We are starting to get “a little war-weary” – already after two weeks. Military historian Christ Klep, the old-timer among the war signs, saw it twenty years ago with the American invasion of Iraq, he told at the table on a talk show. m (KRO-NCRV): With so much violence and misery, people soon start to wonder: how long will this last? He humbly called this mechanism ‘Klap’s law’.
War-weary? That still gives some hope to all those local politicians, who see their campaigns hopelessly eclipsed by the geopolitical landslide on the eastern flank. Unfortunately for the viewer’s mind, the theme of the municipal elections is also not very encouraging: the housing crisis. m had invited aldermen from three cities to discuss it: a SP member from Amsterdam, a PvdA member from The Hague and a VVD member from Almere. “You will now only be an alderman”, sighed presenter Margriet van der Linden.
The VVD member explained that the housing crisis is actually very clear: we have seven million homes in the Netherlands, while there should be eight million. His solution: “Build, build, build.” Then everyone on the housing market moves up one place and the problem is – flop! – out of the world.
The sharpest response to this shameless laissez faireThe story did not come from the two left-wing aldermen, but from the fourth guest at the table: Cody Hochstenbach, an urban geographer who has tirelessly pointed out for years that the housing crisis is not a natural disaster but the result of thirty years of neoliberal policy. The VVD mantra ‘build build build’, he explained, is a ‘simple narrative to deregulate and build expensive housing’. The only solution, he argued, is to revive the Dutch tradition of public housing, which has been deliberately destroyed by politics. We should be “quite angrier” about that.
dusty rules
Bee The Hofbar of PowNed also pays attention to the housing crisis. Presenter Rutger Castricum focused on the “incomprehensible, dusty rules” that prevent large-scale construction in suburban areas. He took the viewer to a swampy piece of meadow east of Alkmaar, on which no houses can be built because the province has declared it a ‘special provincial landscape’. Castricum to a local CDA member: “But this is just mud, isn’t it?” A little too easy and populist for a program that usually succeeds in portraying the popular view of politics and government.
PowNed and Castricum deserve praise for the much attention they pay to the council elections. In a new series of The Hofkar Castricum drives with local politicians in a Volkswagen van criss-cross through their municipality, while he questions them in the well-known bullying-challenging way. This results in lively conversations and, moreover, the viewer of the Randstad is introduced to emerging talents from the region.
Such as 19-year-old Roshano Dewnarain, leader of GroenLinks in the municipality of Midden-Groningen. Even the sarcastic and not exactly leftist Castricum is impressed by his intelligence and energy: “You are an exceptional guy.” Unfortunately chooses The Hofkar on Wednesday’s episode for the Freak Show Approach. The guest is Rob Heilbron, the former lingerie entrepreneur who has a chance to win a council seat in Amsterdam for the party of slum landlord Wybren van Haga. Heilbron’s plan to curb the housing crisis? “Go and build first, and not think of all those things like nitrogen and particulate matter. Your purest nonsense!”
Incidentally, I believe that Loeki de Leeuw should disappear from the tube as soon as possible.
This section will be written by various authors until April 25th†
#Build #build #build #flop #problem