Turn off your Red Light

Amsterdam is a city of possibilities. Anything can happen here. It is a city with a reputation that invites you to indulge in all of your bodily pleasures.

In the unlikely chance you have never heard of Amsterdam, it is in the Netherlands, also known as Holland; conjuring up images of wooden-clog-wearing-milkmaids, windmills and dikes. Amsterdam itself is a city where you are more likely to be run over by a bicycle than a car. For the Dutch, public transport involves two wheels. Over 80, 000 bicycles are stolen here every year. The city of Amsterdam is laid out like a Colloseum, where increasing half-moons of canals ring the city. Hundreds of houseboats are permanently moored on the banks of these canals. Throughout Amsterdam's history, when the city became overcrowed, people started to build houses on the only space that was left--the water! Today many people still live in these floating shacks because it is less expensive than paying rent in one of the four-story flats.

The Netherlands is pretty radical as far as countries are concerned. Consider it the San Francisco of Europe. It was the first country to legalize euthanasia, gay marriage, and continues to make headlines for its tolerance of prostitution and marajuana use. Both of these are extremely prevalent and widely used in certain sections of the city. A local told me that the city is trying to get away from this image, but most tourists still come to view the Red Light District and Coffee Shops. The smell of weed oozes out of every other doorway and it is common to see people rolling a joint on the street. I found the drugs far less appalling than the red lights. People of all ages walk through the section of the city known as the Red Light District. I witnessed a group of young, 11-year old kids on a field trip walking past their windows and laughing. I cant imagine this scene doing any good for either party. The women all look bored or unhappy. I wondered how they got into this line of work. The amazing thing to me is that the oldest profession in the world has become a tourist attraction in itself. It has even expanded to include people of all genders: blue lights signify a male in the window. I tried to look past this image of Amsterdam and experience some other cultural activities.

The Anne Frank House is in Amsterdam. Probably the most famous victim of the Holocaust, Anne Frank kept three diaries, which were later published by her father, Otto Frank, after the war. Through these diaries, millions of readers were able to identify with this young girl, and have a first-hand account of the persecution felt by the Jews during World War 2. Anne wrote about the day-to-day life spent hidden in The Annex, the secret apartment in her fathers office. She called her diary "Kitty" before discontinuing her writing due to their family's discovery in the annex. Anne was dragged off to the concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen, with her sister Mqrgot. They both died there of tuberculosis one month before the liberation. Her father, Otto, was the only survivor of the eight that were hidden in the house. Anne's diary serves as an inspiration to write as well as a reminder of the past. Despite her incredibly tragic plight, she wrote, "despite everything, I still believe that people are truly good at heart". Ill close with her words, "I am grateful to God for giving me this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me."

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