  Without Measure… in the Netherlands In Holland we have a population of 15 million people. The majority are in the center and the western part of the country, a highly industrialized part of Holland. Our biggest city (and capital) is Amsterdam with some 750,000 inhabitants, built in 1200 B.C. Holland is located in the North-West of Europe. Holland is neighbored by Germany in the East, Belgium in the South and the North Sea in the West and North.
Although Holland is quite a small country, we do have one of the highest population-densities in the world. (It is a little bit crowded here…) Still, because of the high standard of living and the good social conditions, for which we pay a lot of taxes (about 65%), a lot of people from other parts of the world come to Holland, in their attempt to escape from the misery and poverty or wars in their own countries. Therefore, about 10 percent of the Dutch population is so called 'foreign. That's not including other Europeans, American and Japanese people...but since they have (in general) money, so they are not called "foreigners."
In Holland, we are very much connected to Western culture. We mainly love the United States, not only for being our 'liberators' in World War 2 (WWII), but also for the delicious McDonalds, Coca Cola, Ben & Jerrys, popcorn, hotdogs, brownies, potato chips and a lot of other fast-food stuff. We watch Oprah, David Letterman, the Bold and the Beautiful, Jerry Seinfeld, Sex in the City, and hundreds of American movies all year long on TV (subtitled into Dutch). Almost everybody speaks, writes and reads English, because one cannot graduate from high school without passing some tough exams in English language and literature.
And we must speak that language, because native speakers of Dutch are just to few in the world, and since the Dutch traditionally like to do business and earn money, we figured long ago that it will be very rewarding for us if we could speak the language of the people we would like to make business deals with!
Now, from all this one can easily understand that the situation of the 'Dikke mensen' (heavy, big, fat, obese, big folks or whatever) is pretty much the same as in the rest of the western part of the world. Nothing new to tell. Like you, we are fighting here for our rights, for adeqate help, against bias and prejudice and for clear and right information about obesity and the fysical, emotional and social aspects of the "condition."
This job is done by mainly two organizations.
The biggest one in Holland is the "Nederlandse Obesitas Vereniging (The Dutch Obesity Organisation)." The other one is the "Bond van Formaat (Union of Size) / ISAA Netherlands."
A lot of members of the BvF were former members of the NOV.
The NOV however is still a patient advocacy movement, and therefor many people preferred in 1995 to leave and join the BvF which I did, together with some other people, establish. Unfortunately, not being a 'patient-organisation' (we refuse to call ourselves 'patients') we are not entititled to any government financial help, while the others are getting some $ 30.000 annual…(Jealous!!!) Still we preferre to stay independent, allthough that there are some joined activities and we do keep each other informed about all concerning our people. Often one of us is invited to speak for radio/tv or is invited to give reactions in other media: magazines, newspapers etc. when needed.
Most of the journalist know, if they want a moderate point of view, they go for NOV; if they want a more radical, 'fighting' point of view…they will ask me.
The chairman of the NOV and I keep a "gentleman's agreement" we once made: we will never go and fight each other in public! When necessary, we will stand as one against bias, prejudice, our rights and acceptance of size for women and men of all ages, beliefs, colors and backgrounds.
This is part one of Size Acceptance in this small kingdom near the sea.
Part 2 will follow in the next "Without Measure" and then I will gladly tell you more about our work here, what we have done so far, what we are planning for the future and about our BIG BIG victories that we have enjoyed and the skinny, skinny defeats we've had to swallow as well.
If you have any questions our remarks: please, by all means I will feel honored to answer you straight away, welcome friends!
So for now, I wish you, my big sisters and brothers all over the world all the best. Many many regards and, of course: a million multi-colored and multi-sized, but ever so beautiful, tulips, from Holland with love!
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