There is actually nothing special to see in the asylum seeker center of Zutphen. The documentary series With us at the AZC (NPO 2) shows ordinary people playing football, whitewashing a wall, hugging their children. We see a family being reunited. A Syrian nurse helping a blind man.
We hear heartbreaking stories. A man from Mali hid in a forest for years to reach Europe. A Syrian couple tells how the olive groves in their village were set on fire. The next episode features a gay couple from Venezuela who had to flee after severe abuse. All people like you and me who were just less fortunate.
Their meandering, expectant life in the asylum seekers’ center is not special. What’s happening outside is special. It is special that director Martijn Heijne was allowed to film here for a year, while cameras are rarely welcome in asylum seekers’ centers. What is special is that a large proportion of Dutch people would prefer to deport these refugees from the country because they are afraid that they are criminals who will steal their jobs and homes. That racist riots break out when an asylum center is opened somewhere. That politicians attempt to make life difficult and thwart refugees.
Characteristic of this hostile, heartless attitude is the critical manner in which producer Beau van Erven Dorens responded on Thursday Khalid & Sophie (NPO 1) was asked about the documentary. He wanted to do the right thing: show the lives of underprivileged people in the hope that viewers will change their prejudices. But he was questioned by Sophie Hilbrand as if he had done something shameful. She played the hypocrisy card: would Van Erven Dorens tolerate an asylum center in his rich villa village of Bloemendaal? Even after the producer fully embraced that idea, she continued to nag him about it.
The good news of the day
But it is actually good news: it turns out that ordinary people live in asylum seekers’ centres. It would be something for GoodNews Today. This new daily news section on SBS 6 does not want to show what is going wrong in the world, but rather what is going right. The format is somewhat different from the normal news. In the first broadcast on Monday, presenter Nikki Herr talked to three panel members about the good news of the day.
They thought the most important good news was that their own program had started. They couldn’t stop talking about that. They were a little defensive about it. “Why are we on television?” Herr wondered in despair. The idea is: research shows that many people avoid the news because it makes them sad or angry. Positive and constructive news would help against that. “The news should not be the problem, but the solution.”
Why is the news always so negative? I sometimes get that question at birthday parties. I then answer: “If you want good news on TV, you have to live in a dictatorship.” When I am in a milder mood, I respond: “Good news is boring. A story only becomes interesting when something goes seriously wrong.”
What was Monday’s good news? Europe wants to put people on the moon. Deliveries of new cars have increased by 17 percent. The Dutch music industry is growing like never before. That’s good because Dutch songs stimulate the brain, claims neuropsychologist Erik Scherder, sitting in Café Nol. All news facts that I personally do not find positive at all. I only perked up briefly at the good news that an American family had built a Barbie graveyard for Halloween. Nikki Herr put things into perspective: “Whether something is good news depends on who you ask.”