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Tolerance & Discrimination In The Netherlands
Us Dutch people have always been known for our tolerance. This goes way back, back when we were the only republic in Europe with freedom of religion.
I would like to take this opportunity to offer my sincere apologies to anybody who has been watching our politics for the past 2 1/2 years with great astonishment. We are not tolerant and have never been either.
However, simultaneously I would like to offer some comfort: There are those in The Netherlands who feel the pain every day when they watch the news, observe the politicians and see what is happening. People who shed tears for our country and what it should have been.
What is "tolerance"?
To me it means you accept each other as-is, respecting each others' differences, however difficult that sometimes might be.
Tolerance in The Netherlands has known many different definitions throughout the ages. In our Golden Age we allowed jews, muslims, catholics, reformed and protestants and whomever else to freely exercise their religion. Did we do that out of a genuine conviction that that that was the only righteous thing to do? Jews and muslims at that time in Europe were excluded from the old honoured professions. They had no alternative but to turn to other careers, such as banking, trading, diamondcutting etcetera. In short: The "new" professions, that suddenly turned out to be much more lucrative. Now, when you are looking for new investments (just discovered the concept) and loans, are you going to ban the people that are vital to that cause on the sole basis of principle?
No you don't. Don't forget we created the worlds' first public limited company. Trade is profit and to trade you need money, which they could provide. "Tolerance" and "freedom of religion" became trademarks. How much better were these people of than their other European counterparts? Although they weren't being prosecuted, they still lived in their own ghettos, bought in their own shops and were, in general, shunned.
The same goes for other religious interaction by the way. There is an old saying down here that says "two different religions on one pillow is the devil's work!".
We continued like this well into the 20th century, until the so-called verzuiling (translation would be "pillaration" or something) in Holland fell prey to the general decay of the mayor religions and the modernisation. But even now the remains and signs are still visible.
Verzuiling. In the south of the U.S. they called it segregation and it was based on skin-colour, but the principles remain the same and we really were better at it, because we managed to maintain at least 4 completely split groups.
People didn't live with each other, but they had to live besides each other. Prejudice and distrust between the different "pillars" were huge, and outsiders were extremely frowned upon. This then is The Tolerant Netherlands. And to be honest, it never stopped. The verzuiling in it's original form doesn't exist anymore, but the new way is even worse, far worse.
Pim Fortuyn made, as they say, "the previously unspeakable things discussable". Our ignorant and careless attitude towards immigrants resulted in our own way of a Apartheid. Ghetto's, "black" schools, people haven't mastered our language resulted in more poverty, unemployment and ergo to more crime amongst immigrants (for which we have a very special, own word called "allochtoon").
But especially after his death, the interpretation of his views was exactly the one the imposed taboo had sought to prevent.
In short: People were allowed to say it was all the foreigners' fault again.
During that election year a remarkable radicalisation took place in the political arena, and the ones with the loudest voice and the most outspoken and populistic views gained control.
September 11th and Theo van Gogh's death only accelerated this process. The Dutch, in the interest of trade, have always been very good at making compromises and lulling arguments and rows, something that peaked during the so-called, much-praised but now despised "Polder-Model", now saw it's politicians revert to views, opinions, statements and ideas which in their utter stupendous ridiculousity widened the several gaps in the Netherlands untill they were deep, rock-carved ravines.
On top of that we have to suffer biggest and most stringent budget cuts we have ever known, which inevitably hurts the lowest income categories most, to which a large portion of the immigrants belongs.
The media and the politicians played and fed the feelings of anxiety, of fear, of uncertainty instead of lulling them and trying to find workable solutions. By now this has gone so far that the previously mentioned, less than 3-year old taboo has reversed a 180 degrees: It used to be not allowed to blame "allochtonen", by now it is impossible that they're not to blame. This is either a form of group behaviour or censorship, depending on your view. Fact is it's there, and it won't go away easily anymore.
So here we are in a situation where the politicians use and feed whatever fear we have in order to gain some air-time or paper in the media. We've grown more xenophobic than ever and the end of the tunnel isn't even near yet, despite some hopefull signs.
Pim Fortuyn used to talk about "the rubble of 8 years of Purple coalition", but we'll need much longer than that to recuperate from the mistakes called Balkenende I & II, a coalition which we, by the way, never even chose for.
Remains my only hope: The Supreme Court. Sooner or later it must rule that many points and policies of this coalition are against our constitutional rights of equality, privacy and a lot more.
I can't wait.
