Dutch Again

It sounds like an Onion headline, but it ran in the IHT: Canal ice helps Dutch rediscover national identity. And they ran this excellent photo of Dutch people tying on their ice skates and flocking to canals that haven’t frozen over since the ’90s.

The thing is, East Germany has smaller canals in the Spreewald that freeze over, too, and you can skate on them just like a Dutch person.

... Which means what, by the way?

With an influx of immigrants, the country has been struggling to maintain what it considers its Dutch soul, and Gustafsson was one of many here who thought the skating experience enabled the Dutch to reconnect with their identity. “There were only Dutch people on the ice,” he said. “I saw no people of Arab descent.”

Oh. And?

... and hospital wards were filled with dozens of people with fractured arms, sprained ankles and broken legs.

     posted 17 January 2009 by Michael Scott Moore

  1. Getting a “page not found” on that IHT link, Mike, but if this is the canal race up in the north, in Friesland, it’s a pretty neat event. I met a couple of people who’d entered some years ago.

    — Ed Ward    Jan 17, 12:42 pm    #

  2. Sorry, the link’s fixed.

    — Mike    Jan 17, 01:37 pm    #

  3. Ah, it does reference that race, and I was wrong, it’s all over the country, the Eleven Cities Tour. A real enduro, as you might guess. Funny that, with it being such an important event to the Dutch folks I know, it was only stuck on at the end.

    — Ed Ward    Jan 18, 02:30 pm    #

  4. Because it’s not in the cards yet this winter. I think they just wanted a reason to run that photo.

    — Mike    Jan 18, 04:29 pm    #

  5. In Leipzig the Elster is frozen, too, but I didn’t see any skaters when I was there last Wednesday.

    — Olivier    Jan 26, 05:07 am    #

  6. That shows you how many Dutch people are in Leipzig.

    — Mike    Jan 26, 09:30 pm    #