Revisiting St Nick
I realise I haven鈥檛 replied to any comments for a while.
Be assured I do read them all. There is some debate around the date on which Sinterklaas arrives.
My Belgian friends tell me it is the 6th, which is Saint Nicholas' feast day. But many Dutch correspondents say he comes on the 5th.
Several of you point out the picture is of Santa Claus, not Sinterklaas. You are right, he happened to be on display at the ice rink in Amsterdam where my children were skating, so I thought I would snap him to go along with the Black Peters in the toy shop window.
I can鈥檛 remember where I first saw his horse being equated with Odin鈥檚 steed Sleipnir but .
I wish you all good luck in searching for the 鈥渞eal story鈥 but I think by the nature of myth one can expect a degree of inexactitude and icon-merging.
I rather agree with those who question whether it is racist to associate evil with darkness: I would be really surprised if cultures in Africa didn鈥檛 do so as well.
My point wasn鈥檛 urging some simplistic purging of language and imagery, but to highlight how the intertwining of several different traditions can create a layered meaning.
Political correctness? Well, it is a term I would love to explore one day, but it is often used by both sides as a fireblanket on debate, which I loathe.
There are plenty of comments of the 鈥渏ust get over it鈥 type, but there are also those from people who do feel hurt and offended.
I鈥檓 Mark Mardell, the 大象传媒's North America editor. These are my reflections on American politics, some thoughts on being a Brit living in the USA, and who knows what else? My 
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People who "really do feel offended" by things like these are, in my opinion, insecure and have a different problem than they claim altogether.
There are plenty of comments of the 鈥渏ust get over it鈥 type, but there are also those from people who do feel hurt and offended.
So we should just change traditions because people in other countries could feel offended.
Oh well, let's just look at how the English language is offensive for Dutch people. (even the word Dutch is an insult, especially since you used to call Hollanders, which isn't correct either)
What a bunch of hypocrits you all are!
It is pretty ironic to see the Anglo-Saxons who like to display themselves as beacon of free speech and expression letting even Nazi ideologists roam freely, drawing their lines at such a non-issue.
I can't understand why acting as a comical black character is seen in some parts of the world as more "offensive" than promoting the idea of simply exterminating them all, but it seems that's just how it is.
To me, the idea of banning a character because he is black seems far more racist than having him there in the first place. I am sure that there are some people who find Zwarte Piete extremely offensive; I am equally sure that those people come from outside the Netherlands and Belgium.
It is hard to imagine a similar tradition surviving in our own PC-Britain, but, considering the extent to which nativity plays and even carol concerts have been flickering out in primary schools, I don't necessarily think that this is a good thing. If Piete were representing a culture of actual "badness" then that would be a different matter, but I don't forsee people complaining that any portrayal of a white Piete would be racist towards white people. I am very sure that, as long as Piete is a "good" character, it is very unlikely that he is having a negative impact on children's perceptions of African-Americans. How would you feel if somebody banned Father Christmas because he was sexist (the benefactor is a man and not a woman)?
St Nicholas day is 6 December - but in the Netherlands it's celebrated the eve before on the 5th (called "sinterklaas avond", all the songs also refer to the evening) just like Brits and Poles celebrate Christmas on the 24th, and not on the 25th when the Dutch do.
And 6 December was the day that Nick died, not when he was born. Probably because they didn't know his date of birth, but did know the date of death so settled for that.
Happy St. Nicholas Death to you all!
Errm I'm a Brit who went to school in Holland , which is where I picked up my so-called PC values from trendy liberal Dut-(oops sorry) Nederlandse teachers who seemed to forever want to discuss sex and drugs with us.
I didn't get them from the Daily Mail.
Pot Kettle Zwart
Is it Christmas yet?
The difference between the 5th or the 6th is in fact smaller than it looks.
In The Netherlands the people get their presents/surprises in the evening of the fifth.
In Belgium there is no exchange of presents: the children wake up in the morning of the 6th en see all the presents, as Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet dropped these during the evening/night of the 5th to the 6th.
Wow.
Almost 100% in favour of bringing back the Black and White Minstrel Show...
The ignorance is scary...
My favourite example of stupid political correctness is the pervasive insistance on using 'disabled' rather than the more usually correct term 'handicapped'.
If something is disabled, it *can't* work fully. If something is handicapped then success is still possible but something makes it harder.
Now call me unduly logical, but it seems to me that the latter is an exact description whereas the former is downright insulting - nobody should be happy to be being called 'disabled'.
So why? Well, so far as I can tell it's down to an urban myth that 'handicapped' comes from 'cap in hand' and so implies begging. Which any good dictionary will tell you is utter tosh - it comes from hand in cap and is a betting term. But hey, why should facts or logic stand in the way of political correctness?
@ David (#8)
I didn't say I was in favour of bringing back the Black and White minstrel show... those were clearly designed to mock dark-skinned people and it's a good thing that they don't exist any more (as far as I know, anyway). However, to outlaw a black character whose existance in folklore goes back further than segregation does seems racist to me. As far as I am aware, there is a lot more racial hatred in Britain-where this would never be allowed-than there is in the countries mentioned.
I find it rather curious that the only people finding Black Peter racist were from outside the Netherlands. Also, I find it particularly hypocritical for African Americans to make those kind of suggestions. As far as I know, Netherlands is a pretty democratic society- they even have a pedophile party for God's sake- so, if the black community there had really felt offended they would say something about it. But, in the meantime, it was not in the Netherlands where black people were not allowed to sit in the same section of buses until some 30 years ago.
As for the people visiting when this holiday takes place and may feel offended, think about it this way- if you were visiting a Muslim country would you go tell them not to have their call to prayer because you don't want to be woken up at dawn?
Mark,
thank you again for writing about this issue/debate. Somebody has to as it is really a non-issue among native Dutch and Flemish reporters. The most powerful comments from people in the previous blog about the subject were by far from those who relayed stories of hurt and confusion and a feeling that debate about the issue was stymied.
This may be a tangent but I'd like to point it out anyway, I feel that Brits overall are much more aware of their colonial past while Belgians and Dutch are not. Yes, this issue makes me be ashamed to be a Belgian.
@ Lieven
Get your facts straight. Sinterklaas is from way before the Belgian colonial era, and doesn't even have anything to do with it.
@Bert
my point is to expand the larger context and in all these responses the ultra defensive Dutch and Flemish writers keep on bringing up the PC brigade and Anglo-Saxon values. Well let me tell you, that defensive attitude points to one thing, cultural insensitivity. In my lifetime I can say (and I'll use the reactions in these blogs to prove it) that the Brits have displayed far more awareness of their past than Belgians or Dutch have. Belgians simply don't talk about their colonial past and it is hardly brought up in the school system either. It's a shame as it would provide such an important learning tool.