How Holland looks like a fool, again
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A lot of things are going on again in the Netherlands. Like many times in the past, the trouble is related to our immigration policy. A while ago I mentioned Taïda Pasic wasn't going to be allowed to finish her highschool in the Netherlands because she lied in some occasions in the process of obtaining her visum. Later on she was kicked out of the country because of our immigration minister's holy motto 'rules are rules'.
Right now the problems are a whole lot more complicated because we're dealing with a prominent figure. A politician: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, or Ayaan Hirsi Magan as we should call her now, because that's her real name. If her name doesn't ring a bell I'm sure it will by mentioning the fact that it was she who created the movie 'Submission' together with one of my favorite Dutch filmmakers, Theo van Gogh. A movie van Gogh had to pay for with his life later on. His dead body was used as a 'vehicle' for a message adressed to... Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Now that we've looked at the context, let's take a look at how the Netherlands are looking like a retarded country, again...
Granted access today, kicked out tomorrow
According to the Dutch Wikipedia, Ayaan lied about her date of birth and a part of her last name. It's a well known fact that the majority of people seeking asylum come up with stories that aren't 100% true. I guess it's understandable. If you're fleeing for your life you probably want to make sure your chances of getting asylum are as high as possible. Yet a lot of them are granted an 'A-status' which means they can stay in the Netherlands as long as they want and they can even obtain the Dutch nationality. It's also quite well known that several Liberian, ex-Yugoslavian- and Afghan war criminals are living in the Netherlands with an A-Status. Just stating the facts again.
Ayaan Hirsi Magan isn't a war criminal. She's in fact an intelligent woman who has integrated into the Dutch society 'by the book'. The kind of person most countries wouldn't want to send back to their homeland. The case of 'identity fraud' she's guilty of isn't anything new. It's been public knowledge for years and the political party she's representing in the Dutch parliament has known about it for even longer. No one really considered this to be a big problem and rightfully so. Until the facts were listed again in a Dutch TV documentary. After the documentary some members of the Dutch parliament all of a sudden started asking questions, forcing Dutch minister of immigration Rita Verdonk to take a stance. Verdonk is already known as a 'hardliner' when it comes to a strict immigration policy. Knowing there's a lot of votes to win in the next elections and the fact that many Dutch are becoming more and more xenophobe lately she held on to the hard line. After just one day (a new world record when it comes to decisions related to immigration) she decided that Ayaan Hirsi Magan doesn't have the Dutch nationality. As far as Verdonk is concerned, she never even had it. And that's how the shit hit the proverbial fan in the little country I live in.
How to not address problems in a society
I don't at all agree with the way Ayaan Hirsi Magan has been 'fighting islam'. While a lot of people may think she opened up the discussion about the rights of the Muslim woman and cases of abuse in the Islamic world I feel she's been ridiculously provocative in terms of HOW she tried to bring her message to the public. Imagine walking into a poor black USA neighborhood with a megaphone, shouting something like: "Yo pussy ass niggas! I'm here to use my fundamental right to freedom of speech so listen to da message! You're all a bunch of criminal motherfucking idiots and it's about time someone said something about that. [...] (include 10 minutes rant)". Most probably you're not going to finish this 'message' before bullets will be flying around from all corners of the neighborhood. The bullets will be flying towards... you. And I'm sure most people will agree you'll look pretty stupid if you start crying about how mean everyone's been treating you for simply exercising your right to freedom of speech.
Sure, there may be problems related to the crime rate in that neighborhood because of youth gangs and other organized crime. Yet, the ridiculous generalizing tone of the message I used as an example will instantly kill the discussion. Those people will be insulted. Big time. And rightfully so because it's of course utter crap to state that all people in a black neighborhood are criminals.
Ayaan Hirsi Magan did the same thing with her message to stir the discussion about the rights of the Muslim woman. She did it with a movie called 'Submission'. A movie showcasing an abused Muslim woman in the most provocative and insulting way possible. I remember seeing the movie before the whole muslim world got upset by it and the first thought that came to me was something like: "Oh my God... I can see what she's trying to bring to our attention but I've never seen such a bad way of expressing a message." She lured Theo van Gogh into doing this movie for her. He had to pay for it with his life, just like you'll probably pay with your life when you try to exercise your right to freedom of speech in the way I just described in my example. Let me make sure there's no misunderstandings: I hate the fact that this terrible murder occurred just as much as every other person but there's an awful lot of idiots out there and it takes just one of them to 'snap' to get you into a bootload of trouble.
Mixed feelings
Why did I bring up the whole story about Theo van Gogh, you may wonder. It's because I have seriously mixed feelings about what's been happening in the Netherlands lately. Most of all I think it's totally ridiculous to strip Ayaan Hirsi Ali/Magan's of her Dutch nationality. It's utterly hypocrite as well. The political party she's been representing up till now has shown to be the king of hypocrisy in the Netherlands. It's totally hilarious to see them making desperate attempts to clean up the mess that minister of immigration Rita Verdonk (also a member of the same party) created. My guess is that the Dutch parliament is eventually going to force Verdonk to hand back Ayaan her Dutch passport. And rightfully so.
On the other hand, I really don't mind seeing a person like Ayaan Hirsi Magan leave the Netherlands. She's not really 'fighting for the muslim woman' really. Sure' there's muslim women being abused by their husbands. But there's plenty of muslim women who aren't. There's tons of abuse going on in Dutch families as well, including women being abused and children being molested or raped. But those victims aren't the ones Ayaan wishes to fight for. She's got a (possibly understandable) grudge against Islam and she's out to get them. Most muslim women in the Netherlands feel hurt and insulted and don't feel 'represented' at all by the message Ayaan is trying to bring across. I've read and heard quite a lot of reactions from muslim women and none of them was happy about Ayaan's personal crusade against Islam. I'm quite sure Ayaan has had to endure a lot of horrible things in her youth which is why I'm happy for her she got out of her hell into the Western World. I do however think she's on a strictly personal crusade because of what happened to her personally. Her message hasn't helped Dutch society to solve the problems and clear out the differences between muslims and non-muslims. In fact she's only made things worse. People have never been as polarized as they are right now. It's getting scary. In my book, radicalism sucks. No matter if the radicalism comes from the muslim world or the western world. The only real difference is that when it comes from conservative Western institutions it's all of a sudden legitimate. Like a Christian department of the Taliban.
So here we are, the Netherlands. Looking like a bunch of total idiots. We're deporting well integrated intelligent people while several war criminals are still living here. People from certain ethnic groups can 'import' a woman in order to lock them up in their house with no questions asked while intelligent educated people who would love to work here and add value to our country often can't seem to get into the country. A while ago I've been looking into relocating to Australia or New Zealand. The immigration policy is quite clear. Besides helping out people who are really in need of shelter they have the following simple rule. If you have something to offer to the country you can come right in. If you don't, you can forget to even think about trying. Holland's stuck with ridiculous immigration laws that are hurting the wrong people while unwanted people manage to slip through with ease. We're stuck with a minister of immigration who sent Congolese refugees back to their country, notifying the local authorities (excellent job! doh!) She kicks people like Taida Pasic or Ayaan Hirsi Magan out of the country because 'rules are rules'. She's trying to 'do it right' but the laws fail miserably. Once again we look like idiots on an international scale.
Closing Notes
Even though I think it's totally ridiculous if Ayaan is going to lose her Dutch nationality I don't think I'm going to miss her. Regardless of what will happen she was already invited to migrate to the United States to join an ultra conservative right wing thinktank: The American Enterprise Institute. Having been a member of a hypocrite, lying political party, having lied her way to the top and crying because 'her message didn't come across in the Netherlands' she'll probably feel right at home at this pro-Bush administration institute. An administration with an excellent track record when it comes to lying, cheating, telling false truths and manipulating public opinion. I won't miss Ayaan. Honestly. I won't miss the ridiculous hypocrisy that rules the Dutch political scene either when I move out of the country in two months time. I still hope one day people will get things right in the Netherlands but I'm afraid it's a classical case of wishful thinking. The only way to get airtime here is to take an extremely radical stance.
There's just way too many stupid and ignorant people on both sides of the spectrum.
At 17 May '06 - 02:38 Daniel wrote:
I’m quite surprised that you don’t mention the responsibility of Hirsi Megan in this situation created by her. As you said, it’s quite understandable that asylum seekers lie about their past or circumstances to protect themselves. What is very naïve is to broadcast on national television all the lies that she went through to receive the Dutch Nationality. She could have perfectly stayed with her A-status in The Netherlands, but she made all the possible steps to deceive the IND in order to receive the Dutch passport. This is precisely the kind of behaviour which has tightened to absurd levels the immigration policy in The Netherlands. Holland would certainly look like a fool if you could say everywhere how you duped the system in order to get your way around the law and laugh about it: accepting this attitude and confessions (specially from a MP) would make Holland smarter? I don’t sympathise with Ms. Rita Verdonk, but in this case Hirsi Megan didn’t leave her any other choice.
At 17 May '06 - 02:44 Marco wrote:
People make mistakes from which they should learn. ‘Repairing things’ after so many years is a moot point in my view.
But as you’ll have seen in the article, I’m by no means an AHA/M fan. I don’t mind seeing her go. I just think our goverment looks like a bunch of completely incompetent idiots, before the eye of the entire world.
At 17 May '06 - 03:35 Daniel wrote:
At 17 May '06 - 03:38 Daniel wrote:
What would you do if you were in the position of Rita Verdonk and you listen to this confession?
Sorry Marco, I don’t get your point of the Dutch government looking like a bunch of incompetent idiots because of this affair.
At 17 May '06 - 03:46 Marco wrote:
The whole thing is a complete mess which will probably tear the VVD apart. And why? Because everyone is acting like idiots. And the recent events have shown our immigration laws are a complete joke. On one hand letting all kinds of unwanted people in, on another hand almost looking like they were created by the NSDAP in World War 2.
And: There’s no text limit in effect here. Strange that your text was cut off!
At 17 May '06 - 04:33 Daniel wrote:
Do you think that there will be legal consequences for AHA/M after this? Will she have to return her income as MP? AHA has really placed herself in a very difficult situation.
At 17 May '06 - 04:50 Marco wrote:
In the end it looks like you and I agree. You’re putting some more weight on AHA/M’s own influence in the process, I’m putting some more on politicians saying A, B the next day and switching back to A again the day after that, like nothing ever happened. Or with a nerdy ‘Ich habe es nicht gewusst’-smile.
Like I said, they look like a bunch of incompetent fools to me.
About the law: The thing with law and justice is the fact that one can’t possibly ‘catch’ every possible situation in a law. That’s where human judgement comes in. Judges practice this very thing and ministers have the right to do this as well. The one thing they SHOULD do when these things take place though is making a decision and stick with it, even though they know it might not be right (with an exception for big crime cases like murders, rape etc. of course). Another thing laws permit is showing some humanity, like in the Taida Pasic case a while ago. Sure, the law is clear but that was a perfect case example of a situation in which a glimpse of human touch would have made all the difference.
In this case everyone, including the minister, the VVD and in fact the entire government have decided that AHA/M should be Dutch, regardless of whatever she lied about. Having a minister taking that back on her own account and now (probably) being forced to revoke the decision AGAIN proves my original point perfectly I think :)
At 17 May '06 - 05:08 Daniel wrote:
What’s happening now it’s quite understandable: the nation is in shock, there has to be some discussion, Groenlinks and PvA don’t know clearly what are they aiming at, somebody in the VVD must speak on AHA/M behalf, etc. We mainly agree, except that I find a bit extreme to call the government a bunch of idiots for what is happening now. The silliest thing so far that I have heard is the attempt to make this a political strategy of Ms. Verdonk to gain votes or status inside the VVD. For the rest, I find quite healthy what is happening now, they don’t have to be called idiots for it: it’s part of politics, at least in the Western world. And, if the scenario that you view is going to happen, the stage is only going to become more interesting.
Marco, as long as a person like George W. Bush is not elected by the Dutch people, I think you have many reasons to be proud of your country
At 17 May '06 - 05:15 Marco wrote:
We’ll see what happens next. My best guess is that AHA/M is eventually going to get het passport back. The pressure is simply building up to an extreme.
And about calling the government idiots being ‘extreme’: I’m a rather extreme guy when it comes to voicing my opinion. And don’t forget: This isn’t exactly the first time I see enormously stupid things happening inside this government. There’s been a whole list of occasions where ministers would have been kicked out of the government in many, many countries while they’re free to meddle on with no problem here after some veiled excuses in this one …
At 17 May '06 - 08:50 Rose wrote:
You wrote: “It’s utterly hypocrite as well” and I fully agree with that. Damn, everybody knew!! All this commotion for just one tv-programm… and where were (especially in the programm) the ‘two sides of the story?’. There always is, I think. She just could defend herself when all the bad things were already said.
I don’t like Ayaan a lot. Not for the woman she is (I mean, she’s a strong, smart woman), but for the things she sais and (like you) the way she sais it. My dearest muslim friend always gets angry while seeing Ayaan. She acts like she speeks for all muslim women, but in fact she just speeks for a small part of them. The part that really is in a minority!
Anyway, in short I just don’t understand all the commotion at this moment. Or the way Verdonk made up her mind so fast. It’s all a game, in politics. And those are games I don’t like.
At 17 May '06 - 11:58 Daniel wrote:
Although it’s not the best case to reexamine the law, let’s hope that the outcome will be a more flexible immigration law. Also, the latest news seem positive for AH: if she has to return her passport, her case will be reconsidered immediately…
At 17 May '06 - 19:11 viperteq wrote:
Now, being an African-American male, I just wanted to thank you for for writing a great post. Of course, being in America, this is the first time that I’ve heard of this whole incident and you now have me interested in seeing this film, ‘Submission’. I do whole heartedly understand what you are saying though: surely, not every Muslim woman is experiencing abuse from their husbands and the worst way to help a situation is by alienating the very people that you wish to help.
I also wanted to commend you on your example of a person speaking in a Black neiborhood. This is gonna sound hokey to some, but Racism and bigotry are still in existence even in 2006! Black men and women all across the world are fighting everyday to erase the stereotypes and misnomers that exist about our culture. We struglle everyday to overcome the injustices of the past and it’s nice to read a blog where someone realizes that generalizing a whole race of people based on the actions of a few is a bad look and needs to be stopped.
Like I said before, great post. Keep up the good work!
At 18 May '06 - 05:56 Cor wrote:
It is of course funny to see all of the VVD and Ayaan Hirsi Ali being angry about this policy while they wholeheartedly agreed with it when it didn’t affect themselves. That shows the hypocrisy of this party and also of Ayaan. She says to be fighting for liberalism, but is now joining a neocon Thinktank opposing euthenasia, abortion, gay rights and so on. A somewhat christian version of the radical Muslims she is fighting. Makes you wonder about her motives…
I wouldn’t miss her when she left, she and her buddies on the right did not make The Netherlands a nicer place to be. But I do think she should get a Dutch passport. Just like anyone else who is in the same position.
At 24 May '06 - 04:20 marten wrote:
For me there are 5 simple steps:
1/ What are the current rules/laws, and have they been broken.
2/ If they have been broken, implement the sanctions.
3/ If
AFTERWARDSthe rules seem silly, reconsider why the rules were there, what they sought to fix, did they overdo it, can better rules be formulated?4/ (optional) Create amendments/exceptions based on ‘human’ insight. (*)
5/ Go to #1
(*) If you are serious about fairness in the world, think LONG and HARD before letting HUMANS decide on interpretations of ‘THE WORD’. coughreligioncough
My point is: as far as I can tell, Verdonk has executed the law properly. End of the story until someone proves her actions contrary to the current laws. The rest of the show is politicians trying to get a few votes out of the situation (and my god how did I instinctively hate Halsema.. I only saw her for a few seconds but as Spaan put it: “She was delighted to be horrified”)
If Verdonk would’ve made an exception Im sure that 5000 people, including the lying schoolgirl, would come back saying its not fair that a public figure gets special treatment. (OJ Simpson, anyone?)
And NOW we can start the debate on if the law should be changed. And I’m not qualified to make that decision, but I have a feeling everybody will agree with the letter of the law but a lot of people, including you, want to make exceptions for ‘obvious cases’. Like this one perhaps?
But let me give you an example here. Did you see this movie with Leonardo Di Caprio, ‘Catch me if you can’? The main character pretends to be all kinds of things, pilot, surgeon, movie star…
Now suppose he, as a surgeon, has been practicing (in NL) for 10 years.. and has done an excellent job, lots of people not dying.
And suppose that he is found out.
Would you let him continue to be a doctor? Cause he’s at it for 10 years already, and mentioned his lie to a few coworkers 5 years ago to some coworkers? OK he lied 10 years ago when he said he had studied human anatomy etc.. Give him a little certificate now making him an official surgeon? Pat on the back? And would you let him operate on you?
In the end it comes down to this: Everyone in the world makes choices, some choices are gokjes, and some gokjess include lying. If later on your gokje turns out to be a bad choice, then don’t complain. (prime example of asshole complaints are people that have bought land around schiphol airport for 1/10 of the normal price, and now complain about the noise and try to stop airstrips from being built etc.)
And I haven’t seen Hirsi complain. In fact her gokje probably was the right one. If she was refused 10 years ago she probably would not get the cushy job offer in America.
At 26 May '06 - 02:33 marten wrote:
http://spunk.nl/articles/view_article.as..
At 29 May '06 - 09:14 Liza wrote:
I have been living in several countries so far all around the globe (mostly western countries) because of my job.
And from all the countries I have been living in I would say your immigration system is the most absurd. If you ask why, it is a very long story to tell. Better ask most foreigners and I bet most of them will agree with me.
I know a lot of cases of highly educated people in the university have difficulties in inviting their families to come. Some foreign professors have to quit their job at univ. and move to another country because their spouses and kids cannot come due to immigration bureaucracy.
Your immigration system is such a headache!!!
I will not be surprised with what happen with Ayaan and Taida.
In short, I think your country has so much phobia with immigrants that the system get mixed up in selecting good immigrants over bad immigrants. And the worst of all these immigrant issues become political commodities.
At 01 October '08 - 18:59 Kim Fisher wrote:
I couldn’t even finish you’re “spat” I didn’t want to waste anymore of my time, so I thought I should might as well get some kicks and write something.
I just finished Aayan’s book Infidel this morning, I thought of her as a strong woman who hasn’t forgotten to be humble.
Of course theres always two sides to a story, but when you look at the basic facts, how can you be angry and bitter towards a woman, who isn’t greedy for fame, money or wants to be better than someone eles? This woman is speaking forth for womankind….Why not? I have been raised in Canada , and yes there is still abuse being laid in this westernized country as well… but we can help to protect those victims. Why not help the victims all over the world? How can one justify to hitting a being when they are defenseless.
Ohya, you’re example of “freedom of speech” a kindergarten could give a better one…
At 03 October '08 - 00:57 Marco wrote:
How do you expect me to take any of this seriously if you haven’t even bothered taking the time what I’m actually saying in this article?
Ayaan’s crusade isn’t even the main subject of this article. It’s about the former minister of immigration that tried to take her Dutch passport. An act I in fact did not agree with as you could have read if you would have bothered.
This article isn’t so much about Ayaan and her cruisade really. I do however think she’s fighting her war at the extreme end of things, probably because of being traumatized I would think. It’s like a woman fighting against ALL men because she got abused by some. I’m sure you’d agree this doesn’t mean all men in the world are abusive assholes right? If you do then you’ll also understand what I meant by thinking that Ayaan is generalising way too much about muslims.
You have obviously not understood any of this nor do you understand the context in which this (old b.t.w.) article was written. Then finally you pretty much accuse me of approving with abuse of women.
Seriously, Kim. You’ll have to come up with something better if you want to engage in a discussion. Having read her book but not knowing anything about the context of this article doesn’t quite qualify you to attack me like that.