Why the Dutch are Different: A Journey into the Hidden Heart of the Netherlands: From Amsterdam to Zwarte Piet, the acclaimed guide to travel in Holland

by Ben Coates

As an outsider, I was shocked by the scene, but not entirely surprised. After a few years in the Netherlands I had become accustomed to the fact that some of the normal rules of polite behaviour didn’t quite apply. The straight-talking Dutch generally did as they pleased, thought nothing of saying whatever was on their mind and cared little for the unnecessary rituals of courtesy. ‘I don’t like your shirt!’ a Dutchman might cheerfully shout at a business acquaintance, messily eating a sandwich as he strolled in late for a meeting in his sandals. Political correctness was an alien concept, and people would talk openly in public about even the most delicate of subjects – their new boyfriend’s sexual preferences, say, or their sister’s embarrassing health problems. Under the national organising principle of ‘anything goes’, almost anything did – and that included dressing up in costumes that might get one arrested for racist behaviour on the streets of London.