That it pays to sometimes just go to Cash desk to watch, it turned out Monday evening. That’s how I learned that there is such a thing as a ‘Unblocking Collective Fair Sewer’. The existence of such an interest group implies that unfair unblocking of sewers is the order of the day in the Netherlands. And indeed, apparently there are quite a few rogue plumbers who dare to charge rude prices for the smallest interventions. For example, the good-natured Huub had a leak repaired, the cause of which was in the bathroom drain. They had been busy for half an hour, for which Huub was allowed to tap over 3000 euros. According to the bill, 27 meters of pipes had been unblocked. ‘Impossible’, said Carrel Rutte of the aforementioned Collective Fair Sewer Unblocking. He called the bill “totally unrealistic.” Huub eventually got his money back, because the team of Cash desk went after the plumbing company.
There was also an item about dog walking services, which are a problem because there is no longer room in the Netherlands to let large groups of dogs run free. The actual problem, that there have been a lot of selfish people who have bought a corona dog and are now unable to walk them, deserved a little more attention. Also the item about fast fashion was not exactly hopeful about the sense of responsibility of the average Dutch person: clothing vloggers who unscrupulously promote cheap, polluting, polyester junk from junk brands such as Shein and teenagers who buy it en masse, because there is apparently no room in the adolescent brain for things like the environment or child labor . Neither does the adult brain, for that matter, there is little room for the cocktail of greed and an unregulated market.
No, solidarity with the other is not what we should be talking about here. That was also beautifully illustrated later in the evening in the first episode of Manifest Stone Fever, in which three young journalists investigate the crisis in the housing market. Their place of residence is Zwolle, where, just like in any other city in the Netherlands, homes are becoming increasingly expensive and scarce. One (one) solution is to build two residential towers outside the dykes with a total of 300 homes. But local resident Joop and a handful of neighbors try to put a stop to that. The new homes are at the expense of their enjoyment of living and nature, they say. And then also all those traffic movements. No, those houses should be built ‘somewhere else’.
For example, there are many more projects in the Netherlands that are endlessly trained by people who object to the arrival of new homes. The plans are delayed or even cancelled. Jos from Zwolle bought a new-build apartment for a favorable price. But thanks to objections from local residents, the developer pulled the plug on the project and Jos therefore has no home. In the meantime, house prices continue to rise steadily, so there is a good chance that Jos will have to pay significantly more for a next project. Look, we’re not getting anywhere like this.