That's one small vote for Beto......

[DFW]

34. The Germans and the Dutch have a strained recent history

The German occupation of the Netherlands was a brutal one. There are all sorts of bureaucratic un-necessities that the Germans are trying to impose on the EU basically because German officials love bureaucracy and paperwork), and can't get it done because the Dutch used their veto. Germans imposing rules and regulations on Holland still leaves a nasty taste in Dutch mouths.

However, this does NOT extend to personal friendships, and we have MANY good friends in the Netherlands that we visit, have over, or even go on vacation with. I speak Dutch, so it's not a problem for me, but my wife doesn't understand all of it, and the accent gets hard for her to follow. It is not unusual for people in Holland to learn German--first because it is easy, but second, because anyone with a business will almost certainly come into contact with German customers who, even today, barge into stores and hotels in Holland and start speaking German without even asking if someone understands them.

Sometimes, the arrogance goes even farther. Thirty years ago, I used to play in a part-time folk music group called the "Holland-America Line," named because it was me and some Dutch guys. The fiddle player knew a grocery shop owner in Middleburg in Zeeland. One day, shortly after the war was over, a German tourist drove by, and showed his family the shop. The owner had to be restrained from killing the German. The German had killed the store owner's brother during the war, and had the audacity to show his family around just a few years later, as if murdering the shop owner's brother during the occupation had been some kind of temporary inconvenience. It was as if William Calley led his family on a walking tour of My Lai once American tourists were welcome in Vietnam after diplomatic relations had been restored. Some things you just don't do.