Amsterdam to discard its Sodom and Gomorrah image

Photo: http://www.amsterdam-red-light-district.info/red-light-district.html

Amsterdam epitomizes what Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines as "too extraordinary and improbable to be believed. The first time I travelled to Amsterdam in 1991, I could not believe the liberalism, the red light district, the coffee shops, homosexuality, personal and press freedoms.

Just as it starts feeling normal for me here, the authorities wish to shed off most of this reputation. Over the last 7 years I have lived here, my religious faith received a real knock out. I accepted wholly my new way of living and tolerance to other beliefs. I had stopped being surprised at smell of weed at bus stops, train stations and places of fun. I had stopped being shocked by the lurid photos in magazines and personal advertisements seeking sex and companionship.

It seemed like I celebrated being Dutch too soon! I have been reading stories in newspapers that the red light district in Amsterdam is to be closed. I read about Casa Rosso (the live sex palace)'s owner Jan Otten who was suspected of having laundered the ransom money from the 1983 kidnapping of beer magnate Freddy Heineken, but the allegation was never proved. He was arraigned before court but he won the legal battle. The Red Light District is where women of all nationalities, parade their wares in red-fringed window parlours, many ready to offer more than a school boy peep-show in a private cabin. From brothels to sex shops to museums, the Amsterdam Red Light District leaves nothing to the imagination

Recently, I escorted a visitor to the red light district and I was stunned to see that some windows instead of showing half naked prostitutes had clothes in the display window. I was at loss to explain to my guest what clothes were doing in between vendors of bodies! Something seemed to be amiss here, which knight will come forward to save the oldest profession from extinction?

Having succeeded in banning smoking from public places, the coffee shops are the next target. Weed smokers who used to get sanctuary and camaraderie from coffee shops are now worried that the so-called liberalism and tolerance will soon be a subject for historians. Weed tourists for other European countries will soon be no more.

According to the NRC Handelsblad newspaper published on 13 November 2009, the project to turn Amsterdam's centre from Sodom and Gomorrah into a bourgeois bohemians playground is well underway, but replacing a brothel by a 5-star restaurant is not done overnight.

“Amsterdam has long had a worldwide reputation as a Sodom and Gomorrah, but its historic city centre has become increasingly seedy over the past few decades. Now the city government wants to turn the notorious red light district and the strip between the central station and Dam square into a yuppie playground for what the French like to call 'bobos', or 'bourgeois bohemians'. The project, dubbed 1012 after the postal code for the area, aims to attract exclusive shops, creative businesses and trendy bars and restaurants. It has to make the area attractive and livable without completely abandoning its naughty identity.” The newspaper added.

I am afraid soon Amsterdam will be just like any other old European city. All its traditional attractions are slowly being done away with. I am worried the canals will be next. You know they hide criminals also. Young bicycle thieves hide their loot and/or vagabonds dispose of the supermarket carts in these canals.

For further information visit the Red Light District videos at YouTube.