| Ryuu96 said: Tbh and this might cause some debate but Europe has always been pretty damn racist, Imo. It's so easy to rile Europeans up against immigrants of all kinds or Muslims, UK doesn't even like itself, let alone people from other countries, Lol. Europe has the tendency to act morally superior to America but really, we're often just as bad. Worrying to see a rise in far right in Europe and it's so easily done. Also, not sure how the shitshow of UK hasn't put a stop to any other countries considering an EU breakup, Lol. |
Agreed. I've learned a lot about Europe and The Netherlands after moving abroad. Though Canada has its own dark past and problems with racism, it was interesting to see things from a different perspective. I even learned Canada fought the Dutch in the Boer wars in South Africa (from the exhibits in the Ottawa war museum) while South Africa was never mentioned in the history lessons I got in the Netherlands. I learned a lot more about European and Dutch history while flying around the world in FS2020, looking up local memorials and struggles all over the world, than I ever learned in school.
This morning I read this
“Dutch Racism is not Like Anywhere Else”: Refusing Color-Blind Myths in Black Feminist Otherwise Spaces
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08912432221075098
It's so full of truth and is a lot like "Stamped from the beginning" while also very different and even more ingrained / systemic.
Nexit surprises me. Although there were already plenty people blaming the rise of prices on the transition to the Euro, as well as blaming Southern European countries for not pulling their weight...
This explains it more. For context I left the Netherlands a few months after the assassination of Pim Fortyun and have been watching things only get worse and worse from a distance.
https://www.ft.com/content/cb03d60d-1175-36fb-a277-1b13fd0ed311
The Netherlands was one of the EU’s six founder-members in the 1950s, and one of the eurozone’s founder-members in 1999, but Dutch society’s support for ever-deepening European unity started to fracture 15 to 20 years ago. One reason was the feeling that this most prosperous of European nations was paying too much into the EU and not getting enough back – a sentiment intensified by the accession of less well-off former communist countries in central and Eastern Europe from 2004 on.
But the deeper cause of Dutch disillusion is bound up with the transformation of society that came with mass immigration from Morocco, Turkey and other countries with no connection to the era of Dutch imperialism. Small, flat and ultra-urban, the Netherlands is one of the world’s most densely populated nations. So many native Dutch people started to feel “strangers in their homeland” that mainstream politicians felt compelled, despite the grand traditions of Dutch tolerance and liberalism, to declare in 2004 that “multi-culturalism” had been a failure. The murder in that year of Theo van Gogh, a controversial film-maker, by a Dutch-Moroccan immigrant paved the way for Wilders to capitalise on anti-Islamic attitudes already encouraged by Pim Fortuyn – a populist politician assassinated in 2002.
And yes, it's always been the go to in The Netherlands to point the finger at the US for being racist while refusing to look in the mirror. And there was always this 'moral superiority feeling' in The Netherlands compared to other European countries already. Sarajevo / Dutchbat put a bit of a damper on that but of course largely deflected onto the UN.
https://balkaninsight.com/2019/08/08/it-was-hell-dutch-troops-recall-failure-to-stop-srebrenica-deaths/
No wonder NATO is hesitant to put boots on the ground in Ukraine. They couldn't even stop genocide in central Europe.
Racism is a world wide issue and so easily used to get people to rally behind wars and oppression. Are there any non racist countries?
According to this The Netherlands and Canada are the least racist countries in the world...
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/least-racist-countries
If that's the best, ugh, I'm not seeing it. Surveys aren't a good measure anyway, words don't mean much and the biggest problem with racism in The Netherlands is its self delusional color blindness. With Geert Wilders, that, which was always there, is at least getting out in the open. You can't address a problem until you allow yourself to see the problem.
Sorry for the sidetrack. Really hope Ukraine can get back to normal. Just pisses me off the main driving force to 'help' Ukraine seems to be not wanting more immigrants / refugees. Hence being fine with extending the status quo instead of making it possible to end this conflict.
