By the time this article is published, I might not be in a situation to reply to comments right away. Still, not long ago I had a(nother) conversation with Blegoo and, visiting his blog, I’ve found some interesting news I had missed. This led me, for a brief moment, to question my love for Netherlands.

In that quote (which I will not source, because Blegoo didn’t bother disclosing it and I’m too lazy to google), the Dutch deputy premier is asking the European Union to hand back some of the border controls to stave off the wave a poor economic migrants from the “Eastern block” (i.e., Romania, Bulgaria and Gypsies from the richer former communist countries) – bl-schengen. And, as most Romanians know or should know by now, after Finland dropped their opposition to Romania’s entry in the Schengen space, Netherlands was left standing alone. Interestingly, that development, coupled with the “Calvinist Conspiracy” accusation levelled against Finland, combined with Max Weber’s thoughts about Protestantism and work ethic are what led me to try to make sense of the differences between Lutherans and Calvinists with rather unexpected consequences:

you idiot netherlands is protestant (comment to the article by a seemingly Dutch man; in case you don’t know, both “Lutheranism” and “Calvinism” belong to “Protestantism”)

I don’t hate Netherlands, on the contrary, I love that country. It’s hard not to, and my friends above are only one of the reasons why. Other reasons should be obvious from the article on Amsterdam (what to do in Amsterdam when you’re alive), or the one with Theo Van Gogh’s Cool, or the articles with that tag on tumblr (tumblr-neth, below) written mostly before I met my Dutch friends. It’s only natural that I try to back up this feeling with some proof.

Firstly, Netherlands used to be the country that had invested the most in Romania (2007). Now you can certainly blame it on circumstances and the kind of investments the Dutch make vs the business cycle, or even the source of data which has disappeared in the meantime, but you can’t say that the Dutch hate Romania – rather, they are very pragmatic (and tall, but that’s a different story :D ).

Focusing your anger and frustration on Netherlands for their stubborn stance, or delaying Croatia’s accession to EU for the same reason (i.e., to get back at the entire Europe by raising silly objections on the perception that that’s what Netherlands did), as some Romanians officials have done, is silly especially now that even Steaua Bucharest’s patron Becali has joined in criticizing Netherlands, after his victory on AFC Ajax. That’s b/c the Dutch are reflecting the generally European stance: they don’t want a ton of beggars on their streets, they don’t want shanty towns in their parks or the periphery of their cities (just like Romanians, unfortunately in Baia Mare), and they don’t want any more Gypsies / Roma / Zigeuner / Gitanes than they already have. This popular desire is certainly conflicting with the dream of a wide Europe, a Europe without borders and cannot find its way into official statements and agreements. This is why it came to the Dutch, Europe’s pragmatists (the Brits just talk too much, and the Germans are too big and central) to publicly say what virtually all voting Europeans think: we’re hurting, our economies are stumbling, we are having less and we don’t feel like sharing now – maybe never.

LE: Don't forget that the Dutch and others offer a superb answer to the Romanian embouteillage / traffic congestion. We’re just not that evolved yet.

The “exploitation” meme has made it even to Slovakia.

What is Romania to do? Nothing immediately. Just grow. Which takes us to the next article.

Sources / More info: bl-schengen, tumblr-neth, bsanna-geoana, geoana-nope