Best and worst thing about your country

[SvennoJ]

S.Peelman said:

Also Dutch. I parrot what SvennoJ and Tober say just above me.

The obvious point is indeed how well organized we are. Svenno and Tober mention infrastructure as in roads and cycling, but it’s everything really. From that to general services to all sorts of events to the organization of the landscape itself. I dare anyone to find a “people” that’s even better at this. It does connects to Tober’s point of having no ‘real nature of significant size’. I’d go further; we have no nature at all. We have a few areas that have a natural origin, but everything is man-made and man-maintained so to say. Even the dunes and the Veluwe forest. We have pretty cities because of this, but pretty outdoor places are scarce.

This organization is culturally ingrained though, because it has been a necessity since Medieval times as population grew and the water and usability of the land became a big problem. So this is both impressive as it is a shame. I mean, we have mastery over the water now, and at one point we could make half the country an island at the blink of an eye to deter invasions (which worked until airplanes were invented) but on the other hand Tober is right that there aren’t really any places where you can really ‘get away’.

This is also getting harder and harder by the fact that the population keeps increasing quite rapidly, Svenno also mentions this. Towns and cities grow ever closer to each other putting more and more strain on the outdoor space that is left. This naturally results in social problems. People’s patience with other people is wearing thin in certain places and the tolerance for continuing immigration, while immigrants have been a thing since the Middle Ages as well, is shrinking rapidly. There’s pretty much literally “no more room”. The population puts strain on healthcare, the education system and infrastructure and public transport. Housing is a huge problem meaning many are forced to keep living with their parents for even as old as 40 in some cases. To keep up with the increasing costs of trying to combat all that and to keep everything on the level we are used to (which is high), everything gets more and more expensive. From taxes to groceries to fuel and energy to housing. It’s a downward spiral. To use an untranslatable Dutch word; It’s not getting any more ‘gezellig’.

At least we still know how to party and everyone can be who or what they want to be.

Yeah that organization can't be understated. Once on a company 'team building' (get blind drunk for a weekend) trip we drove to Zeeland along the port of Rotterdam and all the British colleagues coming along were commenting on how even the industrial scrap piles are all neat and tidy, everything in its place. 

And it is in everything, advertising on shopping streets included. It was quite a culture shock coming to Canada with all the 'variety' overwhelming visual stimulation driving down the main street. (Then getting yelled at for cycling on the road lol, no cycle infrastructure in 2002 here)

The funny things is, I got used to it here and now Holland looks a lot like an amusement park to me. So organized and regulated it's borderline stifling. Like if you want to paint your house a different color you have to get permission. My parents had to hire an architect and submit plans for an extension to their house in Utrecht to have it fit in the 'plan' for the neighborhood. Where I live now no 2 houses are the same and apart from road regulations for fences, do whatever you want. 

Nature is the biggest difference. I don't remember seeing many/any fallen trees in 'forests' in the Netherlands, it's all open with well maintained paths, signposted (and always people). Here trees stay where they fall, after a while someone brings a chainsaw to cut out a section after a tree has fallen over a path. Paths are mostly made/'maintained' by usage and volunteers taking a weed whacker to fight back the nettles and raspberry bushes from closing them up. Some paths can't be used in summer, too overgrown and when a part slides into the river from erosion or gets blocked by a fallen tree people make their own little detour and it becomes the new path. The trails change like flowing rivers. Which are all fixed in place in Holland, organized, here the rivers shift every spring and this year they had to fix the erosion prevention again at the local trail head. 

The main gravel trails also aren't maintained in the winter months, sign posted no winter maintenance. And the hilarious, "trail closed when flooded" as in we're not gonna do anything about it, it will fix itself. I follow snow mobile tracks while running in winter after heavy snow. 

One of the coolest things about Holland is you can walk along the beach uninterrupted along most of the coast. All public space, would love to go for a run along the beach from Ijmuiden to Den Helder or The Hague. (Not all the way that's over 50km!) You can have an entire beach marathon. All meticulously maintained and always somewhere close for refreshments. But you'll be dodging people all the way.