Han van der Horst (1949) is historicus, opinieleider en rasverteller. Hij schreef de afgelopen twintig jaar tal van boeken waaronder Nederland.
Meer over Han van der HorstNine out of ten people in the Netherlands will quote this well-worn saying if asked to come up with a basic trait of the Dutch character. Expatriates who have been here for a while see it differently. For them, Dutch society is a weird and wonderful maze full of unpredictable people. At times Dutch people will ignore you politely; at others they will go out of the way to help you.
You will get into trouble with the authorities for putting up a fence without permission but, in the late evenings, many family television channels broadcast pornography and advertisements for telephone sex into your living room.
Even your best friends reach for their diaries to make a dinner date, because you don’t just drop by without being invited. And when you buy them a present they will open it in front of you without batting an eyelid.
A country and a people full of paradoxes. Or is there some kind of system behind it all?
