For many progressive people from abroad, the Netherlands are some kind of Mecca of openmindedness. So they save up some money and come to enjoy the tulips, the strange system of permitting illegal things, the windmills, gay marriage, abortion, the canals, euthanasia… oh no they don’t, they just smoke pot for two weeks. For many Dutch people the Netherlands are pretty perfect too, apart from the weather of course. They believe that because we are a democracy, nasty stuff only happens in other countries. This belief can be dangerous when it makes you blind for the problems of your own country. Every country has it’s share of injustice and as long as there is power, it will be tempting to abuse it. Democratic rights can never totally protect you against this. Also, even in democracies, there are people with very few democratic rights like prisoners, refugees or psychiatric patients. In a dictatorship nearly all people have to suffer from injustice, in a democracy injustice mainly hurts those people with few rights. They have to suffer double though, because almost nobody will believe their story. People will say: ‘this is a democracy, it can’t happen here, if the police say you fell down the stairs they did not beat you up’. Some people even go so far to say that it is anti-democratic to not always believe the authorities. As if we’re still slaves who have to be nice to the boss so that he won’t beat us. Until recently any judge would believe the testimony of a policeman, just because he was a policeman. After police lies were revealed in some high-publicity cases, finally judges are a bit more questioning when the press is watching. It begs the question how many lies the police get away with in cases that are not so high profile. If you cannot ask questions like this, a democracy is nothing more than a dictatorship where you can choose your own executioner.
lyrics
Over de grens
Over de grens!
Daar is het leven slecht
Daar heerst de angst en niet het recht
Daar val je van de trap op het buro
Daar wordt omgekocht en niet gedoogd
Over de grens!
Daar gebeurt niet alles 50 jaar te laat
Daar wordt gemoord in opdracht van de staat
Zeg het me, hoever nog van Den Haag
Daar lig je in je eigen bloed op straat
Over de grens!
Over de grens vertrouwt men niet
Op het gezag, de politiek
Niemand treurt daar om die kloof
Maar wie van de trap valt wordt geloofd
Over the border (Over de grens)
Over the border!
Over there, life is bad
Fear is ruling, there is no justice
There you fall down the stairs at the police station
There people have to bribe instead of getting unofficial permission
Over the border!
Over there things don’t happen 50 years too late
There people are murdered by government order
Please tell me, how far still from The Hague
Over there you are lying on the street in your own blood
Over the border!
Over the border people don’t believe in authority or the political establishment
And nobody worries about this distrust of the government
But if you fall down the stairs at the police station, people will believe your story
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