Nathan’s Musings

One of the more common words in the Dutch language is advies. Any English speaker will of course immediately recognise this as advice. However, in the Netherlands the word has a specific meaning. In the traditionally consensus-oriented culture that prevails here, an advies from this or that body is a standard part of any decision-making process, whether in business, government or any other public institution.

The latest such advies in the political sphere is a report issued by an outfit called Wetenschappelijke Raad voor her Regeringsbeleid (WRR), which loosely translates as the Scientific Council for Policy. This august body, which presumably consists of some academic types who descend from the ivory towers to get their hands dirty with actual policy questions from time to time, has spent 3 years investigating Islam in the Netherlands. The result is a report entitled “Developments in Islamic Activism” which was presented to the Foreign Minister on April 12th.

And what did the good professors come up with after all this work? Well, they recommend that Dutch politicians should stop “bashing Islam” and “making Muslims scapegoats for society’s problems”; that they should stop making “irresponsible” statements about sharia law; and, to save the best for last, that the Dutch government should establish contacts with Hamas and Hezbollah in order to promote understanding between Muslims and the wider society. During the presentation of their report, the WRR project leader further suggested that the Netherlands should take the initiative to form a special Human Rights court for the Arabs, based on Arabic/Islamic principles, since apparently the existing international human rights principles take insufficient account of Islamic culture. I wonder what kind of justice this special Arab human rights court would dispense–perhaps that thieves should have only a finger cut off, rather than the whole hand? Or that homosexuals should not be executed (as is often the case in Iran) but maybe just castrated or put in prison for life?
I pay taxes here in the Netherlands. It makes my blood boil to think that I have therefore co-financed the “work” of the idiots who comprise the WRR. Fortunately, Foreign Minister Bot has rejected the suggestion of having contacts with the terrorist groups out of hand. And the whole report from the WRR is likely to be put on a shelf and ignored, deservedly so.

Most people think that the Scandinavian countries are all more or less the same, but nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, the languages are related, although in all honesty, nowadays when a Dane and a Swede below age 50 meet, they are more comfortable speaking English to each other rather than their own languages. Yes, Denmark, Sweden and Norway all have high taxes and generous welfare states. But culturally, there are some very significant differences, one of which has just been highlighted in a hilarious way by Sweden’s ombudsman for equality, Claes Borgström. He has (apparently in all seriousness) suggested that Sweden should boycott this summer’s World Cup in Germany.

What have the Germans done to be deprived of the sight of the Swedish team playing yet another 0-0 game? Well, the virtuous Mr. Borgström is angry that German prostitutes and bordello operators (both activities are legal in Germany) plan to cash in on the influx of visitors and greatly increase supply during the World Cup. Among the planned enhancements to Berlin’s sex industry is a new, 4000 sq.m bordello, complete with sauna, whirlpools, and large TV screens so that visitors can follow the games.

Now, I have never visited a prostitute, nor have I ever had sex while watching football on TV. But it is a free world, so if there are customers for that kind of thing, why not? The sex industry is legal in Germany, and so should be free to respond to an expected increase in demand just like any other tourism-related business. I recall when living in Brussels that most of the city’s girls of dubious virtue went away in August–a month when the EU institutions are on vacation and there is little political or business activity in the city. Normal business practice, that’s all…

Of course there is a serious side to all this. Without any doubt some of the additional prostitutes in Germany will be victims of human trafficing from places like Ukraine. But the solution to that is proper policing, not boycotts. By Mr. Borgström’s logic, any large event anywhere in Europe should be boycotted by Sweden, including EU summit meetings, trade fairs and so on, since all such events bring in more visitors to the host city or country and consequently increase demand for paid sex. Or maybe all big events should always be held in Sweden, where there is no prostitution and everyone lives a happy life of equality and virtue

A few weeks ago I wrote about Naser Khader, a Danish politician of Palestinian origin who founded an organisation called Democratic Muslims in the wake of the Arab/Muslim boycott of Denmark over the Mohammed drawings. This was an extremely worthwhile initiative. Khader is very popular among both Danes and immigrants. His agenda is to find common ground between the immigrants and the society in which they live, and he wants to demonstrate that it is possible for a Muslim to live in a modern, secular, Western European country, provided that s/he adapts to the democratic norms of that country.

Since then, Khader has received numerous death threats from Muslims in Denmark, as have several other members of the organisation he founded. One woman who was on the board of Democratic Muslims felt so threatened that she decided to leave the organisation. Another board member, in my hometown of Aarhus, has even received threats from one of the imams in the city.

It is difficult to be optimistic about the possibilities for peaceful co-existence when reading this. I am coming to the conclusion that what we are witnessing right now is not the “clash of civilisations” that Huntington wrote about. Rather, we are seeing a clash between civilisation and barbarism, between those who are prepared to listen to others and find solutions around a negotiating table and those who issue death threats to moderate Muslims like Mr. Khader or who behead hostages and subsequently boast about it by sending the video to a TV station.

Here is a famous politician’s CV:

• Born 7th April 1944
• First degree in law 1971
• Worked in regional court 1972-1976
• Graduate degree in law 1976, admitted to his country’s bar
• Practiced law 1978-1990
• Elected to his country’s parliament 1980; resigns 1986 to join regional parliament
• Head of regional government 1990-1998
• Prime Minister of his country 1998-2005

On of the last acts in office, in October 2005, was to approve a loan guarantee of €1 billion to Gazprom, the Russian gas company, to be used for constructing a pipeline from Russia to Germany. In February 2006 he was employed as chairman of the consortium building that pipeline, three months after leaving office.

Now, look at the above CV: there is absolutely no oil or energy experience; indeed, no experience from industry at all. And yet this man is apparently qualified to lead a huge, multi-billion dollar energy project. What an amazing coincidence!

Gerhard Schröder claims that he was not aware of the loan guarantee his government gave to Gazprom and that it is totally unrelated to him getting the chairman job a few months later. Either the former chancellor is stupid (unlikely) or he believes the general public to be stupid (much more likely).

Here in Northern Europe we tend to regard corruption as something that happens in the Third World, or at least in the east or south of Europe. This scandal is a good reminder that it happens here too.