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Weekly Residuum 140 - February 2003 D
© photo and text Koen Nieuwendijk



I rarely get the opportunity of seeing myself from behind, or I would have found out sooner that I must resemble a Rohrschach test on the rampage to those I turn my back to. This prompts the question as to whether this is the result of all my ponderings. But isn't it the quintessence of evolution that life on earth comes with the gift of responding promptly to ducking one's fate? And no, this isn't vanity on my part, for no-one will ever know whether this particular faculty works.

At this point I should like to call on all natives with a flair for languages. Those of you to whom this comes across as biased would be absolutely right, for it implies that I consider it a waste of time to consult either my less developed compatriots or my highly developed compatriots who happen to have arrived later, although our children in the course of their education also come under the former category, which kind of redresses the balance.

I empathise in any event with all upstanding Dutchmen and women who in a moment of rashness have caught themselves shouting things they never intended, or in any event not with the full set of consequences, except where it concerns the mutilations three decades of left-wing heritage have inflicted upon the education system.

But let us by all means start modestly. I am proud of my daughter and I want only the best for her, and so if I read out her report card, it's not a good idea to think that I'm reciting an objective account.

Allow me to take a shortcut and put to you my redeeming question - or rather, that will depend on your answer. Is it proud as punch or proud as a peacock? Is it in the monkey enclosure that we discover our true roots?

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