e-Mail Extremism

I live a life of self absorbed ignorance, so while I am spending my small days working and chasing kids, things have gone awry in parts of the world that I thought were safe from ridiculous assignment. Belgium is one such place.

That wonderful culture is crumbling under the weight of its own guilt--and in its aggressive efforts to stand for everything good it has become a monument that stands for very little at all.

As proof, The Brussels Journal offers you the case of a city council member from Antwerp who made the mistake of forwarding on an e-mail considered racist by some city government officials and by The Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism.

What was the nasty e-mail he forwarded?

A Danish website offers apologies to all “offended” Muslims. Here is what it says:
We’re sorry we gave you shelter when war drove you from your home country…
We’re sorry we took you in when others rejected you…
We’re sorry we gave you the opportunity to get a good education…
We’re sorry we gave you food and a home when you had none…
We’re sorry we let you re-unite with your family when your homeland was no longer safe…
We’re sorry we never forced you to work while WE paid all your bills…
We’re sorry we gave you almost FREE rent, phone, internet, car and school for your 10 kids…
We’re sorry we build you Mosques so you could worship your religion in our Christian land…
We’re sorry we never forced you to learn our language after staying 30 years…
We’re sorry for everything else…
And we’re sorry for having to say sorry…!

Come on folks! You cannot eliminate bad feelings and bad thoughts regardless of how much you hate them. You might as well outlaw nausea and webbed feet while you are at it.

Just what does the The Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism do? Well, according to its website it is

An Autonomous Public Service established by an Act of Parliament on 15 February 1993, born of the political will of Parliament and the Government in response to proposals by the Royal Commission for Immigrant Policy and the emergence of extremist movements in Belgium.

That is a pretty tall order for any government regardless of their diligence and intent. The funny thing is though, on this issue, it cannot even find the right side of the "extremist movement" to be on. Here they want to protect the feelings of Muslim e-mail recipients against the evil actions of a guy that, perhaps insensitively, pressed the send button. You tell me who is more likely to be an extremist, the elected city council member or your average, every day Belgian Muslim? Doesn't the government have anything better to do than to envision scenarios where stupidly created bureaucracies might have some obscure application?

I was pretty sure that when Monty Python did their skit on the Ministry of Silly Walks that they intended it to be funny. Now I'm wondering if it might have been a documentary.