moved away!

We move away! This blog is to be continued at

http://www.scicha.org/blog

see you there!

Murder in amsterdam... is it really about the limits of tolerance?

For all allochtonen that care about politics, the last book of Ian Buruma is a must. And probably for dutchies too!

Buruma, as any other expat, follows the developments in his country. No surprise that he finds them shocking. How comes that the hypertolerant Netherlands has become a country that denies her glories as multicultural paradise, in such an extreme way to get politicians killed? Or ejected, in a political power play, from the country? That question, predating most of the book, is very relevant. Here in NL we might think that the integration and immigration debate is gone from the politics (as election programs have it), but in europe the issue is alive and kicking, so it will be alive, and kicking in NL for quite a while.

My concern is hat actually the book is not so much about “the limits of tolerance”, as its subtitle has it , but rather about the ways in which the world has a direct, and powerful, influence in NL politics. Two of the most poignant analysis of Buruma are about Mohammed B and about Irsi Ali. He spend great prose thinking about these two characters of our ongoing multicultural drama.

And if you think about it, both characters are telling us that the world matters right here and right now. Take Irsi Ali. The very bogus asilum seeker, (as she describes herself, and not for her faking a name) seems to have imported her political concerns into dutch politics. Her war does not seem to be the emancipation of (muslim) women. Buruma vividly describes a chat that keep Ali busy for a little while with muslim women, and her haughty dismissal of them. The war of Ali is rather bigger, about the way islam threatens her own view of the enlightenment. If you don't believe it, just take a look at her current job.

Or think about Mohammed B. Surely he -rather dramatically- illustrate the process of alienation that our underclass of economical and social outsiders can (or is) going through.. But the alienation of Bouyeri is well connected with the broader world. Buruma clearly illustrates the naivety of some thinkers that hope for the solution of the palestina, or iraqui questions, so that the islam question might disappear as well. That is not the case. But, perhaps more relevant for european politics... would Bouyeri has gone that far, without internet videos of beheading in the middle east? Would the anger of the young muslim, living excluded in europe today, drive him to a terrorist cell, if Al Qaida would not be the PR success that it is?

So in my view, Buruma's book belongs better to the row of books that today attack, or praise, globalization. Luckily the writer is smart enough not to have subtitled it “the world is indeed flat” as Friedman did with his. But Buruma is not talking about what we call tolerance... he is talking about the tolerance of our societies to the politics beyond the damns. Quite a exciting issue, and if not convinced, think about the PvdA and her turks. But ok, that might be the issue for another column.

looking away from migrants

A Guardian journalist remind us the accepted scientific knowledge that the pollution in the West is the main culprit on the drought in the Sahel region. Such a statement does not come as a surprise, I believe, to the readers of this page. More interesting is that in the same article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1860299,00.html) is discussed a proposal to reduce the greenhouse effect. Another scientist has recently proposed to shoot into the atmosphere certain chemicals, able to reduce the darkening of our skies. Nice and dandy, besides the detail that those chemicals are the same pollutants that caused the droughts in the Sahel. So another neat example of looking away. Let's deal with the greenhouse effect, which scare the wits out of our western populations (certainly after the hyped movie “the day after”), but let's look away from the consequences of our solution in other, less sexy, parts of the world.

Consider another stance of western-people-saving-the-world. For any reader of spanish newspapers, the drama of african migration is a day to day affair. I hardly remember a day in the last year in which I have not find in a spanish newspaper the body count of arrivals at the beach-heads of globalized flows of people. In the last months -finally- the media catch up with the fact that every day, the coasts from spain are arrival points of every kind of boat crammed with people flying from africa and intending to start again in europe. A real flow of people, that suddenly, could not be integrated any longer. It looks like europe does not need, after all, so much cheap labour. So we have got, in the last weeks, different spanish ministers doing the european tour of asking for support to stave the rising tide. Already couple of months ago, the sexy government of Zapatero trumpeted the agreement of the EU to supply helicopters, newer boats and money to the coasts guards of spain. It did look very much like fortress europa.

But for good or for bad, that europa -oh so hugely concerned with the migrant question- has turned her back to this issue as well. The headlines of today tell me that the EU has refused funding for the defence of the spanish front. No new helicopters, no fast boats, no money for welcome –or deporting- centres. It is really hard to imagine what is really going on. How comes that the fearful europa is going to left undefended the front? How comes that the governments -of say The Netherlands- are looking away from the reaching-for-money hand of Zapatero?

Probably it all boils down to crass budget policy. Probably the EU has not yet designed a budget instance called something alike “fund for the fighting of unasked migration”. So there is no money in the purse of Brussels bureaucrats for paying a fleet of boats rescuing the hundreds of persons floating away miserably, in their attempt to reach the beaches of europe. Probably, now that we are in the warming up of an electoral year, in due time those funds are going to be released, and less barbaric and more reasonable support will be given to the coastguards.

But now, xenophobic europa is looking away. And the african europhiles go on dying in the sea.

Fires

The jungle at the south of Venezuela exerts the fascination of the unknown. As a venezuelan child, right after reading “the lost world”, with dinosaurs still alive and mountains made of diamonds, you are told that the places described lie right at the south of your country. So you want to go there. Later on, when you are about to give away the hope of seeing weird animals from long gone times, you realize that perhaps not dinosaurs, but surely unknown plants and insects. A field biologist trip to those forests will give you fame and adventure. So as a student of biology, you still want to go.

Well, it was around 1988, and I could register for an expedition organized by the climber's club of my university. I was already frustrated with studying physics, and indeed, after that travel I switch to biology. The travel itself was a disaster. I was in the group that supported the climber team, and we were made to carry backpacks of thirty some kilos, meanwhile hacking our way into the jungle with machetes. We run out of food, and expend two weeks more than planned walking, aiming at a wall that every day seemed to grow further away. As I say, I could not have imagined a better trip.

Today, one reportage of the Spanish newspaper “El Pais” made me remember the starting days of that hike. Before getting into the rain forest, we have to walk some forty kilometres in the savannah. It was a hell of a hike, but we ended it. Actually, in the many stops that we have to make to rest, the almost pristine savannah showed burned patches. We were told that few years ago, the inhabitants of the region had started a series of protests again a governmental ban on tourism. The people there worked as guides and porters of the few hikers that would arrive, and the ban coming from the capital (more than two thousand kilometres away) could deprive the region from its main income. So the people burned the place. As simple as that. The local law enforcement, perhaps remembering the science fiction best-seller Dune (the one that controls a resource is the one that can destroy it) acknowledge the treat, and restore the tourist flow. The savannah, nevertheless, stayed burned for the years to come. Ecosystems do not really recover after human crimes.

Now, I read in El Pais that the record season of fires in Galicia, a spanish province heavily burned the past weeks, had a social background. Different social workers, researchers and politicians of the region agree: the fires started as a protest.

Differently than in Venezuela, though, the reasons of the protest are less clear. There haven't been a ban on tourism, for example. Neither there is an identifiable movements behind the action. One university professor, though, believes that fires increase when left wing governments take power. The reasoning is that the right wing activist like to show he incompetence of the current government, and then produce the fire to expose them. Be this true or not, the agreement exists: people burn because they are upset.

In the table that I am using now there is a candle burning. I stare at the flame, the warmth light that transform my morning café into the intimate and personal location that I like so much. I imagine then the same flame, expanding on the forests of Spain, I imagine the trees going away in a flash of ashes. In the years to come I'll visit Spain again, and probably I'll walk in Galicia. I will stare at the burned places.

Once more, I won't be able to understand.

Time to look away, again

One day of ceasefire, and we can look away. Time to turn our attention to more pressing matters. Talk about the politics of your own country, another book, the last film.

Nevertheless, from the first pages of most newspapers today, it does strike me the multitude that is facing the horror. I stare, almost in disbelieve at the procession of cars that go back home, to their home in Lebanon.

In one way or another those masses today remind me the few photos that I, as southamerican, have been able to see in museums. The photos of germans after the carpet bombings of Berlin, the photos of Warsaw totally destroyed after the bulldozers of the the nazi army. Photos that almost always fail to give me any inkling into the people there, in the paper. How could you go back to that? What are you going to do?

Well, actually I am not being very fair. It looks like Unifil is getting some reinforcement, and a part of the west will not be looking away. In the months to come we'll see again, if the international press allow us, blue helmets in between the ruins. Those young soldiers from other universes that will come and patrol, that will try to give some feeling of security to the ones that, right now, are waiting patiently in a car to move another meter, just another meter... and eventually discover if home is still there, or there will be the time, again, of building the walls, the roof.

Normally, when in other columns that I have written I get to this moment, it's time to reveal my own position, say my ideological or pragmatical evaluation of the facts so exposed. It will be so nice if I could do that now. Imagine that i could craft some sentences about the government of Israel, of Lebanon, of Iran. Some few sentences that could allow my conscience to look away again, my role of commentator of international politics fulfilled. Alas, that is not the case. At least for me, is still time of not look away. The drama of our century keeps on unfolding itself in the east. I can only go on looking, with the encountered feelings of the politically responsible citizen and the voyeur. The katiushkas did not fall in Utrecht, nor were all inhabitants of Caracas removed and send away to give place to other newcomers. We in the west are foreigners to the tragedy of the east. But we can look at it.

Back to basics

Timothy Garton Ash today in the Guardian goes back, perhaps boringly, to the final photo of the world football cup, France 2000. The hands of the winning team were certainly colourful, and the success of France seemed to be the success of a multicultural team. Well, Europe has gone a long way from that moment. It was the same year in which I happily decided to live in The Netherlands, by then the most tolerant and multicultural country that I could spot in Europe. Wow, was I wrong. Six years, crashing planes, bombs in the tube, Afghanistan and Iraq abroad, meanwhile here in NL two murders and lots of right wing populism have changed the panorama in ways that might have seem impossible to the naïve migrant that I was. The elections following 2000 have bring to power all sort of conservative governments in the region, and politicians from all colours have gravely or hysterically talked about the multicultural drama, have done all sorts of foreigner bashing, have passed law aiming at reduce or simply eliminate immigration. Europe today looks very much like the scary fortress. But still, today guys like Garton Ash talk about the need of an inclusive society. In his words, the french national football team is the unique french instance that represent the multicultural real population of france today. He does not go as far as to predict (or desire, after all he is english) that they will win the world cup, but the plea in his lines to repeat the inclusiveness of football in other french institutions is clear enough.

Now, thinking again in The Netherlands, and being member of the green party, one might think that the migration issue is clear and well defined by my co-religionists. One might guess that we being the opposite pole of the right wing populism in power today, and having a tradition of considering multiculturalism as a fundamental value of Europe, one or two clicks into the websites of our party will arrive to clear cut positions, supporting inclusive policies, more migration instead of less and strong programs of migrant support. Sadly, that guess will be wrong. European greens have been cornered, as many other progressive movements in european societies today. It seems that the image of the retrograde imam calling for suicide missions from a state-subsidized mosque, or the 70+ first generation immigrants that still does not talk dutch, has dulled our ideas, or scared our principles away. So instead of call for the advantages of open societies and inclusive labour policies, we are mired in nuanced statements about the relevance of cultural integration, the need to control migration flows (as if three thousands years of european history would have taught nothing) and in general, a general, sympathetic, but ultimately inconclusive call for emancipation.

Coming back to Garton Ash, he did some fast field research in the banlieus from Paris. A single message seems to surface. Migrants, dispossessed migrants, are not waiting for nice, intellectuals and nuanced political positions. One word, perhaps difficult to understand for the emancipated middle class european of today repeats in the mouths of the migrant. Respect. A society that includes percentages always higher that ten percent, and increasing, of migrants, must for once and for all, consider what they are asking for. And this is not more state support, more subsidies, or better integration courses. It is simple respect. Politicians of europe, progressive politicians of europe must understand that the last years of Bush, war against terror and clash of civilizations have only brought distrust to the migrant. And as any other human being, migrants do want to feel respected. There is an increasing need of a political message that besides all the needed nuances, get across a simple line. Migrants are a fundamental part of europe today. And they deserve respect. They must be talking partners and the rest of the society, for a change, must hear.

So if we keep any desire to remain true to our cosmopolitan ideas, lets start at home. The world, as always, is moving to Europe. Shall we take seriously the ones that already arrived? Shall we go back to our basic ideas of democracy and hear the people that we aim to represent?

UFOs

Being a science fiction fan, one of the worst communication problems that I have ever faced is to explain to my friends that 1) I am not a nerd, plus: 2) I am indeed 37 years old, and 3) Points 1 and 2 does not prevent me from being (still) a science fiction fan. No matter the difficulty because today's press have so many UFO's around, that I might as well try to mention some of them and make my friends see why scifi is still a great thing to read about.

Let's start at england. I always thought that aliens stopped to visit england few years after they were done with stonehenge, since nothing remotely romantic or bizarre happens in those murky skies, and if it would, nobody would see it anyway. Actually, I seem to be right. Pushed by an activist (probably a scifi fan and politically active guy, just like me, wow) the Ministery of Defence is due to make public her own report on UFO's, carried on by years and years of research. And pounds. So yes, Tony could afford in the past to let his minister spend time in these sort of issues, probably to keep them sharp when the detection of weapons of mass destruction came later. Well, apparently the report did not find any real UFO sighting. Neither WMD were reported as real. And given the believe of Blair's in the big bombs inside Saddam's bunkers, probably he is looking (defiantly? scared?) to the londinense skies.

Now, the previous note I consider string enough to shake the foundations of all of you that thought the scifi was a boring and demode issue, full of saber lasers and green little men. As a matter of fact, as fundamental pieces of scifi such as the sagas of Dune or the Foundations show, scifi can be a excuse to present, in a bizarre set up, philosophical or sociological disquisitions. Not to mention political ones, with Farenheit 451 at the head of a long list. And talking about bizarre political scenarios, all of you willing or able to open El Pais in the past days will see another UFO hovering the streets of Madrid. The Thyssen baroness is in the streets, fighting for the trees of her museum. The point here is that a urban renewal plan coming from the city mayor office aims to clear up the street leading to the Thyssen museum from trees. Some of those trees are simply huge, so no surprise that citizens oppose the plan. What is a real case of an UFO for me is to imagine the baroness to fulfill her promise of chain herself to one of the green giants. Just imagine her impeccable ivory linen suits and her XX shoes associated to a plebeian chain. Now, if that is not science fiction, you tell me.

And to end up my report of european celebrities going scifi fans (or simply nuts) I go back to the preferred exportation product of multicultural nederlands, Hirsi Ali that is. Our most famous asilee (that become in due time the thorn in the side of the rest of the migrants) tackles a fundamental science fiction problem (energy sources), from the pages of several european newspapers. Perhaps a voice shouting in the dessert, Hirsi has discovered that indeed the oil is a big problem, and calls for the use of alternative energy sources. Interestingly enough, Hirsi rejects two of the most populars routes that scifi thinkers follows when focusing on energy. She does not talk about a future a la Mad Max, a dried future earth without oil, nor she goes for the bright future of technological advance in which we would use whatever alternative energy is there. Hirsi rather goes to her well known sources of concern, the islamic radicalism. And, as bright as usual, states that oil is all what supports those terrorists. With her natural flair when writing, her article close with a very original phrasing, that will be more than enough to close my own column. “It's the oil, stupid. If you want to defeat Al Qaeda, drive an hybrid auto”.