LAST RESORT

In my previous column titled ‘INNER STRENGTH’, I reviewed Ian Bremmer’s book ‘Superpower, Three Choices for America’s Role in the World’ and I endorsed his pick of foreign affairs strategy for the United States, a strategy Bremmer called the ‘Independent America’.

In this strategy America declares its independence from the responsibility to solve other people’s problems and turns its attention to putting its own house in order so that it can build inner strength and lead the world by example, as a truly exceptional nation, rather than solely by economic and military supremacy.

Following this strategy would require from our political decision makers an extraordinary effort to extract America from the role of the global policeman charged with making sure that every nation in the world plays nice and observes the rules that we set for good behavior in the global sand box. It would also require super human discipline to stay on strategy if other players on the scene don’t play by our rules.

As much as I advocate with Ian Bremmer the strategy of an ‘Independent America’, I make myself no illusion that the decision makers in Washington DC will agree with this pick. After all, what is more tempting than showing what you are made of on the international stage? We are a Superpower and should assert and reassert our claim to global leadership and dominance at every turn in the road by sitting at every negotiating table and intervening in every conflict. But, assume for a moment that the improbable happens and the Beltway decides to concentrate all of its muscle strength on the domestic scene. How far would that go and how would that change America’s involvement in world affairs?

While we ponder these questions, let’s remember that the U.S. tried very long and very hard to stay out of the two big wars of the twentieth century, World Wars I and II. Woodrow Wilson did not enter the First World War until 1917, after it had been going on for almost three years and then only because Germany torpedoed the Lusitania in the Irish Sea, causing the death of 1,195 passengers, including 123 Americans.

Similarly, it took the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor for the U.S. to enter the Second World War in 1942, while the war had been going on for well over two years. While we now think of the Republicans as the most hawkish, belligerent, party, it befell on a Democrat to get Congress to declare war both in 1917 and in 1941. Given the gravity of the transgressions of the Germans and their allies in both World Wars, this reluctance on the part of America to get involved stands in sharp contrast with America’s willingness to use its military might in more recent times when, by just about any yardstick, the world order was threatened to a much lesser extent.

The evidence shows that in the first half of the twentieth century, America looked at the use of its military might as the very last resort to end conflicts and—other than under Theodore Roosevelt’s reign— it consistently stayed away from interventionist adventures in foreign affairs.

The twentieth century is now commonly called ‘the American Century’ in spite of, or—maybe—just because of this hesitancy to pull the coals out of the fire for other nations. Especially in the second half of the twentieth century America climbed to the pinnacle of world dominance as it decided the outcome of the Second World War and also prevailed in the Cold War that followed. So, apparently, America can prosper and grow without being the policeman of the world. But memory is short and, particularly come election time (which in the U.S. is almost permanent), Republicans and Democrats outdo each other in talking tough about perceived adversaries like China, Russia and Iran. In the current campaign for the White House, only the Independent Bernie Sanders comes close to underwriting the strategy for an ‘Independent America’.

For the reasons explained in my previous column ‘INNER STRENGTH’, I believe that America’s best course of action going forward is to focus laser-like on making America strong again from the inside out and resolve to use its military might only when the security of its borders and its people is directly threatened and then only as a matter of last resort after all other efforts have been exhausted.

The one question I cannot resolve in my own mind (and I have asked Ian Bremmer to address and answer) is if adopting the strategy for an Independent America would automatically have to lead to the annulment of the security commitments it has made to protect its allies like Israel, South Korea, Japan and the member countries of NATO against attacks on their territories and people. How should and will the ‘Independent America’ respond if North Korea invades South Korea, Iran attacks Israel, China takes over Taiwan or Russia occupies Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia?

That is the hardest question. When is America’s security interest directly involved? What criteria should be in place to decide these life or death questions? Does it matter if only conventional weapons are used or aggressors resort to the use of weapons of mass destruction? Development of a foreign affairs strategy requires that these questions are asked and answered in advance rather than in the heat and emotion of the moment when they are forced upon us. The answers should, of course, be kept secret and kept under lock and key as much as the key to the nuclear button. Whatever strategy America embarks on, it should never signal to the world that whatever happens outside of the U.S. borders is of no concern to America and will never trigger a military response. The military option can never be taken off the table, whatever foreign affairs strategy America choses, but it should only be used in the very last resort.

INNER STRENGTH

It is now little more than a year ago that I published my book ‘NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, A First Generation Immigrant in Search of American Exceptionalism’ in which I argued for the need to overhaul the American political system, including the need for a constitutional requirement to develop and maintain a national strategy transcending administrations and providing a compass for public policy direction.

Now, that argument has been picked up and elaborated upon in a recently published, excellent, book by Ian Bremmer, titled ‘Superpower, Three choices for America’s Role in the World’. Ian Bremmer has a PhD in political science from Stanford University, is President and Founder of Eurasia Group, a leading global political risk research and consulting firm, and a foreign affairs columnist and editor-at-large for Times magazine.

Bremmer’s focus in his book is—not surprisingly— on foreign policy and he chastises U.S. policy makers since the end of the Cold War for not choosing and sticking with a clear cut foreign relations strategy, but instead stumbling from one crisis to another without a clear compass on where they want to see America go and what role they want to see America play in the world.

I recommend the book. It should be required reading for the contestants in the 2016 race for the White House. I like the book, in the first place because it convincingly makes the case for the need for a comprehensive foreign relations strategy. I also like the book for—after careful analyzing and weighing the alternatives—coming down on the choice for what Ian Bremmer terms the ‘Independent America’.

In essence, the book offers a continuation of the age old debate about the role America should play in the foreign affairs arena. Ian Bremmer wants future administrations to make a choice between three strategies in dealing with foreign affairs.

1.       In the case of the ‘Indispensable America’, the strategy is based on the belief that, in the interconnected world of today, America has no choice but to be actively involved in directing or influencing the outcome of developments outside of its borders. The idea is that only America can defend the values on which global stability increasingly depends.

2.       In the case of ‘Moneyball America’, the strategy is for America only to get involved in global affairs if U.S. interests are at risk or opportunities arise to strengthen America’s hand in global positioning.

3.       In the case of ‘Independent America’, the strategy is for America to stay out of the role of the policeman of the world and turn down the responsibility to solve other people’s problems. In this view America’s strategy should be to lead by example by building and exhibiting exceptional cohesiveness and inner strength at home.

Bremmer’s three forked road only makes sense if one accepts that building inner strength and an interventionist foreign policy role are mutually exclusive. People will argue, like so many administrations have done, that America is powerful and rich enough to play first fiddle both on the national and the international stage. But what evidence can we bring to the table to support that point of view? Given the build-up of an $18+ Trillion national debt in the post-Cold War era and lack of measurable progress on issues of national importance, it is probably fair to conclude that a hard choice needs to be made. Failed or inconclusive interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan have largely contributed to our indebtedness, kept us from addressing urgent policy matters at home and undermined our reputation abroad.

I do believe that America’s global standing would be greatly enhanced if it embarked on a strategy—and kept it in place even as the White House changes hands—that set out to offer in one generation an outlook on an America where:

·         What can be achieved in life no longer closely correlates with where you were born, who your parents are, who you know or what gender or race you belong to;

·         Immigrants who obey the law and bring talent, skills and drive with them are welcome and respected;

·         The level of education one gets no longer closely correlates with the social status and the financial capacity of the student or parents;

·         The level of health care one gets no longer closely correlates with the location and the financial capacity of the patient;

·         The corrupting influence of money has been eliminated from the election process;

·         The national debt is kept under a limit expressed as a percentage of GDP (in a range from 50-70%) and each administration has an obligation to balance its budget;

·         Levying taxes is no longer a dirty word or a political suicide, but wasting money on causes that do not support the larger national strategy is;

·         An effective safety net is in place for those (and only for those) who are too young, too old or too incapacitated to provide for themselves and—temporarily—for those who are involuntarily unemployed;

·         The infrastructure is the envy of the world.

America has tried and failed time and again to reshape the world in its own image by intervention, diplomatically, militarily and economically. The American people no longer support an adventurous and costly interventionist policy. It is time to change tack and build the inner strength required to lead by example. If America focuses for a generation on being the best it can be while protecting its people and its borders, it is hard to imagine a nation that can surpass it in global standing, strength and durability. It will take extraordinary willpower and discipline to learn not to get distracted from this strategy by events and provocations that will undoubtedly come up, but that too is part of building inner strength.

THE FORTY FIFTH PRESIDENT

Should we laugh or should we cry? We came back from a five week summer vacation in the Netherlands and what do you know: Donald Trump has consolidated his lead in the polls on the GOP side for the 2016 White House elections. Of course, at 15 months away from the voting booths, this means as much as the Cleveland Browns winning a pre-season game, but I still have to rub my eyes in disbelief. Are we really that alienated, frustrated and stupid?

Speaking of Cleveland, that is where, in about a year from now (July 18-21, 2016), the Republican convention will crown its contender for the White House. Who will carry the day there? The convention will not know who the Democratic nominee is going to be, since the Democratic convention in Philadelphia will come a week after the GOP gathering. The party will, by the process of elimination, have to find that person that can put the White House back in Republican hands, without knowing (for sure) who the Democratic opponent is going to be. The scenario will be most interesting if the democrats, somehow, avoid turning their convention into a crowning ceremony for the next Clinton.

I don’t think it will be Donald Trump coming out as the winner, for only one reason: Cleveland does not give him a large enough platform to display his ego. For the emperor of Manhattan to be contending with mere mortals is bad enough, to have to do it at ‘the mistake at the lake’ is outright demeaning. This may exactly be why the party bosses (about the only Americans not infatuated with Mr. Trump) have picked the city at the confluence of the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie as the site for their convention. I am in good company in believing that the 69 year old caricature of an American capitalist will not carry the day, because a good number of political pundits, including New York Times columnists Ross Douthat and David Brooks, categorically assure us that Trump will not be president or even the Republican nominee.

But, regardless of who the GOP nominee will turn out to be—who knows a lot can happen in the 11 months separating us from the circus coming to Cleveland—it is a distressing thought that for almost a year we will have to witness the charade of all the characters who think that they are just the right candidate for the presidency parading across our TV screens. This spectacle would be impossible if it was not for the billions of dollars floating around looking for a political cause or campaign to support. Money, in this case, is the root of all evil. Isn’t it amazing that Americans will fight tooth and nail to avoid tax increases, but they voluntarily part with billions if it comes to buying lottery tickets or they think it will buy them political influence.

If you think about what the job of President of the United States really is, isn't it surprising that so many Americans are even in this race? Who wants the job? Well, that is clear, Donald Trump really wants it and he is used to getting what he wants and a virtuoso at it. In this case, it is well within his reach, because he is probably the only candidate who can simply buy the presidency.

Jon Lovett, in an August 18, 2015 article for The Atlantic, writes a futuristic piece “Looking backward on the Presidency of Donald Trump”. Of course it is speculative but it is equally foreboding. Is this what the American people want and deserve? Isn’t our political system screwed up enough, that it needs to be thrown further into demise by the election of an egotistical buffoon of the size of Donald Trump?

The American people already have plenty of reasons to be rejecting most of the other announced candidates for one of the following reasons:

·         You don’t allow the forming of a republican form of dynasty, which rules out electing another Bush or Clinton.

·         The baby boomer generation has had its chances to make a difference and wasted them all, so no-one over 60 years old should be nominated.

·         The American Presidency is probably the toughest, most demanding, job in the world so it should not be entrusted to people my age, card carrying AARP members.

·         Candidates capable of only producing soundbites without being able to present a coherent strategic plan for the nation should be disqualified.

·         Candidates intent on building a wall at our borders instead of looking at modern day information technology to keep undesirables out.

·         Candidates who refuse to acknowledge that we are all immigrants, who wrested this territory away from the Native Americans, and can’t differentiate between immigrants and undesirables.

Is anyone left standing if these criteria are applied?

America has now been an independent nation under 44 occupants of the White House. Most Americans cannot name more than a handful of men who have occupied the highest office in the country. They can be excused, because most of them have had a reign that was utterly forgettable or worse. It shows that America’s destiny is not dependent on who occupies the White House. Why then are we getting so worked up, for so long, about will be the 45^th President?

Aren’t we better off ignoring this money infused circus and focusing instead on correcting the flaws in our political system? That’s what I advocate in my book “NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, A First Generation Immigrant in Search of American Exceptionalism’. The American people will have a crucial decision to make: Are they going to believe that a single person can make the difference or will they accept that the 45^th President will, like his/her recent predecessors, be doomed to failure if the rules of the game do not change?

THERE

July 31-August 5, 2015

“Berend Botje ging uit varen

Met zijn scheepje naar Zuidlaren

De weg was recht, de weg was krom

Nooit kwam Berend Botje weerom.

Een, twee, drie, vier, vijf, zes, zeven,

Waar is Berend Botje gebleven?

Hij is niet hier, hij is niet daar

Hij ging naar Amerika.”

(Dutch nursery rhyme)

We are finishing up on our pilgrimage back to the home country and it is time to review what we have seen and learned. In my book ‘NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, A First Generation Immigrant in Search of American Exceptionalism’ I compared the conditions I found in America in the early eighties (when we had to decide if we wanted to go back to Europe or immigrate to America, where we had been living for 7 years as ex-expatriates) with the conditions we encounter in modern day America. In this pilgrimage I had the opportunity to compare contemporary life in the Netherlands with contemporary life in America. It had been long since I had taken the time to look around in the Netherlands and interview people living there.

I find the Netherlands more beautiful and better organized than I remember it. Admittedly, I focused on and spent almost all of my time in the areas of natural beauty, which generally equates with low population pressure and unspoiled landscapes, like Zeeland, Brabant, Drenthe, de Achterhoek, de Veluwe, de Utrechtse Heuvelrug, Kockengen, and – most of all – Vlieland. But I also spent considerable time in Rotterdam, my college town, and found it more vibrant, cleaner and more cosmopolitan than it was when I lived there. Rotterdam has had the benefit of a succession of exceptionally competent and ambitious mayors who have propelled the city forward both economically, socially and architecturally.The current mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb, was born in Morocco, came as a ten year old boy to the Netherlands, and is of Islamic faith. He acquired world-wide recognition when he addressed his many compatriots and fellow Muslims living in the Netherlands and bluntly told them that if they were unwilling to conform to Dutch culture and laws, they would be well advised to go somewhere else. He is a politician of a caliber we can be envious of in the U.S. This is the type of modern day politician that the world needs more of if it wants to deal effectively with the challenges of globalization and immigration.

We are deeply touched by the welcome we have received from family and friends, most of whom we had not seen in a long time. In almost 5 weeks we have not had to stay one night in a hotel. Our home base in Kockengen, in the heart of the country, was graciously made available to us by a dear old friend, while she was spending her summer at her property in France. In Zeeuws Vlaanderen we stayed at the home of a fellow member of the Round Table, who had moved the family for the month of July to the Belgian coast. We stayed four nights with Christie’s brother Jaap and four days with her brother Kees. We stayed one night with my 84 old brother Wolter and one night with college friends in Ulvenhout, in Brabant. On Vlieland we shared a big rental house in the dunes with Christie’s four siblings. In the process we had ample opportunity to compare notes about living in Holland versus living in America. It seemed that nobody wanted to trade places with us. Hospitality is a sacred tradition also in many areas in the USA and with most ethnic components of its population. But I found the hospitality experienced in Holland of special depth and breadth. Without exception, we found deep and sincere interest in our live-paths, in our points of view and in our family. I had in five weeks more, and more penetrating, conversations about life and its vagaries than I recall having back home in years. I found keen interest in my book and, in many instances, was met with probing and incredulous questions about my view of America today. Holland is a country with a tolerant, middle of the road, tradition and I found little or no understanding for the far left and the far right expressions of American politics. My friends and relatives in the Netherlands are stunned by the paralysis and dysfunction displayed in the American Congress and don’t understand the dynamics behind it. Who does? I get the sense that American leadership – as displayed during the World Wars – is still desired and expected here but found either misdirected or sorely missing.

The Dutch infrastructure, in contrast with America’s, is up to date. Public transportation of all kinds is abundantly available everywhere, and affordable. Combined with the popularity of the bike, the Dutch, are much less dependent on cars than we are. Which is a good thing, because, as it is, traffic jams and long delays are par for the course during rush hours on the highways in the Randstad (the big city region between Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht). Biking’s popularity means that Dutch kids have less trouble to stay in shape than their American peers who get bussed or chauffeured everywhere. I found the Dutch also much more environmentally conscious than Americans, as evidenced by their interest in clean energy, in combating the effects of climate change, in avoidance of car use in favor of public transportation or biking, in rigorous recycling and in deposits on the use of glass and plastic bottles.

The political climate in the Netherlands is very different from what we experience in America. The number of political parties is larger than ten, money influence in politics is, if it exists, undetectable to the naked eye. Of course it helps that, in the parliamentary system, the members of parliament don’t have to run for personal election. Their seat in parliament depends on the percentage of votes the party they belong to collects and on their ranking on the election list of their party. Candidates for parliament campaign for their party rather than for their own seat. They don’t have to hold out their hand at every election and don’t waste time on campaign donor events.Because of the multitude of parties participating in national elections, forming a government is by necessity a matter of building a coalition, which –in turn – means articulating an agenda, a platform from which to govern. The strategic direction for the government is negotiated up-front by the parties participating in the coalition government. National parliamentary elections are held every four years or upon resignation of the ruling coalition, whichever comes first.

Unavoidably, the question came up for me, if, now that I had a chance to give the Netherlands a second look, I find that I made a mistake by emigrating to the USA. It is a moot point. The die has been cast. The Jager family is, and will remain, firmly rooted in American soil. But I doubt if I would have left the Netherlands if, in the early eighties, I could have foreseen how life in the Netherlands and America would develop in very different directions from what I predicted at the time. I have to accept the reality that most of the contemporaries I went to school with, including our siblings, have done equally well or better in their careers than I have in the USA. Nor can I deny that their children are, almost without exception, at least as well educated and successful as ours.

Holland is a pleasant, tolerant and safe living environment. It appears well governed, managed and organized. It is evident that here the taxpayers get something tangible for their admittedly stiff taxes. Its people are enterprising, well-educated and culturally and socially aware. Its natural landscapes are breathtaking and all within 1-2 hours’ car ride from the center of the country. The USA undoubtedly has landscapes of more majesty, but most of them are hard to reach and far apart. It was one of my biggest surprises, that peace and quiet can still be found in Holland, in spite of the population growth from 11 million to over 16 million souls in my lifetime. It is easy to escape the Randstad and the rat-race in the Netherlands by a less than two hour car ride to one of these well protected oases. In Cleveland a two hour car ride gets me to Pittsburgh, Columbus or Detroit. Another surprise is how well the country has preserved its national heritage of centuries’ old buildings, churches, castles, windmills, homes and cityscapes. Anything of historic stature has been preserved and carefully and lovingly renovated or restored. Some of the priciest real estate in Holland is now found in these architectural treasures, notwithstanding the strict regulations protecting the originality and integrity of the objects.

It was a pilgrimage well taken and I am grateful for my heritage. My book is titled NEITHER HERE NOR THERE. It is a reference to the tug of war between my Dutch origins and my American present. In this pilgrimage I found that life in Holland is a life of opportunity for almost everyone with drive, ambition, and a purpose. It is a more equal society than found in America today. The choice between HERE and THERE has only become more complicated since I had to make it.

VLIELAND

July 27-31

We have now reached the northern most point of the Netherlands. This is the part I had the most expectation for and I'm not disappointed. The weather forecast was bleak: rain every day and temperatures barely at 60 F. Rain we are getting, but in showers not as a constant downpour. Thinking about what I wanted out of my stay at the island, it was mostly exploring, discovering the island and its natural treasures, getting back in touch with nature not much interfered with. I figured that in shorts and a T-shirt it would not matter that much if I got wet, but I have not been at the beach for a long time with water temperatures in the 50's and air temperatures not much higher. I had hoped that I could be surf casting, but I was unequipped and unprepared for that. Every day I find people casting out in the surf, but they are dressed in rain suits, waders and they bring heavy duty equipment to the battle. They are catching fish, sea-bass and flounder, which they entice to take the bait (mud-worms). But it is hard work and, from what I observe, catches are sporadic. No sharks or stingrays here.

Fishermen fit perfectly in the picture. Nothing else spoils the sovereignty of the landscape. Beaches are running endlessly into the ocean mist. Where the dunes end there are just flat sandy beaches.  We took a guided excursion to the western end of Vlieland, which is controlled by the Royal Dutch Air Force (of which I am a retired officer) as a training ground for air strikes. The area is not otherwise accessible for tourists and visitors. For miles on end, there is nothing there but sand and sea. And the birds that belong there or are simply passing by. And the seals that make a predator free home here. Here, the only points of reference are the mileposts, the observation tower for the airforce and a curious beachcomber shed, surrounded by a palisade of driftwood and flotsam. We could walk up to the the seals, frolicking in the creeks and pools.

Vlieland is about as old as the inhabited history of the Netherlands. As a barrier between the North Sea and the shallow Wadden Sea, it is a player in the eternal and typically Dutch struggle between water and sand. The whole area is a play of shifting sands, shallows and channels accommodating the fearsome pressures of water, wind and tides coming in from the North Sea. Little in the landscape here is lasting. It is made of sand, which shifts constantly. Vlieland only has one village, named Oost Vlieland, which is nestled in the dunes on the southeast side of the island and protected by a dike from the Wadden Sea, which otherwise could surprise the population in a backdoor sneak attack. The famous Dutch Admiral, Michiel Adriaensz de Ruyter, had a home here and attended church at the Nikolaas Church which still stands, thanks to several renovations. Vlieland has only 1,100 permanent residents (the only ones allowed to drive a car here), but in the summertime the population grows tenfold by the tourists coming in on the ferry from the mainland. They are accommodated at a choice of hotels, B&B's, rental homes and several camping grounds. But, if you stay away from the Dorpstraat, the main street of Oost Vlieland, you will not experience any overwhelming presence of humans. It helps that cars are virtually absent and people move on foot or by bike. Bike rental is a major source of revenue for the local businesses.

Vlieland is the most forested of the Wadden islands. The Dutch forest service started the forestation in the early part of the 20th century and the growth of deciduous trees and conifers are now fully mature. A small part of the island is dedicated to cranberry fields and there is substantial grassland to provide hay to the livestock of Vlieland, mostly horses.

The dunes protecting the island from the fury of the North sea are momentous in height and stature. A limited number of trails provide beach access between the dune tops.

Vlieland is rich in animal life, dominated by the birds, both residential and transitory. It is a bird watchers' paradise. And then you have the seals and plenty of rabbits. I have written at previous occasions about the special mystique of island life. It is at full display in Vlieland. I explored the island from East to West and took in the beauty of the beaches, the dunes, the forests, the village, the moors and the mudflats of the Wadden sea. It was tough peddling against the wind and up the hilly dunes patches, but you get rewarded by an easy wind driven return. Vlieland is peaceful and beautiful in all seasons and under any weather conditions. But most agreeable when the sun peaks through the clouds and the showers hold off or blow over. If you like island life Vlieland is for you. It is a micro-cosmos of Dutch landscapes and it has preserved its long history for a long time. For us it was an ideal gathering place for family members we have had little regular and intimate contact with since our departure for the other side of the Atlantic. A culmination of sorts to our pilgrimage to the home country.

DRENTHE

July 23-26

We are now in one of the three Northern provinces in the Netherlands, named Drenthe. Christie's brother Kees lives here, in the village of Diever, with his wife Wietske. They bought the home of the former mayor of Diever, which no longer needs a mayor because Diever is no longer an independent community. The Netherlands has gone very far in consolidating municipalities to eliminate duplication, cost and waste. So has Diever with a number of other, formerly independent towns and villages, become part of the municipality of Westerveld (an entity not previously found on the map). The townhall for Westerveld is newly built and located in Diever.

This part of Holland is another place of serenity and tranquility. It is amazing how many oases of natural beauty and peace are still available. For the second time since we arrived in Holland have we been on a long bike ride. The weather was just perfect, partly sunny and about 65 degrees, after a ferocious storm came through late yesterday and brought down trees everywhere. In contrast to the US, such event does not trigger power outages here, because all power lines have long ago been moved underground.

The coastal areas of Holland took the brunt of the storm of July 25, with wind gusts in excess of 100km/hr. We witnessed the storm coming in over the water at Stavoren, on the edge of the IJsselmeer, where the classic Frisian sailing race 'Skutjesilen' had to be canceled because of the weather conditions. Apparently, according to the media, we experienced the second fiercest July storm ever recorded in the Netherlands. Braving the conditions, we dedicated our day of July 25 to a tour (by car) of some of the island cities of the former 'Zuiderzee' (now IJsselmeer) which are, as a result of the land reclamation, surrounded by newly gained land of the 'Noordoostpolder' and 'Flevoland'. It is a unique phenomenon to see these age old island cities, with their harbors still intact, embedded in the flattest, newest land imaginable. We visited Stavoren, Urk, Lemmer and Vollenhoven. They are all centuries old and of unparalleled charm.

Drenthe is home to the largest collections of 'hunebedden', ceremonial grave sites, dating back more than 5,000 years. Not quite as big or imposing as 'Stone Hedge', they are nevertheless important archaeological features in the landscape. Drenthe is lightly populated with little more than 450,000 inhabitants in the total province. It was traditionally a poor area, since the sandy soil was not very productive for agricultural purposes. Large parts of the landscape are therefore unspoiled, heavily wooded and interspersed with moorland. The features of the landscape are sculpted by the retreating glaciers of the Ice Age, leaving behind morenes, huge boulders which became the building blocks for the 'hunebedden'. Biking around in Drenthe you have no idea that you are in the most densely populated country in Europe. The economy is part agricultural, but mostly recreational. Little industry and few jobs, which causes the young to leave for the big cities in Holland and the old to move in or hang around. Forgetting the weather it is ideal retirement terrain.

West of Drenthe lies the province of Friesland, the only province with its own language (Frisian) which is distinctly different from Dutch. The language makes a cultural revival and appears on most signs and publications, but is not a compulsory faculty in the Frisian schools. In Friesland we visited Stavoren, which we reached by way of the Ice Age created sandy ridge named 'Gaasterland' in an otherwise low lying land of lakes, grassland and waterways. Friesland is the land of sailing (in the summer) and ice skating (in the winter). Gaasterland is breathtakingly beautiful, with only a few small villages named Nijemardum, Aldemardum, Rijs en Murns. From there, the fishing village of Stavoren is only a stone-throw away.

Our last stop on the day of the storm was in Giethoorn, called 'Venice of the North', where the prevailing means of transportation is the boat. It is a major tourist attraction offering 1 hour and 2 hour boat rides on man powered or battery powered boats (gasoline and diesel engines are outlawed here in order not to break the silence and protect the air).

We will now be leaving the mainland for the barrier island of Vlieland. It will take a ferry ride of an hour and a half from the Frisian town of Harlingen. We have to leave our cars behind. No automobiles permitted on the island other than for a few license holders who are permanent residents of the island. The forecast is dim: rain and cold, but anticipation is great. This is the epitome of tranquility in the Netherlands. In theory, it is a great ground for surf fishing. We will see. I will report from there.

KOCKENGEN

July 20-23, 2015

After side tours to Rotterdam, Zeeuws Vlaanderen and Brabant we are back on our home base in Kockengen, which is a dot on the map in central Holland in the province of Utrecht. It has served us excellently, because from here we have found no destinations that were more than an hour and a half car ride away. Our ‘home away from home’ is a converted farm house in a landscape that is prototypical Dutch. It is low land, dissected by canals and ditches, which is still in agricultural use for livestock. It is definitely situated below sea level and part of the Netherlands that would be inundated by the sea if the country was not protected by an elaborate system of dikes, locks and pumping stations. Most windmills here were built not for milling but for the pumping of water away from the low laying areas. As secluded as it is, the highway from Amsterdam to Utrecht is only 5 km away and from there any destination in the Netherlands is within easy reach. Just outside the city of Utrecht lays Oudenrijn, the major intersection of highways going West-East and North-South.

The house in Kockengen is owned by the widow of a fraternity brother of mine. She is spending here summer in France at her property at Lescure Jaoul. Thus we have the (guest) house to ourselves. It could not be better for a relaxed vacation and home coming.

When I think of the Netherlands, and the reasons why we left for America, I think of the crowdedness, the congestion and therefore the lack of living and breathing space. But back here for this pilgrimage, I find the country much less confined than I remember it even though the population has grown from 13 million to over 16 million. Admittedly we have not spent much time in the ‘Randstad’, the triangle between Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, where the roads are indeed congested and living space comes at a premium. For this trip, we have, intentionally, focused on the islands of unspoiled natural beauty that still exist and are jealously protected by the people living there with help of the government. One of those beauty spots was Zeeuws Vlaanderen, so was Brabant, or at least the ‘boswachterij Ulvenhout’ where we biked from country estate to country estate on unpaved roads and bike paths. We discovered another one, named the ‘Utrechtse Heuvelrug’ a sandy, hilly ridge east to southeast of the city of Utrecht.

Another typical Dutch landscape we found when we entered the ‘Flevopolder’ one of the land reclamations from the ‘IJsselmeer’. Here the land is as flat as a pancake and roads are straightlined and intersect at 90 degree angles as is only possible in the prairie or in newly reclaimed land. Boring but very efficient for the creation of large farms and efficient traffic flow. We drove ( in 75 minutes) from Kockengen to the Flevopolder, now 53 years old, to visit with one of the few old friends mentioned in my book ‘NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, A First Immigration Immigrant in Search of American Exceptionalism’ who lives on a golf course in Dronten. The landscape here is still too immature to be of exceptional beauty, but serene and quiet it was. We accomplished another goal of the pilgrimage: to catch up with old friends we had not seen in the longest time.

Now we are leaving our home base in Kockengen for a week and a half to head North and visit the province of Drenthe and, later on, the barrier island of Vlieland. Our first stop on this journey will be Epe, in the province of Gelderland, where we will visit with Jacco Eltingh and his family. Jacco is one of a handful of Dutch top tennis players, who won major championships with his playing partner Johan Haarhuis. We know Jacco from when he was a budding young talent, participating in ATP tournaments, who stayed with us when the tour brought him to the ATP tournament in Tampa, FL. It promises to be a nice drive. The weather is sunny, the temperature a mild 70 degrees and we will see another beauty spot of Holland, named ‘de Veluwe’, rich in forests and dunes. We will not dwell in Epe too long, because our destination for the next four days is Diever, in the province of Drenthe, where my brother-in-law and fraternity brother Kees lives with his wife Wietske. High expectations: a few years ago, Kees was able to buy the house that the village of Diever built for its mayor, some 100 years ago.

I must be looking at the Netherlands with different eyes than I used 35 years ago, because I can find no flaws with the style and manner of living here. It all looks so clean, well-organized and prosperous. Air and water are clean. Everyone seems to be doing well and the mood is generally optimistic. I love the fact that tax and gratuity are always included in the menu prices at restaurants: you know that you will pay exactly as advertised. With the Euro at about $1.10 we find prices here very comparable with what we are used to at home. The burden of taxation does not appear to be weighing too heavy on the population, even though the price of gasoline, at about Euro 1.65 per liter, is about two and a half times the price in Cleveland. And the Dutch pay a value-add-tax of 21-26% on just about anything they buy but is nearly invisible since it is always included in the price as advertised. We see no visible poverty here, no homeless or mentally deranged roaming the streets. It seems that in the Netherlands citizens get real value for the taxes they pay!