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Fear and Loathing in a Climate Crisis

Sometimes an emergency is a wake up call… I can honestly say I am very much aware of climate change and its consequences. I have never denied it, and read a good deal about it. The question, though, is: Am I prepared? I never gave that question much thought. Until last night…

It has been a very, very hot summer in The Netherlands. I hated the extreme heat, but drank lots of water and dealt with it. My beautiful garden survived, thanks to my loving care. I watered the plants when needed with water from my rain barrel, until that ran out and I had to use tap water. Only if and when absolutely necessary, of course.

As I wrote in my last blog, my Mediterranean plants thrived: beautiful Coeur de Boeuf tomatoes, eggplants, olives, figs and an enormous amount of grapes, which are sweet and delicious. It is a small comfort in light of the weather horrors, of course, but I’ll take it.

And then the rain came… nothing happened, no roof calamities. In the first dry week after the rains, the roofer came to install new roof windows on the section of my house that has a flat roof. Shortly after starting his work, he called me and told me the roof was in terrible condition; he took photos of the problem areas where he was working, so he could prove the leakages that were to be expected weren’t his fault. When the work was done, he offered two options: fix the upper layer of roof covering, or replace the roof completely. I asked him to send me a quotation for a new roof. I would have to take out a loan, but The Netherlands has a service called ‘Warmtefonds’ which lends money for climate adaptation measures against very good conditions.

The roof held. No leaks. Until last night. There was a downpour of the extreme kind that we are just getting used to. I wanted to go to bed and had to be in the bathroom… My first thought was that the faucet was leaking, because the small towels next to it were soaking wet. As was the marble top of my beautiful old bathroom cabinet. After drying everything, I felt for a leak in the faucet. Nothing.

But then. Drip. Nothing. Drip. It finally dawned on me: the leakage came from the newly installed roof window. As the downpour did not subside, I entered a full-blown panic attack. What if the whole roof collapses… I will be on vacation in ten days from now… what if it keeps raining all the time? I suddenly didn’t feel the safety of my house anymore. It could all vanish, just like that.

Amidst my doom fantasies, I remembered what – most recently – happened in Tibet, where probably thousands of people have drowned due to floods caused by climate change. And then I thought of the thousands of Ukrainians who not only lost their homes because of Russia bombing civilian targets, but often also family members. And the people in Gaza, who have nothing to return to; the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, who are driven from their homes by settler terrorists… And … and … and.

It did not exactly allay my fears, but it made me understand how brave and resilient these people must be… and I realised how completely unprepared I am for real calamities. Not a comforting thought, but it brought everything into perspective.

So, instead of giving in to fear and (self)loathing, I waited for a break in the rain, put on my shoes and rain coat, got the ladder, a broom and a tarp from the shed. Suppressing my fear of heights, I climbed the ladder, swept as much water as possible toward the drainpipe at the edge of the roof, and carefully spread the tarp over the leaking roof window.

The leakage didn’t stop, but diminished to a manageable amount. I went to bed and – contrary to my expectation – slept like a log until early this morning. Luckily, I was just in time to empty the small container I placed under the leak.

I am still utterly unprepared for a real big world calamity. But at least I know now.

“For most positions of any importance, you need diplomas; to become an MP for Wilders’ Freedom Party, you only need a criminal record”

Or so I heard: a guest on a Dutch talk show said something in that vein yesterday…
If anyone out there still has the courage and perseverance to follow Dutch politics: Wow! Impressive.
For those who haven’t (I personally don’t blame you): due to a weird construction, Dutch neo-Nazis now have the power to decide the fate of the current government, a coalition of Conservatives/Republicans (the American type) and Christian Democrats (definitely no liberals in the American sense).
Of course, every decent person in this country was worried, and still is. But some incidents over the past few weeks have turned the horror show at least into a horror comedy. The PVV (Wilders’ party) won a horrifying 24 seats in the last elections, which took place in June.
Being a populist extreme right-wing party, the PVV of course constantly beats the “law and order” drum… Usually with anti-immigrant overtones.
Of those twenty-four, at least seven MPs (a whopping 34% of their party in parliament) have criminal records: abuse, fraud, illegal firearms, you name it. The facts about three of them only became public knowledge over the past few weeks.
Because the PVV provides the 76th vote the government coalition needs, Mr Wilders has been twisting himself in knots to justify that he hasn’t kicked out any of these criminals.
Not to poop on the party, but: this isn’t just comedy, is it? It also is horror: is this our future? Will we be governed – if the current political trends in Europe and the US continue – by crooks?
Our situation is not all that different from the one in the US: the Tea Party is the American equivalent of the PVV. It’s a little scary that in the US these people can operate inside one of the two big political parties. But even that is – considering the different political systems – a lot more like the Dutch situation than it would seem at first sight.
Given the fact that America has in fact a two party system and the Dutch have ten parties (this time) in Parliament, it’s not too far-fetched to say that the two parties in the current Dutch government have the same kind of relationship with Wilders’ party as the Republicans have with the Tea Party. They simply need the votes.
Maybe I don’t need to mention that the Dutch government coalition, led by Conservative PM
Rutte, has ignored the matter of the criminal records that keep popping up like daffodils in spring.

Voor mijn Nederlandse lezers

Reageren mag natuurlijk ook in het Nederlands.

Okay, I am blogging now, too, but…

I won’t tweet, ever!

I never thought I’d be grateful to the ADL, but I am, for speaking out against Holland’s newest NaLi. What is a NaLi? Fair question.

In the twentieth century a certain Adolf Hitler misused the popularity of socialism to name his party National Socialist (which obviously is a contradictio in terminis) to suggest that he wanted the best for “the people”. The catch was, as we all know, that the definition of “people” excluded whole categories of human beings, like Jews, Gypsies (Roma), homosexuals, socialists, etc.). The “utopia” the Nazis promised, would just be for Aryans.

In the twenty-first century, a certain Geert Wilders uses the popularity of liberalism (remember though, that this means something different in Europe: basically “laissez-faire” economic policies) to lure people into thinking he wants the best for “the people”, so he named his party “Freedom Party”. His ideology is National Liberalism, also a contradiction in terms.  The catch is, obviously, that at least one category of human beings, namely Muslims, are excluded from the “benefits” of his liberalism: Mr Wilders’ “utopia” is only for non-Muslims (and who knows who is next on the list of people to be excluded).

So, Nalis. Thank you ADL, for not wanting Mr Wilders to speak on September 11th at Ground Zero. But there my gratitude ends. The ADL has thrown its considerable weight in the battle over the mosque/cultural center/swimming pool that is to be built near Ground Zero. Because a Muslim institution in that place would hurt the feelings of those who lost loved ones on 9/11.

Let’s first remember what ADL stands for: Anti-Defamation League. It started out as an Antisemitism watchdog and in that capacity has done wonderful things; later it expanded its scope to other kinds of defamation. So how is it possible that the ADL itself now participates in defamation? To suggest that any Muslim organization, regardless of its intentions, world view, etc. does not belong anywhere near the WTC-site, is playing into the hands of those who appeal to our worst instincts: THE Muslims are to blame for the horrible acts of terror that were perpetrated on September 11th, 2001.

So, even though the ADL distances itself from Wilders, it promotes the same attitude, which is a shandah, as we Jews say.