About Dutch Racist Culture and Geert Wilders. I dont like to write about my political preferences. I love to speculate and write about the politics of information, about how media and most of all technological information based media (like Facebook;) operate political by design. About why artists should also develop technological media and offer the world a creative technological mediation with objectives, values and aesthetics different from Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft. Anyway, that is not what I want to write about now. As I said, I dont like to write about my political preferences, because who cares ? But I will start to do so from now on. The reason for this is Geert Wilders and his political party the PVV. Wilders crossed a line by having a mob shouting for wanting less Moroccans in Holland, during the last Dutch local elections 19-03-2014. After analysing the rhetorical technique Wilders applied to work the crowd, the german press agency DPA compared Wilders’s performance with that of nazi minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels. One of the replies on Twitter that election evening was broadcasted on Dutch national television, it was addressed at the Dutch ‘Moroccans’: ”are you leaving already or do you need some help ?” Would The Hague have witnessed a new Kristallnacht during that night, with smashed shop windows of Moroccan butchers and groceries, it would have not surprised me. Wilders PVV victory and adrenaline were in the air. I fail to see the message that is being addressed by Wilders and believe me I really try hard. A message that also according to the large and established Dutch political parties PVDA, VVD, CDA has to be addressed. The message is that Holland has a serious problem with its ‘Moroccans’ (whom are actually Dutch citizens from a Moroccan descent and their kids) and other ‘immigrants’. They are being called “allochtonen” which is official apartheid-speak invented by the Dutch government in order to separate them (keep them apart) from ‘autochtonen’, like me… According to the established Dutch political parties we are witnessing a clash of civilisations resulting in immigrant related criminality, unemployment, and serious social disruption. Why do they say so ? They say this because the PVV voters (potentially 30% or more of the Dutch population) say so. And voters cant be wrong. Not if you need their votes. But I dont agree. Voters can be stupide, dangerous and wrong all at the same time, depending on which information they are being fed. And they are being fed the information from the traditional political Duch political parties and the PVV, stating that we really have a big problem in Holland, related to immigrants and allochtonen. The facts ? We have 360.000 Dutch from Moroccan descent living in Holland. We have 500, Dutch persons from Moroccan descent in jail, mostly youngsters. Mind you, these are not terrorists, but criminals, like the other 9500 people in Dutch jails. Sure this is a problem. Criminality is a problem and the fact that persons with a lower education and born in area’s where I have lived for the last 25 years are over represented in Dutch jails is problematic. Dutch kids with parents from a Moroccan descent between the age of 15 and 25 are in trouble. They need support and education. But is this why Holland will fail as a nation? Once these 500 kids are out of jail, the most important problems we have in Dutch society and culture will be solved and we all will be very homogenic Dutch and live in prosperity ? 500 kids are keeping us from this? The biggest problem in Holland is not ‘allochtonen’, but the Dutch culture of racism. This is what is holding us back. This is what prevents us to utilise the cultural diversity of our population, a potential strength, but we turn it into a destructive weakness. It’s a miracle that I fail to see the ‘problem’, because since 1993 I have lived in the areas which are supposed to be the worst in Holland, suffering from this Moroccan problem. I have lived at the Putselaan Rotterdam South and in Crooswijk and Oude Noorden Rotterdam. In the 80’s I lived in Arnhem, I was frequently hanging out in Klarendal, where in those days, according to the Dutch liberal party foreman Frits Bolkenstein, the blood of sheep was dripping from the balconies. mmmmm I did never noticed such a thing. Nor any violence for that matter. Just hookers, art-students, cheap food and loads of hard working first generation Dutch from Turkish descent. And I do remember my Dutch white landlord, breaking into my apartment and stealing my guitar and stereo set… In Rotterdam I felt uncomfortable while living in Rotterdam South for instance when my white rotterdam Dutch landlord ripped me off with the rent. And later when I lived in Crooswijk and Oude Noorden when Dutch politicians Pim Fortuyn and later Rita Verdonk made me feel seriously uncomfortable being white.. For the first time in my life I was feeling white and Dutch and set apart from the people in my neighbourhood. I felt embarrassed, because suddenly this was an issue, me, being white, they, a little bit less white…. Im sure, most of Geert Wilders his voters have never lived in these areas and have never even been there.. Wilders himself is actually from Limburg. No matter what the mob, the PVV, the PVDA, the CDA and the VVD say: the “Moroccan problem”, or Surinam, or Turkisch problem, is nonexistent. Any statement linking ethnicity with criminality is plain racist, right ? Did we ever know that ? Or have we forgotten ? (For a more objective report including all numbers and figures, please find the attached article underneath, (sorry its in Dutch), one of the not-political motivated reports about the so called Moroccan problem’) Im really sorry to say to, because I know a lot of intelligent, liberal and good friends will disagree with me. Mainly because they are not racist and I believe them. But I want to ask my friends to come to terms with the fact that we live in a Dutch racist culture and that the Moroccan problem is one of its many racist myths. Im also sorry to live in a country and culture that is potentially and actually racist, in its core... On the other hand it should not come as a surprise given the cultural importance of the Dutch colonial past and the impressive amount of Dutch Nazis and NSBers during the second world war. remember ? Sure, in the 70s and 80s, we were on the good side of apartheid. But try being on the good side of apartheid while being white, having a good job and living in Johannesburg. Or being black and not projecting your frustration and anger to white people as a ethnic group.. this takes courage, the kind of courage we need now in Holland. This is what I ask you to consider: how easy it is to condemn and blame and judge the others: the Russians, the Chinese, the NSA. But to admit that your own cultural DNA consists a good portion of RASISM? Its not easy, but its true. With Wilders PVV having potentially 30% or more of the votes, how can you (my dear Dutch liberal friends) even start to deny this !? I want to ask you to think about this and because are my facebook friend, I feel no objection to do so. Its not easy to admit to be a part of a racist culture, its more fun watching how good we are in speed skating or in football, or on the positive side of Dutch political culture; on an issue like euthanasia. But I do want you to consider this and if you agree, to come into action ! What would you have done in Germany 1933 ? In Johannesburg S.A. during the 70s ? How easy it would have been to stay on the side of dominant culture and power, how hard is it to break loose and realise that something is seriously fundamentally wrong in your own country, with your own culture and its definitely not the others the Moroccans, nor the Turks or the Romanians. Geert Wilders having his mob shooting for less Moroccans is not dangerous because of a possible racist future of Dutch politics. It is dangerous because it is the practice of racist Dutch politics ! It is Dutch racist politics in operation, backed up by 30 to 40% of the population ! Please, try to you see that, please acknowledge and then again: What would you have done in Germany 1933 ? In Johannesburg S.A. during the 70s ? Maybe nothing big. Im doing noting big. But Ive changed. Wilders has crossed a line and so have I; Im writing this. As I said, I dont like to write about my political preferences and it’s not what i’m doing best..but who cares ?, I really think there is a need for it now, an urgency, and I’ve sacrificed two days on this.. a small sacrifice because Wilders is trying to go back to the same old as soon as possible: saying nothing happend. And many of the PVDA, the VVD, and CDA will say that they don’t agree with mister Wilders his solution for ‘the problem’, but that they acknowledge ‘the problem’ and the are prepared to do something about ‘the problem. Again: this is racist culture in operation, this is the problem ! I would like to ask you, the let Wilders have a positive effect on your life and that of others. Acknowledge the fact that you are part of the Dutch inherent racist culture and act constructively upon it, make it your struggle because its your own cultural DNA ! Do what Wilders did: cross a line that you did not cross before, make an action, let him inspire you, not defeat you ;-) ! Im crossing my fingers, and I press post here we go :-) Geert Mul Rotterdam 28-03-2014 journalistklomp/2014/03/22/marokkaanse-criminelen-bestaan-niet/
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 10:20:47 +0000
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