Amayzine

Applause for Aboutaleb

Applause for Aboutaleb

Mayor Aboutaleb stood the day after the devastation on Beijerlandselaan. He addressed the looters: “Does it feel good that you have helped destroy the city? That you have caused damage to the entrepreneurs of your own city? Does it feel good to wake up with a bag full of stolen goods next to you?” He also wonders who the fathers, mothers, and friends of the criminals are. And whether they knew where they were hanging out after nine o'clock, when it was clearly not at home.

Every Saturday morning I took the bus to Rotterdam. A quick transfer at Zuidplein, a city bus to the corner of Groene Hilledijk and then walk down to the flower shop on Beijerlandselaan. There I sold large bunches of roses, chrysanthemums, and lilies to Rotterdammers weekend in and weekend out. This week that street was sprayed empty by a water cannon.

I grew up part-time in that neighborhood. My aunt lived around the corner, just under the smoke of De Kuip. My mother first worked at the community center Salut, then at the jeweler. With my father, I went to Breeplein, the church visible from the intersection of Groene Hilledijk and Beijerlandse. With classmates, I occasionally had fries at Bram Ladage when I finished my havo in the Feyenoord district. I still remember exactly how many minutes it took me to walk from my bus stop to the entrance of Bloemensteeg. It was just long enough to eat my sandwich on the way. And it’s those shops that were looted. By scum, to put it in Rotterdam terms. It’s so un-Rotterdam. Unlike the mayor, who stands there and addresses them. Who stands there and supports the entrepreneurs.

Can Aboutaleb get a round of applause? Because he just says how it is? At the table in a talk show against a minister AND on the street against a rioter who is in a state of severe confusion. Aboutaleb was already mayor when I lived in Rotterdam. A no-nonsense man, someone who says how it is and he also understands that politics in The Hague is not always happy about it. He says so himself. But we are, because he doesn’t beat around the bush, he speaks out what we feel. Again this time. If I were one of those entrepreneurs, I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else at my door.

I really wonder why I don’t hear those parents. Is there not a single father or mother who has dropped off a child at the police station? Because I can easily imagine that this is what Aboutaleb would do.