On the occasion of the action by refugees-on-the-street who started a camp
outside the Collective Center at Ter Apel in the north of the Netherlands on
the 8th of May, Jo van der Spek of M2M wrote the following column. These
migrants are supposed to return voluntarily to their country, because the
Dutch government believes that they are not in danger there. However the
governemnt 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. Why not?
Welcoming the Iraqi Invasion Act
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.
Finally we 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
m2m.streamtime.org
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