It’s been a boring weekend, although I did get tear gassed on Friday. A new law came into effect allowing local councils to clear squats out. They do this, so I am told, by raising up a cage full of riot cops who then fly through the top window clearing out the squatters one room, then one floor, at a time. Now, call me a radical, call me a bit ‘out there’, but does this not sound just a liiiiiiitle bit dystopian? Dutch News reported on Friday that ‘Most councils are not enthusiastic about the new law and are unlikely to give clearing squatted buildings a high priority. They are also unconvinced that the law will reduce the number of buildings left empty’. Of course. Laws do not solve societal problems.
These are chilling times and chilling messages. At a time when a right wing coalition is forming, the police are swinging batons and firing tear gas on a Friday night. One failure of Holland is that there is already no room in Dutch society for those who are different, the homogeneous blonds fully ‘dull and dutiful’. The application of this new law is doing two things: it’s battering people into conformity and it’s dividing them. Those for, ‘landlords should be responsible’, and those against, ‘those soap and tax dodgers should get a job’. (Many squatters have jobs, by the way, it’s a house they can’t find). And so, a none issue in a time when we really need unity is splitting the country up. Last Friday, Job Cohen, the leader of the Labour party said that by introducing laws, such as bans on burqa – they are on the way – is to give the impression that there is a problem when in fact there isn’t one. If you’ve got a solution, there must be a problem. This is the oldest trick in the political book.
I am not worried about the rising hoards of muslims that are going destroy the Netherlands in an apocalyptical flurry of kebabs, headscarves and street slang. Nor am I worried about the odd property getting squatted. I am much more worried about my adopted countrymen who are so terrified that they want a right wing government. In lieu of curtains, there’s a huge part of this country now hiding behind, shaking and scared, righteousness dressed pathetically up as egalitarianism.
This town and country is better with, no, can’t function without, all the blacks, gypos, squatters, the English, the Hullites, the chavs, the Germans, Moroccans, the artists, the queers, the lezzas, and all those other God forsaken abominations that would, if we had any, send middle Holland running for the hills. As a country, we are better when we are united, better when we are celebrating and solving. Let’s not let this threat of scarcity drive us to any further stupidity. Friday was not about squatting, it was about division. I hope we can see through such a cheap trick.
(Image taken from NU. Click through for more)
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