Blog: The ultimate sacrifice

So maybe I've wisen up a bit, but I got to thinking- I think more then one like you would think, especially because one like you doesn't like to think about thinking much- about stereotypes. They are the hard to spell words that rule our minds with an iron fist.
I want you to think for a second about a country- pretty much any country. The first thing in your mind is bound to be a stereotype. Though it is probably true.
Here are some of the things that I think of when I here about some countries:
America: Fat, military, obnoxious
France: Snobs, fancy, cowards
Germany: Nazis, anger issues, beer
Russia: Vodka, bears, communists
Britain: Gentlemen, tea, british
Japan: Robots, extremely weird, otakus
Canada: Hockey, moose, pretty much nothing important
Italy: Fascist, pasta, also cowards
Netherlands: Milk, football, windmills

When I look at this graph, I see plenty wrong and plenty right. So the easiest way to think of stereotypes is a shortcut. It saves you time, but it may not work that well.
Oh, the last item on the list is completely true. In case you were subconsciously wondering, I'm secretly Dutch.

 And as someone who has gone to The Netherlands (But still keeps calling it Holland) I can tell you the dutch live in a world of football, cheese and windmills. And possibly herring.
I'm not even sure if The Netherlands has an army. I mean, they used to, but now? They don't seem very war-y. The old Dutch army still managed to be awesome. Here's a fun little story for you to share: One day Spain decided to invade The Netherlands. Spain is not exactly known for being powerful, but neither is The Netherlands. Spain devised a clever plan to capture the Dutch by the frozen winter canals. They marched in to take over a few frozen vessels but were thwarted by the dutch soldiers- wearing ice skates.
Can you imagine that? You think you've won as the Dutch ship's are frozen in place and the soldiers are no where to be seen when suddenly a troop of ice-skating soldiers skates in and shoots you. The Spanish were so impressed they started making their soldiers learn to ice skate.
Another thing The Netherlands has going for it is windmills. We all think of that, right? Old windmills in front of fields of flowers... Very pretty sight indeed. I'm sad to have to tell you this is not true. The windmills are almost all turbines now. But the old ones still keep around. Being tourist traps.
Oh, one more thing. Did you know the Dutch are the masters of self-defense/suicide? The name Netherlands means 'under lands' for a reason. All of The Netherlands is underwater, the water being kept away by dykes. I'm pretty sure they just made a new island a few years ago. But the main point is that the whole of The Netherlands is a giant deathtrap. At any point they can release the flood gates and open the dykes and flood the entire country. Let me repeat that. They can flood the entire country. They would only do it in a dooms-day scenario, I imagine, but still. An entire country that is a weapon. A very unreliable weapon that can kill millions of innocents, but whatever.

For those of my invisible, not real visitors who are waiting for Evil's interview, don't worry! I'll get it when she finally gets online. She sure takes forever.
UPDATE: Evil is away for a bit in Phillie. She doesn't use email when she's traveling, so we'll have to wait...