A Dutch court on Tuesday jailed an Austrian handyman for helping a cult leader to isolate his own children on a farm for a decade, in a case that shocked the Netherlands.

The man, identified only as 61-year-old Joseph B. due to Dutch privacy rules, played an ‘essential role’ in depriving the six children of their liberty in the remote northeastern village of Ruinerwold, the court ruled, jailing him for three years.

The Austrian was a ‘disciple’ of the children’s father Gerrit Jan van Dorsten, buying groceries and renting the farm where van Dorsten believed he was readying his children for a new world called Eden.

‘The defendant played an essential role, and without his contribution it would not have been possible for the father to allow the children to live isolated from society for such a long period,’ the court in the northern city of Assen said.

Judges acquitted Joseph B. of detaining three older children, and of abusing any of van Dorsten’s children.

But he was also convicted of detaining another Austrian man who was a follower of the father and hanging him up in a shack for several weeks in 2009.

The father, who was accused of detaining, assaulting and abusing his children, was ruled unfit to stand trial last year after suffering a debilitating stroke.

The Austrian was a ‘disciple’ of the children’s father Gerrit Jan van Dorsten, buying groceries and renting the farm (pictured) where van Dorsten believed he was readying his children for a new world called Eden

The ‘space’ had daylight coming into it and the children were occasionally allowed outside, but never further than the farm’s perimeter fence

Gerrit Jan van Dorsten is pictured in the farmhouse grounds, 60 miles north of Amsterdam. He was arrested on suspicion of deprivation of liberty among other charges, but suffered a stroke and had the court case against him dropped

Six adult children – four women and two men, including Jan Zon van Dorsten (pictured) – were held prisoner at a Dutch farm for nine years

Pictured: Cafe De Kastelein in Ruinerwold where Jan Zon van Dorsten raised the alarm

Police arrested van Dorsten and Joseph B. in October 2019 after the eldest child walked into a local bar in a confused state and raised the alarm.

The children eventually revealed that their father had isolated them at the farmhouse from birth and beaten them from a young age to drive out ‘bad spirits’.

The father saw himself as a new Messiah and ‘saw it as his task to found a new society called Eden according to the rules of God,’ the court ruling said.

Joseph B. had found the farm in Ruinerwold, rented it in his name and renovated it with van Dorsten so that the family could live there in isolation, the court said.

He also ensured that money transferred from Austria went to the father and took care of daily groceries, even after van Dorsten’s stroke in 2016.

He had a ‘different role’ to the father but there was ‘sufficiently close and conscious cooperation’ between them to show that he was also guilty, the court ruled.

The case of the so-called Ruinerwold Children stunned the Netherlands and sparked an award-winning documentary.

The six children who were kept on the farm are now all young adults.

But relatives of van Dorsten in 2019 revealed three older siblings had already fled left the family’s isolated life before the father bought the farm and held the remaining six children captive.

Their statement added that van Dorsten told his family to ‘not make any attempt to find his place of residence’ when the relative parted ways decades ago.

According to the NL Times, the family said: ‘The family has taken notice of the events in Ruinerwold with dismay. In the past few days a family member informed us of the identity of the family found.

‘Gerrit Jan van Dorsten broke all ties with his immediate family in the 1980s. He told us not to make any attempt to find his place of residence.

‘Eight years ago, three children of Gerrit Jan van Dorsten fled the family in Hasselt and contacted their brother from a previous marriage, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins. The family has since remained unaware of the existence of other children.’

Janny Knol, chief of the north Netherlands police, said in 2019 that the children were kept as an ‘enclosed space’ within the farm building which was divided ‘into small compartments.’

Ms Knol said the siblings – four women and two men – were largely kept inside the space but were occasionally allowed out into the yard, though no further than the farm’s perimeter fence.

Dutch police probing the case of a family who were locked away on an isolated farm for nine years. Prosecutors said the three oldest children were not allowed to talk about the existence of their brothers and sisters

Van Dorsten (pictured) posted videos on Facebook showing him working out in the garden

She said they appeared to be aged between 18 and 25, though that is not certain because they were not registered with authorities. They had not received any formal schooling, but were able to read and write Dutch.

In 2021, a court ruled that a 2016 stroke had so badly affected the father’s ability to communicate and comprehend that continuing with the case would breach his fair trial rights.

Corinne Jeekel, a lawyer representing the eldest four children, told Dutch broadcaster NOS that they were disappointed with the decision.

‘It is a great shame for the clients that there will be no criminal judgment’, Jeekel told national broadcaster NOS in March 2021.

The rest of the family, however, stood by their father.

‘The youngest five children are very happy,’ defense lawyer Robert Snorn told local broadcaster RTV Drenthe.

Prosecutors said at the time that the children are free to choose their own futures, even if that means returning to a life of isolation.

‘In the past 18 months, the children have got to know our society, have been able to participate in it and have received spiritual and medical care,’ prosecutors said in a statement.

‘If, now that they have been able to taste the alternative, they nevertheless choose to want to live in seclusion with their father again, to exercise their faith… that is their choice.’

The post Austrian handyman who helped Dutch cult father to cover kids on a farm is jailed for 3 years  appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

A protester holds a sign reading “Black Pete Is Racism” during a demonstration in Amsterdam in 2013. Zwarte Piet or Black Pete is traditionally portrayed by whites wearing black faces, afro wigs and red lipstick. Bas Czerwinski / AFP via Getty Images Hide caption

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Bas Czerwinski / AFP via Getty Images

A protester holds a sign reading “Black Pete Is Racism” during a demonstration in Amsterdam in 2013. Zwarte Piet or Black Pete is traditionally portrayed by whites wearing black faces, afro wigs and red lipstick.

Bas Czerwinski / AFP via Getty Images

The Dutch Sinterklaas differs from Santa Claus in a few essential ways. His physique is slimmer (less belly under the white beard), he does not live at the North Pole, but in Madrid – and instead of driving a reindeer sleigh, he takes a boat to the Dutch coast to bring presents.

And instead of relying on helper elves, Sinterklaas is supported by a character called Zwarte Piet or Black Pete – traditionally portrayed by whites wearing black faces, Afro wigs and red lipstick.

After Prime Minister Mark Rutte long defended the character and even admitted in the past to painting his own face black, he announced in June that his views on Black Pete had changed. Although he was on the verge of calling for a ban, he said social pressures would soon force the figure to retire. He also admitted that there were “systemic problems” with racism in the Netherlands.

Rutte’s announcement came after the Minnesota police murder of George Floyd, when large crowds of protesters took to the streets of Amsterdam and other Dutch cities to protest against racial injustice.

For Jerry Afriyie, who heads an Amsterdam-based advocacy group called Kick Out Zwarte Piet, Rutte’s words were long overdue. Getting others to see Black Pete as a racist has been his mission for a decade.

Over the years, Afriyie has been pelted with beer cans and bananas and targeted with death threats for his stance on Black Pete. Last November, in The Hague, a group of masked men armed with baseball bats and fireworks tried to end a peaceful meeting between Afriyie and other activists.

The Dutch anti-discrimination activist Jerry Afriyie, leader of the Kick Out Zwarte Piet movement, demonstrated in Rijswijk, Netherlands last November during the arrival of Sinterklaas and the blackface figure who traditionally accompanies him. Robin Utrecht / ANP / AFP via Getty Images Hide caption

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Robin Utrecht / ANP / AFP via Getty Images

Still, Afriyie (whose middle names are Luther and King) is committed to dialogue. Every Sinterklaas season he leaves his home in Amsterdam and travels to Dutch cities and villages where Black Pete is still publicly celebrated in an attempt to reach consensus that Black Pete is racist.

“You talk and talk and talk and talk until you reach a consensus”

Last year, committees in several Dutch cities agreed that Black Pete should not appear in their city’s Sinterklaas parades, but more than a dozen smaller cities affirmed the opposite: Black Pete would be welcome at their parades and school performances.

He has been told by many of Afriyie’s associates that it is impossible to reach consensus on Black Pete’s issue; the country is too divided. But consensus building has a unique place in Dutch politics and society.

Some scholars say that the Dutch value attached to collective action is built into the landscape. Much of the Netherlands would be under water if it weren’t for a system of dikes to protect the country from flooding. The Dutch “polder model” of consensus building takes its name from the Dutch word for land below sea level, which used to be the seabed.

Former Prime Minister Wim Kok used his polder consensus-building skills to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001. This made the Netherlands the first country in the world to do this.

Amma Asante, a former MP and the only black woman in office during her tenure, says the polder model means “you talk and talk and talk and talk until you reach consensus” and “it works best when we do.” are able to do so “. to put aside our strongest beliefs about how things should be done or what the world should be like. “

From Black Pete to Chimney Pete?

Black Pete first came to prominence in the 1850s when minstrel shows became popular in the United States. The Netherlands outlawed slavery in their colonies in 1863, but previously some wealthy families were bringing enslaved people from those colonies to their homes in Amsterdam for work. Black Pete’s original costume with brightly colored satin sleeves mimicked the way families dressed enslaved black children.

Yet defenders of tradition often claim that Black Pete is “dirty” simply because he came down the chimney – he’s not even Black.

People line the street to greet Sinterklaas and his Black Pete pals in Amsterdam in 2013. Peter Dejong / AP

Toggle caption

Peter Dejong / AP

People line the street to greet Sinterklaas and his Black Pete pals in Amsterdam in 2013.

Peter Dejong / AP

Afriyie always saw the chimney explanation as a way to silence black perspectives. He, Asante and many other black Dutch people were called “Black Pete” as an insult.

“The country is telling you, ‘Try not to see it,’” says Afriyie. “As if what you see is not true.”

But he wondered if this denial of the problem might actually offer a solution. He suggested replacing Black Pete with a new character named Chimney Pete with just one soot stain on his face – someone like Bert, the chimney sweep in Mary Poppins.

Black Pete’s defenders hated the idea. Blackface is the tradition, they argued. But many Afro-Dutch thinkers also disagreed. Gloria Wekker, author of White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race, says Chimney Pete is “a surface solution.” Soot or blackface, tradition itself was tainted.

But Chimney Pete prevailed. In cities where Black Pete has been banned from Sinterklaas parades, Chimney Pete has taken his place. This November, the boat with Sinterklaas will again reach the Dutch coast, accompanied by an entourage of Chimney Petes.

Asante admits she doubted consensus building on racism could work, and she was surprised to see large crowds gathering in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in the Netherlands this spring. Without all the years of “poldering” and dialogue about Black Pete, she wondered if the murder of George Floyd in the Netherlands would have sparked a conversation about racism.

“There is a danger that we could have said, ‘Oh, this is in the United States. This is not us,'” she says. “And now there is no more denial.”

The post George Floyd’s Loss of life, Protests Add To Calls For Dutch To Disown Black Pete : NPR appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The Dutch Sinterklaas differs from Santa Claus in a few essential ways. His physique is slimmer (less belly under the white beard), he does not live at the North Pole, but in Madrid – and instead of driving a reindeer sleigh, he takes a boat to the Dutch coast to bring presents.

And instead of relying on helper elves, Sinterklaas is supported by a character called Zwarte Piet or Black Pete – traditionally portrayed by whites wearing black faces, Afro wigs and red lipstick.

After Prime Minister Mark Rutte long defended the character and even admitted in the past to painting his own face black, he announced in June that his views on Black Pete had changed. Although he was on the verge of calling for a ban, he said social pressures would soon force the figure to retire. He also acknowledged that there were “systemic problems” with racism in the Netherlands.

Rutte’s announcement came after the Minnesota police murder of George Floyd, when large crowds of protesters took to the streets of Amsterdam and other Dutch cities to protest against racial injustice.

For Jerry Afriyie, who runs an Amsterdam-based advocacy group called Kick Out Zwarte Piet, Rutte’s words were long overdue. Getting others to see Black Pete as a racist has been his mission for a decade.

Over the years, Afriyie has been pelted with beer cans and bananas for his stance on Black Pete and has been targeted with death threats. Last November in The Hague, a group of masked men armed with baseball bats and fireworks tried to end a peaceful meeting between Afriyie and other activists.

Still, Afriyie (whose middle names are Luther and King) is committed to dialogue. Every Sinterklaas season he leaves his home in Amsterdam and travels to Dutch cities and villages where Black Pete is still publicly celebrated in an attempt to reach a consensus that Black Pete is racist.

“You talk and talk and talk and talk until you reach a consensus”

Last year, committees in several Dutch cities agreed that Black Pete should not appear in their city’s Sinterklaas parades, but more than a dozen smaller cities affirmed the opposite: Black Pete would be welcome at their parades and school performances.

He has been told by many of Afriyie’s associates that it is impossible to reach consensus on Black Pete’s issue; the country is too divided. But consensus building has a unique place in Dutch politics and society.

Some scholars say that the Dutch value attached to collective action is built into the landscape. Much of the Netherlands would be under water if it weren’t for a system of dikes to protect the country from flooding. The Dutch “polder model” of consensus building takes its name from the Dutch word for land below sea level, which used to be the seabed.

Former Prime Minister Wim Kok used his polder consensus-building skills to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001. This made the Netherlands the first country in the world to do this.

Amma Asante, a former MP and the only black woman in office during her tenure, says the polder model means “you talk and talk and talk and talk until you reach consensus” and “it works best when we do.” are able to”. to put aside our strongest beliefs about how things should be done or what the world should be like. “

From Black Pete to Chimney Pete?

Black Pete first came to prominence in the 1850s when minstrel shows became popular in the United States. The Netherlands outlawed slavery in their colonies in 1863, but previously some wealthy families were bringing enslaved people from those colonies to their homes in Amsterdam for work. Black Pete’s original costume with brightly colored satin sleeves mimicked the way families dressed enslaved black children.

Yet defenders of tradition often claim that Black Pete is “dirty” simply because he came down the chimney – he’s not even Black.

Afriyie always saw the chimney explanation as a way to silence black perspectives. He, Asante and many other black Dutch people were called “Black Pete” as an insult.

“The country is telling you, ‘Try not to see it,’” says Afriyie. “As if what you see is not true.”

But he wondered if this denial of the problem might actually offer a solution. He suggested replacing Black Pete with a new character named Chimney Pete with just one soot stain on his face – someone like Bert, the chimney sweep in Mary Poppins.

Black Pete’s defenders hated the idea. Blackface is the tradition, they argued. But many Afro-Dutch thinkers also disagreed. Gloria Wekker, author of White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race, says Chimney Pete is “a surface solution.” Soot or black face, tradition itself was tainted.

But Chimney Pete prevailed. In cities where Black Pete has been banned from Sinterklaas parades, Chimney Pete has taken his place. This November, the boat with Sinterklaas will again reach the Dutch coast, accompanied by an entourage of Chimney Petes.

Asante admits she doubted consensus building on racism could work, and she was surprised to see large crowds gathering in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in the Netherlands this spring. Without all the years of “poldering” and dialogue about Black Pete, she wondered if the murder of George Floyd in the Netherlands would have sparked a conversation about racism.

“There is a danger that we could have said, ‘Oh, this is in the United States. This is not us,'” she says. “And now there is no more denial.”

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

The post George Floyd’s Demise And Years Of Dialogue Are Serving to The Dutch Disown Black Pete appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.