Tonight again, like last week, a multicultural night at the Riviervismarkt in The Hague.
Again, organized by the Intercultural Progressive Organization.
I was first on stage, reading four poems.
Their subjects: football, Minister Rita Verdonk, a gazelle.
And Fatima, a little girl, killed by a United States tank in Sadr City in Iraq.
Iraqi refugees, including from there, were among the audience.
They told me there were very many “Fatima’s” in Iraq.
The second poet on stage was Iraqi, from that eastern suburb of Baghdad, first called Revolution City, then Saddam City, now Sadr City.
He read poems in both English and Arabic.
Third and fourth on stage were singers, in respectively Arabic and Chinese.
Then, a speech by Mr Singh in Punjabi, on his religion, Sikhism. A woman Sikh translated it into English.
After a pause, a speech calling on the about 80,000 people of Pakistani background living in The Netherlands to organize themselves, by someone born in the Netherlands Antilles.
Then, another Chinese song by Li Jin.
Finally, like last week, songs by Najam Murad Khan from Pakistan.
Many people started to dance.
This series of Sunday nights will go on.
