Yesterday night, I had dinner with two friends of mine, one of whom resides in Cologne. His apartment is just a block away from the ditch where the archive building held the city's written heritage, until some mistakes in construction works for the new subway made the earth swallow it. My friend told that the shattered remains of the building and what it contained have been removed. The other friend's father is involved in trying to save what can be saved of the history records. It's a story about deep freezing, transporting, unfreezing and identifying. Most of the pieces are probably lost forever.
On the train back to The Hague, my friend and me got in conversation with a girl on the bench facing ours. She enjoyed the attention and offered us cookies. She didn't have to, it was clear enough she wasn't annoyed. She did it anyway. In her pouch she had one bag of brownie cookies and one reading chocolate chip cookies. Bought only minutes ago, because she wanted to try them both. The bags were still sealed, because "she wasn't hungry after all," she said while taking a bite from here apple. "You're not hungry, but you're eating an apple? Why?" "Because I'm not hungry." "Huh?" "It's healthy." We didn't quite get it yet. The cookie bags were on the little table in front of us. Allegedly, the brownie cookies were the best. I didn't know, but based on empirical research it can now be confirmed.
A few hours later I was in the train again, to Utrecht, for an open meeting of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) on economic reform for sustainability. Famous economist Arnold Heertje (he kind of is the national teacher in economics) kicked off and remained at bat all morning. Mrs. De Jonge of the national statistics bureau and leader of the parliamentary group, Mariëtte Hamer, didn't get a chance. A passionate plea for an extended scope of the term 'welfare'. The Financial newspaper this morning wrote about the government's intention to temporarily loosen environmental regulations to fight the recession. This very much aroused mr. Heertje. They really didn't understand, our politicians. They want to build for the sake of building, create work for the sake of work itself. Whether we are building the right thing or do the right work no one seems to care about. Fourty-five minutes of passionate discourse on what welfare is about and how it should be dealt with in decision making. Welfare is about many things that have value but cannot be monetized. Good decision making cannot be done based on cost-benefit analyses alone, but requires using your brains to weigh these non-quantifiable elements. That's what politicians are for. If you keep these off the table, they'll return through the back door, via the "informal democracy" of protest groups, etc. And here comes the archive again: what is the point in quantifying the losses of the collapsed archive in Cologne? What was destroyed there will never be recovered.
An uninspired mrs. Hamer came to tell how sustainability is integrated in the recovery measures taken by the government to fight the recession, but according to professor Heertje, the government failed the exam. Heertje concluded that sustainability is regarded as one of many themes to make policy for. But sustainability should be the umbrella that is leading for policy making in every theme. The Netherlands is hopelessly lagging in the restructuring efforts towards "sustainable economic development (instead of growth)", which elsewhere are in fast-forward mode.
On consumer trust: financial specialists bite their nails when the consumer trust indicator has gone down again. Consumption decreases, how bad! Heertje funnily illustrates: "My wife used to buy a new pair of shoes every day. Now, in recessions time, she only buys one pair every two days. O my god, a disastrous decrease in consumption! For me, however, it's a huge improvement. I suddenly have much more time available, because I had to go shopping with her every time, which requires three hours at least, per session. Now, I can come here and lecture you, because I don't have to buy shoes today."
In the break: coffee, and brownie cookies. It's a hype.
P.S. All participants in the event were hande a copy of Heertje's book "Echte Economie" (in English, my translation: "the real economy"). Having read a few pages, I can say it's nice. Heertje goes back to his childhood and takes you on a tour along his teachers and how they influenced his thinking. At the end the teacher stresses the importance of education and discourse, which he says are eroding before his eyes. It was written in 2006, but reprinted this spring in the midst of the economic recovery plan crafting that is going on.
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