I’m ashamed of my country, I haven’t said this in a long time. This is not because of what happened to Batman Jones, but in this last week the Netherlands have betrayed the moral value which I hold dear. There are actually two important things which I am upset about. The first one is simple, our prime minister refused to meet with the Dalai Lama (he send our minister of foreign affairs), because he was afraid of the reaction of China. He is such a coward, both the French and German leaders had a meeting with him. I know this is the same prime minister who followed Bush like a lapdog (even got our approval of the Iraq war). Every time I think he canot disappoint me more he does it. But this is not the main reason why I’m upset. Yesterday the election of the European parlement was held. So we had to vote for our political parties to get representatives of them in the European parlement. To fully understand the my anger you will have to read some history of the Dutch politics (I will keep it short). The Dutch have always been a progressive social country, we had a government where the liberals and a social party worked together, and we blossomed as a country. A couple of years ago a politician became popular his name was Pim Fortyun, he was a right winged politician who argued that there were a lot of problems in our country and that it was the fault of the foreigners in our country. He was a charismatic person (funny fact he was a gay man), he became very popular with only complaining, however a few weeks before the election he got shot and died. However his political party remained, and even became part of the government, but they failed and we had new elections. After the Pim Fortuyn debacle the politics returned to sort of normal. But a couple of Year ago a new Idiot became popular again, his name is Geert Wilders. He started a political party called the PVV (Party for freedom) the only thing he does is demonizing Muslims and trying to divide the Dutch. He made the movie "Fitna" just to provoke Muslims. He is an absolute idiot. And now in the election of the Europarlement became the second biggest party. Luckily most normal political parties said they will not form a government with him. But still that there are so many Dutch who actually agree with this lunatic. If with the Dutch election his party again gets this many votes and he will be part of the government my girlfriend and I decided we will move to another country (probably one in Scandinavia). Ok sorry I just had to rant, what happened to the progressive tolerant social country that we once were, of course in many areas we still are progressive and social, but the trend is not going in the right direction, especially with the tolerance. Luckily most Dutchmen still think Wilders is a complete idiot, but the group that doesn’t think he is an idiot is much bigger than I’m comfortable with. In my opinion everybody is entitled to there opinion, but you should respect others and not constantly attack a certain group of people (whether they are Gay, Muslim, Christian or atheist), and the PVV does just this they constantly attack the Islamic faith and only try to provoke. Wilders does not care for the good of the country, he only cares about his own popularity .
sorry to hear that arno. Seems like even the netherlands cannot escape the specter of european xenophobia.
A country's soul is deeper then its leaders. Never judge a county by the luntatics in charge. It only adds to their misguided sense of self worth. But y'all should have treated the Caped Crusader with more respect!
Luckily he will not become part of the government, since most parties will go in a government with him. And I'm not upset that there are lunatics like him, I'm upset that he is so popular even though every normal thinking person should be able to see that he does not care for the country and only cares for his popularity.
arno_ed - what are your thoughts on the increasing number of Muslim immigrants in northern Europe? It seems they really aren't integrating very well based on what I've seen over there
I might say this to make you jump off the cliff: why should your government bother to meet a slave owner, a political opportunist and a self congradulatory figure in Dalai Lama?
The only thing it would do is make the PRC pissed. Working with China in a positive light will have a much better result than honoring someone who they deem a terrorist.
IMHO there are some difficulties with the integration, That also happened with the people from the Maluku Islands. Also the prejudice that some people have against the Muslim immigrants make it worse. Furthermore many of the immigrants become part of the poorest people in the Netherlands so that also doesn't help. I believe that immigrants should be able to keep there culture, I believe the Netherlands is a better country if we have different cultures live next to each other. I believe with time and open communication all the different cultures that are here will be able to live together. That was terrible, it was a black page in our history books. I didn't agree with anything Pim said, and I was shocked how popular he was, however nobody should be killed for any reason. Furthermore I would love to have seen him in politics for a short while in order for his followers to see that he didn't offer anything substantial and he didn't have solutions. When he died his followers sort of started idolizing him, which was annoying (I think i heard a 100 times the sentence: "That was the way Pim wanted it"). I believe it was a terrible moment in Dutch history somebody was killed because of his political ideas (the guy who killed Pim actually used to life in the town I live in). Don't worry I understand others might have different opinions on the Dalai Lama (especially on this board). My opinion on who the Dalai lama is is not important, What I do think is important is that we keep on communicating with other people, especially those who we do not agree with, that is the only way to solve problems. So not wanting to talk to anybody only because a other country might be upset is always a bad thing to do. That way you let a other country decide for us who we want to talk to. Even if our prime minister does not agree with the Dalai Lama he should have the dialogue with him, just to find out what the other person is thinking. I personally like what the Dalai Lama is teaching, I have read some of his books, and seem interviews IMHO he is comparable with Ghandi, both preach non violence and keep on communicating especially with the people you disagree with, it is the only way to solve problems. So I believe the US should communicate with Iran, North Korea etc. I do not want to go in the discussion of whether Tibet should be independent or have more influence on their region, that is a different discussion.
How big of a Muslim population is present in Netherlands? I thought the country was itself a small area and size. What type of jobs do these Muslims have in the country? Do they cause minor crime or general irritation or are these people being blamed b/c they are taking away jobs, etc..? I'm kind of interested why these people are being demonized by the right wing political parties in your country.
One thing I have gleaned from all of my travels over the years is that no country and no people in the world are as progressive or open minded as they claim to be. It is easy to proclaim open mindedness and tolerance when you are a homogeneous country. You have a few minorities move into your country and suddenly you are not as tolerant as you thought you were. This is the case especially in Europe, where minorities have never really been welcome, not just a Muslim thing either. For all the flack the U.S. takes, there is not a single country in the world that has made the type of genuine social progress which America has made. What Europeans fail to understand is that the term progressive has a lot more to do with openness and tolerance than with the idea of a welfare state. The sad fact is not a single European country could ever dream of electing a racial minority to its highest office, what happened here in America would be unthinkable in modern day Europe.
Well put. The U.S.A. is still leading in many areas, even in this arena, and we somehow think we are behind.
