euro|topics - Bert Wagendorp

04/12/2008

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Wagendorp, Bert

2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

De Volkskrant - Netherlands | 11/11/2008

Legalise drugs

A majority of political players in the Netherlands reject the country's liberal policy of tolerating soft drugs. While the sale of hashish is allowed, trafficking and growing it are banned. But a ban on drug sales would not help combat crime, writes De Volkskrant newspaper: "A ban may sound logical, but it would be short-sighted. Of all people the dealers would be the only ones to really profit from a crackdown on soft drugs. That would push prices up, and the traffickers know all too well that bans only stimulate consumption. ... Criminality is not a result of drugs, but of our strange policy of toleration which pushes people into crime. I know it almost sounds old-fashioned, but let's finally just legalise the stuff! Now that the state is once more at the centre of things, there are no more obstacles to a hashish monopoly. ... And if people abroad find that funny, too bad for them."

De Volkskrant - Netherlands | 19/05/2008

Cartoon dispute in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the cartoonist who works under the pseudonym Gregorius Nekschot [which means "shot in the back of the neck" in Dutch] was taken into custody for a short period last week. He is accused of discriminating above all against Muslims with his cartoons. Bert Wagendorp calls this an "attack against freedom of expression" in the Dutch daily De Volkskrant. "I have no sympathy for little assholes like Gregorius Nekschot who use the Internet to insult people anonymously, but neither do I have a problem with them. Now it looks like a couple of people in The Hague are really going crazy. Next thing we know, the minister [minister of justice Ernst Hirsch Ballin] will make blasphemy a punishable offence. ... According to Hirsch Ballin this is not a restriction of freedom of expression. Is that so? When ten policemen storm into your apartment because of a cartoon, you are not free, and you are perhaps afraid. I think Nekschot should be allowed to continue doing what he does in complete freedom for the rest of his life."

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