Queen lobbying in Oman for ‘Libya’ crew? Dutch store faces discrimination probe in Belgium. Controversial claim backed-up by sex assault report. Transparent citizens and obscured government. Gay Times, Bad Times? 

Yesterday – as we reported – the papers were still wondering why the government allowed Queen Beatrix to go ahead with a scaled down visit to Oman, where the sultan is the target of pro-reform protests. Today, popular daily AD has an answer on its front page “Beatrix lobbying for release of military personnel”.

Influential sultan
This is related to the fact that the Gaddafi-led authorities in Libya are holding a Dutch navy helicopter crew – a story that’s dominated the news here for days. The paper says “Sultan of Oman can exercise influence in Libya […] Dutch diplomatic sources tell AD”.

De Telegraaf, however, claims that the trip has gone ahead because “billions [of euros] are at stake” in potential commercial deals. However, today’s Trouw says Prime Minister Mark Rutte denies the monarch saw the sultan to ‘haul in’ a sizeable order for naval vessels from Oman.

Back to AD where the Libya– heli-crew issue dominates its Oman story. It quotes a nameless ‘senior diplomat’: “The Netherlands has a major problem and is right to seek advice from Arab leaders […] Cancellation of this trip would have been the most stupid thing we could have done in these circumstances.”

"Hey, Ma, they don’t like my head wear"
Today’s de Volkskrant and nrc.next look at the predicament faced by two Dutch companies in Belgium. HEMA - a much cherished chain store that ‘sells almost everything for a reasonable price’- and Randstad, a large temporary employment agency, are being investigated for discrimination. It seems HEMA employed a temp to work in their store in the Belgian town of Genk. She asked whether she could wear a headscarf – she is Muslim – and the company said yes. When customers – allegedly – complained and she refused to go along with a request not to wear the scarf, HEMA decided not to continue employing her through Randstad.

HEMA allows staff in the Netherlands to wear headscarves, a spokeswoman tells de Volkskrant “But things work differently in Belgium […] There’s an exception there in the case of someone in a public position.” But that’s not applicable in this case, according to Josef De Witte, director of the Belgian anti-discrimination and equality agency.

Nrc.next reports that Randstad say HEMA was within its rights and that headscarves are not normally worn by Belgian shop workers. But Mr De Witte says the same European rules apply in  Belgium and the Netherlands “and purely commercial motives are not sufficient grounds to discriminate.” He asks “what would happen if customers no longer want fat cashiers or any homosexual shop assistants?”

False claims claim confirmed
De Volkskrant and nrc.next both carry articles about false accusations of sexual assault on young women, sparked by a report from an independent crime research agency. The report says “approximately 20 percent of reports made by underage girls of rape or sexual assault turn out to be false.”

De Volkskrant  speaks to lawyer Chris Veraart whose book Valse Zeden (false morals) – about this very issue – was published back in 1997. At the time, he says, he was fiercely criticised, even booed at on a TV talk show: “Feminist lawyers said it wasn’t possible: a woman inventing a case of rape. It wasn’t really something you could say.”

Others argued he had no scientific basis for his claim; that it was based on a few cases from his own practice. Unfortunately, the article doesn’t tell us exactly how great he thought this problem was back in 1997 when he wrote that “sex is a weapon. Anyone who really wants to strike at a man should accuse him of rape or sexual assault.” In any event, he’s clearly pleased this new report has backed him up in this respect.

However, he’s courting controversy again, because he tells the paper he doubts the extent of the abuse scandal within the Roman Catholic church. “Believe me, I am not out to make little of [these crimes], but some of the church abuse cases are 30 or 40 years old. I wonder how many will stand up if they are looked at critically.”

Big Government is watching you
Government plans to start checking up on welfare benefit recipients at home even when there is no suspicion of any fraud taking place spark an opinion piece in nrc.next by writer and columnist Karen Spaink. She says the proposed legislation breaches fundamental civil rights, and goes on to describe how ‘we’ are losing ground whilst the government is gaining it:

“Whilst citizens are becoming more transparent, the government is doing the exact opposite: becoming more obscured. Agencies obtain our data without bothering to follow the procedures […] the police hold on to 58 million licence plate scans which should have been got rid of. If the government is caught breaking the law, it changes the law. Is that not strange: a government that breaks the law to check whether we are obeying the law?” 

Love, so diverse
Finally, de Volkskrant has an item sparked by the Roze Filmdagen (Pink Film Days) – a series of movies with a homosexual theme - which start in Amsterdam tomorrow. The article looks at homosexual characters in the Dutch visual media, referring back to the recent, though limited, ‘stir’ caused by a scene of two young men kissing and being seen in bed together “with their bare chests showing” in the popular commercial TV soap Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden (Good Times, Bad Times) !

Jaap Kooijman, a television academic at the University of Amsterdam, says gays and lesbians are actually quite common in Dutch TV productions  – more so than in, say, the United States. He says while they may be stereotypical in some comedy shows, that often applies to the heterosexual characters too. When it comes to dramas, including the popular soaps, he says the gay characters are quite varied.

Good Times, Bad Times comes out well in the ‘visible gay character’ stakes. It not only has the latest ‘homo-soapies’ Lucas and Edwin, but has also featured a transgender (and not gay) photo model called Meta (played by a man), and a character called Morris who, after ‘relations’ with characters Hedwig, Tracey and Madeline, had a kissing session with a boy called Alex, then a ‘session’ with two women at the same time, then fell for two models, one a man, the other not! Don’t you just love soaps (?)!