Our Dutch correspondent H. Numan reports on the latest political scandal, which comes during the run-up to next month’s provincial elections.
The elections are coming
by H. Numan
We’re off to another election, this time what are normally the most boring, unimportant and uninteresting elections you can think of: the provincial elections. But not this year. It’s looking even better with a nice juicy scandal popping up exactly at the right moment. Let’s start with that one, and look at the elections after that.
A teacher in a secondary technical school (VMBO) in Hoofddorp has been suspended for insulting mohammedanism *. What exactly did he do? Nothing, really. In a class he said that Mohammed was an adult man who married a 6-year-old. In The Netherlands that is considered, by law, pedophilia. A number of his (mohammedan) pupils were of course terribly offended, and complained to the school management. Who suspended him immediately. This incident happened in January, but is now picked up by the media and politics. Not a coincidence; there are elections coming.
What you probably don’t know is that Dutch education is going down the drain, with technical education leading the run into the abyss. VMBO is widely considered a kindergarten for lower-class (read: minority) children who are not allowed to leave school. When you read VMBO think of teenagers who really hate to be there but are required to do so by law. (Raising the education age lowers the unemployment rate. That’s one of the reasons.) It’s a rare VMBO, certainly in larger cities, that doesn’t have a majority of mohammedan pupils.
As with all such incidents, the accuser is always right and the accused is always wrong. Nobody even blinks an eye that pupils can report their teachers for that kind of incident, and nobody is much surprised some of the pupils add something extra. Like saying that the teacher said they stank, or their mothers are haram. Mohammedans never ever lie. Regardless their age. That’s a given. Politically correct as Dutch schools are, the teacher is suspended for at least another three months. The teacher is white and male, and said something politically incorrect. So what do you expect?
Now, in a more sane society this school would have to apologize to the teacher, give him a year’s salary in compensation, and he could start working in another school. Only we don’t live in a sane society. Of course the school board is always right, even if they are blatantly wrong. Dutch schools are all — very, very, very few exceptions — extremely politically correct. Why, they even take schoolchildren to climate demonstrations during school hours with the truant officers looking the other way.
This affair is current; what will happen nobody knows. It comes at exactly the right moment, though. On the 20th of March the Dutch go vote. Normally the provincial elections are the dullest and unimportant elections you can think of. But not this time. You see, our senators aren’t elected by the people. They are elected by the members of the provincial parliaments and the senate (a commission, that is) itself.
So over to the elections, and why the dullest of them all is suddenly exciting. In The Netherlands we have a bicameral parliament, where Tweede Kamer (‘second chamber’ = house of representatives) makes the rules and the Eerste Kamer (‘first chamber’ = senate) approves them. Tweede Kamer members are elected directly in national elections but senators are choose indirectly by the Provinciale Staten (provincial parliament) members. And those elections are on the 20th of March.
The conservatives (VVD) “won” the last national elections. That is, they lost massively but not enough to be ousted. They were capable of forming the current conservative-liberal-Christian-progressive coalition. That’s a mouth full of everything available, and that’s what it took to keep the PVV out. It is also painfully close to a minority government in the Tweede Kamer. The majority is exactly one seat.
It’s different in the senate. There they have — until the 20th of March — a very comfortable majority. That’s going to change. And that makes this election so interesting, not to mention very important. The VVD is going to loose for sure. So is D66 (progressive liberals). The winners are going to be the PVV and the newcomer Forum for Democracy (FvD). That comfortable majority the coalition enjoyed will either be gone entirely or will shrink to razor-thin, as it is in the Tweede Kamer. It’s even possible that the labor party (PvdA) which has 12 seats at the moment, won’t be there anymore! (Now, that’s a sight for sore eyes — a man can dream, can’t he?)
All that has huge repercussions for Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his cronies. Anything they want to legalize after the 20th of March must be carefully planned. One correct parliamentarian voting incorrectly, and their majority is gone. Assuming they are able to push something controversial through parliament, it will have to be approved by the new senate, who will shoot it down for sure. In order to get this controversial item that far, it much be considerably less controversial.
To make it more visible for Americans: imagine congress where Hussein has a one-seat majority and a senate that opposes him. Good luck pushing Hussein Obamacare through that lot!
It’s even likely that after this election the cabinet will stumble over something and fall. For example, this little tiff about that teacher insulting the religion of peace. Of course the PVV and FvD are up in arms about it. That’s to be expected. But also the red Calvinists (Christian Union, CU) are angry, and they are part of the coalition. Did I just mention the coalition had one single seat for a majority? The CU has five seats in parliament. If this affair gets out of hand and the CU really means business (don’t worry, they love power too much), that could the end of this cabinet even this very week.
And there are more consequences. Mark Rutte is angling for a promotion. He wants to become chairman of the European parliament or something of that stature. Well, he can easily forget that if his cabinet has to resign beforehand. His promotion won’t be on the agenda before September, and he isn’t the only one digging for gold.
There are signs that dear Mark is preparing for the worst: Alexander Pechtold was the leader of D66 (progressive liberals). After two massive scandals (1: bribed with a condominium, 2: forced his mistress to have an abortion) he had to resign. he’s now comfortably parked in a non-political job. Alex was aiming for something much bigger.
The VVD campaign is lackluster, to say the least. It’s like they already know they will lose and don’t even bother trying. On the other hand, the PVV campaign is pretty good. Normally PVV campaigns focus on bad news (Beware! The mozzies are coming!), but now it’s more positive. With a nice twist: they want us all to be real Dutch together — which mohammedans of course aren’t and abhor. Only they don’t say it in so many words. Bringing a positive message always works better than presenting bad news. No matter how dire the situation is.
Don’t get exited, though. The cabinet won’t collapse as yet. But after the elections the chances are pretty good for that. It’s not a certainty that the PVV will finally get a say in governing the country. It’s a small step in the right direction; that is all.
— H. Numan
| * | You always see me writing mohammedans and mohammedanism. Almost never Muslims and Islam, and never capitalized. There’s a good reason for that. Mohammedans absolutely HATE being called mohammedans. But … it’s the correct word for it. As long as mohammedan is not illegal, I’m more than happy to use it. As for capitals: that is a sign of respect. And respect, folks, is something you have to earn first! |
Many of our commenters take the same “no capitals” approach to the juridical despotism you mention.
A question: how are private schools faring in your old country? The Netherlands worked hard to build tolerance among various Christian sects and, IIRC, the separate private, parochial schools got on well enough. Which was one reason that Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s “solution” to close all religious schools (rather than address the problems caused by madrassas) met with stony silence.
[Early on, Hirsi Ali did sometimes sound like Occasional Cortex, but she was smart and seemed to ascend that learning curve. I wonder where AOC could move?]
When Hirsi arrived in the Netherlands she joined the PvdA [socialists].
It seemed a natural choice for her at the time. She quickly saw those socialists for what they are and switches sides and joined the VVD [liberals].
They found out Hirsi was rather outspoken and an independant thinker and she was told she would have a better future somewhere else. [she was kicked out of the country]
“I wonder where AOC could move?”
I don’t think AOC is going to move anywhere for a long long time.
Hirsi is very intelligent and outspoken, AOC is very dumb and outspoken.
I think those on the right need to be careful about characterizing AOC as dumb. She is very shrewd and extremely social media savvy. Her target audience isn’t conservatives anyway; her goal appears to be to overthrow the dinosaurs inside the democrat party as a prelude to wielding real power to fundamentally transform the country. Her appeal is to millennials who are just starting to vote, who are a very large and left-leaning cohort, and who will be replacing the aging democrat boomers as they shuffle off to their cannabis dreamlands. We should be thankful she isn’t a few years older, as she would be eligible to run for president, and is a giant among a field of democrat midgets in my opinion.
I agree with you. She’s extremely bright and in my opinion, a dangerous Stalinist. She doesn’t know anything, but as her objective is power and adulation, she absolutely doesn’t care that she doesn’t know anything.
I don’t know how you define “bright”. She may be charismatic and a charmer to a brainwashed leftist but for someone with an economics degree she seems to be quite dim witted. I’m not saying she isn’t dangerous but I don’t see a high IQ test in her past.
This is exactly the gap between Trotsky and Stalin in trying to gain control of the Soviet Union when Lenin became incapacitated. Trotsky was a book-writing, powerfully-speaking intellectual; Stalin was a somewhat slow functionary. Trotsky figured he could wipe Stalin out in any debate. But Stalin never debated. He played the bureaucratic game that Trotsky didn’t care about, got his people into key positions, and just swept Trotsky out.
The point is, it’s not what you know, it’s what you can do in the chambers of power. Cortez knows what she needs to know for her purposes. What her proposals would actually do to the US, our traditional liberties, and the economy is not her concern in the least.
I agree AOC is media savvy, but she still is very dumb.
an economic illiterate, though I bet she could count the tips she made as a bartender.
There are almost no private schools. A few international schools, and about the same number of private school that are really outrageously expensive unless you are VERY rich. I mean really really rich. You can count the number of private schools on your hand with plenty fingers left over.
Our system is different. We have ‘openbare’ schools, which are neutral in any sense (except for being very progressive) and school that cater for a denomination. Both are paid for by the state. Nearly all non ‘openbare’ schools are every bit as progressive.
The better of parents send their kids to more expensive schools, of course, but those are within the system. Boarding schools are what we see as private schools, and they are expensive.
To call the VVD conservative is a complete stretch of the imagination.or else, a display of ignorance what conservative means. They are liberals because like almost all the other parties they are all for freedom (pro-choice i.e. pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, pro-doasyoulikewesternstyle), democracy, equality, rights vs responsibilities, big government, big money, big business and so on. Nothing conservative (e.g. smaller government, pro-life, values, hierarchy, order, family and family business, religion, traditions). The same applies to the FvD (Forum voor Democratie), also a liberal center party. And they say so themselves. Even de PVV is largely liberal center just not on open borders. It is just that the other parties are that far left-liberal that these parties appear to be on the right. Not so, all center they are.
The only conservative party in Dutch parliament is the SGP, a tiny Calvinistic fraction.
The political philosophy you describe is not classic liberal; it is extremist Left. That’s an important distinction.
No, that is not correct. The Staats Gereformeerde Partij is a theocratic party. The only Christian theocratic party, that is. Yes, the SGP is extremely conservative. True enough. It’s the Dutch political equivalent of the Westboro Baptists. That’s why they always score 2-3 seats in any election. There aren’t more (Christian) people who yearn for a theocracy.
What are things coming to when you can’t call Mo a kiddie fiddler? That’s just a statement of fact.
Things are going just the same way in Britain. Last November the All Party Parliamentary Group on Muslims (16 Muslims and 9 dhimmis) dreamed up an even more nonsensical definition of Islamophobia than previous ones (about racism and Muslimness rather than the usual Islam and irrational fear):
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/599c3d2febbd1a90cffdd8a9/t/5bfd1ea3352f531a6170ceee/1543315109493/Islamophobia+Defined.pdf
They assured us that we would still be able to criticise Islam “as a religion” as long as we don’t attack “Muslimness” but they also said this:
“…Participants reported being told that ‘Mohammed is a paedophile’, for instance. This comment does not,in a strictly grammatical sense, have the victim themselves as subject, but is rather an example of the ‘criticism of Islam’ as it is actually articulated and experienced. Yet, clearly, it is aimed at (and can achieve) harm to individual Muslims, and is not rooted in any meaningful theological debate but rather in a racist attempt to ‘other’ Muslims in general”.
I would have thought the character of Mohammed was very central to any debate about Islam because he is the sole witness to Allah’s supposed revelation and his many moral failings have a bearing on his trustworthiness. But no, it seems that for the APPG, and for the local councils which have started to adopt their definition, there is no criticism of Mo that cannot be trumped by concern for Muslims’ sensibilities. That sounds just like Sharia, doesn’t it?
“That sounds just like Sharia, doesn’t it?”
Yes, and in a form which is being made palatable for the West.
From what you say I wouldn’t be surprised if that one majority vote had the proverbial gun held to his head warning him to tow the party line or….Else.🤔
David Wood:
“Nothing poses a greater threat to Islam than an informed population of free people. Be one of those people.”
“When Islam can spread or get what it wants by force it goes with force, when it can´t it is whining and complaining, pretending to be the victim.”
“If you are concerned that Islam is a threat to the world … you study Islam and try to show people why it is dangerous and false.”