| Slipping Standards |
| There are days on which you may yield up your whole life for the whole world to see, with impunity. Flags are a different matter, however: no longer are we permitted to put out the flag, as this is deemed to encroach upon the unspoilt urban landscape. But of course there's always the option of syndicating the two. |
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Unlike the residents of the inner city, who have very little time for the shenanigans of a constituent city council, that has been rammed down their throats, trees demonstrate their loyalty to the new speed bump experts by cutting swathes of expelled cobblestones across the road surface alongside the canals wherever they can. Of course there's always the possibility that this could be a sign of evolutionary trends in the offing, in that the roots could in due course start hurling the cobblestones - but at whom? I have now started looking for trees that are capable of sprouting flags, for I can't imagine that they would indiscriminately swallow the views of Bert Niemeyer, the Sector Head for Public Amenities of the Central Amsterdam Constituent Council, who has ranked the putting out of flags under the same criminal heading as the premature turfing out of one's rubbish or the casual discarding of used up chewing gum. After all, trees are constantly busy sticking out everything they've got all over the place, and they know full well that what is referred to so elegantly as a "tree preservation order" virtually always has the opposite effect. Then again, a lack of intelligence is probably as prevalent among trees as it is among human beings, in that some trees will be clever while most will be decidedly dim, and those that are clever will probably make inadequate use of their mental powers, although I wouldn't quite know how to explain this to a tree. It would be a bit of a cop-out to leave the trees holding the baby. But that doesn't give the constituent council the right to pretend that they are wanted, much less bar us putting out the flag for anything other than their non-election. |