woensdag 9 juni 2010

Erik the Very Important gives His Opinion on the news!

"What? Did I hear that right? I thought Erik was too lazy to be concerned with uninteresting stuff like that!"

Well, yeah. Maybe a few years ago, I was. But there's so much things happening right now, and you know where I get things off my mind: Here!

First you gotta know that the elections were yesterday. Since you, my foolish friend, presumably don't know squat about Dutch politics, allow me to fill you in:
Dutch Politics in Thirty Seconds
There are around ten parties with a realistic chance of actually getting any seats in parliament. They are, more or less from left-wing to right-wing, the socialist party (SP), the green party (GroenLinks), the social democratic party (PvdA), a social liberal party (D66), the Christian democratic party (CDA), the conservative party (VVD) and the Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV). The PVV is led by anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders.
Two small Christian parties, the ChristenUnie and SGP, are more difficult to place on a left-to-right scale. The former is somewhat more progressive, the latter is considered slightly more conservative. Both parties take a firmly conservative stance with regard to ethical questions such as abortion, gay marriage and euthanasia.
As you can see, there's a lot more than just being Democratic or Republican (At least, that is how I perceive American politics, correct me if I'm wrong). Since no single party ever gets more than 50% of the total votes, there's always the need for a coalition. This system has worked out pretty good in the past, as long as there are parties with similar conceptions. This time, however, the parties are about as similar as a Greek epic and a sitcom, and this has been going on for the past few years. The result is that the government has collapsed 4 times already.

So why is this time special? It's about the PVV, the Partij voor de Vrijheid (Freedom Party), who somehow managed to obtain 20% of the votes. The PVV is special in a way, and I'll explain this by comparing it to your favorite villain: You-Know-Who!

So I guess Geert Wilders, its leader, can be compared to the Dark Lord himself. Everyone says they don't like him, because of his ridiculous ideas. Which include "throwing all Muslims out of the country to purify it." The Muslims can be compared to people who aren't pure-blooded, of course! The reason why he got so many votes is thus unclear to me, since I don't accept inhuman behaviour, thankyouverymuch. So my guess is that he put about 20% of all Dutch people under the Imperius Curse. Scary!

Anyway, I'd like to see the outcome of this, because a coalition has yet to be formed. I personally don't think it's possible, but well, you never know how a cow'll catch a hare! Yeah, I just used a Dutch idiom.

Yesterday's quote: "I read you blog, Erik!" -Dad
The day before yesterday's quote: "I read your blog today, Erik!" -Dad
The day before the beforementioned day: "Did I mention I read your blog today, Erik?" -Dad
Etcetera: "I read your blog too, Erik!" -Dad

Someone's obsessed!

2 opmerkingen:

  1. So many parties for political parties...haha

    We have several parties too. Mainly Democrat, Republican and Independent parties.

    But smaller parties are "The green party", "The Constitution party" and "Libertarian party" but we barely hear of those. Barely...

    Geert Wilders needs someone to kick his teeth. Or kick something else...
    He sounds like Hitler to me. That's inhumane. Don't hate other people. Appreciate them! Kick his rear to Antarctica, if you please. 20%?! Forgive me for say this, but What the hell?! I don't get it...
    At least the Dark Lord was defeated in the end. Yep. No more unforgivable curses used by him.

    And your Dad is silly! But it's awesome that he loves reading your blog!

    Great post, Erik!

    -Alyssia

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