By Barend ter Haar. Everybody claims to be in favour of democracy. But what does democracy mean when most contentious issues are transboundary rather than internal issues? In contrast to what one might expect, the answer has to be sought at the international rather than at the national level. Let us start with looking at democracy at the national level. The essence of democracy is that people have a say in the way they are governed by choosing their political leaders in free elections. In addition referenda can be held to decide on specific questions. All this can work out well as long as a government deals with internal matters. However, nowadays only few issues are of a purely internal nature. Take for example monitoring farming. At first sight, that might seem an internal matter, but if the Netherlands would be slow in reacting to an outbreak of bird flu, its neighbours would feel the consequences; and if Morocco would be too lax on the use of insecticides, Dutch people eating Moroccan oranges might fell ill. Therefore, how democratic would it be if Dutch voters decide on sanitary measures for their poultry that are of direct influence on the citizens of other European states? Or how democratic would it be if Dutch voters would block a association agreement that the governments of 500 million other Europeans have agreed to? Let us make a thought experiment and presume that all democracies would introduce the possibility of national referenda that could lead to the withdrawal of previous consent of both government and parliament. And let us assume that parties in other counties would follow the Dutch example and would promote a No-vote, not on the merits of the case, but for other reasons? It requires little imagination that this could easily lead to international chaos. So what is the alternative? Politicians and political parties will have to face the truth that we no longer live in sovereign states that are free to decide what to do. Those times are long gone. No matter whether a state is member of the EU or not, it has to accept a large number of standards and rules, not because these rules are legally binding (they often are not), but because there is no practical alternative, just as a traditional Englishman who wants to drive on the left will experience when he visits the continent. This is even true for a powerful country like the United States. Take for example the Law of the Sea Convention and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The American Congress has refused to ratify both treaties, nevertheless the US government respects both treaties in practice. Does this mean that we are now subjected to a global undemocratic elite? No, in fact the global decision process is about as democratic as a process involving seven billion people can be. Take for example the Climate Change Conference that took place last year in Paris. The chosen representatives of every country could participate and the preparations and negotiations took place in a transparent manner that could be an example for many national democracies.

Pictured Vibviane Uwicyeza Mironko and husband H. E. Jean Pierre Karabaranga, Ambassador of Rwanda. Everyone wins when women are stakeholders in development: The case of Rwanda By Ambassador Jean Pierre Karabaranga and Robert Kayinamura, First Counsellor, Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda. On March 8th 2016, the World celebrated International Women’s Day under the theme “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality” which is tailored to encourage men and women to act for positive change. Rwanda’s celebrations will be under the theme, “Step it up for Gender Equality, Strive for Women Empowerment.” The Rwanda embassy in The Hague, in collaboration with the Rwanda community in the Netherlands, celebrated international women’s day on 26th March 2016. Rwanda has been lauded for having achieved great progress in the advancement of women’s rights, making Rwanda the first country in the world to reach such a target. For additional Marina van Noort’s pictures, please click here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/121611753@N07/albums/72157666493020575

The event brought together several dignitaries including ambassadors, representatives of civil society in the Netherlands, the Rwandan diaspora and friends of Rwanda. The event was attended by some 150 people; the guest of honor was H.E. Ambassador Odette Melono of Cameroon, Dean of African Ambassadors in The Hague. This year’s Rwanda Women’s Day celebration was under the theme: “Step it Up for Gender Equality, Strive for Women Empowerment”. The key message by all speakers was the essential need for gender equality in attaining female empowerment. The event further highlighted the importance of equal representation of women at all levels of government and the integration of gender issues in all aspects of development. Speaking at the event, many of the civil society organizations that have worked in Rwanda commended the country for leading the way in women’s and girls’ empowerment. Joy Uwanziga, a Rwandan living in Netherlands and author of Manners in Rwanda, in her remarks thanked the men and women of Rwanda for their visionary leadership, noting that the empowerment of women entails the empowerment of all society.  

The guest of honor, H.E. Ambassador Odette Melono, stated that there is nothing impossible in achieving equal opportunity for all, citing several examples of female empowerment at all levels, and called for a continued effort in ensuring the participation of women at all levels. The Ambassador added that strengthening women’s empowerment is integral to the task of empowering nations, and building stronger economies and healthier societies. H.E. Ambassador Karabaranga thanked everyone who attended the celebration, and noted that the day’s event was about celebrating the outstanding achievements registered by women of all walks of life in Rwanda: the dignity, equality and right to opportunity of every Rwandan woman. Ambassador Karabaranda attributed Rwanda’s achievements to leadership and a recognition of the value of human beings. He pointed out that Rwanda’s success story of female empowerment and gender equality started with the new visionary leadership of Rwanda after 1994, adding that the 2003 Rwandan constitution established that the equality of all Rwandans and is to be ensured, in part, by granting women at least 30 per cent of posts in all decision-making bodies. Ambassador Karabaranga further remarked that for the last 22 years, women have played an important role in Rwanda’s recovery and reconstruction. It is not surprising that the remarkable rise of Rwanda’s women over the years closely tracks the general upward trajectory of the country’s development.   The Ambassador then quoted H.E. Kagame, who once said: “Gender equality and women’s empowerment is a cornerstone of the Government of Rwanda’s development strategy, and a proven source of development progress. “Gender equality is an indivisible component of the wider struggle for human dignity ……..” “Gender equality is not just women’s business. It is everybody’s business. Gender equality and women’s empowerment are critical to sustainable socio-economic development.” “The question you have to ponder is simply this: How does a society hope to transform itself if it shoots itself in the foot by squandering more than half of its capital investment? The truth of the matter is that societies that recognize the real and untapped socioeconomic, cultural, and political power of women thrive. Those that refuse to value and leverage women’s talent, energies, and unique skills remain developmental misfits. It is not difficult to demonstrate this with a growing body of evidence.” Ambassador Karabaranga added: “Rwanda is becoming day by day among of the best places to be and live as a woman and girl in the world. The Government of Rwanda, under the leadership of HE President Paul Kagame, has made women’s empowerment and inclusion a hallmark of recovery and reconstruction”.

With the legal provisions for affirmative action to uplift women’s representation in decision making positions at all levels, Rwanda has recorded the highest female representation in political decision making areas including Parliament (64%), Senate (38%), Judiciary (43%), and Cabinet (40%) among others. Rwanda has taken special measures to improve social welfare of women and men as a strategy to reduce poverty. Rwandan women seized the opportunity to turn catastrophe into an African success story. In doing so, they set an example that offers powerful lessons for other countries. They have stabilized the country, helping forge a more socially just, environmentally enlightened, and economically stable country and men and children have been the beneficiaries of these efforts. Rwanda has registered significant achievements in promoting gender equality and empowerment of women ranging from; an enabling policy, legal and institutional framework, enhanced socio-economic and political participation and setting the global pace for equality between men and women. When the MDGs were launched, Rwandan women in leadership positions developed a focus on rural women and girls, and now they have focused on effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), many of which reflect positively on the situation of rural women. It was the Rwandans in leadership that helped to enact policies that protect and promote the rights of rural women and girls in accordance the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). According to the global gender gap index 2014 that measured global gender disparities across 145 countries surveyed, Rwanda was ranked 7th globally by the World Economic Forum report and 2nd by the African Development Bank 2015 index. According to the recently released FinScope report 2016, women’s access to formal financial services increased from 36.1 percent in 2013/14 to 63 percent in 2016. Budget allocation for the implementation of gender equality commitments has continued to increase over years. Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting (GRB) is a requirement in all sectors and districts and has been institutionalized through the promulgation of the Organic Budget Law, implemented and spearheaded by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. Allow me to cite few major and current facts of the progress done so far : Rwanda has recorded the highest female representation in political decision making areas including : Parliament(today at 64%) ranking   our country number one in the world in terms of female representation in parliament, judiciary(43%), Cabinet(40%) among others.

The Finesco 2016 report that 63% of Rwandan women currently have access to finances. According to the global gender gap index 2014 that measured global gender disparities across 145 countries surveyed, Rwanda was ranked 7th globally by the world economic forum report and 2nd by the African Development Bank 2015 index. Official reports on land holdings in Rwanda for example indicate that 26 % of land is owned by women, 18 % is owned by men, while 54 % is shared by both spouses. In education for instance in 2014, girls’ net enrolment rate reached 97% compared to 96% for boys, number of girls enrolled in TVET courses was at 43.7% compared to 56.3% of boys. On safety and security , according to the Gallup Global Law and Order 2015 Report , Rwanda has been ranked among the safest countries in the world that provide conducive atmosphere to people who walk alone at night , including women . While celebrating present successes in Rwanda , let’s also think about the future by calling for greater equality for those who are still struggling for their rights around the world. This year’s celebration is a time to call for more actions. We have today to unite our voices with the rest of world to condemn with all our energy those systems, policies and practices that are still   violating the basic women rights. As we did in Rwanda , Let us unite our call to create a better world in which every woman is treated with respect and dignity, every boy and girl is loved and cared equally, and every family has the hope of a strong, stable and a better future. In Rwanda, there is overwhelming evidence that women are the driving force behind the success story of the country with a combination of committed leadership at different levels and the willingness of the people. Rwanda in general has learnt that everyone wins when women are put on the forefront of development.                    

By Jhr. mr. Alexander W. Beelaerts van Blokland.   The Hague as city of peace and justice is more than just host of international courts and tribunals. It supports the very promotion of this universal goal, as comprised in the Sustainable Development Goal 16 by the United Nations. To underline The Hague’s support, Mayor Jozias van Aartsen expressed during his visit to the Secretary General of the United Nation, Dr. Ban Ki-moon, the commitment the city has towards the SDG’s. Mending the lack of peace and justice is supported by the city in a wide variety of ways, with multiple stakeholders, from academia, think tanks, international organizations, NGOs, and the private sector. Developments around the world over the past decades often brought home that peace and justice is not a final stage. They need permanent maintenance and attention. Even in those countries where war is absent and rule of law governs society. How to achieve and maintain stability, peace and justice is a matter that always had its own dynamics. Over the past decades, urbanization has been a hallmark of development in many countries where cities now produce the largest part of the national GDP. Regional cooperation on every continent after World War II has become common practice. Societies are increasingly globally connected, while the phenomenon of non-state actors is clear and present. These factors have an influence on how the world approaches issues and how solutions can be implemented. As the Albright-Gambari Commission on Global Security, Justice & Governance said in its report on UN reform (2015), the UN is very much a 20th century organization, increasingly unable to address the issues the world community has to tackle in the 21st century. Most notably the effects of climate change, the way fragile states are ravaged, and the way governance can be organized for the hyper connected world. Many of these issues are no longer neatly defined within national borders, national parliaments and governments. Cross border cooperation, input and ownership by other stakeholders than national institutions, are crucial for this day and age. No doubt, these developments will be discussed during the week of April 18th, when The Hague will see a flurry of activities related to the United Nations, including a visit by its Secretary General, Dr. Ban Ki-moon. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will celebrate its 70th anniversary, while the International Criminal Court (ICC) has taken up its new premises. Also, the Dutch ‘Hoge Raad der Nederlanden’ (the Supreme Court) will open their doors of a new building and will commemorate its 200th anniversary, making it one of the oldest legal institutions in the Netherlands. During this ‘Week of Justice’, preparations will already be underway for another project related to peace and justice. Cities are bound to take up their responsibilities connected to the place where the majority of mankind will live, work, play, argue, and sometimes fight. This position comes with many challenges and possibilities. Seizing the opportunities provided by this undeniable trend requires also taking ownership and shoring up expertise. That is why the City of The Hague will host the inaugural session of the Global Parliament of Mayors in September, in cooperation with Dr. Benjamin Barber, the American author of ‘If Mayors Ruled the World.’ This platform provides an excellent opportunity to share knowledge and improve practical cooperation between cities. Especially in the peace and justice related fields of expertise The Hague has to offer. As said, just being host of institutions is not enough, it is not an ambition The Hague has. Connecting the courts and tribunals with other stakeholders for the development of international law and the promotion of peace and justice is. a.beelaerts@planet.nl The author is Justice (Judge) in the (Dutch) Court of Appeal and honorary Special Advisor International Affairs, in 2004 appointed by the Mayor and Aldermen of The Hague.            

By Prof. dr. André Nijhof & Nika Salvetti “I’ve never heard so many CEOs talk politics. Richard Branson says that’s a good start.” This quote was recently published online and it illustrates the presence of the corporate voice in reaching the ambitions laid down in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. Whereas the first RIO-conference was dominated by heads of state, the COP-21 in Paris illustrates that CEOs where the first to speak out about ambitious goals towards the future. However the quote of Richard Branson triggers a more fundamental question. Should we listen to CEOs when it comes to climate change, alleviating poverty, injustices in the world and the other topics of the SDGs? Traditionally CEOs are in charge of the strategy of their corporation, should they now also be involved in politics? Partly Yes, because corporations should be part of the debate about the appropriate norms to make progress towards the SDGs. The reason is that for many of these issues new potential business opportunities are created in a domain where regulation by national governments cannot be effective. This results in what is called the `the global regulatory gap’, creating direct dialogues between civil society organizations and corporations resulting in new norms – in the form of standards, codes, alliances and sometimes regulation – being developed by these actors, which directly or indirectly influence public policies. The sector initiatives like the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and the Rainforest Alliance are influential examples. This development is described in literature as the transition from liberal democracy to deliberative democracy (see Scherer and Palazzo, 2007). And partly No, because if CEOs come with an open or hidden agenda focusing on driving sales and profit maximization there is no guarantee that the provision of other fundamental goods and services to targeted beneficiaries – like access for all to health care, equal distribution of resources, i.e. drinkable water, or living without fear of terrorism – will be reached. There are just too many examples where ultimately it seems that only the companies involved benefitted at the end of a project. This creates an interesting playing field for international diplomacy. On the one hand we need to involve companies and on the other hand there is always the risk that involvement of CEOs turns out to be old-fashioned lobbyism focusing on corporate benefits. How to balance this? Maybe the best advice is to make it personal. Amitai Etzioni argues with his I & We paradigm that every person has a part focusing on self-interest and at the same time has a part that values the connectedness between people and contributing to collective goods. Learning how to differentiate ‘good from bad’ CEOs, making personal intentions part of the conversation and joint action might be some of the most important skills of the modern diplomat in the age of sustainability.

Nyenrode Business Universiteit is the only private university in the Netherlands, founded for and by business. Nyenrode pillars of Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Stewardship are reflected in all of their programs which include undergraduate and graduate degrees in management, business, finance and accounting.   Nyenrode is a proud partner of Diplomat Magazine. Together, they have developed the Nyenrode – Diplomat Magazine Award which recognizes the talents from the diplomat network in the Netherlands and worldwide by providing them with exclusive scholarships for the programs Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Master (MSc) in Management, full-time International MBA and part-time Executive MBA. For more information visit www.nyenrodemasters.nl/diplomat and register for the launching event on June 1st at the Carlton Ambassador Den Haag.   Prof Dr André Nijhof is full professor in Sustainable Business and Stewardship and is visiting professor at Chang Gung University in Taiwan and the University for Peace in Costa Rica.   Nika Salvetti is a PhD candidate and practitioner in the field of CSR, Sustainability, Social Responsibility where she worked on in different developing countries such as Bangladesh, Uganda, Guatemala, as well as in Costa Rica, the overall Balkans and Middle East.

  Notes: For the quote of Richard Branson, see: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ive-never-heard-so-many-ceos-talk-politics-richard-branson-roth) Andreas Georg Scherer and Guido Palazzo (2007), Toward a Political Conception of Corporate Responsibility: Business and Society Seen from a Habermasian Perspective, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 32, No. 4, 1096-1120  

By Professor Anis H. Bajrektarevic. There is a claim constantly circulating the EU: ‘multiculturalism is dead in Europe’. Dead or maybe d(r)ead?… That much comes from a cluster of European nation-states that love to romanticize – in a grand metanarrative of dogmatic universalism – their appearance as of the coherent Union, as if they themselves lived a long, cordial and credible history of multiculturalism. Hence, this claim and its resonating debate is of course false. It is also cynical because it is purposely deceiving. No wonder, as the conglomerate of nation-states/EU has silently handed over one of its most important debates – that of European anti-fascistic identity, or otherness – to the wing-parties. This was repeatedly followed by the selective and contra-productive foreign policy actions of the Union over the last two decades. Twin Paris shootings and this fresh Brussels horror, terrible beyond comprehension, will reload and overheat those debates. However, these debates are ill conceived, resting from the start on completely wrong and misleading premises. Terrorism, terror, terrorism!! – But, terror is a tactics, not an ideology. How can one conduct and win war on tactics? – it is an oxymoron. (In that case, only to win are larger budgets for the homeland security apparatus on expenses of our freedoms and liberties, like so many times before.) The January assassins in the Parisian Satirical Magazine, as well as those behind the bloody Paris Friday of November, and those behind the Black Tuesday in Brussels (butchering randomly selected victims) are labeled as the so-called Islamofascists. The fact that these individuals are (again) allegedly of Arab-Muslim origins and seemingly clero-indoctrinated does not make them less fascists, less European, nor does it abolish Europe from the main responsibility in this case. How do we define that challenge will answer us whether we live the real democracy or are blinded by the formal one. Fascism and its evil twin, Nazism are 100% European ideologies. Neo-Nazism also originates from and lately unchecked blossoms, primarily in Europe. Many would dare say of today; an über-economy in the center of continent, surrounded from all sides by the recuperating neo-fascism. How else to explain that the post-WWII come-and-help-our-recovery slogan Gastarbeiter willkommen became an Auslander Raus roar in a matter of only two decades, or precisely since the triumph of the free will – fall of the Berlin Wall. Suddenly, our national purifiers extensively shout ‘stop überfremdung of EU, we need de-ciganization’ of our societies, as if it historically does not always end up in one and only possible way– self-barbarization. In response, the socially marginalized and ghettoized ‘foreigners’ are calling for the creation of gastarbeiterpartie. Indeed, the first political parties of foreigners are already created in Austria, with similar calls in Germany, France and the Netherlands. Their natural coalition partner would never be any of the main political parties. We should know by now, how the diverting of the mounting socio-economic discontent and generational disfranchising through ethno engineering will end up, don’t we? The Old continent tried to amortize its deepening economic and demographic contraction by a constant interference on its peripheries, especially meddling on the Balkans, Black Sea/Cau-casus and MENA (Middle East–North Africa). What is now an epilogue? A severe democratic recession. Whom to blame for this structural, lasting civilizational retreat that Europe suffers? Is it accurate or only convenient to accuse a bunch of useful idiots for returning home with the combative behavior, equipped with the European guns and homegrown anger of the misused? *          *          *          *          * My voice was just one of the many that included notables like Umberto Eco, Bono Vox and Kishore Mahbubani –foster moderation and dialogue, encourage forces of toleration, wisdom and understanding, stop supporting and promoting ethno-fascism in the former Yugoslavia and Ukraine. These advices were and are still ridiculed and silenced, or in the best case, ignored. Conversely, what the EU constantly nurtured and cherished with its councils, boots and humanitarian aid starting from Bosnia 25 years ago, Middle East, until the present day Ukraine was less of a constructive strategic engagement and lasting-compromise, but more of a history-rewriting, cult of death, destruction, partition, exclusion and reverse drive to fascism.[1] Some of the most notorious regimes on this planet are extensively advertised and glorified all throughout the EU– including its biggest sports events and the most popular sports. No matter, that one of these hereditary theocracies considers as a serious criminal offence– brutally coercing like European Nazis did in 1930s – if the prescribed state religion is not obeyed as the only existing one. On the other side, European temple of multiculturalism – Sarajevo, was barbarically sieged and bombed for 1,000 days – all that just a one-hour flight from Brussels. Still, 20 years after falling a victim of unthinkable genocide, Bosnia remains the only UN member state in the world that does not exercise its sovereignty. It is administratively occupied by the opaque and retrograde international bureaucracy (that is out of any institutionalized democratic control and verification) – predominantly overpaid secondhand European apparatchiks that institutionalized segregation in this, victimized then criminalized, country. Illuminating cradles of millennial multiculturalism – some of the brightest verticals of entire human civilization such as Jerusalem, Bagdad and Damascus still suffer unbearable horrors of externally induced, rather ahistorical destruction, hatred and perpetuated purges. With such a dismal ‘export’ record, universal claim of the European political system or even its historic perspective does not hold water any longer, hardly appealing to anyone anymore. Europe still defies the obvious. There is no lasting peace at home if the neighborhood remains restless. Ask Americans living at the Mexican border, or Turks next to Syria. The horrific double Paris massacre and this fresh Brussel’s shock is yet another a painful reminder of how much the EU has already isolated itself. For unreasonably long, Europe promoted in the Middle East and Africa everything but the stability and prosperity of its own post-WWII socio-economic model. No wonder that today, instead of blossoming neighborhood, the EU is encircled by the ring of politico-military instability and socio-economic despair – from Ukraine, Balkans to MENA, and countless refuges pouring from there. (How many times is history to repeat itself? – The colonial overstretch/economic chauvinism, yesterday abroad – means a moral overkill, today at home. In this context, one should understand also the recently released Oxfam study ‘Wealth: Having it All and Wanting More’, /January, 2016/. It documents into a detail, all the enormous wealth accumulation on the side of 1% over the last 25 years, as well as the further acceleration of wealth gap. Rather mistakenly, many would consider 99% as a principal victim, although 99% themselves are primarily, sustained and for years, responsible for this cleavage by ignoring and silencing it.) Hence, when there is no opportunity, give at least a lame (Spring) hope. That is what Europe keenly helped with in the Middle East: The very type of Islam Europe supported in the Middle East yesterday, is the version of Islam (or better to say, fascism), we are getting today in the Christian Europe as well as in the Christian neighborhoods of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Thus, in response to the Balkans, MENA and Ukraine crises, the EU repeatedly failed to keep up a broad, single-voiced consolidated agenda and all-participatory basis with its strategic neighborhood. The EU missed it all – although having institutions, WWII-memory, interest credibility and ability to prevent mistakes. The very same mistakes it did before at home; by silently handing over one of its most important questions, that of European identity, anti-fascism and otherness, to escapist anti-politics (politics in retreat) dressed up in the Western European wing-parties.[2] (It leads the so-called western democracies into the deadlock of perpetuated cycles of voters’ frustrations: elect and regret, vote against and regret, re-elect and regret again… A path of an ongoing trivialization of our socio-political contents and subsequent formalization of substantive democracy.) Eventually, the ‘last world’s cosmopolitan’ – as the EU is often self-portrayed – compromised its own perspectives and discredited its own transformative power’s principle. The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, EU did so by undermining its own institutional framework: the Nurnberg principles and firm antifascist legacy (UN and CoE), Barcelona Process as the specialized segment of from-Morocco-to-Russia European Neighborhood Policy (EU) and the Euro-Med partnership (OSCE). The only direct involvement of the continent was ranging between a selective diplomatic de-legitimization, satanization in media, false-flag or proxy assaults, and punitive military engagements via the Atlantic-Central Europe-led coalition of the willing (the Balkans, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine).[3] This naturally results in a massive influx of refugees, a consequence to which Europeans (with their inherited low-tolerance of otherness) usually respond by criminalizing migrations and penalising the immigrants’ way of life. Confrontational nostalgia prevailed again over both that is essential for any viable future: dialog (instruments) and consensus (institutions). The consequences are rather striking and worth of stating once more: The sort of Islam that the EU supported (and the means deployed to do so) in the Middle East yesterday, is the sort of Islam (and the means it uses) that Europe gets today. Small wonder, that Islam in Turkey (or in Kirgizstan and in Indonesia) is broad, liberal and tolerant while the one in Atlantic-Central Europe is a brutally dismissive, narrow and vindictively assertive. Our urgent task – if we are any serious about Europe– is denazification. Not a one-time event, but a lasting process. Let’s start from Bosnia, Ukraine and Brussels at once.   Post scriptum: Back in November 2011, reflecting on the tragic events from Norway, I wrote for the Oslo’s Nordic Page the following: “No doubt, just as the cyber-autistic McFB way of life is the same in any European and Middle Eastern city, so are the radical, wing politics! Have you spotted any critical difference between the rhetoric of Norwegian serial killer Breivik and the Al Qaida Wahhabi ‘Islamists’? ‘Just like Jihadi warriors are the plum tree of Ummah, we will be the plum tree for Europe and for Christianity’– many news agencies reported these as words allegedly written by the Christian Jihadist Anders Behring.[4] The European (rightwing) parties opposing e.g. Muslim immigration are nothing but the mirror image of the MENA’s Islamist parties. In both cases, there are: (i) Socio-political outsiders (without much of any coherence, integrity and autonomy) that are denouncing the main, status quo, parties as a ‘corrupt establishment’; (ii) Extensively exploiting domestic economic shortcomings (e.g. unemployment, social inequalities, etc.), but they themselves do nothing essential to reverse the trend; (iii) Making ethnic and religious appeals (preaching the return to tradition), attacking foreign influences in their societies and otherwise ‘culturally purifying’ population; (iv) Generally doing better in local rather than in national elections (the ‘Rightists’ win on the national elections only when no other effective alternative exists to challenge the governing party/coalition block); (v) More emotionally charged populist movements than serious political parties of the solid socio-economic and socio-political program (per definition, these parties have very poor governing score).” How many more have to die before we accept and acknowledge the inevitable – Denazification process is urgently needed in Europe!   Anis H. Bajrektarevic, Vienna, 24 March 2016 Author is chairperson and professor in international law and global political studies, Vienna, Austria. He authored three books: FB – Geopolitics of Technology (published by the New York’s Addleton Academic Publishers); Geopolitics – Europe 100 years later (DB, Europe), and the just released Geopolitics – Energy – Technology by the German publisher LAP. No Asian century is his forthcoming book, scheduled for later this year. Contact: anis@bajrektarevic.eu     [1] Lasting conflicts in the multireligious and multinational countries nobody can win. Therefore, the severity and length of atrocities as well as the magnitude of suffering of civilians in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine are meaningless from the military or any logical point of you, unless the very objective is something else. What if war is used as an instrument of mass torture, not for a geostrategic advancement but for a social reengineering, e.g. Nazification? The conduct is as follows: (i) destabilized central authority; (ii) systematic and prolonged sectarian violence to the point of ‘we cannot forgive, we cannot live together anymore’; (iii) partition, hysteria, further atomization; (iv) ethno-fascism; (v) permanently dysfunctional government, easily controllable on remote control (or remote detonator – as to occasion). [2] Clearly, Europe’s far right benefits from almost everything in the EU: a contracting economy; a galloping unemployment rate; labour-rights brutalization and job insecurity; a deepening fear of loss of elementary social status; a cracking welfare system and corroded public services; a repellent Maastricht project; a multiple waves of migration, heightened by chaos in the Euro-Med (from Greece to Iraq, from Portugal to Algeria). And a Socialist/Social-democrat ‘left’ that for almost 30 years have shared with the conservative center-right the direct responsibility for neoliberal policies now locked in through the EU treaty system, and a project of remaining in power indefinitely by presenting itself every election as the last defense against the ultra-right, as the only cure, salvation possible. The result: no other political force displays as much momentum and cohesion as the far right, and none communicates as effectively the feeling that it knows the way and owns the future. No party has any convincing strategy for challenging the far right on a long run. [3] It is worth to recall my warnings against destruction of the most successful African state, one of the very few MENA countries that generously offered a universal health, universal schooling and universal housing to its citizens and permanent residents. This is my voice from autumn 2011: “To conclude with the Huntingtonian Clash of Civilizations wisdom: When the predominantly Christian air-force is bombing a predominantly Muslim country for 4 consecutive months and keeps doing so all throughout the ‘Muslim Christmas’ – the holy fasting month of Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr – it surely will not help to maintain secularism and introduce democratization locally, nor will it assist the war against Islamist radicals regionally… The nomadic tribes that got its first nationhood in 1951, and were effectively united only under Gaddafi, have finally managed to overthrow the only indigenous governing structure they have ever experienced. It has been done after nearly six months of armed struggle and with the help of over 7,000 NATO air-raids deployed against their own country and the properties built for generations. Deliberately or not, the current momentum of Libya– with the infrastructure devastated, police force dismantled, properties plundered, and the streets full of civilians (of minor and older ages, but some with the previous criminal prison dossiers, sporadic racist killers or looters) of many nationalities, armed with long guns (including the air-defence mobile rockets) without any visible command – does not create a context for any political debate or any promising future. With its social cohesion brutally fractured, and society deeply traumatized, Libya may sink into the limbo and a lasting, bloody interregnum.” (Bajrektarevic, A. (2011), Libya – The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Africa, Addleton Academic Publishers CRLSJ, 3(1)2011) [4] Tim Lister Europe’s resurgent far right focuses on immigration, multiculturalism, CNN (July 24, 2011).

By Jasna Samic. Recently it was suggested to forbid carrying all religious signs in the Bosnian courts. In the connection with that, I am following a ‘lament” over « the  Hijab » (“mahrama”, headscarf) for days and cannot believe to which extent the totallitarism started governing in Bosnia (especially Sarajevo), and to which degree the woman’s hair became the main enemy against freedom and democracy, to which measure those ladies hiding their hair started ruling this newly folkloric society, and how much primitivism succeded to force their prescriptions, their « democracy » and their concept of faith and religion (without real understanding), to which level the primitivism and a lack of knowledge cause a fier to all those who do not accept their rules (which are arrogantly by principle of opposite logic called the democratic ones). For days, those “democrates” are calling me a”fashion fashista from the West”, because I am against “Hijab”, that “every Muslim’s duty”. That is why I would like to point out and strongly underline that “Hijab” does not have any connection with a headscarf, especially the way it is being wrapped around the head these days. The expression “Hijab” in Quran means “the veil hiding God”; in another words one can never see and get to know God, because our intellect is too weak for it. This is a well known fact to all teachers (Hodjas) who work in religious schools -“Madressa” in Bosnia, but why they do not say it openly so ? Is it convenient for them that a female person stays as an inferior human being to them? When I was studying Sufism, I myself respected that rule when going to the tekke pf Sinan Agha of Sarajevo. After all, one sincere and poetic explanation for hiding women’s hair was given to me by the rare islamic democrat and  authority, the former Sheikh at Sinan’s tekke, Fejzulah Hadzibajric: “When Angels came down from the sky they got lost in women’s hair, that’s why it has to be hidden”. But what are Angels, or where they are? Most probably they too deserted, or are exiled  from today’s « neophyte society » giving a space to Iblis (and Sotona). A public wearing of headscarfs, especially  “Niqab”(black Saudi Muslim gowns which cover completely woman’s body and face) are the first signs of not obeying to God (Muslim= a person who is submissive to the only God= al-Lah), but of female repentants to males; those are clear signs or warnings to a reinstitution of slavery, especially for women who were oppressed by men from the beginnings of monoteistic religions. Wearing a headscarf (“mahrama” ) and hiding of woman’s hair is not only an islamic obligation, even so in its origin itself. Is it necessary to emphasize that Islam is the youngest monoteistic religion? It is well known fact  that women  are hiding hair and face with a veil in Catholicism, or shaving head and wearing wigs in Judaism. Those habits (and today even more so hiding the whole female’s body)  are transferred from Orient to Balkans and that it could be partially related to Hadiths (Muhammad’s tradition and behaviour) which are quite often apocryphal Even if something is being written in Quran (but it is not) about hiding women’s hair, do not forget that Islam is expecting from believers, as well as from women too, an ultimate humbleness and contrition, to be delicate, not to show off with own religion. In another words by Islam a person who does not go to mosque is not less Muslim than one who does, not to mention a woman who does not wear the headscarf. Is there a chance nowadays that the Bosnian women go further away from those Middle Age darkness from their own deliberate choice to be a slave to a totalitarian male? I am afraid there is no chance for it to happen. Talking about this phenomenon it is important to say that (in this case in the most radical shapes of religion and  Islam) it is a manipulation of broad people joined with foreign currencies, i.e. Saudi Arabis “dukats”. It is a well known fact that today’s Islam is imported directly from Saudi Arabia and that Wahabi and Salafits have more and more success in the whole world in general, so in Bosnia too. Sarajevo is looking today less  like some democratic european secular city, and more looks like a Bedouin village in the middle of a dessert, where a woman is a priori excluded from society and whose primary role is to give a birth to males. First Karadzic and Milosevic opened the door to this foreign Islam in Bosnia by ethnic cleansing (during the war 1992-1995), and after them Izetbegovic with his ambivalent relationship with the state and his  weakness towards the extreme Islam and Muslim country money. Further, it is well known that the first sign of the extreme Islam- Wahabism and Salafism – is headscarf (“mahrama”) , which is wrongly called “Hidjab’ ; after that the other symbols come easy such as “Niqab” (wrapping of women in total black clothes), than male short beards plus short trousers, next to expect would be the excision or clitorydectomia in women, supression of music and paintings (which is a « haram » in Islam), than closing of public schools, burning books and the accepting completely the macabre ideology of the Daesh. This ideology is glorifying death, submission to a male Muslim and hatred towards West. Although there are many reasons for which West could be criticized and regardless how much it is responsibility of the “black Islam”, it can be concluded that still much more rights exist at West than in other countries. Long time ago it was said by Churchill: « Democracy is not good, but there is nothing better than that ». If we can further comment that Muslim in western countries – for ex. in France – were humiliated, why this radical Islam is gaining more and more success in Bosnia ? Why it is not possible to say anything against such Islam?  How come that these foreigners from Saudi Arabia have such a power at Balkans ? What is typical for western countries, it is a hypocrisy in connection with those questions. In Bosnia, this hypocrisy is caused by fear. It is very symptomatic that many Bosnian women who do not agree wearing headscarf , Hijab, (“mahrama”), even more so with this religious exhibitionism at public places (schools, courts etc.) do not have a courage to express their opinion publicly. Yes, those big believers and those satellite followers became so powerful and aggressive that everybody else pertaining a different opinion is being called fasist, non tolerant or scary person. That is being known as a reverse logic or paranoia. We have already seen that before and during the aggression on Bosnia in the 90th, when it was not possible to say anything against extreme Serbs, because you would be labelled as Serbs ennemy. The situation is very similar, except that now we have more and more extreme Muslims who are being identified by all those who do not believe to be extreme, but accusing the others of the same. Christians are scared of not being called “islamophobic” and they are silent. Therefore the slavery to a primitive male, mafia guy or corrupted leaders is being spread in Bosnia. Is it necessary to quote the famous writer who said that the tolerance against non tolerance equalls a crime? The Bosnian society should have decided about the existence of Sharia (in which case almost all politicians should loose both arms), or of a real secular country where finally religion would be separated from the state and consequently all religious signs would be removed  from public places. Jasna Samic Specialist of Oriental languages and civilizations, Jasna Samic taught at the Universities of Sarajevo and Strasbourg, was a Director of research associate to CNRS. She is author of many books written in Bosnian and French.      

On the picture Irina Simon-Renes. By John Dunkelgrün.   Since 2010 Wassenaar has had a unique music festival, the ICMF or International Chamber Music Festival.

It is not only original in concept, but of truly high quality. Now in its seventh year it is the brainchild of Irina Simon-Renes and Liesbeth Hessels. Irina is Romanian and has been living in Wassenaar for seven years. As a teenager while on a concert tour to Cognac in France, her parents, who lived in communist Romania, managed to organise her escape to Berlin. There, with the financial help of a friend of her parents and the parents of a friend, she was able to attend the Lycée Français and the Hochschule der Künste. She was lucky to meet Prof. Thomas Zehetmair, who taught her that music is a beautiful language which needs to be handled very carefully. As a real musician, you are a medium to bring beauty into a world where there is too much ugliness. These lessons have become a red line throughout Irina’s life. She feels compelled to share the beauty of her music. While working with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra she was thinking of what she could meaningfully do after she moved to Holland with her Dutch husband. Through a daisy chain of chance contacts, she met Liesbeth Hessels. Together with Margaret de Vos van Steenwijk they hatched the idea of the ICMF. This was not just intended to be yet another local music festival, but to bring accessible classical music of world quality to Wassenaar, and also to attract people who may never have attended a live classical music concert. The festival has been a real success story. While the organisation is entirely in the hands of volunteers, they run it very professionally. Each year the program brings surprises and becomes a little more ambitious. Some program elements are chosen specifically to attract young listeners. This year’s program is a good example of that. The first day features a concert at the Rijnlands Lyceum by two young Syrian musicians Shaza Manla (12) and Jawa Manla (19) together with Irina Simon-Renes. The Lyceum students will work two weeks prior to the festival on a variety of activities around Syria as well as on the concept of music and freedom. This year’s festival highlight is a major gala candlelight concert in Castle Duivenvoorde to celebrate the work of the Dutch composer Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer, who died 250 years ago. Prof. Hans Jeekel of the Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam will give a lecture on the curative power of music. The traditional concert in the Dorpskerk in Wassenaar offers some of the most special works by Mozart, Prokofiev and Brahms with the principal woodwind players from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and an international string section. The festival ends with a spectacular family luncheon concert featuring Ukrainian percussionist Konstantyn Napolov. Children will sit among the performers. Following the concert they will have the opportunity to try various instruments and even sign up for the Music School B+C Leiden-Wassenaar. It is Irina’s most ardent wish to introduce and welcome children and their parents to the worldwide community of music lovers. The festival is traditionally held in May when the Wassenaar garden city is at its most beautiful. For more information and tickets, go to www.icmf.nl. But hurry, they go fast!