I just stumbled on a Dutch blog (in Dutch) by Lagonda. Really brilliant blog! I don’t always agree, but I wish I could write like that. And the analyses of contemporary (Dutch) society and culture are amazingly good. Despite the fact that she votes for the opposite side compared to me. Among other things a lot of comments about islam and multiculturalism and a nice piece about how modern Western (or rather, West-European) society is deeply Marxist in nature. And how that Marxism is directly related to Christian guilt. Pretty cool. She (at least, I think it’s a she) writes continuously against modern left wing ideology, while I actually vote on the left, but she does it in such a well founded, thorough way, it’s quite impressive and interesting.
December 27th, 2006
Now that I’m on the subject of movies anyway (I’ve been watching a lot since I have a Netflix subscription), I should also mention the British miniseries I watched last night and this morning. It’s called A Very British Coup and it is a somewhat old series, from 1988, about a socialist leader of the Labour Party who manages to get elected as prime minister. He immediately starts the nuclear disarmament of Britain and demands the removal of U.S. bases from British soil. This of course to the horror of the British military and intelligence establishment who immediately start working on a way to get rid of them. The result is a fairly dark image of the British intelligence community and a very interesting television series. Highly recommended to people who are interested in politics or espionage.
December 23rd, 2006
I guess I don’t have to mention what I think of the Dutch governments idea to propose a law to make using burkas illegal in the Netherlands. They found yet another way to emphasize that only one culture is acceptable in the Netherlands and that we’ll protect our culture by law!
Some Dutch political decisions are really, really cool, though. This article in Der Spiegel discusses how various towns in Europe are abolishing most traffic rules, including signs, lights, and even pedestrian walks. The result: far fewer accidents! Makes total sense to me and I just hope this is going to become a widely adopted trend. Assume some responsibility, and people act more responsible …
November 20th, 2006
“Islamic teacher must shake hands” - according to the Volkskrant, all parties in the Netherlands, except GreenLeft, agree that a ruling by the ‘Committee for Equal Treatment’* is a step too far. The Committee decided that a Muslim female teacher should not be forced to shake hands with male parents. All political parties agree that shaking hands is a normal part of the Dutch culture and that such a teacher should thus be forced to accept this.
How is not respecting even the minor details of the Muslim culture going to ever help integration? There is not even the slightest attempt to try to understand the culture of immigrants and even in minute details we force them to accept our culture and our behavioral patterns, and then we are surprised that some of them radicalize and turn into terrorists. I am so shocked by this news. To hear the minister of integration, mrs. Verdonk, say something like this would not surprise me anymore. She also wanted to make speaking Dutch in the Dutch streets mandatory (very welcoming to foreign tourists!) and made a strong personal effort to throw a member of parliament out of the country without proper investigation into her citizenship status - in other words, she’s doing the opposite of ‘integration’ and usually making the most stupid remarks ever, so it’s no surprise. But now even the leader of my own party, Wouter Bos, whose book made me join the party again, supports this consensus. What happened to the Netherlands?!
Perhaps I really should vote GreenLeft - even though I consider myself a liberal and thus rather far away from this socialist party. But immigration / integration is the most salient issue for me in Dutch politics at the moment and the GreenLeft is the only party left that makes some sense in this regard. Integration is definitely something I wish the Dutch would learn a bit more from the Americans. Even after 9/11, I think Muslims here are much more respected than in Europe.
Lets make an attempt to get to know other cultures in the Netherlands and live together and respect each other, instead of this recurring nonsense about ‘Dutch culture’ and ‘Dutch values’. Current policies are definitely not reflecting Dutch values of tolerance and liberalism …
* Sorry, bit of an ugly translation - committee which is concerned with equal treatment of different group in society; an anti-discrimination council.
November 10th, 2006