Study Dutch Fortuyn

I'm catching up on trying to understand the story of assassination of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn thanks to links from [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog].

The suspected shooter was

• Dutch
• White
• 33 years old
• A lawyer
  • I think this is a first for a lawyer to seek to win an arguement this way.
• An Environmental Activist
• An Animal Rights Activist
• All of the above

I am dismayed by the combination of calling An Animal Rights Activist also An Environmental Activist, since I consider those two viewpoints to be mutally exclusive.  I think of An Animal Rights Activist as a person who puts the needs of non-human animals ahead of the needs of humans, while An Environmentalist seeks to balance the needs of all users of an Ecology - the animals, the plants, human economy.

I favor:

• A good balanced environment;
• A strong human economy;
• A strong national defense;
• Constitutionally protected Civil Liberties;
• Generosity of spirit to our neighbors.
• I do not consider these values to be mutually exclusive.
• I am dismayed at the growth in people believing that this is multiple choice with only one right answer.

Pim Fortuyn was quoted as criticising Islamic clergy immigrants for using offensive language against gays in his country, and trying to impose customs on women that are contrary to Dutch culture.  These statements were distorted by his political opposition, then the distortions were widely repeated in foreign media (USA, Britain) as evidence that Pim Fortuyn was a racist.

In my opinion:

• Racism is when you paint a people as evil or inferior.
• It is not neccessarily racism to paint a behavior of some of a people as inappropriate.
• For example, we can be supportive of the rights of Jews, but disagree with the policies of Israel, without being anti-semitic.

The USA and the Netherlands have some distinct differences.

• Legality of Pornography
• Legality of Euthanasia
• Legality of various Drugs
  • major European producer of amphetamine and other synthetic drugs; important gateway for cocaine, heroin, and hashish entering Europe; major source of US-bound ecstasy
• Sexual freedoms

It might be useful to review what various reference works have to say about the Netherlands

• The Library of USA Congress on The Netherlands
• World Factbook of USA's CIA on The Netherlands

The USA and the Netherlands have a lot in common.

• We live in a secular nation for which:
  • Women and men have equal rights under the law;
  • Gay and straight are also both legal.
    • In the USA straight have more rights than gay.

People immigrate

• from cultures with different values.
  • We sometimes see behaviors by many generations removed from the original immigrants, whose children's children exhibit the same problem.
• Some immigrants fail to realize what's different, or
• they cannot easily adapt, breaking habits of not behaving equally towards:
  • Women and Men
  • Gay and Straight
  • All Religions
  • All ethnic and racial backgrounds
• imposing their old country's culture, on their adopted nation, when the old culture is not wanted here.
  • This can lead to such immigrants being unwelcome.
• When enough make the same mistakes in their new country,
  • this fuels stereotypes.
• Now I think the problem here is in the process of education of immigrants for assimilation into the new nation.  It may be a mistake for Asians to be educating Asians, Arabs to be educating Arabs, Christians to be educating Christians, etc. since this increases the risk of the Blind leading the Blind, people with cultural misconceptions about their new homeland passing on those same misconceptions to future generations of immigrants.

[Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog] quotes [Andrew Sullivan] that Pim Fortuyn was a gay man who felt threatened by incursions of Islam.

[Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog] quotes [Michael Grove] and [Andrew Sullivan] that Pim Fortuyn advocated:

• Dutch Libertarianism
• Laxer rules on Euthanasia
• Greater Liberalization of Drugs
• Tax Cuts
• More use of private sector in health care

[Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog] says Pim Fortuyn  never called for any changes to immigration policy.  What he did do, was start a public debate about immigration and standard of living in the Netherlands, which is the second most densely populated country in the world.  Pim Fortuyn was a student of JFK. This quote seems appropriate.

Last update: 08/25/2002; 2:27:14 AM.