Wintertijd

Death of Consensus?

Sometimes people still ask me if I live in Sweden "for real", and I invariably answer that I would like to move back to the Netherlands at some point in time. Sometimes, however, I doubt those words, and this week has been such a time.

Once, there was a bit of a bastard. A rotund man of bad complexion with a chain smoking habit and a big mouth about most things. He worked for many publications as a columnist. He left an equal amount of employers after rows and with a sizeable cache of unpublished material due to provocative content. His name was Theo van Gogh, a relative to the well known painter.

This man also made movies. Recently he had made a short film about the inhuman conditions some islamic women face, called "Submission Part 1". He financed it himself and made it with a right wing female politician called Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who also provided the script. A graphic movie about rape and abuse of women under the guise of the Koran.

Of course, this man stepped on a lot of toes in his life. Like said, he was a bit of a bastard sometimes. And making this film seems to have been the drop. The jews had complained about him, the christians had sued him in an EU court for joking about "the rotten fish of Nazareth". It was however a 29 year old fundamentalist Muslim from Marocco that killed him on the doorstep of his home in Amsterdam by first shooting him twice and then making sure with a number of stabs with a knife.

Meanwhile, a right-wing politician split off from his party because it was not right wing enough, and is now an independent agent in the House of Lords. This man, after last week's murder and the cremation of Theo van Gogh, currently would get 18 mandates in the House of Lords. The man is, for all intents and purposes, a fascist bastard in a silk suit.

Since Pim Fortuyn the time-honoured political system has been declining. There used to be a Consensus-democracy called the Poldermodel that made sure all parties got talked to till consensus was reached on policy. Pretty damn slow, but very democratic.

Nowadays that seems quite long ago. The government in place is killing off all social welfare systems under the guise of Norms and Values and with the claim that you have to break eggs to make an omelette, the future of the country being the omelette in this case. Fascists and populists run rampant and achieve frightening popularity. Christian fundamentalist deem the times fit to air their contempt for their Islamic brethren, while fundamentalist Muslims seem to get more violent.

After hearing of Theo van Gogh's murder an artist made a mural with the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" in it. A day later, he was forced to see how the police removed the mural because it was "an incitement to riot". When exactly did "Thou shalt not kill" become a provocative thing to say? Apparantly in Holland it did last week. So we have not only complete madness but also a cowardly type of censorship on our hands.

Would I like to move back? The answer is yes, I do. My blood lies there. But it can't be denied: at present something's rotten in the state of Holland. Theo van Gogh was a provocative and difficult man, but he had strong opinions that he voiced, and he shouldn't have gotten murdered for them. I know it sounds fascist, but I'd almost wish they would round up all fascists, racists, zealots and fundamentalists and flog them to within an inch of their life and then nail 'm to a wall by the bollocks to set an example.

These people are destroying my country.

Posted by Chris at November 11, 2004 08:21 PM