tiger

Years ago we had neighboors raising their children in a strange way. When the children didn't make their homework from school well they had to stand on the staircase, face the stairs and there the children had to stand for some time. How long? No idea. But it was to make the children better, to let them learn and have excellent marks. The parents tried to break the children to make them do things the parents wanted them to do. It's psychological warfare between the parents and children.

For us, Dutchmen it's like being crazy. But in a way it isn't. It's accepted in society. We got a name for it; the church. It has it's derivates which are all based on the same believe in God. Some believes are more strict than others. But when it all comes together they can achieve great results in exploiting people. Churches bring people together and together they can reach something beyond reach for an individual.

With a non Catholic church the Dutch united to free their country from the Spanish Inquisitor.
In the meantime the 17th century started and it became the Golden Century of the Dutch. Only 5 million (a quick estimate) people ruled the waves. We had outposts everywhere in the known world of those days.

How did we do that?
We were reliable when we had to. Traders exist by having customers. The Dutch merchants could deliver products nobody had in Europe.
So unity made us big. (the United East Indies Company) We didn't want the highest quality because quality has it's price. We just had the best price/quality ratio.

Now I'm back in the present world where I see competitiveness and fathers and mothers still wanting the best for their kids.
They tell their kids what to do, what to want and how to pursue the objectives the parents set. For one type of parent the highest isn't good enough. They are called the tiger mother and tiger father. They want their offspring to be the best in the qualities they have. They demand 10's in Europe and the equivalent A's in the US.

Okay, what's up doc? Boring?
Well the American Amy Chua is a tiger mother and she wrote a book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

This is madness if it's being institutionalized.
Yeah, being the best in something you study at University. Only one can be the best. There will be a lot of ugly faces because they didn't make it.
This is not efficient and effective. The price of studying will be higher. Maybe the money driven college will attrack more motivated students but keeps the spirit of creativity away.
In a way the Dutch are moving towards an University where only the best can go to. This is painfull for those who aren't. Being the best costs a lot. I should have had a tiger mother, ha ha.
It pays when you have one.
Are studies available on being raised by a tiger mother? I wonder how the social & emotional component of the study is interpreted.

I think the Chinese concept for raising your kid(s) is functional in a Chinese structure. There are many people with the same skills and knowledge.
The Chinese have as object China. China is aimed at the interior. That means much competition and being outstanding is something to be when you want to climb Maslow's mountain of these days.

The Dutch have to be aimed at the exterior. Through history we have had to be efficient and effective. The last thing we need is a tiger as a parent.

family

The test I talked about in Aura I was tested as an entrepreneur. There might be something in it. Lately I heard a behavioral theory about people who come from the area I come from. I'm from the moor. Originally my family before the 19th century came from the north west of Germany, on border with The Netherlands. They moved west because there the work was.

Later in the 20th century some unmarried men moved to the mines and the moors in the south of The Netherlands. Even some people moved to the moors in south west England. My family in the early days had no homes. They moved from place to place because once you live in the moor you got no certainty. Within a few years or less the turf development moved and therefor the families had to move quickly and had to rebuilt the house elsewhere. It was a cheap shelter for animals and humans.
some kind of turf shed

Those days my family had the drive to find new places to excel, no matter how marginal their existence was. They tried to make all the best of it. The best they could do was to move. People moved 200 kilometers, others 700 kilometers. They were the opportunists of their times. Some had the entrepreneurship and worked for DSM or Philips, but above all they did their own thing.

This is the opportunistic family I'm from. Surviving the worst, dealing with the best things there are. Wonder if anybody went to America.

Originally we come from a farm between Oldenburg and Meppen in Germany. Catholicism and the birth rate did the family grow and spread their wings over North West Europe.

being small

To extend my last post, even in peace lacking Mosul (Iraq) there are some lucky people, like Najma and her fiance. Maas from Mosul is writing again as dr. Human after being busy with her study.
Dr. Human, aka Maas and Najma were friends when I read their blog for the first time some years ago. Now their blogs aren´t linked anymore. Hopefully their friendship is still there.

Today, April 4, it´s 400 years ago since the ship de Halve Maen sailed from Amsterdam. The VOC ordered the English captain Henry Hudson to sail along the edge of the north pole to find a new route to Asia. He disobeyed orders and discovered land in his effort to find another passage to Asia and more specific the Dutch east Indies. Hudson failed in his mission and found Mannahatta, in the language of the native people. On nowadays Manhattan the first settlers founded Nieuw Amsterdam.
The West Indian Company claimed land that Henry Hudson sailed and called it nieuw Nederland. In 1624 the first settlers from the Dutch Republic arrived.

In 1664 the English attacked Mannahatta. It was the end of the Dutch presence. Nieuw Amsterdam was renamed New York.