Irony: Buruma & Wouters and Beaulieu

The way Buruma describes Dutch actions in Murder in Amsterdam makes the level of irony very clear. One example is how anyone who speaks a word that might be biased against another ethnic group is deemed to be racist or called a Nazi supporter. There's incredible vigil against this kind of behavior but it is clear that in Dutch history, their actions did not speak as loud as words do today. From another angle, the rapper's violent words is also a very Dutch expression. There are unspoken rules against certain kinds of conduct but alternatively citizens are very open and direct vocally. However, verbal expression can contradict the speaker's true intentions or express intentions that cannot actually be followed through.

I think in a similar way in 'Critical Accountability' society hypes up expectations and promises that can't be fulfilled and thus waste effort and resources. In this case, there is too much spent on the technicalities and not really the mechanisms or methods actually used in the research. It is also interesting that it's becoming common in e-research to include various fields of study. While this is important in our current world in that there isn't any real way to isolate science and avoid the political or social implications, there is also undoubtedly disagreements and information overflow that results. There often isn't one solution to cure all.

The quote about dress as an expression of difference just as much as an expression of religion is ironic in the sense that it could very well be that the dress no longer holds much of the same meaning had someone been living in their native country. To the Muslim women who wear a head-covering in Amsterdam, this action could be an expression of their personal take on their family values which may vary from person to person. The meaning has changed from its original context as clothing often carry cultural value (from both the indigenous side as well as the 'outside' foreign side) - to the natives the clothing carries a set of codes and to the outsider it carries another set of codes. These codes can be the nearly the same or very different.