Sex, Drugs & Bicycles

Hey there! My name is Jonathan Blank, and I'll be your host for this movie making short

statements about tall people. In case you didn't know the Dutch are the world's tallest

people. I'm not sure why that's important, but I figured I'd mention it. In the US, where

I'm from, I've heard some people talk about social democracy like it's a nightmarish hell.

Back in the 1990s I made a documentary about Holland. At the time, it was the world's most

liberal country, and it sure didn't seem like hell to me. But maybe I was too young, too

naive, and too stoned to realize how nightmarish it really was. So I decided to go back and

re-evaluate the place with my older, wiser, and more nearsighted eyes. What I ultimately

found will surprise you completely, partially, or not at all.

Here more people think, well have a nice life. Enjoy your life. And there's a lot of freedom.

You have a lot of free time and it's paid for... that's also for Americans sometimes

astonishing that you do not only get paid during your holidays you get extra pay to

- enjoy your holidays. - You get holiday pay on top of your pay?

- Yes. - Is that required by law?

- Yeah. - How much holiday pay do you get?

- You get one month's pay extra. - You get one month's pay extra? So you get

- 4 weeks of vacation? - At least.

- And that's paid? - Yeah.

- And then you get one extra month. - Yeah.

- So you're paid 13 months... - Absolutely.

- And you work 11 months. - Yeah.

- And that's by law. - Yeah.

Dutch adults are ranked as the fifth happiest in the world, and according to the UN, Dutch children are the happiest kids in the world.

I went to speak with Professor Margreet de Looze, who is one of the authors of the UN study.

So what is the main problem kids have in the Netherlands?

That's a good question.

The UN had a study, and they said that kids in Holland are the happiest kids in the world.

- Have you heard about that? - Yeah we have.

Freedom and independence, fantastic communication with their parents. The dinner table, or the

breakfast table even, is an important part of a Dutch family, so everyone will sit around together.

The parents finish work on time to come home and eat with their kids.

Do you have to go?

I have to go soon.

All right, so we'll wrap up.

And then spend the time around the table talking

to each other, and that good communication carries on into the difficult teenage years.

In the UNICEF survey, Dutch teenagers had the best relationships with their mothers

and fathers of all the other countries surveyed.

All our children are biking because as a parent

and your child is 4, 5, 6, you give him the "sturen en handle" the steering wheel

of the bike so you are quite autonomous that you can bike, and being autonomous makes you

more happy then when you are not allowed to make your own decisions.

There's a socially supportive climate in school.

What do you want to do do, Amber? Do you know? - Law School.

- You want to go to law school. - Yeah.

- Oh really... high five! - No.

Please.

And I think that's related to a larger cultural

characteristic of the Dutch society which is very low competitiveness, more emphasis

on cooperation, on inclusion.

The Dutch in a way already acknowledge this

understanding that their child will more likely not become the valedictorian.

- In fact, they don't even have a valedictorian. - They don't have a valedictorian.

They don't even know what that is, actually. - I didn't know what it was.

- Really? - Yeah.

I actually think that makes a dramatic difference in how children grow up of not being put on

a pedestal or... Not being made to compete with other children

- but to be the best you can be yourself. - So we might not have superstars, but one thing

that I misunderstood as an American because I hate the word average it's something that's

just ingrained in our society. Who wants to be average when we can be great?

But what the Dutch accomplished within the education system is to have a really high level average.

Much higher than what Americans would consider average.

I'm going to email this to my sister immediately after this interview because she was valedictorian.

Oh dear.

Surprisingly. While Dutch kids are very happy,

some moms I spoke with are unhappy about Dutch maternity leave policies that give women 16

weeks of paid leave while men get only two days.

There used to be a woman's party. Is there still a woman's party?

- In politics? - Yeah.

We do have an animal party. But we don't have a specific women's party.

But there are some parties, mostly left wing parties, for whom gender equality is an important issue

and who, for example, propose paternity leave. On some lists of gender equality the Netherlands

score very high and on others they score very low. So if we look at the percentage of women

who are active in the labor force we score very high, but they don't work full time so

they won't reach the top.

Everything is equal until you get children

and then suddenly you feel the difference between men and women. Should I not work?

Should I not have had children. What's the decision? There's no decision there. I always

thought of feminists like they are angry women. It was not appealing to me, but then I thought,

well if this is what I have to be, fuck I'm a feminist. So then I wrote the book about

why we're working like we do and what we can do about it.

- Did people get offended by that title? - We say "fuck" a lot in Holland.

We don't give a fuck.

You fuck it up for your children.

Really fucked up big-time.

What the fuck!

Nobody has any fucking idea who the fuck anybody is anymore.

Illegal as fuck.

Um... fuck off

Fuck off!

Eh... fuck off.

I'm telling you this is really fucked up shit.

What was the word you used? Snoezel...

Snoezelzorg.

Snoezelzorg. It's when you have a disability or when

you are physically challenged you can also get sexual service, and in the Netherlands

we have a special term for that which is Snoezelzorg. And is that covered by the insurance here?

For some people yes.

It's interesting that the government would

pay for someone to go to a sexologist. - Um.

So how does it work? Do you go to your doctor and get a prescription?

Yeah, although it has changed lately. You can now also decide yourself. You don't

have to go to your doctor.

My sex care practitioner work is for clients

who are mentally or physically disabled. Do you have sex with people?

- Yes I do. Only safe. - Do you pay taxes on that? - Of course.

- Why shouldn't I? - You seem like you're comfortable being out

and open about this. I think it's important to break taboo.

And why is that important? It's important that this kind of sex care

is going into Insurance. You live in a small town, right. Do your neighbors

- know what you do for a living? - Some do.

- Do you get any negativity towards you? - No, I don't.

Can you teach a guy how to have multiple orgasms?

That's the standard question.

I mean these insurance companies they have a certain a discretionary, I mean certain

services they can say we do this, or we don't do it, and if it they don't do it you can

appeal and you can go to the court of law and you know you may get your point or not.

Are there people freaking out about that here? No. But if everybody would do they probably would.

So if like 6 million males would, you know ...then there would be a problem I guess.

The Dutch national healthcare system has a high approval rating and is ranked as one

of the best in the world. In this country almost the entire provider

landscape in healthcare is private nonprofit. It's a private scheme but with all kinds

of public regulations, risk-adjustment. Of course, more income dependent, but it's very

much comparable to the Obamacare Affordable Care Act system actually.

There is a certain kind of a basic package for everyone. It doesn't matter how rich you

are etcetera. And there is a certain amount of money you have to pay for that. For a normal

citizen that's which you have to pay privately is about 100 euros a month.

Do you have the same health insurance as a senator as say my cameraman Bas?

Absolutely. Yeah. The same hospitals, same doctors.

In 2006 it was determined by law that no family in the Netherlands could spend more than 5%

of their income in healthcare. Do you have the health insurance CEOs making

millions like in the US. No, no, no, no. There is a law that states

that everybody who works with public money, and healthcare is considered to be public

money, is not allowed to earn more than the prime minister.

The Dutch national healthcare system provides a comprehensive policy which covers a very

broad range of treatments that even includes gender reassignment.

When you feel like you're transgender you go to the VU Medical Center Hospital here

in the Netherlands. They have a gender team, the biggest gender team in the world I believe,

and then you have access to hormones if you desire, to surgeries if you desire that are

covered by your Healthcare which is amazing. And you don't have people protesting saying

I don't want to pay for that? No.

Interestingly, the VU University Medical Center used to be a Christian Hospital it has a Christian

background and here was where it started in the 1970s. And it's said it's out of a sort

of gratefulness, maybe even because it were Christian doctors working here that it could happen here.

If you live in a space as we do where it's

relatively safe of course there's also hate crimes here of course there's also violence

here but the social space is safer for trans people.

It's increasing every year like many countries and in some countries it's even increasing

100% every year. So that's what we also see, very sharp increase in referrals.

- I really like your story about the humor. - Yeah, it's awful.

- The people laughing at your jokes more now. - Yeah.

- While they're the same jokes. - While they're the same stupid jokes.

How old do you have to be? - So that's what the VU Medical Center is actually

famous for is treating kids.

We also see the young ones before puberty,

but we only see them most of the time for it for just diagnostic and a short advice.

And then they have this revolutionary treatment of hormone blockers, puberty blockers.

I think here in the Netherlands we were the first that started providing blockers.

It has come to be called The Dutch approach. What do the blockers do?

So they block puberty development and once you stop the blockers puberty from the birth

assigned sex will start again. So it's a fully reversible treatment, but at the same time

you don't develop the sex characteristics of the gender you don't experience yourself in.

Coverage of gender reassignment surgery is

part of a larger acceptance for alternatives to traditional gender definitions in the Netherlands

and Dutch courts have ruled that parents no longer have to specify a gender on their children's birth certificates.

LGB population.

LGBT you should say nowadays.

LGBTQ.

LGBTQ... I.

Intersex is being born with more or less.

Ambiguous... Ambiguous...

No. Because then it gets binary again.

Why should we actually have genders?

Maybe we should skip it all together and just talk about people.

There are 4 basic models for healthcare around the world.

Single-payer healthcare delivers 100% coverage

by having the government provide and pay for healthcare through taxes, just like public education.

The government pays doctors, hospitals, and drug costs, keeping expenses down.

It's used in countries like the UK, Spain, and throughout Scandinavia.

Single-payer Insurance achieves 100% coverage by having the government run a single health

insurance program that everyone pays into. Since there is only one insurance company

they have low overhead and can negotiate better prices.

It's used in countries like Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea.

Social health insurance provides 100% coverage

using a private insurance system financed by employers, workers, and taxes.