Netherlands, Amsterdam: youth to day

What makes youth interesting today, has much to do with youth to (this) day.

When I arrived in Amsterdam, the people today were a sea of orange celebration, as they watched their football team taste further victory to day.

I spent my time in Amsterdam with Charlotte, one of the Montreal girls I met in Rome and thus she is my longest travel-relationship to day. And today, being two girls in Amsterdam (who can speak a foreign language when they don't want others to understand them) is much much better than being one girl in Amsterdam.

Today, many many people and especially many bachelor
parties (or stag & does) come to Amsterdam to enjoy what has been legalized and/or decriminalized to day (although apparently there's talk of changing these rules?).

At the sex museum in Amsterdam today, one can see how such an innate human instinct has developed through the years to day. Although one begins to question whether the differences in the 'taboo'ness of sex to day are perhaps more related in media developments to day rather than a change in how society views sex today.

But some youth don't have a today. Their diaries have survived and been translated to promote education to day. Tthe annex in which they lived has received many visitors to day, to explore life during war time, but their final exhibit explores discrimination today.

And what I mean by that is that the Anne Frank museum, besides reminding us of the horrors of the war, has an interactive exhibit at the end which was absolutely fantastic.

It provides interactive look at other types of current prejudices, all over the world, and tries to show how each 'side' of the argument might feel that its rights are violated. In each scenario, a brief 2-3 minute video is played on the subject and then a yes/no question is posed to the audience. The audience can anonomously select what they believe, and the screen will show the distribution of yes/no for this visit and then the percentage for all visits.

Each scenario is based around some form of racism vs some sort of freedom. Here are some examples:

- on neo / modern Nazi uniforms (which are banned in Germany), racism & a slippery slope toward Naziism vs. freedom of expression in clothing worn

- wearing a head covering in a publicly funded school

- Crucifixes were banned from being hung in publicly funded school. The Italian state wants it there because for them it's not just a Christian symbol, it's part of the Italian Christian history and culture. Publicly funded institution vs religious symbols that don't directly 'hurt' anybody

- holocaust denial - facebook closes all groups which center around denying the holocaust, but they keep popping up again. Although denying the holocaust is illegal in certain countries, it is not in all countries where one can access facebook. Again, racism vs. freedom of expression

- the protests of the English defense league. (or EDL, I'd never heard of this...) A demonstration was organized against Islamic extremism, but a lot of violence broke out, and this seems to be the case for all of the EDL demonstration (apparently they are not the most kosher demonstrators). The right to demonstrate vs discrimination.

- a carefully planned raid was set up to try to find and convict Nigerian Internet frauders. It was planned in a community where many African Americans live, as it was known tha this was their 'home base'. Many suspects were arrested, but in the end, no Internet frauders were found, only illegal immigrants, which were eventually deported. Discrimination against African community during raid since they were brought into custody based on their skin colour?

- Comic version of Carl Marx...?! Something something something. I know there were issues with the comic version of Muhammed, but I think they were talking about something different. Note to self: look this up

- Mein Keimph, Hitler's detailed plan for WWII is prohibited in Germany and the Netherlands for inducing discrimination and hatred, but also to negate the possibility of people following or taking some of his ideas and war plans. Freedom to read what you want to read?

- In Hingary, there is an extremist right wing political party called Jobbik that also has a Hungarian guard. They get about 15 % of the votes. The guard marches through suburbs, incites hatred toward and treats the Romani population inappropriately. Currently, wearing the uniform of a guard is an offence but Jobbik is still an active. Should they remain so? Discrimination vs. freedom of political thought.


That's the jist of it. There's definitely LOTS of missing info. I found myself not wanting to press 'yes' or 'no' in response to many of the posed questions becuase I thought to myself 'there's gotta be more to the story... and couldn't there be a happy medium where such&such is allowed but there are stringent guidelines in place so that it doesn't get slippery-sloped or boul-de-neiged out of proportion... but dammit that would be hard to make black & white, and even harder to police'

And as such, the interactive exhibit had served its purpose today as it promoted discussion, a discussion between myself & myself, and between myself & Charlotte, as we signed our names and comments into the guest book.

And with the powers of technology and your eyes, neurons, and mouths, it will hopefully, as well, serve its purpose for many to morrows.