Amsterdam
CITY OF FREEDOM
Whenever I am walking through the centuries-old streets of Amsterdam, I can’t help but ponder about this beautiful city of freedom. On the one hand, I see the beautiful old canal houses and squares with cobblestones, but on the other hand, I also know that the beauty and wealth of a lot of these buildings can be traced back to the Dutch involvement in the slave trade, both in the West (e.g. Caribbean) and in the East (e.g. Indonesia).
In the Dutch golden age of the 17th century, Amsterdam became one of the richest cities in the world thanks to trading people, but also thanks to trading goods taken from colonies. At the same time, Amsterdam was also known to be a city of freedom for French Huguenots, Armenians, and Portuguese Jews who fled their home countries to find refuge in Amsterdam’s safe climate of religious and ethnic tolerance.
How can a city be a safe place of refuge for one ethnic group and at the same time exploit and enslave another ethnic group? This is a question that we are still trying to answer because it is a paradox we still see happening today.
Amsterdam and its red light district are famous today for its tolerance and sexual liberty. Drugs and sex are legally available. Every day the streets are swamped with people walking passed red-lit windows where beautiful ladies are on display like animals in a zoo. Everybody is free to do whatever they want with the bodies of these precious people, as long as they pay.
In the news, you hear a lot of stories of women who chose this job and love it. Yet when you talk with them and take the time to get to know them, you will hear of the dreams and hopes they had when they were younger, before they entered this dark world of prostitution of which they see no way out. Very few of them dreamed of becoming a sex worker when they were little.
A lot of these women are not necessarily forced into prostitution by dangerous criminals, but by the circumstances of their lives, both past and present. They don’t necessarily want to do this work, yet they smile at every man who is walking by because they need the money. Some of them told us how they have no education, do not speak the Dutch language, do not have any work experience outside of prostitution, and feel like there is no way out. One lady shared with us that she was finally able to find another job as a supervisor, yet when the new bosses found out about her previous job, they were afraid she would not get the respect she needed as a supervisor and withdrew the job offer. She is now still working behind the red-lit windows.
Amsterdam, the city of freedom.
When they don’t have any options but prostitution, how free are they, really?
– Annemieke R.
Photo contributed by Pippa R.