對荷蘭「看另外一面」文化造成「在場者都參加的爭吵」?唻free-for-all?啀有所怨言的荷蘭人，想要把步伐倒退一點。

鹿特丹港市已經有所行動，傳統上，鹿特丹是個被視為勞動階級的工業城市，相較於此，阿姆斯特丹是個文化精英的搖籃。

在荷蘭人呼籲要有更多法律和秩序?唻右派針對犯罪與暴力所提出的口號?啀的背後，荷蘭開始出現一股指責犯罪和少數種族的趨勢。

幾年前，荷蘭警方還拒絕在犯罪嫌疑犯的背景資料上登錄其種族血統。但是，自從發生好幾起黑人年輕人殺害白人的案件之後，數個城市市長開始針對幾個來自北非和加勒比海地區的特殊族群加以注意。
此舉引發了移民族群的緊張關係。上個月發生在荷蘭阿姆斯特丹的摩洛哥人暴動，就是因為警方開槍打死一名持刀的年輕人。

幾世紀來，荷蘭這個歐洲國家因為其「包容」的傳統而受人注意，她採取一種「准許不強迫他人的非法行為」政策。只要沒造成他人困擾，某些違反規則的輕罪行為是被允許的。
這幾十年，荷蘭人把販賣大麻、毒品使用和召妓列為輕罪的名單當中，有些甚至已經被合法化。現在，市政當局卻認為，荷蘭也許開放過了頭。

去年5月，荷蘭強調反對移民和主張民族主義的極右派政黨領袖佛杜恩，遭到槍擊身亡，點出荷蘭左右之爭的暗潮。無論如何，佛杜恩能在去年3月荷蘭第二大城鹿特丹的地方選舉中，一舉拿下17席，超過市議會總數45席的1/3，也顯示，總是談論開放、自由的荷蘭，已出現不少人想要向右靠攏的趨勢。但不管怎麼說，荷蘭出現所謂的向右靠攏現象，並非只是一股腦的保守起來。以死去的佛杜恩為例，他在公開呼籲停止移民的同時也強調，荷蘭若接受回教移民，會破壞荷蘭社會的寬容性，因為回教對待同性戀及婦女的態度非常惡劣，而佛杜恩本身就是一名同性戀者。

移民問題、族群關係及民族主義等話題，近來已成為歐洲政客們的重點議題。荷蘭又是歐洲國家裡頭，常有創先之舉的一國。看著荷蘭在這方面的發展，多少以嗅出歐洲社會未來的變化。

Those who visit Amsterdam this summer, watching tourists patrolling the infamous Red Light district in search of sex and drugs, might not notice how the vaunted Dutch tolerance is wearing thin.

The Dutch, complaining that their culture of "looking the other way" has created a free-for-all, want to turn the clock back.

The toughest stance has been taken by Rotterdam, traditionally regarded as the working man's city as opposed to Amsterdam, home of the cultural elite.

And behind the calls for more law and order is a growing tendency to blame crime on ethnic minorities.

Just a few years ago, the police refused to register the ethnic origins of criminal suspects. But after a series of attacks in which black youths killed white people the mayors of several Dutch cities have started to single out specific groups from North Africa and the Caribbean.

This has fuelled tensions with immigrant groups. Moroccans rioted in Amsterdam this month when police shot dead a youth who had a knife.

The Dutch have been noted for their tolerance in Europe for centuries, adopting a policy which allowed illegal if non-obtrusive behaviour.

In recent decades they added the sale of cannabis, drug usage and prostitution to the long list misdemeanours to which they turned a blind eye. Some were even legalised.
Now, the municipal authorities, many of which came to power during the 1960s and 1970s when they replaced their older and stricter predecessors, realise they may have overdone it.
In a bid to reverse the trend Rotterdam mayor Ivo Opstelten, nicknamed "Giuliani on the (River) Maas" in a reference to New York's former hard-line mayor, has vowed to lock up or cure the city's 700 hard-core drug addicts.

The new city council has slashed the number of "coffee shops" which sell soft drugs from 300 to 60 and aims to reduce the number further.

Amsterdam, one of the first European cities to adopt a relaxed attitude to homosexuals, is working to shut erotic bars and clubs.

"This place is getting worse than Tehran," joked Siep de Haan who organises the annual Gay Pride parade. "City Hall is terrified about Amsterdam's image of sex and drugs and rock and roll."

Until last year, police officers were allowed to frisk only the people they arrested. Now, following a pilot scheme in Rotterdam, anyone walking the Dutch streets can be searched at any time.

Begging, which ceased to be an offence many years ago, has been reinstated as a punishable felony by authorities in bigger cities.
"Beggars were becoming aggressive, and we were powerless. Something needed to be done," explained an Amsterdam police spokesman.

Urinating in the canals or against Amsterdam's elegant 17th-century facades, once ignored by passing policemen, will be punished by a hefty fine.

Stricter law enforcement is welcomed by voters who have expressed their exasperation at what they see as a decline in Dutch society by electing new rightist parties to run town halls.

The promise to restore law and order has been keenly embraced by established parties in an attempt to stem their own decline.

"Things have improved a bit. A drug pusher across the street has at last been arrested and his house has been boarded up. In the old days he would have been back in a week," said Libben Reeskamp, living in Amsterdam's central Nieuwmarkt area.

Now he wants to see action against other drug dealers and addicts who keep him awake at night.

Having already restricted the sale of postcards showing explicit nudity, Amsterdam's mayor Job Cohen is aiming to limit all-night opening hours for brothels.

He hopes it will reduce harassment from brawling Britons who drink through the night before heading home on cheap flights, said Marjan Jonker of the prostitute interest group De Rode Draad (The Red Thread/String).

"It's all aimed to limit nuisance. The measures are aimed to make the streets safer for Amsterdammers, but not for prostitutes whom police are checking for illegal immigrants much more aggressively these days," she added.

In another sign of the turning tide, commercial television broadcaster SBS -- which operates three Dutch channels -- said in June that it would stop showing explicit sex, the feature which defined its launch a decade ago.

"It was getting out of hand," said SBS manager Fons van Westerloo. "Erotic shows crept towards porn and overshadowed our image. Viewer ratings were also going down. Is the mood in the country shifting to become more puritanical? Yes, I think so. We've decided to take our responsibility."

Some schools have overturned the practice of calling teachers by their first names and reverted to "sir" and "madam".

Soon to be introduced is a compulsory identity card, frowned upon after World War Two when careful registration helped the Nazis hunt down Dutch Jews. The card is now seen as an inevitable aid to keep on top of crime.