From Montreal: Multiculturalism may not work in Holland but it does in Canada
After all, Holland is remarkably different from Canada. Holland recently gave us the story of Ed Houben's fathering service. Ed has 82 children so far, has sex by appointment with 15 women every month and waits for the mothers of his children to come to him in Maastricht unless they pay his travelling expenses. (Of course, there are probably some jealous men who would claim that Ed is just making up for lost time because he stayed a virgin until he was 34.) But he insists he's offering a more personal service than a sperm bank.
But the multiculturalism argument is more focused on Muslims. It runs like this: multiculturalism has failed. Six per cent of Holland's population is now Muslim and it is not integrating into Dutch society. Dutch multiculturalism has encouraged Muslim immigrants to create a parallel society.
Apparently "he is planning to introduce a law making forced marriage illegal." Who would argue with that? "And he wants tougher measures for immigrants who lower their chance of employment by the way they dress." (Whoa! Most Canadians would fail that test: look around on your next trip to Rona. Dressing badly is one of the main reasons I live in Canada.)
The truth is that I had never thought much about imitating the Dutch. True, I always liked the idea of Amsterdam with its pot bars (I have never visited), Dutch art and architecture (houses that float as a precaution against floods.) And, as we say, many of my friends are Dutch. I have to say, too, that I was amazed reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali's autobiography about her life growing up in Muslim Somalia and her escape to Holland, where she became an elected member of parliament before escaping to America to hide from angry radicals.
But there's one big difference between Holland and Canada and that's our native peoples. We already tried to impose our values on the First Nations in the residential schools and look what came of that. Maybe multiculturalism does work for us.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Multiculturalism+work+Holland+does+Canada/6550763/story.html
Of course, multiculturalism is a part of Canada's constitution which is apparently not true in Holland. And the Dutch far-right will make sure that immigrants and multiculturalism are blamed for any problems the country has.
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