On the 8th of May 2012 refugees-on-the-street again started a camp
outside the Collective Center at Ter Apel in the north of the
Netherlands These migrants are supposed to return voluntarily to their
country, because the Dutch government believes that they are not in
danger there. However the government in Iraq refuses to take them back
if they are forced. So they have nowhere to go to, no right to be here
and no way to go there. But they act together for a chance to live and
live better than before.
Finally it is not the USA that invades The Hague, in order to prevent
the application of international justice to American citizens-
soldiers. No, it's Iraqi citizen-migrants occupying common ground in
the north of the Netherlands in an effort to force a radical change in
the application of human justice to migrants that are so far denied
acces and basic rights.
This act of occupation by a fast growing number of mainly Iraqi
refugees-on-the-street is well timed and also well suited to create an
uplifting experience amidst the general lethargy that still covers
Holland like a blanket of mental smog.
Like so many times before in history an external agent, through an
unexpected and autonomous action, is now intervening in the Dutch
political landscape, at a moment that everyday political life is in a
highly unstable state: no government, a parliament trying to gain
legitimacy and a queen dying to hand over sovereignty to her son. The
direct cause for this current limbo lies in the response to the
economic recession and the European conditions forcing even a rich
country like Holland to take extreme measures of austerity. However,
the cornerstone of change, the hinge on which the minds and hearts of
a significant section of youth and mindful adults may move, is the
approach towards migrants and world affairs in general. Poverty is
moving in and migrants are dying on the shores of Europe. Soon we will
be drifting together if we don't take drastic action.
We now see the face of globalization reflected in the mirror that
Brussels and Ter Apel are holding up for us to see. We see Geert
Wilders as just another make-over of Batman, unmasking himself as just
another copy cat of Pim Fortuyn, only adding to the pitiful
frustration of the merciless masses voting for him, proving once again
time for messiah is over. One man will not make the difference. Ask
Obama.
Finally the Joker hits back. After two exercises last winter led by
Somali brothers and sisters camping in the cold outside the
deportation complex of Ter Apel, now the weather is fine and time is
ripe for the real thing. These poor asylum seekers, strangled by
foreign police and immigration service IND, mentally broken by the
thousands in administrative detention, suffocated by laws and lawyers,
made dependant on charity and church, are finally showing who they
really are: human! They can really move! They are not victims but
actors!
They can be tourists like you and me!
So let us not help the occupiers in Ter Apel. Let us not support them,
don't give them tents, blankets or telephone credit. Do not bring your
redundant laptops, I-pads or even worn-out army boots and leather
jackets to their field of honour. No, embrace their exemplary
autonomous action, join Ali Aziz and Hadi Abu Sanad like in the 16th
century we embraced the House of Orange, invading the Dutch swamps at
nearby Heiligerlee. Temperature is rising, parliamentary politics is
exhausted, corporate business is selling out to China's communists and
Mexican coke dealers.
We got to save ourselves.
We are here, we the people, we make the difference, we have no
borders to cross, we have no cross other than our own indulging in
apathy. Let's throw it off and start the summer. Leave your squat and
camp out. Send your children abroad after the exams and restore
disorder at home.
Forget your mortgage, bury your debts and love your neighbour.
Let migrants invade this place and help us chase away the ghosts of
Rawagade, Srebrenica, the Schiphol Fire and most of all the mist of
mental misery hanging over us.
Jo van der Spek
http://m2m.streamtime.org
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