After a report was highly critical of the Dutch for failing to prevent the worse atrocity in the Bosnian war the Dutch Cabinet has resigned en bloc.

Read the story here

Having read this, I feel rather like one of those characters in an international joke - you know, the German who didn't know what a "shortage" was, or the New Yorker who didn't understand "Excuse me".

Have a number of politicians really resigned because they were criticized over a few thousand deaths in "a far away country of which we know nothing"? I can't see that sort of thing happening in Britain, somehow. They never resign here unless they're practically on their way to jail (except when "resignation" is a face-saving alternative to the sack).

It all goes to confirm my belief that the Netherlands is one of the few genuinely civilized countries in the modern world.

That's kind of odd! I mean is it just a massive mea culpa or something? I'd heard it announced on the BBC in the car this morning on the way to work and before the resignation.
The Dutch mystify me and when I visit the Netherlands I'm always faced with the contrasts in their society. In my studies I often touched upon paradoxes too.
It's the high moral standards vs the tolerance of major drugs in the streets. And it's always been there from what I can see.

I hate to burst your bubbles here, but I have some serious doubts about the sincerity of this "action".

You must know, there are new elections due in two weeks, so it is really just a symbolic act. Or are these politicians not going to run for office? Don't think so...

More then a month ago, a first report was released which was even far more negative. Nothing happened then though...

Don't get me wrong, I do think it is a nice gesture, but not more...

[ 04-17-2002, 12:11 PM: Message edited by: wimm ]

Thanks Wimm, it did seem a bit theatrical as a gesture. Politicians are most often like pitbulls in giving up their positions. Perhaps they think they'll become cleansed of their sins!

I saw this thread only now, but still felt like posting an answer as I'm from the Netherlands. I have to agree with Wimm that it seems kind of unsincere to resign with new elections being held on May 15th, only 3 weeks away. They might as well have resigned when the whole genocide had just happened, in 1995!

On the other hand almost everybody here in the Netherlands kind of feels sorry for our prime minister Wim Kok, because he almost succeeded in bringing to an end 8 yrs of being in office with a combination of parties that had always seemed impossible. So from that point of view it was a bigger deal than it may seem on a first look...

Bruyere, I have to agree with you that there are a lot of contradictions in our country. I just hope you didn't mean to say that there have always been major drugs in the streets? Besides that, I do hope that you have visited someplace else than Amsterdam, 'cause that's not really a good example of my country !

Hi, I'm sorry, I am probably putting my foot in my mouth again, I am one of those annoying Librans who see the positive and the negative in everything, it drives most people wild.
I meant that if you study Dutch art and you see the boisterous pub scenes and café life of the past, vs the virtuous pious housewife scrubbing the steps and taking care of the children, you see the contrast.
Every country has it though!
If you take a Jan Steen vs a, well, there are a number of them, Vermeer perhaps, but he's not a good example.
I'm still digesting the events in the country in which I live, don't worry!

Hi, I'm sorry, I am probably putting my foot in my mouth again, I am one of those annoying Librans who see the positive and the negative in everything, it drives most people wild. But I do it to my own country too!
I meant that if you study Dutch art and you see the boisterous pub scenes and café life of the past, vs the virtuous pious housewife scrubbing the steps and taking care of the children, you see the contrast.
Every country has it though!
If you take a Jan Steen vs a, well, there are a number of them, Vermeer perhaps, but he's not a good example.
I'm still digesting the events in the country in which I live, don't worry!

1° It surprises me that the Dutch are so much taken as one uniform group. There is so much difference within that country: Brabant, Limburg,Groningen,Friesland..have such typical individual traits.
2° As to the resignation of the Dutch government,I would not want to be too cynical about that.
The Dutch tend to lecture others on "moral stances" and within that context it requires some courage to admit one has been wrong. And I do not see this sort of public admission of a shortcoming happen in too many other countries.Not even just a few weeks before the elections.Especially as it was not a "party vs. party matter".
Most countries have far larger carpets under which to sweep the dirt.
The Dutch may be hard as nails in business, in matters of principle their reasonings can be straight as an arrow.
And please do not take this as a beatification . Especially Dutch calvinists don't believe in saints.It's their principles that are like their roads and their canals: rectilinear.Mondriaan-style.Nobody claims they always live up to that moral rectitude.Calvinists are more aware of 'sin' than most.Occasionally, even of the sin of 'bungling up' things.
All my respect for Mr.Kok who dares to admit the government he belonged to was not as good as it had hoped to be.Having the right principles is in itself not yet a recipe for success.
It is not because you have a nicely sign-posted straight moral road that you also have the power and the stamina to walk it to the very end.
Moreover Kok was right in pointing out it was not just a failure of the Dutch. It was a failure of the famous "international community".
Just as the Ruandan drama was not just a Belgian failure.
You do not send boy-scouts to a civil war.When the United Nations send a "peace-keeping" or "peace-making" force to a country in trouble, they should know what they are doing.
You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs.
Easier said than done.Where is the middle road between the light weapons of DutchBat and the heavy tanks of Mr. Sharon? If you want the end you will have to want the means.

I wanna know who resigned for Holland not making the world cup!!!!

Van Gaal did.