Tag: Nationalism
-
Defending Freedom
Defending Freedom While Russia is invading and bombarding its neighbour Ukraine, spreading death and destruction, Ukraine is defending its freedom. At the Venice Biennale the Russian Pavilion is hermetically sealed. Russia is not welcome and is excluded from presenting itself at the exhibition. Ukraine on the other hand is proudly present with its international exhibition…
-
Patriotism
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…
-
The raising of the flag
The raising of the flag I was born after the Second World War in a liberated Netherlands. The country had just emerged from five years of occupation by Nazi Germany. I still remember very clearly the annual celebrations during my childhood on 5 May, the day in 1945 on which the country was liberated from…
-
Statues of horses
Statues of horses Statues of national heroes on horseback – I’m not much of a fan. Not of the statues, and not of the heroes either. They usually make me yawn with boredom, or at best, prompt me to mock them. So when I saw this equestrian statue in Vienna, I felt the urge to…
καιρός remembered 