Worldly Chatter

What is a cultural identity and do we all have one? Well, there are many Dutchie’s who believe they do and are furious with their Argentinean Princess for making the statement that the Dutch don’t have an identity. It has been news around here, so much so that our prime minister Balkenende tried to smooth things over with the public saying that things didn’t go down well with some people, especially those who are opposed to multiculturalism. I found a blogger who tacked this on www.expatica.com and I found what she said very interesting. Blog writer Michaela is the nomadic type who has an interesting perspective on cultures. When you aren’t partial or attached to any one place you can see outside the box better than those inside. After I read it I shared it with Dutchie and we chatted about what Princess Maxima had to say and why Dutchie’s all over are furious. To say the least, Dutchie had a thing or two to say on the matter and got a tad defensive over the whole thing.

“Who is she to come in here and tell us if we have an identity or not? Just because she married the Crown Prince does not make her an expert on our culture and who we are as individuals!” Maxima met Prince Willem Alexander in 1999, she was granted citizenship in 2001 so that she could marry the Crown Prince in 2002. Like the rest of us who relocate here, she had to take Dutch lessons and get a course in Dutch society. Dutchie states that this alone does not mean she has the ability to assess how she or any other Dutch native is. There are things that the Dutch are known for here in Europe, there individualism, curiosity and straight forwardness. Don’t go by some of the Americans that go and confuse them for Germans, they are very different from Germans, but because some see them as German because of language they don’t see the differences between. Anyway, that’s another topic!

Some people look at the statement she made in this way; that there are too many individualistic identities for there to be a national identity. Why didn’t she just say that Dutchie came out with? I didn’t write the speech so I wouldn’t know but if that’s what she meant, Dutchie is right, she should have said so. A lot of people have taken this one sentence out of an entire speech and lashed out at the Princess. The Dutch have an identity, they have a culture and it is in the small and big things they do, say and feel. Not everything can be put down on a list of identity characteristics like this is typically Dutch, this makes a person Dutch and so on and so forth. There are many things that make a person distinctly Dutch but not all can be seen by the average tourist or expat. A lot of Dutch people have strong characteristics and are curious and straight forward but would a tourist know this by going to the tourist hot spots? Not really and would the average expat see it? Maybe not, it depends on if they care to learn the Dutch folk. The Dutch have a reputation for being rude and I, at one point, thought the same thing when I first met Dutchie. I have come to learn and understand her as well as the average Dutchie. They aren’t rude. They are just curious people who don’t beat around the bush or tip toe around a subject. They will ask you directly, did you vote for Bush or tell you that shirt makes you look fat. Does it mean they are rude? No, it does not. Dutch people won’t talk unless they have something to say, they aren’t big on the pointless chatter, small talk or anything like that. They talk it means they have something to say and they weren’t taught that old saying I was taught; if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. This does not make them rude but people see and listen to them for a moment and assume they are. They aren’t Dutch, they don’t take the time to know them yet make judgment calls based on a week or two here. Expats who live here and are so stuck in their ways from where they came from, don’t want to see the country and culture they put themselves in for what it is; they merely tear it to shreds, say how they do things different in their country and anything else is wrong or strange and this is what the Dutch feel the Princess has done. She isn’t one of them to know and shouldn’t make the comment she has made.

Think about this. I have a friend who is not American but has a strong opinion about America. Now, 95% of what he says, I agree with yet there have been moments where I have gotten so mad because he criticized and judged. He is not American, he has never lived in America long enough to truly appreciate or judge the characteristics of the average American. I am an American, I can say whatever I want, I AM the people and live the things that go on there. I lived there for 25 years and am only 27; this makes me a bit of an expert over him. The point is. People in any country hate it when someone from the outside say how things are and say who we are. The Dutch hate it too. Can I blame them, not really?

Yet at the same time I can see things that Dutchie cannot. She can see things about my culture and country that I cannot; merely for the fact that she isn’t in the thick of it. That’s part two of Cultural Identity!

Princess Maxima, Worldly Chatter, Cultural Identity, Dutch identity, Dutch Culture