The Dutch PR Problem-by Frida Ghitis
From Somali immigrant to Dutch Member of Parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s life seemed a story of the progress and hope possible only in a liberal democratic state — until she began receiving death threats from Islamic fundamentalists and ultimately saw her Dutch citizenship revoked. According to Amsterdam-based Frida Ghitis, Ali’s experience is just the most recent example of a broader Dutch intolerance of controversy in their midst.Instead of worrying about the national image, Balkenende would do well to look into the national spine. Dutch values appear to be hiding inside a self-image that is little more than fantasy — a fantasy the world has accepted without challenge.Consider the story of Anne Frank. The Dutch have somehow managed to shine in the warm glow of the Anne Frank story. A line of visitors permanently snakes around the corner from the house on the Prinzengracht where the young Jewish diarist, a refugee from Germany, hid from the Nazis.Most visitors think of the Dutch as her saviors. But they forget the end of the story. Anne Frank, like more than seventy percent of the country’s Jews — the greatest percentage in Western Europe — was sent to her death, betrayed by her neighbors.The Dutch, who still see their WWII history through as a heroic fantasy of resistance, did in fact resist in small numbers. But they also provided Western Europe's largest contingent of volunteers to the Waffen SS.
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