[Buddha-l] Dutch parliament bans wheels

[Richard Hayes]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/crucifixes-banned-from-italian-schools-1814200.html

I am sure most of you have been following the decision of the European  
Court of Human Rights to ban crucifixes from Italian high schools on  
the grounds that displaying crucifixes in public schools is a  
violation of students' religious freedoms. The reasoning of the court  
was that crucifixes on display might make atheist students and those  
from religions other than Christianity uneasy. (I'm sure Italy's  
Quaker community heaved a sigh of relief on knowing they will not have  
to see crucifixes in the classrooms!) Some of you have also followed  
the decision in Belgium to forbid headscarves in schools, a measure  
aimed at Muslims but also affecting Hassidic Jews and students having  
bad hair days.

The latest stunning development in the banning of public displays of  
potentially offensive religious symbols has been the decision of De  
Tweede Kamer (the second room) of the Parliament in the Netherlands to  
ban the public display of bicycle wheels on the grounds that they  
could be offensive to the Netherlands' rapidly shrinking non-Buddhist  
population. The ban is being rigorously enforced, with the result that  
one never sees a bicycle with wheels on Dutch streets any more. The  
Dutch, for whom the bicycle has become an important sacred symbol, now  
trot through the streets carrying wheelless bicycle frames, a practice  
locally known as fietsen te voeten. The ban on wheels will extend to  
automobiles, lorries, trams and trains on December 6, the day after  
the celebration of Sinterklaas. Rumor has it that the powerful Zwarte  
Piet lobby was able to persuade The Second Room to provide for a grace  
period, since Sinterklaas and his Moroccan assistant Black Pete  
regularly depend on the trains to transport them as they deliver their  
presents to good little boys and girls.

Some Dutch pragmatists have argued that the ban on wheels will be  
unenforceable, given that the police are all on foot and have no  
chance of catching a wheeled vehicle seen to be violating the law. The  
ban on wheels has also angered many Dutch mothers, who report that it  
has made it much more difficult for them to push their baby strollers.  
Some claim the sparks that result from pushing a wheelless baby  
carriage along cobblestone streets pose a health threat to the little  
passengers. Many scientific studies have shown that the friction of  
prams and ice skate blades on cobblestone has already caused a  
dramatic increase in global warming and could contribute to rising sea  
levels, always a topic of concern in a country much of which is  
already below sea level.

Dutch Buddhists are divided in their reaction to het verbieden van  
wielen. It is not known exactly how many Dutch Buddhists there are,  
but experts estimate that somewhere between 0.2% and 98% of the Dutch  
population are Buddhist by now and that there are approximately  
sixteen million Buddhist sects, none of which can be civil to any of  
the others. Some strictly orthodox Dutch Buddhists welcome the ban on  
wheels on the grounds that the vinaya has no rule that allows monks to  
ride bicycles. Dutch Reform Buddhists, who believe that all people are  
predestined either to follow or flout the precepts, argue that the ban  
will make no difference on how people behave, but they cannot come to  
agreement on whether that fact weighs in favor of repealing the law or  
simply shrugging it off. The Dutch Buddhist Coffeeshop Sangha  
recommends that everyone smoke up and come to their own conclusions  
about the ban on wheels.