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02/13/2005:

"Fading liberal dream tears Dutch apart"

Martyn Loosman, impeccably turned out in a traditional costume of baggy trousers and a red and white striped shirt, buffs up the Dutch Queen Wilhemina coins on his belt buckle.

'The government is going too far by proposing body searches and forcing suspected terrorists to report weekly to police,' he says before sloping off, his black clogs scraping nonchalantly against the cobblestones of the fishing village of Urk.

Forty miles south, in an Amsterdam coffee shop, advertising copywriter Geert Beck toys with his blond dreadlocks while sucking on a joint. 'There are too many immigrants in Holland. They are stealing our society.'

The men, both 29, represent the contradictions in the Netherlands' liberal society and pose questions over whether it has died or was only ever superficial.
Full Article: guardian.co.uk