Jorrit Nuijens

City councilman, GroenLinks. Amsterdam.

“What does it mean to be Dutch today? Stick your head in the sand and tell yourself everything’s going to be alright. I think that’s my most sincere answer. I think to the major problems of our time the main response of the average Dutch person is to just hope that it’s just going to go away. Whether that’s climate change or race relations or income inequality.

Aspirationally? I think the Dutch have everything in them–culturally–to rise above themselves. What I hope that means, is that I think we could be a thought leader in the world. When it comes to climate change, we are arguably the first victim of climate change if we don’t do something. And when it comes to race relations, by stating honestly that having been at the cradle of geopolitics–as it is today–standing over a map of Africa with our rulers in our hands and going, “You get to have this part, you want that part, you want that part…”

Having built much of our national wealth on the exploitation of indigenous peoples–whether it’s through selling them themselves or whether it’s through selling their wealth–by owning up to that and saying, “You know what? We know the privilege that that’s given us. And we know the developmental advantage that that’s given us, and now we want to pay it forward.”

How? Ask me again when you do your next project.”