Teun Voeten

Speaker
Dutch
French
English
Teun Voeten

Who is Teun Voeten?

Teun Voeten studied cultural anthropology and philosophy in Leiden, Since 1991 he has covered conflicts worldwide, including Ex- Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Liberia, DR Congo, North Korea, Syria and Ukraine for international magazines and publications. He wrote books on the underground homeless in New York (Tunnel People, 1996) and on the bloody civil war in Sierra Leone (How the body? Hope and horror in Sierra Leone, 2000).

In 2008, he focused on drug violence in Mexico and produced the photo book Narco Estado. Drug Violence in Mexico (2012). He wrote a PhD thesis for Leiden University published in 2020 as "Mexican Drug Violence. Hybrid Warfare, Predatory Capitalism and the Logic of Cruelty." In 2020, he was commissioned by the city of Antwerp to research the Belgian drug problem in connection with the Netherlands. He adapted the research report into the much-discussed book DRUGS: Antwerp in the grip of Dutch syndicates (2020). September 2022 saw the publication of his latest book entitled "Drug of the Devil: the global rise of crystal meth." Voeten is currently investigating the fentanyl crisis on the West Coast of the Americas, from Mexico to Canada.

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    The grey area between state, crime and business. Can the state learn something from organised crime?

    In his study on Mexican drug violence, Voeten described drug cartels as hyper-capitalist enterprises that look a lot like ordinary businesses. 
    Cartels diversify with different products and services and engage in corporate social responsibilty. They incur overheads in the form of kickbacks, have their own human resources and recruitment policies, engage in franchising and outsourcing. They work on their public image and have a sophisticated propaganda strategy.
    Feet looks at differences and similarities between government, business and organised crime. They often flow seamlessly together.
    Business is sometimes guilty of the same kind of predatory capitalism that characterises drug companies. Think of the pharmaceutical industry that marketed highly addictive painkillers, the coups in Latin America financed by US multinationals.  
    Meanwhile, the state seems increasingly distant from citizens. The line between paying taxes and the protection money demanded by criminal groups sometimes seems wafer-thin. Can the state learn something from the efficiency of organised crime?

    Are Belgium and the Netherlands Narco-states? A comparison with Mexican drug violence

    Belgium is plagued by drug violence. In 2019, Voeten researched drug-related crime in Antwerp and its relationship with the Netherlands, Currently, the city is the main import port for cocaine 90 per cent of which goes to the Netherlands, Europe's main distribution point. Voeten spoke to dealers, went out with the police and had intimate interviews with heavy drug users.

    Voeten is critical of Dutch drug policy, which he calls schizophrenic and hypocritical. Drug use in the Netherlands has gone completely mad What once started as a hobby of idealistic provo's has now grown into an unscrupulous industry with far-reaching undermining consequences. The Netherlands has become a narco-state. Voeten discusses how it could have come this far and compares the situation here with the ruthless drug violence that grips Mexico. And is legalisation perhaps the solution?

    Manipulation and fake news: ethical, aesthetic and practical dilemmas in war reporting.

    With 30 years working in international conflicts, Voeten is considered one of the most experienced war reporters in the Low Countries. In this unrevealing presentation, Voeten grants a look behind the scenes and talks about the beauty of horror, balancing on the edge of voyeurism and exploitation, how it feels to get a bullet in your leg and what goes through your mind during a mock execution.

    But Voeten also discusses objectivity and truth, which are often the first casualties of war. Even in peaceful Europe, a fierce battle for information monopoly is currently raging. Who decides what is true? What is the difference between fake news, disinformation, shoddy journalism and propaganda? Should we control social media? And who should?