Dating back to the Second World War, our country and the Netherlands have enjoyed an emotional and very special friendship. Canadian troops were involved in liberating many Dutch villages and towns from Nazi occupation and more than 7,600 Canadians spent their last breath on the cause. There are no less than three prominent Canadian war cemeteries in the Netherlands: Bergen-op-zoom in southwest Holland, Groesbeek near the city of Nijmegen and Holten in the northeast. The Dutch to their credit have never stopped being grateful and Canadians, especially elderly Canadians, are welcome, well-treated guests when visiting the Netherlands.

There are a great many reasons to admire the Dutch and visit their homeland. Amsterdam, the capital, is a beautiful, venerable old city which houses many famous art museums and the country itself is known for its beauty, canals, windmills and, of course, tulips.

Unfortunately all is not well in the land of the wooden shoes these days and it is fair in fact to say that there is something rotten. Perhaps you have heard that pedophiles in the Netherlands have organized and started a political party of their own. Calling themselves the Charity, Freedom and Diversity Party, these scum apparently feel put upon and disrespected by sane society. Advocating the legalization of such repugnant behaviour as pedophilia and bestiality, they will be campaigning on an electoral platform that includes lowering the age of sexual consent to 12 with an eye to eventually eliminating it altogether. Perhaps fearing the ire of PETA, the party, while endorsing sex with animals, still wants to have cruelty to animals banned.

In a country seemingly obsessed with open-mindedness, the Dutch have long been at the forefront of so-called social progressiveness. In many instances their tolerant attitude toward vice has served their society well and has in fact been a lesson to others worldwide. Rather than struggle with the social ills associated with illegal prostitution, they legalized it and taxed the crap out of it; same with soft drugs. The country was among the first to recognize same-sex marriage and institute right to die legislation.

Where it starts to get goofy though is when progressiveness turns a corner and becomes its ugly step sister, permissiveness. Certainly it is right and proper that people experiment with cultural boundaries; it could in fact be argued that this is how societies evolve. At the university level of study, whole schools of thought are based on questioning and challenging the status quo and as intellectual enterprises they are absolutely necessary. Ultimately though the real world is not a theoretical exercise and where the rubber meets the road, there needs to be a certain standard upheld.

Reading a recent Radio Netherlands report, it is clear most Dutch people are outraged and disgusted by the initiative but so far have been unable to stop it. Under the Dutch parliamentary system anyone, no matter how foul, is free to form a political party in an attempt to have a law changed.

Using terms like pragmatic, Radio Netherlands foreign editor Bertus Hendriks addressed the Netherlands' image abroad as a very permissive society. Admitting, not surprisingly that "this permissiveness is not without problems," Hendriks argues that while permissive, the Netherlands nonetheless has clear limits. While so-called soft drugs like marijuana are tolerated and have been all but decriminalized, hard drugs are still illegal. As regards the sex trade, Hendriks insists child abuse, kiddie porn and prostitution of children are and will always be illegal.

While the average Dutchman is no doubt shocked and saddened by this latest embarrassing bastardization of their reputation for tolerance, they should not affect surprise. On every aspect of human endeavour there are those who will seek to piggyback their own agenda, no matter how depraved it may be. In areas of cultural tolerance all of us must be mindful that our open-mindedness is not merely the product of empty heads.

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