Atlantica - 01.09.2002, Side 25

A T L A N T I C A 23
the city, where Amsterdam’s heart of tourism beats loudly. There
you will find a cluster of bars and restaurants, which are jam-
packed all day and all night. Not exactly an inspiring place, but it’s
certainly lively, with outdoor cafés and street artists livening the
streets up during the day and glittering neon signs colouring the
night.
ONE OF THE FACTORS THAT PLAYS A BIG PART in making a visit to
Amsterdam enjoyable is the city’s inhabitants. There are few signs
of tiredness or irritation towards tourists in Amsterdam, unlike in
so many other European cities. The Dutch are helpful, widely trav-
elled and proficient language learners, most of them speaking
nearly flawless English. They are also handsome and boast the
tallest average height in the world (I was very relieved to be over
six ft/183 cm when I unexpectedly found myself in the midst of a
group of eight air hostesses from KLM in a corridor of Schiphol
Airport).
The Dutch have won themselves a reputation for being tolerant
and having the unique ability to live in peace and harmony. A
shadow was cast over this reputation last spring when a man by
the name of Pim Fortuyn suddenly appeared on the political scene
and said aloud what many voters had probably been thinking to
themselves: the stream of immigrants is getting too large, social
problems and crime often follow them, and, above all, they have
not assimilated into the community – this must be changed. This
was nothing new coming from right extremists on the Continent,
but the fact that Fortuyn was a smartly dressed gay man and that
his party included men and women of all colours made him spe-
cial. I write about Fortuyn in the past tense because in the begin-
ning of May, he was murdered with six bullets to the chest, just
before the elections for the Dutch congress. Leaderless, the
Fortuynists won a large share of the votes, and the day I arrived in
Amsterdam, they joined Amsterdam’s new three-party govern-
ment, led by the Christian Democrats. At the time of writing, the
new leaders of the state had not yet had the chance to prove
themselves. But from chatting with the locals during my stay, I
Boaz Bar-Adon
Architecture student, moonlighting as
a waiter at West Pacific restaurant
Where’s the first place you
take visitors to in Amsterdam?
“Albert Cuyp market in the
Pijp. You find everything there:
food, clothes, stupid glasses,
etc. It’s where the people of
Amsterdam go.“
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