Christmas thoughts
by
Marcel Van Silfhout |
Dutch queen’s royal wish is straight from the heart
One of the funniest Christmas-quotes was delivered to us by a tweet from the rightwing politician Geert Wilders: “My goodness, has our Majesty, on the sly, become member of the green party?” he twittered.
It’s not the first time Wilders has tried to ridicule the Dutch queen Beatrix on her traditional Christmas speech. Since 2007, when the queen for the first time spoke some political lines that most seemingly were addressed against populist rightwing Wilders-like sentiments, the populist provocateur reacted negatively to her speech. The real funny thing is that not the populist Wilders, but the elitist queen understands the spirit of time.
Year after year it’s as if the Dutch queen is speaking my lines during Christmas time. In 2007 she, against all odds, warned of a negative atmosphere and ugly prejudices towards immigrants. She pleaded for better understanding, mutual respect and tolerance.
Wilders reacted very angrily on her Christmas speech in that year blaming her for ‘speaking multi-culti nonsense.’ He even said that the Dutch queen had to leave government.
This time, December 2011, the Dutch queen urged the people of The Netherlands to take care of the planet, the vulnerable condition of nature in particular: “Selfishness and a tendency towards excesses are blinding us to the damage to our natural environment, this is undermining communities.” She quoted the former famous Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi adequately: “Earth provides enough to satisfy man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”
It’s intriguing to see that the Dutch queen, in the midst of a severe economical crisis, dare’s to speak about the importance of sustainability. “The earth, which feeds life, cannot speak for itself, therefore it needs a voice that should be heard in all minor and major decisions,” she added.
Wilders thinks he has a point when he proclaims that the Dutch queen secretly speaks for the leftwing green party (GroenLinks) in The Netherlands. In fact she said something that isn’t right or left. The matter of taking care of the future of the planet is a basic matter in integrity and good governance. Queen Beatrix is right when she claims that what the earth gives to all of us, is badly shared. Literally, she said: “Poverty and inequality erodes a liveable society and forms a threat to solidarity.”
It’s true, these words can’t be termed as neo-liberal and yes, they might have a left-wing connotation. But in the end, it’s exactly what people fear the most: a world out of balance, a vanishing solidarity and possible violent clashes between the haves and the have-nots. The musings of the Dutch queen are echoing the worries of the masses, from the African and Middle East social unrest, to civil western occupy-movements.
Actually, Wilders is the one and only guy in the room who is complaining about the queen’s speech. Other MP’s reacted very positively and regarded her carefully chosen call for sustainability as a ‘central theme.’ So, the right question for now is: will the far-right leader Wilders, at last, isolate himself?
It’s remarkable that Wilders gives his reactions always by using the popular micro-blogging service Twitter; a maximum of 140 characters at a time. The number of interviews he gave to journalists in the last year cannot even be counted on one’s fingers! It’s quite bizarre, when one considers the powerful position he has by tolerating a rightwing minority cabinet in Holland.
Perhaps Wilders should give his version of a Christmas-speech? Most probably it will be a dark, rightwing version of the freaky ‘ideology’ of psycho-killer Anders Behring Breivik in Norway. Let this be an invitation to Wilders to send us his Christmas-message. Hopefully I and many more people in The Netherlands will be pleasantly surprised by some wise words, full of love and understanding. As said before, hope is always the last thing to die. I’m all ears. But I’m afraid the words spoken by the queen last year at Christmas time have to be addressed once more. Here they are: “By directing us on a joint perspective, we can try to overcome fear and mistrust, and find a good balance between ‘us’ and ‘them’.’ Hear, hear…. a royal wish straight from the heart. Please: RT (Retweet)!
Oman Tribune |
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