Back to the Burqa

The issue of a burqa ban has reared its ugly head again.

Apparently Geert Wilders sees this as a vital issue. Mr Wilders lost a discussion last week on members of parliament having dual nationality, and was publically chastised by the leader of the house who commented that she expected MP's to treat each other with respect.

But now his party want to raise the issue of wearing Burqas in public, he points out that "a majority in Parliament has twice urged the cabinet in motions he initiated to arrange a complete ban on wearing burqas in public." Which is true, however that was before the last election.

Wilders party, the Partij voor Vrijheid (Freedom Party) did win 9 seats. Apparently there is a sector of Dutch society that supports these devisive policies. So we are set for more heated parliamentary discussions; I'm all for free speech, but given that I can't vote it's frustrating that my taxes are paying for Mr Wilder's grandstanding.

Intergrated?

The government's long awaited law came into effect with the new year, I am now charmingly classified as an "oldcomer", and could be required to go through the integration training and exam. I would definitely need to do it before getting any payment from the government.

According to the official site

Integration means that you [the immigrant]
- Can speak, read and write Dutch
- Can understand spoke Dutch
- Know how we live together in the Netherlands

The last one is related to Dutch norms and values, except that they've had a hard time coming up with what Dutch norms and values are. Eventually a series of questions were compiled into this test by a Dutch TV station, who then ran the test on TV. Unsurprisingly people, regular Dutch people and celebrities, failed. Apparently migrants have to be better than the locals.

Under the current rules it's up to the Gemeente (city council) to administer the courses and the test. I have heard one rumour that Amsterdam's not in a big hurry to implement it in a widespread way. With maybe 200,000 people falling into this category in Amsterdam it's not surprising.