Column | More than drop and bitterballen

The program News of the day From SBS6 to the Schilderswijk in The Hague on Liberation Day to wrist or there were Dutch flags. The reactions on social media to the images were unanimous: a parallel society and people who do not integrate, there in Schilderswijk. I also got that feeling at first. Then I thought it was no different in my youth in Rotterdam in the 1980s: there were no flags, except for neighbor Sjanie who had experienced the flood disaster.

My annoyance after that broadcast of SBS6 was not so much concerned about naming the lack of Dutch nationality, but the lack of solutions that we still have not appeared after forty years. First, Pim Fortuyn would breathe new life into Dutch nationality. Then the VVD. Then Wilders and the BBB. But they could not design the Dutch nationality any of all.

The identity thinking of the left in recent decades has a bit proud of the Fatherland that the Dutchman was still trying to carry out, completely beaten out. We prefer to put those few collective symbols in the Netherlands in the background so that there is room for everyone’s personal symbols, language, culture and religion.

We do a bit laughing about national traditions in the Netherlands. In the Dutch flag, symbol of independence against Spanish rule, few people still experience warm feelings. Also the native Dutch people around me I have hardly seen any flags hoist on Liberation Day. Who knows the first verse of the national anthem by heart? Only the bike, drop, herring and bitterballen are still symbols for Dutch nationality. When my cousin came from the Netherlands, he tried it all out.

Why are we not proud of the willingness to collaborate with the Dutchman?

Because a society without mutual bond does not seem healthy to me, we will have to focus more on the positive aspects of Dutch nationality. King’s Day is still a moment of any togetherness, just like a match of the Dutch national team. In addition, why should we not emphasize Dutch art and culture expressions, for example: Van Rembrandt and Vondel to the excellent children’s programs made in this country? In my youth I had to know all kinds of poets and writers from Turkey, even though my parents were highly trained. I am currently seeing the youth following the Dutch literature, theater or painters.

And as the only culture is too high: why are we not proud of the willingness to cooperate of the Dutchman? Also emphasize the universal values ​​that we have perfectly recorded in our country and culture such as justice, equality of men and women, the non-discrimination principle and the separation of powers.

Provide many more history lessons for children but also for newcomers at a later age. Make a TV channel or a YouTube channel with only such lessons. Encourage people to talk about Dutch nationality, with each other. Most people have not even thought about it, let alone talk about it and let alone that people can spread it. Make sure that children can go much more to theater, cabaret, museums and sports: they learn a lot about Dutch nationality. Make much more accessible free of charge. I want to see and feel what national pride and togetherness means in our country.

‘You adapt to our way of life’-implicitly the message of the SBS6 program-is not enough and evoke a contradiction rather than motivation. Moreover: I fear that if SBS6 goes to a Vinex neighborhood in Houten, there is no pride or knowledge of Dutch nationality there. On the left, the national identity should not explain taboo and the right should not lean back by only criticizing.

Aylin Bilic is headhunter and publicist.

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