SlipAway 880 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 13 hours ago, Dadru said: due to the newly introduced curfew COVID-measure Lmao. Boo hoo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Humans are the worst. I hate us as a species. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luc 4,776 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 9 minutes ago, MonsterOfSpain said: Seems like it's going pretty well for Rutte though... let's see how the childcare benefits scandal affects the result but so far Dutch people seem content with the management of the pandemic. Why do you feel like this is happening? Is it the general case of parties in government gaining support because of the pandemic, his stance on the EU Next Generation recovery fund or is there something else? I'm really interested in Dutch politics and would like to get an insight from somebody who's from there. First of all, we have a very 'permissive' party system, you only need 0.6% of the votes to get a seat in parliament. And as soon as you get a seat in parliament, you're guaranteed a disproportionate amount of media attention, making these parties grow pretty quickly. But these small parties are made by political opportunists with little actual experience in managing a big organization. As the party grows in polls, people fight for power and influence in the power and infighting happens. Between March and November, FvD and 50PLUS basically imploded due to party infighting. A lot of their voters went to the VVD. Second, Mark Rutte (our PM) is very, very smart in political strategies. He made Hugo de Jonge (healthcare minister) responsible for all covid-related stuff like testing, track&trace, and the vaccination programme. Hugo de Jonge was elected CDA leader back in May. But because all the stuff that was under his responsibility went so terribly wrong, he stepped down as CDA leader. Meanwhile, Mark Rutte was a laughing third: he wasn't held responsible, all criticism went to his main competition, Hugo de Jonge. Another way he has managed to shift responsibility for things that went wrong is by making covid about 'individual responsibility': it's not the government's job to protect people from each other, people have to take their own responsibility. That way, almost all criticism regarding rising covid cases is directed towards the people who misbehave rather than the government. Finally, responsibility for the actual policies is at the OMT, a technocratic team of virologists amongst others who suggest policies. This gives the appearance that it's not Rutte and political parties, but only experts making the pandemic policies. But this isn't really true. The OMT only gives advice when they're asked to. And in recent months it's basically been the OMT having to sign 'yes' to something the government decided the day before. The OMT, for instance, wanted a curfew back in October already. But the government didn't, so that didn't happen until now. Third, our left-wing opposition is really weak. Their party leaders don't enthuse people. The only charismatic or rhetorically strong opposition is probably Wilders (far-right). People on the left are quite divided when it comes to Finally, our media climate and general popoular opinion climate has tended towards "don't incite panic" and "don't question the policies too much" since the beginning. Fundamental critique in media is usually from the right, i.e. we should open up the economy. But that's very unpopular. Criticism that everything is too slow and too little too late is underrepresented compared to countries like the US and the UK. I think that that's because our media climate is much less polarized. In the US and the UK, you have newspapers that will always say the republicans/conservatives are doing everything totally wrong. You don't really have that here, you only have some fringe far-right websites delivering constant criticism. Usually, that's a good thing, but in this case I feel like we lack some kind of proper left-wing critique. How come that our death rate is nearly as high as in the UK and the US, higher than in Sweden iirc, but you barely read that in the newspapers? Isn't it good to be a little unfair sometimes, for healthy opposition politics? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathanholland 5,429 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 This is just another example of the falsehood of Dutch exceptionalism. People here always tend to think our country is 'different'. That systemic racism doesn't excist, that the government protects the people and that "we" are more civilized then other countries. In the last months myth after myth has been shattered. "We are much more organized and we have a great health care system" - Hospitals have been overrun and vaccination progress is almost the worst in the EU. "There is not something as systemic racism" and "the government fights fraud and helps the underprivileged" - A big scandal shows how the Dutch tax office aggressively pursued large numbers of innocent families, wrongly believing that they had been overpaid and targeting people partly based on their ethnicity. Politicians ignored all of this, actively withheld information and publicly supported this unfair fight of fraud. Ministers, civil servants, parliament and even judges have had a role in the affair, which left parents powerless to fight back when accused of fraud. "We are more civilized and can do without mask-regulations, closing shops and curfews." - The government introducing an 'intelligent' lockdown, implying that lockdowns in other countries aren't 'intelligent'. As a result infections increased drasticly, making the government to backtrack and impose strickter measures. People rioting in the name of "freedom" because they are spoiled and bored. The funny thing is that most people are still saying that this 'isn't dutch behavior'. Fact is the Dutch are very arrogant and should take a seat. Before there was love, there was silence Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleMonster20 9,900 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 I live in the city next to Eindhoven and they’ve been rioting tonight too! 50 people have been arrested so far. I’m really upset at this because this is a horrible representation of our country. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadru 2,396 Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 9 minutes ago, LittleMonster20 said: I live in the city next to Eindhoven and they’ve been rioting tonight too! 50 people have been arrested so far. I’m really upset at this because this is a horrible representation of our country. I live in the village next to Stein (where it all began last saturday) and I was so in shock. Little did we know what would happen in Eindhoven and all over the country the day after Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleMonster20 9,900 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Just now, Dadru said: I live in the village next to Stein (where it all began last saturday) and I was so in shock. Little did we know what would happen in Eindhoven and all over the country the day after I live in Helmond (which is already considered the Detroit of NL) and people have been going all out tonight. Thankfully I live outside the city limits but it was just a bridge away and it was really scary seeing police everywhere! Hope you are okay. I’m sorry you had to witness that! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadru 2,396 Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 6 minutes ago, LittleMonster20 said: I live in Helmond (which is already considered the Detroit of NL) and people have been going all out tonight. Thankfully I live outside the city limits but it was just a bridge away and it was really scary seeing police everywhere! Hope you are okay. I’m sorry you had to witness that! Yeah it's so scary that this is happening. Glad you're okay too! Thankfully I did not see everything in person but many of my friends were witnessing everything through their windows. Also the fact that Zuid-Limburg is always somewhat of a quiet, peaceful region makes it even more scary. On the local news a 85 year old lady said she hadn't seen anything like this ever happen and she's been living in Stein all her life. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleMonster20 9,900 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 1 minute ago, Dadru said: Yeah it's so scary that this is happening. Glad you're okay too! Thankfully I did not see everything in person but many of my friends were witnessing everything through their windows. Also the fact that Zuid-Limburg is always somewhat of a quiet, peaceful region makes it even more scary. On the local news a 85 year old lady said she hadn't seen anything like this ever happen and she's been living in Stein all her life. Good to hear! Helmond is already a crazy city but the riots were something else. It mainly happened at this sports field and center and the surrounding neighborhood which consisted of just houses so thankfully no stores were looted. Although the big arrest took place at the local parking lot in the city and there were so many police cars. I’m thankful for living in the more quiet and safe part of the city because it gets real sketchy at parts. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkgaga 7,148 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 I live in Eindhoven and my bike is parked at the station.... Going to see today if it is still there or if it went up in flames yesterday Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der Meister 3,000 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 The Netherlands is full of wanna be gangsters Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LUCARTPOP 5,972 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 37 minutes ago, Der Meister said: The Netherlands is full of wanna be gangsters This is not the serve you think it is Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henri Bardot 3,990 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 15 hours ago, RAMROD said: All that just because they can't go out partying? Not exactly. People are losing their jobs and see an uncertain future. Do I agree with this? No. But pandemic fatigue is a thing, especially when people don’t see an end to anything, and they slowly see everyone around them losing their jobs and their money. People are starting to question themselves. They ask themselves if a small percentage of the population dying is worth the ruining of lives of a great percentage. Obviously many see it that way because they haven’t experienced what this virus can do to first-hand, especially to whole families. I just spect for these type of protests to grow and grow. And there won’t only be stupid people who want to party, but average people who have been let down by their government and leaders. Also the fact that vaccination is extremely slow and ridiculous in western Europe. It’s just shameful.... However, I doubt the people in these protests would consider getting vaccinated tbh lmao pooiota Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadru 2,396 Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 20 minutes ago, Henri Bardot said: Obviously many see it that way because they haven’t experienced what this virus can do to first-hand, especially to whole families. Sadly this is the truth. I guess people have to experience something (bad) first in order to take it serious, unfortunately. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dutchyguy 249 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 51 minutes ago, Henri Bardot said: Also the fact that vaccination is extremely slow and ridiculous in western Europe. It’s just shameful.... However, I doubt the people in these protests would consider getting vaccinated tbh lmao The speed of the vaccination in the Netherlands is just tragic... takes forever. Still this violence is just pure privilege and arrogance. Remember how outraged everyone was after the BLM in Amsterdam last summer? Its probably the same people that are supporting these protests now Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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