Well, time just keeps flying by here. Only 3 more weeks (+2 days), and I will once again be sitting in my own living room, and sleeping in my own bed. Kind of weird, if I really think about it. It would be really nice if I could take everyone with me, but that just isn't possible.
I haven't really been doing a whole lot of things recently... Last week I saw Geert Wilders at the parliament on our excursion. I don't know if any of you have heard of him, but he's caused quite a comotion here. He doesn't want the Muslims in the Netherlands, and is extremely anti-muslim. He made a video (Fitna) and there was this huge thing building up to it. But, the video is really quite ridiculous, and there probably shouldn't have been so much drama leading up to it. It's a big mess, that could have had a huge negative impact for the Dutch world-wide, but we haven't seen all too much damage done yet, thankfully.
Tonight I'm heading to Berlin for a trip with Renee. I was supposed to have class tomorrow, but we were able to move it, and since my other 3 classes this week were cancelled, I've had no class this week. But, I've had a whole lot of HOMEWORK, and I'm so behind, it's not much fun whatsoever. There's just so much of the stuff. It's not really hard, just time consuming. But, I'll get through it all eventually.
Today's my host sister's birthday. We got up at 5:30 this morning to have breakfast with the whole family. That's quite early. But, we could all go to bed afterwards (except Jan who had to work - the reason we had breakfast early). It was fun though.
I don't really have anything else to write at the moment... I hope all's well at home, and yeah... I'll write some more after I'm back from Berlin :)
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3 comments:
It must be a different experience for someone right in the Netherlands, and who is Dutch, to watch the Fitna movie than for someone like me. And I respect that. Perhaps that's part of why I have a different opinion on that film.
I've seen it for myself (in English, of course), and when combined with other reading I've done, I have to say that the film gets messages out there that every thinking person needs to hear. The film, to its credit, uses passages straight out to the Qur'an. That lends it credibility.
I have nothing to comment on Mr. Wilders himself (I know very little about him). But I appreciated that he stated (at least in a separate interview) that he has respect for Muslims, just not for Islam or the Qur'an. Personally, that's where I am as well.
To clarify: by "messages", I mean that the Qur'an actually demands that Muslims kill the enemies of Islam, and other violent commands. Messages about Islam and the Qur'an itself, not Muslims specifically. I certainly don't mean to suggest that I support Muslim-bashing or something like that.
You have to keep in mind that it's a different culture, and that wilders said this video represented all muslims - not only the radical ones. We come from an individualistic culture, while muslims are coming from more collectivistic cultures. They think differently, and would take a movie, and statements like that against the nation, not just certain people. They'd generally retaliate in similar fashion. Instead of holding a grudge against Wilders, they'd hold one against all Dutch people.
And his quotes were out of context, with a few word changes, so they weren't really real quotes.
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