By Arnold Jansen op de Haar

My neighbourhood here in London accommodates more women wearing burkas than the whole of the Netherlands. There is even a woman in a burka living in my apartment block. She emerged giggling from the lift because she couldn’t immediately locate the front door. I found the giggling reassuring.

For some reason I keep running into burkas. Only a few days after the attacks in Paris, I found myself in a café-restaurant in Covent Garden which frequently hosts parties such as weddings in its upstairs rooms.

My table was next to the staircase leading to the first floor. Small groups of women entered the building and disappeared upstairs. One of them was wearing a burka. No one took any notice. Even so, just after the Paris attacks it felt a bit uncomfortable. After all, it was an establishment serving alcohol. It crossed my mind that we could be blown up at any minute.

To my surprise, a short time later, the entire party came downstairs in order to take some pictures outside. It consisted of a bride and groom with several bridesmaids. Bridesmaids of nubile age and all wearing quite revealing dresses. ‘They’re in danger of falling out,’ remarked one of our company.

It might well be that the girl in the burka had changed her clothes. Or was she still upstairs? So I speculated that she didn’t want to go out in such a bare state and therefore before leaving home she decided to wear a burka. That, too, I found reassuring.

In the meantime, reports from the Netherlands told of checkout assistants being harassed by customers for wearing a headscarf in the aftermath of the attacks in Paris. Because it was considered backward. I find this less reassuring.

I am very much in favour of freedom of expression, but to turn an entire section of the population into a scapegoat is taking things too far.

It’s not that it isn’t your right to say nasty things. The Guardian published an article about the Pope’s visit to the Philippines, saying that he had broken all records in terms of attendance. Within a few hours there were 800 comments on this article. They were mainly negative ones, if not ignorant and insulting. Even so, this should be allowed, although I like to be a bit more even-handed.

I often use the words ‘well, yes’. I’m not Charlie. Well, yes, they can publish whatever they like, but I personally don’t go out of my way to insult people. I will always defend the right to insult, but this doesn’t mean that’s what I do.

Luckily there was also some more light-hearted news. About Prince Andrew, who has acquired the nickname Air Miles Andy, because he travels rather a lot. I read in the Daily Telegraph about the presents he had received.

He is sent presents not only when he is travelling, but also when he is at home. For example: a box of dates from the Turkish Embassy, ten boxes of mangos from the Pakistani PM, two boxes of mangos from Asif Ali Zardani, the former Pakistani president, and a Chinese model fighter plane from the Chinese PM.

Apparently Prince Andrew loves mangos, dates and model planes. Ah yes, he also received a silk shirt. Also quite reassuring.

In the Netherlands we used to have a prince consort who sold an expensive tray, a present to his wife, through an auction house. So now I’m really waiting to see Prince Andrew making an appearance on Portobello market dressed in a silk shirt with boxes of dates and mangos.

Last weekend there was a bird count in the Netherlands. People were encouraged to count the birds in their own backyard. Also very reassuring: the threat of terrorist attacks isn’t allowed to disrupt the counting of birds! They spotted a rare Lesser Whitethroat.

A wonderful name for Nigel Farage: Lesser Whitethroat. Well, actually, I didn’t mean to insult anyone this week.

© Arnold Jansen op de Haar
© Translation Holland Park Press