I’ve been a dual national Dutch Australian since I accepted my Dutch citizenship in 2007 (and Australian since birth). The Dutch have never struck me as particularly openly patriotic – except, of course, for sporting matches and the Olympics! There, it’s a sea of orange. But as part of everyday life – it’s more “doe normaal” (just act normal). I’ve often wondered “Are the Dutch patriotic?”. Comedian Gregory Shapiro highlighted this well in a recent show we attended in Delft, as well as in his book How to Be Orange – the Dutch aren’t really “loud and proud”.
However my (Dutch by birth) husband has always been rather “quietly” patriotic, especially whilst we were living in Australia, he regularly pointed out place names of Dutch origin and everyday appliances that began as Dutch inventions. In fact, in researching this article, I’ve just found an extensive list in English on Wikipedia of Dutch inventions and discoveries.
Today, I just watched the video above which is the Nuclear Security Summit Opening ceremony (I wrote about the NSS 2014 last week) and I was pleasantly surprised. While my friend who shared it on Facebook and some others discounted it as an excessive and expensive “show”, I actually felt a flood of pride for The Netherlands – including being pleased that the Dutch ARE being “loud and proud” for a change. I feel that the arts and culture here is strong and though I used to believe it could be a bit of a “waste” when there are more serious things happening – now I somehow see more clearly that it can instead form an important positive state of mind and environment.
Oh, and I also saw this doing the rounds on Facebook this morning which made me laugh!
So, what are your thoughts – are you Dutch? Are the Dutch patriotic? Are you “loud and proud”? If you are Australian or another nationality do you think you are patriotic about your country?
Renee
Dutch Australian 
Great blog Renee. My husband is exactly the same as yours and is ‘quietly patriotic’ 🙂 Our family dresses in orange for koninginnedag/koningsdag, and yet we also still wear our Aussie hats/shirts on Australia day. So I guess our family is proud to be part of both countries, even though we had to choose one to live in.
Thanks Kristen, yes we get the best of both worlds don’t we 🙂 AND we both have an Aussie sticker on our cars… 😉 Renee
I have been writing about “Dutch-Australian matters” almost from as soon as the www became available to us. I always think of the “normal curve”, one of the few and very first concepts I remember being taught about at Wollongong Teachers College. Can only repeat that I believe that the fact that the same size population is squeezed together in a space half the size of Tasmania, in the Netherlands, while in Australia we’re spread across a continent the size of all of Europe, makes a big difference. It’s not for nothing that I’ve used “OzCloggie” from the beginning. You KNOW what’s coming next: Eef ten Brummelaar’s “Tulips under the Gum Tree” is what we are. Having come here when I was 12, luckily, any traces of accent have always been hard to pick, while I obviously do not have a “broad” Australian accent. I’d like to hope that people zero in on our own personalities and not or NATIonalities. Am always hoping that I’m promoting the positives of both countries.