Sorry I thought we had moved on from all the fuss about discrimination concerning children’s’ parties and special festive occasions. I must say I am really glad that in February finally after months and months of talk about the Dutch Sinterklaasfeest (5th December) and loads of people up in arms about racial discrimination is over but the latest hype is that there should be a stop to children’s parties about Cowboys and Indians.
I am beginning to think the entire country has gone completely bonkers! It seems that the people who are making all the fuss are forgetting that we are talking about children’s’ games, which have been played for years.
I heard this on the television last night and so the impulse to write this column, that party centre Tivoli/Vredenburg will no longer be organising children’s’ parties with this theme (Cowboys and Indians). Why on earth not?
Apparently some small group made an official complaint against ‘My First Party’ because of use of ‘Nazi types’. Er, sorry what? When the prominent activist Anouscha Nzume joined the cause and threatened to withdraw her co-operation on another feministic festival, there was no way back. This meant that the organisers in Tivoli ended up with their backs against the wall and made a statement that ‘they will no longer be organizing this type of party anymore’. How much longer are people going to succumb to such people? Really aren’t they doing exactly the same tactic which they are making such a fuss about?
Well of course I have had to google ‘Anouscha Nzume’, who on earth is she, never heard of her? Well she seems to be a writer and an actress, or in other words as the newspapers are describing her as a complete hysterical nutcase! OK. Even my most least favourite TV programme (Football Inside) has had a discussion about her. I could only agree. Born in Russia, Russian mother, father from the Cameroon (Africa). Came to live in Holland when her father (a doctor) came to learn more. Aha, well she is really a sort of guest then in this country, like me. Not a national. Not that that makes a lot of difference but maybe she should remember the fact that the choice of coming to live here means that you adapt to the local customs or go back to where you came from?
As far as I can remember, children have played cowboys and Indians, it just a game after all. Do people like Nzume seriously think that children are comparing this to some kind of insult to first nation peoples? They probably don’t even know what this means. A racist game? Let’s have more respect for our forefathers please.
I seriously think that all the media fuss of late whether it be about Sinterklaas, Cowboys and Indians, transgenders and goodness knows what else, are people who seriously need to think about doing something else with their life. Maybe channel their short-term media popularity into supporting positive things, instead of screaming from the rooftops about what they consider everyone else is doing wrong.
How much longer are we going to listen to these co-called splinter groups that do nothing more than cause aggravation.
I am all for having an opinion, but come on …. get real! A fellow writer Saskia Noort recently said (and I think this is very relevant): Maybe we should stop writing about them and giving them even more attention. Good words, enough said.
