"No human is immune to hate and nationalism": Prince Constantijn

People should turn away from hateful nationalism and learn from history, according to a speech by Prince Constantijn at a cultural awards evening. He taught me the importance of civil courage and that everyone has the duty to think for themselves and challenge the dominant viewpoint if it clashes with civil rights, freedom and basic humanist values.” In front of his brother, King Willem Alexander, and a room of invitees to the Prins Claus “impact” awards, the prince praised the six international award winners for standing up for artistic freedom in sometimes repressive regimes. But his address was also apparently aimed closer to home: the government narrowly avoided collapse due to concerns about “discrimination” in the “tone” of some coalition parties on ethnic minorities, in the wake of apparently anti-semitic violence around a Tel Aviv Maccabi/Ajax football match. “In an essay about nationalism, written in 1945, George Orwell acknowledges that no human is immune to hate and nationalism but that’s a moral duty to fight against it,” said Prince Constantijn. And to accept that, without denying it, and then address it.” He said that the six “laureate” award-winners challenged dominant narratives in their own countries: Rosa Chávez, a poet from Guatemala, Sana Na N’Hada, a filmmaker from Guinea-Bissau, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, a multi-disciplinary performer from Ghana, Nguyễn Trinh Thi, a video artist from Vietnam, Myrlande Constant, an artist from Haiti and Mu Cao, a poet from China.