Tag: The Netherlands

On A Wall

The Dutch really wanted to protect their town, so they built a wall. Now, settlements throughout history have built walls of protection. That’s nothing new. Walls seem to have three general purposes: One is to keep people out of a place. Two is to keep people in a place–like the kind you’ll find in a prison or, for animals, in pens or fences. And three is to act as support for some other structure. The wall the Dutch built was the first kind. Well, to be fair, the citizens of the town allowed their animals to graze on the other side of the wall because it kept the animals from coming into the town itself and bringing waste to the streets and alleyways, which means maybe the wall was 90% defensive and 10% keeping animals out.

You see, the Dutch were worried about other people–particularly the English–encroaching on their town, but only from one side. They didn’t worry so much about the other three sides of the town because, like many Dutch towns, it was built on the water front. The only place they felt the town was vulnerable was from the land and that was only on one side. So that’s why they built their defensive and protective wall there. The structure started out as a simple wooden demarcation line, but it soon grew to become a true defensive wall over 12 feet (3.7 meters) high. The Dutch called this defensive line Het Cingel–The Belt or The Ring–even though it wasn’t a true “ring” and only stretched across one side of the town. And, as the town guards walked along Het Cingel, the path they trod in the grass became a walkaway for townsfolks and, eventually, a street on its own. But the purpose was purely defensive.

Well, you can imagine what happened. When the Dutch were attacked, they were attacked from the sea. And the English who did the attacking with their superior navy took the town fairly easily. So the wall proved to be largely ineffective, despite the Dutch attempts at keeping people out by building it, and the English managed to secure the town for themselves.

Now, today, if you go to that particular town built by the Dutch today, you can still see the remnants of the wall or at least the places where the support posts were in the ground where the wall used to be. That line where the wall used to be is actually more famous today, even though there is no wall there.

Today, it’s in the part of the old Dutch town that has a lot of financial businesses affiliated with it over the years. When it was built, it was still legal in many parts of the Europe and the Americas for the buying and selling of people. One of the markets that facilitated this practice was located along this wall. So when you go to New York City, a place that used to be known as New Amsterdam when the Dutch owned it, you can see remnants of the Het Cingel built there, almost three hundred fifty years ago.

You know it as Wall Street.

On a Generous Donor

Jonathan Jacob Meijer is one of the most giving men on the planet. His donations have changed countless lives and helped hundreds of families. Yet, in 2017, his home nation of The Netherlands decreed that his days of generous donating were over. The government’s actions raised some eyebrows in some quarters but were applauded by others. But Meijer’s ban didn’t stop him. He simply moved his giving internationally, spreading his special type of generosity world-wide.

Let’s back up a moment. Jonathan Jacob Meijer was born about 1981 in The Hague. He grew up loving music, and, as he entered his teen-aged years, he looked the part of a musician. He sported long blonde hair and the striking good looks of a rock star. And he made music his career. Today, he lives in Kenya and still makes music online. You might wonder where he would get the resources for his generosity, but we will come back to that. And why he lives in Kenya brings us back to his donations.

So, the reason Meijer had to move out of The Netherlands was because he was prosecuted by his native country. He was taken to court because of what he kept insisting was his right to do: Donating. In fact, The Netherlands insisted that other nations refuse Meijer’s gifts, and they requested that the nations in which Meijer had donated would destroy the donations by Meijer that they could get their hands on.

You may think this is government run amok, and you might have a point. However, the courts of The Netherlands cited public health as their concern over what Meijer had been doing. What’s more, some of the recipients of the Dutchman’s generosity testified against him, saying that while they were grateful to him to some extent, that the future of their families might be harmed because of his gift. The major concern of these families was that their children might one day commit incest because of what Meijer had given them.

You see, in all, Jonathan Jacob Meijer’s generous donations to sperm banks and private recipients around the globe has brought about the birth of over 600 children.