Dutch Elections

Dateline, ZULU: 02/03/2011, 3:31 PM, West Bilthoven

Regional Elections

My computerized invitation to vote in hand, I walked around the corner of my
'hood. The corner houses the "landlord" of all rental housing in the county of
De Bilt (50,000 plus peoples). A very nice office building and its strategic
positioning has helped make a neighborhood once problematic, safe for democracy:
in some definitions in this modern day, multi-cultural society (along with the
renovations this is a very nice area). The good North Africans bring their
kids in tow to teach them about voting in a free country. No military tanks; no machine guns; in a word no military nothing or guards of the Queen. Just. Just like America.

I digress about the 'hood. In other words it used to be a bad neighborhood.
The landlord owns all of the subsidized rental housing in the county, which is a
lot. Their office building here really upgrades everything. Kudo's. This is one of the richest counties in Holland. Thus. The landlords are sitting pretty. So to speak.

They are good landlords however. Called the SSV. This land lord thing is what many think to be socialized housing. It is not and that is another story along with the medical care of which I have great stories. For another time and this is about voting.

I took my voting invitation and passport to the SSV. I am a dual citizen here, by the way.

I walked in and one of our retired clients who does elder sports where I work said howdy hi. He used to work for the county having to do with kid's fine arts. I have known this guy for years from "my" cultural center with his work and now sports exercise. He volunteers at election time. A good white, Dutch citizen.

He said, um, to his colleagues and me, you are from Australia right? I said,
thinking he was joking, God Bless the Queen. He then looked at my Dutch
passport and he made a remark about the floods in the Land of Oz. I said no, I
am from the land of earthquakes. Oh? New Zealand. No, Los Angeles. Oh? You
are an American? ho ho, this really happened.

I mean even after all these years here and trying to speak the language, most people here hear the difference in my Dutch accent between England and America.
Wow. The English love to tell me I don't speak English but American. Another story on that one as well, eh, cosmic comrades?

You see, we were speaking Dutch together at the voting booth. How wonderful, really, for me. He, another smart but dense county worker. Probably has a master's degree in something cultural but doesn't hear my accent like do the regular folk. That's ok. Just an observation and digression.

So what did I do? I voted for anybody than Geert Wilders, the darling of Fox
News and a real neo-Nazi. I was talking to my best indigenous source about
Wilders. Wilders is slick like Hitler with his own Goebbels, the PR man.

Well, the other two parties I didn't vote for are the CDA (Christian Democratic
Association, aka, Jerry Falwellish and the VVD, VVD right wing
Republicans...rough translation of party platforms). Wilders, if he gets
further, the PPV, his party i.e. nazi's, will probably conjoin with the CDA and
VVD in some manner. I still don't get parliamentary democracy.

Now, me and my indigenous source both agreed about Wilder's nazismistic
political ambitions which include the EU. So, I voted against Mr. Adolph Jr.
with his peroxide blond hair. Geert the jerk.... HO HO.

One man's experience.