Amsterdam never ceases to amaze me, and every time I go there and wander its maze of cobbled streets and shallow canals, I leave exhausted, physically and mentally--and my visit this Father's Day weekend was no different! But, as I get to know more about her history, the character of it's people--those that conceived, mid-wived and help her to bloom from the 1300's and on--becomes laid bare, and while certainly one facet that I see, is that of taking risks and reaping rewards, there are multiple others that reveal the seamier side of human nature. Starting with the 1500's for a period of some 300 years, the Dutch seem have gone on a worldwide mission of loot, pillage and plunder, with gold and slaves their prized commodities. So much so, that by the 1700's, some 40% of the worlds wealth was concentrated in the hands of the Dutch (that statistic was provided by a tour guide, and may be off a little, but still, the number is staggering, to say the least). Immense wealth in the form of precious metals & diamonds, herbs & spices, silk & slaves, flowed in to the land-- abundantly and virtually free! The Dutch, a practical people with a distinctly distorted sense of business ethics, traded in humans from the African Continent, and ipso facto, may have introduced the Western World to the concept of slavery.
Ah...Amsterdam, behind your beautiful facade, lies such an ugly past--your majestic canals awash with the blood, sweat and toil of innumerable less fortunate souls. It is said "Behind every great fortune, is an even greater crime"...well, Amsterdam, you certainly give that cliche a whole new meaning!
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