Eurovisie December 2016

Eurovisie a publication of the study association for european studies

Why men love to portray sad women 1

December 2016 / www.ses-uva.nl / eurovisie@ses-uva.nl

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volume 12, issue 2 - dec. 2016

editorial mats licht

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ehold the beauty of this earth, friends, for the end of the world has come. He actually won. What only Michael Moore saw coming in June (you should google this, his prediction is scarily accurate) has come true and has plunged the world into disarray. The markets have collapsed, the oil price is above 130$ again and universal war has broken out from Kenya to Kentucky.

Actually, I have not had the chance to check the actual news in the last week, because all I could find on the first 52 pages of any news site was opinion pieces and scalding reviews of why the media got EVERYTHING wrong and should probably kill themselves. But I have to assume that the world is ending based on the headless panicking and self-righteous doomsday preaching that Europe musters in reaction to Donald Trump’s historic election victory.

Sad Girls Are Done Hanna Blom

Column Joep Leerssen

CETA Daan Leseman

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The Blue Banana Levente Vervoort

Referenda Gilles de Valk

The truth is that America has passed through much rockier times again and again. When FDR brought socialism, the US did not break apart. When Lincoln crushed the South, the country healed again, the remnants of the war nothing but a sidelined flag debate. ‘Murica even prevailed through the arrival of the actual Prince of Darkness in his human form, Ronald Reagan. It is a country built on the spirit of its people, on their absolute defiance of federal authority, and on the weakness of central government. Even though we Europeans do not understand the US at all, they are going to be fine.

Now take a break from these last few crazy days of world news, for this issue contains not even one mention of the new president-elect past this editorial. You’re welcome.

While the state exists, there cannot be freedom. When there is freedom there will be no state.”

- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

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Diversity Jason Rouse

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A People of Strange Customs Mats Licht

The Revolving Door Maarten van Campenhout

imprint Editorial office: Kloveniersburgwal 48, room E2.04/2.05, 1012 CX Amsterdam Editor-in-chief: Mats Licht Editors: Hanna Blom, Daan Leseman, Gilles de Valk, Levente Vervoort Design: Emiel Janssens With contributions of: Maarten van Campenhout, Joep Leerssen, Jason Rouse

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Sad Girls Are Done In her inaugural article, new Eurovisie editor Hanna Blom dissects the interrelation between representations of sad women in art and literature and the issue of mental health in Europe today.

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‘A

blog about underground parties and lonely girls’. This description of Psycho Killer keeps popping up on my timeline because friends and people of my age have given their approval. The first and last post I read is a small blog post in which a guy under the name of ‘Charlie’ imagines dating a young girl without any real personality, being a young and careless couple together and taking her virginity by force. The aspect of rape seems very obvious to me but the comment section is flooded with girls tagging each other because “this is so romantic!!!!”, how he just wants her too much to stop. The girl does not exist, thankfully.

Her quiet, empty, misunderstood character does come back in his stories of cringe-worthy writing where he tries very hard to be edgy and needs her for the gloomy aspect of his teen angst. There is really nothing edgy, however, about males writing about young women and their sadness. Romanticising their soft sobbing and lowered looks, it has been done. It has always been done and everyone keeps doing it and that is the problem.

What is a typical Sad Girl though? Audrey Wollen, a female artist who deals with the idea of the Sad Girl in her work, describes Her as having ‘daddy issues’, which explains her bruised sexuality. She falls in love easily but rarely commits. She cares about being an individual and her persona, she sets trends. The Sad Girl struggles with her weight even though people tell her she looks okay. She eschews the responsibilities of domesticity, not out of protest but out of a self-designated incompetence.

Sad Girls have been a vastly popular subject in art and literature. In Greek mythology, stories are told of young women who are in some way harmed by a greater force, something gets taken away from them or they are abducted – the bottom line is, they are powerless.

After this has been done to them they either live with the grief or are so taken with the pain that they end their lives. They are then depicted weeping uncontrollably

in ancient art. Electra could be seen as the original sad girl, giving birth to the female equivalent of the Oedipus complex, the Electra complex, informally known as ‘daddy issues’. In Livius’ first book Ab Urbe Condita Lucretia is raped and is so distraught with shame that she thrusts a knife into her chest. Dido loses her husband, having to flee from her jealous brother. When she finds happiness again with Aeneas, the gods send Mercurius to break the couple up. This, of course, makes Dido throw all of her Aeneasrelated possessions into a bonfire and also stab herself to take away the pain.

Pablo Picasso painted ‘Weeping Woman’ in 1937. Vincent van Gogh drew ‘Weeping Woman Seated on a Basket’. Salvador Dalí painted ‘Remorse’, a woman with her head in her hands. Auguste Rodin carved ‘Crying Woman’ out of marble in 1917 and ‘Mask of a Crying Girl’ sometime before 1885. Marc Chagall drew ‘Old Man and Old Woman’, only the woman is crying. Gustav Klimt painted ‘Crying Woman’ with golden tears.

Dutch writer Louis Couperus wrote about Eline Vere, a fictional 19th century woman who tended to get so lost in her loneliness, melancholy and nervous behaviour that she could not enjoy life or fall in love. She ends her life with morphine.

Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina has to choose between the love of her life and the father of her only child, then loses the ability to have a relationship with her child and to top it off, she and her lover cannot properly build a life together and grow apart. She throws herself in front of a train.

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Madame Bovary is unable to find joy in her life and faces the restrictions women have when it comes to being able to explore life.

Marriage, lovers, a child; nothing seems to make or keep her happy and she ends up swallowing arsenic and dying a brutal death.

I am not saying these books or paintings do not have value, or that the authors and artists should have refrained from bringing these characters to life. There is a noticeable trend going on here though, which is a certain wonderment for the poetry with which women deal with pain. Writing about women who are so taken by their emotions and the events and thoughts that have to occur to lead them to end their lives, is a theme that has an endless list of examples, more than I am able to mention right now.

Merely praising the literature and art that is inspired by a stigma of women not being able to handle life the same way as men, without opening a dialogue about the reality of mental health, hurts all of us - men and women.

Why do men love to depict sad women?

Why do they invent female characters, put them through hell and let them suffer? Why is it so much more common to have a female character deal with grief, while the writers or artists have no clue how women experience it?

When you romanticise visual sadness and align it to a specific gender and age, you assume everyone who matches this profile also matches the misunderstood, melancholic characteristics, you make it hard for anyone who does not fit this image to join the narrative of mental health, you cause harm to the real message of mental health, which does not get out, and you are taking people’s voices away.

A lot of paintings are made and books are written by men about women dealing with the hardships of life, but these men are drawing from second hand experience. They understand, to some degree, that the way a woman deals with pain is different than the way a man deals with it, but the actual story is not being told when a woman is not writing it. The fact that men have felt and still feel that they need to explain to women their own emotions is really odd.

A number of counter movements have sprung up to repossess the narrative of female sadness, going against the powerless aspect that is being linked to sad girls.

Female artists started taking the stage to talk about their everyday emotions and mental health and art collectives started working

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together to make the female voice in art stronger and louder in general. Jenny Holzer published her Inflammatory Essays in 2007, stressing the need for women to express their anger instead of bottling it up and dealing with it in silence. “Don’t relax. I’ll cut the smile off your face. You think I don’t know what’s going on. You think I’m afraid to act.

The joke’s on you.”

Audrey Wollen started a project called Sad Girl Theory. The project researches the idea that the internalised suffering women experience should be categorised as an act of resistance, rather than instead

“There really is nothing edgy about males writing about young women and their sadness”

of an inspiring romantic and melancholic theme to be inspired by. She feels that protest is historically understood within the limitations of male aggression, by throwing bricks, shouting and getting into fights with authorities. Audrey Wollen proposes that weeping, starvation, sorrow and suicide have been a part of activism and have been unjustly written off as passivity, while they were ways for women to fight against the status quo. She has been depicted as a Sad Girl herself and even though she publishes books, Instagram is her most important way to talk to people and get her point across.

In her pictures she is often reimagining

classical works of art and taking selfies in her most vulnerable state, but that is where her message lies. There is power in your vulnerability and you should use it. Sad Asian Girls is a collective of “femme Asian” creatives who document their lives as Asian females in Western or white dominant environments, to break the stereotype of Asians being passive and not engaging in discussions of social issues and to go against the fetishising of Asian females.

These initiatives are important because they consist of people telling their own stories and changing the narrative.

Even though sadness is a loved subject in literature and art, mental health still is not a popular topic and especially men suffer. The gender-suicide gap is generally largest in Western countries and in Europe, particularly in Eastern European nations such as Belarus, Lithuania and Hungary.

These countries still see the beauty in suffering silently and taking your pain to the grave as opposed to opening up a dialogue and sharing with loved ones. Former Soviet countries deal with unstable politics more often and suffer from structural poverty, which can cause stress and despair, and alcoholism is a big issue for their men.

While these issues specifically concern the generation that had to go through communism and who thus share gruesome memories of war and torture from the communist regime that had a grip on these countries, and not so much the younger generation, these memories still won’t be discussed amongst each other, which is why high suicide rates make sense. However, the big gap between women and men show that within these countries, like in Western European countries, having mental health issues and suicidal thoughts is normalised for women to the point that at least more of them feel comfortable enough to seek help.

Romanticising mental health issues and suicide is always wrong. When you have never experienced depression or anxiety but you do want to write about it, ask yourself why. Why are you so fascinated by something that you cannot even begin to understand what it means to suffer from?

What do you feel that it adds to your story?

Why should you voice the struggles other people go through?

Romanticising women who have to deal with mental health issues and might even commit suicide, is simply not helping anyone. It is hurting women who are not being heard and it is hurting you while trying to understand the world. Instead, listen to people who can tell you the truth about mental illness.

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ames Joyce’s A portrait of the artist as a young man is a coming-of-age novel.

One of its main themes is the hero’s constant struggle against obedience. Among his very earliest childhood memories is that of an aunt chiding him for hiding under the table. She orders him to apologize; “if not, the eagles will come and pick out his eyes”.

Her words resonate in his mind like a dreadful nursery rhyme: “apologize, pick out his eyes; pick out his eyes, apologize”.

of all spaces, theatre should be the very opposite, a free space for experiment and challenge; a disobedient place, Joyce-style.

What Dump is doing is sending in the eagles to pick out its eyes. What sort of safe-space theatre does he want?

Like a Saudi shopping mall? Safely prevented from possibly offending the public, or, worse, himself?

Hear this, and read my lips: Like the “security” fetish, “safe space” is a code word for the denial of civil liberties – in this case, freedom of expression.

It’s an unobtrusive but memorable fragment, for many reasons which I cannot explain in this brief space. The lines came to mind, bizarrely, when I read a tweet by Tronald Dump this morning attacking the cast of the wildly successful Broadway musical Hamilton. When the cast took the applause after the performance, they addressed the Vice-President-elect Pence (present that evening) from the stage with critical comments about diversity. It created a bit of a furore. Dump decided to be offended and hurled a tweet into the world stating that the theatre ought to be a “safe and special space” and that the cast had been “very rude”, concluding with the command “Apologize!”. Oh my. What can you say?...

The first reaction is to just roll your eyes and sigh and say “there he goes again”. But that’s not good enough; eye-rolling is not the way to combat the mischief that the Trolland’s rants inflict on public opinion.

We academics should unpack and analyse the multiple follies, with a steely gaze rather than rolling eyes.

So first and foremost, Yes, of course it’s a bit like Genghiz Khan or that xenomorph from Alien complaining of hurt feelings.

But what is more, it uses what is a very problematic term in the first place, “safe space”, and applies it in the most inappropriate way imaginable to, of all places, the theatre. “Safe spaces”? Don’t get me started. Google the term. It started as the passive-aggressive whine of people who feel hurt and violated if they are exposed to different opinions and attitudes. It’s what got Germaine Greer un-invited from a British university because activists there feared she might say something critical, or, like, challenging, or, like, troubling, or, like, you know, distressing, or, like, hurtful.

And so the Dumpster wants to declare theatre, of all places, a “safe space”… But

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The second, underlying issue is this.

Dump’s exclamation-marked demand “Apologize!” contrasts sharply with the fact that he himself, the pussygrabber-in-chief, doesn’t do apologies.

His many instances of jaw-dropping racism and bigotry were never, never followed by anything remotely resembling an apology. So what qualifies him, of all people, to demand one?

That in turn recalls Twert Gilders, who like Dump is equally trigger-happy both to give offence and to take it, but who will only accuse, never excuse. Last year, his strident calls to resist the establishment of a centre for asylum seekers in Geldermalsen were followed by actual attacks and vandalizations of that very same place. Politicians and media called on Gilders to dissociate himself from this xenophobic violence. In response, Twert tweeted: “Let politics and the press get the rambam – [i.e. stuff themselves]. Dissociate yourselves from your cowardice betraying the Netherlands to Islam; suckers.” It was, if nothing else, the best example of refusing to apologize, and instead to add insult to injury.

Those who demand apologies without being willing to make them, apply different rules to themselves than to the rest of society.

And as Kant pointed out, a fundamental principle or “categorical imperative” stipulates moral reciprocity: that you should apply to yourself the rules you apply to others. Any dialogue or even debate with people who refuse to share this basic principle is fundamentally impossible, and a waste of time.

Freedom is not just the freedom you claim; it’s also, crucially, the freedom you allow others. And thus Dump led me, by way of Joyce, to Kant. This is how literature helps us against bigotry.

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s ’ om T ssip Go ner Cor Tom Dautzenberg

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e are almost three month into the academic year, and the introduction period has come to an end. Time for a recap of the start of another SES year.

It is the second year of the internationalization of the European Studies Bachelor program, which again lead to an overwhelming amount of new students, both Dutch and international. SES is therefore welcoming a record breaking amount of more than 170 new members. Are you not a SES-member yet, but do you want to be a part of our association? Go to http://www. ses-uva.nl/sign-up-for-ses/ as fast as you can and sign up.

A new year also means new committees. The amount of applications for the committee spots were again record breaking, causing several mental breakdowns for your beloved board members. The committees have been formed though, and an overview of the composition of these committees can be found on our Facebook-page. At this very moment the committees for the hitchhike competition, next year’s introduction period and the acquisition committee are also being formed.

This acquisition committee is a new initiative of SES. For the first time ever a proper, centralised acquisition body is formed for

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our beloved study association in order to establish a firmer foothold within the local business community, and to maximise our sponsorship potential. This highly motivated group of people will try to establish contacts with as many businesses as possible, convincing them of the marketing potential of SES, and trying to get the very best out of them for all our members.

In the first months of this academic year SES already organised plenty of events.

After an exciting Intreeweek, in which many dedicated SES-members participated as caring parents, the Introduction Weekend marked the first actual activity of the year.

This traditional get together of first year European Studies students in the beautiful ‘Achterhoek’ (a.k.a. the middle of nowhere) was once again a great success and showed a great group of new members. The introduction period was concluded with a party in Chicago Social Club, another remarkable night in SES-party history.

Already desperate for more parties? Save the 23rd of December in your agenda, as this will be the date of the Christmas Gala of Humanities in the beautiful Tolhuistuin.

Also, our Event Committee will host a party in January with our friends of Kleio, the study association for history.

After the first exam week of the year a group of 50 SES-members visited the

beautiful historical city of Bruges. Besides visiting several of the brilliant sites of this West-Flanders city, the nightlife was also discovered, causing the city tour that was organised by the Activity Committee to be a hungover but exciting experience for many participants. This same Activity Committee also organised a pubquiz at the familiar site of Café Sanders a few weeks later, challenging the intellectual capacities of our members.

As every year, the SES will be organising a study trip. From the 26th of April until the 7th of May, we will be heading East: the Polish cities of Warsaw, Wroclaw and Krakow will be visited, as well as Lviv in Ukraine. Do you want to be part of this 12-day adventure, that is often characterized as the summum of SES-banter by the participants? Create your personal, funny, touching, emotional or delicious, but most of all anonymous motivation, and deliver it on http://www.ses-uva.nl/studytrip/ before the 6th of December. The Travel Committee is looking forward to seeing your amazing applications.

Last but not least, Eurovisie is always interested in your articles. Do you have the ambition of writing an article that will be published and spread around 250 European Studies students and teachers? Send your piece of art to eurovisie@ses-uva.nl!

Introducing: The Board of Studies

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elcome everyone, once again, to European Studies and Amsterdam.

As Bachelor student members of the Board of Studies (Opleidingscommissie) of European Studies, we would like to tell you something about the importance and relevance of the Board of Studies. The Board of Studies is a committee which consists of students and lecturers. Together, we think about how to maintain and improve the quality of our education.

The Board of Studies offers suggestions for the contents and teaching of European Studies. If we want to offer the best suggestions, we need your questions and your remarks about the courses and teachers.

You can contribute by filling in the course evaluations. You will receive the course evaluations in your mailbox, every time you

finish a course. It is not only important that you emphasise on the improvable aspects when you fill in course evaluations, but also to address the good aspects. In this way, we can get an inclusive picture of all the courses that European Studies offers.

However, there are also other ways to express your thoughts about the contents and teaching of European Studies. You can send an e-mail (details below), send a message to the Board of Studies Facebook page, or just get in touch with one of us (you just might find us at the SES borrel or at the Bushuis!).

It might be easier to express your thoughts via us, student members, than to burst of rage in front of your teacher. So please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have a strong opinion, either positive or negative. In this way, we can make sure everyone gets the most out of their study.

Anna Schröder 2nd year student Age: 20 Major: European Law Maarten van Campenhout 2nd year student Age: 20 Major: European Economics Thijs Maartens 3rd year student Age: 20 Major: European History Gilles de Valk 3rd year student Age: 20 Major: East European Studies Facebook: Board of Studies/ Opleidingscommissie European Studies E-mail: oc-europeanstudies-fgw@uva.nl

Advisory Referendum University of Amsterdam

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consultation of the academic community is part of the agreement between the action groups, representative councils and the Executive Board.

Consultation Committee, who can check whether you are entitled to vote. The deadline for this is November 25, 2016. You can contact this committee via crdd@uva.nl.

The Democratisation & Decentralisation Committee will present her proposals for a senate ‘new style’, charter and alternative governance principles, which you can read about in their report, to the academic community during the referendum. The

You can vote between November 23 and December 11. In the first week of November all students and staff members will receive an email (via their UvA account) including a detailed explanation of the voting procedure. If you haven’t received an email by November 9, please contact the Democratisation and Decentralisation

For more information about the referendum, go to:

ntil December 11, students and staff of the University of Amsterdam can vote on whether and how to make the University of Amsterdam more democratic with fewer centralised organisational structures.

www.commissiedd.nl/referendum www.uva.nl/democratisering www.facebook.com/referendumdd Or send an email to: info@commissiedd.nl

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Big City Life and the Blue Banana This article is a mockery of all articles on the internet that use cherry-picked arguments to support the author’s claim to be right just because he or she wants to.

Levente Vervoort is not right.

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attafix - Big City Life (2005), first verse:

“Big city life, Me try fi get by, Pressure nah ease up no matter how hard me try.”

It is perhaps not the metropolitan buzz so horrendously serenaded by Mattafix’ Marlon Roudette (London, 1983) that made many millennials think the city would

pound the nationstate to become the Heavyweight World Champion in political geography. Rather, it might be the tendency of said millennials to deduce intricate truths from the obvious realm of urban pop culture. See what I did there?

The Blue Banana is a discontinuous corridor of urbanisation in Western Europe, with a population of around 111 million. The concept was developed in 1989 by RECLUS, a group of French geographers managed by Roger Brunet. Their intention was to criticise French policy.

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Indeed, if we take a look at European Realpolitik in the year of our Lord 2016, the city has not become the promised paradise of decentralised democracy, welfare distribution or social cohesion, just to name a few examples I found when checking out late-nineties scholarly prophecies on urban

development and city politics. Instead, the news is dominated by real life Risk events that generally reduce large cities to being metonyms for their nation-state’s seat of government. No coups de ville so far.

But cities are still smug/cool, because of (but not limited to): 1. Tall buildings, 2. Metro stations and other non-places, 3. Weird people The tall buildings are probably just the result of space-efficient phallocentrism.

Non-places are transitory spaces where the people remain nameless, thus not giving the space enough

significance to become a place.

Metro stations are one example; airports, hotel rooms or highways are some more. Anyway, one might find a tall church in a peripheral settlement or a deserted picnic table on a countryside road: it is really the people that separate the cities from their rural counterparts, is it not?

To answer this last pertinent question there are several things I am not going to do: I will not uphold scientific methodology and I will avoid any free-market terminology that implies a city’s coolness has anything to do with ‘creativity’, ‘diversity’ or ‘cultural competition’. Instead, I will continue this grand tradition of truthlessness and use some anecdotal evidence from formal politics to illustrate why cities are not that powerful. The reader may neglect everything as bullshit (i.e. beyond true or

false; see Professor Leerssen’s column in the September edition), but I hope the BS is informative as well as fun.

The bottom line of the data below is something like this: the rise of bullshit politics gave rise to mainly rightist antiestablishment parties ever since the millennials started making top-10s on the internet, but cities are cool because they a) remained leftist/progressive nonetheless or b) became leftist/progressive as a result. Why did this happen? Irrelevant. Why is this cool?

I am not right.

So, let us conjure up the first top list of our own, with some help from Europe’s favourite fantasy fruit: the Blue Banana. The Blue Banana is a discontinuous corridor of urbanisation in Western Europe, stretching from the Liverpool-Manchester North West England region, through London, the Benelux countries, the Rhineland and Ruhr area, the Alsace in France, Switzerland until ending in Northern Italy. I will return to the Banana in a bit, but first I want to zoom out a little.

Only one of the ten largest cities in the USA has a Republican mayor (Kevin Faulconer, San Diego, CA) - and only thirteen of the first 50. Of the mayors of the fifteen cities with the highest GDP, only three could be called remotely rightist.

Mr Miguel Mancera, the mayor of Mexico City, which has approximately 9 million inhabitants, is from the relatively leftist Party for a Democratic Revolution, while Mr Haddad, who mayors São Paulo, a city with around 32 million people, is a member of the very leftist Workers’ Party. Guess which party Mrs Cai and Yang (Shanghai, Beijing, combined 45 inhabitants) are from? Of the fifteen cities, only Paris (WAnne Hidalgo, Socialist Party) and Tokyo (Yuriko Koike, Lib Dems) have female mayors. Enjoy a topography contest with your friends and try to figure out which cities are left.

Back to the Banana. So, the cities in the Banana dominate the GDP lists of the European Union, either in total or per capita.

They generally have leftist mayors. These mayors have little political agency on the national stage in most cases though.

It seems the cities want to follow a progressive course, but are held back - so to speak - by their more conservative counterparts – the countryside. If we look at two important referendums in the EU in 2016, the Dutch referendum on the Association Treaty with Ukraine and the

United Kingdoms’ ‘Brexit’ referendum, this is what we see: People in the cities are younger, wealthier, highly educated and less prone to fall for the bullshit demagogies these referenda were based on. Amsterdam, Utrecht and Groningen voted for ratification of the treaty, while pretty much the entire Greater London region voted to remain in the European Union. Bummer, huh?

The Blue Banana is merely one example of an outdated idea of intercity cooperation. Other bananas have been proposed. The Golden Banana would unite the Mediterranean strongholds from Valencia to Genoa and the Danubanana would do so for the metropolitan areas from Vienna to the Baltic.

All have failed.

The Blue Banana was fangled by French geographer Roger Brunet in 1989, but it has completely lost its relevance as a political concept today. Cooperation between cities has remained largely informal. No Bananas, NUTS-regions or other tasty geographical subdivisions have prevented the gigantic democratic deficit in the European Union from polarising the ‘winners’ from the ‘losers’ even further. What is needed is a radical decentralisation of Union competencies in order to undermine the inherently divisive nature of national politics.

Early states have been built on accumulated wealth protected by coercion.

Bureaucratisation policies depended heavily on the cities’ wealth to legitimise the centralised domination of the hinterlands.

But regionalist movements and other forms of particularism in the peripheries, alongside the ever-growing economic divide between city and countryside, now show the real face of the nation-state: it has coerced both into unwantedly depending on each other – the peripheries for money, the centres for votes.

I put my hopes on accelerationism when it comes to the demise of the nation-states.

It will not be long before the first states should crumble under their own strategies of disenfranchising their population. So for now, urban activists should join hands with their rural counterparts in trying to topple this nation-state fuckup.

So to return to the lyric poetry of Mattafix’ Big City Life’s third verse, this is what those urban activists should say to each other: “Don’t you want to know me?, Be a friend of mine.

I’ll share some wisdom with you.

Don’t you ever get lonely, From time to time Don’t let the system get you down”.

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CETA and the fragility of the EU Daan Leseman

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y the time this magazine is published, the problems of the ratification of the CETA treaty, acronym for Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, are already long behind us.

The difficulties back then, spearheaded by the Walloon parliament, have seemingly been resolved and this has giveW enough reassurance to said parliament to withdraw their opposition. Even though everybody was relieved that the ratification process of the treaty could continue, a sudden realisation has creeped into the minds of our leaders. The realisation that one member state, one country, one parliament, can take the whole European Union hostage, so to speak. It took seven years for the European Commission to negotiate the 1598-page long treaty, and with one fell swoop all that work was shaken to its foundations.

What pushed the Walloons to oppose the

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treaty all of a sudden? One member of parliament said to a journalist that they felt overwhelmed by the treaty. Sure, one could feel overwhelmed by the sheer size of the treaty, one-thousand-five-hundredninety-eight pages. But they had had seven years during which they had enough time to read the treaty and oppose any ideas. Even more succulently, the Parti Socialiste, the opposing party in the Walloon parliament, actively supported the treaty during the time it was represented in the federal government (one step higher than the regional government) of Belgium. In short, the sudden opposing attitude was probably nothing short of blatant opportunism. When they finally withdrew their opposition, a few vague statements were given to the press. With a new clause added to the treaty, the parliamentarians had been reassured sufficiently. The only problem is that these additions don’t hold any legal obligation

since they were just a declaration of intention within the spirit of the treaty.

The Walloons could of course be a one-time thing, but several other member states, though less in the mainstream news, have made demands and threatened to veto if they were not met. The most notorious demand came from Romania and Bulgaria.

They wanted visa free travel for their citizens and indeed threatened to veto if that was not added to the treaty. Also in Germany, CETA could have been seriously halted since a group of protestors sued the German government for backing the deal. The judge rejected the appeals but did say that the German government should ensure that every part of CETA would be within the competence of European law. Even though there was not a real threat to the existence of the treaty, again a single part of the Union could bring a potential deal in danger.

“One thing I feel the European Union has always severely lacked is transparency”

This case, and the other countries that have just been described, made one thing very clear: the European Union is very divided, from the top to the bottom it has the power to have control over the outcome of the deals that the Union has to make. In this case, the potential bringing down of CETA was significantly higher because the European Commission had decided that instead of the usual qualitative majority voting, this particular treaty and its controversial subjects needed a green light from every government in the Union. Although, admittedly, this way of reaching consensus is more in line with the ‘spirit’ of the Union, this kind of decision making is susceptible to opportunism and populism, occurrences that Europe has been suffering from for a long time.

All this offers food for thought. Because the current systems are so susceptible to

personal gain or misinformation, should we reconsider some aspects of the democratic process? One thing I feel the European Union has always severely lacked is transparency. Not necessarily because they do not provide the information, but because that specific information does not reach the people. If more people were to have a clear idea as to what decisions our leaders are making for us, then they would not form so much ammunition for the politicians that wish to abuse the system for whatever reason they have. A second target of reform should be the European Commission itself. They are not the right representatives in the sense that they embody the elitist, technocratic bureaucratic image that they wish to shed.

A third reform is to abandon the veto on particular subjects. This is a democracy, which means not every group is going to get exactly what they want. Deal with it. A more solid ‘for the good of the group’ mentality

Image: demonstration against CETA and TTIP in Berlin, Germany.

should be developed. And even though at first this might raise anger, in the long run this will benefit all of the European Union.

In any case, CETA once again proves how fragile the European Union is and how much we need reforms. Is everything well and okay now for the CETA treaty? Sadly, no. There are many other parts of the treaty to be ratified by, again, all 38 parliaments of the EU and thus, once again, making the survival of CETA uncertain. The question if this treaty is something we should pursue is for another time, but what it does show is the need for more consensus and more transparency.

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Referenda: reason

Referenda are well-represented in the many turbulent events that took place in 2016. Some argue that referenda are at the very core of our democracy. In his first article for Eurovisie, Gilles de Valk explains why they are not.

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ince the referendum on Brexit and the referendum on the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement in the Netherlands, questions about the role of referenda in our democracies have risen especially among those who study European Studies. It feels like referenda are bothersome not simply because of their remarkable results, but because they are harmful to our democracy for more fundamental reasons.

However, an answer to this rankling feeling is yet to be provided.

One of the most frequently heard reactions among the intellectual elite is that the people who have voted in favour of Brexit and against the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, respectively, do not have enough knowledge to bring out a thoughtful vote.

Although this argument is as simpleminded as it argues those voters to be, it does lead us to one of the dangerous aspects of referenda: all people are too stupid to bring out a valuable vote, or better said: all people lack resources and knowledge to decide on political issues. This includes both the British people who have voted to leave the EU and

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the people who wanted the United Kingdom to remain a member of the EU. This includes both the people who have voted against and in favour of the association agreement with Ukraine. This includes every registered voter.

As Luuk van den Middelaar argued in NRC Handelsblad (3 November 2016): “Politics is not just about the truth, but also about judgements.” Whether you have a university degree or not, you do not know whether Europe will benefit from TTIP and you do not know how, where or how many refugees should be placed in Europe.

But if no-one is able to cast an educated vote, this does not only mean referenda are nonsense, but that our whole democratic system is useless, does it not? No, it does not.

A representative democracy allows elected politicians to compare different ideas and to take time for this. It prevents the ‘tyranny of the majority’ as the separation of the legislative, executive and judicial powers will guard minorities’ rights and interests.

It reaches for nuance and compromises, which cannot be captured by a simple ‘for’ or ‘against’.

Conversely, referenda offer the easiest way to avoid this process of parliamentary decisionmaking, Steven de Winter argued in NRC Handelsblad (7 October 2016). Though the referenda on Brexit and the Association Agreement were not legally binding, they bring a moral obligation to implement the recommended result in one way or another.

This makes it very hard to include different thoughts and to make compromises. If politicians do not heed the results, society will further polarise and the distrust of political institutions will exacerbate. If they do apply the results, they victimise a large group of people and let emotions and lies lead the way. Emotions are fed by exciting lies, which the media are happy to provide, as bold and fierce statements give them more clicks. Such statements are aimed at the people’s fears: the ones in favour of the Association Agreement with Ukraine feared that Russia would first roll into Ukraine and would later bomb the Netherlands if we did not sign the agreement and protect Ukraine.

The ones against the agreement predicted that Russia would bomb the Netherlands if we signed the agreement. The referendum

nable or reckless?

Gilles de Valk

“Referenda will always isolate an issue, without incorporating the context and possible collateral consequences� took place in April 2016, so I wonder why I am still alive.

Of course, during parliamentary election campaigns, lies are also spread and emotions are also triggered. But such elements have much more impact on decisionmaking when they are measured through referenda. Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, did not issue a clear statement on the Association Agreement with Ukraine before the referendum took place. But remarkably, he recently stated that the Association Agreement should be

signed because it is of vital importance for the stability in Europe. Theresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, now strives for an unpitying Brexit, while in May 2016, she said that the British EU membership was of huge value for the British economy and security, which has been revealed just recently. This shows the arbitrariness of referenda: just a couple of months ago, a historical and maybe lethal verdict was given about the future of the UK and the EU. The next day, it already appeared that people regretted their vote. I wonder what the result would be if we had another referendum on Brexit right now.

Either way, it seems that we could have a referendum on any topic at any time.

It might even have contradictory and incompatible results. One day we can vote for a less powerful EU, the following day we vote in favour of the EU doing more to ensure that the Member States protect their borders or that Member States invest more in sustainable energy. In other words, referenda will always isolate an issue, without

incorporating the context and possible collateral consequences.

So referenda are not at the very core of democracy. Instead, they cause representative democracy to decay, as they simplify reality, rip multidimensional issues out of their context, tend to avoid parliamentary decision-making and therefore disrupt the balance of power within society.

However, does this mean that the results of referenda should not be taken into account at all? A referendum would offer two possible answers to this question: 1) Yes, 2) No. A well-considered answer would not be an option, even though the wisest answer to this question is neither of the answers provided.

That is because the answer is yes and no.

There should be an interpretation of and a response to the results. It seems that the referenda that have been discussed are not about the questions asked in those referenda, but about the citizen’s dissatisfaction with its representatives on the national and European level. It is their task to respond.

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‘Disabling the neutral bomb’

and two other rules of thumb for diversity advocates In the light of the ongoing discussion on diversity at the University of Amsterdam and the recently published report by an independent Commission on the issue, Jason Rouse sent Eurovisie his recipe for an inclusive university.

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iversity in organizations is more prominently featured on the public agenda than ever, and opposing diversity is more and more frowned upon in public discourse. It seems like the perfect time to deal with diversity in organizations, the window of opportunity appears to be fully open. Research indicates, however, that organizational change to better accommodate diversity often stagnates after initial enthusiasm.

UvA is the perfect example of an organization that, at the present time, is dealing with diversity. UvA experienced the Bungenhuis en Maagdenhuis occupations

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Jason Rouse studies at Utrecht University School of Governance; UU department of Education and Pedagogy; as well as Communication Science at the UvA.

last year and those events triggered the executive board to act: evasion was no longer an option. The executive board installed (as a part of a number of measures) the Commission Diversity and mandated it to gain more insight into diversity. The Commission Diversity recently published their final report. UvA (and advocates of diversity around UvA) at this point stands the same challenge as all organizations addressing diversity: making sure that initial enthusiasm and protest turn into organizational change.

I have written this article for people that feel the need to address diversity. People, in this

regard, might be the ones that experience marginalization (in their vicinity) or the ones that associate diversity with better outcomes, e.g. the belief that diversity of researchers will aid a more representative scientific evaluation of our (multicultural) society (in social sciences). Diversity in this regard can be multiform (ethnic, gender, knowledge, social, etc.).

My goal is to provide advocates of diversity (in or outside an organization) with a framework that enables them to do two things better: firstly, featuring their issue on the public agenda, and secondly, turning public attention into actual change, moving

past the danger of stagnation.

I argue that the best way for advocates to easily improve the feature of an issue and the realization of change, is by better defining the issue at hand. I have two reasons for that argument. Firstly, I see that messages of advocates are often misunderstood by an (opposing) audience. An example is how advocates of diversity oftentimes look at the effects on groups of people to discern if something is racist, while opposition oftentimes focusses on intentions. The misunderstanding is then that racism (according to advocates) can be present while nobody (explicitly) intends it, while opposition maintains a more constricted definition. This means that simply spending time on being on the same page might change perceptions and that may be essential

“The UvA report perfectly shows what personal experiences can convey and what numbers cannot”

in getting attention or establishing change. A second reason is that defining an issue can be done strategically to advance a cause.

I will present three rules of thumb for defining a diversity issue. I will focus on ethnic diversity, but this article should be applicable to other diversity issues as well. I will finish this article with a conclusion.

1. Disabling the neutral bomb Oftentimes in diversity discussions, much attention is drawn to who is neutral. On the one hand, advocates claim that their diversity plea is only to instate things to how they always should have been. On the other hand, there is opposition to efforts to advance diversity. They often cite that lack of diversity isn’t an active wrongdoing but

a natural phenomenon, and that they are in fact neutral by choosing not to interfere with the status quo.

The thing here is that having the claim of neutrality (instead of partisanship) is a powerful weapon. This claim, however, is rarely possessed by the advocacy side. A reason for that might be that the notion of ‘doing nothing is neutral’ feels true.

Instead of the possibility to lose the battle over neutrality, an advocate should involve actively in being partisan and make the claim that doing nothing is partisan as well.

One should claim that there is great partisan value involved because, for example, people are being marginalized and potential is left unused. At the same time one should be vigilant in stating that not doing anything is doing something after all (in the light of marginalization or potential). In this manner being partisan and taking distance from neutrality can help an advocate in furthering diversity: Disable the neutral bomb.

2. Numbers don’t cultivate, experiences do I often see that the case for diversity is made on the basis of the legitimacy of numbers or research. What is forgotten at that moment, however, is that numbers are not the root of the problem. What’s more, numbers oftentimes do not even represent the problem, for instance when they reflect an underrepresentation of groups. The issue at hand is conversely rooted in personal experience.

The UvA report, in my opinion, perfectly shows what personal experiences can convey and what numbers cannot. In the summary of the report numbers are used, page 6 for instance states that 33% of the respondents of the survey have experienced discrimination.

This in itself might be worrisome to some, but to me it does not say much. Further on in the report (p. 47), individual experiences are highlighted. It then becomes apparent that exclusion can mean that teachers who have to evaluate a PhD proposal think being Muslim and researching Islam is worrisome, because a Muslim could not be objective about Islam. It is these kinds of stories that an advocate must be aware of to cultivate an audience. Numbers in that sense don’t cultivate like experiences do.

3. Cite in terms of goals of formal actor If you, as an advocate, are very dependent on a formal actor, such as the government, a university or even a teacher, it might help to

define the diversity issue on the basis of goals you know they subscribe to, instead of trying to convince them of the general kindness of your position.

One of the best examples of the employment of a goal of a formal actor to advance a social issue, can be found in the 1954 American Supreme Court case of Brown vs. Board of Education. This historic decision banned racial segregation in public schools. The main legal argument that won the case focused on the obligation of the government to provide services to citizens equally on the basis of the 14th constitutional amendment.

The argument was that providing equal services to all citizens is per definition compromised if a government racially segregates in public schools.

What you should keep in mind is that advancement can be attained without a

“The notion of ‘doing nothing is neutral’ feels true.” primary focus on justice. If you are reliant on a formal actor you could also focus on the obligations that a formal actor neglects by not addressing the issue that you are advocating.

In trying to write something to help people with dealing with diversity, I have proposed three rules of thumb for defining diversity issues. I want you, as an advocate, to remember firstly that being partisan is something you should embrace, while being vigilant to make sure other parties do not claim neutrality. Secondly, that experiences should be central to your definition of a diversity problem. Thirdly, and finally, that you should consider the goals of a formal actor while defining your issue. Next to these three rules of thumb there are many aspects in defining diversity issues that could receive attention, next to different approaches altogether. I hope regardless that (re)focusing on these three rules provided will kick start or improve some of the diversity advocacy in order to realize actual change.

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Barroso and the Revolving Door Maarten van Campenhout

Image: the headquarters of Golden Sachs in London, United Kingdom.

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O

n the 8th of July 2016, Goldman Sachs International announced that the former president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, had been appointed as the nonexecutive chairman of the world’s most (in)famous investment bank. With this move, Barroso stands in a long tradition of ‘politics of the revolving door’. Directly after Goldman Sachs’ press release, the move was criticized severely by journalists, politicians and even EU civil servants. In order to understand why this move is so controversial, we first have to elaborate on the principle of the revolving door.

The revolving door is a popular description of the movement of personnel between roles as legislators and regulators and the industries affected by the legislation and regulation. It happens on all levels of politics and governance. Tony Blair, for example, started working for JP Morgan after his time as British prime minister had ended. In the Netherlands, former minister of finance Gerrit Zalm is a typical example. He works for ABN-AMRO, one of the biggest banks in Holland. Barroso’s move is a good example to use in showing why society should be critical of politics of the revolving door and why we should try to find ways to diminish it.

Goldman Sachs was one of the major players in the rise of the financial crisis in the United States. Together with Deutsche Bank it was one of the most fanatical firms in trading the so-called toxic derivative products such as CDOs (Collateralised Debt Obligations) and CDSs (Credit Default Swaps), which were the main factors in the creation and explosion of the housing bubble in the US as well as in Europe, since European companies were eager to follow the US in those profitable times. Goldman Sachs also played a quite prominent role in helping Greece to be admitted to the Eurozone in time for the currency’s introduction in 2002. In real figures, Greece did not meet the requirements to be admitted; its government’s budget deficit exceeded the contractual maximum of 60% of the GDP. To fix this, Goldman Sachs was hired. By means of creative accounting, a method was used with which the Greek government debt in dollars and yens was swapped for euros with a fictional exchange rate. This way, Greece was able to get hidden additional credit up to € 1 billion, something which would not have been possible without the creative idea of Goldman Sachs to use a fictional exchange rate.

For these reasons and more, Goldman Sachs

is one of the most controversial banks in the world. Barroso was the president of the European Commission from 2004 until 2014, after which he was succeeded by JeanClaude Juncker. In this role one of Barroso’s main challenges was dealing with the global financial crisis which hit Europe almost directly after its beginning, the default of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. The crisis was so intense, European politicians were concordant: banking regulation needed to be much stricter in order to prevent crises like this one from happening again. With this on hand, the European Commission started developing several policies on banking regulation, for example the so called European Stability Mechanism, which included forming a banking union and creating a fund in which the three hundred biggest European banks deposited a total sum of around € 23 billion to save struggling banks with.

These kind of policies do not write themselves, they are outcomes of long and intensive consultation between all types of stake holders. The banks themselves have big lobby departments which are used to influence the policy making process to bend it in such a way that it serves the interests of the banking sector as much as possible.

Goldman Sachs is no exception in this

“Was there a job offer for Barroso in return for softening the new regulations?” and it has certainly tried to influence the EC’s policy making. The moment Barroso starts working for one of the banks that have been affected by the policies the ex-commissioner is responsible for, one should be very cautious. It is very difficult to control all tracks of a commissioner.

Hence, it is impossible to know in what way Barroso has been influenced by Goldman during his term as the president of the European Commission. Publico, a Portuguese newspaper, published an article with proof of very amicable, off-the-record correspondence between Barosso and Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs,

in which they talk about ‘extraordinarily’ fruitful and ‘discrete’ meetings. This raises inevitable questions. Is this a case of conflict of interest? Was there a job offer for Barroso in return for softening the new regulations?

Is it not the European public interest the European Commission should serve, and not that of the big banks and corporations in the private sector?

These questions are legitimate. Confidence in the competence and integrity of European politicians is low already, so politicians who start working for ‘greedy’ banks will only confirm the very EU-sceptical public opinion. It is not just damaging to the reputation of Barroso himself, it does most harm to the reputation of the European institutions.

Luckily, the rumours of Barroso’s appointment at Goldman Sachs have not passed Brussels silently. His former civil servants at the Commission even started a petition to get Barroso sanctioned by the ethics committee. Furthermore, Barroso’s successor Juncker has spoken out on the issue: “I think José Manuel Barroso is an honest man and he is a friend. Personally, I do not have a problem with him working for a private bank – but maybe not this bank.

Goldman Sachs was one of the organisations that knowingly or unknowingly contributed to the enormous financial crisis we had between 2007 and 2009. So one does wonder about the particular bank he has ended up working for.” The commission has responded to the massive wave of criticism and has decided to revoke certain perks Barroso could enjoy as former president. From now on, Barroso will be treated as an ordinary lobbyist. Hence, he will be blocked from using personal connections for business means.

Gradually, it looks like more and more people are becoming aware of the sensitivity of moves like the appointment of Barroso at Goldman Sachs. In the last decades, big multinationals, banks and corporations have gained more and more power and they have a great influence on politics. We cannot allow a politician to accept a job at a firm which has been affected by policies that they have developed themselves. This goes not only for EU politicians, but also for those on the national level like Gerrit Zalm and Tony Blair. The list of cases does not end after three examples, but is in fact much longer.

If we want to have a fair and transparent working democracy it would be sane to prohibit all types of politics of the revolving door by law.

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A People Of Strange Cu These modern times may be shaped by religion, but certainly not in their traditional ways. As folk piety makes way for secularism, the days of priests and prophets seem numbered. But even in our godless times, new faiths still arise. Often, they come in the guise of reconstruction, Eurovisie’s Mats Licht finds.

A

s dusk rises over the hill of Öskjuhlið, the small, gathered crowd grows anxious. They have come from near and far, from surrounding Reykjavik to Akureyri, across the hills and glaciers of the north. In their midst stands their chief, an ashen-haired, bearded priest, clad in a robe of red and white, contrastingWsharply with the sombrely dark, rugged clothes of his disciples. Some of them have dressed up, donning nasal helmets and capes, some are holding banners fluttering lightly in the morning breeze.

None of them raise their voices as the priest passes around a horn of mead, signalling the sacred truce between the members of the circle. As everyone takes a sip, their tension eases. Peace has been restored. From the altar, covered in icons of gods, and nature’s own morsels – rocks, flowers and branches – the elder lifts a large hammer far above the head of the child murmuring restlessly in its

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mother’s arms. The naming ceremony can begin.

Although intuition might suggest otherwise, this scene did not transpire a millennium ago, even though it could have happened the same way back then, except for the Gore-Tex jackets and the impressive dental work done on the priest’s pearly whites, of course. In fact, just last year Ásatrúarfélagið, one of the most professional and impossible to pronounce groups of modern heathens, finally got the construction of their first temple close to the Icelandic capital underway. This massive step in the community’s history will also mark the first time a pagan temple has been constructed in Scandinavia in almost a thousand years.

While originally an offshoot of the Baby Boomers’ wave of newfound spirituality, modern paganism has truly taken root in the Nordic countries in the past two decades.

Fascinated by ancient Germanic polytheism, numerous groups emerged from the 1970s onwards, but most only gaining official recognition in the mid-90s. Not so for Ásatrúarfélagið, which was granted the right to perform weddings, funerals and namegivings in 1973. Even though their gatherings are not mass spectacles, it is nevertheless surprising to see the rapid development of many such organisations, particularly in such secular and modern places as the Nordic countries. Ásatrúarfélagið alone increased its official membership from seven hundred in 2003 to just over three thousand in 2016, representing a staggering 1 percent of the country’s population. Because of the New Age character of these religions, their influence might be in fact much larger than their official membership base. There are an uncounted number of private adherents to the creed, dramatically called ‘Ásatrú’ or ‘Faith of the Æsir’, following its teachings

ustoms in their own homes and sticking to a selfconstructed catalogue of beliefs and ethics.

The diffuse borders of the religion are rooted in the profound weakness of all New Age spirituality: the unclear distinction between old and new. Whether the movement is truly a reconstruction of old Norse religious practices is doubtful and has led to a high number of schisms within modern paganism. Some groups see themselves as closer to the original practices than others, but in reality it may prove difficult to ever determine the true essence of the Norse religion, be it for sheer lack of archaeological evidence or because the Norse themselves were highly fragmented and did not adhere to a single rite. The existence of a single Nordic mythology is a myth in itself, since the only reason only one version exists, is the fact that only two comprehensive written sources on it exist, both written in Iceland. More importantly, both versions

of that ‘Edda’, the collective term for Norse mythology, were written after Iceland had been converted to Christianity and their authority is therefore somewhat doubtful.

Nevertheless, the Icelandic followers of Ásatrúarfélagið are convinced of their true way, since their ancestors were secretly allowed to keep practicing their pagan beliefs in their own homes. Or at least that is what they tell everyone.

The early believers did not even come up with the Edda as their foundational document themselves, they were the products of a post-romantic time after all. Throughout the late 19th century, scholars, poets and occultists started searching through old documents, trying to identify the true essence of their people.

Aleister Crowley roamed around Britain and America spreading his own brand of neo-paganism mixed with Christian

eschatology, while numerous groups in Germany tried to reconcile history with their newly developed national identity.

Often, they dove into other contemporary theories about human development, race and history, and troves of archaeological discoveries provided them with ever more speculative material. Despite their profound influence on medieval Europe, the Vikings had always been shrouded in mystery, attracting the attention of many a Germanic spiritual. Luckily for them, the northern tribes left plenty of sources to dwell on, unlike their southern, Roman-fighting cousins. In the sagas of Snorri, Sturla and other ancients, they found idealised versions of their history, poetic accounts of Viking life and, most importantly, comprehensive accounts of Norse mythology. Snorri’s version of the Edda became a source for the Völkisch movement, but also the pillar of contemporary Ásatrú. Ásatrú is, of course,

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much closer to other western manifestations of new spiritualism, like Eastern religions, meditation and the yoga craze, than to national occultism. They are generally not exclusive, freely admitting members of all religions to their events, do not try to missionise and generally allow for a large variety of beliefs, from strong polytheism that assumes the physical existence of the nine worlds and their inhabitants like the Æsir and Vanir to a sort of folkish atheism that sees the gods more as a metaphorical concept within the same congregation. They share a connection to nature, specifically the environment of Scandinavia, and support its conservation. They are united by their pantheon of gods, the sacredness of all material things, and their central bonding ritual, the blót. But the movements also share a strong emphasis on the peculiarly Nordic combination of individualism and strong groupthink, thereby developing an attractiveness to a wholly different kind of people. Because of the content they share with pop-cultural occultism, modern heathens are often grouped within the spiritual fringe of the New European Right.

But while many old-school neo-Nazi groups embrace their symbolism in the form of tattoos and rattling white power music, the Ásatrú seem to be an ideological step further back in time, at least partially. In its present form, it incorporates much more material from pre-modern Scandinavian society than of occultism. While right wing anti-abortionists and racial theorists embraced the movement in its early days, the movement did not embrace them, and the organised covens of Ásatrú followers quickly snubbed them in favour of a more family-oriented, friendly animism of Norse proclivity. Nevertheless, religious scholar Stefanie von Schnurbein and others have split the neo-heathens into three camps: the anti-racists, as personified by the friendly neighbourhood priest in Iceland who skates at the weekend, the racialreligious, stereotypical neo-Nazis, who connect spirituality to racial theory, and the ethnicists, who merely acknowledge the religion’s Nordic roots. But this dangerous sounding split only shows the potential for disagreement inherent in every religion.

Rather than worry about the radicals, it is much more entertaining to relish the obscure aspects of this new faith and to marvel at history happening in front of our very eyes.

Whether Ásatrú is truly authentic or not, and whether it will ever gather a mass following or not, observing it does bring us ever so much closer to those mystic, prophetic times when religions were still built instead of abolished and gods walked among men.

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Christmas Gala - 23 December The Christmas Gala is coming soon! This year the Gala will take place in the beautiful Tolhuistuin and is organised in cooperation with other study associations within the Faculty of Humanities.

Additional info will follow soon.

Family Day - 13 January This year’s family day will be organised on Friday the 13nd, a perfect date to introduce your parents, siblings, grandparents or any other person that is interested to the SES. Participation is free, so don’t hesitate to bring your family to Amsterdam.

Career Dinner - 6 March It’s still far away, but in March we will organise the yearly Career Dinner. This event is a perfect opportunity to interact with specialists from different working fields that represent the majors of the European Studies Bachelor Program. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for more info.

Study Trip - 26 April-7 May During the second semester SES will be heading East: the Polish cities of Warsaw, Wroclaw and Krakow will be visited, as well as Lviv in Ukraine. The participation fee for this 12-day adventure is 385 euros, which can also be payed in terms. Do you want to be part of this amazing experience?

Create your personal, funny, touching, emotional or delicious, but most of all anonymous motivation, and deliver it on http://www.ses-uva.nl/studytrip/ before the 6th of December. Don’t miss out on this solid piece of SES-banter!

(c) studievereniging europese studies 2016