Bijlmermeer + Exploration + Lectures

Biljmermeer on Monday was a fantastic experience. Taking the metro in a nice sunny weather was refreshing! It was very interesting to see a suburban area of Amsterdam. I had this image that Amsterdam that only included the dams, canals, and a combination of historical and unique modern houses that you see around the central area. Biljmermeer seemed to me to a whole new city to me at first but now I'm thankful to have visited what's considered 'suburban' Amsterdam. It was very interesting to learn about the history - in which it was meant supposed to be a middle class neighborhood but instead became a 'black' neighborhood due to the independence of Suriname around 1975. The video we saw really stressed the multi-ethnicity of the region which I feel could possibly be even more so than Amsterdam Oost or West - but I would be interested to find out how much segregation/ghettofication exists and if anything is changing in this area. I get the feeling it's very widespread in this suburban area - we saw whole areas where 90%+ of the by-passers were immigrants and almost specifically Surinamese.



Important Observations:
- Lot's of satellite dishes

(indicating high density of immigrants)

- Rising middle class Surinamese neighborhoods - clean & 'privatized' (made into one's own space) & really luxurious inside

(evidence of social mobility - but to what extent? segregation question still persists)

- There are also many churches along with mosques because Surinamese

(Surinamese main religions include Christian, Hindu, and Muslim)

On Tuesday, Ray was wonderful and decided to join me in my exploration of Amsterdam West. She truly was a savior and helped me navigate places that would have otherwise taken me 2-3 times as long. We took bus 22 over to an Islamic school which happened to be closed but we took a few pictures. The school was a regular sized elementary school and doesn't stand out much at all. It is located underneath an apartment complex (I assume it serves surrounding neighborhood). Rooms inside were a little messy with chairs stacked onto the tables & askew but chairs & desks looked pretty new and the inside floors/walls looked clean. The sign on the building is a picture of a mosque, which is the school's logo/mascot. Nearby on the corner was a daycare room with mostly Muslim and immigrant women running it. The children were of various ethnicities including white (assuming native Dutch). We then walked over to try and find the Netherlands Islamic Society and on our way came across the Zeeburg area market and walked through it. We were starting to get low on time and coupled with rainy weather we decided to try to get as far as we could to the society via instructions I had gotten by Google Map but after knowing it was close to Amstel Station and not finding intermediate streets we chose to head on back.

Important Observations:
- A bit of trash being picked up by the wind

(I've noticed higher levels of trash traces in immigrant neighborhoods - possibly not a common understanding to pick up or have set standards for cleanliness)

- Muslim/immigrant women running daycare center with all sorts of nationalities of babies present

(Immigrants clearly seem to hold a lower average socioeconomic standing)

- Islamic school simple & small scale but relatively clean

(A level of legal autonomy is clearly given to minorities)

Today, Wednesday, we had a series of lectures. In the morning we listened to the processes of publication editing - the steps from peer reviewing, to editor response, to rewriting and resubmission, to final publication and promotion. The interesting thing is how common plagiarism and double submission occurs. Also the idea of a shifting/changing Dutch education system is very fascinating. I had no clue medical school could ever be decided by lottery but Amsterdam has proven me wrong!

In the afternoon, Jessica took us to a portion of the Stedelijk Museum which had an amazing exhibition by 3 artists. One work by Turkish artist Köken Ergun, was particularly interesting. I felt his act of putting on a headscarf which embodies a lot of the political and social pressures Islam has received over the past few years. In that way putting on the headscarf to eventually come to the Turkish flag, from my personal reading felt as if he was speaking to the common memories of how religion was tied to the national identity and by wearing the headscarf with the Turkish flag eventually comes to say 'mourning for what it has come to - where the religious backbone is being neglected/deliberately pushed away by the government.' I'm really curious to know how a guy wearing a headscarf would be viewed by members of the Islamic community!