Amsterdam has earned a global reputation as an enlightened city with a high quality of life. Well what if the price for that quality of life was that your bothersome neighbors were forcibly relocated to "scum villages" on the outskirts of town?
Caitlin Dewey dissects several news reports on controversial (to say the least) plans by Amsterdam's officials to relocate trouble-making neighbors to camps of "container homes" on the outskirts of the city where they will be provided only with basic services while being monitored by police or social workers.
So what could get you thrown into one of what critics are calling "scum villages"? Engaging in "repeated, small-scale harassment, like bullying gay neighbors or intimidating police witnesses," says Dewey. "If this reads a little like ghettoization, you’re not the only one to notice. Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan has already faced a number of questions about the fairness of the plan, as well as the fear that crowding troublemakers together will simply breed more trouble."
Maybe something is being lost in the translation, but this scheme sounds like a prelude to the atrocious types of segregation and forced relocations that were supposed to have been left behind with the dawn of a new millenium.
Read the full story: Amsterdam plans to relocate troublemakers to ‘scum villages’
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