The Silent Majority

In every country there is a silent majority. The loud minority speaks up more it seems or they get more attention. Maybe loudness sells more newspapers. You see it in America with Trump, or in our country with the refugees who are being placed in asylum centres too big for most towns.
There is a saying in Dutch 'Onbekend maakt onbemind' Unknown makes unloved. What we don't know scares us. The loud minority screams at the announcement of another asylum centre that the refugees are terrorists, that the men are going to rape all the women and more of these unfound accusations. People follow other people in fear not thinking straight anymore. Fear does strange things to people; they are throwing illegal firework bombs at the police to make their point across. Who's the terrorist now?

People protesting with violence against the police last week

 

If people are fleeing from their homes because they are not safe there, only to come in a country where all of a sudden 'normal' people who have everything their hearts desire, are screaming and fighting just to make their twisted point across, imagine how they must feel. We are supposed to be living in a civilised country.
I really feel ashamed sometimes when I see people reacting the way they do about refugees. No they are not here to take our jobs away. Yes of course they have a phone why shouldn't they have one? They came from a very rich country after all which they did not want to leave but where forced to! What would you take if you were forced to leave? You're phone for one thing right? I would!

Everytime those screaming, protesting people are in the news they say everyone is against refugees coming to live here. Everyone; so even the silent majority. They didn't ask me if I were against it.
They didn't ask the silent majority who thinks we should help them.
Maybe it is time to stop being silent. Maybe it is time we took a step forward and spoke up; You are not screaming for me, You are not speaking for me! Leave those people alone! They've been through enough! It's one world we all share, we should start to learn to live together and help whoever needs helping!

© KH

Thou shalt not kill

After the terrorist attacks on Paris last Friday everyone is talking about it. What to do, how to react, can we still go out and do the things we love like going to concerts and games? Last night the football match Germany-the Netherlands was cancelled because of a threat. Is it still safe? Most people even the ones who have lost loved ones are saying they are not letting IS terrorise them further, they will not respond in hate.

Those terrorist say they do this out of God's name. God has made mankind in his image, if you believe this kind of thing. There would never be any kind of God who would allow his image to be shot to pieces simply because some choose to interpret what is written in some book ages ago, in an other way as other people.
Whether you read the Bible, Koran or Torah, in all of them it says;
Thou shalt not kill.
So how can they justify these killings for themselves? How can they live with themselves? How is it that in their minds the 'thou shalt not kill' has turned into 'thou can kill the ones that have another believe?' God or Allah or Jaweh or whatever you would call your god, would sit there on his cloud shaking his head saying he had not meant it like this.

The Pope has asked everyone to pray for the victems and their families. You see a lot 'Pray for Paris' signs. Of course everyone's thoughts are with Paris, or with Lebanon for that matter where IS have killed a lot of people as well the day before the Paris killings. But is it going to stop the terrorism? Is the bombing on Syria going to stop it? Is an eye for an eye stopping it?
What I'm afraid of is that the Muslims already living here are going to get the blame while they're not the ones to blame! That the refugees are being blamed while they were fleeing from IS for this very reason!
I'm hoping that the people will unite against terrorism and against hate. That finally we will show them they can hurt us but they cannot break us.
The Dalai Lama put it this way; 'So let us work for peace within our families and society, and not expect help from God, Buddha or the governments," he said.
Well put. Let's try to not give in to hate and focus only on peace. We are one people. One world.

Or as this man put it on the death of his wife;



© KH

Inhumanity

Long have I thought about writing a blog about this subject but I feel like I have too. I can't keep quiet any longer. I am ashamed. Deadly ashamed no less. I feel so ashamed to be Dutch at this point in life. I feel ashamed to live in a country where the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer and where the government is turning it's back on poor helpless people who are fleeing from their homes because of violence, because ISIS, because they just can't take it anymore. Meanwhile the rich are filling their pockets even more, bank managers, big business men, politicians you name it, and the people of my country are screaming bloody murder. The illegal immigrants must go, they're at fault of course they're to blame!

Our government has made some decision for failed or undocumented asylum seekers.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte's centre-right Liberals said offering continued support would attract more migrants. Their Labour coalition partner backed a policy of "bed, bath and bread" for people in need, even if they had been refused asylum.
Dutch media reported that the parties had agreed a deal whereby failed asylum seekers would be housed, but for a limited time only and in just five major cities -- including Amsterdam and Rotterdam -- and not countrywide as now.

I understand that there is a big problem. But there's also something called humanity! After the accident where boat refugees were killed drowned at sea there was a lot of social media noise. Or should I call it filth. People saying all kind of horrible things about the dead people I'm not going to repeat here. Where are you in your own life that you can wish someone dead? How bad a person are you yourself if you can wish that on someone you don't even know?

Can you honestly say that this picture doesn't effect you? A dead Syrian girl? Drowned trying to escape the tyrand Assad with her family?
Even the elderly people where I work are ruthless, they should know better having lived through WWII. No apparently 70 years of peace didn't make a difference. They think they worked hard for it after the war and that others like 'them' should not profit from their labours. How can you think like that? I honestly can't fathom that!
It is beyond me! There is such a thing as Human Rights and if the place where you live is unsafe, of course you run like hell! I would!

So yes, I am deeply ashamed. I am ashamed for mankind, for people in general, for my country. Men are really the worst animals on Earth.

© KH