100% agree. I’m Dutch and he’s sent there to represent me/us/the country, it’s fucking disgusting.

I totally agree with you and fuck this guy, but there is some context to his sentence here in the Netherlands:

One legal distinction is that Van de Velde is unlikely to have been convicted of rape had he stood trial in the Netherlands rather than England. In England, sex with a 12-year-old is rape, regardless of the circumstances: an under-16 cannot legally consent. But after he was extradited to the Netherlands, having serving almost a year of his prison sentence, he was released after less than a month. Under Dutch law, his crime was deemed to be the lesser offence of ontucht, sexual acts that violate social-ethical norms.

From https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/30/netherlands-child-rapist-olympics-steven-van-de-velde

Wait so you can get married under the age of consent? That seems completely illogical… if you can’t consent to sex surely you can’t consent to marriage?

Just to be very clear I’m not defending him in the slightest, this whole thing is horrible and I agree he raped her.

I was just explaining the situation and the differences in law in England and the Netherlands.

While I agree that this crime should definitely fall within the definition and corresponding punishment of rape, I don’t agree that no 15 year old can ever consent to sex.

I’m not sure what the law ought to be though. I personally think a 16 year old should be legally able to have sex with their 15 year old partner. Maybe in england the difference in age matters. But if not, and a 15 year old legally cannot consent, is this hypothetical 16 year old now a rapist? That doesn’t sound right to me.

A 19 year old having sex with a 12 year old? That is clearly wrong and that’s rightfully already illegal here. But it’s not automatically rape because Dutch law does recognize consent from people under 16. I have no idea at what age people can give consent though. I’m not sure if there is a minimum. But if the 12 year old in this situation did not consent then it would obviously be rape, just to make that clear.

A question: what is the situation in other countries with high schoolers having sex? It must happen all the time that some 18 year old is dating a 15 year old and that they have sex. I think the overwhelming majority of Dutch people would not want that to be illegal, let alone considered rape.

Yeah the search is not forgiving. One typo is enough to ruin the search results.

How well an area is mapped also matters a lot for search though. I now live somewhere that has all addresses in the country mapped from a government source. I didn’t before, and it’s so much easier now because at least I can just punch in the address and I’ll find whatever I’m looking for.

Not saying it’s right, but for context:

One legal distinction is that Van de Velde is unlikely to have been convicted of rape had he stood trial in the Netherlands rather than England. In England, sex with a 12-year-old is rape, regardless of the circumstances: an under-16 cannot legally consent. But after he was extradited to the Netherlands, having serving almost a year of his prison sentence, he was released after less than a month. Under Dutch law, his crime was deemed to be the lesser offence of ontucht, sexual acts that violate social-ethical norms.

From https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/30/netherlands-child-rapist-olympics-steven-van-de-velde

Why wouldn’t you want an expert to run the economy is such trying times?

Because this so-called expert is a danger to the the common Argentine. His way of “fixing” the economy is by growing inequality, privatizing key government duties and destroying unions.

I personally disagree with him on many points, such as:

he has called for the elimination or merging of major ministries such as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity, and the Ministry of Health.

Milei articulates a critical view of the role of the state in economic matters, calling it “the greatest enemy of wealth”

Milei wants to privatize public health care providers

Milei has expressed support for legalizing organ trade

Also, he is president of the country, not just the economy. I totally disagree with him on points like:

A supporter of law-and-order politics, Milei endorses the unrestricted ownership of firearms

Milei opposes both abortion and euthanasia … Milei holds that abortion is morally indefensible, even in cases of rape

He intends to eliminate the law that makes comprehensive sex education (CSE) in schools mandatory, which he has linked to brainwashing, and said that students are “hostages of a system of state indoctrination”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Javier_Milei

regarding your comment:

So let me hear it. What would you do to so wonderfully fix the economy that an expert is getting all wrong?

This is a fallacy. It is of course not necessary to know the right answer in order to know that another answer is wrong. I might not know what 483 × 749 is, but I know it’s not 10. Or 100. Or 1000.

I have this system at home and it’s great. Similar climate to Paris and never a problem.

I used ‘reader mode’, or whatever it’s called, on Firefox and that worked well.

It is probably a politically popular move in South Africa and especially considering the many problems South Africa is facing I understand your skepticism. However, it also makes historical sense SA does this.

Israel was one of the very few countries that continued its relationship with South Africa during apartheid. Israel would buy raw materials and South Africa weapons as well as technologies like nuclear. It’s the reason why South Africa actually had nuclear weapons for a while and still have nuclear energy (pretty sure still the only African country). Israel also helped them make petrol for vehicles out of coal, which sounds insane but was a way to seal with the sanctions against South Africa that prevented them from importing oil. The apartheid regime undoubtedly lasted longer because of Israel, and South Africans haven’t forgotten this.

The support for Palestine is widespread in South Africa because of this as well as the parallels between the apartheid regime and the Israeli government.

So yeah, it makes political sense for SA to take Israel to court like this, but I honestly think a big reason for it is historical and showing genuine support for Palestine.

FYI “The Hawks” is a branch of SAPS, the south African police services: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawks_(South_Africa)

*alley

It would be if it were true, but they’re just working on forming a coalition to create a majority in parliament and that always takes time. As a Dutch person I really don’t agree with the idea that Wilders is having a particularly hard time forming a coalition. If anything it’s going more smoothly than I expected. I think in a month or two we’ll see prime minister Wilders sitting next to Willy (the king).

Yeah I’m also Dutch and agree with this 100%. Forming a coalition always takes time. If anything I think they’re actually going quite fast. I was expecting the VVD and NSC to push back more than they are doing.

Honestly I’m fine with them creating this coalition quickly. The sooner it’s formed the sooner it can collapse.

I dislike Wilders as much as the next guy but criticizing his appearance just seems stupid. There is so much wrong with his words and actions, there’s really no need for discussing his looks.

He’s been in parliament since 1998. Longest currently serving parliamentarian I believe.

Don’t get me wrong I hate everything he stands for, but your comparison with Trump doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and I’m guessing is only based on his appearance.

Yeah I understand the context of Pim Fortuyn of course and I agree it’s not a good joke or anything like that. I just feel like this is made into way too big of a deal for what was probably an off thr cuff comment.

I do think that “fuck around and find out” should be true. Baudet for example is just a fascist who is friends with the Russians and wants to destroy democracy in the Netherlands. I honestly think that until his party is outlawed it’s a good thing he gets hit with umbrellas and beer bottles. Fuck him so hard, I don’t think what he says should be tolerated.

Ha! He’s a comedian making a joke. Perhaps not the best joke, but obviously a joke. He’s even on stage in his role as comedian.

After all the vile things Wilders has said that were dead serious I feel like this is nothing.

Probably good publicity for the comedian though, and of course it’s some political points for Wilders and the rest of the far-right (“look how violent these left-wing people of color are!”).

Seven