Nieuws - 17 december 2009

Readiness to help

tekst:: Gastredacteur

Typical Dutch

Two weeks ago I was biking to my workplace in the morning when I heard someone screaming. I immediately rushed over to the person and asked what was wrong. She told me that she had twisted her ankle and was not able to move. I tried to stop passing vehicles but no one dared to stop to help. She told me to contact the emergency health services.

After pressing several numbers and waiting for 15 minutes, I got someone to talk to. I explained the situation in detail and was told I would be connected to another person. I had to explain the whole story again to this person. Finally, after half an hour on the phone, the ambulance service told me that they would come in 30 minutes. The injured person was still suffering badly and desperately needed help, but in this non-socialistic world no one wanted to spare a few minutes to take her to the hospital, even though there was only one person in most of the cars. Given the same circumstances in my home country, India, people will rush immediately to help each other. When we see a person in this situation we try to bring them to the hospital as soon as possible. I was waiting for almost one hour for the ambulance to arrive, which is ridiculous. Sachin Kadam, PhD Laboratory of Food Microbiology
Do you have a nice anecdote about your experience of going Dutch? Send it in! Describe an encounter with Dutch culture in detail and comment on it briefly. 300 words max. Send it to resource@wur.nl