October 24, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY
Calvin will host an outspoken Dutch journalist and author on Saturday,
November 4 at 7:30 pm in a talk that is free and open to all. Geert Mak will
speak in the Calvin Chapel on the topic "Dutch Disease or European Dilemma:
Have Dutch Tolerance and Multiculturalism Failed?"
His visit is being hosted nationally by the Netherlands American Foundation
and locally by the Meijer Chair in Dutch Language and Culture at Calvin
College.
Henk Aay, the first holder of that Meijer Chair, says Mak will address some
important issues related to multiculturalism, tolerance and national identity.
"Mak," he says, "is an influential writer in the rather polarized debate in
his country around such issues as multiculturalism, immigration and Islam. The
growing tensions between the Middle East and the West are also surfacing in the
Netherlands, sometimes in tragic fashion."
Aay points to the assassinations in that country of politician Pim Fortuyn and
artist Theo van Gogh as real wake-up calls for both the Netherlands and
Europe.
In Mak's newspaper career he has addressed such overarching themes as
minorities, youth movements, big city politics and problems, and more recently
the troubled immigration and integration issues of certain groups in the Muslim
population of the Netherlands.
"In the last century," says Aay, "Holland has often been seen as a model for
all of Europe. Its soft drug initiatives and tolerance towards immigrants and
asylum seekers have been seen as part Europe's modern future. However, since
the Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh murders, Dutch public opinion has shifted and
today some leaders argue that Dutch tolerance and multiculturalism have
failed."
Mak explores the question, says Aay, of whether or not the Netherlands is
still a model for Europe. Will Europe move in the same direction as the
Netherlands or is this merely a Dutch disease?
National Sponsors for Mak's U.S. speaking tour include KLM, The Netherlands
Translating and Production Fund and the Netherlands-America Foundation. The
Netherlands Consulate, the Dutch International Society and the Association for
the Advancement of Dutch Studies are regional sponsors.
Contact Aay at 616-526-7033 or aay@calvin.edu
-end-
Received on Mon Oct 23 16:34:25 2006
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