Cruising for… An Assasination.

So Geert Wilders released Fitna today. As expected, it elides violence with Islam, it’s awful. I tried to watch it, but by the time I got to the severed head about 8 minutes in I realized that it’s way too close to my bedtime. My question: Does this guy want to get killed? He seems invested in completing a Pim Fortuyn/Theo van Gogh assassination triumvirate. I don’t think he’ll stop until he gets what he wants.

Van Gogh and Ali’s film Submission was rather one sided as well but it was at least more focused and attempted to be insightful. Wilders is just going out of control with unfortunate propaganda. It seems that his only goal is fueling hatred either of Islam or of…Geert Wilders. Such an attention whore. A stupid, loud attention whore.

As much as I wouldn’t be sad to see him go, I don’t think someone should give him the satisfaction of “martyrdom.”

Akon’s Bijlmer Video

Featuring Dutch rappers Ali B. and Yes-R. Check it.

Security!

Two stories of security. First, Geert’s then Hirsi’s, courtesy of dutchnews.nl:

a.) Anti-immigration MP Geert Wilders was refused a seat on a KLM flight to Moscow on Monday because of his security demands, news agency ANP reports.

The MP had ’specific requests for his security’ which had not been made known to the airline in advance, ANP reports.

Wilders is a member of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee which is going to Moscow on a working visit.

b. Former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who now works for a right-wing US think tank, would like to become French, according to reports in most of the papers on Monday.

Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of Islam, was in France to be awarded the Simone de Beauvoir prize and meet supporters angry that the Netherlands has stopped funding her round-the-clock security.

The Netherlands stopped paying for Hirsi Ali’s protection after she moved permanently to the US. She is now trying to raise the money privately.

It’s been a quiet week in Amherst, my (NON) home town

Time to put the L in AWOL. I’ve been rather busy lately, as I am wont to do. There’s the Proj Awkward stuff, a large Amsterdamse thesis, and school work in general. I’m going to try to post this week, but I can’t make any promises.

The thesis in question (see the related library books) has to do with the Bijlmerramp, male and female prostitution, immigration to Holland, and 1992. If anyone knows about any of these things, (and how we do in XR2) do let me know.

Good.

Just in from Reuters via the New York Times:

“The government has decided it will not impose a general ban on the wearing of burqas and similar garments in public on security grounds, but will bar them and full-face veils at schools and for government workers, local news reports said. They said the government had concluded that a broad ban would violate the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion. About a million Muslims live in the Netherlands, and Muslim groups say just 50 to 100 women regularly wear a burqa. Geert Wilders, the right-wing leader of an anti-immigration party, sent a bill to Parliament last July proposing a ban on the burqa in public.”

I’m glad Geert didn’t get his way. He’s cruising for a bike-by assassination like Fortuyn and Van Gogh, but it’s not right that he’s stirring up so much hate as he goes. No matter how you feel about burqas, banning them takes away freedom of expression and fuels fringe radicals. “Security grounds” my ass.

Mooi Vrowen: Lucia Rijker

Ladies and Gentlemen,
meet Lucia Rijker (foreground.) She looks very capable of completely fucking you up, doesn’t she? She is a boxer from Amsterdam. Her mother’s Dutch, her father’s from Suriname. She is virtually undefeated. After, she retired from boxing, she went into showbiz. She was in Million Dollar Baby, and was a minor character on the L Word’s second season. Curiously, she’s back this season as a completely different minor character, specifically a prison inmate. I guess we’re supposed to assume that Dana’s personal trainer fell on some hard times. Yeeeeaaaah. Anyway, she’s absolutely lovely and deadly. Great combination.

I also love that she’s playing an prison inmate at her last name sounds a lot like “Rikers.” In fact, Rikers Island Prison in New York is named after Dutch settler Abraham Rycken. Not spelled the same, but it still works.

Geert

This Geert Wilders, a far right Dutch politician who wants to ban the Koran, as well as the burqa. He wasn’t pleased with the Queen’s Christmas address. He wrote it off as “multi-culti” non-sense. If he’s smart, he’ll keep lying low. Both him and Hirsi Ali had to take it underground after Theo van Gogh was shot. He’s still getting death threats up to now. He seems hellbent on ending the possibility of holding two passports, which sucks for me because I’d like to live in the Netherlands, but I don’t want to totally throw my American citizenship, especially if Obama becomes president. (Yum.) Stay tuned.

Politically Correct Netherlands

The Politically Correct Netherlands: Since the 1960s

by Herman Vuijsje

Very useful book from Strand. It was originally $99 but I got it for $30. Nearly everything that I’ve found in the library is from below 1992. It was written in 2000 and is an overview/criticism of when the Netherlands’ liberal policy. Surprisingly, there are no mentions of prostitution. It does not explain the Bijlmer crash as extensively as I want, but there is a useful part about it. It does touch on a lot of things that I wanted to know about; race relations, AIDS politics, all of the social taboos. Except prostitution. But it’s decently comprehensive. Does anyone have any book suggestions for:

-The Bijlmer Crash
-Surinamese Immigration to the Netherlands
-Prostitution in the Netherlands (and I want it for BOTH ALL sexes)
-Dutch Schooling
-Anything in the Netherlands in 1992

Hirsi Ali

Dutch Word of the Day
springen: to jump
Sprong rond!
Jump around!

Oh, Ms. Hirsi Ali. You gotta settle down for a minute. Somalia to Amsterdam to America to Amsterdam again? I will say that I’m somewhat jealous of the amount of time she spent in Amsterdam; I’ve had a very harder time readjusting back to Amherst than I thought. But all this strange jumping around is undisclosed locations absurd.

The Dutch are threatening to cut off her bodyguard service, and she wants it back. Her life is in great danger unless she has that protection. It’s surprising that they cut her off like this. I wonder what’s next?

Lotta racial…

Dutch Word of the Day
uitersten: extreme
Niemand houdt van uitersten.
No one likes an extreme.

Apparently, the Netherlands will be taking some new measures to cut down on Islamic extremism and right wing extremism. AT THE SAME TIME. Wild, innit? I like that they are doing a double-edged approach. Religious extremism is one problem, but Lonsdale youth is another.
Quick note on the bridge: It’s an Eramus bridge in Rotterdam. Gorgeous.