Waterhoofd

We vallen nu over HKH Prines Máxima heen met haar vaststelling dat dé Nederlander niet bestaat, maar ik roep in dit verband graag in herinnering wat haar man en onze toekomstige koning ZKH Prins Willem-Alexander zei, tijdens de Nederlands Dag van Expo 2005, Japan, op dinsdag 19 april:

Today we have come together at the Aichi 2005 World Exhibition to celebrate the Netherlands’ national day. I am very happy to be here and to report that relations between the Netherlands and Japan are in excellent health. Our minister of Foreign Affairs has visited your country only
recently and Prime Minister Koizumi will come to Holland in an few weeks. He will also visit he Von Siebold House in Leiden, Which has just opened in March. The marvellous collection of items that Von Siebold assembled in the early 19th century in Japan can now be displayed. Several animals, stuffed on Von Siebold’s orders, now extinct in Japan, can be found in the Japanese Pavilion. They
provide us with a strong reminder that what we have destroyed in our lack of wisdom, in terms of animals, plants or environment, can not be recreated. “Nature’s wisdom”, the exposition’s central theme, is a very appropriate theme. The theme urges us to reflect on man’s coexistence with nature. The theme of the Netherlands’ presentation is “Holland, land of water” and I am very pleased with
this choice. Water is a source, the primary source of nature. Managing water has always been the trademark of the Netherlands. This area of Japan bears traces of Dutch water management in the form of the work of amongst others Johannes de Rijke. This Dutch water engineer, one of many, worked for a long time, in the early Meiji-period, in order to get rivers and the sea under control. Water, the sea, has supplied us with golden opportunities to look beyond the horizon of our small country. Water and wind carried the “Liefde” to Japan on April, 19th 1600. At the same time water today presents a wide array of challenges to the world. That is why water is a priority of the Netherlands’ development policy.
The Netherlands spends 0,1% of GDP on the priority areas of environment and water. The Netherlands, as part of its development policy, is committed to provide access to clean drinking water and sanitation for an additional fifty million people by 2015. Water is also a source of life. A healthy lifestyle has become a pre-requisite for good life, an important value for us all. In
establishing industrial society, man has dictated nature. In developing a healthy lifestyle, we must learn to listen to nature and adapt to it in subtle ways. Here we can learn a lot from Japan. The healthy way of life in Japan gives the Japanese the highest life expectancy in the world. Japanese food and drink
can be a source of health and vitality, all the more reason to enjoy it here with the visible presence of new life in our midst. May Nature’s wisdom teach us to take care of our environment and indeed, of ourselves. It is our common duty and desire to leave a better world for our children (and grandchildren). Bron: RVD

Hij geeft hier, weliswaar met schaamte, toe dat Nederlanders Japanse fauna hebben uitgeroeid om er opgezette museumdieren van te maken. Bovendien durft hij zomaar te beweren dat water de bron, neen de voornáámste bron van alle leven is! En hij stelt ons Japan's "gezonde levensstijl" ten voorbeeld, als het gaat om een lange levensverwachting.

Ik meen dat deze woorden ons kunnen helpen in het debat over de Nederlandse identiteit van ons en onze kinderen (en kleinkinderen).