I am a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew and a Buddhist too. If you don't like it, then this place is not for you, but as long as you don't force your beliefs on anyone, you're welcome to join in, it doesn't matter if you're a liberal, a republican or just simply you.
Recently there has been an overabundance of reports on the abuse and torture of Sri Lankan maids taking place in countries all over the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia. It's great to see that finally something is being done about this poblem.
To raise awareness on the abuse in Lebanon, this video presents a picture where the roles are reversed, putting (what appears to be) a Sri Lankan in charge of a Lebanese maid, and to a add a special twist to the whole, the Lebanese maid is referred to as "Sri Lankieti" in Arabic, meaning "my Sri Lankan [maid]" as if calling someone a "Sri Lankan" is equal to calling someone a "maid", but in a way that dehumanizes her, as if she's just a tool, merely intended to serve, be enslaved to others and be denied all human dignity.
I know it sounds awful (I love people all the same), but please hear me out for a minute...
When I say "undesirable immigrants" what's the first thing that comes to mind?
If you think about it on a global scale there are quite a few minority groups around the world that are treated as "undesirable" or "unwanted" for whatever reason. In some countries it might be "Muslims", to some it's "Mexicans", to others it it might be "Jews", to others it's "Blacks" or "infidels" or "Moroccans" or "Rohingyas" or "Roma gypsies" or "Palestinians" or "unskilled laborers" or...or...whatever garden variety human with an accent on "different" and "poor" that happens to annoy the heck out of nativist bigots.
To Geert Wilders, as everyone knows by now, it's "Muslims, Moroccans and (poor) immigrants". You might have heard about his latest maneuver in his conquest against these undesirable immigrants. You see, the man thinks big - I mean HUGE, now that he got a big chunk of the votes in the last national election. So now he's working on expanding his territory and wants to rile up haters in other countries, where anger against Muslims and immigrants already festers and always ready to wreak havoc at the drop of a hat.
So why is this all happening you think?
Money? Power? Heroics? The bad economy? Politics?
Please don't me give that "freedom of speech" nonsense, because I'm not buying it.
So why really? Why is such a terribly bigoted politician, who says some of the craziest things and makes a fool out of Dutch parliament daily, actually allowed to have free reign to incite hatred against people in a democracy that's supposedly world famous for its tolerance?
Is it maybe because he's carrying out the will of the people who feel threatened by these "undesirables" or is he simply trying to enforce the laws of the land by pursuing the Dutch government's very own agenda to get rid of unskilled laborers, while applying pressure with tremendous help from the Dutch press and leveraging hate groups in the US and Europe?
Well, in case you didn't know, Holland actually pays certain immigrants to leave the country as long as they agree to be stripped of their rights to return, as set forth in the Dutch Remigration Act.
I remember vaguely hearing about this a while back, but I didn't know the exact details till I started looking into it after my friend Xoussef asked me if it's true that Holland pays immigrants a monthly salary if they agree to leave the country - he told me he had read about this in a Moroccan newspaper and questioned the veracity of the article because it just sounded too weird.
If you are going to leave the Netherlands to move to another country, you may
be able to get a one-off relocation grant and a monthly benefit to help cover
your living expenses in your new country of residence. This is provided for
under the Remigration Act.
Two types of benefits are paid under the Remigration Act:
a remigration grant
a remigration benefit
Remigration grant
The remigration grant is a one-off payment towards moving expenses. It is
made up of various components. Which components you are entitled to depends on
your personal situation.
You can get a contribution towards the cost of:
the journey to the country where you are going to live;
the transportation of your luggage;
settling in your new country of residence;
storage of your property in your new country;
the transportation of aids for a disabled person;
the transportation of business inventory and equipment.
These contributions are fixed amounts.
remigration benefit
The remigration benefit is a monthly payment to help cover your living
expenses. It is only payable if you are 45 or over. If you are no longer covered
under the Dutch health insurance system after you have moved abroad, you will
also get a contribution towards health insurance.
If you are awarded a remigration benefit, you will also get a remigration
grant. The grant will not include a contribution towards resettlement expenses
because this will already be included in the remigration benefit.
When are you eligible for these payments?
You can get these payments if you leave the Netherlands to return to:
the country where you were born, or
the country of which you are, or were, a national, or
the country where one of your parents was born or of which he or she is, or
was, a national.
You can also get financial help if you are a refugee or if you have been
granted asylum in the Netherlands, and you are moving to another country.
The fact that the Dutch Remigration Act singles out only immigrants from specific countries who can apply for this deal has "discrimination" written all over it if you ask me. Smart move by the Dutch government though in terms of saving money in the long run. They encourage these immigrants to leave the country, sending them off into early retirement at age 45 along with the rest of their families, with a minimum wage that's tailored to the cost of living in their country of origin, instead of having to pay them significantly higher pension benefits when they're actually due for retirement in Holland. And as we all know, governments tend to change rules and laws whenever they see fit.
Are these wages guaranteed for life?:
The amount of your remigration grant or remigration benefit
The amount of your remigration grant or remigration benefit depends on:
the country where you are going to live;
the number of people moving with you;
whether you live on your own or with family members;
the ages of the people who live with you.
For more information about the amount you will receive, you can contact us.
Last week it was the "baiting Jew" proposal, now it's a "Yamulke Day" and a "Gay Square" proposal on the table by Dutch MP Ahmed Marcouch, as part of the so-called "Solidarity Action" days, in his noble quest to combat hate crime.
I'm sure his heart is in the right place and I'm big on conflict resolution and all, but sometimes you can go a tad too far with too much of a good thing, if you ask me.
I'd say carrot and stick people, carrot and stick.....unfortunately I've been seeing too much "stick" and not enough "carrot" in the Netherlands lately.
Dr Qanta Ahmed is a Muslim woman who has so much more to offer to the world
than just heart and I sincerely thank her and commend for trying to bring morality
back:
"Like most things in life, morality unfortunately is a little more complex
than some would have you believe. Presently, morality is sinking into oblivion
deep into the Eastern Mediterranean and all that remains is some soggy,
discarded flotsam bobbing up and down in a magnifying pandemonium of hysterical,
biased tropism."
From a woman's perspective, I personally reject noisemakers such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan and
the likes, who pretend to fight for women's rights and against Islamic terror. To me they are nothing but a bunch of hatemongering self-serving talking
heads that have absolutely nothing to contribute to the common good of
mankind.
For that same reason I always refused to take sides on the Israel/Palestine issue
and reject our pathetic self-serving politicians who insist on ruling our world
with manipulating people into blind emotion and wild fury, keeping the fires burning, while holding the world
community hostage and forcing the issue to become the center our
universe, or more or less as a convenience store or drug dealer they can always run to if they need a fix to feed their bad habit. All of them can collectively move over to make room for Dr Qanta Ahmed, who does an amazing job offering crucial insights and reasoning on not just what's
actually wrong with our world today, but how to fix it as well.
I recommend you
read the entire article, but here's the part that speaks to me most:
At one stage, a spokesperson for Hamas appeared on the BBC citing that Gazans
have no need for aid, adding " we do not need to fill our bellies". Well, the
world thinks otherwise. In his astonishing defiance revealed by a casual,
throwaway comment, the spokesperson revealed the prime goal of the Flotilla's
mission, as he perceived it: to run the gauntlet against the blockade, not to
alleviate material needs of his suffering electorate. The Flotilla was a bald
and blatant political move designed to humiliate and provoke.
His remarks reveal the extent to which Palestinians are now objectified
political pawns, rather than a people. While we are comfortable with the
longstanding objectification of Palestinians by Israelis as the 'other'
in the form of a security threat (after all Israel must balance a constant
struggle to determine the needs of a terrorized Israeli citizenship over the
needs of an exploding ever-younger ever impoverished, increasingly radicalized
Gaza population) we fail to encounter our own sinister objectification of the
Palestinians which we accomplish so effectively all by ourselves. This
objectification is not only held by their revolving, corrupt leadership, but
also by an objectifying Muslim world. We the Muslims need the Palestinians to
remain locked in their plight so that they might continue to serve as the
Ummah's scotoma (a blindspot) which literally prevents us from seeing our own
more immediate distresses, distresses which might demand our attention and
perhaps even require societal interventions . We would be lost, disarmed, and
stunned without an external locus for our rage which is so piercingly trained on
Gaza and the West Bank, so piercing in fact that Darfur barely warrants a
sidelong glance.
Does this exonerate Israel? No. Does this implicate Muslims? You bet.
Let me continue the self-flagellation.
During this same period of Flotilla Face-Offs with the IDF, Pakistan, my
nation of matrilineal and patrimonial heritage has witnessed the extraordinary
massacre of 120 moderate, pacifist Muslims, followers of the Ahmadiyyah movement
that subscribes to peaceful, pluralistic Islam. Specifically, they embrace
non-violence, condemning violent jihad. They were massacred, in cold blood, in
worship, by fellow citizens, fellow Pakistanis, fellow Muslims. Most of the
murdered were elderly, and male. Hundreds more were injured, some of whom are
still dying this week. Emergency services did not arrive for over two hours.
Pakistani police stood back, apparently allowing the carnage to occur,
supposedly too afraid to engage. Awaiting special operations commandos to
intervene, in their uncertainty, perhaps their tacit tolerance, Pakistani police
became silent accomplices to the massacre. Many of the pacifist Muslim
worshipers died of uncomplicated hemorrhagic shock within mere minutes of
advanced medical care.
Where has been the subsequent national and international outrage at the death
of these Muslims? Where is the Muslim world now? Where are the Muslims calling
for War Crimes to be investigated within the inert and increasingly fractious
Pakistani 'leadership'? We, the Muslims find ourselves suddenly voiceless,
tongue tied, jaded and unmoved, yet somehow Gaza stokes our bald fury.
So, against this deafening silence, when six passengers on the ship were
regrettably killed during a confrontation with the Israeli Defense Force, this
bloodshed became sufficient to call for investigations of war crimes by an
elected government in charge of their military at work enforcing a public, long
standing naval blockade, one which has been tacitly accepted in the region,
irrespective of the ethics of this blockade. It wasn't just a member of the IDF,
who was thrown overboard in the on board skirmish it would seem, it was
morality.
It's about time somebody had the guts to stand up for Holland and do the right thing to stop this hatemongering
imbecile! Never mind the fact that Wilders hates Muslims and immigrants, but
the fact that he wants to implement a headscarf tax on Muslim women and is
trying to push for an "ethnic registration requirement"(among other outlandish things) on the Dutch people, should outrage the whole entire world! This man is insanely
dangerous! Ethnic registration? What the hell is wrong with people? Have we
learned anything at all from WWII?
I'm especially surprised and extremely disappointed that the Jewish
community isn't making a big deal out of this. Where is the outrage?
Mr Maxime Verhagen, petje af meneer, ik ben trots op u!
Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders has
accused Dutch Christian Democrat leader Maxime Verhagen of sabotaging attempts
to form a centre-right three-party government. A right-wing cabinet now looks
unlikely after eight days of coalition talks.
Mr Verhagen on Thursday repeated his view that free-market liberal VVD and Mr
Wilders' Freedom Party should first iron out their differences. The two parties,
the two winners of the 9 June general elections, differ fundamentally over
issues like economic austerity measures and ethnic registration. Once those
issues are sorted the Christian Democrats will consider joining the
negotiations, Mr Verhagen said, but not earlier.
The Christian Democrats lost half their seats in the elections and said it
behoved them to be modest, rather than being overly eager to join a government.
Dutch artist Yuri Vermeer claims that it's his reaction to the current nationalistic populist overtone of Dutch politics, but I think it's his lame attempt at fame and I find it tasteless, to say the least.
If anything, what the video does is instigate even more hatred and resentment among people, pushing for the boiling point.
I was talking to one of my sisters recently who lives in Amsterdam and I asked her to tell me what she thinks of Amsterdam's former mayor Job Cohen.
Without hesitation she responded: "He's my idea of what a politician should be like. Not only does he look the part, he actually does what he says he's going to do, unlike most of our politicians. He has this natural ability to command respect and put you at ease, sort of like a father figure really, and when all hell breaks loose, you know you're in good hands because he'll take care of it and make you feel that everything is going to be alright. Sadly, we have too many politicians that look or act like they just rolled out of college, too high on ambition and self-gratification, and absolutely no interest in doing what's good for our country and the people."
New York Times Magazine's Russell Shorto sort of paints the same picture of Mr. Cohen, but in a much broader sense, digging deep into Holland's complicated sociopolitical, historical and multicultural fabric, explaining Cohen the man, the politician and his mission to save Holland from the brink of collapse as a member of parliament.
The American Muslim comedian trio going by the stage name "Allah Made Me Funny" is currently giving away free tickets in Holland to everyone named "Henk and Ingrid" who wants to see their show.
So what's the catch?
No catch really, just poking fun at Geert Wilders who recently hit a home run
with one of his typical divisive remarks as an attempt to drive bigotry down the
infield. In his remark, he used the names "Henk & Ingrid" to describe the
average Dutchman/woman and "Fatima & Ali" as the average Muslim immigrant,
basically saying that he wants to see to it that the native Dutch are taken care
of for a change instead of Muslim immigrants all the time.
As outlandish as Mr Wilders often sounds and as much as I'd prefer to dismiss
him as Ahmadinejad and Kaddafi morphed into one and nothing but a clownish hater
that makes me laugh with some of the insane things he says, he really does bring up
sensitive issues at times that do call for further examination and objective
scrutiny. Too bad his populist ideas are mostly ill-intended and always aim to
alienate and marginalize specific segments of the population.
I personally don't understand what all the fuss is about. To me it's simple, if you're an illegal alien in any country, you're breaking the law to begin with. I do understand that the main concern is discrimination with racial/ethnic profiling by authorities as a possible result, which I would find very upsetting, but I say let's deal with it if that actually does happen.
Prince William County in Virginia says they did it and it's working just fine, there is no racial profiling.
Recent Comments