Dutch Love is Tough Scheise

By the time this article is published, I might not be in a situation to reply to comments right away. Still, not long ago I had a(nother) conversation with Blegoo and, visiting his blog, I’ve found some interesting news I had missed. This led me, for a brief moment, to question my love for Netherlands.

In that quote (which I will not source, because Blegoo didn’t bother disclosing it and I’m too lazy to google), the Dutch deputy premier is asking the European Union to hand back some of the border controls to stave off the wave a poor economic migrants from the “Eastern block” (i.e., Romania, Bulgaria and Gypsies from the richer former communist countries) – bl-schengen. And, as most Romanians know or should know by now, after Finland dropped their opposition to Romania’s entry in the Schengen space, Netherlands was left standing alone. Interestingly, that development, coupled with the “Calvinist Conspiracy” accusation levelled against Finland, combined with Max Weber’s thoughts about Protestantism and work ethic are what led me to try to make sense of the differences between Lutherans and Calvinists with rather unexpected consequences:

you idiot netherlands is protestant (comment to the article by a seemingly Dutch man; in case you don’t know, both “Lutheranism” and “Calvinism” belong to “Protestantism”)

I don’t hate Netherlands, on the contrary, I love that country. It’s hard not to, and my friends above are only one of the reasons why. Other reasons should be obvious from the article on Amsterdam (what to do in Amsterdam when you’re alive), or the one with Theo Van Gogh’s Cool, or the articles with that tag on tumblr (tumblr-neth, below) written mostly before I met my Dutch friends. It’s only natural that I try to back up this feeling with some proof.

Firstly, Netherlands used to be the country that had invested the most in Romania (2007). Now you can certainly blame it on circumstances and the kind of investments the Dutch make vs the business cycle, or even the source of data which has disappeared in the meantime, but you can’t say that the Dutch hate Romania – rather, they are very pragmatic (and tall, but that’s a different story :D ).

Focusing your anger and frustration on Netherlands for their stubborn stance, or delaying Croatia’s accession to EU for the same reason (i.e., to get back at the entire Europe by raising silly objections on the perception that that’s what Netherlands did), as some Romanians officials have done, is silly especially now that even Steaua Bucharest’s patron Becali has joined in criticizing Netherlands, after his victory on AFC Ajax. That’s b/c the Dutch are reflecting the generally European stance: they don’t want a ton of beggars on their streets, they don’t want shanty towns in their parks or the periphery of their cities (just like Romanians, unfortunately in Baia Mare), and they don’t want any more Gypsies / Roma / Zigeuner / Gitanes than they already have. This popular desire is certainly conflicting with the dream of a wide Europe, a Europe without borders and cannot find its way into official statements and agreements. This is why it came to the Dutch, Europe’s pragmatists (the Brits just talk too much, and the Germans are too big and central) to publicly say what virtually all voting Europeans think: we’re hurting, our economies are stumbling, we are having less and we don’t feel like sharing now – maybe never.

Such responses by the Senate President are perhaps necessary, but I doubt they could change much (bsanna-geoana).

• The proposal - to set up an Alert Code of the movement of labour - is the more disappointing since it comes from a leader of the Netherlands' Labour Party. Camouflaging such a proposal under the form of criticism to the exploitation of the cheap workforce, that would allegedly cause big wage differences cannot conceal the fact that the measure of setting up an Alert Code has the role of hitting the free movement of workers', Geoana said in a release to AGERPRES.
• He argued that an honest concern for the issue of the exploitation of the workers from the less wealthy European Union members should prompt legal measures likely to improve the treatment applied the legal migrant workers, rather than Alert Codes bringing about hysteria in a European people already sufficiently ?on alert’ by the rightist extremists’ provocations.
• he announced he would send a letter to the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Laszlo Andor and Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding urging them to take a public stand on this matter.
• 'If the more developed European states accept the advantages of a European Union member's status and can, for example, freely export goods to Romania with no customs taxes, it is but fair and in line with the rules of the EU game to also accept and protect the free movement of the workforce and protect the rights of the legally-working European citizens by all the means offered by the national and European regulations', Geoana underscored.

LE: Don't forget that the Dutch and others offer a superb answer to the Romanian embouteillage / traffic congestion. We’re just not that evolved yet.

The “exploitation” meme has made it even to Slovakia.

What is Romania to do? Nothing immediately. Just grow. Which takes us to the next article.

Sources / More info: bl-schengen, tumblr-neth, bsanna-geoana, geoana-nope

zamo, dezbatere, netherlands, dutch, holland, olanda, tarile de jos, calvinism, calvinist conspiracy, schengen, debate, debating club, vivi-an, antiziganism (Tags)