Stupid flag ban

After much ado, the controversial American DJ and video artist Chris Korda was finally allowed to perform in Paradiso. The capital's trias politica - the firm triangle of mayor, public prosecutor and police commissioner - had almost granted the request of the CDA and Christen Unie to make it impossible for Korda to perform. Korda promotes suicide and cannibalism, as was made clear to us from numerous previews; he also shows a video in which the Twin Towers are attacked and that footage is mixed with porn and sports. In retrospect, the performance of the rather self-absorbed transvestite Korda was not much to write home about. 'Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap' and 'Heh, glad it's over' were the most heard reactions afterwards.

I'm not looking for boring distastefulness but Korda has been accepted by the program management of Paradiso and must therefore be a real artist. It is not my choice but to ban his performance, that is a bridge too far for me. If non-distastefulness were henceforth to be a criterion for the right to exist of creative work, you would have to ban three quarters of all television programs of the commercials.

Why did Amsterdam have to worry so much about a questionable artist? Hasn't it always been true that Amsterdam is the capital of the most liberal country in the world? Isn't Amsterdam the city to which Jews and Protestants fled for centuries? Where, despite violent Calvinist incitement, Baruch Spinoza was tolerated in a country house on the Amstel, where in the sixties people 'happened' around the Lieverdje and LSD highs were provided at the hairdresser's, a city with a gay monument where flowers are laid every day by foreigners who honor the idea of   freedom, where a naked gay parade sails through the canals. I will also turn my back on that exuberant hysteria, but as far as I'm concerned, they're allowed to. Because it's happening in the free state of Amsterdam.

Free State? Not at all. Amsterdam is becoming more and more of a dowdy city. City administrators and civil servants who claim to have the best interests of the city's citizens at heart are meanwhile taking numerous regent measures. So much has been decreed in recent years: city musicians have been restricted, cowardly event beer is being served, incomplete bicycles are being cleared away, rickety boats and, in the opinion of the city, tasteless pieremachochels are being towed away, they are no longer allowed in the Venice of the North, they spoil the view of the canal yuppies.

The newest commandment of the municipality is: you shall not fly the flag if there is no official party. So if one of the thirty princes or princesses is not celebrating their birthday, the flag may not be put out. Hotels, restaurants, shops, private individuals, you shall not just fly the flag.

I want flags for exams, birthdays, weddings, engagements, when I give a party or when the LPF and related parties are wiped out on January 22. I didn't have a flag yet but on Saturday I went to buy a stick holder and a huge linen cloth and immediately put out the tricolor. Because not being allowed to fly a flag when you want means restricting freedom of speech.

I've seen through those thugs from the municipality. They issued that ban to thwart Gretta Duisenberg. Because she's only allowed to hang the Palestinian flag on the balcony railing when Princess Eloïse has her birthday.

ROB BOUBER

The previous episodes of 'Untitled' can be found in the archive of this website

Friday, November 22, 2002, 08:10

The preceding is a translation. The original language is here.