Headline, May12, 2013

'''AMSTERDAM : THE UNIVERSITY​! 

THE UNIQUE WORLD!!'''

For students this is a paradise: Here, the notion of student is totally different than in America. Being a student is a profession, and a respected one. And being a student has little do with attending classes or taking tests.

Here a young person comes to the city, is associated with a university in some way, lives in the neighborhood of like minded people and studies. That means reading, going to galleries, hearing music and, most of all, spending hours everyday talking with people. In this way, the whole city is a classroom, the whole city is a culture you study.

The very first instant you see this city, you are in love. It is no accident that Albert Camus set The Fall, that funny, bewildering monologue of a novel, in Amsterdam. This place is a haven for exiles, and always has been. Whether you run from religious persecution, political bullies, the law, or from yourself, Amsterdam takes you in, welcomes you, leaves you alone.

Holland is a country where there is organization without regimentation. The Dutch have a word for it ''gezelligheid'', which when loosely translated means ''coziness''. Amsterdam is a very bourgeois city, with all the virtues of the bourgeoisie: respect and love of knowledge, order, safety, cleanliness. The Dutch have at least eight words for 'bourgeoisie'  but they have none of the vices for of the bourgeois. No intolerance, no repression of ideas, no meddling in the individual's affairs.

Luigi Barzini wrote in the The Europeans of a Dutch Tradition, listing examples: ''Spanish and Portuguese Jews escaping the Inquisition, Russian and Polish Jews escaping pogroms. German Jews escaping Nazis, Protestants from Catholic countries, Catholics from Protestant countries, Belgian, French and German merchants and bankers fleeing the paralyzing shackles of mercantilistic control.

Books forbidden in other countries are printed in Amsterdam and smuggled across the borders. It is said that this tradition enriched Dutch morally, culturally and financially. In the early Sixties and early Seventies, hippies came to Amsterdam to take advantage of the liberal drug laws.

The old city doesn't change but rather it transforms the newcomers. Look at Dutch painting, especially the work of Vermeer, and go beyond the initial pleasure of appreciating light. See the scenes, the stories in the art. A girl pouring milk into a bowl, a garden party for two, an old woman sweeping her doorstep in a little street. They tell you that Dutch revere Life even at its simplest. Peace is more than a word or a concept; it is a way of life achieved through tolerance, respect and guaranteed privacy.

But the general feeling around the world is that maybe, the Dutch have gone too far. Be that it may, but in Amsterdam, good deeds are rewarded, art becomes life, and Dutchmen really can fly. Philosopher Albert Camus, in The fall, probably sums up closest to reality and truth:

Holland is a dream, monsieur, a dream of gold and smoke......smokier by day,.......more gilded by night.

With respectful dedication to the Students and Professors of Holland!

With respectful, loving and memory-laden dedication to great friends and teachers, mentors all: Ing W Verschoor, Ing J Tielrooy and family, Professor Bob Bomb. Thank you all for teaching me everything. Thank you for Engineering Abstractions!

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless