There is much to do about the reversal of the Dutch flag. Our national tricolor is fluttering from many lampposts with the royal blue above, and that is of course not in accordance with the design. Farmers thereby express the distress they are in, just like the custom in shipping where an inverted flag means: help, man overboard! Striking symbolism.
I myself would say: rather an upside-down cloth than a bin of shit and/or asbestos and/or burning hay bales on the highway, but the matter is not that simple. The flag represents our country, our history, freedom, in short, the feeling that we stand for something as a proud nation. What exactly we stand for is not always clear, but that is a minor issue. The presence of feeling is sufficient. And there are those who become sad at the sight of the upturned flag and speak shame about it; our national tricolor is being sullied.
Now you don’t have to be a (former) soldier or someone who has experienced the war to lose our flag. In the sports world, many a tear is shed when the winning athlete, still panting from the performance just delivered, is thrown over the Dutch flag. That flag is then carried tenderly over the shoulders, sometimes the flag is even given a kiss. It must still be the adrenaline, I think.
By the way, there is also a lot of guns at concerts by Arab artists. When a singer conjures up a flag halfway through her set, the audience starts cheering frantically. Her heart is in the right place, apparently. In the US, you have to respect the stars and stripes or you’ll be a traitor. And if you want to give another country the bottom of the bag, you have to look up its flag, place an order on the Internet or do the embroidery yourself, gather a team of mates who can look good angry and then together, in front of as many as possible. cameras, roaring and setting fire to the flag. The effect is huge: no more business will be done with you during one election period. (Unless you have oil or gas on offer.)
They do things differently in Dronten, where they prefer to keep things together. Omroep Flevoland made a report about the consultation between a veteran and a farmer. Against the appropriate background of a meadow, the gentlemen were asked in turn for their views. They were clear: the farmer was in favor of the inverted flag, the veteran against. The latter said: ‘We have brought home quite a number of colleagues under the Dutch flag and that inverted flag bothers me.’
‘A touching point’, I said to my screen, ‘let’s see how you can argue with that’. Well, the farmer could: ‘Of course it is a protest. You want to be heard and you want to be seen. The inverted flag is a very peaceful protest.’ I didn’t get that back.
Neither did the veteran, because after the meeting he was jubilant as if he had won a holiday trip. When asked what it had been like, he replied, “Delicious!” They had listened to each other, with ‘respect on all sides’ and ‘a lot of understanding’. Everyone went home glowing with satisfaction. In concrete terms, nothing had changed because the flags will remain for the time being, but the veteran felt heard.
This made the flag, even upside down, a symbol for the Netherlands: a country where people still sit down to discuss things. Sometimes in the most endearing way.