A special EU-Digest Report: The Netherlands: Trying to Find Itself Again – by Rick Morren
The fact that the Dutch are able to successfully market Santa Claus twice in December, first to celebrate “Sinterklaas” on December the 5th and then again as the “Christmas man” (Kerstman) on the 25th , tells you something about this country of some 16 million people. The love of making money is in their blood.
But there is something new going on in the Netherlands. Sometimes change is more clearly seen by those who have been away from the country for a while. The tolerant and vibrant Netherlands I knew of yesterday is gone. Racism, segregation, intolerance, religion, class struggle, belt tightening, laziness, obesity, are all words appearing in the Dutch press these day, describing what seems to be a divided nation.
To make matters worse the Dutch population has not only become culturally Americanized, they also reflect this in their spending habits. The November issue of “Dutch Management Team” notes that Dutch consumers are buying more (245 billion EUROS) than they are earning (237 billion).
The US love for automobiles and fast food has also become a passion for the Dutch, regardless of the fact that the country has one of the best public transport systems in the world and that gas costs the equivalent of $6.00 per gallon here. Two and three car families are now considered pretty normal. As a result the Netherlands road network becomes gridlocked from 8 to 11 am and again from 4 to 7 pm. It also turned many of the ‘slim and trim’ Dutch, who in the past considered biking as a passion, into obese fast food junkies. Long live the free market system?
Another alarming survey shows that the majority of Dutch employees, who get an average of 6 weeks of paid vacation per year, are considered lazy by most of their employers. The Dutch might have copied some of the vices of America, but certainly not the work ethic.
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