Listening carefully is an art. At home I sometimes get thrown around theears that I can hear well but listen very poorly. And frankly, that ‘s true. Ido get almost everything with me, but do something with it, oh well. Then mymind is on something else. It’s not malicious, it just happens.
**You can also listen to music. In the last six months we have been able tocelebrate the necessary parties with pleasure. Drinking, singing, dancing andcatching up until the wee hours. Well, catch up? You better call it screaming.It may have to do with my age, I won ‘t deny. But it strikes me that the musicis simply loud. I then have to listen carefully to get some more from aconversation. You really have to chatter in each other’s ear to make yourselfunderstood. As a result, a few days later my voice is still not fully back.For my environment nice and quiet of course. **
Take the Maarkels Feest, for example. Very pleasant but not good for thevoice. Even if you are on the bar shift, it is impossible to immediatelyunderstand what is being ordered. After a few times you think you know. Youput the order down. Turns out no rosé beer was ordered but rosé wine. Stillnot well understood.
Now there is a limit to the sound of 103 decibels, but that is still veryloud. Fortunately, they want to do something about it. Namely, making itmandatory that earplugs are present at a party or concert. And then it is thevisitors ‘ own responsibility to use those caps. That’s the world upside down.So it is admitted that the sound is too loud but the volume knob is not turnedback. Do you still get it?
In the Kösterskoele we had a DJ on the last evening this year. He wasspinning in the farm. And that was tough! He was asked a few times to turn themusic down a bit. But he didn ‘t listen to anything. Probably too much hearingdamage. According to him, it had to be this volume otherwise the musicwouldn’t come through properly. As a result, half of the people went outsideto be able to talk a little more. I don’t think that’s the point of such aparty.
The people who are supposed to run our country have certainly sufferedhearing damage at some point. Because they can ‘t or don’t want to listen. Alot has been promised on Budget Day, but confidence in this cabinet is stilldeclining. They receive a historically low score because they do not listen topractice. When I used to come home with a 4, the advice was: better watch out!That is exactly what the ladies and gentlemen in government should do. Go intothe country once. Gauge the mood of your voters. Listen to your supporters.And do something with it!
And if that all gets too complicated, I do have some free advice for thiscabinet: pack your things, get out. In that regard, they have alreadypracticed well this week by walking away en masse from a debate. If they don’t want to listen to anything I would say: please go do something else. Thejobs are up for grabs. Everyone deserves a second chance, but how many secondchances do you want? How nice it would be if they would listen to this simpleMaarkelse columnist.