Exhibition aims to establish common ground amid fractious debate over violence in post-independence Indonesia
A little bit of a crappy story. Lets compare the Dutch of today to the rest of Europe today. I’m from the UK with freinds and family in the Netherlands. If it wasn’t for elderly parents, I’d have moved there too.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
But in few European countries is the process of confronting the colonial period proving as fractious and divisive as in the Netherlands, where opposing sides have in recent years struggled to agree on who was victim and who was perpetrator.
This month, an exhibition at Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk gallery space and two new books in a major historical series try to establish common ground over the violence that ensued after Indonesia declared independence from Dutch colonial rule in 1945.
“Every day, we have seen how much of our past related with this former colony is still raw and unworked, denied, fought against or praised, when many others think differently about it,” said Annabelle Birnie, the director of the Nieuwe Kerk, which launches the Big Indonesia show on Saturday.
The current debate in the Netherlands centres on what happened next: after Indonesia’s future president Sukarno declared independence on 17 August 1945, the Dutch fought to prolong colonial rule, often through barbaric means, before ceding on 27 December 1949.
In August, Amsterdam’s mayor, Femke Halsema, withdrew from a commemorative ceremony because of a speech by the apologist daughter of Raymond Westerling, an army officer who led revenge attacks on local people during the war.
Campaigners for the recognition of Indonesians’ losses, such as Jeffry Pondaag, chair of the Dutch Honorary Debts Committee Foundation, advocate compensation for all damage and gains from colonial activity.
The original article contains 1,295 words, the summary contains 231 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Yeah but stroopwafel though
What about confronting it’s colonial present? Last time I checked, the colonialist world order that underpins the wealth of the Global North hasn’t ended.
I think it means losing those colonies
Last time I checked, big foreign corporations are still looting and pillaging all over Africa as if independence never happened… I wonder why?
edit: This includes Shell, a Dutch corporation, btw.
I’m guessing relative weakness of the governments and rampant corruption.
Yeah… tons of bribe money will do that to the governments of weak nations - it’s almost like Cuba had the correct idea.
Cuba should start bribing those governments to stick it to the West
Thanks for letting me know the evils of colonialism, English website.
I’m not generally one to defend a MSM outlet, and I have many issues specifically with the Guardian, but in this case they have been publishing a lot about “how slavery changed the Guardian, Britain and the world”
i mean, that’s the audience that needs to hear this message the most…
