Nermin Aydemir JTW Columnist printable version send your friend message to author add comment ()

Friday, 9 January 2009

How different can people perceive by looking at the same thing. I realized this once again when talking with my old neighbor, in Rotterdam. I was magnifying the modern buildings of the city, and was seriously surprised as noticing his eyes full of tears. For me, the high-rise buildings of the modern life meant high ranks in business life as well as the improvement of humanity.  On the other hand, the same made my old neighbor to remind the Nazi bombing to the city in the Second World War. Indeed, why cannot we see any the ancient buildings in the streets of Rotterdam?  The Nazi invasion had defeated the South of the Netherlands so much that only two buildings could survive. Besides, experiencing the most disastrous war in the history of human being, Rotterdam has long been known with its tolerance and liberal values. In fact, suffering this terrible case made the people in Rotterdam prone to peaceful coexistence much more than many cities did in the world. Nevertheless, the attitudes of the new generation differ from the classic attitudes of the inhabitants of Rotterdam to a considerable amount. To illustrate, immigrants are no longer welcomed in the city. The members of the Executive Council of the municipality of Rotterdam have always followed a political line, which was quite moderate to foreigners. It was highly surprising when Pim Fortuyn, with his racist policies succeeded to get 17 of 45 Council seats in 2002.(1) Mr. Fortuyn frequently used the argument that “Netherlands was full”, which later became the slogan of all racist movements in the country. Although got annoyed when labeled as a racist, Mr.Fortuyn was prominent with opposing everything which did not belong to the “original” Dutch culture. Opposition against immigrants and Islam were the backbone of his party program. Furthermore, he was expelled from his former party “for suggesting that Article 1 of the Constitution, which bans any kind of discrimination, should be changed”.(2) It is highly remarkable that the statue of Pim Fortuyn has been put up in a city of which is long been known the most permissive city of the country of multiculturalism. All these and the recent news from Europe draw up an image, which is completely different from the European civilization, which is being built on democratic values after the Second World War. Hatred is so ascended that one curse insolently to others solely because of having a different belief while the other kills him in the streets of Amsterdam in the daylight at the expense of life imprisonment. Radical parties, with racist ideologies become easily highly popular even in countries which are prominent with their liberal values. The liberal policies of the moderate ones are highly unpopular in the recent atmosphere and they either try to resemble their nationalist counterparts or at the best figure stay calm. Namely politics has turned into a race of racism in most of the European states.
  All these and the recent news from Europe draw up an image, which is completely different from the European civilization, which is being built on democratic values after the Second World War. Hatred is so ascended that one curse insolently to others solely because of having a different belief while the other kills him in the streets of Amsterdam in the daylight at the expense of life imprisonment. Radical parties, with racist ideologies become easily highly popular even in countries which are prominent with their liberal values. The liberal policies of the moderate ones are highly unpopular in the recent atmosphere and they either try to resemble their nationalist counterparts or at the best figure stay calm. Namely politics has turned into a race of racism in most of the European states. The young generation has not experienced any war and therefore does not carry the concerns of their parents and grandparents. Furthermore, all the children of the consumption era have been grown in a spirit of meaningless.  Computer games may seem highly innocent but they create a serious lack of sensitivity and tendency towards violence. Today’s children grow by killing hundreds of characters every day even if they are imaginary. Violence is further promoted through films and many other means of media. I still remember watching the invasion of Iraq by American soldiers in the beginning of 1990’s. Honestly speaking, I did not feel so much when I saw people dying because it was just like a film and I was quite accustomed to such films. The same happened, in the 11^th September, when the terrorists of Al-Qaide crashed in the twin towers of the WTC.  A friend of mine shut down the TV because of getting bored! This was not a game, dying people were not imaginary but we had lost our souls for long time.
  The young generation has not experienced any war and therefore does not carry the concerns of their parents and grandparents. Furthermore, all the children of the consumption era have been grown in a spirit of meaningless.  Computer games may seem highly innocent but they create a serious lack of sensitivity and tendency towards violence. Today’s children grow by killing hundreds of characters every day even if they are imaginary. Violence is further promoted through films and many other means of media. I still remember watching the invasion of Iraq by American soldiers in the beginning of 1990’s. Honestly speaking, I did not feel so much when I saw people dying because it was just like a film and I was quite accustomed to such films. The same happened, in the 11^th September, when the terrorists of Al-Qaide crashed in the twin towers of the WTC.  A friend of mine shut down the TV because of getting bored! This was not a game, dying people were not imaginary but we had lost our souls for long time. In addition to these, war has been strongly promoted, particularly by the neo-cons of the US. After defeating the USSR, the ruling elite of the US strongly needed a new enemy as the US had to find another excuse to continue regulating the world according to their own interests. Nevertheless, the new theme is much more threatening than the communist one. “The other” has become the Muslim community after the Cold War. Namely, the “clash of civilizations” has been promoted in the place of the rivalry between two great powers. The fact that identities construct the basis of this challenge makes the situation much more dangerous than the former one. It is possible to change an ideology but one can never change the color of her/his skin. On the other hand, building up a rivalry on the issue of religion is terrifying. The greatness of hatred that can be built up by departing from the area of religion is incomparable than that of ideologies may cause. Namely, peoples can easily be motivated towards clashes when the issue is religion. The result is usually much more terrifying than the planners of this game aim at the beginning. The tension is unfortunately uncontrollable in many instances when the game starts. The history of human being, which is full of battles between different beliefs, explains the degree of damage quite obviously.
  In addition to these, war has been strongly promoted, particularly by the neo-cons of the US. After defeating the USSR, the ruling elite of the US strongly needed a new enemy as the US had to find another excuse to continue regulating the world according to their own interests. Nevertheless, the new theme is much more threatening than the communist one. “The other” has become the Muslim community after the Cold War. Namely, the “clash of civilizations” has been promoted in the place of the rivalry between two great powers. The fact that identities construct the basis of this challenge makes the situation much more dangerous than the former one. It is possible to change an ideology but one can never change the color of her/his skin. On the other hand, building up a rivalry on the issue of religion is terrifying. The greatness of hatred that can be built up by departing from the area of religion is incomparable than that of ideologies may cause. Namely, peoples can easily be motivated towards clashes when the issue is religion. The result is usually much more terrifying than the planners of this game aim at the beginning. The tension is unfortunately uncontrollable in many instances when the game starts. The history of human being, which is full of battles between different beliefs, explains the degree of damage quite obviously. In addition to all these, the great capability of capitalist thought in disposing its ideas comes into the scene. Just as its other values, the capitalist ideology promotes the so-called “clash of civilizations” in order to make its own ideology dominant world-wide. Meanwhile, the new promotion continuously plays on the pride of the West. Racism is recently highly popular among young groups in European countries. This seems highly confusing because this theme has been accepted as an element of history in the modern life. But is the modern world really immune of racism? How strong are the humanitarian values the modern Europe based on? Did multiculturalism get the place of the superiority of the white man, or was it rather a déjà vu? The latter seems much more correct even if it is very hard to accept. It is true that people with different identities lived in a peaceful coexistence for years in Europe. But the situation became the reverse when things began to change with the beginning of 2000’s. Multiculturalism of Europe has failed its first exam when it faced a real challenge for the first time. European people got away from their liberal ideas when the economical situation of the European citizens began to worsen due to some global factors.
  In addition to all these, the great capability of capitalist thought in disposing its ideas comes into the scene. Just as its other values, the capitalist ideology promotes the so-called “clash of civilizations” in order to make its own ideology dominant world-wide. Meanwhile, the new promotion continuously plays on the pride of the West. Racism is recently highly popular among young groups in European countries. This seems highly confusing because this theme has been accepted as an element of history in the modern life. But is the modern world really immune of racism? How strong are the humanitarian values the modern Europe based on? Did multiculturalism get the place of the superiority of the white man, or was it rather a déjà vu? The latter seems much more correct even if it is very hard to accept. It is true that people with different identities lived in a peaceful coexistence for years in Europe. But the situation became the reverse when things began to change with the beginning of 2000’s. Multiculturalism of Europe has failed its first exam when it faced a real challenge for the first time. European people got away from their liberal ideas when the economical situation of the European citizens began to worsen due to some global factors. Police killed a foreigner solely due to his color in London on the 25^th June 2005.  Only after a few days, a radio in Denmark announced to kill Muslims on the 3^rd Augustus 2005. Extreme racist groups appear and grow in the streets of European countries day by day. On the other hand, terrorism grows up between the youth of immigrant societies desperately.  Their hatred against what they call “the other” is in such a degree that they easily dare killing themselves in their fight against killing the people of the culture, in which they are grown up. Police killed a foreigner solely due to his color in London on the 25^th June 2005.  Only after a few days, a radio in Denmark announced to kill Muslims on the 3^rd Augustus 2005. Extreme racist groups appear and grow in the streets of European countries day by day. On the other hand, terrorism grows up between the youth of immigrant societies desperately.  Their hatred against what they call “the other” is in such a degree that they easily dare killing themselves in their fight against killing the people of the culture, in which they are grown up. In brief, either intended or due to some circumstances, a clash between different identities is rising day by day. It will not be an exaggeration to say that we are now in a situation, in which our ancestors were before the great wars in history. If loosing lives is the criteria of war, terrorism already fulfils this each day. To sum up, people who are very much eager to raise the tension should not forget that two criteria make the situation much more threatening than the past. Different from the past, people with different identities are living very much close to each other and the capacity of damage that human being can cause is incomparable to that of the past.