The Dutch Not Emotional? Bullshit!

Good evening from the still warm Wetlands.
I have spent some considerable time reading the comments from foreign correspondents (Time, the Guardian, the NY Times, the Times and others) about how my fellow countrymen mourn. As if it is a rare event to be studied and commented upon.

Which strikes me as somewhat strange. Don't they know how to mourn themselves? Is there a difference between the mourning of the Brits after the London bombings, or that of the Americans after 9/11? Or even further back, the Scots after Lockerbie?
How do you measure grief?
If you cover a street with bunches of flowers, is that 'better' mourning than when you cover a fence with photographs?
If you sit in front of the TV watching news coverage of the disaster for hours on end, have you felt deeper emotion than when you cry furiously for 5 minutes whilst doing the laundry, and then dry your tears and decide life must go on?

How nice of you to tell the world that 'the Dutch' are a sober people, who only get emotional when the national football team wins.
Bullshit. With respect, but bullshit.
I was there in 1980 when an estimated  2 million Dutchmen marched through Amsterdam against the nuclear armaments that the US stored in our country.
I was there (again in 1980) when thousands of emotional Dutchmen lined the streets of Amsterdam to welcome and thank the Canadians and Brits who had liberated the city in 1945.
I witnessed the outrage of a huge part of the population only last March when right-wing politician Geert Wilders orchestrated a café full of racists to shout that all Moroccan inhabitants should leave the country.
Come visit a pop festival, our Gay Pride, our Rotterdam carnival, and see how 'sober' and 'un-emotional' we are.

Yes. 'We' have tried our best to react with dignity, and have put emotion on hold, in an effort to keep those thugs in Eastern Ukraine cooperating, for 'we' wanted those victims brought home. All victims, I hasten to add, not just the Dutch ones.
And I (and this time I use I for this is my personal conviction) am certain that not all Ukrainian separatists are thugs. You see, again I am emotional. I cannot let myself believe that they all looted, and rejoiced. I have seen photos of ordinary people, old women, crying and grieving for the victims. And of men tirelessly walking those fields of death, trying to locate the body parts.
I must keep believing in the fundamental kindness of humankind. Also in Eastern Ukraine.

Yesterday thousands upon thousands of ordinary folk lined the streets, motorways and flyovers to pay their respect to the first 40 coffins filled with body parts that arrived from the Ukraine. They applauded, they cried, they prayed, they threw flowers, they sang, they were silent.
They all mourned in their own private way, but collectively at the same time.
Facebook has exploded with ordinary people posting poems, songs, drawings, photos, or a few lines to express their emotion.

And still you call us sober and unemotional... look again.

Update on my previous post about Racism and Wilders: what would you do?

Good morning. It's Sunday over here, and I'm still reeling from 2 days of overtime at school. But also with the broo-ha-ha surrounding the speech PVV leader Geert Wilders gave in a The Hague café on election night last Wednesday.
And I have news. 

Selfie by respected (ethnic Moroccan) Dutch actor Nasrdin Dchar

Generally
- So far more than 1,000 people saw it as their duty to fill in a declaration of discrimination against Wilders with the police and it is suspected many more will follow suit; police facilitate this by using a special form which will save time
- So far 5 of Wilders' party associates (including his EU representative) have put down their duties and have left his party, out of anger or because they didn't want to be associated with his hatred campaign against Moroccans
- FB and Twitter have shown an explosion of selfies by ethnic Moroccan people with their Dutch passport
- Dutch premier Mark Rutte has publicly declared he distances himself and his party VVD from Wilders and stops all negotiations and co-operation with the PVV
- Dutch minister of Justice Ivo Opstelten has publicly called Wilders' hate campaign 'disgusting' and 'abject'
- all Dutch government parties have called his words 'unacceptable' and PVDA have declared to stop voting for all PVV motions, whatever they may be about
- PVV parliamantary leader Bontes has asked Wilders to step down

Privately
I have de-friended FB friends who re-posted hateful pro-Wilders messages. Some of these are people I see a lot of in real life... What to do? Taking a stand, means taking a stand...Which is a shock to the system, as my last time on the barricades is 30 years ago.
You may shrug this off, but to me it is quite a step to take. I like to surround myself with positivity and light, so to speak, and kindness is on my banner.
But I've decided the only way forward is to keep all dialogue open, but I don't want to see their foul-mouthed trash appear on my timeline.

What would you do?

I Need Some TLC!!!

Hi, cough, cough, sniffle, cough.

How are you? I'm feeling like death warmed over.
This morning I dragged my aching bones out of bed at 5.45 and breakfasted on a cup of tea with two paracetamol, and went to work.
There I kindly asked my pupils to have some mercy, as I was feeling poorly. This had zilch result.
Sometimes a woman's got to do what a woman's got to do: you have to feel sorry for yourself, for nobody else does...

Right. I'm not going to bore you any further, but will do unto you what I would like you to do unto me (great language, English).

Happiness is not a destination - it's a way of life

I have got the photo from the Internet (where else?), no idea where this placard was used originally.

But that doesn't really matter. What matters is what's written on it.

Whilst we Dutchies have won yet another 5 medals for ice skating yesterday, the news brings me images of a burning Kiev. The contrast couldn't be any greater.

I wish we could take that placard and hang it up, high in the sky, above our poor, stricken, confused, fucked up world. 

And mean it.

Whatever religion you bow to, I'm certain that somewhere in your holy books there is a line which goes something like this: treat others how you would like to  be treated yourself.

I would like to add this: treat others with kindness.

It's very fashionable to be mindful, over here in the West. Hence the title of this post.

But how can you be mindful, happy, fulfilled, content, when there is a lack of kindness in your life? Or, to turn it around: how can you NOT be kind to others and yet expect to be happy?

So, I'd like to amend the title:

Kindness is not a state of being for wusses - it's a way of life

Right. Frightfully righteous lecture over. Next time I'll post something comfortable again, I promise!

I'll leave you with a link. Lyn Collins - Think (about it)  :-)