MUCH TO BE PROUD OF IN AMSTERDAM

Amsterdam. What Kind Of Place Is It?

Prostitution and smoking pot in the largest city of The Netherlands popped
up at least three times during the last few weeks in The SP. A darkly
printed colour picture on the front page (SP Aug. 27) was taken in
Amsterdam's red light district where, as in five Australian states,
prostitution is legalized.

Legalization has resulted in much closer contact between those involved in
the world's oldest profession and the police, who show up immediately when
acts of violence or other criminal activities are reported. The gainers in
this change from wrong to right are women and children. The losers are the
pimps.

The legalized use of marijuana makes drug dealers the losers. No wonder
they are opposed to affordable smoking in coffee shops licensed to serve
customers limited smokes.

Darcy Ecker (Pot advocates will never learn SP Aug. 28) mentions that
"Amsterdam also allows euthanasia." Indeed, euthanasia -- defined in the
Canadian Oxford Dictionary as "an act of painless killing, esp. at the
patient's request" -- is legal and rightly so.

All these legal and administrative changes following the Second World War
in the Netherlands have been to the benefit of women, children, the poor
and the elderly. They have only upset some extreme conservatives and, of
course, pimps and drug dealers.

Sooner or later, similar conversions will appear in all civilized nations.
The days of male-dominated societies, such as those in Afghanistan, will be
gone.

My wife and I are both proud of our birthplace, Amsterdam.

Walter Kupsch

Saskatoon