Soup Kitchens
As far as I’m aware, soup kitchens don’t exist as such in the Netherlands. We’ve just had elections, and the government is changing. Until now however, the government has been so pro free enterprise and privatization, the setting up of a government funded place, giving away something for free just didn’t happen here.
On the other hand, this country has very strong socialist values, and has a very strong commitment to helping the poor.
How do you rationalize both the idea of free enterprise and the need to help the poor? Basically, the government is going in the direction of only handing out money.
If you are poor, and need something to eat, the government gives you €5 and points you to McDonalds. If something happens to that money between the time they give it to you and the time you reach McDonalds, that’s up to you. Going to the supermarket instead, or spending it on cigarettes, are both possibilities.
Something similar happens if you need to sleep in a homeless shelter. These cost about €7/night, but if you want to spend the money on something else, and don’t get in trouble with the police, this is up to you.
Since I’m not on benefits, and I’m sure things are different in different places, what I say here may not be completely correct, but this is the general direction the government is taking.
Also, I should emphasize, not everyone is entitled to benefits, or there may be some strings attached. I think most cities insist all able-bodied people do volunteer work for benefits, for example, and if you are not recognized as being entitled to long term benefits, then your benefits are periodically cut off to encourage you to look for work. Unless you are recognized as a refugee, you are not likely to get benefits if you just show up from some other country.
Long Term Benefits
Fundamentally, long term benefits are not a lot different from short term benefits, they are just paid out on a monthly basis. If you show clearly that you are not able to manage your own money, then they force you to accept the services of a financial management company, at a cost of about €100/month. Those people who aren’t forced to accept financial management, can voluntarily accept it if they choose.
Most single people or couples get about €1100/month.
Financial management means, for example, you get €60/week (€10/day, but not on Sunday) in pocket money. This has to cover all your food, tobacco and possibly alcohol, and all other miscellaneous expenses like clothing or whatever. Your bank account is blocked, except for this pocket money, and you aren’t allowed to use any online or other banking services. Your rent and utilities are automatically paid, and in addition a lump sum is paid to finance a simple vacation in the summer (but again, this is cash and you can spend it how you want). Otherwise, if you need to buy something, you need permission from your financial manager, and they have to arrange the payment.
This is all my understanding, but like I said, I’m not on benefits, and don’t have any direct connection with these issues. It may also be different in different parts of the country.
As you can probably imagine, this is all pretty tough. If you aren’t able to make good choices between food and cigarettes, or just in general don’t have your life together enough to manage such a small amount of money carefully, you can get in trouble pretty quickly. I would guess most people can’t really manage, unless they have friends who can help out from time to time.
The Neighborhood
I used to live nearby, in the building above, called Hofgeest, and understanding the neighborhood is really key here. The neighborhood is called the Bijlmermeer or just the Bijlmer for short. Designed by an Italian architect, with very high expectations, and intended to become a sort of high class suburb of Amsterdam. It was once home to the mayor. Since I was born in Chicago, in the US, the closest thing I could compare it with was Cabrini-Green.
Basically, it turned out not to be a nice place to live. The population density was too high, and open spaces between the buildings intended to give a sense of luxury, became overgrown and full of muggers. The neighborhood was designed with complete separation between cars, pedestrians and bicycles, facilitated by elevated roads and underpasses. These elevated roads physically divided the neighborhood, and junkies moved into the underpasses, effectively controlling the movement from one area to another.
The city thought they had a clever solution, when they required low income people in Amsterdam to accept an apartment in the neighborhood, solving the neighborhood’s vacancy problem. In different stages, they also relocated junkies from the center of Amsterdam to this neighborhood, and over the years continued to make decisions like this which filled the neighborhood with behavior problems. They even at some point decided the neighborhood was really nice, except for these behavior problems, so why not relocate the behavior problems into their own building!
There were even discussions as recently as a few years ago of relocating drug addicts into their own building, ostensibly so they could be better cared for… Can you imagine a super high-rise building with nothing but drug addicts?
In 1992, a few months before I moved out of the neighborhood, there was the Bijlmerramp. An Israeli 747 airplane crashed into one of the high rise buildings, killing many people. It hit one of the other buildings near where I was living, about 1 mile (1,5 km) away. This was really a watershed, and prompted the Dutch government to take the rebuilding of the neighborhood seriously.
Many of the high rise buildings were torn down, renovated, or individual low income rental units were sold as condominiums.
Buildings like the one in the background here:
Were replaced with flimsy looking low rise buildings like this:
Would you like to live in the orange one or the red one?
Many of the same anti-social residents still live in these new buildings, and music like gansta rap can be heard coming out of open windows.
As well as replacing the high rises with lower buildings, they’ve also now built large office blocks around the neighborhood, and many people commute into the neighborhood for work.
They have also built some more luxurious housing, and in a few places have let people build houses of their own design.
The People
In spite of all the anti-social behavior, this neighborhood has always had some of the warmest people. It’s also become a place for immigrants, and is a melting pot with people from all over the world. Even though it was always possible to walk around the wrong places at night and get robbed, it’s never had a huge problem with violence or aggressive people. There are very few guns or other weapons around.
When I lived there, about half the residents were on some kind of social benefit, and this probably hasn’t changed much.
Many people who live here feel very attached to the neighborhood, and wouldn’t live anywhere else.
Cultural Expression
One of the biggest shames about the neighborhood, and Dutch society in general, is how self expression is discouraged. If you’re an immigrant, and you move to the Netherlands, you’re supposed to forget your past and become Dutch. All the buildings in the Bijlmer are sterile in their design, and don’t lend themselves to self-expression. You are not allowed for example to paint your front door a different color from your neighbors, or publicly display something that represents your own culture individuality. Nearly everyone speaks native sounding Dutch, and mostly without any unusual accent.
The Dutch are really missing something very special by not allowing immigrants to freely express themselves.
Freedom of Expression
In one of the most dismal parts of the old neighborhood, where they tore down a notorious high rise called Develstein (Devil’s Stein — as in beer stein) and put up low rises, they left the old parking garage of Develstein behind. This neighborhood was lacking in places to buy food, and the residents dependent on fast food had to walk a long distance. The city of Amsterdam decided to establish the World of Food.
As well as establish the food court itself, they decided to subsidize some startup food stalls, run by people in the neighborhood. The inside looks a little rough, remember this is built into a repurposed parking garage, all the steel and concrete from the old structure is still there, and the floors slope:
What did I get on the day of my visit? I wasn’t very hungry, and just wanted a snack. I chose the stand with the man barely visible on the right, in the picture above, Hi Lo Rotishop. I ordered a bara, which is a type of deep fried bread topped with chutney made from papaya and habeñero style hot peppers. This is a pretty common snack here in the Netherlands, it’s a type of Surinamese food. I have never seen someone roll out the dough in front of me and make it fresh!
It was really good! Normally the topping is screaming hot, but this was not. It was a little hot, and had a really nice flavor.
On another day I was there without a camera, and I ate at Monrovia Childhood Memories, a stand selling Liberian food. This was also very good!
I guess many of the other stands are really good too, but these are the only two I’ve tried. I’m vegetarian, and some of the stands only offer meat. All of the stands seem to offer a cheap alternative, as well as a more complete serving for those with more money to spend.
The Future
On the days I was there, I was nearly the only customer. Not just at any given stand, but in the whole place. It’s not getting enough foot traffic to survive.
The city has said they will not invest any more money into it. The small startup stands have said they aren’t getting enough foot traffic to survive, while at the same time the larger fast food chains have said they want to invest more into the project. This means soon the small stands will be replaced by Mc Donalds, KFC and similar places.
So much for the small glimmer of hope, in a neighborhood full of disappointments… So much for free cultural expression. Get there and try it while you can!
