Grab Bag Of Random Posts

[Manneken Pis]

Nothing to do with football, but very interesting in terms of cultural differences between the Netherlands and the US.

From Simon Kuper's column in the Financial Times.....

Why American teens should go Dutch
By Simon Kuper
Dutch parents treat teen sex much as Dutch society treats drugs: permit it, hug it close, control it

When I was 12 years old, growing up in the Netherlands, a woman came to school to give us sex education. She was grey-haired, tough and unsmiling. I recognised the type: my grandmother had taught sex ed at my mother’s school.
We boys and girls sat in the classroom embarrassed. But I also remember wondering: what could this woman teach us? We’d already been taught all about sex at primary school. “I won’t teach you about sex,” she began, “because you know all that. Instead, we’ll talk about relationships.”
Living across the road from me back then was an American teenager called Amy Schalet. Later she returned to the US, and discovered a different world. Many American teens, she noticed with surprise, got pregnant. Some had received scarcely any sex education. Their parents often tried to ban teenage sex, just as American lawmakers try to ban marijuana and prostitution.
Schalet is now a sociologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and she has just published Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens and the Culture of Sex (University of Chicago Press). Her book starts in the adolescent bedroom, and ends up explaining why the US is so conservative on social issues and the Netherlands so liberal.
The book opens with a question that Schalet put to “white, secular or moderately Christian” middle-class Dutch and American parents. Would they allow their teenagers – typically aged about 16 – to spend the night with a girlfriend or boyfriend in the parental home? Nine out of 10 American parents responded, in the phrase of one mother: “No way, José.” Nine out of 10 Dutch parents said they’d allow or at least consider it.
You might think this finding supports foreign clichés of Dutch permissiveness. Yet that isn’t quite right. Dutch parents aren’t hands-off at all. By allowing the sleepover, they gain great control over their children’s sex lives. As one Dutch boy told Schalet: “If it happens at home, at least they [his parents] know where I am.” The parents can put their daughter on the pill beforehand. The sex happens practically under their noses. The partner – whom they probably already know – might be summoned for family breakfast the morning after. If they don’t like him, they can subtly start ousting him. If they do, he is adopted as a kind of son-in-law, expected to show up for obligatory Dutch family gatherings like great-aunts’ birthdays. Often the teen sex evolves into a bland mini-marriage. When we were young, a Dutch friend told me he couldn’t dump his girlfriend because his parents would be upset.
In short, Dutch teenage sex happens under parental control. It’s a zone of order. No wonder Dutch teenage girls are nearly five times less likely than American girls to get pregnant, and less than half as likely to have an abortion, even though they can get abortions without parental consent.
Dutch parents treat teen sex much as Dutch society treats drugs or prostitution: permit it, hug it close, control it. The Dutch know that some people will take drugs. They just make sure this happens in a zone of order. As John Travolta explains Amsterdam’s marijuana cafés in the film Pulp Fiction: “I mean, you just can’t walk into a restaurant, roll a joint and start puffin’ away. They want you to smoke in your home or certain designated places.” And Dutch marijuana cafés – like prostitutes – pay taxes.
By contrast, Americans banish these activities to zones of disorder. American parents forbid sleepovers, and so teen sex typically happens without contraception, in places like the backseats of cars. Kids have to “sneak around”, something that Schalet calls “an important ritual of American adolescence”. In fact, sneaking around enhances the thrill. When I took my English college football team on tour to Amsterdam 20 years ago, my teammates insisted on spending every night in marijuana cafés. One night, our American goalkeeper dreamily reflected that he was glad he’d grown up with everything banned. “We had the fun of sneaking around buying beer with fake IDs,” he said.
American society tries to enforce good behaviour through the institutions of marriage, church and prison. This doesn’t work well. If you just ban, you create unsupervised zones of disorder. The US is trapped in a vicious cycle. Because Americans create so many zones of disorder – inhabited by single mothers, drug gangs and other poor people – American anxiety over disorder stays high. And so Americans keep prohibiting, which only pushes more people into zones of disorder. Of course these zones fascinate teenagers. That may be why American teens take more drugs than Dutch teens, who, as I recall, can be quite snooty about marijuana cafés. One reason Dutch politicians are now closing many drugs cafés is “drugstoerisme”: foreigners wrongly think the cafés are countercultural havens and come flocking.
The Netherlands has done everything humanly possible to make teen sex and drugs seem dull. American social conservatives should try it out.

[SE6Ajacied]

Just wondered if anyone else has read Roland Reng's excellent book "A life too short" about Robert Enke. I'm about half way through, Frank de Boer is mentioned very briefly but comes out very badly.

[Manneken Pis]

Why can't this guy play for us.....?

http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/st ... -training/

[Orange14]

Why can't this guy play for us.....?

http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/st ... -training/

Pretty easy to score against that keeper as Utrecht well demonstrated!

[SE6Ajacied]

Someone forgot to check how this looked from outside the shop........Watrose supermarket from my hometown of Croydon.

http://www.blottr.com/london/breaking-n ... ent-advert

[Orange14]

Here is a picture set of one of the top US strikers; perhaps Ajax would be interested in a transfer deal.

[ajaxcolombia]

I just finish my application process to study a masters in cultural and social anthropology at the University of Amtsredam. I hope to get admitted and finally travel to the Netherlands and go to the ArenA cross your fingers guys please!! If I get admitted I'll be in Amsterdam in September, just in time for some champions league football

[Orange14]

I just finish my application process to study a masters in cultural and social anthropology at the University of Amtsredam. I hope to get admitted and finally travel to the Netherlands and go to the ArenA cross your fingers guys please!! If I get admitted I'll be in Amsterdam in September, just in time for some champions league football

Got my fingers crossed double! I had two great years at the State University in Utrecht after I finished my PhD back in the 1970s. Was able to see Ajax play quite regularly thanks to my Amsterdam cousins who had season tickets. My first year there, Ajax were beaten by Juventus in the quarterfinals of the CL on penalties (Liverpool won the title that year).

[rjf1]

I just finish my application process to study a masters in cultural and social anthropology at the University of Amtsredam. I hope to get admitted and finally travel to the Netherlands and go to the ArenA cross your fingers guys please!! If I get admitted I'll be in Amsterdam in September, just in time for some champions league football

Hey - another anthropology student. When I was a graduate student in anthropology at the U of Illinois, one of my primary professors that I studied under was from the Netherlands. His area of specialization was Peru (right next door to you, so to speak). Good luck on your application -- I hope it comes through.

[Tom_]

Nice one, good luck with your application!

I've just found out I'm moving to Germany (most likely Köln) in April to start a post-doc, so I'll only be a few hours' train ride away from Amsterdam... we could have an unofficial AjaxUSA meetup early next football season? Jim?

[aveslacker]

I just finish my application process to study a masters in cultural and social anthropology at the University of Amtsredam. I hope to get admitted and finally travel to the Netherlands and go to the ArenA cross your fingers guys please!! If I get admitted I'll be in Amsterdam in September, just in time for some champions league football

Good luck! Hope it works out!

[Amol]

I just finish my application process to study a masters in cultural and social anthropology at the University of Amtsredam. I hope to get admitted and finally travel to the Netherlands and go to the ArenA cross your fingers guys please!! If I get admitted I'll be in Amsterdam in September, just in time for some champions league football

So jealous. Hope it works out.

[Philippe]

I think we should remember this once a year, when Amsterdam workers set an example with incredible courage.
http://www.expatica.com/nl/news/dutch-n ... 10708.html

[GangstaRiB]

Just wondered if anyone else has read Roland Reng's excellent book "A life too short" about Robert Enke. I'm about half way through, Frank de Boer is mentioned very briefly but comes out very badly.

Why's that?

[gordonvandekamp]

I just finish my application process to study a masters in cultural and social anthropology at the University of Amtsredam.

Good luck, I've been thinking about going back to study in that field.

Hey - another anthropology student. When I was a graduate student in anthropology at the U of Illinois.

And another graduate from U of Illinois, wouldn't have imagined another one here beside myself.

[rjf1]

And another graduate from U of Illinois, wouldn't have imagined another one here beside myself.

I'm surprised, myself. I was there (Chambana) from 66 to 69. When were you there -- what did you study?

[gordonvandekamp]

I'm surprised, myself. I was there (Chambana) from 66 to 69. When were you there -- what did you study?

I was at the university quite a bit later, got my undergrad in English in 05, although I did grow up in Champaign and lived there until I graduated.

[SE6Ajacied]

Just wondered if anyone else has read Roland Reng's excellent book "A life too short" about Robert Enke. I'm about half way through, Frank de Boer is mentioned very briefly but comes out very badly.

Why's that?

Enke transferred to Barcelona in about 2002 but the coach who signed him was replaced by van Gaal who didn't really like him. Only played for them once in a cup game away to a third division team and (in commmon with the rest of the team it seems) played really badly. FdB (a much more senior and experienced player who was reportedly not blameless in the defeat) criticised him badly in public at the press conference which he apparently never quite got over. It's a bit more complicated than that but is just basically a story of how someone can be set up to fail and how unforgiving the world can be.

FdB was widely criticised at the time, his comments weren't especially valid and shouldn't have been made in public but never appologised to Enke for them.

This is all according to Reng of course but as far as I know hasn't been challenged as inaccurate.

[Philippe]

This should make one feel sick.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012 ... CMP=twt_gu

[souras84]

Does anybody watch COMMUNITY? I believe there is a 3rd De Jong brother!!! The protagonist looks like Siem's twin

[Tom_]

Christian Eriksen is the only Ajacied on 11tegen11's Eredivisie team of the season, although to be honest I'm not sure why Jan Vertonghen missed out...

[ajaxcolombia]

I was accepted in the University of Amsterdam!!!! !! Now I need help form the guys in Holland or Amsterdam. Could you guys help me to build a budget for Amsterdam, I need to know what could probably be my monthly expenses living in Amsterdam. If you guys could help me with that it would be great!! I could finally see Ajax in the ArenA

[SPL]

Congrats on getting accepted

[souras84]

bravo to our Colombian friend! now enjoy your time there and we'll be waiting for your photo's from the ArenA!! Welcome to Europe

[Ayman]

Congrats AjaxColombia....... And GOOD LUCK!