LOG 11.11.07 [EN] Belgium and Occidentalism plus Integration

Belgium and it's surrealistic Politics

I kept my promise today: The Belgian analysis from Toto Le Psycho  in French, was published in a Dutch translation on De Lage Landen  and on In Europa Thuis. I am not soft on the Flemish opportunism re Belgium and re - Brussels. The more I think about it, the more I see a typical politician's short-sighted way of dealing with a delicate problem. In spite of my admiration for the artistic ways in which the problem was moved out of the scope of the future government, I worry about the fate of my new adopted hometown, Brussels, that figures as the victim of an overdose of politician's compromises.

Occidentalism as a counterpart to Orientalism: The relativity of Enlightenment

Occidentialism, by Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit, kept me busy during a good part of the day. An intelligent analysis of the new religious extremism, put into perspective through former upsurges of that kind by the Japanese, the Indians and the Nazis, as well as Stalin. Essentially, the book is three essays, respectively on the hate of the modern city, of commerce and of the Mind of the West (if any). The reasoning underlines Olivier Roy's analysis of todays Muslim extremism as a product of occidentalisation.  The equally very essayistic treatment of the Dialectics of Enlightenment by Horkheimer and Adorno (1943) shows, that (Christian) religiosity was a reaction to the Enlightenment of classic times (see also my review of  Paul Veyne's Quand le monde devenait chrétien, here). Consequently, the renaissance and, from the 18th Century, the "second" Enlightenment were in a dialectic sequence, reactions against religiosity, which, in turn, was followed by early 19th century Restauration and disciplining of the people into churches of a new kind, catholic and protestant alike. The late 19th century reaction to this, culminating in Nietzsches prophecies, were submerged in 20th century European utopian reactions, celebrating "people", nation" and, actually in the US: "Family".

The burden of integration rests on the West

Reducing Bin Laden's actions to a desperate answer to Western (or conceived as Western) imperialism ("Globalism"), is very useful and ...: enlightening. Western arrogance provokes, as I saw myself in non-Western countries, a huge amount of frustration and desperate efforts to escape it. There is no Muslim specificity in that. Japanese, Chinese, Bolshevicks and nazis acted the same way. Buruma and Margalit are convincing on that issue.

If they are right, as I believe, the burden of delivering the necessary changes in behavior, rests principally on Western shoulders. "Integration" is a two-way process. Those who have the upper hand, should start it. A diffiocult task, that our politicians are not eager to take up...

LOG 9.11.07 [EN] Gadgets, Belgian Tolerance, Justice and Surrealism.

I enjoy my new gadgets: The TomTom GPRS localisator for tavelling by car. It guided me for 6.000 Kilometres from Brussels to Istanbul and back via former Yugoslavia, Austria, Poland and Germany. This Log is typed on a new Acer Notebook, that replaces the one that was stolen from me on June 11. While I was composing my first Pepperdine evaluation, and denouncing systematic xenophobia as it was developed by Steyn, Hirsi Ali and Pipes, a randomly stealing band of three Moroccan youths from the Brussels Molenbeek community broke into the lower stocks of my house and got away with the computer, before I could halt them.  Thanks to my registering the number plate of their car, they were apprehended by the Brussels police and their judgment is upcoming, but delayed by the workload of Brussels justice.

As you may have seen, I was not converted to xenophobia by that event. I contributed as much as I could to their future condemnation, as I would have done with any burglar, who breaks into my house. But their origins (or that of their parents) are no issue to me. I have no big trust in police and justice, but in a case like this, I think, you have to work with them and help to get an equitable result.

I feel, that I share this attitude with a majority of my new Belgian compatriots. Last month, the guy who shot randomly foreigners in the centre of the city of Antwerp, killing an African woman and the (white) child she was tending and gravely wounding a woman of Turkish origin, who was reading a book on a park bench, was condemned to life. The boy acted under influence of the racist rambles of the likes of the Vlaams Belang xenophobic party. His avowed racist motives were an aggravating element to the Jury. It was, overall, a worthy and dignified event. No revenge. Only questioning, why, o why, somebody does things like that. As long as we do not condemn Flemish nationalist youth as a group, because of their leanings to violent xenophobia, we should not condemn Moroccans as a group, only because they are foreigners and act out of frustration. But individuals who indulge into crime, have to be judged, and racism is in fact an aggravating motive.

Philip Dewinter, the VB leader, days after the Antwerp shootings in congress with his party (October 2006), lamented that his movement was associated with those facts and stressed, that he had been seeing the parents of the shot child "without inviting the press, anonymously, with his spouse". I was disappointed by the press comments here in Belgium, who neglected to note, that Dewinter had NOT been seeing the family of the African woman, nor the kinship of the Turkish one. As usual, Dewinter was saying the "right" words, but omitting  the visits to the immigrant victims, he was showing to his followers, that he only regretted the excessivity of the boy's acts, but not their xenophobic motives.

It has been a Belgian day, today. In Toto Le Psycho and in L'Europe Chez Soi I commented (in French) the Belgian crisis (Belgique Surréaliste: Diviser pour vivre ensemble...) The "crisis" is very overstated. In this surrealist country, the State is instrumentalised for political games. Subtle games, that result in very Belgian compromissions. All this, thanks to the fact, that Belgium is since long only a symbolic state, a state without nation, plaything for the politicians, and as much as possible avoided by the Belgian citizens. A Dutch translation will be published in De Lage landen and In Europa Thuis.

LOG 7.11.07 [EN] Dutch Courage and Uruzgan

Today (6.11.07) I added a call to support the "een land een samenleving" movement in Holland to my blogs De Lage Landen and In Europa Thuis. With former Groen Links deputy Mohammed Rabbae and former Liberal conservative party leader Hans Dijkstal as presidents, it is a rather weak institution, but they have had the courage to counter prevailing xenophobia in the country. So God bless them, please.

A more extensive post about Uruzgan was also added to those blogs. The myth about a supposed Dutch "soft" approach to Afghan resistance was definitively crushed by a French report about casualties and refugees on October 31 in Libération daily. An article in the Dutch NRC, reporting Australian refusal to participate in a Dutch operation against supposed Taliban attacks, illustrates the transition from "development aid" to full participation in the US policy of counterterrorism attacks in the region of Uruzgan. 

Our Watchblog Islamophobie action [DE] takes shape in an organisation that has been founded in the Kiel assembly of its contributors. I am a member of its standing committee. Yesterday, BigBerta put my attention to the meeting in Brussels (Counter-Jihad) that was organised by Debie of the Vlaams Belang and that brought together the Littman couple, Arnaud Dotezac and Dutch TV commenter Professor Hans Jansen (picture) with Philip Dewinter. They are actively networking. A reply is necessary. It is coming up. More in At Home in Europe, tomorrow.

Coming up: An e-urban evaluation of the INTA/Aydin conference in Istanbul; a reassession of Srebrenica after my visit there; and a review of books on Enlightenment.

 I am doing fine, thank you.

Balkan: New Photos [EFDN]

 

::EN:: I added a new Images Page (Recent Travel Photos). A Flickr selection of full-size photos from my Balkan journey  in October 2007 is featured there, driven by Pictobrowser.  A link to the complete album in Google-Picasa is on the Images Overview page. Access under the Images tab in the Sidebar.

::FR:: Une nouvelle Page de Photos a été ajoutée (Recent Travel Photos). Une sélection Flickr de mes photos de mon voyage aux Balkans en octobre 2007 y est montrée, à consulter à moyen d'un superbe Pictobrowser. Un lien vers l'album complet chez Google-Picasa se trouve sur la page Images Overview. À atteindre par la rubrique IMAGES dans la barre latérale.

::DE:: Es gibt ab heute eine neue Photoseite im Huibslog (Recent Travel Photos). Eine "Flickr" Auswahl der Balkanreise Photos (Oktober 2007) steht dort in einem schönen Pictobrowser. Das ganze Album kann man sehen bei Google-Picasa mittels einem Link auf der Images Overview Seite. Zugang zu allen Bildern in der IMAGES Rubrik in der Seitenspalte.

::NL:: Vanaf heden een nieuwe fotopagina in huibslog (Recent Travel Photos). Hier vind je een Flickr-selectie van mijn Balkanreis-fotos (october 2007), mooi gepresenteerd in een PictoBrowser. Het hele Balkanreisalbum kan worden geraadpleegd by Google-Picasa. Link op de Images Overview pagina. Toegang tot alle beeldmateriaal via de IMAGES rubriek in de zijkolom.