The Low Down On Amsterdam Escorts.

Even in the Red Light district the shows began to lose their appeal. Jan Otten partly blames the council, which is stripping the Red Light district, attempting to turn it into a respectable quarter. Over the past few years, 100 of the 500 prostitution windows have been shut down. He points out that there are more factors, though: “Far fewer people visit peepshows. Amsterdam has gone peepshow numb because of the internet. You can enjoy looking at things on the computer in the privacy of your home, which is quite sad for the erotic business.”
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Is it a shame Amsterdam is losing its peepshows? Jan Otten sees it from a business point of view: “No, not at all. There are still plenty of other attractions in the Red Light district. Sex theatres like Casa Rosso and the Bananabar, I own those too. This peepshow is still doing alright, so I’ll keep it going for now. If it stops making enough money, I can turn it into a lap-dancing bar.”

See the full article from “Radio Netherlands”

Tattoos, Through Time: A New Museum for Amsterdam
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Founded by the Dutch tattoo artist Henk  Schiffmacher, the Amsterdam Tattoo Museum is dedicated to the art, history and preservation of tattoo culture. Occupying 21,000 square feet of two beautifully restored 19th-century buildings, the collection is a wide-ranging one that documents the history of tattooing, from the prehistoric era to the present day. Mr. Schiffmacher’s personal artifacts are the backbone of the collection; he donated tattoo machines, artwork and ephemera like the skin from the arm of a Boston whaler, preserved in formaldahyde, which was not buried in the hopes that its tattoos would help identify him. (They didn’t.) But the museum is no mere curio shop. Items from other donors include prints by the Japanese tattoo master Horiyoshi III and tools from the legendary Samoan tattoo family Suluape. The museum also houses a library, publishing house, cafe, bookstore and a memorial garden.
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Mr. Schiffmacher, 59, first thought of creating a museum after spending more th …

See the full article from “New York Times (blog)”

Here you are said my Dutch friend. Here was De Wallen, the far-famed red light district of Amsterdam. My friend was showing me around the city. Out of a sense of duty she had offered a tour of the coffee shops. I had declined, and now she had brought me here, presumably by a process of elimination. “No, you misunderstand, I want to go to Lambiek, the oldest comic book store in the world! They say that Herge used to shop here,” I protest. My friend is unimpressed. If this was a comic book, there would be a thought balloon above her head with the text reading “Comic book nerd”.

See the full article from “Indian Express”

The end of the peepshow is nigh. For decades peepshows were crowd-pullers in Amsterdam’s Red Light district, but today there’s just one left. What has caused this branch of erotic entertainment to disappear?
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It was remarkably quiet on the Thursday afternoon when RNW visited the “Sex Palace”. Two British tourists and a Japanese family were curiously exploring the premises. Most of the spectator cubicles were empty. In the peepshow area Lady No. 4 was going round in her customary circles, yet most shutters remained closed. Still the last peepshow in Amsterdam is doing quite well, Otten says: “particularly in the weekend, when there are a lot of British tourists”.
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Is it a shame Amsterdam is losing its peepshows? Jan Otten sees it from a business point of view: “No, not at all. There are still plenty of other attractions in the Red Light district. Sex theatres like Casa Rosso and the Bananabar, I own those too. This peepshow is still doing alright, so I’ll keep it going for now. If it stops making enough money, I can turn it into a lap-dancing bar.”

See the full article from “Radio Netherlands”

Amsterdam chief rabbi’s remarks on gays cause outrage
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“Rabbi Ralbag’s signature may give the impression that the orthodox Jewish community of Amsterdam shares his views. That is absolutely untrue,” said a statement by the community’s board. “Homosexuals are welcomed by Amsterdam’s Jewish community.”
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In Jerusalem, the deputy director of the Dutch Israel Centre, Esther Voet, called on Rabbi Ralbag to resign. “We need a chief rabbi in Amsterdam who is aware of our traditions – and that is not someone who flies in twice a year.”
However, the Conference of European Rabbis criticised the Amsterdam organisation for suspending Rabbi Ralbag, saying he had “done no more than restate what the Torah says about homosexuality”.
In the US, New Jersey rabbi Steven Pruzansky blamed Dutch tolerance for the clash. “Dutch society is so tolerant, with legal prostitution and a sharp reduction in fidelity in marriage, that it is impossible for Jews to embrace the moral message of the Torah. They are in spiritual shock.”

See the full article from “Irish Times”

… Verging on Fascism” is how a US committee characterised the suspension of Chief Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag by the Amsterdam Orthodox Jewish community (NIHS).
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The US committee says it’s shocking that in the Netherlands a religious leader should be denied the right to speak out on “centuries-old religious truths” and says it is not clear which Jews the Amsterdam orthodox Jewish community (NIHS) represents as it is formally part of the orthodox movement. 
New Jersey Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, one of the signatories to the Declaration, says he knows what motivated the peculiar reaction of the Amsterdam orthodox Jewish community:
“Dutch society is so tolerant, with legal and open prostitution and a sharp reduction in faithfulness in marriage, that it is impossible for Jews who grow up in such surroundings to embrace the moral message of the Torah. They are in spiritual shock.”
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Chief Rabbi Ralbag was scheduled to meet with the NIHS in Amsterdam on Sunday evening but reportedly postponed his visit by several weeks after receiving death threats.

See the full article from “Radio Netherlands”

Political Will OVG is taking the lead (and LEED) in the private sector and reaping the rewards, but if you visit the Netherlands, it’s easy to see that the Dutch green culture has been cultivated with smart public policy. Most of the locals in Amsterdam get around on bikes; half of residents use their bike daily and 85 percent are riding at least once a week, according to Ria Hilhorst, Amsterdam’s cycling official. Trains, buses and trams are available everywhere throughout the Netherlands. And if you choose to own a car, you are taxed on the weight of it, incentivizing owners to go for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
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Amsterdam is a peaceful city, famous for its “live and let live” attitudes (legalized prostitution and drugs), both now and historically. In the 1600s, if you wished to escape religious persecution and try your hand in America, the Dutch were great seamen, who frequently shuttled Europeans over to New Amsterdam (and profited from the slave trade as …

See the full article from “Huffington Post”

Fun in Amsterdam (no drugs required)
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3. Visit the Vondelpark. I did not try this, but here’s another thing you can legally do in Amsterdam that you can’t do anywhere else: You can legally have sex in the city’s 120-acre Vondelpark. Sex has been had there at least since the 1960s, when hippies fell in love with the place, so a few years ago, Amsterdam’s highly indulgent city fathers decided to go ahead and legalize it — as long as it’s discreet and at night. And while we’re talking sex: Prostitution is also legal in Amsterdam, as you may know. There are two shifts for prostitutes. The ladies of the evening pay higher rent than the ladies of the afternoon for the windows in which they stand and beckon to passers-by.

See the full article from “Austin American-Statesman”

In Arnhem, fighting between British and Polish paratroops and Germans, often house to house, decimated the city. Today, you can walk through now affluent Oosterbeek, near where the British landed on their way to Arnhem’s bridge, and read plaques about tank battles that occurred in the quiet residential streets where you stand. Sixty years seems eerily not so long ago.
But Arnhem also offered a different surprise – a parade to welcome the arrival of Sinterklaas and his “helper” Zwarte Piet or, alternatively in English, the very Dutch legend of Saint Nicholas (ie, Santa Claus) and Black Pete. In 2011, Holland is known for many things other than World War two battle sites. There are canals, windmills, football,and a liberal attitude to social issues like prostitution and drugs. Then, alas, there is Black Pete.

See the full article from “SBS (blog)”

In 2005, councillor Lodewijk Asscher published a book called Nieuw Amsterdam in which he argued for a policy of discouraging window prostitution and tackling exploitation of women in the city. He has now been an alderman for five years and is an influential politician, often seen as potentially the next leader of the Dutch Labour Party in parliament.
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Police in Amsterdam estimate that between 50 and 90 percent of window prostitutes are there against their will. This is also true of the legal brothels with a licence from the council. Asscher concedes that it’s an intractable problem.
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Over the next few weeks the Senate will be debating a new prostitution bill. Proposals include making the minimum age for registered prostitutes 21 instead of 18. Having sex with a prostitute living in the Netherlands illegally would become a criminal offence. It’s now or never, says Lodewijk Asscher. If it can’t be regulated, prostitution will have to be made illegal again.

See the full article from “Radio Netherlands”