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Willothewisp.org
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Introduction To Dutch Society
 The Dutch people are formal, modest, tolerant, independent, entrepreneurial and self-reliant. We are egalitarian, individualistic and modern as a society. We place great value on a thorough education, be it academic or practical. We also consider hard work a virtue, with those who have ability and work hard being the most virtuous. We do not like ostentatious behavior considering it rude and crass. Making money is fine, but spending money is considered something of a vice and associated with that ostentatious behavior. In the past Dutch society was traditionally organised along religious or ideological lines. Each grouping such as protestant, catholic, socialist and liberal, had its own political and social organisations which pursued essentially the same goals, but from different ideological angles. Today, these differences have become less apparent and Dutch society is mainly characterised by pluralism.
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Polder Politics & Dutch Consensus
 Seventy percent of The Netherlands is below sea level, we keep the water at bay by constructing ‘Polders’. The operation of a polder can be quite a lot more complex than the mere evacuation of water, it is a delicate ballet and balance. It requires the co-operation of everyone who lives within the polder because each person is effected by the actions of the other. The mechanisms of polder maintenance are in fact at the root of Dutch social structure, its so-called "polder politics." The agreements that are necessary to the function of these water systems require a communal decision-making process. Even beyond the obvious need for neighborhood consensus on infrastructure, there is also the fact that very local action can influence an entire polder. So in Dutch politics there is discussion, lots of it.
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Dutch Tolerance
 Dutch tolerance, we are world famous for it, but it is not all that it appears to outsiders. Real Dutch tolerance is unique, so unique it has a purely Dutch word, one with no English translation “Gedogen”. Tolerance, as thought of by most people, is passive, but “Gedogen” is active. Gedogen is an open-eyed tolerance, but more than that it is a matter of governmental policy.
I will try and explain how it works, and if you are to understand us it is necessary that you do understand "gedoog" . If there is a social matter that will not allow a concrete solution, the Dutch will "gedoog" it. They will allow the exception to the rule but not by turning a blind eye to the violation of law, but by allowing the violation of law. Unlike many countries, especially the anglo-saxon ones, laws are not considered an absolute, they are a guide line that should be given interpretation and that interpretation should be inclusive of the shades of grey that life actually is, not the black and white that dogmatists would like it to be.
 The examples of official tolerance that foreigners typically recognize concern prostitution and drugs. We know that these issues are never going to go away, thousand of years of history from many different societies has shown that you can never eradicate them because they are quite simply in demand as part of human behaviour. Even the application of extremes such as death penalties does not stop the pursuit of these. Eradication of the problem is not practical; thus, for the Dutch, it is not the goal, and ‘ Declaring War ‘ (such as the US ‘War-On-Drugs’) on these things is always a war you are doomed to loose.
Indeed, the concept of ‘problem’ is a matter subject to interpretation. Our predisposed morality colors the debate about the ‘problem’ of sex and drugs. Predisposed morality is a factor (there are many others). "Gedogen" acknowledges this, it gives a legitimate place to ‘not legal, but not illegal’. It acknowledges that life is NOT black and white, rather it is shades of grey, because let us face facts any society that sees life in terms of black and white is either extremely immature, or dogmatically oppressive, usually as a result of religious fundamentalism.
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Meeting Dutch People
 As a people, and football matches aside, we Dutch are rather reserved in public and do not often touch each other or display anger or extreme exuberance for that matter in public. This is because we value privacy. However this should not discourage visitors from approaching us as we are very curious and when addressed will interact with you and try to be of any assistance.
We do expect eye contact while speaking with people. Looking away, or worse, looking at the ground is considered very impolite will almost be taken as a sign that you are lying. As a deaf person I find the way we Dutch use our hands to be very frustrating. The Dutch tend to be reserved in using hand gestures but are often offended if their conversation partner has his hands in his pockets or his arms crossed, in short we expect hands to be visible but not obtrusive. Hand gestures do, however, give the impression of self-confidence and they make the user look social and approachable, indicating an 'open' personality. We are very reserved in our body language, but it is there and readable, just very subtle.
“Hallo”
When you enter a room it is customary to shake hands with everyone present whether it be men, women, or children. Just recently at a family dinner a guest neglected to introduce himself to our children, so our six year old daughter marched up to him very firmly and publicly pointed out his rudeness to him. He certainly remembered to shake hands when he left, children included. When introducing themselves the Dutch will shake hands and will generally say either their first or their surname, rarely both. When answering the telephone we will say our last name, usually preceded by "met", which means (you're speaking with), “With Jan”. Children tend to answer the phone by saying their full name to avoid being mistaken for their parents because the Dutch will often get straight to business and tend to chat afterwards. When you see someone you know in the street it just yell to this person, it is impolite to shout a greeting, and will probably cause some annoyed looks, wave if greeting someone from a distance, or catch up with them.
Blunt & To The Point
Dutch manners are frank and can be described as a no-nonsense attitude, informality combined with strict adherence to basic etiquette. This might be perceived as impersonal by some other cultures but is simply the norm in Dutch culture. Always be careful when you ask a Dutch person for their opinion, you are very likely to get it. We say directly what we think of others without considering of their feelings because that is Honesty. We consider an opinion to be worthless if it is not delivered honestly.
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Drugs In Holland
I am often asked “Are drugs really legal in Holland?”. There are three things to keep in mind when talking about drug policy in the Netherlands:
1.‘ Dutch Tolerence’ papragraph above and keep in mind ‘not legal, but not illegal’.
2. Drug use is a public health issue, not a criminal matter.
3. A distinction between hard drugs and soft drugs exists
Photo left:Cannabis cafe.
We use a policy based on pragmatism, policymakers in the Netherlands believe that faced with a problem that history has shown to be unsolvable, it is better to try controlling it instead of continuing to enforce laws that ultimately only serve to oppress, remove freedoms and criminalize vast swathes of a population.
 The Dutch drug policy is based on the general principle of self-determination in matters of our own body, this is after is said and done the only true freedom that all really have. In the Netherlands it is not illegal to hurt yourself, it’s your body, its your choice; however, you remain liable for the consequences of your actions. If you hurt someone while stoned you can expect the law to fall upon you very heavily. So users are not prosecuted for possession of small quantities of soft drugs, enough for personal use.
Soft drugs are the psychedelic psilocybin mushrooms as well as cannabis products like hashish and marijuana. Distinction is drawn on whether the substance is only psychologically addictive or also physically addictive. This is done to separate the markets for soft and hard drugs so that soft drug users are less likely to come into contact with hard drugs. The policy has for the most part taken the soft drug market out of the hands of the criminals, thus reducing crime. Cannabis remains a controlled substance in the Netherlands and both possession and production for personal use are still misdemeanors, punishable by fine. Coffee shops are also illegal according to the statutes, but Gedogen. A policy of non-enforcement has led to a situation where reliance upon non-enforcement has become common, as a result the courts have ruled against the government when individual cases were prosecuted, the courts are better at application of common than the government is at times.
 Proponents of gedoogbeleid argue that such a policy offers more consistency in legal protection in practice, than without it. Opponents of the Dutch drug policy either call for full legalization, or argue that laws should penalize morally wrong or decadent behavior, whether this is enforceable or not, though this would raise some interesting questions about the sale andconsumption of alcohol. Those dogmatists amongst us we encourage to countries that would welcome their particular way of thinking, such as the USA.
This country’s policy has yielded positive results in the war against drugs with the lowest rate of addiction in the world, as is our drug death rate. We spend about €130 million annually on facilities for addicts, and have extensive demand reduction programs, reaching over ninety percent of the 25,000 to 28,000 hard drug users. The number of hard drug addicts has stabilized and now we are seeing their average age rising to 38 years indicating that fewer people are entering hard drug use.
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Prostitution In Holland
 Prostitution in the Netherlands is legal. Sex workers pay taxes and are otherwise treated like any other self-employed tradesperson, they even have a union. They are allowed to advertise their services. The state provide health and social services to the workers. Recent studies have shown an HIV rate of just under 7% amongst sex workers, a little up on what it used to due to the influx of more workers from the former eastern bloc countries.
Prostitution has long been tolerated in the Netherlands under the gedoogbeleid . No country has ever succeeded in removing prostitution. Where ever you try to ban it the women in the profession suffer for it, but legalizing provokes better legal and human rights protection and we consider the protection of women to be far more important than imposing an artificial and un-enforceable morality.
In an effort to stop the exploitation of sex workers, prostitution in brothels was legalised in the Netherlands in October 2000. This also meant that the government had the opportunity to tax prostitution and for prostitutes to pay social security and receive benefits and pensions. By legitimising prostitutes as workers, it removes control from the criminal element and make it easier to clamp down on exploitation.
There has been in recent years a surge in the amount of human trafficking and sex slavery as women from north Africa, the Middle East, Turkey and the former eastern bloc have sought to escape poverty and persecution only to end up in the sex industry. Fortunately the openness of the sex industry has allowed the government and women’s groups to provide avenues of escape for these women that would otherwise not exist. The women who escape then go on to become valuable sources of information in the prosecution of the traffickers.
The system is not perfect, but at least it does offer women more rights and protection. In the last couple of years we have also started to see co-operatives develop where the sex workers are taking charge and organizing themselves into working co-operatives.
Interesting things to note:
The cost of a ‘ window-lady is about 50 euros.
The cost of a couple of hours in a registered brothel is 500 euros.
NEVER hire a street walker, they are a high risk group and giving them business encourages the illegal side of the trade, and endangers the women.
NEVER assault or use aggressive behavior with the working girls, they are just trying to earn a living and besides the police take an extremely dim view of any abuse of the workers, so do the courts.
Return to The Netherlands page.
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On January 1, 1998, registered partnerships (Dutch: geregistreerd partnerschap) were introduced in law in the Netherlands. These were meant for same-sex couples as an alternative to marriage, though they can also be entered into by opposite-sex couples, and in fact about one third of the registered partnerships between 1998 and 2001 were of opposite-sex couples. For the law, registered partnerships and marriage convey the same rights and duties, especially after some laws were changed to remedy inequalities with respect to inheritance and some other issues.