Tensions Abroad

WDW received the column below which was written by Matthys van Raalten, a Dutch citizen. It is reprinted with his permission. It is important to understand what is happening in the EU as member nations like Holland are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine for “multiculturalism”.

Tension Abroad by Matthys van Raalten:

The best way to understand what is going on in Europe, is to look at small details. The overall picture can be confusing. An outsider can be deceived easily by the intelligent political moves of its leaders. Just one example: PM Cameron of the UK says he wants a referendum about the European Union. Could this not be just a smart move, in order to stop the rising star of Nigel Farrage?

The real issues in Europe center around two themes: the development of a political union, by critics dubbed “EUSSR” and multiculturalism. Was all the work to liberate Europe just wasted, when the Europeans choose for a big bureaucratic semi-socialist state, ruled from Brussels and Strassbourg? What about the safety and the freedoms? Are the Europeans really going to sell that all by letting millions more Islamic immigrants come over?

Let’s have a look at some relatively small matters, in my home country; the Netherlands.

Last week, I wanted to buy a book with a work of Vondel, the country’s greatest poet. Joost van den Vondel lived from 1587 until 1679. This was an important period in Dutch history, as the country liberated itself from Spain in an eighty-year lasting war. Vondel is to the Dutch, what Shakespeare is to the English-language world, or Goethe to the German speaking world. He is our Ovid, and he also translated beautifully the works of Ovid into Dutch. He also composed plays about, among others, stories from the Bible. He was a devout Christian, without doubt one of our patriarchs. I could only find a single soft-cover book with a work by him in the city center of Amsterdam, in its most famous bookshop. Therefore, I turned to a large second-hand bookshop. They had a couple of writings by his hand, one about Joseph in Dothan for 1 Euro 50 only. Though I could have been happy that I had such a cheap buy, I was sad instead. Is this the fate of my heritage? Aren’t the Dutch people interested in their own cultural heritage any longer? I have been informed by the way, that there is very little in print of Vondel these days, so also in the future we shouldn’t expect the bookshops of Amsterdam to fill their shelves with his jewels.

Now let’s take a look at the Christian parties in Holland. Wilders says he wants to defend the Judeo-Christian foundation of our country. But what are the Christians themselves doing with their foundations? The Dutch political parties CDA (medium-large) and ChristianUnion (medium size) are hardly making a fist against the Left, who have already made abortion and gay marriage the new foundations of the new Dutch culture. Only the very small SGP party seems to be wanting to get back to our real roots, but they can’t make a fist, too small in size.