καιρός remembered

Patriotism

I was once given a serious telling-off by a young boy in India about my alleged lack of patriotism. Everyone in India always wants to know where you’re from. As soon as they heard I was Dutch, they would often tell me the story of how a little boy in the Netherlands had saved his country and its people from a devastating flood by sticking his finger into a hole in the dyke through which water was seeping. It was a well-known story that appeared in one of the widely used school textbooks in India. That’s how they were able to place me in my country of origin. I always laughed it off, but that reaction didn’t always go down well. “You shouldn’t laugh at that! That boy was a hero! You should be proud of him and revere him as a true patriot!” I’m talking about the 1970s. India had only gained independence 25 years earlier. National pride was strong and was actively fostered. At school, every day began with everyone singing the national anthem together.

It’s true, my patriotic feelings aren’t particularly strong. They haven’t had much opportunity to develop, as I grew up after the Second World War in a free country that has not experienced war since then – at least not on its own soil. I can imagine that patriotic feelings would be rekindled with great intensity if one’s own country and people were attacked by an external enemy.

Openness to the rest of the world, cooperation, globalisation: I’m a great advocate of all these things. But at the same time: live and let live, and don’t bother others unnecessarily. Nationalist and religious sentiments would do well to be toned down a little in a globalised world. As a global citizen, I quite enjoy looking at them and their symbols with a healthy dose of humour.

Photo of the week: market vendors in front of a poster of King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan, Madaba, Jordan, 2010