The Even Greater Tokyo Region

Consecrating my Dutchness

One of the privelleges of being Dutch is that once every certain amount of years, you get to make a small mark in red pencil. Last year I got to vote for the European Union and the local Elections. This year was the big one, the national elections.

Now, not to show off my ignorance, but although I have been Dutch for as long as I remember, I haven't been actively Dutch for very long. (Only two years, or three elections long). This means that I have little understanding of the political system here, although I presume that since we get to vote so frequently, that Holland has some some sort of democracy.

I have always been under the impression that Holland is a very left-leaning country - or at least a very tolerant country - and this has been a certain point of pride for me growing up overseas. Overall, this still seems to be an accurate assessment, but there is a scary amount of right-wing movement going on here. The party called the PVV, "The Party of the Freedom" grew in popularity under the general premise of "Freedom (unless you're a foreigner)"

Now, this is a very sensitive issue for me, as shown by the extremely long end-year post last year, and I still also often feel like I am a foreigner here. I mean, one of the biggest annoyances of these recent right-wingers, is that many foreigners in Holland have two passports. "Just choose one" they say. Well, if I hear one of these conversations, I chip in that I too have two passports. However, since I am very white and not from a scary religion (unless you include Atheism), this never seems to bother them.

So, going in to vote, I wanted to make a statement. I also happen to live in a very traditionallly conservative town, full of bekakked people. In I walk, with a Communist Red-Army hat (bought for a costume party) and my T-shirt which reads "Hey! Look [out]! It's a foreigner." Maybe they didn't know exactly what my point was, but they knew exactly what my point was.

Here is a better view of my hat (worn at the aforementioned costume party)

Anyway, with the making of such a ridiculous statement to noone in particular, I took that red pencil and made a very non-ridiculous vote. For politics may be a joke, but your civil duty - no matter which or how many countries you have a responsibilty to - is no joke.