Head-rag tax. Stark raving mad. What a fool. These are just some of the phrases being used in the Dutch parliament right now. But it's not just the tone that's grown coarse. In recent election debates, politicians themselves have become increasingly polarised.
Some people are worried that this political polarisation may find an echo in Dutch society. But according to Professor James Kennedy, who specialises in recent Dutch history, there's no reason to fear such a split.
James Kennedy - an American professor at the University of Amsterdam - attributes the polarisation to Geert Wilders, leader of the populist Freedom Party (PVV). Professor Kennedy also understands why such a party could win so much support in the Netherlands:
"The world has grown and the Netherlands has been dragged into it by globalisation. In this new world, more foreigners are coming to the Netherlands. It looks as if politicians have little control of these processes, or worse: that political parties are doing nothing while the Netherlands is changing. People are angry that nothing has happened, while at the same time they have more need for security. That encourages populism."
Despite this, Professor Kennedy believes that the imagined differences between old and new parties, left and right, are smaller than the current political debates might suggest.
"Compared to other countries - such as the United States - the differences between the parties are still not very large. [For instance], it seems as though immigration is an enormous stumbling block between them. Yet all of them support a stronger immigration policy."
Professor Kennedy believes there's no need to fear a split in Dutch society. "The Netherlands is still a peace-loving country."
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Professor James Kennedy has a remarkably narrow view of the peoples, the populace, of Europe. Everything is not a consequence of what may have happened yesterday, as Kennedy mistakenly believes. There is a strong institutional memory in Western culture of the invasions and depredations of the Muslims. After all, 1529 and 1683, the two most recent sieges of Vienna by the Turks, are not that incredibly far in the past, and the religious war and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans in the 1990s show the issue is still alive. But Kennedy's views are unsurprising - Americans are notorious for seeming to believe history started with the American revolution.
Dear RNW Commentsdesk;
Now if someone can sell the Space Needle to South Korean tourists surely it wouldn't be too challenging for WalMart/ChinaMart Inc., to arrange a deal at the Beijing Golf & Country Club for a legion of laid-off rice-paddy technicians to take apart the Great Wall of China and ship it brick by brick to the Rio Grande River along the USA/Mexico common yet distinct border....The Mongol Hordes sure settled down and backed off those hardworking Chinese technopeasants back during the 13th or 14th century when they saw that great wall go up. That should cover most of the 2000 plus miles and give those bankrupt shrimpers and crabbers in the Gulf of Alabama (renamed for Confederate patriotic purposes) something to do while psudeo-British Petroleum floats awash in oil. Eureka!!! Okay...BPMart ships the Great Wall of China to Texas on gianormous solar-powered oil-barges, without spilling the bricks on top of the seabed oil spill, thusly not actually blocking the billion barrel gusher at point of exit!!!! All in a days work for bicycle repair man!!!
Dear RNW Commentsdesk;
Realizing that I would likely not get on the preferential hiring list for taxidriving or dishwashing in say, Lybia, perhaps the Sandhurst-trained Mr. Kadaafi could hire, house, feed and healthcare those of his prefered religious denomination, persuasion, along with the airfare for their repatriation to Arabotopia!!!! Or, at least have the respective sovereign nation-states pay for all costs racked up by their nationals whilst in foreign countries; healthcare, housing, parking tickets, food benefits, cigareettes and coffee and the occasional movie, along with legal fees and value added tax. Now there's an industry for the USA, if only they could get Mexican President Calderon to foot the bill for the fifteen million undocumented Mexicans, and get over that welfare mentality that seems to permeate the Mexican Presidential rarified atmosphere and its regional consulaats in USA cities. It could be that or retired President Ronald Reagan's idea of Mexico ceding the entire Baja Peninsula to the USA in order to pay off its debt to the USA....as a sort of nuisance tax....
I completely agree with PVV leader geert wilders. I am not at all racist, but I accept his ideology that immigrants should integrate into our society rather than spread their own culture around. Meanwhile, PVV also doesn't truly want capitalistic ideology (everything should revolve around making bussiness profits, but emphasizes that culture and society also matters) spread by the stupid elite class, but rather it focuses on motivating students do well in school and take up those opne job vacancies rather than leaving the border open fo immigrants and asylum seekers to flood in. They believe that most immigrants imigrate to a new country just in search of money, so that they can sent it back to their own country and go back after making sufficient infrastructure for good life in their own home land. They often never integrate into their adopt land despite mentioning that they have integrated and accepted their new culture and society mostly in front of the media. They are truly never loyal to their adopted and most of them simply come in to enjoy the FREE benifits. Pvv and I mostly acknowledge that limited immigrants in the society are fully acceptable and benificial, but an immense wave of immigrants supported by the VVD (they promise they will cut back on immigrants, but when they get into power, they will never do), CDA, and PVDA(they all support the elite class who want more immigrants) are completely UNACCEPTABLE. I think a country in the long run should encourage and motivate it's own young workforce to take up the job rather than open it's border to allow a free flow of immigrants. A policy emphasized by PVV.
I completely agree with PVV geert wilders. I am not at all racist, but I accept with his ideology that immigrants should integrate into our society rather than spread their own culture. Meanwhile, PVV doesn't truly want the capitalistic ideology spread by the stupid elite class, but rather it focuses on building the job fields by motivating students do well and take up those jobs rather than open the border and allow mass immigrants to flood the class because they believe that most immigrants immigrate to a new country just in search of money so that they can sent money back to their own country and travel back after making sufficient build up in their own land. They never integrate into the new land despite saying they have integrated and accepted their new culture and society, but they are never loyal to it because most of them simply come in to enjoy the FREE benifits. Pvv and most acknowledge that some immigrants in the society are fully acceptable, but the immense wave of immigrants proposed by the VVD (they promise they will cut back on immigrants, but when they get into power, they will never do), CDA, and PVDA(they all support the elite class who want more immigrants). I think a country in the long run should encourage and motivate it's own young workforce to take up the job rather than open a free flow of immigrants.
Come on PVV stop islamization of Holland! Cut services for free for the islam people. They must return home. We did it here in Spain 500 years ago. Yes we can! Good luck on 9th june.
Yes, it does, in a subtle way though..
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