[red.:] Het doet de Antipres een groot genoegen om de openingsspeech van IMUNA 2023, uitgesproken door oud-leerling Mascha ten Bruggencate (eindexamen 1995) te mogen publiceren.
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, dear delegates, good morning! I feel very honored to deliver this opening speech today at the opening of the International Model United Nations in Alkmaar. My name is Mascha ten Bruggencate, I am the mayor of Heiloo, a municipality with 25,000 inhabitants, situated between Alkmaar and the beach. I was born and raised in Alkmaar. I studied political science at Leiden University, I had a career in banking, I lived and worked in the Netherlands, Belgium and China and I have been a Dutch local politician for the last 13 years.
MUN
35 years ago, I was a MUN delegate myself. In those days we participated in the The Hague International Model United Nations. We took it very seriously, as you all do, I suppose. We stayed in a youth hostel in The Hague, one of our fellow delegates brought an electric typewriter, we were all dressed up and wrote our own press releases. We were even interviewed on national TV! And I was interviewed by a journalist of the Alkmaar regional newspaper, a lesson in media training that I will never forget and still remember. The journalist who interviewed me asked me how it felt to discuss such big global issues, to which I replied, “It feels very important to me”. Well, that became the headline of the article. As you can imagine, this was not the headline the teacher liked, but I didn’t think it was that strange at the time.
And even now, being a bit older, looking back I still feel the same. It is extremely important to discuss global issues, to discuss politics and to discuss everything to make this world a better place. Taking part in the MUN made me realize later on that I wanted to become a politician myself. Being part of the political process, taking my own decisions instead of leaving that to others and whining about the outcome. So, after my final exams at the Murmellius, I chose to study political science at Leiden University. I am sure that a seed for my political career was planted at the MUN.
This school fitted me very well. I experienced a lot of individual freedom and a lot of personal responsibility here. I think, remembering my school years, that there was a special atmosphere of freedom at this school because there was no real dominant group among us. In my recollection, there was no majority that overruled the others, no group that imposed on others what was normal, how to act or how to dress. The school gave me the freedom to think about my future, challenged me to act as an individual and helped me to grow up as a responsible citizen.
Freedom, war and peace
Today I want to talk to you about freedom, as that is the theme you are going to discuss the coming days. I will talk to you about freedom in different layers. From freedom as a global principle to some personal anecdotes. There are a lot of definitions of freedom , from legal and philosophical points of view to many individual opinions. Over time the opinions on what freedom is about have changed. The positions of men and women or the moral approval of for instance slavery have changed since the Greeks and Romans wrote about it in their books.
I believe that a global set of rules and global cooperation is needed to shape a free world, but in the end freedom for the individual is not shaped by these rules but by individuals and the communities they live in. The urge for freedom is of all times, although it is sometimes hard to hear the voices of the unheard in history. There were probably many more cries for freedom than we read in most books, since the unfree are usually unheard.
The war in Ukraine is a painful example of the violation of human rights taking place right now. We are confronted with unfreedom caused by a war nearby, a war in Europe at our borders. War is for Europeans no longer something far away or long ago. Just a couple of days ago we witnessed old techniques being used in modern warfare. The demolition of the dam in the Dnepr river is the same technique as the one that saved Alkmaar 450 years ago. By then the water helped to free Alkmaar from Spanish occupation, now the water makes many new refugees and victims by flooding innocent villages.
As all municipalities, we, Heiloo, housed a group of Ukrainians immediately after the Russian invasion started, more than a year ago. The Ukrainians I meet are clear in their wish for a free country. Freedom to them means the end of the war against Russia and the restauration of the sovereignty of their own country. I didn’t meet any Russians recently, but I can imagine that their answer might be more diffuse. Some will support this war, but we also know not all Russians do. Unfortunately, they are not free enough to openly say so.
The last war that was fought in the Netherlands is the second world war, more than 75 years ago. At the outbreak of the war my grandparents were in their early thirties and just married. They lived in Alkmaar and knew a few Jewish families. With the tightening of the measures by the Nazi regime to exclude and isolate Jews, the plan arose to hide a few people on a boat. My grandfather was a skipper. They didn’t have a clear plan, my grandfather thought it wouldn’t take that long and the war could never be as horrendous as it turned out to be. They rented a ship, this ship was called the Gratitude, which turned out to be an appropriate name. The ship was adjusted to hide 5 persons on it. They sailed around for two years, here in this region. And they all survived.
For me, their granddaughter, this story seemed quite obvious when I grew up. I thought that everybody would do such a thing. Though growing older I know most people don’t. I often question myself what I would have done then or how brave I would be myself nowadays. What do I do to support the freedom of others? And how high is the risk I am willing to take?
The atrocities committed during the Second World war led to the installation of the United Nations and the Proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Unfortunately nations uniting globally and signing a universal declaration is not enough to ensure freedom for every individual. As I said in the beginning of my talk, We need both a global set of rules, global cooperation and an open and understanding and welcoming community for individuals to be free.
Nationalization
As a mayor I may give foreigners their Dutch citizenship, it is called a nationalization ceremony. We organize an official ceremony in Heiloo for roughly 5 people a month. During these ceremonies I hear the stories of people who want to become Dutch citizens. Sometimes it’s because the love of their life is Dutch, but mostly the reason is less romantic. It is often because they are oppressed or persecuted in their mother countries. People from Afghanistan, Syria, and Eritrea, and so on. People from certain ethnic groups, religions, or for instance the LGBT community.
These stories show me that freedom is something to cherish and that it is a huge privilege to be able to live our lives the way we want. In December we celebrated all new Dutch passport holders, because during Corona we could not organize any festivities. In the ceremony I asked everyone to say some words to the audience. There was a lady from Eritrea who could only say “I am So Happy!”, overjoyed as she was. Whenever I think about or discuss the importance of improving our asylum procedures I think about her.
Freedom, legislation and rules
We can also talk about freedom in a sense of legislation, a set of rules. What rules make that people are being treated differently? And which rules and which behavior can promote equality, democracy and individual freedom? I will tell you about my own experience.
When it was announced that I would become the new mayor of Heiloo, the local newspaper headlined “after 50 years again a woman”. I thought that was pretty weird. It was very special for me to be nominated as mayor. I had gone through a serious procedure and a lot of interviews for this appointment. That’s why it felt strange to be portrayed as just a woman in the newspaper article that announced my appointment.
And consider this: The obvious headline “again a man appointed”, isn’t often seen in newspaper headlines. It made me curious about my predecessor, the woman who had been mayor of Heiloo 50 years ago. Her name is Joke Corver-van Haaften. She left Heiloo when I was born. She was the fifth female mayor in the Netherlands. Which was very special for her, but also for the municipality of Heiloo. Only 50 years ago women were hardly ever appointed as mayor!
In 2001, 22 years ago, Alkmaar appointed their first female mayor, Marie van Rossen. But the best news is: Alkmaar currently has a female mayor as well; the times are changing! And although it is legally possible, we are still waiting for the first female, bicultural or openly gay prime minister …At the end of the 19th century, calls for more equality between men and women emerged in various countries. Until then, only men were allowed to vote and then usually only men of a certain status. Workers and women did not participate. With the constitutional amendment in 1917, the right to stand as a candidate to be elected was introduced for all men and women, and in 1919 the right to vote was also added. From 1931 it became possible for women to become a mayor. At that time, special debates were held about this issue, in which the men openly questioned whether women were psychologically and physically capable of directing the police and the fire brigade. And what it would do to their outfits if they caught a thief single-handedly…
About a third of the city councilors is now female and a third of the mayors in the Netherlands. So, a lot has changed since the adjustment of the law in 1931, but there is still a way to go. You can see that in addition to adjusting the rules to make it possible to participate, to give a certain group of individuals freedom, it also depends on how society and the people themselves deal with a change. How they deal with the opportunity to be free, to take chances, but also to give space. That takes time. A lot of time, a lot of good examples and usually a lot of debate.
Prejudices can hurt terribly, but sometimes you can end up in funny situations when people are prejudiced. I will tell you what I experienced. When we, me and my husband, moved to Heiloo, we needed to buy a car, because we moved to a village… We visited a number of dealers here in this area. We noticed that the dealers spoke only to my husband, I was completely ignored. We made it a game to tell as late as possible in the conversation that we were moving to Heiloo because of my work, when the word “mayor” popped up, then suddenly all attention was focused on me and in one case they even wanted to take a picture.
It was a bit awkward, but shows that I maybe don’t look like a mayor and that ideas about relationships are still a bit old fashioned.
Back to the rules and law. Recently our Dutch constitution was adjusted. Two groups were added to the first amendment. It is not allowed to be discriminated against because of a handicap or because of sexual orientation. These two grounds were only added this year. It doesn’t immediately make a difference, but it gives recognition to the groups involved. And will hopefully lead to more freedom and acceptance for them in the near future.
Another example of a rule that has given many people freedom is the opening of marriage to people of the same sex. People are allowed to marry their same sex partners in the Netherlands only from 2001 onwards. The Netherlands was the first country in the world where this was allowed. Many of my friends got married between the year 2000 and 2010. We have celebrated all weddings with great enthusiasm, a lot of romance and fabulous parties, but I find it painful to realize that same sex marriage for my gay friends was not allowed before the year 2001.
Amsterdam
Before we moved to Heiloo, I lived in the city center Amsterdam, I worked for the city of Amsterdam, in close cooperation with Mayor Halsema. My main project was to regulate tourism in a way the Amsterdam city center remains a place where people want to live and work as well. The city center has 85000 inhabitants, and there are more than 15 million visitors a year.
There we encountered the paradox of freedom, as described by the philosopher Karl Popper. The Netherlands and Amsterdam especially are well known for being very openminded, free and tolerant. There is a lot of freedom in regulations on drugs, alcohol, sexuality and prostitution. But the reputation of freedom attracts a certain kind of tourism and a certain kind of business. Many people came to experience the freedom of the city in a way it caused unfreedom to others. Many locals in Amsterdam don’t come to the city center anymore because of the crowds. Freedom is part of the DNA of Amsterdam or the Netherlands, so regulating sex and drugs always leads to big political debates, because most people, politicians as well, strongly believe freedom should not be regulated.
The freedom of the locals is threatened by the freedom of the visitors because it seems they can’t handle the freedom. The last years freedom in Amsterdam had to be regulated, to save a bit of the freedom of the locals before they would all move out. This is the paradox Popper taught us: Freedom sometimes has to be limited to save it for others. The mayor of Amsterdam is still working on it, other cities follow her example.
Freedom to be who you are
Finally I would like to elaborate further on another aspect of freedom, namely the freedom to be who you are or who you want to be. This includes the freedom and encouragement you get from society to develop into who you want to be. You can call it the freedom of the individual. It’s about equal rights and equal opportunities.
You probably know the fairytale, The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen, it goes like this: “Once upon a time, a large ugly duckling was born in a nest of a duck mother. The duckling was bullied and attacked by all the ducks and started to believe that he was too big and too ugly to join the other ducks. So the duckling decided to go out into the wide world alone. After long journeys and many adventures, the duckling encountered three swans and the duckling expected to be bullied and attacked again and bows its head. But in the water he suddenly sees that he is no longer an ugly duckling, but he is just as beautiful as the swans. He is no longer the ugly duckling, but he became a beautiful swan, who encounters a new environment that welcomes him.” The moral of this fairy-tale is that we need a set of rules that promotes freedom, as well as a welcoming environment in order to be free as an individual.
Let me leave you with a final example of my view on freedom. For a few years I have been a member of the supervisory council of a foundation committed to projects that allow children, with and without disabilities to play together, to go to school together and play sports together. An example of their work: special frames have been made for running, so that children have support to keep their balance. These frames have also been made for ice skating since last winter. The frames allow children with balancing problems to participate on the ice. That’s the most important thing, being able to participate!
This is the type of freedom that touches me deeply, when the environment ensures that someone, for whom it may be difficult to participate, is welcome. Even though there is a UN treaty to ensure accessibility, a welcoming environment is needed to be able to participate. This year we raised the rainbow flag at our city hall in solidarity with violence against the LGBT community. Because of that I received a lot of supportive emails and messages: people from the community felt supported. But the flag was also stolen twice, which was a clear signal from people with other intentions.
In my role as mayor the global debate is far away, but I do my best to make sure our local democracy is protected, that the individual freedom is respected and that every person feels the freedom to be who they want to be. I wish you a free mind, open discussion, and great parties. I hope this MUN will inspire you as much as it inspired me and I am sure we will all continue to talk about ways to make this world a better place!
