The Dutch authorities is rejecting their nation’s wealthy historical past and cultural values by making one identify official. This liberal political correctness once more overriding what residents need.
In the US and Britain and several other African and Caribbean international locations, woke activists have efficiently lobbied for statues of historic figures to be torn down and historic buildings and monuments to be re-named. However the Dutch authorities has determined to go even additional and re-name their whole nation.
By subsequent 12 months, the nation referred to as “Holland” and also called “The Netherlands” will formally use solely the latter identify. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Overseas Affairs defined that the Netherlands wanted a “extra uniform and coordinated strategy” to nationwide branding. She mentioned: “We wish to current the Netherlands as an open, creative and inclusive nation.”
What’s odd about this justification is that the nation has been the Mecca of tolerance and openness, not only for years, however for hundreds of years. The Dutch Golden Age lasted from 1609 to 1713, when the nation was the wealthiest, most artistic, and positively the freest place on Earth. As author Timothy Ferris notes in his ebook The Science of Liberty, Dutch tolerance without cost thinkers made their nation a refuge for endangered philosophers, equivalent to Descartes and the skeptic Pierre Bayle, whereas the Dutch themselves produced Erasmus, Grotius, and naturally Spinoza.
Dutch artists have been among the many most admired and modern within the Western world, creating new kinds of portray which celebrated industriousness and science itself, as in Vermeer’s The Lacemaker and Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp.
The historian Jonathan I. Israel wrote: “Guests regularly marveled on the prodigious extent of Dutch delivery and commerce, the technical sophistication of trade and finance, the sweetness and orderliness, in addition to the cleanliness, of the cities, the excellence of the orphanages and hospitals, the restricted character of ecclesiastical energy, the subordination of army to civil authority, and the exceptional achievements of Dutch artwork, philosophy, and science.”
Right here’s the factor, although: most of those guests would have referred to as this nation “Holland”, not “Netherlands”. Technically talking, it’s true that Holland is simply the most important area within the nation. However that area additionally outlined Dutch tradition and id. It’s house to the capital metropolis of Amsterdam, the federal government headquarters at The Hague, and Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port –that are all iconic of Dutch nationwide id.
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The Dutch improvements in oil paints have been invented within the 17th century by the nonetheless existent Previous Holland Oil Colour Manufacturing facility, not “The Kingdom of the Netherland Manufacturing facility”, and this centuries-old behavior of calling the nation Holland has persevered so strongly that the Dutch authorities’s worldwide web sites for tourism and commerce are – a minimum of till a number of months from now – “holland.com” and “hollandtradeandinvest.com”.
Why, then, does the Dutch authorities suppose a re-branding train is required? Evidently politicians wish to shift the main focus from sure norms that are linked to Holland’s (however, apparently, not the Netherlands’) worldwide picture, equivalent to its leisure drug tradition and the red-light district of Amsterdam.
In different phrases, the very components which created the Dutch popularity for freedom and tolerance are actually perceived as inimical to the nation. However who’s pushing that notion? The rebranding train has been accepted by the federal government, the Tourism Board, and the Confederation of Netherlands Trade and Employers. Have been the Dutch individuals themselves consulted earlier than this resolution was taken?
In that case, an opinion survey from What does the Netherlands suppose? means that the problem may not have arisen. That ballot discovered that 74 % of the Dutch imagine that civil servants shouldn’t fear about the best way the nation is named overseas, with simply 20 % approving their involvement within the problem.
Alternatively, these findings might need made no distinction to the policy-makers. In spite of everything, on this 21st century woke world, the preferences of unusual people are being an increasing number of sidelined, as a result of the elites, whether or not from Britain or America or the European continent, don’t suppose that individuals can’t be trusted to have the correct opinions. That’s why the Dutch authorities has determined that it could solely promote the nation’s inclusiveness by sidelining its personal historical past, its personal values, and its personal residents.
By Kevin Baldeosingh, a Trinidadian newspaper columnist and writer. He has written three novels and several other non-fiction books on coverage points, parenting, and media observe.
