2009 September 17 – Fading Ad Blog

Dit is Nieuw York - This is New York - NY400 Holland On The Hudson - NYC400

Prince of Orange & Princess Máxima of the Netherlands © Frank H. Jump

Paula, Willy Broekveldt Jump & Frank H. Jump © Frank H. Jump

Willy overlooking Fulton Street & Seaport © Frank H. Jump

400 Years Later, and Still Proud of New Amsterdam – NY Times

“It’s bigger there [the Netherlands] than over here [NYC],” said Babette Bullens, 38, who lives near Holland’s border with Belgium and was making her first trip to New York. “If you talk to New Yorkers, they don’t know what’s happening. It’s very disappointing,” she said in Battery Park on Sunday. – New York Times

In spite of the disappointment of some Dutch tourists who made New York City their destination for this long-awaited cultural event, I’m not surprised most New Yorkers have been totally unaware of the hoopla over the 400 year anniversary of Henry Hudson sailing up the “West River” in search of the Northwest Passage for the Dutch. Those of us who watch public television, read the New York Times, or have an interest in the myriad of events that occur here in the “capital of the world” on a regular basis, will know why there were four-hundred year-old replicas of the Half Moon (Halve Maen) sailing in the New York Harbor- and Dutch tourists flocking all over Lower Manhattan.

Unfortunately, the masses are either too busy in their hurried lives to eke out a living or are just uninformed. I’m sure the majority of the uninformed can tell you who was recently booted from American Idol or whether or not President Obama’s original birth certificate has been located. These are the important issues that concern most uninformed Americans. History? Well that was written by the conquerors – IN ENGLISH!

But do strike up a conversation with a Dutch tourist about how the Dutch West India Company fueled the slave trade, or how the Dutch were the only colonials who “bought” their land from the Indians, or how the future Queen of Holland’s father Jorge Zorreguieta may be guilty of war crimes [other resource], and I’m sure you will get an earful.