Scientists: Americans have emotions

I was shocked too, but some boffins needed actual research to tell them that 9/11 'still' influences the feelings of Americans.

We lost Belgium in 1831 and even now I sometimes lie awake, staring at the stars and the futility of it all.

(No, I am kidding.)

18:44

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Rent a Muslim!

Are there questions you'd like to ask of your fellow Muslim citizens, but never before have you been able to muster enough courage?

Then go and travel to the fair (cough) city of Almelo (where, incidentally, I was born on Friday the 13th, 1975 - yes, I've heard all the jokes). In the local library you can rent a Muslim for an hour.

Oh, if you're already tolerant of Muslims, you can talk to a gay person or someone who lives in a trailer camp instead. You can then ask him or her all the questions you never dared to before.

This is condescending on so many levels I don't know where to start, but I’ll have a go at it anyway.

If I were a member of an ethnic group or minority, and members of 'my' group are being discriminated against, I would feel no need whatsoever to talk to people who want to speak with me, as they are probably without prejudice already.

If I were a member of an ethnic group or minority, and other members of that group are making a mess of things (we've had people from a trailer camp blocking an entire highway for half a day), I would never feel the need to defend myself for stuff I didn't do.

In other words, this idea is degrading.

At the same time, it's condescending towards the customers of said library. It is a fact that there are problems with integrating Muslim immigrants into Dutch society. It is also a fact that there have been quite a few police raids of trailer camps in the past few years.

How big these problems are and how they should be tackled are matters on which reasonable people can disagree. But pretending they are purely a matter of perspective, issues which can be resolved by simply letting the ignorant people have a chat with the embattled ones, is rather patronizing.

The only people that would benefit from this scheme are those who have racist or otherwise prejudiced views of either gays, Muslims or people who live in trailer camps. Now, how many of them do you think are going to show up?

My thoughts exactly.

12:19

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