Pandemic Chaos

So I have not written much about the pandemic and its ongoing social and economic impact. But as things drag on and the crisis deepens, it is worth spending a few moments on what is going on across the globe. Given my deep connections to the motherland I keep a close eye on what is going on in The Netherlands. Even a high level temperature check indicates that things are not going well and the Dutch are going from one mishap to the other as the pandemic makes its way across the small nation. The latest is an outbreak of violent riots in many urban centres. A failure to get infections under control has now prompted the government - already struggling under a major scandal - to impose a nationwide curfew, starting 9PM every evening.

Of course anyone could have predicted that this measure would meet the necessary resistance in a nation where a unique mix of personal liberty and entitlement (what do you mean we can’t go on a holiday to Spain this year?) is deeply entrenched. While the majority has stumbled along and accepted the new normal, anti-virus denial groups have been out in force for a number of months now arguing for ‘basic freedoms’. Some debate is of course healthy, but to see a collection of critical scientists, populist politicians and nutters comparing the current situation to the Nazi occupation during World War II is actually quite troubling. It also highlights how civil liberties and an ‘anything goes’ culture have created a totally unworkable view of how society should operate among some segments of the population. And what is worse is that their presence on the streets combined with the strict new curfew has brought out an even more toxic mixture of disaffected youths, hooligans and, to quote some police sources, scum. Like with any other protest social media is an accelerant and the results over the weekend were extreme violence, looting and serious damage. The absolute low point was setting a Corona-virus testing facility on fire in the town of Urk. Utter insanity.

It was Senator Tom Cotton who called for armed forces last summer to quell the BLM riots in the US in his now infamous NYT op-ed. To prove that these sentiments are becoming mainstream is the fact that a Dutch mayor yesterday echoed something very similar. Eindhoven mayor John Jorritsma, a calm establishment liberal, commented that calling in the army was now on the table as an option, suggesting that the Dutch were ‘sliding towards civil war’. The riots that took place were indeed unprecedented and as I write this they have now spread to other cities where police and emergency services are totally overwhelmed by the explosion of violence and looting.

Over the years I have collected all sorts of ‘thumbs up’ about the incredible success of the Dutch nation as a socio-economic experiment gone well, but I have always responded that only a thin veneer protects the place from deep crisis. Extreme belt tightening governments have cut deep into healthcare, social services and notably police work. On the one hand there is fiscal room now to fund the many pandemic-spawned crises, but on the other the infrastructure to deal with it all was severely undermined. Add to that a system that is also not able to cope with unassimilated immigrants and it becomes clear how both economic and social pressures are now beginning to fray the fabric of Dutch society.

The current government rolled the dice with the curfew and in doing so amplified a number of themes that will now likely dominate the election debate. It will be hard to talk about the climate, technology and trade when a number of Dutch cities are now literally on fire.