Day 26, 8 July:

Friday meant the end of the week, so we had a picnic in Oosterpark. In lieu of food we sat in a circle to discuss the week and share opinions. I think it was Lindsey who expressed her appreciation for exposure to knowledge she'd never othewise have gained: I felt this way about the morning's first lecture on Dutch colonial history. Not a fact was uninteresting, and in ways I never knew we related the Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, Kiwi, Japanese and Indonesian; and in the Americas, the Curacaoan, Surinamese and Manhattan. I'd like to read a copy of Max Haavelar, and see what it's like to be an outspoken critic in such a unique historical situation. I admire the Indonesian students of "the ethical policy" who fought fire with fire by using western ideas to criticize the West of its hypocritical imperialism and expoitation.

The second lecture laid the background for how controversy arose out of multiculturalism in the Netherlands, creating a rift between the conservative Muslim minority and the progressive Dutch majority. At the picnic we tried to discuss this issue, but its polarizing controversy threatens the comfort of neutrality - to speak bluntly about such issues may be off limits. In my own contemplation my principles have been challenged. Yet, as I learned on the tram, multiculturalism is an inevitable issue which must be addressed. The debate is gaining decibels.

The issue of Islam arose with a growing Turkish and Moroccan population, although Indonesia, a nation with much deeper roots in the Netherlands, is home to the largest Muslim population. Has the Dutch-Indonesian population assimilated into Dutch culture in a way unlikely of conservative Islam? Did the assimilation come with its share of controversy, or was it not so divisive?

We arrived at the Picnic from the Tropenmuseum nearby. There we spent two hurried hours in a grandiose building of international and historical cultural exhibitionism. It would have been worth a whole day to explore the Tropenmuseum. The exhibits made it easy to understand the 17th century's obsession with the exotic. Everything is displayed like an annotated cabinet of curiosities. I was particularly fond of an exhibit about the metropolitan landscape in general and Manila in particular. Two films were especially revealing and nostalgic. One was raw footage of Metro Manila traffic, a puzzling network of brave, jigsaw drivers; the other was filmed by a man walking slowly through lively, homely slums and alleyways.

Backtracking hostelbound after the picnic, we passed by the slavery memorial and the Theo van Gogh memorial, newly aware of their significance in local history, past and present.

Friday also meant that the group divulged in the night life, a commercial fiesta of overexcitement.