About the press conference

“What is your overall idea about the corona period?” I look over my shoulder at the back seat. Yes, it is really my daughter who is asking this question. I try to hide my tender smile (because that is of course the last thing you want as an 11-year-old, for your mother to find you cute) and first direct the question to my beloved in the driver’s seat. He found it a sad period, uncertain too, difficult to do the right thing. And what I thought about it. The same. It also polarized. People who took corona very seriously (phew, how right they were) were soon pushed into the corner of whiners, you felt like a whiner if you pointed out to others the non-compliance with the one-and-a-half-meter rule. I have seen people around me become very ill, I have financially suffered from corona. But at home with the girls with their schoolwork spread out on the dining table, the daily running outing with friend L and son J and the girls on their bikes around us (at a distance, at a distance), those are moments with a golden edge. And those press conferences, oh, maybe very bad to say, but they also felt exciting. As if we are in a real-life version of Who is the Mole? where Mark and Hugo tell us what the next assignment will be.

Yesterday we were ready again. Unlike Who is the Mole?, a large part of the decisions always leaks out before the press conference takes place. But still, I long for the real moment. That hand through Mark Rutte's hair, was that a sign of uncertainty? Sadness? Was it rehearsed or did he just think his hair was not right? The last sentence from Hugo de Jonge, it seemed to emotionally affect him. And then the questions from the journalists, which tell me something about how they see the new measures. What struck me was that it was aggressive. As if Rutte and De Jonge were guilty of our current state of misfortune. They should have intervened better last time. With a firmer hand. Because of their soft policy, we are now back in this boat. I do see a difference between how corona was handled in Italy this summer and how it was here. Everywhere sanitizers, everywhere face masks and everyone keeping proper distance. Except on the beach, they remain Italians. But that is outside.

I find it a bit easy to blame them for everything now. Would we have allowed those measures to be imposed on us at a time when things were going well? Were we not on the verge of breaking after the whole lockdown mess and did we not long for restaurant visits and collective coziness? Had we really accepted that? I doubt it.

Moreover, it is not the case that the government and the OMT could rely on extensive experience with this situation. In the end, they are just doing what they can. And now, now there are these measures. Evolving insight is what it's called. If my girl asks me this afternoon what I think about it, I will answer. Terrible, especially for all the entrepreneurs in the hospitality industry who have so rarely done their best to make this work. But let’s not grumble and comply with the rules. With that face mask and that one and a half meters. Because that is the only thing that helps to make the old normal the new normal again.