Dream’s a lie, V
November 21, 2005The first thing that pops into foreigners’ minds when thinking about my country (they insist on calling it “Holland” while my country’s named “The Netherlands”) is legalized marihuana and prostitutes.
Of course, marihuana isn’t legalized, and prostitution is only legalized within strict confines of a few designated areas. But that doesn’t matter.
Somehow foreigners also have this idea in their heads that Amsterdam, my capitol, therefor is a safe heaven for everything, that there is no police in this country, that you can do whatever the fcuk they like. This of course also isn’t true, as was experienced by two Americans visiting Amsterdam. They videoblogged them being strip-searched by the police, and they almost made a complete scene out of it. They could not believe they were actually strip-searched by the police… They apparently had already been smoking pot and doing whores all the time, and therefor thought my country has no police.
They were in a “going-out area”– this is an area with lots of bars and pubs and such, and hence the police is extra careful and on watch there. This means that the police there will take extra measures to ensure that we Dutch can go out safely in Amsterdam– and even though Amsterdam is our biggest city, I always feel safe in Amsterdam while going out, because you see police everywhere.
These two Americans were stripsearched as a *preventive* measure; that’s anything but unusual in this country in “going-out areas” in major cities. The police then kindly asked that these guys put away the camera (something the police can demand, in fact, anyone can demand not to be filmed), and with a big smile, the guy refused to do so, and hence they got stripsearched. Perfectly normal business, as far as I’m concerned. You simply listen to the police, that’s what they’re for. I don’t give a rat’s ass how things go back in Alabama, but the American law does not apply here. For instance, in my country you are obliged to bear identity papers with you– either passport or driver’s license.
If these two Americans were truly offended, they’d kindly asked the names of the officers and file a complaint, the usual way of doing these things. These two were just out for a story to put on their video blog.
I suggest these two Americans follow John Gibson’s advice, and boycott my country. Good riddance, I’d say.
>they insist on calling it “Holland” while my country’s named “The Netherlands”
Well, in Greek we call your country “Ollandia”. This is the proper name of your country in Greek (and it means “Holland”). So, naturally, many Greeks would continue calling it as such even after learning english, because this is how they were taught it is called while they were in school.
But you are not alone. Greeks want Greece to be called “Hellas”, but no one calls them as such either. The word “Greek” comes from the turkish name “graikos”, and it has a meaning close to “slave”. So, they wanted it changed. But it ain’t gonna happen either.
Comment by Eugenia — November 21, 2005 @ 8:01 pm
Yes, but at least I *know* the proper name for Greece is Hellas (’Ellas, right? Or does the ‘ not denote an ‘h’ sound anymore in modern Greek?). I also know the proper name for the country we call ‘White Russia’ is Belarus. Or that Eskimos should be called Inuit. Or Sweden actually is Sverige. Or that Finland is Suomi.
Get the pattern?
I know what I’m talking about, I know that when I am visiting those countries, not to say ‘our’ name, but the proper local name. I have something called respect, I actually read up on the countries I’m visiting.
Most tourists don’t. And that can royally piss me off.
Comment by Thom Holwerda — November 21, 2005 @ 9:15 pm
Isn’t Holland a region of The Netherlands? I may be wrong. I am weak on my geography of The Netherlands. I knew about Greece’s proper name, wonder why no one calls it that? Hellas is nice. Sounds less like something slimey. And it’s Massachusetts, not Taxachusetts. Really, our taxes here are far lower than a lot of our neighboring states. Oh and Massachusetts is a commonwealth, not a state. Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Comment by Chris — November 22, 2005 @ 2:47 am