24 november 2019 Mounk starts from the given that Liberal Democracy as a political model is under attack all over the world. He sees how illiberal democracies and undemocratic “liberal” states come into existence and formulates the proposition that Liberal Democracy maybe only functioned well within certain constraints (“scope conditions”). (Fareed Zakaria had years ago […]
Monthly archives: November 2019
42. Dutch – De Rechtbank acht zichzelf niet bevoegd
23 november 2019 Begin november 2019 was de Nederlandse regering door een Rechtbank verplicht om alles in het werk te stellen om kinderen uit Syrië terug te halen. De Nederlandse Regering ging in beroep tegen dit vonnis. Op 22 november 2019 deed de Rechtbank in Den Haag een uitspraak in hoger beroep en gaf de […]
41. Book Review : Kishore Mahbubani – Has the West Lost it ?
22 november 2019 In this small book (only 91 pages) , KM confronts the West with some harsh realities. He starts from two key propositions : (1) In the past 30 years, i.e. since 1989, the world made an enormous progress. During that process the relative weight of the West versus the Rest (KM’s word), […]
40. Dutch – Slag Der Gulden Sporen
19 november 2019 In de nasleep van de discussie over de Vlaamse canon is reeds bij herhaling opgemerkt dat de Slag der Gulden Sporen (SGS) in de reële geschiedenis niet de rol had die aan haar wordt toegekend in de Vlaamse “roman national”. Recent legde een historicus uit dat deze Slag niet bruikbaar was voor […]
39. Dutch – Omvolking -light
17 november 2019 In de Knack van 6 November 2019 doet de socioloog Luc Huyse volgende uitspraak : “Vandaar mijn pleidooi om de positie van de nieuwe Belgen juist in te schatten. Als men de inwoners van Vlaanderen een ‘leidcultuur’ wil aanpraten en men zo hard de nadruk legt op identiteit, moet men dan schrikken […]
38. Dutch – De-humanizerend taalgebruik
De Afspraak” op vrijdag 15 november 2019. Beatrice Delvaux vindt dat termen zoals transmigranten en illegalen niet mogen gebruikt worden. Ze omschrijft deze termen als “de-humanizerend”. Een dergelijk statement valt geregeld te horen aan wat we gemakshalve de “linkerkant” kunnen noemen. Hiermee zegt Delvaux dus eigenlijk dat voor haar transmigranten en illegalen geen mensen zijn. […]
37. The European Union and the Balkan (2)
15 november 2019 On 13 november 2019 Donald Tusk speeched in Bruges and gave his view on the European Union. At that occasion he criticized the objection of the French President Macron to the start of negociations with some Balkan states. Tusk commented : ” There wil be no sovereign Europe without stable Balkans integrated […]
36. Food For Thought : Folke Bernadotte on Palestinian Refugees
10 november 2019 From a statement by Folks Bernadotte, Chief UN mediator for Palestine, published on 18 September 1948. Bernadotte was killed by a Zionist terrorist organization on 17 September 1948. “It is … undeniable that no settlement can be just and complete if recognition is not accorded to the right of the Arab refugee […]
35. The Western-European Demos exists
10 november 2019 A lot of pundits often defend the statement that a political entity “Europe” is an impossibility because there is no common language in Europe and therefore no common public opinion. While I have defended this point of view in some other place, it is time to make an observation which to a […]
34. Feast of Sacrifice
4 november 2019 The Feast of Sacrifice is one of the two most important Islamic feasts. It relates to the story in the Qur’an according to which Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Ismael at the request of God. But at the moment that Abraham was to sacrifice his son, God sent a sheep […]
33. Book Review : Götz Aly ; “Europa gegen die Juden” (2)
3 november 2019 At the end of his book Aly concludes with a small chapter with the title “Das Gute begünstigte das Böse”. On the last page of his book he writes : “Das Böse entsteht nicht allein aus dem Bösen, sondern auch aus dem prinzipiell Guten. Gute, niemals zu missbilligende Bildungspolitik und der staatlich […]
32. Book Review : Götz Aly ; “Europa gegen die Juden” (1)
2 november 2019 When I wrote my book “Liberal Quicksand” an important decision I made was not to include the story of anti-Semitism and its disastrous consequence, the Holocaust, into my book. I had two reasons. First, the story of the near destruction of the Jewish population in Europe was sufficiently known. Second, this horrible […]
31. Armenian Genocide
1 november 2019 End October 2019 the American House of Representatives recognised the Armenian Genocide. As is well known the Turkish Government denies such Genocide took place. I do not intend to discuss wether there was a genocide or not; Whether a Turkish government gave the instruction to perform a genocide or not ; Whether […]