It is always good to come home, even after I formally emigrated some thirty-three years ago. It was a busy week - work on the Vancouver side continues with a key deal closing soon - some family and other things to attend, including catching up with old friends.
Of course you can get local news and commentary wherever you are on the planet nowadays, but to actually get it in real-time in the place where it is unfolding is somehow way more impactful. You watch local TV, pick-up the chatter on the streets and in some cases actually witness some of the stuff while you are at it. One week in The Netherlands and I can give you this:
Asylum Crisis. The number of asylum seekers keeps growing and the Dutch government has no way of stopping and/or accommodating the flow of people looking for a better life. Today a joint report from a few government agencies here warned of ‘impending social destruction’ if the government continues to fail to act in managing the ever growing problem.
Dissent. Whether anti-vaccination, farmers or climate activists; the police here is acting with increased force to quell protests. This week a number of Extinction Rebellion activists were arrested as they announced to block a major highway this coming Saturday. I loathe these protests and the tactics these ‘environmentalists’ use, but from all sides concerns were raised over steadily curbing the right to protest, even merely talking about a possible protest can now get you pre-emptively arrested. All this started during the pandemic (lots of Dutch protested government policies) and authorities now gladly use these tactics in other areas too. Wherever you stand, a worrying trend.
Housing. I won’t even go here in detail, but affordable housing is hard to find for Dutch youngsters (or for anyone really) and construction is lagging, mostly because of insanely tight environmental regulations and government inaction. I leave it to your imagination to see how Dutch people who have been waitlisted for housing forever, react to see their place being taken over by prioritized asylum seekers.
Inflation. The litany of complaints about the prices of practically everything is unstoppable, it does not matter who you talk to. The energy price crisis however, thanks to a moderate winter and good planning, has been avoided and Europe is managing quite well without Putin’s gas pipes. That said, my Canadian heating & power bill comes in at a significantly lower level than what I anecdotally register from friends here.
War. And that brings me to the ‘tank discussion’ It took weeks, but one by one NATO members are now committing to the delivery of state-of-the-art tanks that can help Ukraine on the offensive side. So far - following a tabulation on TV here - some 150 have been identified for delivery and frontline operations. Zelensky needs 300 apparently and no sooner had the first deliveries been announced or the rumour of Ukraine also needing and wanting fighter aircraft and missiles started to be heard. All the while Russia has been ramping up production of its armaments, they too have some pretty sophisticated ‘tank tech’ at their disposal. Quite a bit of firepower is consequently amassed on both sides now for what could be a very bloody spring. Negotiations, very unlikely.
So, forgive me for feeling a bit pessimistic about the old continent. Multiple crises are overlapping each other and the current crop of politicians is struggling to balance the various pressures, a pattern we see in a number of countries.
Finally, today is International Holocaust Memorial Day, seventy-eight years ago Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet forces. It is probably good to have a key international day to remember the murdered six million, a news report this week revealed that 23% of Dutch people under 40 either do not believe that the Holocaust took place or that the death toll was exaggerated. Although the veracity of these numbers was debated the entire week in the media here, the fact that such a trend is even palpable and measurable is extremely worrying. Failure to educate and rampant political polarization all contribute. This is actually the best possible definition of anti-Semitism I found many years ago, and it unfortunately describes where a large part of Europe and North America is today:
“The cause of anti-Semitism is a profound malaise in the cultures in which it appears. Anti-Semitism is either the last gasp of a declining culture or the first warning sign of a new totalitarianism“
So does it feel like the 1930s yet? One week in Europe and I sadly have to say, yes, there are some very grim parallels.
Photo: city of Rotterdam where I went to university. Photo taken from the rooftop of the incredible Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen. Maybe not for housing or asylum seekers, but for art, there is always plenty of money in Europe.
My mother was a propagandist for the US government in the WW2 and then a War Correspondent in the Pacific and European theaters of war. She was there with the US troops at the opening of one of the concentration camps I have a photograph of her next to an open box car of the emaciated dead that the SS were unable to hide in time. [Long story later in the mean time, Google search "Was George Orwell a propagandist?"]
It does feel like aspects of those pre-war days are returning with the confusion of governments unable to plot a clear course of action because of the turmoil of conflicting voices within their own borders.