THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 23, 1994 TAG: 9411190633
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: AROUND TOWN
SOURCE: LINDA MCNATT
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
I'm not a world traveler. The last long trip I can recall was to a Peninsula shopping mall.
So I was fascinated when I heard that a visitor from Holland was going to be in Smithfield for a while.
The Dutch have a philosophy, he told me: If you tell a child not to open a box, he's certainly going to open it. Why not open it for him?
That's the way it is in Holland, where John Mitchell, who is visiting his mother, has lived for the last nine years.
The people are very liberal, very cosmopolitan, he told me, and they are especially open with their children, treating them as equals when it comes to information about the - ahh - birds and the bees.
In fact, he said, it's not unusual for parents to openly allow sex between teenagers and their boyfriends or girlfriends.
And if you think that tidbit caused me to raise my eyebrows a little, my mouth was agape during much of the rest of the conversation.
Mitchell, 32, is Scottish by birth. His nationality is obvious. He rolls his r's to the point that his eyes crinkle closed when he says certain words.
But he has adopted Holland as his homeland. And there are several interesting reasons why.
Let's look first at how he got there.
When the economy was better in England, the government was giving grants to attend universities. Mitchell, who likes to be called Mitch, was living with his sister in Wales, studying political science and sociology, when it happened to him. No more grants to study.
His brother-in-law offered to teach him photography and suggested he go to Greece, where taking photos of tourists can be quite profitable. So Mitch gave it a try, but the venture didn't work out. He feels it was because he simply couldn't afford to give it the time it required.
He did, however, meet a girl from Holland. When she invited him to come for a visit, he met her parents and eventually agreed to stay. That relationship lasted for about two years.
``I'm a party animal,'' he said, chuckling. ``She was rather sedate.''
Meanwhile, he attended trade school to learn carpentry. It was easy to do, he said, since he was living in Leiden, an educational center where there are colleges, universities and trade schools.
A new girl came on scene. She was from Australia, living in London. Mitch met Jill when he went home to Wales for the New Year. Afterward, he went back to Holland. They wrote each other for a year and now have been together for eight years. She's a student, studying international business management.
``The economy in Holland is one of the strongest in Europe, after Germany,'' he said. ``It's very cosmopolitan there. In Rotterdam, for example, there are about 120 nationalities, and the city doesn't even have a million people. I can sit in a tram and see people of 30 different nationalities surrounding me.''
Citizens of Holland are allowed, by law, to work no more than 57 hours a week. Mitch said he works maybe 35, which is about average.
Here's how it works. An employee has a contract to work a certain number of hours for his employer. If, for any reason, he doesn't get that many hours in for that particular week, the government subsidizes his wages. If that same employee is sick, he still gets 100 percent of his wages.
And his doctors and the hospital and all of his medicines are free.
How so? Taxes, Mitch said.
``Holland is where the poor are rich, and the rich are poor.''
Some rich people are taxed as much as 80 percent on everything they earn. His own taxes normally run about 35 percent.
``And if you're going to pay taxes, you might as well get something in return, right? The government tries to take care of the people.''
Holland, a very small nation where everything is close together, is a country rich in oil and natural gas. Mitch said the country seems to put its money to good use - health care, infrastructure, environmental protection.
And get this: Handguns are illegal. But marijuana is legal. And so is prostitution.
Hard drugs are illegal, Mitch said. But there still is a more liberal approach to hard-drug users in Holland than in this country.
``We know they are sick,'' he said. ``They have an illness.''
He said he doesn't smoke pot. Laughing, he admitted, ``I just like whiskey better.''
But legalized marijuana, sold in coffee shops along with fancy teas, seems to have a mellowing effect on the entire country, Mitch said.
``They bring you a menu, and you can pick the kind of pot you want,'' said his mother, Kathleen ``Kit'' Mosteller, a native of Scotland who has lived in Smithfield with her American husband for about four years and works part time at the Wayside Grocery on Route 10.
Even her eyes were a little wide, since she is accustomed to the ways of England and America.
``In Amsterdam, prostitutes have large windows in their bedrooms,'' he said. ``They sit in the windows in their lingerie, with the red lights on. They're all very beautiful, very clean as well. They have health certificates to prove it.''
Also in Amsterdam, the chief of police is homosexual. He is open about it, and his ``significant other'' accompanies him to social events.
People tolerate people, Mitch said.
``As long as nobody hurts anybody else, what's the problem? Typically, the Dutch people are extremely faithful, extremely sensitive, extremely calm.''
There are some things about America that Mitch already is in love with. Like cheap Levis and tennis shoes, and shooting sports. He shot skeet just the other day, he said. He'd never shot a gun before.
``And the shopping,'' his mother said. ``Oh, it's already started!''
``Well, we pay a lot of taxes, you know,'' her son replied. ``There's the difference.''
The difference is the taxes - and a whole lot more. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LINDA McNATT
John Mitchell is visiting his mother Kit Mosteller, a native of
Holland.
by CNB