Hans

@hans1671102377 · 05 Apr 2023

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In the Netherlands, everyone is King

Everyone king

The king, the queen, the princesses and their entourage are coming to Rotterdam to celebrate King's Day. Not every Rotterdammer knows that yet. The royal family starts the journey in the Afrikaanderwijk. Two men on a bench in the Afrikaanderpark have to process the news.

“Who is coming here?”

“The king.”

silence. “Right.” And then: “Why?”

For diversity, of course. In the South, they go through a “car wash” (the organization's term) of diversity and see Surinamese traditional kotomisis, a Caribbean brass band, Moroccan folk percussionists, Cape Verdean traditional music companies and Hindu dancers. Then they hit the water for the bridges and skyscrapers. And then on to the center for Ronnie Flex, Davina Michelle and Lee Towers.

The entrepreneurs on the Pretorialaan, through which the royal column will walk, know that the king is coming. But do they also know the theme? That's nice and contemporary: We are all kings and queens.

“It's good”, shouts the waitress in café De Markt. “You used to have one per neighborhood. Now you have twenty kings and queens on each street.”

She's right. With this slogan, the King's Day Committee is at the heart of society. Anyone who acts like a humble national is often not seen. You run into self-proclaimed kings all the time. Young guests double park their cars because they want to buy a sandwich. Delivery drivers with cubes on their backs who tear dangerously along the bike path. Others discuss their entire lives on the bus with the phone at speaker stand.

I spoke to the fifth grade teacher at a primary school not far from Afrikaanderplein. During Spring Jitters Week, many parents had let the Internet, a few politicians and each other believe that the teacher in the classroom would tell their eight-year-olds in detail how sex works. A whole group of parents came into the classroom full of children. They demanded that the lesson be stopped.

A father photographed the textbook.

A mother showed explicit sex pictures her husband found on the internet. Would the teacher show something like that?

The teacher: “Stop, stop it.”

She is a very nice teacher. Not easily impressed. Heart for kids. She told me that the children copy their parents' disrespectful behavior. When she put a busy boy aside in class, after which he worked focused for a day, his mother complained. She had seen a tear in her child in the morning.

Yes, so? You see a tear. We've been seeing your much too busy child all week. Do you know why? Because you're making him a little prince.
#column #king
NRC: Sheila Kamerman