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woodfaceIt seems to be a big word lately, especially in Belgium. Maybe even especially in Flanders. Elections are drawing nearer and I'm sure I'm not the only one who is scared of the progress that extreme-right will be making this time around. Our prime-minister said that we would be able to rate the success of his goverment by the decline of Vlaams Belang (Flanders' extreme-right party). He wasn't lying because we have and VB has grown stronger and stronger because his goverment sucked ass and sold us out.
So Tom Barman (singer-songwriter for dEUS) organised concerts yesterday in Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent for Tolerance. Of course there was an uproar among the politicians. VB took offence and tried to talk artists out of performing. It still was a success despite the rain because people did turn up and the artists ignored criticism. I love this initiative, I love that we're able to make these sort of gestures. It makes me hopeful.
Still, there is much to be said about tolerance. When we mention it, we usually see it in a one way direction. We (white people, christians or atheists most of the time) need to tolerate people no matter what their skin colour or religion. We hold concerts, we write songs, we build up initiatives to make people aware of the problem and to try and stop it. I love this, it should happen, but sometimes you have to stop and wonder if it works the other way around too.
It's hard to ignore that a lot of intolerance these days are aimed towards the moslim community. Rightfully so because the extremists are scary and when you start blowing up people and attacking them because of their religion, then people are going to be scared and wary. We know this is just a small group that acts this way, but a goverment like the US thrives on its citizens seeing a backward civilisation and there is little happening to convince us of otherwise. So maybe it's easier to have a bunch of extremist who destroy an entire country than have one dictator.
I wonder if there's benefit concerts for tolerance in the Middle East. I highly doubt it, but it'd be nice to hear about it. It feels like we're in a one way street of tolerance. We keep our mouths shut out of fear of sounding racist because that gang that beat up my sister years ago on New Year's eve, they're not the majority. The guy who hardly spoke a word of dutch, but thought he understood enough of our conversation because we mentioned VB and jumped to the conclusion that we were racists while we were actually talking against it, he was just one lunatic jaded by racism. When they ignore the laws and build their mosque higher than is allowed, we let them be because it's not worth the trouble. We make exceptions every day, turns our heads and let it be because we have to be tolerant and racism is such a bad thing that we understand why they become jaded.
Yet... When they make a poster of Maria being half naked and showing her breasts, some people get offended. We should be able to tolerate this, we're a free society. We're not bogged down by pettiness. Still, there's an uproar when in fashion, someone accidently copies a line from the koran onto his clothes. And apparently it's perfectly allowable to burn down shops and kill christians because the pope said something mean about islam. Except, he didn't. They ripped a line out of a larger text and refused to listen to the entire message and chose to rage about that one sentence instead.
I want to be tolerant. I want to be able to turn my head away and reason that these are just extremists, that it is exagerated the way it is brought up in the media. I want to believe that really, most people are like my family and we try to help people no matter what their skin colour or religion. Sometimes it's hard, because I understand why VB is gaining ground. I understand why we're becoming wary and it makes concerts like yesterday's all that more necessary. But sometimes, it feels like a very long one way street.
So Tom Barman (singer-songwriter for dEUS) organised concerts yesterday in Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent for Tolerance. Of course there was an uproar among the politicians. VB took offence and tried to talk artists out of performing. It still was a success despite the rain because people did turn up and the artists ignored criticism. I love this initiative, I love that we're able to make these sort of gestures. It makes me hopeful.
Still, there is much to be said about tolerance. When we mention it, we usually see it in a one way direction. We (white people, christians or atheists most of the time) need to tolerate people no matter what their skin colour or religion. We hold concerts, we write songs, we build up initiatives to make people aware of the problem and to try and stop it. I love this, it should happen, but sometimes you have to stop and wonder if it works the other way around too.
It's hard to ignore that a lot of intolerance these days are aimed towards the moslim community. Rightfully so because the extremists are scary and when you start blowing up people and attacking them because of their religion, then people are going to be scared and wary. We know this is just a small group that acts this way, but a goverment like the US thrives on its citizens seeing a backward civilisation and there is little happening to convince us of otherwise. So maybe it's easier to have a bunch of extremist who destroy an entire country than have one dictator.
I wonder if there's benefit concerts for tolerance in the Middle East. I highly doubt it, but it'd be nice to hear about it. It feels like we're in a one way street of tolerance. We keep our mouths shut out of fear of sounding racist because that gang that beat up my sister years ago on New Year's eve, they're not the majority. The guy who hardly spoke a word of dutch, but thought he understood enough of our conversation because we mentioned VB and jumped to the conclusion that we were racists while we were actually talking against it, he was just one lunatic jaded by racism. When they ignore the laws and build their mosque higher than is allowed, we let them be because it's not worth the trouble. We make exceptions every day, turns our heads and let it be because we have to be tolerant and racism is such a bad thing that we understand why they become jaded.
Yet... When they make a poster of Maria being half naked and showing her breasts, some people get offended. We should be able to tolerate this, we're a free society. We're not bogged down by pettiness. Still, there's an uproar when in fashion, someone accidently copies a line from the koran onto his clothes. And apparently it's perfectly allowable to burn down shops and kill christians because the pope said something mean about islam. Except, he didn't. They ripped a line out of a larger text and refused to listen to the entire message and chose to rage about that one sentence instead.
I want to be tolerant. I want to be able to turn my head away and reason that these are just extremists, that it is exagerated the way it is brought up in the media. I want to believe that really, most people are like my family and we try to help people no matter what their skin colour or religion. Sometimes it's hard, because I understand why VB is gaining ground. I understand why we're becoming wary and it makes concerts like yesterday's all that more necessary. But sometimes, it feels like a very long one way street.
