Ayn Rand Center Holland was launched in 2020 by Yernaz Ramautarsing, who has advocated Objectivism in The Netherlands for many years. The main objective of ARCH was to hand out pamphlets with essays on Objectivism to university students on various campuses and invite them to participate in ARCH’s book club program, in which students read and discuss Rand’s works. Due to COVID lockdowns that began shortly after this program was funded, Yernaz pivoted to proceed another way, teaming up with Anis Benhayyoun (who runs Ayn Rand Center Morocco and holds a masters degree in PPE with a minor in Objectivism from CEVRO Institute) to produce videos in Dutch on Objectivism and its applications.
One of their videos discusses the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset” from an Objectivist perspective, comparing it to Ellsworth Toohey’s speech in The Fountainhead. The video has had more than 3,000 views, Anis has received many positive messages from viewers (e.g., “I bought The Fountainhead. I want to learn more about this”), and some viewers have applied to join the ARC Holland book club.
Anis is also spearheading various programs in his ancestral country, Morocco, to advance Ayn Rand’s ideas. He is currently creating a bilingual website (Arabic and French) with articles and essays by Rand and from The Objective Standard (with permission from their respective publishers). In 2022, in cooperation with Leopold Ajami and the Turkish Objectivist Network, Anis will create video content in Arabic on Objectivism, and he plans to visit universities throughout Morocco to establish local Objectivism student groups and distribute copies of The Virtue of Selfishness in Arabic.
