Tim den Besten was very upset this afternoon and could be heard completely in tears on NPO Radio 1. He couldn’t keep it dry when presenter Natasja Gibbs asked him about the Sinterklaas riot.
A huge row has arisen about the fact that Tim den Besten sang the sentence ‘Sinterklaasje, come in with your servant’ during the TV report of the Canal Parade. He sang to his good friend Nicolaas Veul, but critics blame him for using the word ‘servant’ and believe that he sang it to a number of black men.
Tim in tears
Tim has gone through deep dust on his social media and the AvroTros has now also issued a statement, but the criticism continues. It became too much for Tim this afternoon when he was a guest on NPO Radio 1. He was a guest there in the De Nieuws BV program, an appointment that had already been made before the riot broke out.
It all makes Tim very sad. “Because he was on a boat and his name is Nicolaas, I thought he was Sint-Nicolaas and arrived by boat. Then I accidentally sang ‘Sinterklaasje, come in with your servant’. Very stupid!” he explains. Then he can’t get out of his words: “Now ehh… I’m sorry…”
‘I am ashamed’
Tim regrets singing that line from the Sinterklaas song, but according to him the rest is not true. “Now it has been made that I had sung the song, because it was a boat with a lot of dark people and that I also called ‘Piet’ to people, while I shouted ‘S10!’”
He continues: “That song… I’m ashamed, but the rest I just really didn’t do. Then you just get a lot of DMs like: ‘You’re a wild beast’, ‘They should lock you up’, ‘I hope you get fired’, ‘You’re just like your ancestors’…”
downer
Presenter Natasja Gibbs: “Tim, gosh, this has been quite a weekend, a huge damper on something that is very beautiful. Then you get this. At that moment, eh, that you use that number… Yes, I sometimes do stupid things and then I think afterwards: shit, shit, shit. Did you already have that at that time or only when you got those reactions?”
Tim: “Perhaps I think that’s too bad: until yesterday I didn’t know exactly what I had sung and that I sang ‘servant’ without even thinking about it, while I really didn’t fall on the back of my head. I just said that without feeling anything. I think that’s something I might have to think about.”
Starbucks
It’s a terrible day for Tim. “I just think it’s really bad that… When I went here you have this kind of feeling like, people all think I’m a racist or that I didn’t just sing that song, I did it because there was a boat full of dark people was what I called ‘Piet’ to.”
“Then you stand in line at Starbucks and there were only black people behind that cash register. I don’t know, it’s just not what I would do. Sorry for this too, but the reactions are so intense.”
You can watch the interview with the emotional Tim den Besten on the website of NPO Radio 1.
