Comments by "Martin Maat" (@MartinMaat) on "Joe Scott" channel.

We (the Dutch) still have streets and civil works named after pirates and slave traders from that era. Only recently this has become somewhat controversial and a debate has started about changing those names, about maybe not use them in an honorary fashion. They are everywhere. It is a long way from practices that once were the norm and a period still referred to as the golden age to the realization they were really several black pages in our history. I am in my fifties, when I was in school the subject was not really touched in history class. It was only later I realized this was by design. It never was like it was taboo or teachers could not talk about it, it was more like no one seemed to be interested, it was not a thing. We learned about war with the Germans a lot and how fascism was bad but never was any reference made to stuff we as a nation did earlier and shortly after that conflict. It was almost like the story of our short time of being occupied by the Germans was used as a cover for colonial history, so we would not have to address that. It is coming around though. Slowly. Yet some insist on keeping Zwarte Piet. Nothing stirs up a political row like Zwarte Piet.
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