THE DUTCH, THE EUROPEANS, AND VOMIT

Warning: Sometimes I just need to vent at Europeans. It's nothing personal. Now is one of those times.


SNEER

There is much about growing up in Holland that I remember with fondness.
There is also much that is not worth remembering - many Dutch are petty, vindictive, superior shits.

As I'm relatively sure Muslims living in the Netherlands will agree.

According to a poll a few years ago, most Dutch dislike the Turks and Moroccans nearly as much as they dislike Americans. The anti-Muslim venom I have read in Dutch over the past few years is mindboggling, frightening, nauseating - not as paranoid as the anti-Americanism from Dutch pens, but much much cruder and much more primitive. The difference is between mere sneering despicion and racist bigotry - sneering despicion is more civilized.

The fact is that the Dutch hate the Islamites resident in the Netherlands with a passion. Which is odd. Turks and Moroccans contribute mightily to the Netherlands

After all, the streets of Northern Europe don't sweep themselves, and the natives sure ain't gonna do it.

[Also, without the efforts of the growing number of Islamo-Dutch writers like Sevtap Baycili, Abdelkader Benali, and many other allochthonous authors, modern Dutch literature would be mighty anaemic - many autochthonous scribblers seem to have such a case of "gawd ain't we clevah", one might end up gagging after reading whole chapters of their decadent garbage. And it damages the mind.]


EUROPEANS AND AMERICANS

Many Europeans I meet in the US are such superior 'we are better than you dumb yanks' pustules that I avoid conversing with them - I've already heard all varieties of their patronizing guff, and have no need for a refresher.

Often overlooked, in the trans-Atlantic give-and-take, is that US dominance is in a large part fueled by Europeans. Without European investments in the American economy, and without the Europeans acting as smooth, polished, obsequious collaborators with us in the third world, that dominance could scarce exist.

[On the other hand, one of the key differences between them and us is that European colonialism wrecked more of the world than we've had a chance to do as yet (the Dutch, for instance, exterminated the natives of Banda, and killed one third of the population of Java building the great post-road - not even mentioning what they did in Africa). This is something that should be kept in mind.]


TRAVELLERS

In Europe, until I mention where I'm from, I have no problem. I just behave like I normally do, and get along fine with people.

But the moment I admit that I'm from the U.S., the average Dutchman changes into the most irritating blister this side of a venereal disease. That's still a lot better than lower-class Brits, who become abusive and often violent, or the French, who spit, or the Germans, who are aggressively, arrogantly rude.

[Why is it by the way that the French and many other Europeans refuse to accept that workers in the service industries in this country bloody well have to pay for food and rent from their tips? We ain't buggery France, where they distrust each other so freakin' much that the service bloody well is always compris! Folks, the next time you're in an American restaurant and the waiter studiously ignores you, it's probably because your fellow Europeans stiffed the waitstaff after taking up more time and effort than twenty Yanks.]


Similarly, when it comes to Europeans and natives of the Central Valley visiting the Bay Area, if they behave like regular folks we just assume they're locals.

People who act normal will pass unnoticed.

Otherwise we ask them sweetly where they're visiting from, and file that information on the mental blacklist along with other delightful tidbits such as Texans being overweight vulgarians, Southern Californians being vacuous morons, the French and the Germans being the stingiest bunch of tippers in the world (and they smell bad, dammit!), Hollanders being coarse, contentious, and argumentative, the Italians wanting to congress everything in sight, the British having bad personal habits, rotten teeth, and worse morals, and Europeans in general being snide, arrogant, patronizing pimples.




Yes, I read foreign newspapers on the internet - why do you ask?