It was a turbulent summer, Sophie Hilbrand noted in the first broadcast of the new season of Khalid and Sophie. Do say so. It was a summer when – I assume I’m not just speaking for myself – the urge to emigrate was stronger than ever. A summer in which the various crises and the ‘abrasive’ reactions to them brought social nihilism to a boil. A summer in which we occupied ourselves with discussions about bare or covered tits, about Sinterklaas songs, about whether Nick left Simon or vice versa – while our living environment seemed to be going to the buttons faster than ever from an ecological and humanitarian point of view.
A summer in which you were annoyed by the reversed Dutch flags, while you actually wanted nothing to do with the whole of the Netherlands.
Incidentally, it turned out that I didn’t even have the latest crisis on my radar yet: the Efteling crisis, or rather the Spookslotnood. At the start of the broadcast, Olcay Gulsen – part of the duo on duty – showed images of thousands of amusement park visitors who had queued all day for a last round through the haunted house, which is closing after 44 years. On display: running people, urgent families. This Haunted Castle is full, own ride first, everyone welcome, but not in my cart.
I was already done with the aso finger: there you had them, the bigots, the core of all problems. Those Who Only Think Of Themselves. But Gulsen understood these people. She herself grew up near the Efteling, in a ‘very poor family’. Her parents received free tickets for the amusement park from the municipality. Three times a week the family cycled ‘with their own sandwiches’ towards Kaatsheuvel. ‘Time of my life’, says Gulsen.
Later on, Gulsen also appeared to have the ability to view situations from different sides and to see people as more than their caricature in the (social) media. The angry people around Ter Apel who called refugees fortune seekers, who said they were after our houses, jobs and swimming lessons: Gulsen did not see racists in them, but uninformed citizens.
There is unrest, she said, there is fear, and then people start pointing. The media should inform these people, she thought, rather than spread inflammatory clickbait headlines. Teach them that the housing crisis, purchasing power crisis and refugee crisis are different crises. That one does not cause the other. Gulsen was convinced that every Dutch person is willing to help a foreigner – as long as that Dutch person understands their situation.
And just when I started to think Gulsen should go into politics so that I had someone to vote for again, she proposed a signature campaign to get the melted down wax statue of dinner guest Jeroen Krabbé back in Madame Tussauds. Yes, it was refreshing, some humanity in times of polarization. But somehow I had to set a limit.