Re: Ilse, my condolences..

Name    : 
E-Mail  : 
Subject : 

Comments:
: : Hi Elaine,

: : Good to hear from you!

: >>>>> And you!

: : : Incredibly stunned, you must be, Ilse. And didn't you have an entire cabinet resignation over Dutch-UN Bosnia/Serbia *problems* recently? 
: : ---
: : Yes, that's right. Following a highly critical report from our War Research Institute on the Dutch-UN peacekeeping mission in 1995 that turned into such a complete disaster. Our Prime Minister decided to resign as a result and the rest of the cabinet followed suit. They are still on as "caretakers" until the elections coming week.
: : ---

: >>>>> Have you ever seen "No Man's Land"? You might enjoy this.

: : Other than shock, what is the Dutch "street" reaction? In what ways do you see life in the Netherlands changing? 
: : ---
: : Well, in the campaign for this year's elections lots of discontent among voters has surfaced. Many people feel not being taken seriously in our democracy, feel that Holland is messed up and that there is a lot of unsafety in our streets. In my opinion, this is more fiction in their heads than a reflexion of the actual situation. 

: >>>>>> Is Holland undergoing a populist revolution? Is this a 'too much freedom' reaction?

: This discontent is being used by certain groups to push a somewhat questionable agenda. Of course, the assassination of their political spokesman adds a lot of fuel to their anger. I think, our traditional values like hospitality, tolerance and openness are under threat right now.

: >>>>>> Isn't this happening all over Europe? It seems the recent French elections had a bit of backlash to it. Spain has certainly  moved to a more conservative political camp (and they've really engaged themselves in investing in S American economies). How much of these political changes, as a European, do you believe have grown due to the September 11 tragedy? It's all very interesting to me.

: 
: : A direct result of the assassination will probably be that our politicians will be much less approachable than previous. Here politicians never needed protection, often travelled by public transportation and always were very accessible to the public. That's all different now.

: >>>>> I can imagine how radical this is for the Dutch, and though it's far from common in the US, it remains a way of life in many countries. Political assassinations are fairly regular (as are assassinations of clergy).

: : : Political assasinations in France ... French primary upset ("What did we do?!!!") ... Palestine ... Afghanistan ... SUDAN (wish the world would wake up to that one/hundreds and hundreds of Sudanese refugees living in NC now) ... Germany ... South America (A coup recall????) ... Iraq (southern marshes, northern Kurds - a great human tragedy in play) ... India ...
: : : Nothing is as it was. The world's in painful, historic convulsions. 
: : ---
: : It's a bit of a depressing thing, reading the online news sources, right?

: >>>>> Yes, in some ways; in other ways, I think humanity is at a crossroads & already we've witnessed incredible changes few of us ever thought we'd witness.

: Waht-ah-war!

: E

: PS Check out the World Link TV URL I posted to Bea. I believe you'll find it very interesting.


Optional Link URL:  
Link Title:         
Optional Image URL: