Wisteria at the Red Light District

a reflection

On my first ever trip to Amsterdam, I marvel about the architecture and Dutch ingenuity to thrive in such a terrain and build quite a successful society that is able to evolve through time. Amsterdam is a city of art and artists and of heritage architecture and culture that are subject of many theses and discourses.

My hotel sits in the middle of all the action. It is situated right next to the National Monument, the Royal Palace, and only a few minutes walk away from the Central Station and all of the action in the De Wallen district known for being the Red Light District of the city. This is the perfect location to observe the pulse of the city with the presence of its visitors from all over the world, which in fact, included the Spanish King and Queen that required us to close our hotel room windows facing the palace’s direction.

Wisteria at the Red Light District. Photo by the author.

Although I am tolerant of the beliefs and practices of others, I have no use for the proximity and easy-access to soft drugs sold at the numerous “cafes” in the area. I do go to the cafes and enjoy my usual cups of espresso and cappuccino depending on the time of day. I am in Europe, after all, where coffee is brewed the right way compared to its watered-down version in the United States.

Unlike most tourists, I seldom take the usual tourist routes and charter my own adventures in the cities I am visiting. I take early morning strolls in a surprisingly sleepy city center when the only people awake are the trash collectors and delivery staff carrying freshly baked breads.

Every morning, my walking route starts from the Royal Palace along Damrak heading North to the direction of the Central Station. Then, I turn right upon reaching Prins Hendrikkade passing right in front of the Basilica of Saint Nicholas. I then turn right again along a narrower street called Oudzijds Voorburgwal where I pass yet another church, a Calvinist one this time, called De Oude Kirk - the oldest structure in the city. My route gently curves to the left and loops to become Oudzijds Achterburgwal before I return to the main road that takes me back in front of the Basilica to start heading South on Damrak back to my hotel.

During these walks, I am well aware of how the windows and doors of the beautiful narrow buildings right next to the roads facing the canals transform at night. Although, I do not have the courage to do this walk after sunset to see that transformation myself. The irony of the area does not escape me. Two notable religious houses, Catholic and Calvinist, right in the vicinity of where the most progressive and legalized sex trades take place on a daily basis. Now, that is a curious evidence of how societies and cultures evolve over time and that is reflected on how the cities grow to serve the purposes that they are meant to serve for the people living in the current times.

As a woman, while I appreciate the efforts of the Dutch government to regulate and legalize prostitution for the very purpose of protecting the sex workers practicing the trade, I cannot help but to question how many of those sex workers, especially women like myself, are really there by choice. In the same vein, how many of them were trafficked and forcefully placed there by organized groups or even by their own guardians who wanted to profit off of them? I was not born yesterday. A legal system exists to protect people but it does not mean that it is perfect and while it fixes some aspects of the issues, it could potentially create loopholes that create different problems too.

Choice is interesting because the power of our ability to choose is greater if we are the ones in power. For individuals who have fallen prey to those who intend to put them in harms way, choice could be inexistent. I am writing this piece because I am conflicted about this legalized prostitution in Amsterdam and elsewhere. Intellectually, I understand the rationale. However, it would be naive if I do not also consider realities of individuals who might have been subjected to it against their will.

I guess, one reason why it bothers me so much is because I have learned in my readings that in the 1970s, during the time when tolerance and eventual legalization of prostitution happened, Dutchmen went to Southeast Asia and brought back women from Thailand and the Philippines with them to work at their brothels in the Netherlands. This was followed by the wave of women from Latin America and Africa in the 1980s; then in the 1990s, women from Soviet countries came after the fall of the Soviet Union.

What life circumstances makes an individual, of any gender, choose a life of a sex worker?

What choices would they have made if our societies have given them the same power of choice that the affluent and influential are born to have?

And, while we are quick to applaud the Dutch society and government to have such progressive outlook on sex trade and soft drugs, I cannot stop myself from thinking that 50 years ago, Dutchmen came to my country to take women with them to be sex workers at their brothels in Europe to sell their flesh and be at the mercy of their employers and clients halfway across the world from their families.

It is insulting.

It is degrading.

And, no amount of white-washing will ever make that right.

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Today, the problem persists about invisible workers of the wealthy Dutch nation but not many of us are talking about it. Hooray for legalized soft drugs and sex trade! Hooray for “progressive” Dutch society!

Relevant article:

• The Secret Struggles of Undocumented Filipino Cleaners in the Netherlands

  Fairwork, an NGO dedicated to undocumented labor, explains that the country relies on “a lot of work, which is invisible, but which also contributes to society and the economy.”

  “[Undocumented workers] are dependent on a salary to provide for the family. So they’re vulnerable because of their position. And if someone abuses that vulnerability, you can also not escape,” the group adds.

  “Dutch society thinks our plight is unimaginable, they think themselves to be so tolerant,” De Asis mentions. When talking with her husband about the difficulties immigrants face in the United States during the time of President Donald Trump, she quipped “Dutch immigration is thicker than Trump’s wall.”