The identifiable enemy for the fight for equality.
To fat to be in the guard of honour. In other words; How the fight for freedom and equality was lost.
Complaining TV viewers have succeeded in ensuring that people with a substantial figure can no longer take part in the guard of honour on the Waalsdorpervlakte, one of the most important Dutch war memorial sites where more than 250 people have been executed by the Nazis. Around the monument on May 4, there is a guard of honour of volunteers of the “Association Erepeloton Waalsdorp”, some of them being children and grandchildren of the victims.
The chairwoman of the association stated: “A number of members of the guard of honour are starting to get a substantial posture, at least for this function. There are regularly annoying comments and complaints about it. In order to prevent this, we will have to give people who are to fat a different task”.
According to the explanation, the association thinks that fat people "do not look good" and that's why some of them have been removed from the watch. One of them, who paid homage to the war victims for six years now, has been told that he should do something else around the memorial service, maybe just help in the catering.
Now, of course, there are laws in the Netherlands, even after decades of right-wing attempts to diminished civil and human rights as much as possible. Discrimination is simply against constitutional laws, but it’s a sign of the times that even an association that commemorates our war heroes and victims, puts people with a thicker belly in a category of “not normal” and not suitable for being a member of the guard of honour. 'What will be the next step? People, who have a harelip? The organisation claims that there were dozens of complaints, and it would be "wrong when you do not listen to it".
For years, the Dutch National broadcast association (NOS) covered the “Remembrance of the Dead” at the clock on the Waalsdorpervlakte on May 4, after which the commercial TV station RTL took over. Whether that has something to do with it is unclear, but I guess in times when even governments don’t take human equality to serious, there might be some influence of commercial needs to make the whole ceremony more appealing to the beer drinking viewers on the couch in front of the TV. It wouldn’t be a surprise if next year the guard of honour is a line up with cheerleaders in sexy short skirt uniforms.
Some time ago, Radar (a consumer rights television program) revealed that almost half of 78 temporary agency staff, investigated by the program, were willing to participate in racism. Radar revealed that many employment agencies are prepared to discriminate on origin when a client asks for it. “We don’t want any coloured, Muslim or gay personnel” It was not the first time that it was shown that employment agencies discriminated against origin or gender. At the time, D66 (a former “middle of the road” political party) MP Van Weyenberg then said: “I think we need to intervene harder, publish who these companies are!” CDA (a Christian party that obviously doesn’t believe in the separation of State and Church) MP Peters was also for naming and shaming.
But guess what? They are now part of the coalition that runs the country and now Van Weyenberg says: “The problem is “naming and shaming” on the basis of a TV program. That is not what D66 is about”.
Government parties CDA and D66, dealing with the VVD (the biggest party in the Netherlands, protecting the “tax haven rules”, responsible for taking away disabled peoples minimum wages and pensions, sending military personnel to war areas without bullets and protecting the main shareholders of Shell, uniformly known to be the Dutch Royal family), have withdrawn their support for tackling discrimination, while in January, these parties still felt it was high time to call on discriminating temporary employment agencies. It should be noted that no agency has ever been sentenced because it is practically impossible for a non-hired temporary worker to prove that there was discrimination. Other measures against discriminating employment agencies, such as the use of 'mystery guests' in audits by the temporary employment sector itself, were supported by all parties, with the exception of course by the PVV and FvD, for whom discrimination against everybody that isn’t white, heterosexual and Arian, is the main reason for getting voted into the Dutch Parliament.
Five years ago, all these temporary employment agencies promised to investigate and make sure that it would not happen again. The rightwing “the open market will handle it”parties were satisfied, but the interests of employment agencies are simply too big. These interests are represented by very powerful lobbyists in various places in society.
Not only temporary employment agencies are guilty of discrimination on a large scale, but also real estate agents and direct landlords refuse Dutch people with a migrant background when renting out homes. The applications from house hunters with a non-Dutch-sounding name are simply thrown out the pile. Fifty estate agent offices were called throughout the Netherlands during research by journalists, that told the brokers that they were moving abroad and therefore were looking for a tenant for their home. The brokers were asked not to rent to people with a migration background. Of the 50 brokers, only four indicated that they did not cooperate in discriminatory requests.
Minister Kajsa Ollongren, yes, member of the D66 party that shouted the loudest when they were on the parliament benches and now responsible for housing policy, speaks of a “sad” investigation and calls on victims to report discrimination. But of course, as it is a policy for a “liberal” rightwing, she wants the industry itself to act more stringently against the misconduct of the brokers and landlords. “The open market will sort it out”
Whether it’s the inhuman discrimination of people with some bigger body, labeled as not being suitable for standing in the guard of honor, whether it’s discriminating people while finding a job just because they have the wrong name, skin colour or religion, whether it’s throwing out an application form just because the name presumes you are not genuine Dutch... they are all signs of decades of slowly normalizing a “Dutch standard” (white, working, non-disabled, productive and no-question asking citizen) by different gouvernments with one common denominator: The VVD (Association for Freedom and Democracy) political party, firm believers in the “rights of the strongest”, the “hounesty” of big international companies and their lobbyists and, maybe not surprisingly, the political party with the most forced stepped-down ministers and convictions of members for economic crimes. You can already predict their comment on the horrendous discriminating procedures of the Waalsdorp Memorial Committee.. not our business.
Complaining TV viewers have succeeded in ensuring that people with a substantial figure can no longer take part in the guard of honour on the Waalsdorpervlakte, one of the most important Dutch war memorial sites where more than 250 people have been executed by the Nazis. Around the monument on May 4, there is a guard of honour of volunteers of the “Association Erepeloton Waalsdorp”, some of them being children and grandchildren of the victims.
The chairwoman of the association stated: “A number of members of the guard of honour are starting to get a substantial posture, at least for this function. There are regularly annoying comments and complaints about it. In order to prevent this, we will have to give people who are to fat a different task”.
According to the explanation, the association thinks that fat people "do not look good" and that's why some of them have been removed from the watch. One of them, who paid homage to the war victims for six years now, has been told that he should do something else around the memorial service, maybe just help in the catering.
Now, of course, there are laws in the Netherlands, even after decades of right-wing attempts to diminished civil and human rights as much as possible. Discrimination is simply against constitutional laws, but it’s a sign of the times that even an association that commemorates our war heroes and victims, puts people with a thicker belly in a category of “not normal” and not suitable for being a member of the guard of honour. 'What will be the next step? People, who have a harelip? The organisation claims that there were dozens of complaints, and it would be "wrong when you do not listen to it".
For years, the Dutch National broadcast association (NOS) covered the “Remembrance of the Dead” at the clock on the Waalsdorpervlakte on May 4, after which the commercial TV station RTL took over. Whether that has something to do with it is unclear, but I guess in times when even governments don’t take human equality to serious, there might be some influence of commercial needs to make the whole ceremony more appealing to the beer drinking viewers on the couch in front of the TV. It wouldn’t be a surprise if next year the guard of honour is a line up with cheerleaders in sexy short skirt uniforms.
Some time ago, Radar (a consumer rights television program) revealed that almost half of 78 temporary agency staff, investigated by the program, were willing to participate in racism. Radar revealed that many employment agencies are prepared to discriminate on origin when a client asks for it. “We don’t want any coloured, Muslim or gay personnel” It was not the first time that it was shown that employment agencies discriminated against origin or gender. At the time, D66 (a former “middle of the road” political party) MP Van Weyenberg then said: “I think we need to intervene harder, publish who these companies are!” CDA (a Christian party that obviously doesn’t believe in the separation of State and Church) MP Peters was also for naming and shaming.
But guess what? They are now part of the coalition that runs the country and now Van Weyenberg says: “The problem is “naming and shaming” on the basis of a TV program. That is not what D66 is about”.
Government parties CDA and D66, dealing with the VVD (the biggest party in the Netherlands, protecting the “tax haven rules”, responsible for taking away disabled peoples minimum wages and pensions, sending military personnel to war areas without bullets and protecting the main shareholders of Shell, uniformly known to be the Dutch Royal family), have withdrawn their support for tackling discrimination, while in January, these parties still felt it was high time to call on discriminating temporary employment agencies. It should be noted that no agency has ever been sentenced because it is practically impossible for a non-hired temporary worker to prove that there was discrimination. Other measures against discriminating employment agencies, such as the use of 'mystery guests' in audits by the temporary employment sector itself, were supported by all parties, with the exception of course by the PVV and FvD, for whom discrimination against everybody that isn’t white, heterosexual and Arian, is the main reason for getting voted into the Dutch Parliament.
Five years ago, all these temporary employment agencies promised to investigate and make sure that it would not happen again. The rightwing “the open market will handle it”parties were satisfied, but the interests of employment agencies are simply too big. These interests are represented by very powerful lobbyists in various places in society.
Not only temporary employment agencies are guilty of discrimination on a large scale, but also real estate agents and direct landlords refuse Dutch people with a migrant background when renting out homes. The applications from house hunters with a non-Dutch-sounding name are simply thrown out the pile. Fifty estate agent offices were called throughout the Netherlands during research by journalists, that told the brokers that they were moving abroad and therefore were looking for a tenant for their home. The brokers were asked not to rent to people with a migration background. Of the 50 brokers, only four indicated that they did not cooperate in discriminatory requests.
Minister Kajsa Ollongren, yes, member of the D66 party that shouted the loudest when they were on the parliament benches and now responsible for housing policy, speaks of a “sad” investigation and calls on victims to report discrimination. But of course, as it is a policy for a “liberal” rightwing, she wants the industry itself to act more stringently against the misconduct of the brokers and landlords. “The open market will sort it out”
Whether it’s the inhuman discrimination of people with some bigger body, labeled as not being suitable for standing in the guard of honor, whether it’s discriminating people while finding a job just because they have the wrong name, skin colour or religion, whether it’s throwing out an application form just because the name presumes you are not genuine Dutch... they are all signs of decades of slowly normalizing a “Dutch standard” (white, working, non-disabled, productive and no-question asking citizen) by different gouvernments with one common denominator: The VVD (Association for Freedom and Democracy) political party, firm believers in the “rights of the strongest”, the “hounesty” of big international companies and their lobbyists and, maybe not surprisingly, the political party with the most forced stepped-down ministers and convictions of members for economic crimes. You can already predict their comment on the horrendous discriminating procedures of the Waalsdorp Memorial Committee.. not our business.
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