. In Brabant, they think the Frisians are rigid and in Friesland they think that everyone in Brabant has a joie de vivre.

But there are rigid people in Brabant just as there are bon vivants in Friesland.”

Halman and a number of other scientists did a scientific study on the different norms and values in Europe and the rest of the world. 70,000 respondents from 47 different countries where given questions on five main themes, such as work, free time, marriage, family and religion / morals. Their findings were published in the Atlas of European Values. What do we think of tax evasion, genetically manipulated food, joyriding? “We partially share our values with other North-European countries. This is due to economic development and the level of education. Making your own choices is very important in countries with a high level of education. We’re not prepared to accept what they tell us, indiscriminately. We have less respect for authorities and the Church. This makes us more positively inclined towards such issues as abortion. We’re less close to Southern and Eastern European values. However, this doesn’t mean that we can speak of a North-European identity. Identities aren’t fixed but are reconstructed over and over again.”

Uncertain economic times Hans Siebers works as a Professor at the School of Humanities.

He occupies himself with the diversity and ethnicity in organizations and how to manage this. Siebers also claims that the Dutch identity doesn’t exist. He speaks of stereotypes and clichés.

“The idée fixe of a national identity is obviously very appealing to some groups in society. This has to do with economic uncertain times. Feelings of unsafety and insecurity feed the urge to belong to something. For the last fifteen years, the Netherlands has been struggling to sustain itself as a global economy. The last couple of years, the Dutch government has been very eager to enforce a sense of national identity.”

Siebers refers to the Canon of the Dutch national history and the assimilation exam as examples of this. He has his reservations, particularly about the latter. “That exam is ridiculous. It amounts to lapsing into generalizations aimed at bolstering a so-called Dutch identity that doesn’t even exist. In reality, the government wants to deter and exclude immigrants.”

Busy schedule Erik Borgman, Professor of Theology at Tilburg University, occupies himself with values and identity. “Identity is a story that outsiders and insiders - in this case the Dutch and people from elsewhere – construct together and tell each other,” he believes.

According to Borgman, there is a difference between behavior and identity. For example, the Dutch educational system stimulates pupils to freely develop their opinions and voice them.

This in contrast to various foreign, educational systems in which pupils are taught to respect what the teacher says and not turn against them. “They expect worse marks if they do so and they find it hard to believe that Dutch teachers consider it a job well done when they are contradicted by intelligent arguments. At the same time, the Dutch are socialized to not stand out. But none of this is so much a Dutch identity as it is behavior that the Dutch develop by imitating each other.”

Often, foreign students find it hard to get in touch with Dutch students outside of lectures. And some international students consider the Dutch not motivated to make a success of their study. Borgman explains why. “Relatively speaking, the Dutch are simultaneously part of many different connections and they’re not prepared to give this up. Therefore, they don’t have much time or desire to make new connections. They have a busy schedule. Every Tuesday evening at six-thirty, Dutch students will train at the soccer club in the village where they were born and in the weekend they’ll play a match there. Dutch students also consider studying much like fulfilling a contract. They do what they have to do but no more than that, while foreign students feel they should get as much as they can out of their time at University.”

Univers 19 augustus 2013