The Dutch are
not shy to voice their opinions, and certainly not about other countries, either. They were among South Africa’s harshest critics in the apartheid years, and while Nelson Mandela was still in prison. Here is a magazine I spotted in the stands (didn’t buy it, now think I will when I go through there on the way back home). It declares on the front page ‘America is a nasty bloody country* .. *for those who are not millionaires’. In the purple bubble, Mr Maarten opines : ‘Compared to the US, the Netherlands is a paradise’.
I suspect the death penalty in the USA informs this opinion, affordable healthcare that is still not available to all Americans, our expensive college education, the list goes on. I’m curious to see if the article acknowledges that the USA is a force for good in the world as well, though.