I don’t visit my parents’ house that often anymore. The house is still under construction; it’s a long way to travel, and there is less of a click with the people there. After several years of building a (student) life in Wageningen, the concept of “home” dissolves. Still, I am there now, after the resits. The plan is to remove myself from the Wageningen bubble and return to real life.
I stroll through the local store, the only one in the village, looking for something to eat for dinner and potato chips. The shop assistants working the chips aisle are talking among themselves as they neatly arrange the wares. A radio played, some item about farmer protests, and someone died. I don’t know whether the death was related to the protests; the bags of potato chips crinkled too loudly for me to hear. One of the assistants sighs: ‘What is the world coming to…’. ‘What?’ her colleague responds and stops crinkling. My curiosity is aroused, and I stand still. The employee repeats her concerns over the state of the world, and her colleague nods affirmatively. He looks a little older than she and has some experience. ‘Let me tell you one thing’, he starts, in a Drenthe accent. ‘If that Timmermans guy comes into power, a civil war is sure to follow.’ I grab a bag of chips (paprika) and quickly walk away.
There are no tractors chasing electric vehicles on the A12
Civil war! The term is probably an exaggeration of the sentiments felt by the anti-Timmermans bubble in the face of the political tension in the Netherlands. It also shows how the pro-Timmermans bubble responds relatively mildly to everything happening in the country. A new party that opposes everything that bubble holds dear, still, nothing much is happening. There are no large protests, and not a single shot has been fired. Fortunately. There are no tractors chasing electric vehicles on the A12. Viewing the Netherlands as a type of Wild West is rather funny, particularly as everyone, regardless of their place on the political spectrum, is concerned with the exact same things.
As far as I’m concerned, you could see the whole of the Netherlands as one big bubble, despite the fact that my studies (the human aspects in nature policies) often focus on Dutch policy issues, so I may be viewing things from my own bubble. Perhaps, in order to truly free myself from Wageningen issues, I should not travel to Drenthe but to the other end of the world. (Unfortunately, my master’s will take place at the very heart of the Dutch issues bubble: The Hague.)
Ilja Bouwknegt (25) is a master’s student in forest and nature conservation. Ilja is interested in the relationship between humans and nature and prefers to try every hobby at least once. Currently, that is crochet, but writing remains the undisputed favourite.
