Hiding from Problems is No Solution

One of the challenges that people continually need to overcome is the misguided efforts to fix problems by pushing them aside and pretending they do not exist. If you sweep the dirt beneath the rug it simply disappears.

One such example of this is the French attempt to ban scarves and other religious symbols. The theory they espouse is that this is part of the separation of church and state. It is a little hard to believe that to be the real reason. A much more likely answer is that this is their attempt to try and defuse and deal with the enormous outpouring of antisemitic acts in France that are being committed by disenfranchised Muslim youth.

The ban does not get at the root of the problem, it just pushes it aside. That is a real mistake.

In another example Miriam has written about the attempt of a professional sports team to deal with a racial issue involving the fans of Holland's Ajax football team who refer to themselves as being Jews.

The problem is that the fans of rival clubs have taken to using anti-semitic chants "sound effects such as:

'Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas' — referring to both Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas and the Nazi death camps — are often heard from opposing fans during Ajax games.

Another macabre way of denouncing Ajax is hooligans from rival teams making hissing sounds to imitate the sound of gas flowing.

"I also remember a game where the opposing supporters chanted 'the Jews are goners, the Jews are goners'.

The club is attempting to "solve" the problem by sweeping it under the rugas demonstrated in this statement :

"Ajax chairman John Jaakke Ajax chairman John Jaakke announced in his new year's speech this weekend. "Ajax is being presented as a 'Jewish club' and some of our supporters have taken to calling themselves 'Jews' and an honorary nickname ... I want to state for the record that Ajax wants to shed this image and will do what is necessary to achieve this," Jaakke said."

I find this to be very troubling and I echo Miriam's sentiment about why they are not trying to encourage people to stop using this language instead of just covering it up.