Europe’s Vital Signs

 
I love the European conservative blogs. They give me hope that all is not lost or dying there. Today, a visit on our site meter led me here.

Snouck (is that a Dutch word?) has many interests, not the least of which is the rampant damage being done to his country by the collectivist welfare system. In his leading post, he discusses the fraudulent uses to which it is put by the immigrants and their low level of participation in the economy:

	[A]while ago I heard in a tram two Moroccan girls discussing how smart their father was. Father received 75 percent from the money he used to earn as a worker in a logistics centre. The benefit was granted because of health problems that made it impossible for him to work in his old job. But he was offered other jobs now and he was dodging those jobs because he did not want to work.
	Shortly thereafter I encountered two Moroccans who disappeared from their jobs. Really young chaps, in their mid-twenties, who had been working for less than 5 years. Both were receiving benefits for "health problems". One of the employers bluntly told me that he had seen it happening with quite a few Moroccans in his employ. He thought that they were scamming the system and know how to get doctor's certificates.
	All in all the work participation rate of Moslims is very low. Something like 50 percent.

That is leech level, and leeches is what Snouck calls people who don’t work. The ones who are employed he terms the “woodchoppers,” citing the old German saying (also the old redneck saying around here):

Germanic values tell us: "Go chop wood for the fire, and you will get warm two times, once from work, and once from burning the logs. Odinsstrength, this land is cold!"

His thesis is that the cause is Islam itself, with its long history of pillage:

Islam teaches the faithful that the way to riches is robbing other groups and gaining jeyza taxes from Dhimmis and war booty. Labour is not appreciated as a way of gaining an income. The problem for Muslims is of course that it does not work anymore once a county becomes majority Muslim. Then they have to stand on their own feet or become vampires sucking from vampires.

I know educated Muslims, and I know Muslims who own their own businesses and work hard. The cases I do know, however, involve secular Muslims, so that may be the difference. Steep yourself too deeply in Mohammed’s angry, defensive brutality and you begin to think the world owes you… on the other hand, I’ve known regular old Americans who have that same chip on their shoulder…

In other words, it’s a character disorder — I must ask Shrinkwrapped and Dr. Sanity to diagnose it more precisely — that can occur anywhere. One only has to read British psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple to know how frequently it occurs in Britain, and not just with immigrant populations. The malaise he describes is soul-deep and has been brought on by a Utopian system that gives without demanding — as much of Europe does now.

Hmmm… that sounds an awful lot like a mother/child situation when it gets off track. Dads, on the other hand, tend to be less… less — perhaps the word is lenient? or accommodating? — with their offspring, and more inclined to make sure the kid can stand on his own as an adult.

In another post, Snouck reports the complaints of a Belgian politician who doesn’t like the strictness of the Netherlands’ laws regarding the importation of foreigners for the purpose of marriage. To get around the law, immigrants from the Netherlands move over to Belgium for a bit, send for the spouse-to-be and once married, move back “home” — i.e., back to their Dutch city or region:

	Some background on these marriages: every summer ninety percent of Dutch Muslims go back to the countries of origin. They meet family there and have lots of parties. During the frolicking the heads of families arrange marriages between youngsters of families. A marriage contract with a Muslim with a residence permit or a citizenship of a EU country is worth up to 30.000 Euros or Dollars above the sum for a normal marriages. This shows the huge economic net worth of EU citizenship for immigrants, financed by transfer payments by EU taxpayers.
	[…]
	The marriages are a form of institutionalised nepotism to the financial and national detriment of the Dutch individual and nation.

The complaining Belgian thinks the Netherlands needs to get in line with the rest of the EU. Snouck doesn’t agree:

People are waking up to the nightmare of the EU. During referenda on the EU constitution in 2005 more than 60 percent of French and almost 70 percent of Dutch voters voted against additional powers for the EU.

In line with this blogger’s recommendation re the EU, I also endorse regular reading of The Brussels Journal. They give me hope for Europe, too.

Who knows if Snouck and Co. will succeed? This is the country of the Dutch girl who held back the water with just one finger. Such a country will not go gentle into that dhimmified night.

It is heartening to know they are raging against the dying of the light.