International Exchanges at Home

The streets are busier despite the colder weather as QueenB and I discovered during her four day trip here to the Netherlands. As some of you may remember, I visited QueenB in Poland back in November and now it was her turn to come and visit me. We had a wonderful time strolling through Amsterdam, Delft, Den Haag, and Rotterdam and we made the most of our four days by visiting churches, museums, libraries, markets, cloisters, shopping districts, and harbours. We documented all of it by taking oodles of pictures of canals, historic buildings, canals, monuments, canals, some canals, and a couple more canals. If I never see a canal again...just kidding. It was a whirlwind visit which I labelled 'vacation time' in my agenda but I couldn't help but learn some new things about my project.

On the first day, QueenB and I met up with some of her Dutch colleagues here in the Netherlands. QueenB had met these colleagues through their work in Poland when she helped them navigate through the wilds of her own field site for a couple of days. The perspective of these colleagues was quite intriguing and new to me since they were both photographers and looked at space and place solely from a visual standpoint but whose projects included a social twist. Not only did I learn about the importance of depth when taking a picture along with some other technical “know-how” (including how to fast-walk while holding a ladder); I also learned some very interesting ideas about the creation of physical space here in Rotterdam.

As 'The Lens' said (and I do not quote him directly since this discussion took place over rose bier in a bruin cafe): Space in Rotterdam is typically renovated at a faster pace than other city spaces in the Netherlands because there is less history of, and thus less connection to, the landscape. The Lens was initially referring to the fact that the Dutch create land out of nothing through their polders which is reclaiming land from the sea. However, this discussion moved into the politics of city place and specifically to Rotterdam.

Rotterdam's landscape (here I mean buildings, skylines, waterways, and areas dedicated to nature) was levelled after bombs were dropped on its city centre during the Second World War. After the war, instead of re-creating the buildings that were destroyed, city-planners decided to build the city anew starting with streets and continuing into its buildings. Thus, the physical history of Rotterdam before the war, while not lost, is not always visible today. Following this, there is less stress placed on the preservation of the physical aspects of Rotterdam and more emphasis put on the constant betterment of city workings (vehicle and pedestrian transportation, waterways, economic pathways). This is not to say that there are no historical heritage projects here in Rotterdam, in fact those buildings that predate the war and such projects like the Hofplein lijn are quite furiously defended, but that space here in Rotterdam is somewhat more flexible and can be seen as an open-palette with which to make and re-make, create and re-create, to no end. I myself have noticed the constant rebuilding and upgrading processes here in Rotterdam and marvelled at the different levels of instigation over change to physical aspects of space and was happy to see my thoughts supported by others.

It was truly an international exchange of some sort in my home space. What a fruitful vacation!

Come on, Let's Celebrate!

It has been a busy couple of days here in the NL with Queen's Day celebration on April 30th, Remembrance Day on May 4th, and Liberation Day on May 5th. I participated in of them, snapping pictures and taking in the scene as I tried to understand who celebrates national holidays here in Rotterdam (on a city and local level) and how.

To begin, if I have to make one observation about Queen's Day as it is celebrated here in Rotterdam (I experienced both the central festivities along the Coolsingel and Blaak Maarkt - i.e. the main arteries of the city centre- as well as local festivities here in my neighbourhood) is that it's focus may be the Queen but it's goal is to sell, sell, sell! From the wee hours of the morning, rommel maarkt (flea markets) dot the sidewalks on all the busy avenues in the city. Vendors can rent a small stall (Kramptje) or they can lay out a blanket or sheet and display their wares. I imagine haggling over prices must be one of the favourite things to do on this particular day; in addition of course to wearing Orange and painting your face. This is my observation at least for the majority of families. For those who did not have, or are not themselves children, the streets were alive with party-goers as "Queen's Day is an excuse to DRINK!" as I was told by one person on the street. I failed to see any orange beer (like our St. Patty's day green beer) in the crowds so maybe this is something I'll have to try and introduce for next year's celebration!

Following Queen's day is the Remembrence Day dedicated to the Second World War on May 4th. The service in Dam Square in Amsterdam was, if anyone saw the news last night, a bit more eventful than what the organisers had originally planned. News brief: half-way through the two minutes of silence, a man began to scream very loudly which panicked the surrounding crowd and made many people run in fear. This resulted in some injuries and much ado. This is a very interesting reaction to something as 'natural as a scream'. By natural as a scream, I mean that he didn't say anything in particular, just screamed, which is an odd and out of place reaction but at the same time, this man was not brandishing a gun or shouting threats. In my opinion, the crowds' reaction highlights the kind of fear culture that has possibly griped Netherlanders (as with many countries) today. I am going to write a future entry on this particular reaction to this example of asocial behaviour in public space at a later point in time, therefore I will not get into it here. Needless to say, Remembrence Day was observed and many ceremonies were held across the country some of which were more lively than others.

Finally, today was the celebration of the Dutch liberation from Germany during the Second World War, which was celebrated on the plein next to where I live. This year was chosen to be a national holiday, which only happens once every five years, and which I think added to the busyness that I witnessed today. Proceedings began with another rommel markt (left over things from Queen's Day?) and moved into a very lively Drum band, DJ, historical theatre, model show, tai kuan do presentation, children's games, karaoke and much more. It was interesting to see people from the immediate vicinity and from further afield come together to celebrate the liberation of the Netherlands (with help from the Canadians don't forget!). I should not discount however that people could be celebrating the free popcorn that was given out by the local housing corporation.

Whatever the case may be, the end of April and beginning of May period is quite busy with public events that seem to attract much response and participation in public places. These types of gathering have definitely been absent in the winter months and is a welcomed return to public life!

Mind Your Manners!!

I volunteered yesterday in coordination with the 'Week of Good Manners' program that was hosted by one of the local schools here in my neighbourhood. It was my job to sit and wait for 10 different groups of children to come to where I was stationed and upon their arrival, act out a misdemeanour in public space so that they could politely offer advice on how I could act more appropriately in public space. My particular naughty characteristic was speaking too loudly on my cell phone. Fun! So as I ranted and raved about the game last night and how I lost money on a bet, the students got my attention and gave me advice on my behaviour that ranged from very polite to hilarious. In general, I was told that I should be more respectful of my public surroundings because it is being used by more people than just myself. I also however received such reactions as "There are babies sleeping here! They can hear you!" and "Not everyone wants to hear what you have to say, you know!" and my personal favourite: "Hey lady, you're crazy!" It made for a fun day.

With respect to my research, it was interesting to see which manners were identified as being important enough to highlight by the organizers. While I understand that certain manners were chosen because they could be immediately identified in a public space in order for the game to work, this kind of activity can provide some idea as to how people should use and how children at taught to comport themselves in public areas.

I was only 1 of 10 volunteers that were placed throughout the immediate area surrounding one of the local neighbourhood centres. Although my character spoke loudly on the phone, the children had to do the following when seeing other asocial behaviours:

1. Telling someone that leaving their dog's poop in the middle of a walking bridge was unacceptable
2. Helping someone who has dropped their groceries pick them up (without laughing at them first - not laughing was actually a requirement!)
3. Stopping someone from littering
4. Stopping someone from crossing the street on a red light
5. Helping someone cross the street who is unsure of how to navigate the bikes, cars, trams, etc.
6. Stopping someone from riding their bike on the sidewalk
7. Stopping someone from vandalising the bus shelter
8. Helping someone who cannot speak Dutch very well
9. Being treated to candy as long as they were able to act nicely and politely greet you

As you can see, the themes of the manners ranged from safety in public streets (crossing the street), to criminal acts (vandalism), to public nuisance (dog poop and speaking too loudly) in addition to helping those who cannot speak the language (I thought maybe I should have requested this one...the role was made for me!). I also noticed some underlying themes such as respecting your elders and helping those who are less fortunate.

From my post I could tell the children had fun and since today is the last day before a two week holiday here I could tell they were super excited to be out in the sunshine. Thus, in addition to working hard at being loud, I also worked on my tan sitting in the beautiful playground next to my place. Just look at my view!


Minding my manners was never so much fun!

Accounting for Biases

This entry began as a thank you note to my absentee housemate P.dot for his kind thought of forwarding me an article from one of the most popular newspapers here in the Netherlands called the NRC. This article is entitled ‘Absence of ethnic violence in the Netherlands explained’ and as promised, this article tries to explain why the rise in immigration and tensions accompanying it, hasn’t led to an explosion between different 'ethnic' groups here in the Netherlands. The author uses research undertaken by teachers with the public order and threat control at the Apeldoorn police academy to support its claims. The result of the research and the conclusion of the article is that the police are actually to thank for the absence of 'ethnic' riots here in the Netherlands.

I began to look at the Netherlands as a potential site for research because in general, the portrayal of interactions between individuals of different backgrounds (this word is problematic and very quickly, and in an unsatisfactory way, I understand 'background' to be a term that incorporates one's ascribed and assumed identities) by the media was very negative. For example, allochtonens (people who are foreign) have one set of ideas and act a certain way while autotochonen think and do another (also very problematic terms – read Geschiere). Further, if there is interaction, discussion or meetings between these groups it is often mismatched and hard to come by. However, during my time here in the neighbourhoods of Rotterdam, I have learned that this perceived disconnection is not always the case and I have also learned that while Dutch society is not devoid of racism, it is much more complex than any large media corporate could possibly convey in any one article.

Thus, just for fun, let's look at a most recent example (today) of how different ethnic groups are portrayed as being (forever) different and apart. The article P.dot sent me today discusses research done concerning why there has not been an 'ethnic’ riot as there was in the Banlieues of Paris in 2005. To start with, in my learning as an anthropological student, labelling people according to 'ethnic' groups is not productive. One's ethnic trait becomes a genetic trait, which also has the connotation that this particular attribute, behaviour, or way of thinking can never be changed...but I digress, let's get past the title.

Although I've gone through the article and selected only a few quotes, I believe them to be representative of the overall feeling created by the article. I’ll start with the bolded summary sentence placed under a photo of the police taking away a rioting Moroccan youth in Amsterdam, “While other Western countries have been the scene of ethnic riots, the Netherlands remained quiet. According to one new study, the Dutch have their police to thank for it.” From this we can ascertain that the Netherlands represents ‘Western’ countries and their way of life and that those whom they’re having problems with are from ‘The East’. There is no go-between each of these categories but instead they’re displayed as being separate entities. This of course does not happen in real life. It also leaves each category wide open to ascribing certain identities and stereotypes to particular groups – describing them and packaging them off as you’d like e.g. Netherlanders-good, Others-bad.

The author goes on to explain that there is an “...importance of knowing what lies behind the absence of ethnic riots in the Netherlands (...) because some have warned they could happen at any moment” (my emphasis). This sentence does a good job of creating fear about The Other. At ANY MOMENT we could have an ethnic riot!!! My goodness! Run for the hills there are going to be riots in the streets! The article goes on to say: “‘With reason’, Adang (the researcher) said about this alarm. ‘In a heavily polarised society, riots can easily break out’." the author does not explain what this reason is in addition to assuming that everyone will understand why it is that people are not able to get along (understood from the polarised society); I also think that you can surmise a bit of vindication within this sentence. After all, the polarization between groups is ‘with reason’.

The author goes on to explain how tensions are a historical fact here in the Netherlands: "In Amsterdam's Slotervaart neighbourhood, emotions ran high after a Moroccan-Dutch man was shot and killed by a police officer in the same year after he had stabbed both her and a colleague. Earlier this year, confrontations between youths of Moroccan and Moluccan descent rocked the rural town of Culemborg. The list of ethnic incidents goes on." People of Moroccan heritage living in the Netherlands are mentioned twice in this particular paragraph and although Moluccans are only mentioned here once, there is another reference to their troubles back in the 1970s…please read up – google: Moluccans, Netherlands, train.

The author continues to describe why it is that the Netherlands has staved off the almost inevitable attack from within (Eek!). How you ask? By the police’s good relationships with the community: "Officers invest time and effort in their contacts with local residents and social organisations. They get in touch with mosques and social workers; they know the local priest and participate in neighbourhood meetings occasionally (says me: good on the author for not just mentioning mosques as the only religious body of concern to the police). In this model, police officers also uphold the law, but only through targeted action (says me: are we talking about preventative searches now? See previous entry for more about the treatment of certain groups of individuals about the police or if you’d prefer a more ‘objective’ voice via the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance please click here…and the quote resumes). Police officers are familiar with the peculiarities of ethnic groups, allowing police to respond adequately to problems." This approach is in addition to a “repressive” model which I suppose is the bad cop style versus the earlier mentioned good cop method. I also want to raise just one small question at this point that I think every reader should be asking themselves, is no one else looking at the fact that researchers who conducted this study are connected to the police!?! So is it really a surprise that the heroes of this very sensitive topic in Dutch society end up being the police of all people?

***Please note that although my writing may have adopted a bit of a sarcastic tone, I do not want to insinuate that the police are not doing well at their job to keep the peace within the Rotterdam (as it is what I know) community. I’m sure that this is the case and I want to acknowledge that my position as a leftist, bleeding heart is placed conveniently of to the side of the realities of policing in everyday life. I am however interested in how relationships within Dutch society are portrayed to the general public and how the researcher and author have portrayed the results of the study (science is always very convincing isn’t it?).

Nearing the end of the article there were a few more scare quotes thrown in: "Some experts he (the researcher) interviewed said they could not rule out ethnic riots from taking place in the Netherlands in the future." From this you might start to think that an eruption between communities (note she does not write ‘among communities’ which is very important, this kind of language separates one group from another and leaves little room for access across these boundaries) is very near. But do not worry, the author fights for a more balanced perspective in the very last paragraph (which has unfortunately been considerably outweighed by the rest of the article that comes before it): “But addressing people based on their group-membership instead of their behaviour doesn't work well. A police officer busy writing tickets and meeting targets can only spend part of this time maintaining relationships. The sense of balance is lost." The problem here, Adang said, is that there is no direct pay-off. "Connections only become valuable when trouble arises." So, did this last ditch effort work for you? Not me personally, the trouble arises sentence reminds me that certain people…Moroccans according to their high rate of occurrence throughout the article…are likely to remain a problem for the police and greater society for a while yet to come.

Hmmm. It could be that I’m reading way too much into this piece or not fairly portraying what the author intended; on the other hand, maybe I’m not so far off. I hope I have been able to highlight some of what I believe to be the underlying assumptions by the author and the ammunition that one can gather from such writing that can or may not bias an audience toward certain narrow perspectives of whole ‘ethnic’ groups living in and amongst one another in Dutch society today. I apologise if any of this is not coherent but I believe one biased piece deserved another.

Dear Mom....

I haven't been as good with updating my blog as of late. It seems that one entry per week is not good enough according to my mother who was one of the first to take notice. "I keep going back to the blog and all I see is that 'Bing, Bang, Boom' one! I've already read it!" Well, yes, sorry Mom, you're right, it's time for a new entry.

Let's start with things that my Mom might be less than impressed with. Audi and I have decided to 'walk the beat' through the "mean" streets of Rotterdam every Thursday night. We're doing this because we've decided to take a closer and harder look at security measures throughout particular areas of Rotterdam, for example, the occurrence of preventative searches in Oude Westen. As I have mentioned before, preventative searches are unprovoked searches conducted by the police, typically on non-native Dutch people, for the purpose of confiscating illegal or dangerous objects. Although Audi and I have JUST begun (last week was our first time) we are going out again next week because we believe that there are things which need to be (better) acknowledged.

One of these things happens to be the seemingly double standard of those who are chosen to be preventatively searched. If you are a white female or sometimes even a white male, there is typically less of a chance that you will be searched. For those non-Dutch speakers, the woman in this cartoon is saying: "Hey Mr. Policeman, must we also be searched?" What is important to highlight here, I think, is the implicit understanding that these women will never asked to be searched by the police in such a way. They are (economically) consuming females who look quite glamorous and affluent in addition to being, I assume, native Dutch citizens. These are of course only my interpretations, feel free to impart your own. **Thanks to Audi for finding this cartoon.**

For some, these searches can be transgressions into their privacy while in public life; for others, (from what little we've experienced at this point) these searches may have become a normative part of one's public life. So how as anthropologists should we approach this situation? (well, okay fine. An anthropologist and a political scientist...but I swear she's an anthropologist on the inside!) It is not just these searches that we're trying to understand more about, but why it is that certain groups may or may not be targeted and what has led to such an approach by the police and the government. As I say, this project is only in its infancy but I will keep you updated on our Thursday night jaunts.

Moving on to things my mother might be more comfortable with, I'm off to my Aunt and Uncles anniversary celebration tonight. It will be great to see family who lives here again. After my trip home to Canada I got used to seeing a lot of family all the time so it will be nice to do a little bit of it again. The only trick, finding a flower shop open on Sunday...I'm crossing my fingers for a place open in the centre of town!

So thanks to my Mom for the words of encouragement, it was definitely time to send some post.

Bing, Bang, Boom

Although it felt as if I was coming out of a long sleep, it did not take me long to be back in action. I arrived after a very long trip to Rotterdam - my 7.5 hour plane ride followed by a 6 hour lay-over in Heathrow that was then followed by an hour flight to Amsterdam, an hour's train ride to Rotterdam, and then a 30 minute wait/ride to my house. I had only one hour to wait before I hopped on my bike and cycled to my Dutch language courses. I’m sure I was speaking Greek to everyone, which was not productive considering this was our exam class for the second level. Never mind, I passed and will begin the third course this coming Monday evening.

As I cycled home I couldn't help but feel exhausted as I had not had time in the plane or the solitude in the airport to have a nap. Unfortunately, my body had other plans. I stared at the clock until 4 o'clock in the morning and when I finally drifted off to sleep I was harshly awoken at 8 am for my 9am Inburgerings Curses (citizenship classes).

I arrived and must have looked positively loopy as my lovely teacher Fleur asked “are you doing alright?”. I responded “Oh yeah, sure!” in a much too giddy voice and decided not to say more as my Dutch was still rusty coming off a two week hiatus. However, luck was with me as our class watched a movie about the German occupation of the Netherlands in WWII. I went grocery shopping after class and then struggled home wondering why my bike was weaving so much (exhaustion)! Thankfully I crashed for a couple hours and got some of my energy back. I woke up and literally sent 15 emails out. These emails varied from the inevitable "I'm baaaaack" notices, to my applying for a conference in Sweden, the due date of which is tomorrow.

I went to bed at a more reasonable hour that night and then it was up early again to keep working on my ever-expanding "to-do" list and to also work off a bit of the ‘welcome-home weight’. Apparently the way to welcome someone home in Canada is to drink wine and eat dessert at almost every meal - this is time well spent of course. Early that afternoon I attended my homework help session and then scooted off to my 5th of May celebration committee. I decided to drop by the Bergweg station after that to see how plans were coming for the upcoming weekend film extravaganza – check it out here. Since there were still things to do, I found myself handing out over 300 anti-nuisances notices (this is my term but essentially these letters told the surrounding community of the upcoming event in hopes that it would forgo any complaints to the police but also to promote the event).

While I was out flier-ing I happened to hear a very loud bang-bang-bang-some yelling-bang-bang-some screaming and thought “What is this?”. As I came to the end of the street, I looked up and saw a girl standing on her balcony facing the road and talking loudly on a portable house phone. In her other hand was a hammer that she was using to break in the window on the door to her balcony. I can only assume that she had gone outside to talk on the phone and then unwittingly locked herself out. She had borrowed a hammer from the neighbour who was also on her balcony looking up at the sight in horror at every crushing but seemingly ineffective blow. Once this woman began to get an audience she made a bit of a show smashing the window and calling out to passerbyers while laughing loudly. I stopped, mouth agape, and when she looked down and saw me she said "oh don't worry, this is my own house." I laughed and moved on to the next mailbox but I was really struck by the oddity of the event. Firstly, she responded to me in English, which took me a couple of seconds to realise. Second, well, there is a woman hooting and hollering on her balcony giving all she's worth to the glass on her balcony door. Need I say more?

All I can say from the experiences of my past couple days is that I'm definitely back in Rotterdam – watch out!

Laying Low...And loving it!

It's been a week so far and boy have I been busy! I'm currently blogging from a friends house in London, Ontario - where my university is based - hanging out with some fabulous friends and letting the time pass by. I'm catching up on some very important things that have occured since I left in September - my good friend Lily has opened up a wedding cake business called Lavish Cakes that everyone can see at lavishcakesonline.com. It's a bit of unabashed advertisement but you should see the cakes! They are really good! My how things have changed!

It's only been 6 months but I feel as though I cannot recognise certain areas because of all the change. New buildings have sprung up and new people have come into existance. My family has recently increased by 1 this past tuesday since my sister gave birth to a health and happy ... and very quiet!...little girl. It's fabulous to be home although I'm still thinking about the Netherlands. I'm off tomorrow to have meetings with my supervisory committee and will go over some of the things I've learned thus far. This trip away will regenerate my batteries for the following four months and truth be told, I'm getting excited to come back. As it stands, I must go as my friend Chris and partner Luke unpack the Pho that has arrived by delivery. It's good to be home.