Can SOMEONE please explain to me what the hell is going on here in Holland with all the damn political bullshit that’s going on around Ayaan Hirsi Ali? After all the political debate about her (potentially) loosing her Dutch citizenship, because she lied about her name and montivation when asking asylum in The Netherlands, everything is taking a new twist. Minister Verdonk survided all the debates so far. Parliment forced her to find a way to let Ali keep her passport and so she did. According to Somalia law you can choose what last name (family name) you want to use: this can be your mother’s maiden name, fathers name and even your grandparents name. Well, in this case Hirsi choose the name Ali (her grandfathers last name). So now Verdonk says Hirsi Ali didn’t acquire her passport illegally, because she did not lie about her last name.
Ok, now. Just contemplate this: it means Hirsi Ali lied about lying about her name? Uhm? Are you following this? So, in other words: nothing was wrong and all the political hoopla was for nothing? I do not understand (Dutch) politics anymore I guess.
The whole situation is too ridiculous for words. It was just a big stunt by Verdonk to get more publicity in her battle against Mark Rutte for the leadership of her political party, the VVD, which she lost anyway! Futhermore, as it turns out Verdonk put some considerable pressure on Ali to sign a statement in which Ali takes more or less responsibility for the whole affair, just to cover her ass (the fact Ali signed this statement even though she always claims to be so principled is another story). Also, this ruling by Verdonk might set a precendent: other asylum seekers that ‘lied’ about their names might have been expelled even though they should not have. All in all it has just turned into a political scandal – or farce if you like – of the biggest magnitude.
Trying to explain this affair to a foreigner is just about impossible, just like it is impossible to explain to a tourist what the mechanism is behind our so called ‘strippenkaarten’ we use with our public transport.
Later today Verdonk will have explain all this before parliment. I pray she gets booted out the governement this time.