Ripples

It is interesting to see the results, the fallout, if you will, of events that you hear about in the States but don't necessarily appreciate in magnitude.

For example, the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris. Immediately there was a massive increase in the number of uniformed police everywhere in the Netherlands. Especially around the airports and train stations, but even wandering around you see group of 4-6 police officers. Even more telling, there was the occasional armed policeman (most cops here don't carry firearms. Some do, but not all.)

It was a bit shocking to see police with AKs.

Another example: when we were working on getting Ev's residence permit, we were told that the big reason the Netherlands immigration department has a self-set deadline is because of the influx of refugees that has historically resulted in multi-year processing times. The Netherlands is pretty open to refugees (although not to the same extent as Sweden), but the number of applications that results from foreign crisis overwhelms the system.

This is part of the reason it took so long to process Ev's residence permit (definitely not the whole reason. Them being slow was definitely a thing): when we applied, the civil war in Syria was flaring up again and there were lots of people fleeing.


Lesson of Europe #2:
The time between "far off" events and witnessing some of their impacts firsthand is short.


Another example: an increase in Missing Person signs posted on lamp posts. Primarily young (18-30) people, often from what appear to be Muslim communities (Rotterdam has a thriving Middle-Eastern, especially Turkish, community. They make really fantastic bread, btw), often with a note on the sign along the lines of "may have run away to (Syria, Iran, whatever)."

Maybe people are worried that their youth are leaving to go fight for a rebel group or, god forbid, IS.

Obviously, I am hypothesizing. I don't know the particular circumstances, dynamics, details, or anything that could lead to something other than my anecdotal interpretation. But it seems that people are becoming more aware of how they may be perceived. The number of people in our neighborhood (we live adjacent to a big Turkish community) wearing traditional clothes (beyond a headscarf, which is really common here) is increasing. Everyone is traveling in groups.


The Netherlands is incredibly tolerant and accepting. I haven't seen or heard anything that makes me think there is mistrust or resentment towards the Muslim community. But there are signs that the conflicts in Syria, Libya, and Iraq are affecting people here.

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Not much of a life update this week. Lots of classes, lots of homework, lots of work for my research assistantship. Ev is going to start hating me for doing school or work every day.

A weekend excursion to mountains is probably in order soon.