Hi Tracy,

>>And Holland should tend to Holland's business and leave the politics of the US to US citizens. You don't see many Americans telling you how things "should be" in Holland, do you?

>To be fair John, when I was in Holland it was absolutely beautiful. The people were warm and friendly. They all knew I was an American and they greeted me with open arms. This was in the early 80s. Of course I looked Norwegian, am of Norwegian decent, and my last name was Skogen then. :o) They did not treat the German tourists so well though I might add. I guess I should ask Walter if Americans visiting Holland would be treated differently today in light of the war in Iraq?

I do think that nothing changed towards individual americans visiting our country. If it has changed, it has changed since the 4 years of Bush jr. If I look at the news here (Papers, TV, etc) they say that if holland was to vote in the american elections, Kerry would win about 80% - 20%. The same applies to americans living in Holland. It does not have so much to do with the qualities of John Kerry, but more with "anything is better than bush". to be clear, Holland always has been a great ally to the US, even in the iraq conflict. We feel misslead by thinking the information the US and UK send us was valid.

Anyways, yes, we are an open country where media do not have an political colour and big companies do not have influence on political course. People relying on the media to be unbiased.
We accepted gay marriage and soft drugs users are common good. We strive for legalisation for soft drugs but we recognize we are fairly stand alone in this (though more and more voice from outside our country suggest the same thing) as you simply cannot win the war against drugs from fighting the drug dealers.

Our healt-care system is very good. You either have a private insurance or a national insurance. AFIAK, you're always covered. We pay a lot of taxes. No only VAT (20%), but also for fuel (500% or so) and income taxes (highest level is 42%), but on the other hand this way the government insures that everyone has a chance of reasonable existance. National pensions are way better compared to the US, and if you get unemployed or ill you're reasonably taken care of.

However we recognize that our health care system is too generous and we are in a process to make it cheaper, to also make it affordable in the future.

I could recommend any american to come to amsterdam and travel arround the country for a few days. However, be aware in Amsterdam (as for any major capital) for robbery and pickpocketing esspecially if you're a tourist.

Finally, About treating germans less friendly. As you said, you visited our country in the early 80's. I think, that this still might have been due to the WWII. Now 20 years later, with far less people actually have clear memories of that history, I think that plays a far less important role now: You can't blame anyone born after (or just before) WWII on the crimes of nazi deutchland.


Walter,