Farewell speech Ahmed Marcouch (summary and translation by Freddy Konstantinou), as Mayor of Amsterdam-Slotervaart, 8th April, 2010, at restaurant Cedars, Amsterdam.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for being here. This is one of those moments at which I appreciate the presence of the people I love. My family is here as well, so we will have lots to talk about in the future. This is my farewell as Mayor of Amsterdam-Slotervaart.

I am here to thank you all. Together, we have fought crime and inconvenience, and we have evened the path towards good education. I want to thank Job Cohen (Mayor of Amsterdam - FK), Bernard Welten (Police Commissioner - FK), and Lodewijk Asscher (Alderman for Education - FK), for providing us with police officers, street coaches, and with a program to improve the quality of education.

The parents and the professionals are the true bearers of these changes, e.g. principals like Jan van Aert, Wim Ponsen, and Marianne Bloemers. The other bearers of change are social organizations like Nisa for Nisa, Co-existence in Harmony, and 24 Karats. Most of all Mohamed Mallaouch's social organization, SSOP.

Ladies and gentlemen, change means blood, sweat, and tears. Just like building bridges. The steel has to be bent, and joined, it is heavy material. All this carrying, and hammering makes a lot of noise!

A construction site, as I once called it - our work at Slotervaart. We started with one new apartment building, and, at present, there are 1,300 new apartments.

At a construction site, everybody has their own task. A carpenter shouldn't do the work of a bricklayer, or the other way around. That is exactly the way it is with Slotervaart. Policemen, and street coaches shouldn't do social work in the neighborhood, because then, social youth workers will become watchmen for young criminals, at the cost of the true juvenile social work which needs to be done. I am proud of our re-styled juvenile social work. Good job, Cisca, Youssef, Inan, and many others!

I also want to thank the journalists. There are many of them, but I want to thank one in particular. Menne Vellinga, who, through MVS Gay Station, announced the Gay Pride kick-off at Slotervaart, even before the final decision was made. Thirty men immediately came to my office to demand an explanation for this. This kind of discussions actually make people stop and think. A Muslim's freedom is the same freedom as the gay man or woman's.

Dear people, let's talk about education. I want to establish an extra grade between primary and secondary education, in order to improve the level of pupils who are challenged in their knowledge of Dutch and English. These children have an excellent IQ, but they still have a low score in their tests by which their future level of education is influenced and even determined. Children of "black" schools have the same average IQ as children in neighborhoods with predominantly "white" schools. It bothers me that, despite this, the children in the "black" schools almost never go to secondary schools of a higher level. The only reason for this is the fact that they have less knowledge of Dutch and English than other children. Now is the time to send your children to the extra grade classes, however, they are already fully booked........

The quality of Dutch professional education is low. MP Depla and myself have raised this issue. Fortunately, the Educational Council has responded to us in a positive manner.

I won't talk about the responsibility of the parents, or the quality of social work organizations. Not today. Publisher "Contact" however has asked me to write a book. I will, so, who knows......

A lot of irreversible improvements have been started. Dear residents of Slotervaart, don't take these for granted. Keep fighting for a better existence.

I won't really say goodbye. I will e-mail you, ask for your advice, and ask you to participate. And I sincerely hope you will do the same. I won't say goodbye; I will take you with me in my heart, wherever I go.

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