The Hazards of Being a Dutch Bus Driver

Europe’s major cities have become notorious in recent years for their “no-go” zones. In Britain it is considered a violation of Multicultural orthodoxy to speak of the immigrant (mainly Muslim) areas of Birmingham, London, Bradford, and other larger cities, into which even the police dare not venture without substantial backup. But everyone knows the no-go zones exist, and the natives are aware of the need to avoid the immigrant neighborhoods.

In Sweden the fire brigade and ambulance services are reluctant to answer calls in Muslim neighborhoods. The typical pattern of events is for “youths” to set fire to a school or other public building, and then lay an ambush for the fire brigade when it arrives. In some cities firemen and ambulance drivers refuse to enter certain neighborhoods without a police escort.

A similar situation has developed in the major urban areas of the Netherlands. Immigrant neighborhoods are increasingly lawless, controlled by gangs, and exhibit violent antipathy towards anything symbolizing the Dutch culture and authorities.

The latest example is the retreat of the official bus service from the Oosterwei neighborhood in Gouda. Our Flemish correspondent VH has kindly translated Dutch-language material from several sources. According to Sunday’s De Telegraaf:

Bus service avoids Gouda neighborhood

Oosterwei BusAfter a series of incidents Connexxion [the government-subsidized public bus company] announced it would not drive though Oosterwei [a neighborhood in Gouda] for a while.

The measure follows complaints from bus drivers. They report that on their route through the neighborhood they are being spit on, threatened and robbed by mainly Moroccan youth who systematically kick against the buses as well. “The cup is full after a long series of incidents,” confirms spokeswoman Anja Pieroen of Connexxion.

Since yesterday the drivers have been diverting around the most notorious areas in the problem neighborhood Oosterwei.

Knife

The very limit was reached with the robbing of a 37-year-old driver in Gouda, who was threatened [and cut] with a knife to make him hand over the change in his cash box to a robber. Connexxion says they want to send a signal to the police and the municipality to indicate that it no longer can go on like this.

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“We realize perfectly well that the avoidance of certain neighborhoods is not the solution to this persistent problem. There are people harmed here who have neither art nor part in what happened,” says the spokeswoman. The Mayor of Gouda, Wim Cornelis, yesterday announced that he would respect the decision of the drivers. Cornelis: “I think it is quite understandable that they no longer will allow themselves to be treated in such scandalous manner.”

The travelers’ association “Rover” says it fully supports the decision of Connexxion to avoid the Gouda problem area. However, the spokesman strongly urges the concerned parties to find a solution as soon as possible.

Video beneath the article, transcript:

Bus driver: “We are here to transport people, and if they make it impossible to carry out the job, the it’s useless.”

Six incidents in two months’ time occurred in and around the neighborhood Oosterwei, when bus drivers were harassed, and after the seventh incident last Wednesday Connexxion was fed up with it.

Anya Pieroen, Connexxion: “There was an attack in the bus in which the bus driver was stabbed in the neck with a knife.”

Thus Connexxion decided to divert the line 3 route around the neighborhood.

Anya Pieroen, Connexxion: “The route will take some three minutes extra, so that is not too bad, but we most of all decided to do this because our bus drivers feel unsafe, and we cannot guarantee their safety, but we have a responsibility to do that as their employer.”

The city government considers the outcome to be terrible. Partly because for many years they worked hard to upgrade the livability of the neighborhood.

Haaro Jansen, Vice Mayor of Gouda: “At citizens’ meetings it appears that citizens notice that it obviously has become more safe in East Gouda — according to the numbers, a 30% reduction of the number of incidents. And yes, it’s a pity that such an incident might move it the other way. So we are looking into it together with Connexxion, about how best to deal with this, and we regret there is now already a link made with that neighborhood. And we will talk with Connexxion about how we can run a bus though Gouda East again in a safe way.”

Those who use the bus service are shocked by the situation that has developed:

“This is terrible, isn’t it? I find it terrible, I can imagine one thinking ‘ignore it’. Something has to be done about it; I think they should take action.”

But still, the people in Oosterwei don’t have a bus service now.

“That’s the other side of it, I agree. Yes, they are the ones to face this now.”

“Yes, this is a pity for older people; it’s not nice for them.”

“In principle, for the people, I find this sad.”

But still, bus drivers are afraid.

“Yes, apparently they are afraid, but better measures have to be taken.”

Who then should do that?

“Eeeh, Connexxion I think”

Anya Pieroen, Connexxion: “We for our part can do something about security on the bus, but outside of the bus it is the responsibility of the police and the city council. Measures like more surveillance, more guards. It’s a bit difficult now to see what the solution will be, but something can be done about this, we think.”

In the neighborhood of Oosterwei nobody wanted to comment about this in front of the camera.

On Monday Geert Wilders’ response to the situation was reported on the PVV (Partij Voor de Vrijheid, Party for Freedom) website:

Wilders: Send the army to Gouda

Geert WildersThe PVVer says that if necessary we should ask for a recall of our troops from Afghanistan, to return them to their own country to restore it to order. “It cannot be that we do everything to make Afghanistan a safer place while the Netherlands is becoming increasingly more unsafe,” says Wilders, who indicates that the Gouda situation also occurs in other municipalities.

The statements of the Gouda [Socialist] Mayor Cornelis [“if it was really serious the police would have informed me”] evoked anger from spokesman Egon Green of FNV Bondgenoten [a Workers’ Union]. “Should the bus drivers drive a tank instead?” he wonders in despair.

President Laura Werger of the Gouda VVD [Liberal Conservatives] called the statements of Mayor Cornelis “unwise”. “I assume the mayor will do his utmost to cooperate with Connexxion to solve the matter,” says the leader of the largest opposition party on the municipal council. The decision by Connexxion not to drive through the neighborhood is guaranteed to generate widespread support from amongst our readers.

“Who does not have to be in that neighborhood should be glad that the bus drives a long way around it now”, a 21-year-old student said yesterday on her way to her parents in Gouda East.

6 thoughts on “The Hazards of Being a Dutch Bus Driver

  1. As I wrote in my essay Democracy and the Media Bias, in democratic societies the press, the Fourth Estate, should supposedly make sure that the government does its job properly as well as raise issues of public interest. In practice, we now seem to have a situation where the political elites cooperate with the media on making sure that some topics receive insufficient or unbalanced attention while others are simply kept off the agenda altogether. Together they form a new political class.

    Before the rise of maverick politician Pim Fortuyn, the Dutch political scene had to a great extent been a closed club whose members, regardless of party affiliation, shared similar views in the widest possible sense. Most of the journalists belonged to the same club. If the majority of the populace didn’t quite agree with this elite on sensitive issues – and the most sensitive of them all was Muslim immigration – this hardly mattered much. Since all those who were in positions of power were in basic agreement, the will of the people could safely be ignored. Journalists and rival politicians – notice how they worked in lockstep – smeared Fortuyn as a dangerous “right-wing extremist.” Indirectly, this led to his murder by a left-wing activist who stated that he killed him on behalf of Muslims because he was “dangerous” to minorities.

    Pim Fortuyn was indirectly murdered by the political, cultural and media elites whereas filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered by Muslims. MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been driven from the country. The Islam-critical MP Geert Wilders is still there, but he is subject to similar smears as Fortuyn was about being a racist, receives daily threats from Muslims and not-so-subtle hints from the establishment that he should tone down his criticism of Muslim immigration. The Dutch spirit appears to have been broken, at least for now, and things are slowly returning to normal. The extended political elites are once again firmly in control of public debate, and the embarrassing peasant rebellion has been successfully struck down.

    Perhaps Holland’s chance of saving itself died with Fortuyn. I hope not, I have always loved the Netherlands. It would be extremely sad if a nation that has spent so much time and energy keeping the sea out will be destroyed by a tidal wave of sharia barbarism.

  2. I couldn’t agree more. No matter what west european country you live in, we’re in the same boat and we who rock the boat are thrown off, one after another.

  3. My most important advice, not just to the Dutch but to Westerners in general, is to arm themselves immediately, first of all with knowledge of the enemy and pride in their own culture and heritage, but also physically. Friedrich Nietzsche stated in the nineteenth century that “God is dead.” In 2008 it is fair to say that “The State is dead,” the State as the replacement God in which we placed our trust after the other God died.

    Every single day we get more evidence that the authorities are totally incapable of protecting any semblance of security and freedom for its citizens. The only thing the state still seems to be capable of is indoctrinating our children with hatred of their own civilization and taking away our money so that it can be given to those who colonize our countries and abuse our children, verbally and physically.

    What is happening in Western Europe in the early twenty-first century is a textbook case of a situation where the social contract is no longer upheld. The natives pay extremely high tax rates to nation states that no longer protect their borders and are both unwilling and incapable of upholding a bare minimum of law and order. The laws are anyway no longer passed with our interest in mind, but by dedicated Multiculturalists and Globalists specifically hostile to our interests.

    As John Locke says in the Second Treatise on Government:

    “The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property, and the end why they choose and authorize a legislative is that there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to the properties of all the members of the society, to limit the power and moderate the dominion of every part and member of the society….whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people….By this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to the people, who have a right to resume their original liberty, and, by the establishment of a new legislative, (such as they shall think fit) provide for their own safety and security, which is the end for which they are in society.”

    Thomas Jefferson stated that “I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” He also said that “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms… disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

    We would do well to heed those words.

  4. Let us consider the case of the Netherlands. Islamic practices gain more and more formal acceptance by the authorities. There is talk of making Islamic holidays public holidays because Holland is a “Judeo-Christian-Islamic” society, whatever that is. There are plans for a Muslim-only hospital, and former Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner once stated that the Dutch should give Muslims more freedoms to behave according to their traditions: “For me it is clear: if two-thirds of the Dutch population should want to introduce the Sharia tomorrow, then the possibility should exist,” according to him. “It would be a disgrace to say: ‘That is not allowed!'”

    Public broadcaster NPS is producing a television programme with the objective of giving the Dutch population a positive view of Muslims and other immigrant groups. Meanwhile, in September 2008 it was revealed that a policeman of Moroccan origin in the Rotterdam police corps has been unmasked as a spy for the Moroccan intelligence service. He led a project that trained 57 Moroccan problem youngsters as ground personnel for Rotterdam Airport. The Public Prosecutor’s Office (OM) decided not to prosecute him, allegedly because this could potentially generate negative publicity about the “Multicultural society.”

    The Dutch Labor Party (PvdA) tried to muzzle a (then) member who was fighting for the rights of Muslim apostates because they feared he would cause the party electoral damage. As most other left-wing parties in the Western world, they get a disproportionate number of immigrant votes. The man in question, the brave ex-Muslim Ehsan Jami, in the spring of 2008 decided to close down his organization of former Muslims who defy the traditional death penalty for leaving Islam. He claims people are scared to join the organization because of threats from Muslims.

  5. The Netherlands, which for centuries was a haven for those seeking more freedom of thought, is becoming an increasingly totalitarian society as a direct result of mass immigration in general and Muslim immigration in particular. This is the reason why the insightful Hans Janssen, Professor of Modern Islamic Ideology at Utrecht University, stated that a peaceful society that wishes to remain existent “will have to find a way to defend itself through non-peaceful means from people who are not peaceful.” According to Jansen, Muslim fundamentalists frequently make threats, but Dutch media remain silent about them.

    In May 2008 the cartoonist writing under the pseudonym Gregorius Nekschot became the first-ever cartoonist to be arrested in the modern Western world. He was arrested at his home in Amsterdam and taken into custody for interrogation, suspected of “publishing cartoons which are discriminating for Muslims and people with dark skin.” At the same time, the city of Amsterdam developed teaching material warning children against the politics of the Islam-critical politician Geert Wilders. MP Wilders called the campaign “sickening.”

    Wilders’ movie “Fitna” from March 2008 produced strong reactions from Muslims on a global basis and condemnations from dhimmi appeasers in the Western world. Although the short film didn’t do anything other than quote the Koran and statements by Muslim leaders, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned it as “offensively anti-Islamic.” “There is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence,” Ban said in a statement. “The right of free expression is not at stake here.” The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour joined in on condemning the tone and content of “Fitna” and noted that the Dutch and others should prohibit any advocacy of national, racial, or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination or hostility. In plain words, to ban criticism of Islam.

    In the Netherlands, there are already examples where small websites have been prosecuted for carrying readers’ comments critical of Islam and Muslims, thus setting a legal precedent for the suppression of free speech on the Internet. This despite the fact that far more offensive material is routinely posted on Islamic online forums and is never subjected to any punishment. Similar developments are taking place in other European countries. This is encouraged not only by national authorities but by EU officials, who have expressed their desire to “regulate” blogs and the Internet more because they are too often more critical of Multiculturalism, mass immigration and general EU policies than are the mainstream media.

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