Territorial Instinct
In the huge south-east estate of Amsterdam, built as high-rise in the 1960-ties and later more in the 70-ties as lower-rise rows, called ‘Bijlmermeer,’ many tens of thousands of people from our former colony Surinam came to live with their families, if they could pay the fare and already earned wages (many‘educated’ civil servants). The Bijlmermeer was a community-housing project, meant for the babyboomers and later also for migrant workers invited here. It was not popular among Amsterdammers, only partly inhabited and a financial loss to the city’s housing corportions. So these Surinamers were given these large flats, on a subsidized rent, but few other people wanted to live there and those who did were mostly on the dole or a pension, also on subsidized rent. They had little choice either and ‘we’ (poor whites) were not expecting such an invasion. Surinamers had been to Dutch-speaking schools and churches.They now have ‘nationalized’ in larger Dutch families than the others and are ¼ of the populace. Migrants from north- and west-Africa or Turkey are the otherhalf of the population, and all still only seem to know ‘orders,’ they do not negotiate work-methods among each-other, but just take orders, and less responsibility (and pay) at work, though younger are getting better at this a‘cultural’ difference.
The old ‘whites’ hardly attend a mass or ‘services’ in the churches built for them, still subsidized by the municipality as welland are thus ‘ruled’ by an ‘old’ Dutch elite of ‘friends’ from political parties and municipal ‘services.’ Their figurations and municipally subsidized dependants such as the few old church-‘officials’ left, are quasi-elites, that still form the board of the trust that owns and exploits the mainchurch-buildings that are both deemed both protestant and Catholic. There are also a few mosques, housed in subsidized or ‘lent’ buildings and controlled by a municipal or old-boys ‘board.’ The church-brands and hard-won franchises are ‘kidnapped’ slowly by ‘worldly powers,’ even if by ‘volunteers,’ just like privately owned buildings by civil-servants ‘regulation’ and taxes. To ‘us Christians, ’whether from the few ‘old’ whites left or from the many Surinam (parents) that live here for more than 40 years now, this should seem a God-given blessing. ‘We’ don’t worry about ‘our’ church-finances, unless ‘we’ have a part-time subsidized job with the landlord-trust. The Surinam parents or their kids make little use of this ‘blessing in disguise,’ while their church-attendance is much higher. The ‘old white’ and poorer ‘crew’ never understood their formerly Surinam competitors, refused to be interested.
‘Them’ (from Surinam), grew larger families and were in a job all this time, which the ‘old crew,’ still on the dole or a pension, were not.
So there’s a lot of envious gossip about kids and cars going on and likely the ex-Surinam families don’t think much of their ‘old’ counterparts, are proud of what they’ve achieved and rightly so.
They had ‘their own’ church built, which mostly ‘houses’ the more blackish former Surinam families, incuding the many black Catholics among them, gotten‘out of the Surinam jungle long ago by priests. The more Indian-looking ex-Surinamers form a large minority (1/3-1/2). After the slave-trade was more or less ended in the Caribbean. Indian, Chinese and Javanese ‘coolies,’ were hired in Surinam at the end of the 19th century, replacing the slaves that ran away when competed with by ‘British’ (and ‘Dutch’) ‘coolies.’ The Surinam families invested and spent to build ‘their own’ church, called ‘Wi Eegi Kerki’ (Our Own Church), which is exploited by the Evangelical Hernhüter or E.B.G, also extant in Surinam. They ‘ask’ a 10% fee as church-tax from their ‘flock’ (‘our’ church-services are practically free), or at least to buy a lot every week at E25, and they do a lot of beneficial social work, from lunch for their single-mum-families, at least every Sunday, to rapping-sessions for youths and also in ‘our slavery-past’ work-out classes (that teach what’s owed). Now we all started out as little ‘slave-toddlers’ when first ‘ disciplined,’ so such a ‘class,’ or figuration, can seem to be an emancipator to anyone. Apparently ‘they’ do all this with their own ‘cultural’ signs, rites and communicational rules of thumb. The ‘young’whites, of whom there are not so many and the many single mums from former Surinam parents can well use such simple ‘social’ support. The E.B.G.-church does a lot for these mums and their kids, at a price (for the guys), but the ‘old’ or even ‘new whites’ do not, they hardly attend Church anymore. Little in the way of kids-housekeeping or feeding or playing opportunities there. There is a kids-service planned, but few make use of it, finding it boring or too ‘disciplined.’ Only in the old Duivendrecht-Church of St. Urbanus, which is situated centrally, but in a different municipality, some ex-Surinam kids (but not the ‘black’ ones) attend, but they are not the many now mixed black (formerly) Catholic kids we could expect, while there’s a large estate with many of them close-by, across a railway-levvy, called Venserpolder. The kids in these side-shows make a lot of noise and produce little more than pre-printed color-in cartoons, when led back into, at the end of Mass. It could seem that all this was planned by vicious ‘old cronies,’ but it is a hopeful beginning, even if blacks are not welcomed with lunch, like at the E.B.G.-services. It’s not ‘cool’ to be victimized, so that this is even denied by the victims, who may be doing fine, but should long have been ‘integrated better,’ in school and job-opportunities. Their fathers and mothers were most of the proud, taxed earners these forty years at Bijlmermeer, whose parents were often civil-servants in Surinam, even if there are the by now ‘old’ drop-outs on barbiturates (nighttime) and pep or methadone (mornings) from municipal ‘mental services.’ Like everyone else nowadays with a ‘PTSS’ diagnosis, they feel robbed, as no real cures are on offer: A dead-end street-feeling of being cancelled-out pervades. This ‘feeling’ is also ‘played-out.’ Heroes are only recognized when they are anti- social-hierarchy (The establishment), although many also, have ‘done’ quite well in the mean time. The mostly of mixed blood Surinamers, who call themselves ‘Hindu’ and attend mass with ‘us ’look in many ways like Europeans and Indians. The ‘darker’ ones, the creoles, as they are still called in Surinam, but the part-indians hate to be called ‘coolies,’ as their colonial elites used to, but are often rather dark or very white (‘patats’), which suggests that they do still discriminate strongly in their partner-choices. It is well known that the level of single mothers is very high too, which suggests less strong family-ties and more ‘social injustice’ in this rather visible ‘black’ considered and difficult to ‘place’ portion of those, who lack a recognized ‘identity’ or figuration among themselves. In the anti-discrimination policies of the end of the 20th Century they did well as nurses and bus-drivers, as they were often already families incivil-service in Surinam. They have their ‘own’ choir and ‘volunteers’ in church, but ‘We,’ (us whites), turn away from any blacks and Africans usually and do not consider ‘them’ up to scratch and envy their families and wealth all the same. Practically all the ensuing gossip to and from has to pass through school-class-kids or playground-kids and(single) mums, in bars, ‘social media’ and church-choir and sports-talk-shops, including the pestering of each other with denunciation and the self-appraisal that is usual among kids and women. These ‘ideas,’ described by H. Becker(1963) in Outsiders, are long-standing and do not seem to change overtly while they are denied and ‘work’ as a ‘self-fulfilling prophesy.’ They do however need to be replenished for any ‘group-pride’ to stay. Now the ‘old’ whites are dying out and the better-off ex-Surinam families are attending less here. Church and church-exploitation is shrinking and ‘us whites’ are beginning to realize the only way to keep the churches going is to‘modernize,’ or ‘be different.’ ‘Blacks’ are considered, but still not the dark Surinamers, who seem to be doing fine, even if there is hatred and neglectat school, pestering each-other. Some Ghanaians are welcomed, in a politically correct good effort made. I’ve been singing in four church-choirs the 20 yearsI lived here and have learnt to cooperate with several ‘thems,’ whether from Surinam, elsewhere, ‘another’ sex, or both. We take care together, from where ever ‘one’ is. At the same time the buildings-exploiters and their subsidized cronies, complain about ‘their’ attendance and likely mean ‘our’ dwindling turnover. But they begin to realize and fear the necessary inclusion of former Surinam families, who have shamed them and of whom many, probably halfwere Catholics in Surinam, but are not in ‘our’church-bubble,’ where they are a large majority by now. A controversial missal with prayers and hymns by an ex-communicated Catholic priest who has gone commercial on his own in ‘The New Love Church,’ is permanently used, but is not appropriate to needs and problems of successful or one-parent, former Surinam-families and makes mockery of a Catholic Mass. Children’s-play is not allowed, even after Mass and lunch may be essential, but it is forbidden to cook in the well fitted-out kitchen. We all have sorrow, anger and frustration in common, prides that are never addressed, except for the‘old gossip,’ quite out of date by now (in the 3rd generation), but has kept upits typical ‘behind-the-scenes’ denunciation, always denied in public or ‘up-stage,’ as E Goffman would have it. It seems only ‘suspicious’ to a few. In Church some ‘blacks’ (to ‘whites’), who consider themselves ‘Hindu’ come and are treated politely, but not so at school. Most of them are of mixeddescent, called ‘colored,’ but are very dark mulats with a lot of ‘pride.’
They do behave shyly, usually deferrant, when bluffingly (not nicely) greeted, as kidsand women do when they feel neglected.
Now last year the Catholic Church ordained four young priests from east-Asia and appointed some new assistants to a much larger area and population including all of ‘East-Amsterdam,’ which is partly 19th C. and partly new built (on water),but almost as populated as ‘our Bijlmermeer’ area. ‘We’ see the young priests seldomly. They live at the Urbanus church and understandably have other things to do apart from showing ‘face’ in the ‘old’ Bijlmermeer, where almost everything is run by municipally subsidized ‘volunteers,’ with their owncash-flows in choirs, meals after service, lotteries, bazaar, collections and outings by bus. We do however, practically only ‘get’ masses now by ‘old’ former priests who can’t sing or ‘follow’ the‘service-headers’ and pictures, that are projected behind them with a beamer by the ‘volunteers.’ This disappoints with ‘mistakes’ made and also reassures the‘old-crony’ pride, but not that of the ‘Hindus’ i.e; who ‘stay mum.’ We had a few months weekly wednesday-evening ‘vespers,’ last spring, where the choir sang and its conductor read lectures on the ‘shamefulness of Jesus nakedness,’ and ‘our own.’ An interesting topic maybe but nobody attended, it cost a lot of effort and left ‘priest’ and choir without an audience. A social engineer at work? The wife maybe? The more authoritarian, Surinam Christians and Muslim ‘believers,’reject such comparisons, to name but a few ‘figurations’ and bubbles, whichdepend on the eudipal disposition of the beholder of them (male and/or female).
The weekly ‘bazaar’ (jumble-sale) is organized by a foundation and former politician and makes more money than all weekly church-collections combined. It’s a great meeting place for old cronies, who have their scheduled meetings for each ‘subgroup,’ according to denominations and locations. They keep no financial accounts and benefit from the ‘churches’ tax-free status and their toleration by the officials. They do a lot of good besides, but of their behind-the-scenes-meetings in ‘church,’ noone ever hears, which gives them the power to do business as they please. All this has evolved through the years, and the ‘players’ from these ‘sub-scenes’ feel (by now) that it is ‘their’ church or job in it and pretend this to be so even if it isn’t officially, but just practically. To an average ‘Christian,’ attending ‘Mass’or a ‘service,’ this all seems a little unreal, with some of these hardnosed‘ volunteers,’ running the respective shows and in a not-ordinary way being ‘modern,’ but alienating any ‘out-group’ including the by now ‘old’ Surinamers, who have already built their own church but who may well feel betrayed or ‘leftout,’ Catholic or Protestant. It is useful and normal that people swap household goods and share cheap meals, especially those single mums with their kids.
This is a normal church-service both allover Africa and in Surinam, where this is only one of the few ‘worldly’ social services and a separate collection is held every week for these meals inwhite boxes. This work always belonged to ‘the Church’ and the Mosque, maybe justnot in it. But it is very beneficial, and even attracts muslima mothers to the bazaar in church every week. ‘Groupwise’ this still seems a ‘problem,’ but inpractice it is not, even if ‘they’ seem a little ‘shy’ and do not join‘us’
