herberts wrote:Ah huh! So you're part of that middle class Dutch society whose escaping in their droves from the joys of Holland's multicultural madness... ?
No, I'm a new generation of "political refugee"... ;-)
I was a kid in the 70s; I liked Holland fine in the 80s.
Then came the years of the economic boom, the late 90s, when everyone seemed to suddenly only talk stocks, shares, house prices, computers and cellphones. And the government gave tax cuts, especially for the rich, and privatised and liberalised. And all the while everyone just became more intolerant and complained ever louder about those asylum-seekers sponging off their money, and how Holland couldnt cope with any more immigrants. While the number of homeless surged.
Then came a time that made those years of spoiled egos in turn seem idyllic. The Fortuyn revolution. One after another, politicians, columnists and TV hosts decided that the thing to do was to compete with each other in how boorish, brutal, egoistic, resentful and disrespectful one could be, preferably against those of different race or religion, preferable against those who were already at the bottom of the food chain, Moroccans and Muslims. Goatf*ckers! Theo van Gogh called them, and he was cheered on for being "blunt and honest".
And just when you held your head and went, WTF happened to my country with all these assh*les taking over, they started getting killed. Fortuyn was shot. Van Gogh had his throat slit. And in response the media jumped on every loudmouthed Muslim extremist they could find, and there were enough of those to go around to oblige with verbal aggro as well.
It's not a fun place to be anymore. My then-girlfriend moved to Holland to be with me on new years eve 2001/2002. It was the very worst possible time to come. She had always wanted to live in Holland, that open-minded, tolerant, liberal country! Well, she came there and everyone turned nasty. As a foreigner (be it a white one), she hardly stood a chance. You can re-read on
Expatica how expats experience post-Fortuyn Holland. A place full of suspicious, resentful, unpleasant whites, as well as angry or fearful minorities.
Although the guy who murdered Van Gogh and his mates deserve to go to hell, in general my sympathy is with the minorities. Though the worst of the Muslims (the murderer of Van Gogh) did something worse than any Fortuynist has done, its the latter's egoism and hostility, and that of the right-wing VVD-type opportunists, that leave the greater mark on daily life. There's simply more of 'em.
Mind you, I dont mind the plain-spoken Dutch guy who's seen his working-class neighbourhood change through immigration and is fed up; it's easy to understand how he feels. I mind all those (upper) middle-class whites who've have it better than ever and definitely better than their (grand)parents ever did, and yet cant stop complaining about how terrible it all is, what with how those evil asylum-seekers are feeding off our poor, vulnerable economy. Who live, by the two or three, in apartments that used to house families of five, but lament that "Holland is full".
My ex-gf went back to America just last month. She had the misfortune to have been in Holland in its worst and most unpleasant time in recent history.
Now I didnt really "flee" Holland, of course. I simply applied for this job here because my old job was on the line (budget cuts...) and this one was pretty damn cool, the kind I had always wanted. But my decision to take it and leave home was definitely made easier by the mess that not just Muslim extremists, but also and in particular the Fortuyn/Verdonk-types have made it.
Yek. Here's to better times. May the sane and kind win out soon again. As, who knows, perhaps they've started to.