citizenship test 2 gay men kissing

Nether regions on show
AP
17mar06

THE camera focuses on two gay men kissing in a park. Later, a topless woman emerges from the sea and walks onto a crowded beach.

For would-be immigrants to the Netherlands, this film is a test of their readiness to participate in the liberal Dutch culture.

If they can't stomach it, no need to apply.

Citizens of Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Japan and Switzerland are exempt. Whether or not they find the film offensive, other applicants must buy a copy and watch it, if they hope to pass the Netherlands' new entrance examination.

The test тАУ the first of its kind in the world тАУ became compulsory yesterday and was made available at 138 Dutch embassies around the world.

Taking the exam costs $570, while the price for a preparation package that includes the film, a CD ROM and a photo album of famous Dutch people is $103.

"As of today, immigrants wishing to settle in the Netherlands for, in particular, the purposes of marrying or forming a relationship will be required to take the civic integration examination abroad," the Immigration Ministry said in a statement.

The test is part of a broader crackdown on immigration that has been gathering momentum in the Netherlands since 2001.

Anti-immigration sentiment peaked with filmmaker Theo van Gogh's murder by a Dutch national of Moroccan descent, in November 2004.

Both praise and scorn have poured on Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, the architect of the new test and other policies that have successfully reduced immigration by at least a third.

"If you pass, you're more than welcome," Ms Verdonk said.

"It is in the interest of Dutch society and those concerned."

Not everyone is happy.

"Today is a black day for the people intending to bring their partners to Holland," said Buitenlandse Partner, a lobbying group for mixed Dutch/immigrant couples.

Dutch theologian Karel Steenbrink criticised the 105-minute movie, saying it would be offensive to some Muslims.

"It is not a prudent way of welcoming people to the Netherlands," he said.

EU nationals, asylum-seekers and skilled workers who earn more than $73,500 a year will not be required to take the 30-minute computerised exam.

A censored version with no homosexual and nude material had been prepared since "it's unlawful to show them in Iran," and some other countries, filmmaker Walter Goverde said.

"With all the respect I have for all religions I think people need to understand that Holland has its own liberal side as well," Goverde said.

After viewing the film applicants are then quizzed on important Dutch facts such as the number of provinces that make up the Netherlands

it's the paradox of a liberal society that to preserve the liberty of the majority you may have to exclude those who seek to destroy the freedoms of others.

Amsterdam has a long tradition of tolerance since the Dutch were shocked at the persecution of the Jews by Philip II, their Spanish ruler. Outside of Amsterdam, the Dutch are not at all liberal. Calvinism is alive and well and minding your business (not their own) in rural tulip fields.

They're an amusing lot, the Ducth, but not always consciously so. They have been in the vanguard of the gay liberation of Europe and they may come to be the primary forge and protector of a liberal Europe wide tolerant culture.

although I agree wholeheartedly with the Dutch saying this is who we are, and that they're going to stand up for and defend their principles and their way of life in the face of intolerant, misogynistic and homophobic foreigners. I mean, why shouldn't they? Where else do you find Dutch history, Dutch culture, the Dutch language and the Dutch way of life, no where! Dilute that or change that with a lot of foreign immigrants unwilling to integrate and you know what, it's gone. Intolerant Arab Muslim haters and wreckers with a couple of chips on their shoulders, well you can find them in many different countries across North Africa and the Middle East, let them stay there.

I believe that immigration to another country is a privilege not a right, and when in Rome..............

But back to the video, Ewwwww personally I don't like any kind of public display of kissing, gay or str8, and as for the topless women, I think I would have died of boredom by the time she reached the crowd. Thank god my country is exempt!

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Where else do you find Dutch history, Dutch culture, the Dutch language and the Dutch way of life

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Of course, because of North Island the English aren't faced with this problem and Scots/South Island same/same and the Maoris have the Cooks!

Yesterday I had coffee with an Asian immigrant in London who is in the process of recruiting a Technical Author for a particular product's manuals. He quite illegaly declared that he wouldn't consider an English candidate (who don't know the grammar of their own language) and expected to appoint a German. Should I drop a line to his company's directors and maybe the CRE?

Yes.

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Originally Posted by NorthStar

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Where else do you find Dutch history, Dutch culture, the Dutch language and the Dutch way of life

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Of course, because of North Island the English aren't faced with this problem and Scots/South Island same/same and the Maoris have the Cooks!

Yesterday I had coffee with an Asian immigrant in London who is in the process of recruiting a Technical Author for a particular product's manuals. He quite illegaly declared that he wouldn't consider an English candidate (who don't know the grammar of their own language) and expected to appoint a German. Should I drop a line to his company's directors and maybe the CRE?

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If he's breaking English law, yes I don't see why not. To say that he will not be able to find a native English speaker in all of Britain sufficiently proficient in English grammar (is he?) that he can employ consequently he will need to employ a German is nothing less than patronising racist drivel. He should get a kick up the arse.

"Of course, because of North Island the English aren't faced with this problem and Scots/South Island same/same and the Maoris have the Cooks!" Um, I'm not sure what you mean?

The European 'white' population of New Zealand is only about 70%, and those of us who were born here, which is most of us even if we do have British, Scots, Irish or Dutch ancestry (lots of Dutch came here after WWII) we consider ourselves New Zealanders, or Kiwis, a Pacific people with a unique identify and history, not British, nor English, nor Scots, certainly not Australian etc. The rest of our population is primarily Polynesian (Maori are about 15%) and Asian 5%(oriental, not Indian) which have no connection to Europe at all. Is that what you were meaning?

There wasn't really a geographical settlement of NZ comprising English only in the North Island and Scots in the South Island. The very first migrant ships may have come from those countries but within a very short period all European migrant groups were mixed together (along with Maori) which evolved our New Zealand identity and history. The Cooks were the setting off point for the first human discoveries and settlement of New Zealand by the Polynesians. But in the approx. 900 years that have passed since then Maori have evolved a more or less separate identity from their origins in the Cook Islands.

In fact the history of the British takeover and flood of New Zealand and it's consequences on Maori have some very real and quite sobering lessons of what can and does happen when immigration happens in a totally uncontrolled manner and the newcomers have no respect for the law and the lore's of the existing inhabitants, and who make no attempt to integrate with them, but rather wish to impose their law above the law of the original inhabitants.

Go the Dutch!

My conjecture about North Island / South Island is based solely on skiing out of Methven and Queenstown. Never met any Maoris on the slopes but had dropped in on the Cooks between Gatwick and Aukland.

The dialect in Methven certainly had a touch of Scots, I noticed, but Christchurch was Chelmsford frozen.

I was on a bus the other day in SyDNEY City and i saw two blokes kissing each other,nearly made me spew up.Two disgusting poofs and i gave the disgusted look as did everyone else.If i had been the bus driver i would of stopped the bus and shouted to them."OK you two poofs ,off the bus now !

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Originally Posted by Aunty

In fact the history of the British takeover and flood of New Zealand and it's consequences on Maori have some very real and quite sobering lessons of what can and does happen when immigration happens in a totally uncontrolled manner and the newcomers have no respect for the law and the lore's of the existing inhabitants, and who make no attempt to integrate with them, but rather wish to impose their law above the law of the original inhabitants.

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I'd be interested, Aunty, for you to show us where a rural, tribal society has ever survived in the long term alongside an urban one except as a museum piece like the North American Indians. The fact is that the WASPs of NZ have once again trounced the Maori by "conceding" land rights. That means the Maori are now focussing entirely on their "metaphysical relationship" with the land. The only way agriculture can ever be economically viable in the modern world is through capital intensive means - not the labour intensive ones favoured by the Maori. So the WASPs are ensuring that the Maori will remain economically marginalised. The fact that the Maori are also totally sexist, so that women remain marginalised from significant leadership roles within Maoridom, ensures that the brightest and the best will continue to choose assimilation not self-imposed apartheid. It was the Rt Rev Paul Reeves, when Bishop of Aotearoa (ie. the "Maori" Bishop) who boycotted the consecration of the first female bishop in the Anglican church on the grounds that "Maori do not consider women should play such a role". I had great fun asking the wife of my cousin, a thorough-going pinkie who was so proud of the first female bishop, to explain to me why Paul Reeves was boycotting the ceremony. She, like you, had the same naive views about the worthiness of the Maori culture, one which as I recall practised genocide (where are the Moriori?), hunted species to extinction (the moa), and practised continuous warfare (the fortified pa). Now of course you have the traditional Maori war party posing as the Mongrel Mob etc. and claiming they're only that way because they feel alienated by what the nasty pakeha have done to them. What tosh! Everywhere I go in the world I encounter "Kiwis" who have got up and gone and will never go back, and much of it has to do with what they refer to as "that Maori nonsense". You'll recall my earlier observation - any NZer with get up and go has got up and gone :flower:

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If i had been the bus driver i would of stopped the bus and shouted to them."OK you two poofs ,off the bus now !

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...and if you'd done that here in the Centre of the Empire, you could be arrested and charged with homophobic abuse.