Two Dutch Ministers Resign
The Dutch “onderzoeksraad”, literally translated as “investigation council”, has investigated a fire now known as the “Schipholfire”: in a jailhouse (for very short stays only – people who will be put out of the country; for instance / mostly illegals who are waiting to be, umh, returned to their own country) at Schiphol, a fire killed 11 people and wounded 15 others.
The results of this investigation are disastrous for two ministers: both Minister of Justice Donner and Minister of VROM (Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment) Dekker have resigned.
The Council concluded that both ministries failed in living up to their responsibilities. They did not adhere to the ‘fire security rules’. In other words, the government did not live up to its own rules.
According to the report, far less people would have died if the before mentioned ministries had done what was required of them. The report even states that it is quite possible that nobody would have died in such a situation.
There is, of course, no question about whether or not they should resign: both ministries failed tremendously. The problem is not ‘just’ that 11 people died, but that the government ignored rules, she created herself.
The response after the fire was not good enough either. The one responsible for that is Minister Verdonk (yes, from the Ayaan Hirsi Ali controversy). Terribly enough, she will not resign.
Cross posted at Liberty and Justice
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10 Responses to “Two Dutch Ministers Resign”
Vrom, Verdonk and Dekker. I just love the names. I just wish that the Netherlands didn’t expel all its wingnuts to western Michigan where they impose their retro Calvinism on our state’s politics. Couldn’t they have ALL gone to South Africa? It’s a more natural fit. The Dutch who love the Enlightenment stay in Holland. Those who don’t, create apartheid theocracy someplace else. Now THAT’s something I’d love to have explained. What are your thoughts on this, Michael? Why are the Dutch Dutch so progressive, and the Dutch exiles so, well, less progressive?
Elrod: I think that the answer to that is quite simple: why did the Puritans move from England to the Netherlands and after a while left the Netherlands as well and went to America?
Oh, I know. I was asking it rhetorically. I just think it’s fascinating to juxtapose the social views of Dutch Reformed zealots in Holland, Michigan with what passes for “conservative” in contemporary Dutch politics in Holland proper. You realize that our foolish House Armed Services Committee Chair, Peter Hoekstra, is a western Michigan Dutch-belt man.
Also, while the English Puritans escaped to North America, most did so by 1641. Those same Puritans became, over time, the Radical Republicans of the 1860s, and are today’s Progressive/Liberal Democrats. They are no longer socially conservative, but they are just as concerned with “social betterment” as their Puritan forebears.
The West Michigan Dutch are every bit as socially conservative today as they were in the 19th century.
Elrod you are of course completely right. Their ‘offspring’ has become quite ‘lefty’ so to speak. But the subject at hand was, not why some Calvinists who moved to the US held on to it, but why pure / strict Calvinists moved abroad in the first place
Anyway, that question, I cannot answer it really. I do not know enough about those people. My question would be, when did those people move to America? If it is, relatively, a short while ago, that could explain it to a degree I suppose.
Also: perhaps the Puritins were influenced (a lot) by people who had different worldviews and perhaps those Dutch from which Hoekstra is a descendent lived far more isolated up until a, again relatively, short while ago?
Lastly, the Puritins, of course, went through a dramatic change during the course of the centuries: they moved in there while having virtually nothing (over-simplifying), but over the decades (and now centuries) Massachusetts, for instance, changed into a state with a vibrant economy. Particularly trade, which is linked to the question above, namely that trade caused a lot of contact with people who think differently. If one wants to become a successful trader / businessman, one has to be able to adapt / be flexeable.
Perhaps not so in Michigan?
I don’t know, just trying to come up with some theories that might hold some wather.
I can’t speak to Calvinism – I’m just impressed with the functional accountability in the Dutch government.
How do we get some of that?
Mike P. very easy: install ministrial responsibility as one of the key foundations of your political system. This means that ministers are (politically) responsible for everything that happens under their department (whether they know about it or not).
Combine that with the rule that there must be a majority in Parliament supportive of a minister and…
oh… I forgot. And add common sense to it.
Well obviously it’s that last one where you’ve got us beat, Michael.
Heh. Two posts about Europe today: Turkey and the Netherlands. Be afraid, be very afraid, before you know, I am turning all of you in to ‘internationlists’
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TITLE: RESIGNATIONS
BLOG NAME: Peaktalk
With two months to go to an election two Dutch ministers have resigned over a fire at Schiphol airport that killed 11 illegal aliens last year. An inquiry found that both the Justice and the Housing, Planning & Environment ministries…