In mijn vorige blog keek ik met u uit naar de vakantie. Inmiddels heb ik de werkzaamheden hervat en leef ik weer in het ritme van voor de vakantie. Het voelt goed, ik kan de ontspanning van de zomerpauze nog even meenemen. Het valt me wel op hoe druk wij zijn als je dat afzet tegen de landen in Europa die we afgelopen periode bezochten. Je bent zelf natuurlijk als toerist onderweg, dus is het de vraag of je een objectieve waarneming doet.
The vacation season dawns, office stress peaks. Sometimes you wonder what vacation is actually good for. You work your ass off to get everything done before you leave, and when you return there is a pile waiting for you that immediately ruins all vacation fun. Moreover, it is not out of the question that breakdowns occur during the vacation itself.
Joost Klein performs again after the failure in Malmö. As one of the founding fathers of the Eurovision Song Contest, the Netherlands has been barred from participating. We still don't know what really happened. Surely it does not seem so difficult for the Swedish Public Prosecutor's Office to investigate this. Despite the firm intention not to watch I did. A non-binary winner with a lousy song and a recital that makes me feel ashamed. But that's Europe today.
As a young employee in the National Audit Office, I got to know colleagues from the FIOD as they moved into our building for an investigation. I remember piles of files and months, sometimes years, of investigations. The alternation between paperwork and interrogations was very important. Findings from both sources were compared, and the results of those comparisons in turn gave rise to further and more focused interrogation.
MPs Van Nispen (SP) and Mohandis (GL-PvdA) have introduced a bill to reintroduce school swimming. For all younger readers: you used to get swimming lessons at school. Yours truly got his A and B diplomas during school hours. Parents didn't have to drive back and forth with us; the bus came to pick us up and take us back to school. I don't even remember any parent interfering with this whole process.
The Netherlands has a centuries-long history as an internationally oriented nation. That has brought us much misery and much prosperity. It seems as if we want to deal with that international orientation. Both the prime minister and the king publicly apologize for our slavery past. Commemorations regarding the police actions in Indonesia are widely attended and fully televised. Colonies and former colonies are being financially compensated for the damage we caused.
The election results are still reverberating. It was just a month ago that we didn't know what we were seeing when the results of the exit poll appeared on the screen. Not much later we got to witness Frans Timmermans' Greek tragedy in a hall in Amsterdam, surrounded by GL-PvdA fans. They had to hold each other, he told his audience. Something terrible had apparently happened. War in Ukraine? Gaza? Climate? Poverty in the Netherlands? No, the election results. Once again, I didn't understand a thing.
He has turned 60, our Geert from Venlo. And nuance has reached him too. That is considered very pleasant by many. Apparently, his ideas have more fans than you would think, but he has not been able to elevate them to generally accepted views because of his sharp wording. The way he talks about the risks of Islam now, even (moderate) Muslims will be willing to listen to him. Then you get into a dialogue and start solving problems together.