A new word in the Feb. 2 Wall Street Journal, speaking on the Netherlands' reputation for red-light districts and the like:

The modern Dutch consensus is that making outlaws of prostitutes and soft-drug users only pushes them underground and into the hands of real criminals. Better to control and regulate such behaviors by legalizing – or in the case of cannabis, tolerating – the otherwise objectionable. The Dutch word for this is gedogen, which has no equivalent in English yet roughly means permitting what is officially illegal.

Interesting concept. Would that we had a term for this too!

We do.
Turning a blind eye.

We do.
Turning a blind eye.

I say. Good one.

I think the more accurate English translation is tolerated. At least that's the answer I get when I ask Dutch people if cannabis and prostitution are legal in Holland.

quote:

I think the more accurate English translation is tolerated. At least that's the answer I get when I ask Dutch people if cannabis and prostitution are legal in Holland.

In my own experience both prostitution and soft drug taking are more than tolerated.

The police in the Kanalstrasse area of Amsterdam patrol openly and talk to the providers of both services openly. Clubs and other establishments issue computerised admission tickets and receipts to their customers and the whole area feels very safe and secure. Indeed, for many years it has become something of a tourist attraction to those who wish simply to sightsee.

I confess it's been a few years since I was last there but I have no reason to believe that it's become less tolerant.

I posted this question on a forum for translators, and the respondents agreed (see here) with this answer: "tolerate True, there is no one-to-one translation in English, but I generally use this, especially with regard to marijuana policy in the Netherlands".

One commented that "'to turn a blind eye' would give a distinctly incorrect impression in most cases".