The Grand Rapids Press – Got Dutch? Well, not much

Posted on April 7th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Got Dutch? Well, not much
About the Dutch in the US and what happens if people from the Netherlands visit the Dutch migrants in the US.

Friday, April 07, 2006
By Kym Reinstadler
The Grand Rapids Press

HOLLAND — They didn’t pack a Dutch costume because they don’t own one.

They never wore wooden shoes or learned traditional klompen dancing until they arrived in Michigan.

Those are answers five Dutch students from a hospitality school in the Netherlands have given regularly since arriving March 10 to do a three-month internship at Dutch Village in Holland.
“We love it here, but it’s old Holland,” said Nicolle van Sambeek, 19, from Sint Anthonis. “We hope Americans realize this is not how it still goes in the Netherlands.”

The Netherlands is a modern, progressive country that plays a major role in the economy of Europe, even though it’s smaller than Michigan, said Serani van der Helm, 19, of Helmond.

Today, to see people wearing wooden shoes or dining on pigs in blankets off Delftware, you would have to visit old people in rural regions of the country, the students said.

Holland Mayor Al McGeehan, who met the students Thursday, asked the visitors to forgive Holland for stereotypes. Its icons — from klompen dancing to cuisine — all celebrate the culture the first settlers in West Michigan 160 years ago fondly remembered.

He acknowledged that he learned through his travels that giving wooden shoes — his city’s highest honor reserved for presidents and other dignitaries — would be considered an insult in the Netherlands.

“Holland has grown to be more than our Dutch heritage, yet this is our key to recognition across the country,” McGeehan said. “Please do not laugh at our old symbols.”

The students, who will work in a variety of capacities at Dutch Village, say it’s hard to get too homesick in Holland. There are the same gray skies and a telephone book full of familiar names.

They enjoyed learning that DeZwaan, Holland’s 240-year-old working Dutch windmill, was dismantled in 1964 from the province of North Brabant, where their school is based.

McGeehan was a tour guide when Windmill Island opened 40 years ago and can still recite his spiel — a skill the students imagine they will hone during careers in tourism.

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Posted on April 7th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News, Uncategorized.

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ISIM – The Shifts in Hizbullah's Ideology: Religious Ideology, Political Ideology, and Political Program

Posted on April 7th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Important Publications.

My colleague Joseph Alagha at Isim has defended his PhD thesis in February 2006. His book is out now:

The Shifts in Hizbullah’s Ideology: Religious Ideology, Political Ideology, and Political Program

The Lebanese Shi‘ite resistance movement, Hizbullah, is going through a remarkable political and ideological transformation. Hizbullah was founded in 1978 by various sectors of Lebanese Shi‘ite clergy and cadres, and with Iranian backing as an Islamic movement protesting against social and political conditions. Over the years 1984/85 to 1991, Hizbullah became a full-fledged social movement in the sense of having a broad overall organization, structure, and ideology aiming at social change and social justice, as it claimed. Starting in 1992, it became a mainstream political party working within the narrow confines of its pragmatic political program. The line of argument in this dissertation is that Hizbullah has been adjusting its identity in the three previously mentioned stages by shifting emphasis among its three components: (1) from propagating an exclusivist religious ideology (2) to a more encompassing political ideology, and (3) to a down-to-earth political program.

Joseph Alagha is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at the Lebanese American University. Alagha received his M.Phil. degree in Islamic Studies from the ISIM in 2000. As a Ph.D. candidate at ISIM from 2001 to 2005, he conducted research on the changing role of Hizbullah in the Lebanese public sphere and its contribution to the integration processes. His research interests include the impact of the democratisation and the liberalisation processes on Islamic movements in the Middle East, surveying the role of core and peripheral states.

ISBN – 13 978 90 5356 910 8
ISBN – 10 90 5356 910 3

The dissertation can be ordered via orders@aup.nl or bestellingen@aup.nl .

0 comments.

ISIM – The Shifts in Hizbullah’s Ideology: Religious Ideology, Political Ideology, and Political Program

Posted on April 7th, 2006 by .
Categories: Important Publications.

My colleague Joseph Alagha at Isim has defended his PhD thesis in February 2006. His book is out now:

The Shifts in Hizbullah’s Ideology: Religious Ideology, Political Ideology, and Political Program

The Lebanese Shi‘ite resistance movement, Hizbullah, is going through a remarkable political and ideological transformation. Hizbullah was founded in 1978 by various sectors of Lebanese Shi‘ite clergy and cadres, and with Iranian backing as an Islamic movement protesting against social and political conditions. Over the years 1984/85 to 1991, Hizbullah became a full-fledged social movement in the sense of having a broad overall organization, structure, and ideology aiming at social change and social justice, as it claimed. Starting in 1992, it became a mainstream political party working within the narrow confines of its pragmatic political program. The line of argument in this dissertation is that Hizbullah has been adjusting its identity in the three previously mentioned stages by shifting emphasis among its three components: (1) from propagating an exclusivist religious ideology (2) to a more encompassing political ideology, and (3) to a down-to-earth political program.

Joseph Alagha is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at the Lebanese American University. Alagha received his M.Phil. degree in Islamic Studies from the ISIM in 2000. As a Ph.D. candidate at ISIM from 2001 to 2005, he conducted research on the changing role of Hizbullah in the Lebanese public sphere and its contribution to the integration processes. His research interests include the impact of the democratisation and the liberalisation processes on Islamic movements in the Middle East, surveying the role of core and peripheral states.

ISBN – 13 978 90 5356 910 8
ISBN – 10 90 5356 910 3

The dissertation can be ordered via orders@aup.nl or bestellingen@aup.nl .

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