Zaanse Schans!!
What a place! What an effort to protect the national heritage of the Dutch people. All I can see, it was done thru love and responsibility towards educating the next generation about the 'Golden Era' and to showcase the whole world why they are the best in harnessing the power of nature to spur the economy of a nation which is three times SMALLER than Malaysia.
Ptolemy wrote about the The Gold Peninsula (Semenanjung Emas) which is now the West Malaysia and with the creation of VOC (Dutch East Indies) they came to trade and later 'acquire' the land in not so nicely way (they got rid of the Portuguese in Malacca). Their ruthlessness in conducting business earned them a special place in Malay proverb which is:
"Ibarat Belanda meminta tanah"
Like a Dutch, asking for land
A greedy person is given little, demands for a lot more, and when was given more, would ask for the whole thing
The Dutch must've done something really not nice back then to earn them a place in the Malay proverb. Not to ridicule my Dutch friends in Lagos...Marijke, Jelle, Joyce, Koen, Tamme, Marc and Ramon to name few, but merely stating from a linguistic point of view.
![]() |
Medical Mktg Manager in front, followed by National Manager, then Area Manager.. picture taken by sales rep.. hahahahahah |