Occidentaux ou pas °

En ce moment, je suis assez actif pour la campagne électorale. J'ai décidé de laisser tomber la campagne officielle, vu la façon dont j'ai été traité par le parti travailliste. Je suis en train d'essayer de mobiliser les 'allochtones' du quartier, et si possible les inciter à voter pour moi. Mais bon, déjà s'ils vont voter tout court ce sera une victoire.
Hier j'étais à Bos en Lommer pour une discussion avec des habitants d'origine marocaine, turque, et même anglaise. Il a beaucoup été question de discrimination, d'insultes xénophobes, d'ethnocentrisme. Le pauvre mec du VVD s'en est pris plein les dents. La façon qu'il avait de nous dire "vous autres" m'a beaucoup rappelé le "you people" que les blancs utilisent vis-à-vis des noirs aux Etats-Unis.
Par ailleurs, je suis retourné sur les forums d'expats (http://www.expatica.com/ en particulier) pour essayer de voir comment les mobiliser. Il y en a beaucoup qui râlent et m'ont stigmatisé pour essayer de faire changer les choses, mais finalement on en revient au même point: certains ont des droits spéciaux du fait de leur naissance (les Néerlandais de souche), et les autres doivent "mériter". Le problème c'est qu'on ne mérite jamais assez, et que les règles du mérite changent toujours.
Si c'est déjà difficile pour les Occidentaux non-néerlandais, imaginez pour les autres!

Quelques citations prises ça et là:
(à propos du cours d'inburgering) Exactly! Just my experience, but I know lots of people (almost all my expat friends, myself included), who wanted to learn the language, when they first came here. They manage to learn a little, but after a while they just feel like it does not worth the effort to continue. I am here long enough to see people coming enthousiastic about the new culture/language. These are expats mind you, most of them are already coming from a country where they were already expats. So it's not their first time in a new culture neither last. And they really are enthousiastic. They always listen with caution what others have to say about Dutch-land. They were succesful in their former expat-land that they just don't believe they would not be able to integrate here as well. Well see them after 1-2 years. They are very dissapointed and want to leave as soon as possible. This trend repeats itself over and over with the newcomers. It is a deja vu, with every new young/old/single/couple...
I looked forward to it until it was sold to me as something I "have" to do rather than an opportunity. When they shoved me into an inappropriate class for my level, I complained, and the attitude was that I had no right to "choose" my class, nor any ability to determine my learning needs (even as a 44-year-old with a teaching degree). How dare I!I won in the end, but they felt compelled to send me a letter stating that a new class was found for me, and I better show up to this one "or else!" Even my gemeente contact felt compelled to apologize for the harsh tone of the form letter!Let's face it, laurent; if we want to live here, for whatever reason, we have to "earn" the right.
Nationality by land or nationality by blood. I think this is the culture difference between two lands.I am repeating myslef, but my BF's cousin and his children are very good examples. If they were here, those children wouldn't feel Dutch at all. They are born in France, and although their father is Turkish in origin, they feel themselves French and they never feel excluded be it in school or in the neighborhood. They are already integrated, and they are not reminded every single day that they are different, that they should feel different, that even if they don't feel different they should BE different.
But that's the problem! We DO have the right already. Be it through a EU passport, family re-unification (partners), work permit, etc., the right is there. The issue is that the current Dutch goverment would like to see these rights go away or at least, do everything in their power to diminish them.I still wonder why no one went to the European court to challenge the inbuggering.