REGIO – Columnist Vincent Cantrijn writes weekly about political and social developments in the region. This week he’s worried about bugs.
Look and listen research is not spent on my columns. Still, I suspect that there are plenty of people among my loyal followers who will remember the summer hit of Ronnie and the Ronnies from 1967: ‘Do you know what I see when I’ve been drinking? Well well? All critters. Well, well well. So many critters around me.’ Everyone sang it at the time. It drove you crazy.
I had to think about it when I read that the Four Days Marches runners could be infested by bugs next week. According to researchers at the University of Wageningen, there are more than enough ticks, oak processionary caterpillars, wasps and mosquitoes on the way. It could become a plague. Here we go again. Well, well, well. All critters around me!
There were more beasts in the news. In Malden, residents complained to the council that chewing made too much noise in their neighbourhood. So nuisance. A trained desert buzzard, appropriately named Loedertje, was used twice a day for half an hour to chase away the flying loiterers. That was more efficient than a gathering ban. Faunabeheer Gelderland and the Dierenbescherming had to be consulted by the municipality whether it was not forbidden to chase out jackdaws after complaints from residents that they make too much noise.
When I read something like this, it makes me feel good. I have the privilege of living at the Wijchens Meer. In the spring, the dozens of geese don’t know what to do in terms of hormones. A loud noise. When the chicks are born, the territory is guarded with a loud cracking sound. And what about the frog concert, which manifests itself especially during the night. An all-pervasive sound, forcing us to close the bedroom window. No reason for me to call the municipality with the question whether it can be a little softer with those croaking and yawning animal loiterers.
In Nijmegen, the Party for the Animals does not need to be called for all that animal problem. They have completely different worries there at the moment. This is due to figurehead Michelle van Doorn. She has been chairman of the council for more than four years. A few weeks ago she took a political step back by handing in the group chairmanship. Last week she thanked her for joining the party. She will keep her council seat. She continues as a one-woman party under her own name.
According to her statement, there are irreconcilable differences of opinion with the rest of the group. We don’t know more. That’s nice. The Party for the Animals was one of the winners of the elections in March. Voters had great confidence in the principles. A few months later there is internal shit about the same principles. But voters don’t get to hear anything about the how and what. That doesn’t look like anything. How could confidence in politics be declining? The Party for the Animals is such a mix of Carnaval des Animeaux and animal gang.
Vincent Cantrijn